Burgh

"Primier Insect Artist"
Burgh
Species	Human
Affiliation	Pokémon League (Unova)
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Green
Base	Castelia City
Voiced by	Unknown (2020)
Debut	Pokémon: Black/White Versions

Burgh is the Gym Leader of Castelia City's Pokémon gym who is the third of the eight gym leaders of the Unova region appearing as an opponent in the fifth generation games of the Pokémon series: Pokémon: Black and White Versions as well as in Black and White 2. He specializes in bug-type Pokémon.

Background

Burgh originally hailed from Nacrene City. From a young age, he was fascinated by the beauty of bug Pokémon. He began drawing and battling with Bug-type Pokémon, which was the root of his dual obsessions. As he grew older, he followed the example of other youths in the area by making one of the local warehouses into his studio. He later set out to the big city, Castelia City, where he made it big as both an artist and a Pokémon trainer. He became Castelia's gym leader, and his gym doubled as his art gallery. It was designed to resemble a giant hive with honey-like doors to be walked through and gates that had to be opened by stepping on switches. Winners would earn the Insect Badge. Burgh still found time to revisit Nacrene City, usually when he had artist's block.

Black/White

In Pokémon: Black and White Versions, Burgh was apparently present at Team Plasma's Accumula City rally. Ghetsis's speech was successful in making Burgh question whether or not his Pokémon were truly happy with him. However, this ultimately lead Burgh to dedicate himself to his Pokémon more strongly. He later visited Narcene, claiming this time it was only to find a quieter atmosphere, but he was confused by the disturbance going on in the city. He ran into Narcene's gym leader and his friend Lenora, who told him that Team Plasma had stolen a fossilized dragon Pokémon skull from the museum. She had Burgh and the young trainer Hilbert/Hilda go into the Pinwheel Forest to check for any signs of Team Plasma. Since there were two paths through the forest, Burgh volunteered to cover the straight path while suggesting the player check the maze-like area through the forest. Burgh later made his way over to Hilbert/Hilda when he had finished his battle with the Team Plasma members and retrieved the skull. After the Team Plasma members left, Burgh thought it would be unwise to try to pursue them and decided to head back to Castelia, expecting an eventual gym challenge from Hilbert/Hilda.

At Castelia, Cheren reached the gym first and defeated Burgh. Burgh was almost immediately called out of the gym by reports of Team Plasma causing trouble at the pier, meeting up with Hilbert/Hilda along the way. At the pier, they found Bianca had been mugged by a Plasma member, and Iris had also arrived to protect her. They managed to chase one of the members to their hideout there, where they confronted three of Team Plasma's Seven Sages. Burgh told them about the speech he had overheard and told them about the epiphany that they had caused within him. He suggested that Team Plasma's attempts to make people give up their Pokémon would only cause trainers to become closer to their Pokémon. Ghetsis complimented Burgh's intelligence and had his men return Bianca's Pokémon to her without a fight, then they left. Burgh returned to the gym to await Hilbert/Hilda's challenge. The trainer defeated Burgh, who gave up the Insect Badge as well as TM 76: Struggle Bug. He claimed not to be bugged by losing due to the player's "a-MAZ-ing" strength and assured Hilbert/Hilda that it was the little things that counted. Bianca was later the last of the three trainers to beat him.

The gym leaders eventually met together to discuss the problem of Team Plasma, and they decided to try to take them on if Team Plasma ever came out of hiding again. The time came when N's Castle rose by the Pokémon League. Bianca went around gathering the gym leaders for help, and Burgh was among the trainers who arrived in time to hold off six of Team Plasma's Seven Sages while Hilbert/Hilda went ahead to challenge N. He then returned to his gym, where he remarked upon how content he was with his life of raising and drawing Pokémon.

Black/White 2

Over the following two years, Burgh remodeled his gym so that it was based around giant cocoons instead. In Black and White 2, he was first shown in the Castelia Sewers when he was searching for Team Plasma members. Once his search was complete, he witnessed Nate/Rosa and Hugh's defeat of some Team Plasma members. Burgh congratulated them and invited them to his gym. Both of the trainers were able to best him, and he awarded the victors with the Insect Badge and TM76: Struggle Bug.

Burgh also appeared as an opponent in the Pokémon World Tournament. He could be faced in the Unova Leaders and World Leaders divisions. He was also a potential contender in the Driftveil Tournament as well as the Type Experts tournament for Bug-types. Burgh also appeared in a Memory Link flashback in which he visited Lenora at the Nacrene City Museum looking for inspiration. He talked about his opinions on bones, which he did not appreciate much due to his preference for insect exoskeletons, but in the end he decided to use a fossil brought in by Clay as a motif for one of his works.

Pokémon Roster

Black/White

He uses the following Pokémon in battle:

• Whirlipede
• Dwebble
• Leavanny

Black/White 2

His gym roster is the following:

• Swadloon (or Shelmet in Challenge Mode)
• Dwebble
• Leavanny
• Karrablast (Challenge Mode only)

For World Tournament battles, his potential roster includes:

• Leavanny
• Vespiquen
• Crustle (two in Driftveil, one in all other divisions)
• Escavalier (two in Driftveil, one in Unova Leaders)
• Accelgor (in all divisions except Driftveil)
• Durant (in all divisions except Driftveil)
• Heracross (in Type Expert and World Leaders only)

In Other Pokémon Games

In Pokémon Masters EX, Burgh and Leavanny appeared as a playable sync pair, and they could be recruited at random through the game's Sync Pair Scout feature. A spring variant of Burgh in green clothing and paired with Togepi was also available through the Sync Pair Scout during limited time periods starting in April 2021. That variant of Burgh was also featured in the "Pasio Eggsplorers" Story Event, where he and May had organized an egg hunt with eggs that had been decorated by Burgh himself. They ended up having to find a child's Pokémon Egg that had been lost with the eggs, and Burgh's Togepi went missing for a while as well. Burgh offered an original art piece as a prize for finding the missing egg, but Brendan ultimately asked for a battle instead upon returning it. Burgh also appeared in a an extra scene of the "Trials on the Isle" Story Event, in which he admired Mina's Bug-type Pokémon and wanted to draw them. Mina came up with the idea of making Guzma and Plumeria pose by the Pokémon, which Burgh felt added even more to the picture. In the "Solve the Case!" Costume Event, Burgh took part in a mystery game in which he played the role of a musician. He also made an appearance in the Unova chapter of the Villain arc, in which he looked over the injured Genesect for a while and could not recognize it as any Bug-type Pokémon that he was aware of.

Other Appearances

Other Media

• He has appeared in several episodes of the Pokémon anime series. His first appearance had him meeting Ash's group by chance in Pinwheel Forest and accompanying them in their journey through it before ultimately parting ways. In the second episode, he met Ash and his group again at Castelia and helped to solve a crisis of a Venipede infestation in the city, ultimately luring them out of the city by playing an ocarina. In his next appearance, Ash challenged and defeated him in a gym battle to earn the Insect Badge.
• He appeared in the Black/White arc of the Pokémon Adventures manga, where his appearances were similar to those in the original games. The main difference is that all of the gym leaders were eventually captured by Team Plasma while trying to protect the Dark Stone, and they were held captive until freed later in the story, at which point they helped in the final fights with Team Plasma.
• One episode of the Pokémon Generations anime, which was based directly on scenarios from the games, featured Burgh and the other gym leaders fighting Team Plasma at N's Castle.

Trivia

• His English name seems to be a play on "bug" and may also be referring to "burg", due to him residing in a large city. His Japanese name is Arty, which can refer to "artichoke" (as most Pokémon characters are named after some sort of plantlife) as well as words related to Burgh such as "art" and/or "arthropod".