Dawn (anime)

Dawn (Japanese: ヒカリ Hikari) is a young Pokémon Coordinator who used to travel through the Sinnoh region along with Ash and Brock. Dawn started her journey at the age of 10, honing her skills as a Pokémon Trainer and focusing on becoming a Top Coordinator like her mother, Johanna. Her current team is consisted out of Piplup, Buneary, Pachirisu, Mamoswine, Quilava and Togekiss.

She's notable for her confidence, even when things are not going well. She has learned a lot throughout her travels and battles and can get very emotional when it comes to winning or losing in a contest. Throughout her Sinnoh travels she has developed rivalries with many coordinators such as Zoey, Nando, Jessie, Kenny, and even a fierce one with Ursula, her rival. There's also a disputable romantic interest she has in Ash because when characters accuse her of it she blushes.

Diamond and Pearl
Dawn made her debut in the first episode of Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl, Following A Maiden's Voyage!. In the next episode she met Ash's Pikachu after it had temporarily escaped from Team Rocket. Returning Pikachu to Ash would be how she met him and Brock. Dawn traveled with Ash and Brock through Sinnoh until Ash and Brock left for home after the Sinnoh League.

Dawn is a very confident person, when she makes a mistake she will often quickly recover and strive to do better. Sometimes she can be a little overconfident though, and it may cause her to make a mistake, like when she had her newly evolved Ambipom use swift. Despite this, Dawn is carefree, upbeat, cheerful and is always confident in her abilities, even from the beginning of her journey. Dawn will do whatever it takes to save her Pokémon when they are in trouble, much like Ash. Dawn will usually say the phrase, "No need to worry!", to which her mother views this as a cause to worry more. Dawn's mother, Johanna, gave Dawn her very first ribbon in the first episode and now Dawn keeps it with her as a good-luck charm. Her old friends for some mysterious reason (which Dawn keeps trying to hide) call her "Dee Dee" (Diamond Dandruff). In DP161 it was revealed that the reason for the name was due to her hair glittering (ピカピカ pikapika) after being shocked by the class pets in her kindergarten, Plusle and Minun. Due to the trauma from being teased by her entire class with the nickname, she is very reluctant to let others know the origin of the name.With her hair ruined, Kenny spread the word and soon she was teased by the nickname.

Dawn seems to be more fixated on her appearance then the other two main female characters Misty and May. In an episode, Dawn would refuse to show herself to Ash and Brock until she straightened out her bed hair. She will also brush her hair thoroughly before appearing on T.V. Dawn also seems to have some talent in designing, as she designed a series of outfits for the Hearthome Collection and Buneary's outfit.

In her first contest, Dawn makes friends with a talented Coordinator called Zoey. Dawn loses her accessory just before the contest, and after much panicking and searching, it is revealed that she had dropped it and Zoey had picked it up. After returning it to Dawn, Zoey goes on to win the contest. Dawn cries at her loss and after a quick word of support from her mother, Zoey talks to Dawn about how losing is just a lesson that you should learn from. Dawn promises that she will become just as good as Zoey one day, and at this a rivalry is formed between the two girls.

For a while, Dawn seemed to be on a losing streak, losing in the appeal round of her competitions two times in a row. Though learning that the Gym Leader Maylene had similar problems and confidence issues she agreed to battle her in the episode Crossing The Battle Line!. Though she lost this battle, it motivated her to train harder and she did. She eventually would go on to win the Wallace Cup, defeating May in the process. From here on Dawn currently has three ribbons and is strongly pursuing her goal.

Her goal proceeded as she participated in her fourth Pokémon Contest in the episode 'Another One Gabites the Dust!' where Dawn faced a rather mean and arrogant girl named Ursula. After insulting her, the two coordinators developed a fierce rivalry. Soon enough, two girls faced each other at the finals where Dawn's Pachirisu barely managed to beat Gabite from Ursula though winning the battle. Dawn won the contest and so won her fourth ribbon. Now only one ribbon is keeping her away from the goal of participating in the Grand Festival and possibly fulfilling her dream of becoming the Top Coordinator

As she learns about the double appeals in the upcoming contest, Dawn is determined to create a new combination. At first she lacks of ideas, but soon develops an Ice-Fire combination idea consisted out of Mamoswine and Cyndaquil. While using Flame Wheel, Cyndaquil is trapped inside of the ice block. Dawn however fails to perfect her combo and it's not until her fifth contest in Daybreak town where she faces Ursula that she manages to use it successfully. With the help of Plusle and Minun, Ursula manages to make Dawn's hair glitter again embarrassing her in front of everyone. Dawn relives the flashback from the past, but soon finds encouragement as she orders one final combo from Cyndaquil and Mamoswine. Within Mamoswine's ice block, Cyndaquil manages to form an ice rocket powered up with a Flame Wheel from inside. The attack successfully collides with the little Plusle and Minun assuring Dawn her fifth and final contest ribbon and finally overcomes her trauma.

Since her last win in the Daybreak town, she has been training hard for the upcoming Grand Festival and has come up with many new combinations such as Pachirisu and Mamoswine combo and Buneary and Cyndaquil combo.

In episode 171 Dawn passes through a town where a Pokémon contest (Last one) before the Sinnoh Grand Festival is about to start. Dawn enters the contest as of everyone's surprise (especially Jessie) but the truth is that Princess Salvia, a girl who looks like Dawn, posed as Dawn and entered the contest with her Togekiss. Meanwhile, Dawn posed as the princess. Dawn was not suiting for this, as she had no princess-like qualities and also showed discourtesy, thus had major trouble portraying Salvia. However she managed to pull through without being discovered. During both Appeal and Battle Round the princess enters with her Togekiss and actually winning it. But Later she gives away the Ribbon to Jessie for her hard work and gives Dawn her Togekiss so that it may continue to participate in contests. Thus Dawn acquires a Togekiss to her Team.In episode 172 Dawn teaches her new Pokémon Togekiss about battles and to maintain elegant looks.

In episode 174 the grand festival begins. All the coordinators start-off against each other in the Appeal Round. During the First Round, Ursula uses two Eevees which were evolved into Flareon and Vaporeon, Nando uses Altaria and Kricketot, Zoey uses Gastrodon and Lumineon, Jessilina uses Seviper and Yanmega, Kenny uses Empoleon and Floatzel, Dawn uses Buneary and Cyndaquil and the Festival continues with others. Kenny's performance is flawed when his Empoleon's Flash Cannon hits Floatzel's Whirlpool which knocks Floatzel down. At the end of the day, the results are announced. Except Kenny, all of Dawn's rivals including Dawn make it to the Battle Round.

In episode 175 Dawn battles Ursula once again and after 5 minutes of intense battling Dawn defeats Ursula. After Ursula's defeat she admits that she is weaker than Dawn and the two go from rivals to best of friends upon leaving the hotel.

In episode 176 Dawn manage to reach the top 4 of the grand festival. There finds herself against to no other than Jessilina. In the end Dawn won and advanced to the final to face Zoey who beat Nando in the semi-finals.

In episode 177 the Sinnoh Grand Festival starts between Zoey and Dawn, they both showcase their skills as top coordinator; but as the time runs out, with only few points difference Zoey wins the title of Top Coordinator and the Sinnoh Ribbon Cup so she gets in the second place. She promises to her Pokémon that they will not stop trying until they reach the top.

In DP191, this is Dawn's last appearance as a main character. Upon returning to Twinleaf Town, Johanna informs Dawn that Paris from Hearthome City wants Dawn to model Buneary and the outfits she designed. Although Dawn was originally going to leave with Ash and Brock to go to Kanto, she decides that she will remain in Sinnoh.

Ash, Dawn, and Brock arrive at the port at Sandgem Town, where they are getting supplies. Dawn thanks Ash and Brock for all their help and wishes them luck in their futures, while Ash and Brock wish her the same. Ash and Dawn give each other one last high five before parting. As Ash, Brock, and Pikachu board the ship, Dawn feels very saddened and looks away as the ship leaves the harbor. Ash then calls out to Dawn, reciting her phrase "No Need to Worry! We'll meet again someday!". Dawn then brightens up and she and a tearful Piplup run out to the harbor and sadly wave goodbye to Ash, Brock and Pikachu as they sail away in the sunset. Piplup then jumps into Dawn's arms and give each other a big hug, knowing although Ash and Brock are no longer with them, they will always have each other.

In the Pokémon DP Special Episode 1, Dawn has been spending her time in Twinleaf Town since Buneary's photo shoot, trying to decide whether to pursue becoming a Pokéstylist or continuing contests. She visits Rowan's lab where she meets a new trainer, Cinco, who is about to start her journey. However, while she and Cinco are looking for Chimchar and Piplup, who got into a fight and ran off (like the first episode), they are attacked by wild Ariados. Piplup and Cyndaquil do battle against them, resulting in Dawn's Cyndaquil evolving into Quilava. Near the end of the episode, Dawn decides to continue to her journey to the Hoenn region.

Dawn and Piplup make a cameo appearance in Pokémon DP Special Episode 2. They are shown in a photo with Ash and Brock on Brock's wall, along with Misty, May and Max, reminding Brock of his previous journeys.

Black and White
Dawn appeared at the end of BW087.

In BW088 Ash, Iris and Cilan arrives at Cynthia's house waiting to see who's waiting for Ash and once they come in Dawn sneaks behind Ash and makes him think who's behind him and finally reunites with Dawn and introduces herself to Iris and Cilan and Ash tells Dawn about his new friend Meloetta and Dawn is misunderstood what he is talking about and decides to show Dawn, Ash's new Pokémon and Iris's and Cilan's as well and she introduces herself to them and finally she brings out her Pokémon but the only difference about her Pokémon is her Cyndaquil evolves into a Quilava which impresses Ash however when Dawn's Piplup meets Meloetta and Oshawott finds out he has a crush on her as well they both start a rivalry, After that Oshawott pushes Piplup and Ash tells Oshawott to apologize to Piplup but Piplup denies it and then both start the rivalry again, then Ash asks Dawn if they want to battle but Cilan decides to battle Dawn since Dawn is a coordinator and Cilan is a connoisseur, during the battle Dawn was showing everyone her contest moves and after that Cilan did his evaluation time thing which made Dawn confused and humiliated Iris, After that Cilan and Pansage talks about Dawn as a coordinator and she says "Does every connoisseur act like this" and Pansage uses Solarbeam and Dawn tells Piplup to counter with Ice Beam which is a new move to Piplup and makes sparks everywhere and amazes Meloetta and they continue their battle later, After the battle they decide to relax for a little while and they hear Meloetta sing its song and Team Rocket records the song and reports it to Prof. Segar and they make preparations for the future.

Grand Festival Ranking
Dawn placed in the following Grand Festival competitions:
 * Sinnoh Grand Festival (Runner-up)

Voice Actresses

 * Japanese: Megumi Toyoguchi
 * English: Emily Jenness
 * Dutch: Meghnar Kumar
 * Italian: Tosawi Piovani (Season 10 - 11), Ludovica De Caro (Season 12 - 13)
 * Greek: Stella Bonatsou
 * Mandarin: Lin Meixiu
 * Czech: Rosita Erbanova
 * Danish: Annevig Schelde-Ebbe
 * Finnish: Mirjami Heikkinen
 * Norwegian: Eline Høyer
 * French: Alexandra Correa
 * Korean: Chong Mi-Suk
 * Hebrew: Talia Barkai
 * German: Jana Julie
 * Polish: Magdalena Krylik (Season 10), Beata Wyrabkiewicz (Season 11 - 13)
 * Brazilian Portuguese: Fernanda Bulara
 * Russian: Anastasia Fomicheva
 * Thai: Sansanee Watthananumomchan
 * Latin American Spanish: Gaby Ugarte (Season 10, 11 & 13), Leyla Rangel (Season 12)
 * Portuguese: Raquel Ferreira (Season 10), Joana Carvalho (Season 11 - 13)
 * European Spanish: Mar Bordallo

Trivia

 * Dawn's bike was destroyed by Pikachu's Thunderbolt, a sort of on-going gag that has been used with the other two girls, Misty and May. Not with Iris though with her swinging on vines.
 * Both Hikari and Dawn mean some type of light.
 * As revealed in DP161, Dawn's nickname Pikari/Dee Dee is tied with her fear of Plusle and Minun.
 * Dawn is the first main character other than Ash to see a Legendary Pokémon right at the beginning of her journey with her destined Pokémon. Ash saw Ho-oh with Pikachu on his side while Dawn saw Mesprit after saving Piplup.
 * Dawn is the first of Ash's companions to have caught an Electric-type Pokémon, Pachirisu.
 * Dawn's personality reflects the one of the emotion Pokémon, Mesprit.
 * Dawn is the first female protagonist who has traded Pokémon with Ash.
 * Dawn is Ash's only companion who did not have a particular reason for traveling with Ash and Brock through a region.
 * Dawn is the second character, besides May, to travel to another region Ash has already been through. In Dawn's case, she traveled to Hoenn where Ash previously traveled, and May traveled to Johto where Ash was traveling before meeting her.
 * Dawn became famous for winning the Wallace Cup.
 * She is one of two of Ash's companions not to be or related to a Gym Leader, the other being Tracey.
 * Dawn has battled two Gym Leaders in the anime: The first was Maylene and the second was Cilan.
 * Dawn is Ash's only female travelling companion who didn't use a new outfit during her return.
 * Dawn returned in BW series for nine episodes which is longer than Misty, who returned on two different occasions for a total of five and May, who returned to the show for five episodes too.
 * Dawn has met all three of Ash's rivals, having met Gary and Paul in Sinnoh and Trip during her return in Unova.
 * Dawn is Ash's only travelling companion who lost to Jessie in an appeal round and to compete for the same ribbon twice.