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Kabu

Kabu is a Gym Leader and a user of Fire-type Pokémon, who appears in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield.

Appearance

Kabu concept art

Kabu is a middle-aged man no older than his early sixties with a muscular body, black eyes, and salt-and-pepper hair. He wears a red polo shirt with a fire symbol, a black and red undershirt with long sleeves, white shorts with red and black details, red socks, and shoes of the same colors. He has muscular calves. He also wears a Dynamax Band and has a white and red towel on around his neck as well a thumbless single glove on his right hand. As a Hoennian immigrant, Kabu's ethnicity is effectively Japanese-British.

Personality

In the past, Kabu was a fiery hothead, always striving to achieve the best skills. But contrast to his goal, he kept losing, nearly causing him to give up. After having a battle with Leon, however, he restored his faith and decided to pursue harder on perfecting his skills once again.

His motto is to keep on training and learning, as long as he is alive. Kabu respects those who can best him, seeing them off alongside fellow Gym Leaders Milo and Nessa per old tradition.

Etymology

Kabu's name likely comes from "kaboom", an onomatopoeia used to describe explosions, 火 (ka, fire), and 兜 (kabuto, helmet, most often referring to samurai helmets, as Kabu is from Hoenn (based on the Kyūshū region of Japan) and the symbol for his gym resembles a samurai helmet).

Biography

Kabu is a Trainer originally from Hoenn who was invited to Galar at some point prior to the events of the game. Despite his motto to win and be the best, he was always missing something and nearly gave up until he had a fantastic battle with Leon, and as such he continues to train to meet this goal.

Kabu is the third Gym Leader in the Galarian Gym Challenge and is considered the first major roadblock, as many Gym Challengers end up failing to defeat him and give up.

League Card entries

Regular League Card

Kabu League Card

Kabu is a Pokémon Trainer who was invited from the Hoenn region. There were a few times where he was very close to becoming Champion, but victory always seemed to elude him at the last moment. Because of this, he adopted a no-holds-barred approach to battling for a time, but even that did not bring the results he wanted. He even dropped to the minor division at one point, but after a fantastic battle with Leon, he regained faith in his own potential. His motto is to keep learning and training as long as he is alive.


Rare League Card

Kabu Rare League Card

Interview with Challenger Kabu
Q: How do you see your own battle style?
Kabu: Just, straightforward, direct. I'm still young, so I try to keep things simple. Just burn as hot as I can, you know? Still, I've hit a bit of a losing streak, so I've tried incorporating Will-O-Wisp into my Pokémon's move set. That's one thing I want to tell everyone—experiment with every possibility of your Pokémon. Moves, Abilities, items... Try everything, and there's sure to be a path forward!


Other appearances

Pokémon

Gym battle


Ninetales
  
Arcanine
  
Centiskorch
   

Lv. 25 ♀ Lv. 25 ♂ Lv. 27 ♂

Ability: Flash Fire Ability: Intimidate Ability: Flash Fire

Item: None Item: None Item: None

Will-O-Wisp Will-O-Wisp Flame Wheel - - -
Fire Spin Flame Wheel Coil - - -
Quick Attack Bite Bug Bite - - -
Ember Agility Smokescreen - - -


Champion Cup rematch


Torkoal
  
Ninetales
  
Arcanine
  
Salazzle
   
Centiskorch
   
Lv. 60 ♂ Lv. 60 ♀ Lv. 61 ♂ Lv. 61 ♀ Lv. 62 ♂
Ability: Drought Ability: Flash Fire Ability: Intimidate Ability: Corrosion Ability: Flash Fire
Item: None Item: None Item: None Item: None Item: None
Heat Crash Extrasensory Extreme Speed Flamethrower Fire Lash -
Stealth Rock Fire Blast Flare Blitz Dragon Pulse Lunge -
Body Press Solar Beam Play Rough Sludge Wave Crunch -
Earthquake Quick Attack Iron Head Foul Play Power Whip -


Trivia

  • The samurai helmet on his gym's symbol somewhat looks like Centiskorch, his final Pokémon that he Gigantamaxes.
  • Kabu's uniform number, 187, can be read in Japanese as hibana, meaning 'spark'.
  • Kabu is the only Galarian Gym Leader who isn't native to Galar.
  • He is the first Gym Leader to Gigantamax his Pokémon.

Gallery

v · d · e
List of Hoenn characters
Locations · Pokédex
Gym Leaders
Frontier BrainsE
Battle ChatelainesORAS
Others
See also
Characters
v · d · e
List of Galar characters
Locations · Pokédex
Gym Leaders
Others
See also
Characters
v · d · e
List of Gym Leaders
Kanto
Johto
Hoenn
Sinnoh
Unova
Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version
Pokémon Black Version 2 and Pokémon White Version 2
Kalos
Galar
Paldea
Orange Islands
See also