Character Profile: Professor Samuel Oak

Professor Samuel Oak is Pallet Town's resident Pokemon expert. A former Pokemon trainer, he now studies Pokemon at his lab as well as starting rookie trainers on their journeys. Usually, he offers the trainers a Bulbasaur, a Squirtle, or a Charmander, but Ash arrived late at the lab when he started his journey and nearly all the Pokemon were gone. The only exception was a Pikachu which Oak described as having "an electrifying personality". Since trainers are only allowed to carry a maximum of six Pokemon at a time, Oak cares for any others that they catch. He is also a close friend of the Ketchum family.

As a young boy, he encountered a Celebi which was on the run from a poacher and used its time-traveling abilities to travel forward in time, taking the young Samuel Oak with it. Arriving in what was, for them, the future, the pair met up with Ash and company and, after saving Celebi from an even greater threat, returned to their own time.