Fantina

Fantina (Japanese: メリッサ Melissa) serves as the Gym Leader for the Hearthome City Gym. Fantina specializes in Ghost-type Pokémon, and holds the Relic Badge for the trainers that defeat her. She also has a French accent.

In the Anime
While Ash and his friends had been through Hearthome City more than once, Fantina had been absent from the Gym every time. She debuted in the episode Playing the Leveling Field!, where she battled both Ash and Zoey on two separate occasions, managing to defeat them both.

Upon returning to Hearthome City, Ash challenged Fantina to a Gym battle in the episode Shield with a Twist!. Unlike the previous battle, Ash managed to defeat her and obtain his Relic Badge.

In the Sinnoh Grand Festival, she was the guest judge for the red stage.

In the Manga
She saw the contest match and saw a great performance by Platinum. Later she challenged Platinum after Crasher Wake and was defeated. The Pokémon Fantina uses are Duskull, Drifblim, and Mismagius. But Mismagius was a lot of trouble due to her illusions, but Pearl manage to help Platinum by going along with the allusion and defeated Fantina's Mismagius with the move, Fling. She then appeared once more at the Spear Pillar to fight against 3 Team Galactic Commanders and along with 5 other gym leaders.

In the Games
Fantina first appeared in the first Generation IV games as the Hearthome City Gym Leader. In Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, Fantina's Gym has several levels the player must ascend. With each level there is a question to be answered, with three answers are located on three doors, they are usually associated with simple mathematics. Choosing the door with the correct answer leads to the next lift. Choosing the door with the wrong answer leads to a Gym member that the player must battle.

In Pokémon Platinum, the gym setup is different. Players must find a blue tile within a darkened room; then players had to memorize the pattern on that tile and go in the door with the red tile having the same pattern as the blue tile. If you flash your flashlight on a player, then you must battle him/her. All the players in the dark rooms all use Ghost Pokémon. Additionally, however, she was originally the 5th Gym Leader in the Diamond/Pearl games, but became the 3rd Gym Leader in the Platinum version.

In Game
D/P=

Pt=

Rematch Team

Black 2 and White 2

 * Ghost-type Tournament


 * Sinnoh Gym Leader/World Leaders Tournament


 * Download Tournament (The Battle of Legendary Pokémon!)

Origin
Name Meaning from phantom, and "Fantine", of the French novel "Les Misérables".

Voice Actresses

 * English: Bella Hudson
 * Japanese: Kikuko Inoue
 * Polish: Katarzyna Laska
 * Spanish: Mercedes Cepeda
 * Iberian Spanish: Georgina Sanchez

Trivia

 * Fantina has appeared in the most episodes outside of any gym leader except Brock, Misty, Cilan, and Iris. She has appeared in 7.
 * She has had the most evolutions for a Gym Leader.
 * Despite becoming the 3rd gym leader in Platinum, the spot where you place her badge remains the same as the 5th one. This is similar to how Maylene's and Crasher Wake's badge case spots remained unchanged, even though the order you battled them changed.
 * Her name is a reference to a "Phantom", a type of ghost.
 * If you look at her hair from the back, it resembles the badge you get if you win against her.
 * Fantina is a fan of Dahlia.
 * All of her Pokémon are females.
 * The brooch on her dress resembles Drifblim and Drifloon's mouth.
 * Strangely in the Download Tournament in Black 2 and White 2, Fantina's Giratina is in its Origin Forme without holding the Griseous Orb.