Iris and Serena have shown the most growth out of all his companions.

[Sham]

Honestly personal don’t really care about May. She probably rivals Serena in terms of struggling with her goal like Serena but this is an opinion

 

[Jangobrands]

Honestly personal don’t really care about May. She probably rivals Serena in terms of struggling with her goal like Serena but this is an opinion

Because she has the most character growth. Most of the other girls personalities do not change too much over the course of the series. We don't see her lose much but we see her and her interactions with her rivals and herself grow through the series. Seeing her go from having no interest in pokemon and not knowing what she wants to do to learning to stand up for herself and become independent. Her development is also to stand up to all the boys, since she largely had arguments with Ash and Max on the group, had to catch up to Drew, and of course Harley's villainous antics.

I'd say Serena has quite a bit too but it took till her recent cameos for it to be apparent.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

May is suffering...

...from existential failure.

 

[Sham]

It was a good thing though that Dawn whipped the floor with her since she barely lost during AG

 

[Jangobrands]

It was a good thing though that Dawn whipped the floor with her since she barely lost during AG

Well she lost by 1% on the scoreboard. The writers wrote it in a way May barely lost and put up a great fight. It's one of my favorite battles.

 

[satopi]

Yep, in terms of inner-development and using her Pokemon May probably has some of the most growth, but the problem is we haven't seen her in a long time so there's not much else to say.

KAORI has a throat condition where her vocal cords are affected. She had to retire from voice acting and singing because of this. I don’t think she can talk. I don’t think the production team want to have a different actress voice May unless need be like for example, Professor Oak or Giovanni. We all would love to see her return but silent cameos will have to do.

How is May "suffering" exactly"? The fact that for the entirety of AG she lost only three times, not counting GF is just unbelievable to me. I would have loved to see May struggle in contests. But instead she herself got too good at contests way tooooo quickly.... May relies on stuff like Munchlax's Metronome and Skitty's Assist, her wins don't feel deserved to be honest. Even in Kanto, there was fair and share BS victories, like when she was clearly loses to Brock, or Harley's Ariados. Or the fact, that she literally beat Bannete with Normal moves.

And you can say the same criticism for the rest of the Pokegirls. And as I said, May suffered through the same problems as Dawn and Serena, not that she suffered more so. She had actual rivals who were a threat to her and was practically humiliated in her first round of Contests, not knowing what to do and eventually, she found her footing.

 

[Bendicion]

It was a good thing though that Dawn whipped the floor with her since she barely lost during AG

I would have loved to see May struggle in contests. But instead she herself got too good at contests way tooooo quickly.... May relies on stuff like Munchlax's Metronome and Skitty's Assist, her wins don't feel deserved to be honest. Even in Kanto, there was fair and share BS victories, like when she was clearly loses to Brock, or Harley's Ariados.

 

[Leonhart]

I would have loved to see May struggle in contests. But instead she herself got too good at contests way tooooo quickly.... May relies on stuff like Munchlax's Metronome and Skitty's Assist, her wins don't feel deserved to be honest. Even in Kanto, there was fair and share BS victories, like when she was clearly loses to Brock, or Harley's Ariados.

While I admit that she got lucky a few times, she clearly struggled more at first than Hikari did. And unlike Hikari, she didn't have a parent who was already a veteran at Contests, so she had to learn everything about them from scratch.

The only thing about Haruka's Contests that I didn't like was her overreliance on ice themed appeals in the Battle Frontier arc, which the writers took to another level of unoriginality in DP when they had Hikari do the same thing multiple times.

 

[Bendicion]

While I admit that she got lucky a few times, she clearly struggled more at first than Hikari did. And unlike Hikari, she didn't have a parent who was already a veteran at Contests, so she had to learn everything about them from scratch.

The only thing about Haruka's Contests that I didn't like was her overreliance on ice themed appeals in the Battle Frontier arc, which the writers took to another level of unoriginality in DP when they had Hikari do the same thing multiple times.

I really did not like how the contests in AG were only about strength and power instead of the beauty and grace of showcasing off your pokemon. That’s the true point of contests. Brute and strength power is for normal battles. That’s why May lost against Solidad, and if May continues battling like that in contests she will never be a top coordinator. May was hardly shown training. Its really upsetting that AG lacked this aspect. We hardly saw May training for her contests. If May needed to train and learn a new strategy, she did it off-screen. Hell, her contests were sometimes off-screen as Ash went off to train and the show focused on him. I also don’t think any of May’s Pokémon ever got a spotlight episode outside the eps she capture them. For Combusken her main starter even after it evolved I don’t recall May and it ever bonding at all outside a Contest. The rest of her Pokémon were treated similarly. May also did not enter any competitions except that one poke ringer thing and of course in the fillers she was just in the sidelines.

 

[DatsRight]

In perfect fairness, how many times was Misty shown training and struggling?

Most of the Pokegirls, even ones with good internal development, are kind of renowned for not having the best agency, and getting a lot of plot armour compared to Ash.

KAORI has a throat condition where her vocal cords are affected. She had to retire from voice acting and singing because of this. I don’t think she can talk. I don’t think the production team want to have a different actress voice May unless need be like for example, Professor Oak or Giovanni. We all would love to see her return but silent cameos will have to do.

I keep hearing different statuses about KAORI. Some say she's still ill, some say she's fine now, some say she can kind of act now but still has a noticable difference in voice.

 

[togepikindness]

I wouldn't say Serena. Imo I think it's Iris and May. I mean honestly I don't know why you guys disagreeing with May. 10-year-old, didn't like Pokemon now the Princess of Hoenn.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I think Lillie had better growth than both Iris and Serena due to overcoming her PTSD and now is a decent trainer and searching for her father with a Pokemon that he gave to her.

 

[togepikindness]

I think Lillie had better growth than both Iris and Serena due to overcoming her PTSD and now is a decent trainer and searching for her father with a Pokemon that he gave to her.

An unpopular opinion-- but actually you've got a point

 

[togepikindness]

I would have loved to see May struggle in contests. But instead she herself got too good at contests way tooooo quickly.... May relies on stuff like Munchlax's Metronome and Skitty's Assist, her wins don't feel deserved to be honest. Even in Kanto, there was fair and share BS victories, like when she was clearly loses to Brock, or Harley's Ariados.

Honestly although May got a lot of growth I didn't love her contest battles because she kept winning and winning and winning

 

[satopi]

In perfect fairness, how many times was Misty shown training and struggling?

Nowadays we get segments of characters with their Pokémon working out their struggle after a loss. And for good reason. DP was the saga of on screen training. I don’t doubt training sessions since we all didn’t like the episodes where all they did was train. Is that what you want @AuraChannelerChris ? At least the last time we saw Iris in her special, it was foreshadowing that she was gearing up to get stronger. That was kind of the point as to why she was shown battling Clair.

I keep hearing different statuses about KAORI. Some say she's still ill, some say she's fine now, some say she can kind of act now but still has a noticable difference in voice.

I just checked her blog. She still has health problems but she’s recovering. KAORI has returned back to voice acting as of 2014. Also, she made a short video of her singing to a melody of Silent Night on Christmas 2021 so that was really nice to hear. I miss her beautiful voice. I have hope that she returns in Pokémon Journeys. No difference in voice or tone.

So the only reason I can think of is that the writers haven’t thought too much of bringing back May and hasn’t contacted her voice actress as of yet. She really hasn’t appeared in a long time.

 

[DatsRight]

Nowadays we get segments of characters with their Pokémon working out their struggle after a loss. And for good reason. DP was the saga of on screen training. I don’t doubt training sessions since we all didn’t like the episodes where all they did was train. Is that what you want @AuraChannelerChris ? At least the last time we saw Iris in her special, it was foreshadowing that she was gearing up to get stronger. That was kind of the point as to why she was shown battling Clair.

Depends really. SM did a GREAT job doing training sessions for Ash and his Pokemon in a unique way. They really added a little extra agency and colour to his character in that series, like the fruits of it were something only his personality could gain.

There are some dull cases of them training in the show, but really I'd LOVE them try more moments like that over just plot armour or offscreen training.

I just checked her blog. She still has health problems but she’s recovering. KAORI has returned back to voice acting as of 2014. Also, she made a short video of her singing to a melody of Silent Night on Christmas 2021 so that was really nice to hear. I miss her beautiful voice. I have hope that she returns in Pokémon Journeys. No difference in voice or tone.

So the only reason I can think of is that the writers haven’t thought too much of bringing back May and hasn’t contacted her voice actress as of yet. She really hasn’t appeared in a long time.

Ah, that's cool to hear.

I guess for May it's thinking up a good scenario for her, and also likely if you get May, you'd need Max too.

I think Lillie had better growth than both Iris and Serena due to overcoming her PTSD and now is a decent trainer and searching for her father with a Pokemon that he gave to her.

I feel like Lillie had a neat distinctive arc, the only downsides were the cheap way they solved her backstory and the fact that afterwards they just kind of stopped doing much with her, being more just a cute supporting character (though granted she was at least fun in that regard, not slipping into the background as much as some of the other Pokegirls did when they weren't the focus).

 

[Sham]

I really did not like how the contests in AG were only about strength and power instead of the beauty and grace of showcasing off your pokemon. That’s the true point of contests. Brute and strength power is for normal battles. That’s why May lost against Solidad, and if May continues battling like that in contests she will never be a top coordinator.

Agreed

 

[Jagobrass]

Agreed

You're comparing different writing styles between series. It's like comparing whatever Contests became that Serena/Lisia did with the idol stuff to DP Contests. AG contests were more battle-centric, there's nothing wrong with that. It's weird @Sham that you don't get this, when you know good and well the writing style of each series is different.

 

[Bendicion]

Agreed

I can't believe people are upset at facts.

 

[togepikindness]

I can't believe people are upset at facts.

This discussion is getting too deep i can't wrap my head around
Just gonna chill to my fav movie spirited away