Dawn

Dawn (Japanese: ヒカリ Hikari) is a ten-year-old Pokémon Coordinator and a former traveling companion of Ash and Brock. Her goal is to become a great Top Coordinator like her mother, Johanna. Her first Pokémon was a Piplup that she received from Professor Rowan in the first Diamond & Pearl series episode.

Diamond & Pearl series
Dawn began her Pokémon journey with an overconfident Piplup. She wasn't able to gain his trust at first, but after rescuing him from a group of Ariados, the two became friends. Unlike May, she knew from the beginning that she wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps and be a Coordinator. After meeting Ash and Brock, she decided to journey with them, as their experience would likely be helpful to her. Like Ash, she is lucky enough to have seen a legendary Pokémon at the start of her journey, the projected soul of Mesprit in Following A Maiden's Voyage!.

When Dawn began her journey she took a bicycle, but like Misty's and May's bikes, Ash's Pikachu destroyed it with his Thunderbolt. However, she did not mention this to Ash until more than thirty episodes after it happened. Dawn also had planned to take a large suitcase full of clothing with her, but her mother made her leave it at home due to its impracticality. Instead, Dawn took a backpack her mother had prepared for her. Johanna also gave Dawn the first Ribbon she earned as a Coordinator as a good luck charm, an item that would recur throughout the series as a symbol of Dawn's determination.

Upon arriving in Jubilife City, she registered for a Contest Pass for the Sinnoh region. She also obtained a Ball Capsule and some Seals and introduced her Contest cry, which is "Spotlight!" (English) or "Charm up!" (Japanese). Dawn lost her first Contest in Arrival of a Rival! to Zoey, who became one of her closest friends and greatest rivals after the Contest. After her loss, an upset Dawn called her mother, but Johanna told Dawn not to rely on her and instead rely on friends and Pokémon. Eventually, in Dawn's second official Contest, she was able to narrowly beat her childhood friend Kenny to win her first Ribbon.

Dawn regularly trained her Pokémon for Contests and took the opportunity to practice her skills with Zoey whenever the two met, such as in A Stand-Up Sit-Down!. Zoey was always helpful to Dawn during their meetings and helped inspire her to come up with new combinations. However, even with Zoey's help Dawn was not able to perfect Buizel's Ice Aqua Jet despite coming up with the idea. Ash later accomplished Ice Aqua Jet in the Wallace Cup, after Buizel had been traded to him.

Despite her confidence and Contest training, in Dawn's Early Night! when she competed in the Hearthome City Contest she lost in the Appeals Round, making her the first main character to be eliminated from a Contest after the first round. In Team Shocker!, she did not pass the Appeals Round for the second time in a row. This marked a notable change in Dawn's character. After the second blow to her self-esteem, she didn't know what to do and was still very upset throughout Tanks for the Memories!. After this, she became more focused and regained her confidence after battling Maylene in Crossing the Battle Line!. She also began to practice in earnest for all her Contest's performances and battles. Following Zoey's advice to show off the Pokémon and not its moves, Dawn was able to pass through the first round in the Wallace Cup and eventually break her losing streak by narrowly defeating May in the final round of the competition in Strategy With a Smile!. Since this turning point, Dawn has maintained her focus and humility.

After learning of the upcoming Contest in Celestic Town, Dawn became very dedicated in her training to the point of overworking her Pokémon in A Lean Mean Team Rocket Machine!. Due to her intense efforts, she managed to win the Contest in Battling The Generation Gap!. One of Dawn's combinations in that Contest gave Ash the inspiration for one of his notable tactics which he uses later on, the Counter Shield. In A Breed Stampede!, her Mamoswine began to disobey her after evolving. Despite this, she was still eager to train it well and finally gained its trust after healing it in Trials and Adulations!. However, Mamoswine still rebelled and disobeyed Dawn after it was hit by an attack and lost its temper in the semifinals of the Lilypad Contest in Dressed for Jess Success!. Even though this caused Dawn to lose the Contest, she remained calm and optimistic that her and Mamoswine would be victorious the next time.

Her encounter with Mesprit, like and Ash and Brock's encounters with Azelf and Uxie respectively, proved to be fate as Team Galactic intended to capture the lake guardians to awaken Dialga and Palkia in the Spear Pillar. The lake guardians communicated telepathically with Ash, Dawn and Brock and teleported them to the Team Galactic Headquarters. With the help of Cynthia, the three Trainers foiled Team Galactic's plans and freed the lake guardians in The Battle Finale of Legend!

In Double-Time Battle Training!, Dawn, Ash, and Brock watched Zoey compete in the Brussel Town Pokémon Contest. Zoey was victorious, and to celebrate Candice treated the group to an array of desserts. During their meal, Candice introduced the Tamato Berry Ice Cream Sandwich, describing it as "hot and spicy on the inside and cold on the outside", and saying that often times things that don't seem to go well together are actually the most compatible. The dessert and Candice's words inspired Dawn to create a new combination move using Ice- and Fire-type moves. After many failed attempts, she perfected her technique called Flame Ice, which involved Cyndaquil using Flame Wheel while being encased in Mamoswine's Ice Shard attack. She used this move later in the Daybreak Town Contest.

She has two childhood friends that appeared in the anime, Kenny and Leona, both of whom call her Dee Dee (Japanese: ピカリ Pikari). Dawn has prevented them from telling Ash and Brock about the reason why she has this nickname, but in Yes in Dee Dee, It's Dawn!, 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, making it appear that she had Diamond Dandruff. Due to the trauma from being teased by her entire class with the nickname, she has a certain fear of Plusle and Minun.

In the final round of the Daybreak Town Pokémon Contest, Ursula battled Dawn using her Plusle and Minun and deliberately had her Pokémon shock Dawn's hair to recreate "Diamond Dandruff". Even though Dawn temporarily succumbed to her trauma, she was able to overcome her inhibition with Mamoswine's and Cyndaquil's encouragement. Ultimately, she defeated Ursula, winning her final fifth Ribbon as well as the opportunity to participate in the Sinnoh Grand Festival.

She later trained in Teaching the Student Teacher! where she came up with a new tactic for the Grand Festival, the Ice Chandelier, which she managed to perfect by trial and error. Though she originally wanted to see Pachirisu use its Discharge attack while surrounded by Mamoswine's Ice Shard, she eventually decided to cover Pachirisu in a larger bubble of ice from Buneary's Ice Beam. This gave Pachirisu enough room to run, making Ice Chandelier look its best. Besides coming up with combination moves, she also acquired a new Pokémon, Togekiss. Dawn trained with Togekiss in With the Easiest of Grace! to find a way to battle with it while not ignoring its need to move gracefully, and she was eventually able to adjust her own battling style to accommodate her new Pokémon.

Dawn entered the Sinnoh Grand Festival in Last Call — First Round!, using her Buneary and Cyndaquil in the Appeals Round. She progressed through the round and battled Ursula first in the next episode. With Mamoswine and Pachirisu she was able to successfully use her combination Ice Chandelier to defeat Ursula's Gabite and Flareon. In the following episode, she defeated Jessilina and progressed to the finals. Dawn would face Zoey in the final round, which fulfilled the promise the two had made with each other after their first Contest to some day meet in the last round of the Grand Festival.

It was a very evenly matched and close fight between her Piplup and Togekiss and Zoey's Glameow and Gallade, but in the end Dawn lost. After the finals, she met with her mother and returned the Ribbon Johanna had given her as a good luck charm at the very start of her journey. Dawn said that she no longer needed to walk in her mother's shadow, and only needed her Pokémon's care and support to become a Top Coordinator, proving to her mother and to herself how much she had grown as a Trainer.

After the competition, Zoey told Dawn that Candice was throwing a victory party for her in Snowpoint City and that Dawn was also welcome; however, Dawn declined the invitation, stating that she still wanted to support Ash in his upcoming battle at Sunyshore Gym and in the Lily of the Valley Conference. She then thanked all the Pokémon that had traveled with her through Sinnoh for their hard work and pledged to not give up her dream of being a Top Coordinator.

After Ash competed in the Sinnoh League, she contemplated whether or not to go with Ash and Brock to Kanto. However, she received invitation by Paris for her Buneary to work with her for a short while as a Pokémon fashion model and decided to stay in Sinnoh. Dawn and Ash later shared a final high-five, their trademark exchange throughout the Diamond & Pearl series, before Ash and Brock left for Kanto.

After Buneary's modeling work with Paris was completed, Dawn decided to spend some time at home before considering her next move on her journey to become Top Coordinator. In SS024, Dawn decided to go to the Hoenn region, since Hoenn is the region Contests originated from. However, though she was certain she would take Piplup, she did not know if she should take all of her other Pokémon with her to Hoenn or not. She sought advice from Professor Rowan, who instead sent her to help a new Trainer who was having trouble deciding what her first Pokémon would be. Dawn and Shinko ran into an Ariados's web, reminiscent of the first challenge Dawn faced with Piplup. Dawn's Cyndaquil evolved into Quilava in order to protect the two Trainers, and it was then that Dawn realized all of her Pokémon still had potential to grow with her. She decided to take all her Pokémon to Hoenn with her and soon left on her new adventure with her dream of becoming a Top Coordinator burning as bright as ever.

Best Wishes series
In All for the Love of Meloetta!, it was revealed that Dawn had traveled to the Unova region and was staying in Cynthia's villa in Undella Town while the Champion was visiting Virbank City. She would return with Ash, with whom Dawn got to reunite, and Ash's new friends, Iris and Cilan, whom Dawn met for the first time. She also battled Cilan, using her Piplup against his Pansage, but because the battle was interrupted, no winner was identified. She became a good friend of Iris when they traveled to the Onix Island in Expedition to Onix Island! and was surprised by the unfamiliar Pokémon native to the Unova region, such as Foongus.

Before coming to Undella Town, Dawn had visited Nimbasa City where she watched a Pokémon Musical and one of Elesa's fashion shows. She also revealed that she would enter the Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup. She would later make it to the second round before her Mamoswine was defeated by Iris's Dragonite, despite the fact that Dragonite still wasn't listening to Iris's orders.

Later, in Goodbye, Junior Cup - Hello Adventure!, she met Cameron, along with Ash, Iris and Cilan. When they arrived at Cynthia's villa in Undella Town, she announced her intention to head to Johto to compete in the Wallace Cup being held there. After battling Ash, using her Quilava against Ash's Pikachu, and saying their farewells, she and Piplup boarded the flight to Blackthorn City.

Dawn later appeared during a flashback in The Dream Continues!.