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Favorite Kanto Gym leader poll results

lavandula

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「カントー地方で好きだったジムリーダーは誰?」結果発表!━第1位の栄冠は、あのお嬢様のもとに輝く!? | インサイド


"Who was your favorite Kanto gym leader?"

Poll Results:

5. Brock

4. Misty

3. Sabrina

2. Giovanni

1. Erica


So Erica is the most popular Kanto Gym leader in Japan.


Statistics (translated) :




1. Erica (133 votes) (30.5%)

2. Giovanni 69votes (15.8%)

3. Sabrina 67 votes (15.4%)

4. Misty 61 votes (14.0%)

5. Brock 48 (11.0%)

6. Blaine 29 (6.7%)

7. Lt. Surge 17 (3.9%)

8. Koga 12 (2.7%)
 
The question is how varied the readership of that website is. If this is reliable, then I'm surprised Erika took up almost a third of the votes. Is it because she looks the most Japanese? Her archery in Special?
 
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I'm surprised to. Giovanni's placing makes sense, actually I would think of him as first because he's such a great character. Could be the anime played a factor, though I don't think Erika was that great in the anime. Of course translation between countries is a factor. Maybe their japanese versions are much different from the others.
 
I'm kinda surprised Brock did as well as he did, and I would've expected Koga to do better. I'm not really surprised Erika won. She's cool but I would've voted for Sabrina.
 
Misty and Brock are lower than I thought. I would've expected them to be in the top 3 because of the anime, but clearly not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The question is how varied the readership of that website is. If this is reliable, then I'm surprised Erika took up almost a third of the votes. Is it because she looks the most Japanese? Her archery in Special?
I'm curious about this, too. Erika seems to be a "Yamato Nadeshiko" character based on her design, personality and Princess aesthetic. The voters could be fans of that archetype for all we know.
 
I would have expected something like: Misty, Brock, Giovanni, Sabrina, Erika, Koga, Blaine, Lt. Surge

Without anime/manga bias, mine would be: Blaine, Giovanni, Sabrina, Misty, Erika, Brock, Koga, Lt. Surge

Nothing against the last four, but they're pretty tropey and I find it hard to imagine a unique backstory for them. Anime Brock benefitted from being the caring type instead, although his last appearance blurred that for the sake of a battle.
 
I really enjoy Erika's design for some reason. Also, Grass Type is probably one of my favourites so I'm kinda happy she got the first place.
 
Erika was the first gym leader I thought of when I saw the results. I don't hate Misty or Brock (well, him being the first gym leader is annoying), but the anime really made me tire of those two. Erika is straight forward, her dialogue in all the games is pretty minimal. If I had to pick a favorite from Kanto, it would be her.

Blain makes me think of Lord Voldemort.
 
I liked how Erika came off as a gossipy bitch in HGSS. But other than that, I never found her particularly interesting. I'd personally vote for Lt. Surge, who is a cool character with an interesting story to him.
 
The question is how varied the readership of that website is. If this is reliable, then I'm surprised Erika took up almost a third of the votes. Is it because she looks the most Japanese? Her archery in Special?
I suppose the readership is like 90% Japanese male or something along the lines.

Erika is the most waifu out of all the female gym leaders.
Plus in some depictions, she wore a kimono.
She does have a traditional virtues aspect surrounding her (which is not from the anime)

The website also said that the Pokemon Adventures manga played a big role in Erika's popularity.
(Because a hell lot of Japanese people have read the manga)
 
I'm not surprised since I would have voted for Erika as well both for the looks and gym design. Also, I honestly wanted Lt. Surge to get more votes or at least be higher than Brock, 'cause I can't stand this latter. >.<
I think it's because Lt. Surge's Japanese dialogue in the anime sounded a bit discriminating towards Japanese/ non white audiences.
I remembered him calling Ash "baby" in a mocking way, and patted Ash's head in a way that suggests Ash is very short-- which was a common act from Americans towards Japanese people back when they used to discriminate Asians.
For a long time, most Japanese people feel inferior because they are a lot shorter than Americans.

So I won't be surprised if the Japanese didn't like Lt. Surge.
 
@lavandula Could you translate this dialogue from the games? Does it apply to GSC?

I find Koga to be the real oddity. He's distinctly Japanese like Erika and pretty cool at that.
 
I'd have personally picked Lt. Surge because Raichu is his ace...

But if I manage to put that bias aside my answer will end up being a draw between Misty and Giovanni.
 
@lavandula Could you translate this dialogue from the games? Does it apply to GSC?

I find Koga to be the real oddity. He's distinctly Japanese like Erika and pretty cool at that.
I wonder where I can find the in game dialogue in Japanese...

I think it's the anime dialogue that was bad. I remembered feeling slightly offended by the dialogue.
(Tall American dude laughing at short Asians, that was my impression.)
 
I liked how Erika came off as a gossipy bitch in HGSS.

I think I want to put this in my signature

Lt. Surge was an okay character, but I think the anime ruined it for me, plus his gym was annoying to deal with, and Raichu wasn't exactly an interesting battle. It would have been interesting if Pokemon Yellow had been made in the time of abilities and nature, I would have liked to seen his Raichu used an electric move against a Pikachu with Lightning Rod as it's ability.
 
Here it is.

Well, the anime turned him into a giant and pitted him against a kid. That's a rather extreme height gap.
I think he actually said "Hey, poor little boy" in "English".
That was his first line.
The rest seems similar to the English games.
 
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