How popular do you think Koharu is with Japanese fans?

[Kurolegacy]

One thing, an anime being a Kodomo does not mean that it is not directed primarily at one gender.

It's just that a Kodomo anime (unlike Shonen or Shoujo) won't reveal the gender of the main audience in the name.


Pocket Monster 2019 manga is currently published in Coro Coro Comics. This magazine has a kodomo mainly directed to boys.

There is a manga of Pocket Monsters 2019 in a Kodomo magazine for girls. However, if I'm not mistaken, this manga will be just 4 issues.

So, I think it is pretty likely the audience of Pokemon anime is mainly boys.

For 22+ years, the series as a whole has not been primarily targeted towards a single gender, hence the fact that even within the games, there has been the option of choosing to be male or female, something that even in intention has gone back to the very beginning even if it wasn’t until Crystal that they were able to finally implement it.

And even if the manga adaption is published in such a magazine, the anime came first and has existed for over 22 years, this series being a continuation of the same series. The genre of a long running series doesn’t suddenly shift simply because of a manga publisher. Pokémon is not and has never been targeted primarily towards boys. Unless you have some kind of official word that states this, this is mere assertion on your part.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I don't think they promote the co-protagonist aspect in DP at the level of Pokemon 2019 (I don't think they directly say Ash and Dawn were co-protagonists in DP). The writing maybe has a good focus Dawn's goal, but I don't think she was considered a equal co-protagonist to Ash.

Dawn was revealed before Ash officially was for DP, which led to speculation about if she was going to replace him, and the first episode was entirely about Dawn starting her journey with Ash showing up only in the last couple of minutes. I don't know if they officially said that they were co-protagonists, but I believe that in the Japanese version, DP started off saying that this was the story of Ash and Dawn, instead of just Ash like it normally does. Dawn was considered an equal co-protagonist to Ash. It wasn't just a matter of Dawn's goal having good amount of focus. Contests were considered just as important as Gym battles and received just as much attention. We saw that Dawn's training for her Contests often influenced Ash's battling style and vice versa. I can't compare it with how Gou was promoted or treated, but it was clear that Dawn was definitely a co-protagonist.

In the case of SM, it isn't weird that an anime mainly directed to boys have many (cute) female companions.

An anime directed mainly to boys that have opposite gender co-protagonists, where both characters goal receive similar promotion and focus, that would be uncommon.

SM definitely doesn't give off the impression that it was mainly directed at boys. Pokemon has always been more gender neutral rather than mainly directed to boys. The notion that they included multiple female leads to appeal to boys as cute eye candy isn't a stretch, but I doubt that was the main objective with that decision. It wouldn't be uncommon for Pokemon to have a boy and girl co-protagonist not only because they already did that with Dawn, but also because the anime, and by extension the franchise in general, has always appealed to girls as well. They've always had some female representation in the main cast, so suddenly finding the female lead concept disposable or at least not that important simply because they want to make Gou the co-protagonist is a lot more jarring than if they just made Gou a girl instead. They'd still appeal to both boys and girls if they just made the co-protagonist a female character. I don't know if that would have made Gou's overall reception here better or worse, but at least the anime would have some much needed and consistent female representation as opposed to Koharu showing up once in awhile.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

but I believe that in the Japanese version, DP started off saying that this was the story of Ash and Dawn, instead of just Ash like it normally does

And according to Bulbapedia, remains the only companion with this distinction, so I'd say that it was an attempt at co-protagonists.

 

[Konja7]

For 22+ years, the series as a whole has not been primarily targeted towards a single gender, hence the fact that even within the games, there has been the option of choosing to be male or female, something that even in intention has gone back to the very beginning even if it wasn’t until Crystal that they were able to finally implement it.

And even if the manga adaption is published in such a magazine, the anime came first and has existed for over 22 years, this series being a continuation of the same series. The genre of a long running series doesn’t suddenly shift simply because of a manga publisher. Pokémon is not and has never been targeted primarily towards boys. Unless you have some kind of official word that states this, this is mere assertion on your part.

I've never say Pokemon is exclusively directed to boys. The fact they have a (short) manga in Kodomo magazine for girls proves that they have an interest in a girl audience at some level.

I mentioned manga, because the demographics of these are a good proof of the majority of the audience that the franchise are trying to target. It hints that they have more focus on its boy audience.

I mean, if they were targeting boys and girls alike, they would probably have a ongoing manga for boys and another ongoing manga for girls.

 

[DynamicFusion]

Honestly if you looked at Twitter you would see that after the Koharu Episode, there was more discussion about the next episode which had Lean Vs Lance than Koharu itself from both the Japanese & English Fans. Koharu isn't popular but doesn't need to be popular. She's not a Main Character, she's just part of the supporting cast. Don't get what is so hard to understand about that. Also Fandoms in Anime don't really vary that much aside from the Japanese understanding and enjoying some of the more cultural references, more than the Western Fandom, which SM had plenty of and this anime hasn't.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I've never say Pokemon is exclusively directed to boys. The fact they have a (short) manga in Kodomo magazine for girls proves that they have an interest in a girl audience at some level.

I mentioned manga, because the demographics of these are a good proof of the majority of the audience that the franchise are trying to target. It hints that they have more focus on its boy audience.

I mean, if they were targeting boys and girls alike, they would probably have a ongoing manga for boys and another ongoing manga for girls.

I think that's putting too much importance on these manga and their demographics. I'm not saying that they don't matter, but I don't think that they're a good or even accurate indication of the franchise's main target audience, especially when that does ignore how previous anime series clearly did want to appeal to girls as well and that the games have included a female character option since Crystal.

 

[SammyW27]

No storyline, not much personality outside being the straight man, meh design that makes her look more like a recurring character than an actual PokeGirl, and little screen time (she goes whole episodes between appearances)

So I get the feeling she can't be very popular in Japan either.

Just give us Marnie or Gloria already.

 

[Daenerys]

Koharu isn't popular but doesn't need to be popular. She's not a Main Character, she's just part of the supporting cast. Don't get what is so hard to understand about that.

I mean yes you're right that she's just a supporting character, but I thought it was rather obvious by now that the main reason why a lot of fans have been putting pressure on her is because she's the closest thing to a Misty, May, Dawn, Iris, Serena, etc that this series has to offer. We've always had at least one female cast member who's been with Ash for 'eye-candy' purposes, so the fact that for the first time ever we don't have someone for that role is why people gravitate around Koharu and nit-pick at her inactivity.

 

[DynamicFusion]

I mean yes you're right that she's just a supporting character, but I thought it was rather obvious by now that the main reason why a lot of fans have been putting pressure on her is because she's the closest thing to a Misty, May, Dawn, Iris, Serena, etc that this series has to offer. We've always had at least one female cast member who's been with Ash for 'eye-candy' purposes, so the fact that for the first time ever we don't have someone for that role is why people gravitate around Koharu and nit-pick at her inactivity.

I feel like people take the "eye-candy" thing from the Director a bit too seriously. He was obviously joking and more than that that Person doesn't work on the Anime anymore starting from XY. Well Fans are different, some are too nit-picky, some are fair with their criticism and others tend to go to far. Why I dislike Koharu's Inactivity is mainly because of Ash & Gou's inability to carry the cast as Dual-Protagonists. Ash never had a solid foundation or Goal till you could say Episode 10 since that was when he caught Dragonite. Which left us with Gou for 10 Episodes and how was the reaction? Negative. Everywhere negative, Serebii, Bulbagarden, YouTube even the 24/7 Positive Twitter which the accounts on there are still making tweets praising their ever-glorious Sun & Moon were negative. It wasn't until Episode 12, till this Anime started to lean (keyword: lean) positive in terms of reaction. Even then and now there are still doubts. This anime doesn't need to do much now to lose viewers . Getting back to point, this is where I believe Koharu would fit in, Ash has been there for 23 years. I feel like while the current version is well-balanced, he isn't passive or reactive which is where you start losing the Main Characteristic of his Sun & Moon Version. Koharu could balance out the cast especially since her Character, Story and everything seems vastly different from previous girls. She also has a unique attitude. Her being inactive wouldn't be a problem for me though if Gou was able to balance out with Ash and actually be a good character. I'm starting to feel like all of my problems with this Anime root or have some relation with Gou and you really can't blame anyone since he is the only Cast Member this Series, if you don't like him, it makes a big impact on your whole impression on the Series.

 

[Adelon]

I wouldn't really care that much about Koharu seemingly doing nothing remarkable or being an interesting character if there were at least some other girls her age to fit the role of Misty/May/Dawn/Iris/Serena

Could be interesting to have one that's even sillier than Ash and annoys the heck out of Gou for some reason hahaha!

 

[Kurolegacy]

I wouldn't really care that much about Koharu seemingly doing nothing remarkable or being an interesting character if there were at least some other girls her age to fit the role of Misty/May/Dawn/Iris/Serena

Could be interesting to have one that's even sillier than Ash and annoys the heck out of Gou for some reason hahaha!

Sounds like Gloria’s manga counterpart would fit that bill perfectly.

 

[Adelon]

Sounds like Gloria’s manga counterpart would fit that bill perfectly.

Its funny how she turned out to be as a person despite all those rude Scottish lasshole memes