Will Koharu be a coordinator?

[Vando]

Shoji Yonemura wrote this episode. Would that be just a coincidence?
It's a perfect form to bring back Serena, Dawn and May. I think all of older characters will appear at some point after all.
Frames from episode 20

 

[KenzeyEevee]

Who knows? But its interesting Ash wants to use a combo attack, doesnt seem like him.

 

[Panky..]

I feel like her goal will combine her schooling and her parents' professions.

She might become a semi-research assistant who documents and records the boys adventures and Pokemon, makes documentaries and takes notes. Hell, they should bring back the concept of Pokemon Watchers that they decided to drop with Tracey, it had potential. Might as well have that Yamper connection with Sonia as well.

 

[Gabo2oo]

Did I read "they should bring back the concept of Pokemon Watchers that they decided to drop with Tracey" somewhere in here?

Because they should

Did you know that for every Pallet Town episode where Tracey Sketchit does not appear a Gabo2oo loses one year of its lifetime?

 

[Emmy]

Whilst her becoming a Researcher would be too bland, I'm not super keen on Coordinator either.

I'd prefer something along the lines of apprentice Ranger myself but I'm biased.

 

[Silktree]

She isn't part of the main cast and the anime has never had three active goals, so no. Not to mention the terrible sexism, but that wouldn't necessarily stop them.

 

[nickdt]

With the new episode title that came out today which gives Koharu some development, it seems like they are pushing her towards a Pokemon Doctor kind of goal.

 

[SammyW27]

While I'd likes me some Contest episodes, I don't see it happening. They've done SO little with her I can't buy it.

Besides, it really doesn't seem like her kind of thing...

And as been said, with Ash battling and Goh catching, we have our legal limit on goals for this series.

 

[Hidden Mew]

She isn't part of the main cast and the anime has never had three active goals, so no. Not to mention the terrible sexism, but that wouldn't necessarily stop them.

I'm not sure what you're referring to with the terrible sexism. Contests were basically a way for previous female leads to have their own battle active goal, but we saw plenty of male Coordinators in both AG and DP. It wasn't just a glorified beauty contest akin to Showcases where only girls could take part in. Granted, this might be kind of moot when I doubt that they'll have Koharu be a Coordinator anyway, but I was just confused by this statement.

 

[Silktree]

Contests featuring battles doesn't negate the inclusion of appeals or focus on style. When someone thinks that Koharu being slightly impressed by a combo (that two boys used in a regular battle) is a sign, that shows a certain amount of sexism. We don't need to see a fourth girl tied to that stigma, especially when the male companions have actually never used the same goal (even though they were all decent battlers).

 

[Hidden Mew]

Contests featuring battles doesn't negate the inclusion of appeals or focus on style. When someone thinks that Koharu being slightly impressed by a combo (that two boys used in a regular battle) is a sign, that shows a certain amount of sexism. We don't need to see a fourth girl tied to that stigma, especially when the male companions have actually never used the same goal (even though they were all decent battlers).

I don't think that the appeals or focus on style makes Contests sexist. They did want to make the battles more visually appealing to appeal to girls, but one reason why I can't really see this as sexism is that Contests were never exclusive to girls. We saw plenty of male Coordinators too. Not to mention at the end of the day, Contests battles are still battles. Putting on a flashy appeal didn't mean anything if they couldn't also win a battle. i don't think that focusing on appales or style changes that. I've seen people say something similar about Contests before, but I don't really see it as a stigma when that was easily the best goal they provided for female leads.

I don't think that this notion about Koharu shows a certain amount of sexism either. Part of that is because I don't really see the problem with multiple girls being Coordinators, but it honestly just seems more like a stretch or a desire for Koharu to actually be involved in the main cast more than anything else. I don't think it's going to happen when it's probably going to take awhile for Koharu to find her goal and it's still questionable if she'll be part of the main cast in the future. Even if she does start to tag along with Ash and Gou, it would probably be too late to start a Contest arc anyway.

 

[game3524]

No, I think they have retired contests. It feels like they are slowly moving away from the stereotypical shoujo arcs that previous "Pokegirls" got to contrast with Ash (this really started with SM in which the "goals" Lillie, Lana, and Mallow got were more gender neutral). That is a good thing IMO since it is a fairly dated concept.

 

[Hidden Mew]

No, I think they have retired contests. It feels like they are slowly moving away from the stereotypical shoujo arcs that previous "Pokegirls" got to contrast with Ash (this really started with SM in which the "goals" Lillie, Lana, and Mallow got were more gender neutral). That is a good thing IMO since it is a fairly dated concept.

I don't know how Mallow's goal was gender neutral. Cooking is still largely associated more with girls than with boys, despite how there are plenty of male professional chiefs out there. I can see that for Lillie and Lana's goals, but I don't think that makes them better or more compelling characters either. Granted, I wasn't a huge fan of the SM female cast and I still think that Lana is pretty overrated, but I think that May, Dawn and even Serena had better storylines. Now I don't think that they'll bring back Contests not because they're a dated concept, but because they aren't featured in the games anymore. That was why they were removed after DP and as much as I would love to see them return, I don't think it's going to happen unless they are available at the start of a new generation.

 

[Pulsaro23]

We don't need to see a fourth girl tied to that stigma, especially when the male companions have actually never used the same goal (even though they were all decent battlers).

Reminder that:
A) Brock was the only male companion back when contests were a thing and he already had the goal of becoming a great Pokémon breeder and that Clemont was the male companion back when showcases were a thing and he was already a Gym Leader whose goal was to become gain more confidence and learn to become a better trainer, so there wasn't any room for them to take on contests/the male-equivalent of showcases for no reason.
B) Ash did participate in a couple of contests (and did pretty well in them, too), so it's not like male main characters haven't participated in contests at all or that it was completely exclusive to the Pokégirls.

Also, since when was something being geared more towards one gender than the other considered sexist?

 

[Silktree]

Now that Ash has moved on from badge quests, there is no reason why a girl shouldn't do it instead. Sadly, that is clearly not the plan for Koharu, and for some reason Ash is rematching Korrina.

Also, since when was something being geared more towards one gender than the other considered sexist?

Since the time when the "girly" activity was a minor feature in two regions, and that's it. It is not the heart of the series and it's silly that it's still being talked about, honestly.

Also, they could have replaced Brock with Brendan/Drew if they'd wanted.

 

[Pulsaro23]

Since the time when the "girly" activity was a minor feature in two regions, and that's it. It is not the heart of the series and it's silly that it's still being talked about, honestly.

Again, why are contests supposedly "girly"? Just because they were Dawn and May's main goal? Well, as someone pointed out already, there were a ton of other guys that also participated in them as well. Besides Ash trying them once in a while, we had a male Champion who was considered the ultimate Top Coordinator in the world, a male Gym Leader who was also a renowned Top Coordinator in his home region, two of May's main rivals being guys, the winner of the Hoenn Grand Festival being a male and two of the judges who oversaw the contests and who should specialize in the evaluation of a coordinator in order to being male. It wasn't exclusive to girls, girls weren't the only winners or the most proeminent coordinators and girls didn't have an unfair advantage in it, so I don't see where the sexism is.

And what does the fact that it was a minor feature in the games have to do with anything? Yeah, they weren't that fleshed out in Ruby and Sapphire or even Diamond and Pearl. But the games and the anime are two separate things, and the anime actually expanded on contests and made them more interesting. You had to come up with creative combos, you could take advantage of your opponent's moves and use them to get a better score then them, you could come up with strategies that you wouldn't see in a regular battle, you had to focus on showcasing your Pokémon rather than dealing the most damage and it was about more using the prettiest move or about creating the greatest spectacle ever. Not to mention that one of the best character arcs in the anime happened because of contests being a thing and because of that character's goal being tied to them. So there are definitely reasons for people to talk about them and to want them to come back, especially considering that this is a series that not only focuses on the entire Pokémon world instead of just a single region, but also one that brought back the Battle Frontier, a feature that also hasn't appeared in the games in years.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Since the time when the "girly" activity was a minor feature in two regions, and that's it. It is not the heart of the series and it's silly that it's still being talked about, honestly.

Referring to Contests as just being girly bothers me. It's true that it was a minor feature in two generations, especially in R/S, but that doesn't matter in the context of the anime. They expanded on Contests to make them more challenging and getting a ribbon was honestly more difficult than getting a Gym badge, if only because Coordinators had only one chance to get a specific ribbon, and Contests were just as important as Gym battles in DP. Considering that Contests required a lot of skills with both the appeal and battle rounds, brushing it all off as just being a "girly activity" just comes off as a huge disservice to it.

It also really isn't silly that people are still talking about Contests. They weren't absolutely perfect, especially with how the point systems would work. I'd also argue that not a lot of May's Contests have aged well either, although at least part of that is due to how DP Contests were such a vast improvement by comparison, but they gave the female leads some much needed structure. Instead of just being on the sidelines like most of the other female leads, May and Dawn were required to be battle active and that allowed the audience to see them improve more naturally over the course of their respective series. Maybe that doesn't mean a lot to you, but that meant a lot to me as a girl watching these series. Granted, I was already well outside of Pokemon's target audience by the time AG started, but seeing the girls battle more often was still nice and appreciated. Contests were featured in two series, one of which is still considered at least one of the most popular series by fans, Dawn is one of the most popular female leads and a lot of people would have grown up with AG or DP as their first series at this point. It's really not strange, silly or surprising that people still talk about Contests or want them back, despite being sadly unlikely at this point.

While I agree that Contests weren't the heart of the show, they were still a major aspect of the anime for eight years. Even though they had to remove Contests, it always felt to me that the anime lost something important and never found a good replacement for it. Aside from arguably Serena, none of the female leads since Dawn have had much of a clear structure to their goals or as good/noteworthy development in their storylines. That isn't to say that every other female lead has been poorly written. They still usually get some good moments or development, but I think not having a more battle active goal or a goal that requires the writers to do something with the female leads more often hasn't really helped their overall storylines.

 

[Daren]

Contests were featured in two series, one of which is still considered at least one of the most popular series by fans, Dawn is one of the most popular female leads and a lot of people would have grown up with AG or DP as their first series at this point.

This is a point that's easy for older (and younger!) people to overlook, I think. There are a lot of people who first watched the series with contests as a major focus; it's practically guaranteed (especially for DP) there were people watching who found them the most interesting part of the show instead of the Gym battles. It's no surprise some people want to see them back.

 

[ii kanji]

Y'all have the dead wrong take on this: it is Go and Rabifoot who are going to join the Contest circuit.

 

[Panky..]

Y'all have the dead wrong take on this: it is Go and Rabifoot who are going to join the Contest circuit.

Pretty sure they're joining the Performer circuit. Raboot does have a sudden interest in dancing after all, and Gou has the androgynous appearance to hit off a proper guise.