2019 Pokemon Season News

[AdrenalineRush1996]

Instead of Ash and Goh, how about Ash, Goh, and Chloe. One of the biggest disappointment of this show, is the lack of Chloe having much of a role. Her arc is not knowing what to do with her life, maybe someone like Lillie could be an influence. Though I think Serena is a better choice to help Chloe, since she went though a similar arc.

I still find it odd on the decision to have this series being a duo-focused one than a trio-focused one.

 

[CyberCubed]

I also don't understand what social media hate has anything to do with this. It isn't that I don't believe you about what you've seen, but just that it shouldn't really be a factor as to whether or not they decide to bring back a character, especially when I'm assuming that you're more familiar with English based social media accounts. Maybe they'd factor it in a bit more if you're talking about Japanese fans, but even then, it would involve people well outside of the target demographic. If they really put that much attention to how people on social media feel about the characters and anime, then Ash would have been replaced at least a decade ago and the anime itself would be drastically different. I've seen a ton of hate towards Goh since the series started too, but that hasn't made them remove him from the series.

Yeah I know, but I'm referring to tweets like this, she made 3 tweets:




This is only one person, but I see posts like this constantly online. You don't really see hate toward old characters on forums anymore, but if you go to social media it's still frequent. It blows my mind people have such a bizarre interpretation of May like they don't understand character development in a children's show.

I honestly think that besides maybe Iris, May unfortunately still gets the most amount of dislike of any of the older female companions of the series.

 

[Light Lucario]

Yeah I know, but I'm referring to tweets like this, she made 3 tweets:




This is only one person, but I see posts like this constantly online. You don't really see hate toward old characters on forums anymore, but if you go to social media it's still frequent. It blows my mind people have such a bizarre interpretation of May like they don't understand character development in a children's show.

I honestly think that besides maybe Iris, May unfortunately still gets the most amount of dislike of any of the older female companions of the series.

Like I said before, I didn't doubt that you've seen hate towards May on social media. I just don't see why that would contribute to the chances of older characters like May appearing in Journeys. I highly doubt that the writers care about how random people outside of their target demographic feel about these characters on social media. If they don't do anything with people demanding for Ash to be replaced, then I don't think that they'll listen to random people complaining about May or other older characters to determine whether or not they'll show up. Although, I do find it a bit strange that you're saying that May gets so much hate compared to other female leads yet also claimed that she is so popular. I guess that they wouldn't necessarily contradict each other, but it just sounds a bit weird to me.

Honestly, I don't think those tweets are good examples when at least one other person openly disagrees with them and called the person out for pretty much misreading May's characterization too. That take on Max is also pretty weird to me considering that he doesn't have a goal beyond becoming a trainer, which he can't do because no one ages, and he doesn't have the strongest purpose within the cast. Not to mention that ignores how May actually does start to like Pokemon and finds her own goal. The writers generally don't really care about what adults think about the anime, so I don't see why they'd randomly start now with comments that clearly don't understand the characters like this one.

 

[Gold Guy]

For what it's worth, I think May has one of the best character arcs in the whole show. I can see why someone might find her annoying at first, but part of the appeal of the character was see her grow from a timid Pokemon hater to a confident Pokemon trainer. Even if someone used to dislike May's personality, that shouldn't have any bearing on her reappearing since she wouldn't be that same timid girl from years ago.

 

[CyberCubed]

For what it's worth, I think May has one of the best character arcs in the whole show. I can see why someone might find her annoying at first, but part of the appeal of the character was see her grow from a timid Pokemon hater to a confident Pokemon trainer. Even if someone used to dislike May's personality, that shouldn't have any bearing on her reappearing since she wouldn't be that same timid girl from years ago.

What I find strange about that tweet (and keep in mind that's just one example, I've come across dozens of similar tweets from other people online there), like this from another person:


I mean it's absolutely bizarre. We're in the year 2020, May hasn't been part of the show for like 15 years, and I still see people like in the tweets above complaining that May is, "the most annoying female character in pokemon." If you look through that tweet thread she goes on about how May is a "self-centered brat" or that she's constantly whiny.

While it's true none of this stuff effects the Japanese writers or anything about the show, I find it odd how May seems to still be extremely disliked in the western pokemon fandom. I think people only assume the dislike of her died down because you don't see it in forums anymore, but if you go to social media it's pretty obvious. I don't even understand *how* people can find May that annoying, even if she has some traits some might not like, it's absolutely bizarre some people have such a negative reaction to her.

It's weird as hell, I see more dislike for May than any other female character. Not even Iris gets as much probably because those people didn't even watch BW. When you realize May left the anime in 2006 and you're still seeing people complaining about how awful her character was, it really makes you wonder. Do those tweets honestly make sense to anyone else?

 

[Light Lucario]

Assuming that these comments are from people who watched AG when it was airing, I could kind of see why May would get so much hate. Being the first female lead to replace Misty would kind of make her an immediate target, especially if they also didn't like Contests. It comes off as misreading her character if they just write her off as annoying, so I wouldn't really read that much into it.

I'm still more confused on how you're focused on May being disliked on social media when before you were saying that she is such a popular female lead.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

I'm still more confused on how you're focused on May being disliked on social media when before you were saying that she is such a popular female lead.

You know I was thinking the same thing as you were.

 

[CyberCubed]

Assuming that these comments are from people who watched AG when it was airing, I could kind of see why May would get so much hate. Being the first female lead to replace Misty would kind of make her an immediate target, especially if they also didn't like Contests. It comes off as misreading her character if they just write her off as annoying, so I wouldn't really read that much into it.

From what I gather a lot of those people only saw a few Hoenn eps before, I think the early ones before they lost interest in Pokemon when they were kids/teens. They're rewatching now as adults and still find her annoying. Keep in mind the people I posted the tweets from are 25-28 year old adults, so they're full grown woman going on about how she's "the most annoying female character in Pokemon." Now I don't mind if people don't like May, obviously not everyone has to like every character. The thing I find weird is how they find her personality so grating or annoying? They're speaking strictly of her personality, and they call May out for the same things Misty did in the early seasons. Like if May complains the group is lost that bothers them...but Misty did that all the time in the early Kanto eps and some Johto fillers too. Makes no sense since a lot of them also complain how "girly" May is but when May shows a temper and the same outgoing quirks Misty had, then they find her annoying.

I'm still more confused on how you're focused on May being disliked on social media when before you were saying that she is such a popular female lead.

I mean you do realize you can be both at the same time, right? May being the first new female lead and AG airing 18 years ago makes her the most watched/viewed/exposed female lead worldwide after the original cast of Misty/Brock. So naturally May having more viewership than most of the later companions would give her both a lot of fans and people who dislike her. As I said, a lot of the people never watched the show much after Misty left, so I don't think those people ever saw BW/XY/SM....maybe they watch up through DP and that was it

 

[Light Lucario]

From what I gather a lot of those people only saw a few Hoenn eps before, I think the early ones before they lost interest in Pokemon when they were kids/teens. They're rewatching now as adults and still find her annoying. Keep in mind the people I posted the tweets from are 25-28 year old adults, so they're full grown woman going on about how she's "the most annoying female character in Pokemon." Now I don't mind if people don't like May, obviously not everyone has to like every character. The thing I find weird is how they find her personality so grating or annoying? They're speaking strictly of her personality, and they call May out for the same things Misty did in the early seasons. Like if May complains the group is lost that bothers them...but Misty did that all the time in the early Kanto eps and some Johto fillers too. Makes no sense since a lot of them also complain how "girly" May is but when May shows a temper and the same outgoing quirks Misty had, then they find her annoying.

Honestly, it seems a bit much to get so focused on these opinions, especially if they are judging May from a few episodes or not having the best informed opinion by saying that she's the most annoying female character in the anime without seeing the other series. When I see opinions on my favorite characters or series that I don't like, I just block them instead of trying to figure it out. It saves on time and prevents me from wasting whatever emotional energy I have left at this point. In this case, maybe there just is something about May's personality or how she interacts with the cast that make her annoying to other people. I hate Iris and think that she is easily the worst main character thus far in the anime, but plenty of people like her, think she was likable and would be thrilled to see her return.

I mean you do realize you can be both at the same time, right? May being the first new female lead and AG airing 18 years ago makes her the most watched/viewed/exposed female lead worldwide after the original cast of Misty/Brock. So naturally May having more viewership than most of the later companions would give her both a lot of fans and people who dislike her. As I said, a lot of the people never watched the show much after Misty left, so I don't think those people ever saw BW/XY/SM....maybe they watch up through DP and that was it

I could have done without the condescending first sentence, especially when I did point out earlier that these two points don't necessarily contract each other. It just feels weird to see you claim that May is so widely disliked on social media when before you acted as if she was the most popular female lead next to Misty. It's just a weird opposite take from before that it just confuses me, especially when you were getting on my case for saying that Dawn and possibly Serena were more popular than May in that conversation too. Maybe it's also strange to me to see random takes on social media as such a noteworthy indication of a character's popularity. A bunch of adults complaining about May doesn't really seem like a big deal to me, especially compared to hate other characters have gotten over the years.

 

[Rhaynebow]

You know, as much as I’m enjoying this new season, if the writers were to just...throw up their hands and say “Hey, what if we just had Ash travel the Galar region with the player characters from SwSh?” I would take that in a heartbeat.

What made me hate the SM anime the most was how it completely ignored a good chunk of the region. It felt deserted and less like a part of Ash’s journey and more like a detour, taking a vacation by him oddly going to school. As much as people rag on the older seasons for having too much filler in between towns, it felt like physical progress was being made because it was filler before reaching a new place, with gyms, contests and showcases. In SM, since the characters didn’t travel, progress was basically dependent on field trips and one of the characters completing a task that just happened to be a trial in the games.

Journeys comes in, seemingly the exact opposite of SM, being almost exclusively about traveling but...it’s like, 95% every other region except the NEWEST one. We’re almost 40 episodes in and I don’t think we’ve seen more than 15 Galar Pokémon. The majority of Ash’s team is Pokemon we’ve seen before including a stinking Riolu that’s gonna evolve into a Pokémon that hasn’t been relevant since XY. It makes it seem like these guys have little faith in their newer regions.

I’m still interested in Goh’s quest, but I just don’t think it fits in with him being the deuteragonist. I’d probably enjoy him more if he was a spin-off character while Ash just travelled Galar.


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[Light Lucario]

You know, as much as I’m enjoying this new season, if the writers were to just...throw up their hands and say “Hey, what if we just had Ash travel the Galar region with the player characters from SwSh?” I would take that in a heartbeat.

What made me hate the SM anime the most was how it completely ignored a good chunk of the region. It felt deserted and less like a part of Ash’s journey and more like a detour, taking a vacation by him oddly going to school. As much as people rag on the older seasons for having too much filler in between towns, it felt like physical progress was being made because it was filler before reaching a new place, with gyms, contests and showcases. In SM, since the characters didn’t travel, progress was basically dependent on field trips and one of the characters completing a task that just happened to be a trial in the games.

As strange as it was for Ash to stay in place for the majority of SM, I don't think that bothers me as much as his lack of a clear goal. The Island Challenge was practically an afterthought, but the school was also mainly a background setting. It was just about Ash having adventure with his new friends in Alola, which wouldn't have been a problem when Ash always loved traveling and eagerly awaiting to get to the next Gym. It was a weird setup and I can understand not liking it, but I think it generally worked. There was no way they could have handled a large cast with the traditional traveling method. Having them be kids going to school and having their own homes also made it more natural to not feature everyone in every episode.

Journeys comes in, seemingly the exact opposite of SM, being almost exclusively about traveling but...it’s like, 95% every other region except the NEWEST one. We’re almost 40 episodes in and I don’t think we’ve seen more than 15 Galar Pokémon. The majority of Ash’s team is Pokemon we’ve seen before including a stinking Riolu that’s gonna evolve into a Pokémon that hasn’t been relevant since XY. It makes it seem like these guys have little faith in their newer regions.

Admittedly, Ash getting a Riolu and eventually a Lucario doesn't upset me, although I guess that would be kind of obvious. I haven't seen the episode on Netflix yet, but I've wanted Ash to get a Lucario for over a decade and he's finally getting one, so I'm pretty happy about that. I think that Ash's captures being mainly older Pokemon thus far is mainly to tie in with the world traveling aspect of Journeys. Over half of his team are Kanto Pokemon, but since he already nearly has a full team, I assume he'll be catching more than the standard five or six Pokemon too. Since they aren't focused on entirely Sword/Shield, they are able to give Ash some other marketable/popular Pokemon. Lucario hasn't been marketing relevant since X/Y, but it's still a hugely popular Pokemon and they still make merchandise around it, so that would give them more incentive to give one to Ash. I am a bit surprised that they didn't choose to give Lucario a Gigantamax form in the games in retrospect.

I can definitely understand the frustration over not seeing more of the Galar region and its Pokemon though. I really wanted Ash to do the Gym Challenge and travel through Galar. It's easily one of my favorite regions and I would have liked to see them introduce some of the rivals into the anime too. I really want Ash to capture more Galar Pokemon, especially Grookey since it is the only Galar start to not appear in the anime thus far. I wouldn't say that the writers don't have faith in the newer regions. While I don't think that Alola was as fleshed out as it could have been, they still gave the region a strong identity, showed most of the major locations and featured the seventh generation Pokemon.

I'm not sure how well they can flesh out Galar with this world traveling setup, but they are still promoting the new generation to a degree. Ash's goal is to battle against Leon in the World Championship, Goh's first Pokemon, which will be heavily associated with him as a result, is Scorbunny, they have featured a couple of the Galar Gym Leaders and there is an upcoming Sword/Shield chapter for the anime. They have traveled to other regions, but aside from Kanto and Galar, they usually stay there for only one episode. It's kind of hard to make use of these different settings when they have to go back to their home base seemingly at the end of each episode. I hope that they'll make better use of the different regions in the future. More multi-part storylines would be neat, but just having Ash and Goh travel around a region for a few episodes would be nice too.

I’m still interested in Goh’s quest, but I just don’t think it fits in with him being the deuteragonist. I’d probably enjoy him more if he was a spin-off character while Ash just travelled Galar.

I like Goh, but I'm not really into his quest. It isn't a bad goal, but it doesn't really make much sense to me how catching one of every Pokemon will lead him to Mew. I don't really mind his catching method, although it probably helps that I'm used to doing that by playing Pokemon Go. Even in the main series, I'm usually just throwing out Quick Balls by a certain point with all of my captures. It may not translate well within the anime, especially when they are trying to make the Pokedex more in line with how they are in the games with registering Pokemon, but it doesn't bother me that much.

I don't know if I could see Goh working as the main character of a spin-off show. It seems like he was designed as kind of a foil to Ash in some regards, so I'm not sure if he could carry a show on his own. I like Goh because he does care a lot about his Pokemon, his bond with Scorbunny in particular is quite sweet and he has a pretty solid relationship with Ash. Goh just comes off as pretty likable.

 

[CyberCubed]

Honestly, it seems a bit much to get so focused on these opinions, especially if they are judging May from a few episodes or not having the best informed opinion by saying that she's the most annoying female character in the anime without seeing the other series. When I see opinions on my favorite characters or series that I don't like, I just block them instead of trying to figure it out. It saves on time and prevents me from wasting whatever emotional energy I have left at this point. In this case, maybe there just is something about May's personality or how she interacts with the cast that make her annoying to other people.

The thing is forums aren't very active anymore because social media has overtaken it (same reason almost every big forum these days has less activity than even back in 2010), so that's where most of the pokemon fandom is now. As I said I don't mind when people don't like a character, obviously not everyone is going to like every character introduced. But claiming May is a "terrible person" and "horrible character" because she didn't like Pokemon at the start and is "constantly annoying" because of it is bizarre to me. Especially since many of the later female companions do the exact same things in slightly different ways. As I said, they can't have it both ways. First they were complaining May was too girly or softspoken, then they complain when May has a temper or talks back (like those times she snaps at Ash or Max in eps, or pushed her Bulbasaur too hard in the contest she lost, etc). I never see people call out the other female leads for this, only May.

Maybe it's also strange to me to see random takes on social media as such a noteworthy indication of a character's popularity. A bunch of adults complaining about May doesn't really seem like a big deal to me, especially compared to hate other characters have gotten over the years.

I mean most adults now would be around the target age when May was introduced. Remember AG debuted in 2002/2003, anyone who was 10 years old back then would now be a 28-30 year old adult. Most adults now were around the target audience when she debuted, so they're the core audience for her character. So they're basically people who grew up with the OS and partly AG when they were kids. As I mentioned, besides some people who don't like Iris, I never see this amount of dislike for any other character. Sure I occasionally see people say they don't care for Serena, Lillie, Misty, or even Dawn, but in their cases it's more how the writers handled them rather than anything to do with their personalities. May gets a lot of dislike strictly for her personality, which confuses me. I honestly really do think it's just because May is the first girl after Misty, because a lot of the other girls like Dawn, Serena and even Lillie have some very similar traits to May and they don't get called out for those things.

What made me hate the SM anime the most was how it completely ignored a good chunk of the region. It felt deserted and less like a part of Ash’s journey and more like a detour, taking a vacation by him oddly going to school. As much as people rag on the older seasons for having too much filler in between towns, it felt like physical progress was being made because it was filler before reaching a new place, with gyms, contests and showcases. In SM, since the characters didn’t travel, progress was basically dependent on field trips and one of the characters completing a task that just happened to be a trial in the games.

Oddly enough I didn't mind that in SM. Ash still visited the other islands as it went on anyway, and most eps had Ash and his friends dealing with the usual pokemon-related issues every other saga does. The interactions between the main cast, rivals and Pokemon kept it interesting along with the father dynamic Kukui had with Ash. SM may not have given every character a lot of screentime, but if you take them all together, you can see what they were going for.

As someone who didn't really like SM at first, I'm honestly surprised how much I enjoyed it in retrospect. Of course there's still some things I don't like about it (Ash's design is still the worst aspect for me), but it's the same quibbles I could have with any season. At least SM got us away from the repetitive Gym formula too, after BW doing a semi-reboot and XY taking it as far as it could go, I'm glad that's done with.

 

[Light Lucario]

I mean most adults now would be around the target age when May was introduced. Remember AG debuted in 2002/2003, anyone who was 10 years old back then would now be a 28-30 year old adult. Most adults now were around the target audience when she debuted, so they're the core audience for her character. So they're basically people who grew up with the OS and partly AG when they were kids. As I mentioned, besides some people who don't like Iris, I never see this amount of dislike for any other character. Sure I occasionally see people say they don't care for Serena, Lillie, Misty, or even Dawn, but in their cases it's more how the writers handled them rather than anything to do with their personalities. May gets a lot of dislike strictly for her personality, which confuses me. I honestly really do think it's just because May is the first girl after Misty, because a lot of the other girls like Dawn, Serena and even Lillie have some very similar traits to May and they don't get called out for those things.

I don't think it's quite accurate to say that these adults are the core audience for May's character. They were back when they were kids, but I don't think that they would be considered part of the audience now nor would their opinions really mean anything to the writers of AG. That's kind of putting them on a pedestal when they're just adults complaining about a character that they don't like. Or at least gives off the impression that you're making a bigger deal out of their opinion than I think is necessary.

May being the first girl after Misty probably is a big factor for the hate she gets though. She got a lot of hate back in the day just for replacing Misty, so that notion being carried on through people rewatching AG for the first time wouldn't be a huge stretch. That might be one other reason why I don't see the big deal here. People hating on May wasn't really a new thing before now, so it doesn't really seem noteworthy to me, especially when it won't affect her chances of possibly appearing in Journeys anyway.

As someone who didn't really like SM at first, I'm honestly surprised how much I enjoyed it in retrospect. Of course there's still some things I don't like about it (Ash's design is still the worst aspect for me), but it's the same quibbles I could have with any season. At least SM got us away from the repetitive Gym formula too, after BW doing a semi-reboot and XY taking it as far as it could go, I'm glad that's done with.

I've never quite understood the complaint about the Gym formula. I hadn't heard of people complaining about it until SM or Journeys. People complained about Ash not winning a League due to how the writers seemingly wanted to stick to the status quo, but I hadn't seen a lot of people complain about going through Gyms in each series. Maybe it's because Gyms are a staple of the video games too. Even the Island Challenge were basically the Alola version of Gyms. SM basically did away with regular Trials just so that they could do Grand Trials sooner given that those were as close to Gym battles as they could get. It seems like a strange complaint to me because the Gym battles in each series felt pretty distinct to me. With Ash having different Pokemon, battling against different Gym Leaders and often having to deal with brand new Pokemon, Gym battles didn't really feel stale to me.

I can understand why fans are excited for the World Championship. It does put Ash on a bigger stage for his goal and that is refreshing, but it's such a shame when I think that a more traditional journey through Galar to take on the Gym Challenge could have been so great. The Gym Leaders are supposed to be on the level of Elite 4 members, or at least that is the implication given that Rihan is considered strong enough to become the Champion of a different region if he wasn't set on defeating Leon, so they could still pose a noteworthy challenge for Ash. Plus, I really like the Galar Gym Leaders. They are easily my favorite set of Gym Leaders, so I want to see them featured in the anime. Ash can still hopefully battle all of them in the World Championship, which would be pretty neat, but I still would have liked a traditional journey through Galar.

I'm also not sure about them stopping the Gym formula for good. Gyms are still a pretty reliable ways of showcasing new characters, new Pokemon and give Ash something to do. I can't really see the World Championship or Journeys itself lasting for more than one generation. Ash's goal is to battle against Leon and as much as I like Leon, I don't know if they'll keep him around as the number one trainer past this generation. Not to mention I'm not sure how long they can make the world traveling gimmick work. There are a ton of regions and areas to explore, but if they're mostly going to be one episode trips, then that's going to make it harder for the different settings to stand out. I guess it's hard to say for sure given how unpredictable this series has been and we're still pretty early into its run too, but I just can't see Journeys lasting longer than a generation and I can't see them keeping the World Championship goal past this series either.[/QUOTE]

 

[CyberCubed]

I don't think it's quite accurate to say that these adults are the core audience for May's character. They were back when they were kids, but I don't think that they would be considered part of the audience now nor would their opinions really mean anything to the writers of AG. That's kind of putting them on a pedestal when they're just adults complaining about a character that they don't like. Or at least gives off the impression that you're making a bigger deal out of their opinion than I think is necessary.

Well that's what I'm saying, most adults now are people who grew up with the OS/AG era. It's not like they're new fans to the franchise who never saw those eps before. If they were kids and didn't like her of course that's a different story, but fully grown nearly 30 year old adults who don't understand character development in a kids show? That's very odd to me. I've seen many people say, "May hates pokemon" or "May is a terrible trainer" which makes me wonder if they watched anything after the first 10 eps of AG. And the funny thing is I *know* some of these people watched most or all of the series, and yet for some reason they describe her as if they only watched the first two Hoenn eps. Even saw one person say May is, "introduced like an arrogant brat" and was unlikeable from the start....like what? LMAO. I honestly wonder if we're all watching the same show.

May being the first girl after Misty probably is a big factor for the hate she gets though. She got a lot of hate back in the day just for replacing Misty, so that notion being carried on through people rewatching AG for the first time wouldn't be a huge stretch. That might be one other reason why I don't see the big deal here. People hating on May wasn't really a new thing before now, so it doesn't really seem noteworthy to me, especially when it won't affect her chances of possibly appearing in Journeys anyway.

The difference is any hate originally came from kids and mostly shippers who were not following the show much, therefore it wasn't legitimate criticism. Most of these people who then watched AG fully liked the character, as seen by posts on forums over the years by so many people saying they liked May after watching the series. So I don't count that, I'm talking about adults who still to this day hate the character after rewatching the series because they find her personality insufferable. I don't get it because these same people don't seem to have a problem with Dawn, the SM cast, or most other characters.

 

[Light Lucario]

Well that's what I'm saying, most adults now are people who grew up with the OS/AG era. It's not like they're new fans to the franchise who never saw those eps before. If they were kids and didn't like her of course that's a different story, but fully grown nearly 30 year old adults who don't understand character development in a kids show? That's very odd to me. I've seen many people say, "May hates pokemon" or "May is a terrible trainer" which makes me wonder if they watched anything after the first 10 eps of AG. And the funny thing is I *know* some of these people watched most or all of the series, and yet for some reason they describe her as if they only watched the first two Hoenn eps. Even saw one person say May is, "introduced like an arrogant brat" and was unlikeable from the start....like what? LMAO. I honestly wonder if we're all watching the same show.

Adults not understanding character development in a kids show is also not really a new development. I've seen that for a lot of other shows that I like where it seems like either I've been watching a completely different show than they are based on their takes or it seems like they miss the point entirely. I like May, but the notion that other people would find her annoying even after her character development isn't so unbelievable. People have different tastes and there might be something about May that rubs people the wrong way.

Although, it is strange that people claim that she hates Pokemon, mainly because I don't think that AG did a good job of actually showing that she doesn't like Pokemon. May said that during her debut and wanted to just have an excuse to travel, but she pretty much immediately grows attached to Torchic and doesn't really show any disinterest in Pokemon after becoming a trainer. Chloe might be a better take on the whole concept of a character not being into Pokemon and that's mainly because she just doesn't know exactly how she feels about them or her future.

The difference is any hate originally came from kids and mostly shippers who were not following the show much, therefore it wasn't legitimate criticism. Most of these people who then watched AG fully liked the character, as seen by posts on forums over the years by so many people saying they liked May after watching the series. So I don't count that, I'm talking about adults who still to this day hate the character after rewatching the series because they find her personality insufferable. I don't get it because these same people don't seem to have a problem with Dawn, the SM cast, or most other characters.

It seems a bit much to brush off comments from kids at the time as not legitimate criticism yet also making a big deal over what random adults who may or may not have kept up with the anime complaining about May. Not to mention I don't know how legitimate their criticisms are based on the examples you provided. It just sounds like you're making a mountain out of a molehill here, so I don't really see the point in continuing this conversation.

 

[CyberCubed]

Well either way I was just pointing out what I've seen on social media, since I know a lot of people don't venture out of forums so they don't know this stuff is going on other places. I don't think May will appear in the current series anyway even regardless of her Japanese VA, she doesn't really strike me as a character the writers would bring back (other girls are more recent, Misty has Kanto nostalgia, Dawn has possible DP remakes next year, etc), so it doesn't matter. I just think it's kinda sad May gets so much dislike even 15 years after she left the series. Never did I believe when we were way back in 2006 that I would think in the far flung future of 2020 that I'd still be seeing people say May is annoying/awful/bad companion over two decades later. I don't think any other female companion has gotten continual dislike over the course of two decades.

 

[zoombie]

Only 49 episodes in, and it seems we are finally doing something with Kohaku, better late than never I guess, and she involved in next week's episode, gives me she be more of a 3rd main character than it being the Satoshi / Go show.

And on today's episode, I was hoping Satoshi and Go would think those re searchers were Team Rocket in disguise. It is about time they be proactive in that.

 

[zoombie]

New opening, and looks like I got my wish that Koharu become a series regular. And not only that Dante as well. And guess who is coming back a gym leader form the past and an old rival.

Spoiler

Iris and Gary

 

[Gold Guy]

I'm definitely hyped for one of the two, anyway. It's been way too long.

 

[CyberCubed]

It's kinda funny the two least likely characters people expected to see again are the ones who were confirmed. I thought Lillie would get an ep next but I guess that will wait for awhile.

Remember Gary hasn't appeared since 2009. He was literally absent the entire 2010 decade of the Pokemon anime, and its been 11 years since his last appearance. I thought the writers were done with him for good. I'll be interested to see what role he has.

Iris is a surprise too given she never got a cameo back in the day. Now that she's out of BW's writing style she'll likely be handled a lot better.

The other good news is well, this confirms we'll continue to see old faces this series. The SM cast appearing is one thing because it was the previous series and it's hard to avoid them when Ash returns to Alola, but everyone else was up in the air. I fully expect to see Bonnie/Clemont eventually during a Lumiose city visit, and Dawn is probably being saved for DP remakes in November if they happen.

Only characters I don't think will appear this series is Tracey (he probably would have been shown by now), May/Max and maybe Serena. I suppose May is doomed forever though, she's also now the only main character who hasn't appeared in the longest time since 2008 (over 12 years ago now), and she basically wouldn't be chosen over any of the other female leads.