Bugsy (Tsukushi in Japanese) runs the Hive Badge gym in Azalea Town and is the go-to expert on Bug-type Pokémon—his name's pretty straightforward in that regard.
In the anime, he's a fairly low-key gym leader whose facility is basically a massive greenhouse dome styled like a forest. His whole philosophy boils down to: "Whoever learns the rules of the Bug Pokémon learns to rule the Bug Pokémon." He's built his team around Scyther as his ace, specifically training it to counter Fire-types. He also uses a Spinarak that's great with String Shot and a surprisingly tanky Metapod. When Ash shows up, his Cyndaquil struggles against the Spinarak, but Chikorita takes it down before getting demolished by that Metapod. Pikachu cleans up the Metapod, and then Cyndaquil makes its comeback to beat Scyther and clinch the Hive Badge.
In the manga continuity (Pokémon Adventures), Bugsy's a different character entirely—an androgynous archaeologist digging around the Ruins of Alph and investigating Symbol Pokémon. His main team centers on Heracross, with Metapod as support and later Kakuna and Scyther added to the roster. He and Kurt (the Poké Ball master) cooked up a special catching method together: a Poké Ball with an external net attached. The idea is the Pokémon gets trapped in both layers, so even if it breaks out of the ball itself, the net still holds it. That system works great until he encounters Suicune, where his Heracross just can't hang with the legendary's raw power. When he tries his net method, Suicune actually breaks through it for the first time and escapes. Later, he loses to Sabrina during the Gym Leaders' Challenge.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
