Harley

Harley (Japanese: ハーリー Harley) is a recurring character who appeared in the Pokémon anime. He is a Pokémon Coordinator from Slateport City and one of 's rivals. He first appeared in A Cacturne for the Worse.

History
Harley made his debut appearance in A Cacturne for the Worse as one of the s entering the Izabe Island Pokémon Contest. When he first met, he was annoyed at her for several petty reasons: she was not familiar with his , she called it "scary", and she said the cookies he offered her were "not half bad". Later, the two competed in the Izabe Contest. In the Appeals Round, Harley said that he didn't want anyone to talk during the performance of his Cacturne. After that round, in an attempt to publicly humiliate May, he played a recording of Max recalling a time when May was younger and became stuck in water with a swarm of. May was embarrassed, but managed to defeat Harley and Cacturne with the help of her.

Harley and May met up again in Slateport City for the Hoenn Grand Festival during the episodes Hi Ho Silver Wind!, Deceit and Assist, and Rhapsody in Drew. Harley pretended that he was friends with May, and she initially believed him. He gave her bad advice on purpose hoping she would fail to pass the first round of the Grand Festival, such as recommending that she stick with Beautifly's Silver Wind or Skitty's Assist in the early rounds rather than a greater variety of moves. Meanwhile, Drew watched Harley, noticing how he tricked May. Later, May realized Harley's ploy, and soon the two were to battle once again. This time, it was Harley's Cacturne and versus May's Bulbasaur and. May won this battle as well, and progressed further into the tournament.

Harley's next appearance was in Saffron City during the episodes The Saffron Con and A Hurdle for Squirtle. This time, he met May in the Pokémon Center, where he stated he was working as an assistant to Nurse Joy in gratitude for her healing his Cacturne. He stated that he was sorry and that he was working hard to make up for things. All of it was a lie in order to fool May once again. After gaining May's trust, he told her that she could use her Hoenn Contest Pass to compete in Kanto Pokémon Contests, and also lied about the deadline for registration. This nearly left May out of the Saffron Contest. However, Lilian Meridian gave her a Kanto Contest Pass and a Ribbon case in thanks for her help in repelling when they raided the Pokémon Center.

Harley competed in the Saffron Contest using Cacturne for the appeals and Ariados for the battles. He defeated Jessie who entered with, but was defeated by May and her in the finals.

The next time he appeared was in Harley Rides Again, where he competed in the Contest. In the first round, he used Ariados's to surround the stage with its web, similar to the previous Contest. He then asked it to entangle itself with its web and use, scaring everyone. He then used his Octillery against May's Munchlax in battle. After utilizing, and , he managed to defeat May.

He appeared again in New Plot, Odd Lot! and Going for Choke!. This time after learning that May needed one more Ribbon to enter the Grand Festival, he devised a plan to prevent this. To do this, he enlisted the help of Team Rocket, promising to help Jessie win and having James and help him sabotage May behind the scenes. However Ash, Brock, Max and Drew got wind of this and thwarted his plan.

In New Plot, Odd Lot!, it was also mentioned that part of Harley's hate for May came from when a girl who looked like May ate his food when he was younger.

Harley appeared again in May, We Harley Drew’d Ya!, Thinning the Hoard, and Channeling the Battle Zone, where he competed in the Kanto Grand Festival. In the Appeals Round, he used his Banette while dressed up as May, asking himself to be called Mayley. He used Cacturne and Wigglytuff against Munchlax and Eevee, but both defeated his Pokémon.

The final major appearance he had was in The Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing where he simply watched May and Drew have a practice Contest Battle. At the end of the episode, he revealed that he was also going to compete in Contests in the Johto region. He also invited Jessie to do the same, but she denied, saying she still wanted to stay in Team Rocket. Because of this, he got mad at her. He then sent out his Cacturne to battle her. As she was searching for a Pokémon to use, Harley asked Cacturne to use, sending Team Rocket flying with Jessie still looking for a Pokémon.

In A Full Course Tag Battle!, he and appeared in a flashback. Harley later made cameo appearances with Drew and Solidad in Staging a Heroes' Welcome! and Strategy with a Smile! watching May on TV performing in the Wallace Cup.

Character
Harley has a rather peculiar personality. He is undeniably flamboyant, wearing an outfit similar in appearance to, and has very effeminate mannerisms, which include wiggling his hips as he walks and talking with a high voice. Additionally, in the Japanese version, he uses アタシ atashi, the Japanese feminine version of I. He also has a tendency to use English words intermixed with his normal Japanese speech; for example, he calls and  "my buddies" and tells  "good morning". In the n dub, this is replaced by using Latin American slang and allusions to local urban culture; for example, he sings a song by the Mexican showman in the Kanto Grand Festival, as his  dances in the flames. Another example of his feminine side is seen in May, We Harley Drew'd Ya!, where he cross-dresses as May, calling himself "Mayley" (Japanese: ハリカ Harika), much to May's embarrassment and Solidad's amusement. He is old friends with Solidad, as she said so herself. He has Contest Passes to compete in Hoenn, Kanto, and presumably Johto as well.

In his quest to become a Top Coordinator, Harley has employed unsportsmanlike tactics, such as publicly embarrassing his opponents and purposely giving inaccurate information to them. May has been one of his constant targets, and she often falls victim of his ill-intentioned actions. Despite his bad sportsmanship, Harley is a skilled whose well-trained Pokémon have allowed him to compete in at least two Grand Festival tournaments. Whether he is performing or battling, Harley tends to showcase the more sinister side of his Pokémon, which may leave spectators frightened. While his performances are not always well-liked by the audience, the judges have shown appreciation for his efforts to display his Pokémon's charms and skills.

Harley is a conniving character with little to no regard for anybody but himself and his Pokémon. On some occasions, however, Harley does seem to be willing to help others in trouble, as seen in The Saffron Con, where Harley used his to prevent  from escaping with stolen Pokémon. He tends to get personal vendettas against people for the smallest of reasons. For example, his vendetta against May began after they first met, when she said she had never heard of Cacturne before, that Cacturne was "scary", and that his cookies were "not half bad"; however, the supposed "real" reason he started to dislike her was because she looks just like a classmate who stole his last snack when he was a small child.

He keeps photos of people that he has grudges against in a photo album and tends to inflict humiliation to try to get the better of an opponent, showing sadistic pleasure when he does. This is evident when he pretended to be friends with Max in order to get him to tell an embarrassing story about May only to record it and play it during a Pokémon Contest. Finally, as evidenced by his performances, Harley shows no qualms in using dirty tactics to win.

Harley tended to use nicknames for May behind her back. The first was "Miss Tent" (Japanese: Meno-chan) after embarrassing her with the Tentacool story. The second was Kamo-chan, referring to the word often used at the end of May's sentences in Japanese that can imply uncertainty. In English, he calls her various cutesy pet-names, including "gingerbread-cookie".

Pokémon
Harley seems to take immense pride in his Pokémon, so much so in fact that he dresses up in clothing modeled after his signature Pokémon, Cacturne. None of Harley's Pokémon share a particular type, but they all have one attribute in common: they can be quite menacing in Contests, even the normally cute Wigglytuff.

This listing is of Harley's known in the :

Hoenn Ribbons
This listing is of the Ribbons Harley has obtained in the Hoenn region:
 * Five unknown Ribbons (prior to Hi Ho Silver Wind!)

Kanto Ribbons
This listing is of the Ribbons Harley has obtained in the Kanto region:
 * Three unknown Ribbons (prior to Harley Rides Again)
 * Ribbon (Harley Rides Again)
 * Unknown Ribbon (prior to New Plot, Odd Lot!)

Grand Festival ranking
Harley has competed in the following Grand Festivals:
 * Hoenn Grand Festival - Top 32 (Rhapsody in Drew)
 * Kanto Grand Festival - Top 16 (Thinning the Hoard!)

Other achievements
Harley has competed in the following Pokémon Contests:
 * Contest - Runner-up (A Cacturne for the Worse)
 * Contest - Runner-up (A Hurdle for Squirtle)

Trivia

 * Harley's name may be derived from and could be a corruption of 針 "needle", referring to his.
 * In the original Japanese version of the anime, one of Harley's reasons for disliking May is her over-usage of the word "kamo", which is a word that can be added to the ends of sentences when the speaker wants to show uncertainty. Harley is annoyed by this way of speaking and is convinced that May does it to make herself sound cute and harmless, not because she is actually unsure of what she says.

Related articles

 * Images on the Bulbagarden Archives
 * Images on the Bulbagarden Archives

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