Elesa is Gym Leader of Nimbasa City's gym of the Unova region. This gym will be the fourth to be challenged by the player character. She specializes in using Electric-type Pokémon. She will award the player the Bolt Badge if defeated. Her first appearance was in Pokémon Black and White.
Like the rest of the Unova gym leaders, Elesa has a career outside of being a gym leader, in which she is a supermodel.
Appearance
Elesa is a tall, very slender young woman. She has bright, almond shaped blue eyes.
Black and White
Elesa has short blonde hair. She wears red, white, and blue headphones with long cords on the sides. Elesa wears a yellow sleeveless top over a black top that exposes her stomach in two sections, thick opaque black tights, and bright yellow stiletto high heels.
Black 2 and White 2
Concept artwork of Elesa for Black 2 and White 2.
Elesa has short black hair, with long extensions tied in two diamond patterned braids. She wears a blue and yellow two piece, made up of a crop top and very short shorts, with a large, fluffy yellow coat, and ballet flats, one red and one blue. Her top and shorts are connected by a hexagon shaped buckle. Elesa also wears new headphones, with cone shaped spikes protruding out of the ear pieces, with the right spike red and the left spike blue. In addition, she wears nail polish, red on her right hand, and blue on her left.
Personality
Elesa is initially portrayed to be a very calm and stoic character. However, she is self-conscious about people's perceptions of her, and believes that others probably do not think she is a fun-loving person due to her stunningly good looks. Much like the other Gym Leaders of her type, Elesa prefers to show off her skills with a sense of style and a performance to accompany it.
Additionally, Elesa has a fondness for bad puns. This is capitalized on in Pokémon Masters, where she makes a variety of Pokémon based puns.
Etymology
The name Elesa derives from "electric" and possibly "laser" or "tesla", a unit of magnetic induction.
Her Japanese name, Kamitsure, comes from 雷 (kaminari, thunder). It could also literally be kamitsure, the Japanese name of the scented mayweed, following the Japanese naming of most characters.
Biography
Black and White
After the player exits the Pokémon Musical for the first time, Bianca's father confronts her and tells her to go home with him. However, Elesa steps in and convinces Bianca's father to let Bianca continue her journey. This makes Bianca admire Elesa and makes her want to be a model just like her. She then tells the player she's waiting in the gym for him/her. After defeating her, she goes out to Route 5 and contacts Clay, telling him to bring the Drawbridge down. When it does come down, she wishes the player good luck and returns to the gym.
She next appears along with the rest of the Unova Gym Leaders, with the exception of Cilan, Chili, and Cress, and battles the Seven Sages, allowing the player to continue.
For the rest of the game, she can be found in her gym.
Black 2 and White 2
She has changed looks, dying her hair black and wearing more revealing outfit. Her Gym is themed after a catwalk. Through the Memory Link it is revealed she's good friends with Skyla and wanted to practice making jokes, in a way to break the image of a serious person that everybody believes her to be, which upsets her. She throws bad puns which Skyla points out, but Elesa says that by doing so, people will poke fun at her and allow a new approach. Skyla thinks such way is old fashioned and should take it with ease. The two then agree to have a Pokémon Battle and Elesa asks Skyla to not call her "Shirley", hinting it to be her true name (and referencing the movie "Airplane!" in the process).
Other appearances
Sprites
| BW battle sprite |
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BW VS. Sprite |
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B2W2 battle sprite |
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B2W2 VS. Sprite | |
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Pokémon
Black and White
 Emolga  
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Emolga
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 Zebstrika
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| Lv. 25 | ♂ | Lv. 25 | ♀ | Lv. 27 | ♂ | ||||||
| Ability: Static | Ability: Static | Ability: Lightningrod | |||||||||
| Item: None | Item: None | Item: None | |||||||||
| Quick Attack | Quick Attack | Quick Attack | |||||||||
| Pursuit | Pursuit | Flame Charge | |||||||||
| Aerial Ace | Aerial Ace | Spark | |||||||||
| Volt Switch | Volt Switch | Volt Switch | |||||||||
Black 2 and White 2
Gym Battle
Driftveil Tournament/Mix Tournament
 Raichu
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 Flaaffy
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 Galvantula 
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Emolga
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Galvantula
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Emolga
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| Lv. 25 | ♀ | Lv. 25 | ♀ | Lv. 25 | ♀ | Lv. 25 | ♀ | Lv. 25 | ♀ | Lv. 25 | ♀ |
| Ability: Lightningrod | Ability: Static | Ability: Compoundeyes | Ability: Static | Ability: Unnerve | Ability: Static | ||||||
| Item: None | Item: None | Item: None | Item: None | Item: None | Item: None | ||||||
| Volt Switch | Volt Switch | Volt Switch | Volt Switch | Electro Ball | Encore | ||||||
| Flame Charge | Thunder Wave | Electroweb | Thunder Wave | Agility | Spark | ||||||
| Charge | Signal Beam | Signal Beam | Charge | Bug Bite | Light Screen | ||||||
| Pursuit | Cotton Guard | Gastro Acid | Acrobatics | Thunder Wave | Acrobatics | ||||||
Zebstrika
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Flaaffy
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Galvantula
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Emolga
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Galvantula
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Emolga
| ||||||
| Lv. 50 | ♀ | Lv. 50 | ♀ | Lv. 50 | ♀ | Lv. 50 | ♀ | Lv. 50 | ♀ | Lv. 50 | ♀ |
| Ability: Lightningrod | Ability: Static | Ability: Compoundeyes | Ability: Static | Ability: Unnerve | Ability: Static | ||||||
| Item: None | Item: None | Item: None | Item: None | Item: None | Item: None | ||||||
| Volt Switch | Volt Switch | Volt Switch | Volt Switch | Electro Ball | Encore | ||||||
| Flame Charge | Thunder Wave | Electroweb | Thunder Wave | Agility | Spark | ||||||
| Charge | Signal Beam | Signal Beam | Charge | Bug Bite | Light Screen | ||||||
| Pursuit | Cotton Guard | Gastro Acid | Acrobatics | Thunder Wave | Acrobatics | ||||||
Electric-type Tournament
Unova Gym Leader Tournament/World Leaders Tournament
Trivia
- Her Japanese Leader title is シャイニング ビューティ "Shining Beauty".
- She is the only female Electric-type Gym Leader.
- She is one of the few female Gym Leaders to have more male Pokémon than female Pokémon.
- Elesa is the only returning Unova Gym Leader in Pokémon Black and White 2 to receive a redesign. She received a second redesign exclusively for Pokémon Masters.
- Elesa is the first major fashion model in the series.
- As stated by the magazine Nintendo DREAM, Elesa's slim legs are designed to be extremely slim on purpose just to emphasize on her being a model (which may also be responsible for her high heels in her original design as models have to be able to walk in such shoes), and her stoic appearance plus her robot-like accessories such as her headphones and their cables are based on how real life models are stereotyped as acting emotionless and looking like robots.
| Unova Gym Leaders | |
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