Pokemon Contests Opinion
So the Pokemon contests all focus on May, the replacement girl for Misty. She has several rivals, but her main rivals are Drew and Harley. Her first contest was kind of good, she struggles with it, which is expected. Her next contests were boring, up until she meets Drew. Drew tells her she's just a mini casanova wannabe, otherwise a noob, and he respects her Pokemon more than he respects her. In his first appearance, he is quite cocky, and he demands a Pokemon battle from her to prove she is good. He does not stay a jerk for long however. Then Harley comes along, and he acts like a major jerk to May. He looks like he's Drew's replacement, but he ends up pissing off Drew, which then means May has to deal with 2 jerks instead of one. There was also a Dusclops guy, who had a very good episode, since it dealer with a guy running away from home to compete in contests, and his appeals were very good. There was this one girl who was in love with Drew and thought May also had a crush on Drew, but it was just a fan service episode, and nothing happened in it. (I'm aware of the rock guy, the young couple, and the Grumpig girl. The rock guy was good, but it felt like a repeat of the Dusclops guy. I don't remember the rest too well.)
But Drew is a good character. The next contest Drew shows up in, Drew gave May a rose to give to Beautifly. In Drew's words, "It's not for you, it's for Beautifly." Very funny. After that though, Drew doesn't do much, at least until the fan service episode, where nothing happens except Drew is at a pool and the girls see him shirtless.
And then there's Harley. He is my favorite character in the whole show. Any thoughts of "he's just here to replace Drew" are blown away by him saying that Drew is May's boyfriend, and then pissing Drew off to the point that he tells May "I'm not weak like you!" In Harley's first episode, he tells the entire audience about May's past a la ridiculously loud voice recording, and he uses this to his advantage by distracting May and attacking. This gives May important characterization, we finally know why she hated Pokémon in the first few episodes. Add to all this, that Harley is a very, very entertaining character, filled to the brim with adult jokes kids will never get (and why the writers thought it was a good idea for his Cacturne to fall in love with and kiss Jesse is beyond me. And why tf did 4Kids add in the lines "I found him lost, and when I learned he was your brother, I insisted he came with me!" (Max) "And he gave me this huge Sundae with Sprinkles and everything!" is beyond me too).
The last few episodes were anti-climatic, however. A new woman named Soledad comes in, who's better than every other rival. Supposedly she knows Brock and Harley. May ends up beating Drew and Harley, but she is defeated by Soledad. Come on, I know she is a young trainer, but at least let her lose to someone she knows! We don't even get to see the battle, it just cuts to the ending! It is very off-putting, and very disappointing!
