What if Misty went to Alola with Ash

[KaPi96]

Misty... such a wasted character

If she were ever to return I wouldn`t want it as one of Ash`s companions. She should actually be trying to fulfill her goal of becoming a water Pokemon master. Best way for her to do that would be to compete in/win a Pokemon League tournament. So assuming (hoping) the Alola anime arc culminates in a Pokemon League tournament as usual then I`d much rather see her first appear there as one of Ash`s tournament rivals.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

Misty... such a wasted character

If she were ever to return I wouldn`t want it as one of Ash`s companions. She should actually be trying to fulfill her goal of becoming a water Pokemon master. Best way for her to do that would be to compete in/win a Pokemon League tournament. So assuming (hoping) the Alola anime arc culminates in a Pokemon League tournament as usual then I`d much rather see her first appear there as one of Ash`s tournament rivals.

The only wasted characters were Iris and Serena. Misty was a great character and considered complete. Iris spent most of the Unova region being annoying and Serena brought in the amourshipping which was awful. Misty, May and Dawn are the only ones so far that I want to see return.

 

[KaPi96]

The only wasted characters were Iris and Serena. Misty was a great character and considered complete. Iris spent most of the Unova region being annoying and Serena brought in the amourshipping which was awful. Misty, May and Dawn are the only ones so far that I want to see return.

Definitely agree about Iris being annoying
But for Misty it seemed to me that a lot of the time she was just there with no real reason. The thing about her wanting to follow/get to know Ash can only take her so far. There comes a point where you`ve really got to ask why she isn`t doing something worthwhile rather than just tagging along with Ash. I really liked that she competed, and did well in, the Whirl Cup and that she even beat Ash in it. I think the anime would have benefited from more stuff like that for her. That`s why I liked May/Dawn as characters more than Misty, they were regularly competing in their own tournaments and giving us someone else to root for other than Ash.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Misty defeating Ash in the Whirl Cup would have meant a whole lot more if it didn't come down to Psyduck's deus ex machnia powers. It made that victory feel completely hallow when she didn't even call out Psyduck herself and it relied on Ash forgetting about Psyduck's headache powers too. I do agree that Misty seemed to be kind of there for a good chuck of the original series and it didn't help that she spent more time talking about how much she loved Water Pokemon than actually doing something about it. Granted, I don't think that the writers were too interested in focusing on anyone besides Ash for too long in the original series, certainly not to the point where other traveling companions had more active goals, but it is still a problem when she can't back up all of her talk.

That's one reason why I don't really see the benefit of Misty traveling with Ash again for a long period of time. She would probably get more focus than she did back in the day, but I think that might not be enough for her hardcore fans. Traveling on her own would be more ideal since she wouldn't have to share screentime with other characters or be pushed into the background. I'm sure that we'll get a Pokemon League in the SM anime, if only because that is the case in the games, but I doubt that Misty will be there. If it's going to be anything like the games, it would only allow people who have completed the Island Trials before to show up for the first Pokemon League. The idea does sound neat though.

 

[SinnohEevee]

Misty last appeared like a decade ago. It seems the writers are just done with her.

 

[GeminiAngel87]

I wouldn't bet on that.

 

[SinnohEevee]

But I would like to see Gary.
Maybe Professor Oak could send Misty and Gary for research.

 

[ii kanji]

Kasumi and Shigeru appearing are not mutually exclusive events. I would love to see both!

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

She would kill Suiren and Dent for stealing her style.

 

[lavandula]

I wouldn't be in favor of that happening for multiple reasons. First of all, I'm not a huge fan of Misty, but her fanbase has been glorifying her for quite some time, so seeing her return to the main cast would be annoying for me in that regard. While it could be interesting to see Misty and her goal handled better, I'd much rather see a brand new character who could tie in more with Sun/Moon. Besides that, it seems way too little, too late to do anything with Misty and her goal, even for the 20th anniversary for the anime coming up. It just sounds more like a fan fiction rather than something the writers would really be interested in doing.

Plus, I don't think it's accurate to say that Misty is stuck at the Cerulean Gym for the rest of her life. Being a Gym Leader doesn't mean that she can never leave. We've seen plenty of Gym Leaders doing other things and traveling away from their Gym, especially in DP. It also gives the impression that she is trap there or is unable to grow as a Gym Leader, but she seemed pretty happy to be a Gym Leader, even with how busy she can be, so I wouldn't say that she's stuck. She can still go on journeys by herself, which would benefit her more than returning to the main cast anyway since she wouldn't have to share screentime with Ash. Sure, it would be off-screen and we'd be lucky to see any sign of older characters like Misty at this point, but that's still probably better than how she could be written if she was traveling with Ash again.

Keep in mind that Misty is only popular and glorified in the English Pokemon fanbase (and to some extent, the Spanish fanbase).
Misty remains to be unpopular in Japan and other Asian countries like Taiwan and China.

And that the current anime obviously caters to the Japanese audience the most.
The anime is not selling in USA for many years.

 

[NeoMiniTails]

Keep in mind that Misty is only popular and glorified in the English Pokemon fanbase (and to some extent, the Spanish fanbase).
Misty remains to be unpopular in Japan and other Asian countries like Taiwan and China.

And that the current anime obviously caters to the Japanese audience the most.
The anime is not selling in USA for many years.

Kasumi was pretty popular in Japan also. While pokeshipping wasn't as big of a thing out there (due to the dub adding most of the satokasu hints), she was never shown to be unpopular by Japanese fans. It's true that Westerners appreciated her character much more, but westerners also appreciated the friendship of Pikachu and Satoshi more than the Japanese fans, which oddly focused more on the creatures rather than the human characters to identify with.

What you said is true if we are to consider what was said in an old interview that they'd only have her as a guest star. The Japanese actress had decided that she would focus on her music career... so that had a lot to do with why Kasumi was no longer on the show and the departure was so randomly done.

 

[FANG-TAN]

(due to the dub adding most of the satokasu hints).

This is untrue. The dub took out as much as they put in, maybe a little more (not counting supplementary dub material such as Misty's Song or Pokemon Live). It perplexes me why people keep saying this.

 

[NeoMiniTails]

This is untrue. The dub took out as much as they put in (not counting supplementary dub material such as Misty's Song or Pokemon Live).

I love Pokeshipping/AAML/Satokasu, but it seems like most of the hints came from the dub. I could definitely be wrong though.

 

[FANG-TAN]

I love Pokeshipping/AAML/Satokasu, but it seems like most of the hints came from the dub. I could definitely be wrong though.

You are definitely wrong. The only hints that they added, from what I recall correctly, are the lines from a couple of episodes ("You and I will be married someday too", "Take it from me: it’s easier to like someone who likes you than to like someone who doesn’t", "I guess we'll have to find out for ourselves..."), changing Kasumi's memory montage from her departure episode to be more SatoKasu (removing a group shot that included Kenji in the process, poor guy lol), and making scenes that were already shippy even more shippy ("You are a really clueless/dense guy, Satoshi" --> "You’ll see someday" [Ziggy, the third Orange Islands Gym Leader] and pretty much the second movie). And also Ash mentioning Misty in the Jirachi movie, while Satoshi was talking about friends in general. That's it. Most of everything else was still there in the Japanese version.

 

[NeoMiniTails]

That's a lot of add-ins, honestly. Because I am aware of the add-ins, including the change of Song of Lugia movie in its entirety, I will stick to what I said before about SatoKasu hints being mostly English dubbed. I'm a pokeshipper through and through so it don't really matter to me.

They've for a certainty had shippy moments in the Japanese version. I don't refute that.

The change in Jirachi was necessary in my opinion. It made the moment more personal than his original, generic line... at least in my opinion.

Even so, I would love for Kasumi to return for a few episodes or an arc.

 

[FANG-TAN]

Because I am aware of the add-ins, including the change of Song of Lugia movie in its entirety, I will stick to what I said before about SatoKasu hints being mostly English dubbed.

The problem is the phrasing "mostly English dubbed". It's really not much compared to what was there to begin with. The entirety of the original Revelation Lugia movie is still really really shippy (and one of the movie guides confirm that she was jealous of Fleura kissing Satoshi. Yes, 4Kids re-scored the music and altered the whole script, but it's not like they changed a non-shippy movie into a shippy one, it already was one, they just bumped it up a notch), the only time Satoshi ever blushed at being ship teased still happened (and in the Japanese version was more extreme, Rocket Gang was accusing them of eloping and the scene was made into a Cardass card: あらま、それってとっても ❤), most of the ship teasing in the Orange Islands was there in the Japanese version as well (Kasumi having to choose Satoshi over Ziggy, Satoshi getting jealous that Kasumi was giving her attention to Dan instead of him, the Nidoran episode where Kenji teased them, etc.), 4Kids re-scripted the lines where Kasumi rejected Tsutomu because she likes another boy in her Housou special to make it non-shippy in the dub, this relationship chart showing a mutual question mark between the two rather than the simple "friends", Satoshi going shoujo-eyed at Kasumi in a yukata (granted, the OS was when Satoshi wasn't completely asexual, especially earlier on), Kasumi was still very jealous of Moe flirting with Satoshi in the Jouto League, Satoshi was really protective of her lure in DP, etc. The 4Kids imaginary hints were very minor in comparison and just pronounced something that was already there in the original Japanese version.

Sorry I went on a tangent there, but all the talk in general about Kasumi not ever being popular in Japan or that every hint of affection she had towards the protagonist/vice-versa was all/mostly dub-added really gets to me, because I know all of those originated from people who have never watched the OS/AG in Japanese and don't even know a lick of the language to even know the Japanese fandom's thoughts at the time (ergo, EOP secondaries), thinking it's okay to make stuff up to fuel their agenda. I'd rather make that clear than to have misinformation like that be spread. Even if I wasn't into the pairing, I would acknowledge that tangible, often quite obvious hints from at least her side existed like how I acknowledge that tangible hints from Serena's side exists for SatoSere.

 

[ii kanji]

Yeah @FANG-TAN you tell 'em!

I just wanted reiterate that this "Kasumi is the most unpopular girl in Japan" rumour has existed since time immemorial and I have followed it up whenever I have seen it (because I would care if it was true) - never has anyone shown me any tangible evidence for it.

 

[lavandula]

Kasumi was pretty popular in Japan also. While pokeshipping wasn't as big of a thing out there (due to the dub adding most of the satokasu hints), she was never shown to be unpopular by Japanese fans. It's true that Westerners appreciated her character much more, but westerners also appreciated the friendship of Pikachu and Satoshi more than the Japanese fans, which oddly focused more on the creatures rather than the human characters to identify with.

What you said is true if we are to consider what was said in an old interview that they'd only have her as a guest star. The Japanese actress had decided that she would focus on her music career... so that had a lot to do with why Kasumi was no longer on the show and the departure was so randomly done.

Really? But if you compare the amount of fanart, Hikari clearly has way more fan art than Kasumi ever did.
Most shipping in Japan is Hikari x Satoshi.
Even after Serena x Satoshi, people are still shipping Hikari x Satoshi.
Yes, Serena x Satoshi is comparable to Hikari x Satoshi, but you can't ever say that Kasumi ever was popular.

The amount of Kasumi fanart is simply not the same scale as Hikari or Serena.
People rarely draw ero pics of Kasumi at all.

Besides, when Lillie card went up to 10,000 yen on Yahoo Japan, no one cared about the Kasumi cards at all.
The prices of Kasumi cards aren't comparable, even when they are vintage cards.

Do you ever add Japanese Pokemon fans into your Twitter accounts at all?
How many Japanese fan artists do you follow on Twitter?
Seriously, the admin of PokeSho.com follow me on Twitter.


As for USA shipping between Misty and Ash, "Misty's Song" in the original POkemon music CD was clearly very shippy.

 

[Silktree]

The amount of Kasumi fanart is simply not the same scale as Hikari or Serena.
People rarely draw ero pics of Kasumi at all.

Besides, when Lillie card went up to 10,000 yen on Yahoo Japan, no one cared about the Kasumi cards at all.
The prices of Kasumi cards aren't comparable, even when they are vintage cards.

I'm a Misty fan and I don't care about fanart (especially ero) or cards.

The Japanese actress had decided that she would focus on her music career... so that had a lot to do with why Kasumi was no longer on the show and the departure was so randomly done.

I've never heard about that, and Shudo's blog tells a much different story. I'd rather blame the show's creators than an innocent voice actress, personally.

 

[FANG-TAN]

Are you seriously measuring popularity off of Pixiv fanart and Rule34...? In a franchise with multiple iterations of the characters, at that.

Besides.

People rarely draw ero pics of Kasumi at all.

I can tell you how wrong this is, but we'd be having a battle that does not belong here of all places!

Spoiler: Parental advisory