Fantina

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Please excuse me. Are you entering a Contest? Tehehe... Enjoy yourself, please! Incidentally, Fantina, the Hearthome Gym Leader, also happens to be a Contest expert. And you may ask yourself, how do I know this? Well, I am Fantina! You may challenge me, but not yet! You must become much stronger. Then, you may challenge me!"-Fantina, Pokemon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum.

Fantina (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.

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 Pokemon 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.

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

Voice Actresses

 * English: Bella Hudson
 * Japanese: Kikuko Inoue

Trivia

 * Fantina has appeared in the most episodes outside of any gym leader except Brock, Misty,Cilan, and Iris. She has appeared in 7.
 * In Shield with a Twist!, Fantina did her pose in the game before battling Ash.
 * She has had the most evolutions for a Gym Leader.
 * She is the first gym leader to have had an Egg.
 * If you enter a Master Rank contest in D/P or Platinum, she will be one of the consestants.
 * 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.
 * She raises ghost type Pokémon like Morty.
 * Her name is a reference to a "Phantom", a type ghost.