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Did you like May/Haruka's role on the show?

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Hellion

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This is the thread to discuss what you liked and disliked about May's character while she was on the show, her story, her pokémon team, etc.

Personally, I think that May's appeal laid in her personality and the comedy that she brought to the show. She's, in my opinion, out of the girls, the one whose personality I find the most likeable. I like her mentor/student relationship with Ash and her sisterly moments with Max, as well as her interaction with Drew and Harley.

Where I felt that May's weakness as a character laid was in her story. Both her contest arcs kinda felt like too easy and like everything was going too well for her all the time. Throughout the whole Hoenn Grand Festival, she was kinda proving that she hadn't learned a thing about contestsl; she didn't really show any kind of knowledge and dedication yet made it to the Top 8. Kinda wish we had seen more struggle and more things learned from her.
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

Hellion said:
Personally, I think that May's appeal laid in her personality and the comedy that she brought to the show. She's, in my opinion, out of the girls, the one whose personality I find the most likeable. I like her mentor/student relationship with Ash and her sisterly moments with Max, as well as her interaction with Drew and Harley.
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I agree. Personally May was one of my favorite characters because she was a nice dynamic from what we had usually seen and I was really excited with the whole idea of contests. I also agree with her having some pretty interesting sisterly moments with Max, even if I never found him THAT interesting, whenever he was, May usually was the one to make him be. =) I'm not gonna lie, I was apart of the Contestshipping wave back when AG was airing so I loved seeing May and Drew interact, as well as seeing her interact with Harley. Well, really seeing Harley REACT to her, it was full of lulz. I also liked all the members of her team, sans her Squirtle, which thankfully evolved and matured.

Hellion said:
Where I felt that May's weakness as a character laid was in her story. Both her contest arcs kinda felt like too easy and like everything was going too well for her all the time. Throughout the whole Hoenn Grand Festival, she was kinda proving that she hadn't learned a thing about contestsl; she didn't really show any kind of knowledge and dedication yet made it to the Top 8. Kinda wish we had seen more struggle and more things learned from her.
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The contests were a major downfall with May definitely. The most challenging thing I ever seen her overcome in them was really Harley's schemes. Yes, her battle with Drew was great, but it was hard to believe that she came a long way, when the majority of contests she had were of poor quality. I took a likeing to the Characters of the Day, and the Pokemon, but not so much the Contest intensity themselves because there was nothing really behind that. I was happy they acknowledged May's weakpoints in the Soledad battle, and her Kanto wins weren't so bad. I actually really liked May, and it wasn't as if the writers didn't make up for their mistakes with Dawn's story. Ultimately, I'm happy she was on the show, and I loved how much she matured and also how she interacted with Dawn. But all of her evolutions in such a short time frame threw me for a loop.....
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

Out of the all the main girls, May is my favourite for many reasons. She was a very sweet character, but she also had a feisty side to her without being obnoxious, a refreshing change after Misty's stint on the show. She experienced the most character growth by far, her friendships with Ash and Brock were perfectly pleasant and believable, and whilst many people didn't like Max, I thought their sibling bond was a delight. Most of her rivals were great, too, even the one-offs. Drew might have been a Gary clone, but it's not like the original version had much screen-time, and Harley was absolutely hilarious.

On the downside, As much as I like May herself, I wasn't a fan of most of her Pokemon. Torchic/Combusken/Blaziken was alright, but I didn't see the point of her getting her own Bulbasaur and Squirtle. Didn't those two Pokemon get enough screen-time when Ash was using his own? Munchlax was more hassle than he was worth, (I've never liked Munchlax much, though, so I may be biased. It's an insult to the awesome Snorlax) and don't get me started on Skitty and its ridiculous Assist attack.

I wish we could find out how she fared in Johto and the Grand Festival. I don't feel like we've gotten proper closure on her story, but we're unlikely to see her ever again. Oh well.
 
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Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

May is by far my favorite female traveling companions. Her personality made her really likable and the comedy moments with her character were quite funny. I also liked the mentor/student relationship she had with Ash, she had some nice/funny moments with Brock and while I wasn't a huge fan of Max myself, there sibling moments were genuinely touching at times. She received a lot of personal growth during her time in the series and she felt like a nice breath of fresh air after Misty.

Even so, I agree that her Contests weren't handled as well as they could have been. I loved the introduction of Contests since it was a great idea to have a battle-driven side quest for the female character to participate so not all of the major battles of the series involved Ash. Considering how she started out as a trainer and looking back at her track record, it would have made more sense if she had lost a couple more Contests than she actually did and learn from her mistakes. Though, I can forgive some of the flaws with May's Contest arcs since that was the writers' first attempt with giving a female character a more battle active goal and in retrospect, I don't think it was the best idea to cram two Contest arcs in one series in their first attempt. If they had been able to stretch out the Hoenn journey for the entire AG like they did with Sinnoh for DP, she would have lost a couple of more times and possibly have another couple of evolutions on her team. Even though her Contests could have been handled better, I thought that they were still pretty good for the most part. They were still pretty engaging and fun to watch and I really enjoyed her interactions with Drew, Harley and some of the one-shot rivals she got.

I thought that her team was okay for the most part and worked well with her Contests. Torchic/Combusken/Blaziken was okay. I always felt bad that it didn't get a chance to participate in Contests until it became a Combusken since I would have liked to have seen Torchic do something for a Contest. It did seem to lose its personality as it evolved, but I like that it was actually good in battle. While Beautifly lacked a personality, I did like its moveset, the way training it from a Wrumple affected May and I liked their interactions during their first Contest victory. Skitty was kind of annoying at first, but it kind of grew on me. Assist did get on my nerve though, especially when everyone had to point out what attack it was using every single time it was used. I actually liked her Bulbasaur. I thought that it was cute and there was some nice bonding between the two of them when May captured it. I wish that it was used during her Kanto Contest arc since I didn't think that had enough screentime during Hoenn and I liked it a lot more than her Squritle. Not to mention it would have been much less jarring to see that she had a Venusaur in the Wallace Cup if she had used it in both of her Contest arcs. I never cared too much for Munchlax. I know she captured it to promote a fourth generation Pokemon, but it felt kind of waste for too long. She didn't really do anything with it until the Battle Frontier and she didn't even know what kind of attacks it knew, so it felt like she didn't do much of anything with it for a long time. Her Squirtle kind of annoyed me, but that was mainly due to it learning moves just before Contests without much of, if any, training, such as Ice Beam. Eevee was okay, but it also annoyed me with the way it would suddenly learn moves out of nowhere, such as Dig. Even with my problems with some of her Pokemon, I think that they did work well for the kinds of appeals she was going for and for her Contest battles.

I would have loved to know how far she got in the Johto Grand Festival, especially when she may not have another appearance for awhile. She was a really fun and likable character and while she wasn't perfect, I really enjoyed her role in the show.
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

I love May! She has the most adorable personality, which is a good mixture of eccentric, yet believable. In my opinion, she had the most visible development of all the main girls, and it was nicely paced.

As much as I loved her though, I hated most of her contests XD I agree that she seemed to have faced limited struggles and her pokemon got effortless wins. I definitely pegged her victories as being a bit mary-sueish early in the series. Didn't really help matters later on when she got squirtle and eevee...

But I tolerated them for one reason: the rivals. Amazing interactions with an equally amazing cast. Harley and Drew will never be forgotten as being some of the most awesome and unique rivals the show had to offer. Even her one-shot rivals were interesting because her personality seemed to compliment everyone. And I take character interactions over plot any day XP except in the don tournament where everything turned out shitty but I digress.
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

I think May had one of the best roles on the show. She didn't totally hog the spotlight yet she still got plenty of focus and character development all the same. And she had an adorable personality. I can't find myself rooting for a character who doesn't have a likable personality, but thankfully May had a likable enough personality for me to want to watch her and cheer her on in her contests which is something that couldn't happen for me with Dawn. I think that even though Dawn might have gotten better focus and her contests were written better, May's role as a whole was better, imo. I feel like her character development was stronger than Dawn's and her rivals definitely outshone Dawn's. So yeah, as a whole I think May was handled really well. Even if her role sucked though, I would still love her solely for her awesome personality XD
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

I'm going to get shot for saying this, but I can't stand May. She is my most hated female character. I dislike her voice, too. And she just seems so..... Typical to me. I hated her whole thing with contests.

I also hate Drew by himself and with May. The two of them are so annoying to me.
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

May is hands-down my favorite of Ash's female traveling companions so far. She had the most dynamic development, the most enjoyable personality, and personally I think the Ash/Brock/May/Max group gelled better than any other iteration of Ash & Co. I was one of the rare weirdos who liked Max, so I really enjoyed May and Max's sibling squabbles (I even ship them, ain't I horrible?) and May even had a notably good relation with Brock, much better than what her successor would have. Admittedly for me it's kinda weird that I was attached to a girly-girl the most when I'm a major tomboy, but May's shyness, uncertainty, and initial cluelessness as to what to do with her life were traits that I could relate to, big time. That made me even happier for May when she found her calling and managed to overcome the adversity brought about by her rivals, many of which had overbearing/antagonistic personalities and really gave May a hard time before her Contests.

The rivals had a big hand in keeping May consistently enjoyable for me, even though her Contests left a lot to be desired more often than not. I can pardon it to a degree, since this was the writers' first outing with the Contest storyline and they probably wanted to promote it as much as they possibly could. It already took May long enough to get into the Contest gig to begin with, so if you add that and gave her Dawn's level of performance in her early Contests, added with the much faster pacing of the Hoenn part of AG, then that would've been a lot of delay before we would've gotten to see the real meat of the Contests. It could've made for nice build-up, but for a younger audience I don't think it would have gone over as well and that's obviously what the show caters to. That doesn't justify the bullshit wins May had gotten, as those could have been better-written, but again... it was the writers' first outing with Contests. It was obviously going to be far from perfect, and thankfully the drama with May and her rivals were enough (imo) to make the flawed experience enjoyable anyway. Funny how it was functionally reversed in DP, where the execution of the Contests were much better, but Dawn didn't bounce off her rivals nearly as well unless it was Ursula and hence the drama aspect that made May's story so fun wasn't quite there with Dawn's.

Yeah, I can't stress it enough; the rivals play a big part in how I maintain interest in a main character for this show. Drew and Harley were the gold standards, and the multitude of one-shot rivals weren't half-bad themselves. May seemed to be constantly facing adversity in every Contest she entered, and with her personality it made those conflicts all the more fun, and it really got me wanting May to rise up and overcome. And despite the many BS wins May got, she did still lose now and then, and even had a major fuck-up in what I believe was the Lilicove Contest where she kept trying to force her Pokemon to continue when it clearly couldn't and got herself disqualified and scolded for good measure. Things like that were great; it showed in spite of May's many undeserved wins, she still had some serious flaws that needed ironing out before the GF.

Her character development in general is probably the most dynamic of all the main characters in the anime, going from sort of a self-centered girl who didn't like Pokemon and only cared about traveling the world to a very sweet, kind-natured girl who grew to love Pokemon and even got emotionally attached to a couple that she didn't capture, and her growing interest in Pokemon (thanks to quasi-mentor Ash) resulted in May finding her true calling, which was a big deal at the time since we didn't really have many major Pokemon-based careers displayed on a consistent basis besides the standard Pokemon Trainer (Master/Type Specialist Master falls into the same category) and Pokemon Breeder. May brought us a whole new way of looking at how to train Pokemon, even though Contests were always a minor deal in the games. And I really liked the few times Ash participated in Contests as well. It always made me think that if Ash wanted to be a Pokemon Master, technically that would mean he'd have to be a master of ALL routes to take in Pokemon-based careers and I liked the idea of him having to tackle Contests full-time at some point in his life. But now I'm derailing.

Admittedly, I did find May's team either forgettable or useless or really goddamn annoying depending on which Pokemon we're talking about. But I did like that May didn't keep her Torchic in its base form the whole series, even though we only got to see Blaziken for a couple of episodes before the series ended. It was a fitting full-circle thing, come to think of it, since Johto ended with Ash losing to a guy with a Blaziken, and towards the end of AG one of his last battles was against another Blaziken, but that time it ended in a tie. Even though Torchic was devoid of a personality for the most part, the episode where it evolved to Combusken showed it being pretty awesome, I thought. And of course, May's eventual departure from the series was handled excellently. The foreshadowing and build-up was handled so well and even though May's story didn't feel totally complete by the end of AG (which is why we all wanted to see how she fared in Johto, of course), it was much better than Misty being booted out at the last minute, or the somewhat-random reason Dawn was not able to go to Kanto with Ash and Brock (even though we all knew she wouldn't be sticking around past DP, we really didn't get any idea of what her future beyond DP would be until the final episode).

And of course, May's cameo in DP was well-done as she received an ample amount of episodes to at least give us an idea of what her Johto adventures are like, we got to see more of her Blaziken and new evolutions in her team, and she meshed with Dawn WAY better than Misty did with May. Their teamwork was great, May's performance in the Wallace Cup was great, she even got upgraded to her Emerald outfit (I just really love that for some reason)... and her excellent battle against Dawn was super-close, nicely-done in a way that didn't make May look bad and got Dawn out of her rut from her losing streak prior.

May wasn't perfect, of course, but she was the catalyst that motivated me to give the Pokemon anime another chance after I had given up on it during Johto. I wasn't enough of a morning person to watch AG all the time (but I did watch a lot of it when Cartoon Network aired it during the afternoons), but May's presence in the show made the show feel reborn anew, and I was inclined to definitely give the show one more shot by the time DP rolled around. May's a fantastic character, easily one of my favorites in the anime (and probably my favorite girl), and always a joy for me to watch.

I seriously cannot remember the last time I was this freaking positive and full of praise.
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

Yes I did like May's role on the show. Her character got good development and the Pokemon she had on her team are awsome. I liked how in the Battle Frontier that May seemed to be more focused on and her interactions with her rivals was interesting too.
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

She got developed a bit too quickly for someone who wasn't even fond of Pokemon until after she started her journey with some of her unrealistic Contest victories but otherwise, she was great character with a fun personality and a fresh goal at the time that had an on-going plotline alongside Ash's gym quest.
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

I agree with a lot of the people in here that she was my favorite. I really enjoyed her development, and that was back when I didn't hate contests like what happened in DP. Contests were still somewhat not too different from battles, whereas in DP they became way too flashy. I also preferred her pokemon much more. Torchic was allowed to evolve so it didn't get on your nerves the way Piplup did, and then her having Munchlax made Max a bit more tolerable later on in the series.
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

Great personality, nice chemistry with Ash, Brock and Max, well-done character development and interactions with other characters, superb rivals (even the one shot ones, but Harley and Drew I cannot compliment enough), an awesome team, and that she is my favourite female protagonist in the games all made me love May. Combusken should have evolved around the same time Grovyle did though, because Blaziken is too good a Pokemon to get so little screen time, even with Harrison having one. I really would have liked to see what she got up to in Johto though, and with Dawn in Hoenn perhaps she can try for the Sinnoh Grand Festival now. I think what else I could say about her has already been summed up in this thread, but yeah.

The writers did a fantastic job with her and that really makes me wish that Brendan could have gotten similar treatment, but oh well. She represented Hoenn well.
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

My favorite girl in the series. I loved May, and if it wasn't for her and her interactions and character I doubt that I would have continued with the series. Her not even liking Pokemon and just wanting to travel was a fresh take, and she eventually grew to like Pokemon over time. I also very much liked her relationship with Ash as mentor and student, as that also helped show Ash's growth and maturity while helping out with May's. Her relationship with Max was also nice, though at first I didn't like Max very much at all, be he kinda grew on me over time.

Her Pokemon were alright and fitted with what she wanted to do. Nothing too spectacular, but she made it work. I liked Beautifly because I felt like it was a call back to Ash's Butterfree in a way, with how it was her first capture and all. Torchic was alright, and I found its evolution Cobusken and eventually Blaziken to be badass, especially Combusken's infamous battle Breloom, my jaw was on the floor with that one. Skitty was lolz, but I liked the antics and interactions with May. I actually thought that her Bulbasaur was pretty alright, and the crush that it had with Ash's was sweet lol

Her rivals were nice too, very good in that area. Though on her contest, I don't blame May at all, as it was the first contest to be focused on by the anime. So just like how I can forgive Kanto for its blunders but still enjoy it, it basically the same for May and her contest. Dawn's contest were handled far better story wise, but I enjoyed May's character and her rivals alot better. Kind of a character vs plot situation there lol

When she returned to the show for a brief while I was very happy, as we got to see how she grew and improved in Johto. I liked how she easily teamed up with Dawn, as well as her trying to stir Dawn out of her low point. Her new nickname "The princess of Hoenn" was very nice, and she deserved it. I liked her battles in the Wallace Cup, and the final battle in it was very good and memorable.

Looking back on it I was actually upset that she was leaving at the end of AG, but had to accept it I guess and appreciate what she accomplished while there which was alot in terms of growth for her. Didn't help that I had a massive crush on her either. XD

Yeah, awesome character full of energy and spunk, just how I like my characters.
 
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Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

While I did like May in the games, her anime character wasn't all that appealing to me. I liked Dawn better.
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

About the only thing that dragged the character down was a few really cheap Contest wins, with Skitty Vs. Dusclops, Squirtle Vs. Ariados, and Eevee Vs. Marshtompt being the 3 big offenders. Other than those 3, the rest of her match wins were about the norm for this show, as 90% of Ash's battles play out the same way, so you can't really fault them.

Sure, you can argue she didn't really battle much like a coordinator, but that's because the writers themselves didn't truly flesh out the concept enough until DP started. The AG Contests really did just feel like battle tournaments with a short appeal round attached. But given some people prefered Contests that way, I guess it doesn't matter.

I suppose the difference is May was developed both in and outside of Contests, whereas other characters like Dawn or Iris are only developed one way or the other. It probably helped matters that the Contests didn't truly start in AG until quite a number of episodes in, which showed her personality consisted of more than just being a contest-oriented character 90% of the time like others I could mention.
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

I really loved May, a lot more than any of the other females on the main cast. Not only did she complement Ash very well (him being experienced, her being a new trainer) but her stubbornness and enthusiasm really made episodes that would've been otherwise bland enjoyable. Seeing her continue to mess up even as she got more experienced was a realistic take tbh since she was still a new trainer no matter how much experience she'd gained in that short amount of time. Plus her inexperience and gullibleness gave Drew and Harley more of a reason to poke fun at her which I thought was really fun to watch ~ The rival interactions were some of the best (if not the best) of the whole series.

I didn't exactly mind her "unjustified" victories since she was the first new female addition after Misty's replacement and the staff were testing the waters.

One of my favorite things about her were May's expeditions if anyone still remembers them o/
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

Makes you wonder why the writers gave her the worst send off of all the female characters.

Yes May shared a ribbon with Ash, but her goodbye scene in AG191 was done as if a rival or COTD was leaving the group, not a travel companion who had been there for nearly 200 eps. To this day it sticks out like a sore thumb.
 
Re: Did you like May's role on the show?

I loved her role. it was very exciting. I would have loved it if she did do a gym like Dawn did but that might have been too much. And also she didn't get the worst send off. No girl did. She didn't show as much emotion near the end unlike her brother did. But lately after Misty the girls don't have those emotional send offs and the same will probably happen with Iris.
 
I enjoyed May, but I disliked her Squirtle and Bulbasaur.
 
Whilst I did like Haruka's personality, it's her role in the show that made her my favorite of the girls. It's the fact that she proved once and for all that the show could focus on someone who wasn't Satoshi, give them a story, and make it gel, really really well. I love how she not only had her own rivals but her rivals were interesting. I love how she had a variety of pokemon and not all of them expected. I like how she interacted with Masato. I think she genuinely changed the show for the better and it's her ultimately that allowed the show to take the direction it went in DP. Ultimately I love how she allowed the writers to experiment after the blandness of Johto.

I like how she doesn't really fit into the categories of 'girly girl' or 'tomboy' and how she fitted into the cast. Looking back, it's a shame they couldn't have evened out her luck in contests a little bit but really the fact that she had had flaws in other areas made up for that anyway. She made filler episodes fun and really she was just very nicely done.
 
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