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Sometimes I wonder if Misty's departure wasn't intended to be permanent at first, but then became that way because most people didn't care that Misty was gone. Misty was removed as an experiment at first, back then nobody knew if the series could go on without the original trio, as Tracey had bombed.

Its obvious that if this had been the case, Misty would have been brought back like Brock was, but it seemed May just became more popular and the Contests became a major part of the show at the time so they decided not to.

Its especially notable when you realize how short-lived Misty's character actually was in the anime. She only lasted 5 years and has now been off the series for a decade. She's only in 35% of the anime's total episodes now. If the writers truly thought Misty was popular enough for a return, they would have never allowed her to stay gone past the Hoenn arc. But instead they allow her to fade away into oblivion for the rest of the series, bar some minor cameos.

Apparently this is just a single special, not a series.

Give it about 3-4 years and they'll be celebrating the 20th Anniversary. Maybe then they'll do a big get together to celebrate like the Mirage Pokemon special (Even if it was made outside of Japan).

The difference is the main cast was a lot smaller back during the 10th anniversary. The only older characters at the time were Misty and Tracey, and May/Max/Brock were the current cast.

By the time the 20th anniversary hits, you have like 8 older main characters off the show, plus whoever Ash travels with in XY. I don't see them bringing back over 10 characters for one special, its just too much.

[3 gens ago in 2005.]

Misty is probably never going to appear in the anime again, not counting flashbacks or stuff like Japanese endings showing the older cast or whatever.

Her last appearance was when the Hoenn saga ended, and that's now 3 gens ago in 2005. They purposely chose not to have her appear in DP at all despite that saga being over 190 episodes, and she hasn't appeared in Best Wishes either. Its obvious the writers are done with her.

We didn't know it at the time, but those small handful of episodes Misty got during the Hoenn era turned out to be her final episodes of the series. Back in 2005 we didn't even know that May was going to leave and get replaced only 1 year later....let alone that it would be Misty's final episodes for the next decade.

I wouldn't call the Kanto Contest quest filler as it was an all new region to her and it was like Ash competing in Gyms in a new region for the first time.

On that note I wonder if Ash's female companion will ever travel with Ash for more than one region like Misty and May. Both Iris and Dawn were only there for one region, I wonder if the next girl will get two.

Dawn got a lot of screentime but she still only got 1 Contest quest overall compared to May's two. I counted the number of Contests in AG and May competed in 15 Contests and two Grand Festivals while Dawn competed in 11 Contests and 1 Grand Festival. But Dawn got to do more in other areas like tournaments so it evens out.

I've notice the girls who lack a ongoing quest like Misty and Iris got less screentime than May and Dawn. I guess doing type specific Gym leaders limits your potential.

And what did Dawn do exactly in those 9 episodes? As much as I love Dawn, her cameo in Unova was kind of wasted. She was only really there to see Ash and a bit of fanservice for the fans. That's about it.

I think the only reason Dawn got as much screentime as she did was because of Piplup. Since Piplup is marketable and popular in Japan its why Dawn stayed a little longer. Remember all those damn Piplup fillers we had in DP? The writers actually started focusing more on Piplup than Dawn herself at a certain point, and that's why the rest of Dawn's Pokemon got very little screentime.

Honestly I thought May's cameo return was the best, due to her being involved in Dawn's story and actually having new pokemon and development. Arguably on to this topic, it always did seem to me that the writers cared what they were doing with May more than Misty, given May is like the only female lead to get a proper story closing...Dawn didn't even get to beat Zoey and only stayed for one arc.

Often, I don't think the writers even have long term future ideas they stick with. I remember Misty's VA said she'd return in Sinnoh and that never happened. Remember all those hints of a Marina cameo in Sinnoh? Scrapped as soon as HGSS were announced and lacking Marina.

I don't think Misty's VA meant she was going to appear in episodes, just that the fishing lure would appear in the ep Dawn captured Buizel. Remember this was said back in 2007, at the time the writers knew they were bringing May back in 2008...I doubt a Misty cameo was ever planned much less so close to when May was going to return.

They could easily have plucked another gym leader from obscurity to replace Misty for the start of Johto.

The female Gym leaders of Johto were too old. Misty and Iris look younger and around Ash's age so its obvious why they were chosen. I definitely couldn't imagine Whitney, Jasmine or Claire as Ash's female lead, they're too old. Only the male sidekick character like Brock/Tracey/Cilan is usually the oldeest one.

So are all of the other of the female leads. Misty got 3 arcs, Kanto, the Orange Islands, and Johto. May got Hoenn and the Battle Frontier, Dawn got Sinnoh, and Iris so far has only gotten Unova. Additionally, Misty got mentioned in Hoenn, and even got a few episodes to allow Togepi to evolve. She also got some episodes in Chronicles. By comparison, Misty lasted the longest of the female counterparts of Ash.

She lasted the longest, but only because there wasn't a female lead to replace her with at Johto's start. And Tracey kinda bombed, so they probably didn't want to make up an anime-only female lead at the time. Had Marina/Kris existed with Gold/Silver instead of Crystal, I sometimes wonder if Misty would have left at the end of Orange Islands. By the time Crystal came out we were in the middle of Johto, so they weren't going to bring in Kris/Marina for 1 year and a half just to get rid of her for May after.

So has May's, she doesn't even get recalled in flashbacks. The anime seems to follow the trick of 'Bring back the most previous female counterpart to meet the new one' rather than 'Let all female counterparts get a few cameo episodes each new arc'.

All of Charizard's big moments happened in Kanto, it was logical to expect Misty/Brock to be seen. Likewise May (and I guess Dawn?) have been references or shown in openings/endings in every saga after they left too.

Addressed earlier, the formula has mostly been having the last main female lead making a cameo. And pokemon is all about following formulas... We're still getting 8 gym badges and challenging the pokemon league after all.

So why didn't Misty get to come back again then? The Sinnoh saga went on for a staggering 191 episodes, they could have easily removed 2-3 fillers to make a small arc for Misty. Instead they chose to ignore the character while even Gary, another Kanto character, comes back for 4 episodes.

I could also mention that Dawn's cameo lasted a whopping 9 episodes, while Misty only got a measily 2 in Hoenn and then another 2 before BF. I wonder why Misty's cameos were so short lived?

Brock was dropped first in the Orange Islands for a character who drew Pokemon, which are essentially drawings. I believe (havn't checked) a general dislike of Tracey made the show bring back Brock, and Misty stayed with us through Johto.

Brock was originally dropped because the writers didn't think Brock's eyes would be popular with Western audiences so Tracey was created. Once it became obvious that Brock was popular and his eyes weren't a problem, Tracey was ditched. Had Brock had normal eyes from the start, we wouldn't have never seen Brock "replaced first."

Likewise Brock got to come back after he was replaced and it looked like his return was permanent for a good while till Unova. When Misty was replaced, she stayed gone.

Even if May and the Contests were still introduced, Misty would have continued into Hoenn as a side character. The Hoenn group could have very well been Ash, May, Misty and Brock, or a group of 5 if Max was still considered. It makes you wonder why Misty wound up not lasting in Pokemon past 2002, when Brock lasted till 2010.

I can't help but think that the writers never really liked having Misty in the series. As someone who has watched most of every saga of the series, this is why I think this:

1. Misty was the first classic Kanto character to leave the show. Ash, Brock and Team Rocket all lasted in the anime for 13+ years (and Brock only just recently left), while Misty was dropped way back in 2002, back when the anime was still at the beginning of its lifecycle. She was officially the shortest-lived classic Kanto character of the series.

2. As we can see now, Misty's departure at the end of Johto was indeed quite permanent. Misty stayed gone permanently for the entire duration of the series and was never allowed back into the main cast in any of the following arcs.

3. Misty's cameos/guest appearances have stopped entirely. The last time Misty had a real appearance in the show was way back in 2005 when Ash came home from the Hoenn league. That was 7 years ago! She appeared in flashbacks in the recent Best Wishes series, but flashbacks don't really count. The writers don't even allow Misty to come back for 2-3 episodes anymore like she did during Hoenn, now she's completely ignored.

4. All the biggest water-related plotlines in the anime happened AFTER she left. Hoenn had Team Aqua which was a villain team all about water. Movie 9 was a blatantly water-themed Pokemon movie with a legendary who was the "prince of the sea." Wallace appears in the DP series as a, "Water Pokemon Master coordinator" and Misty doesn't get to meet him. They gave May blatant water-themed plotlines instead of using Misty for them.

5. Dawn got a Togekiss. Back at the start of the anime, Togepi was exclusively associated with Misty and no other character ever had a Togepi in fillers in the series. Then instead of Misty reuniting with her Togetic, the writers decide to debut Togekiss with Dawn instead.

6. With the current 5th gen anime drawing to a close, this is the second generation in a row where Misty did not get to return. The writers didn't have her appear in a single episode over the entire span of the DP arc, and it looks like she won't appear in the Best Wishes series either.

7. She was probably the worst treated of all the female leads in the series. She barely got much screentime and was always kept on the sidelines while Ash did everything. In many ways May, Dawn and Iris all got bigger roles in their respective sagas than she got, making it seem like Misty wasn't very important.

8. Misty did not get an ending theme in the Japanese version of the anime, while other female leads did.

9. The writers dropped Misty the first opportunity they got, which leads me to believe they might have dropped her at the end of Orange Islands if a female lead from the games existed with G/S instead of Crystal.

10. She's the only female lead with no ongoing rivals, unlike May/Dawn/Iris.


Thoughts on this? It almost felt like they treated her as a placeholder character until they had others to replace her with. Even though both May and Dawn left the show too (and Iris will leave shortly), they all just feel like the writers cared about the way they handled them. Any thoughts?

If Cilan leaves, I will automatically hate whoever replaces him, like when Misty left and I found May insufferable for most of the Hoenn series.

LOL, you thought May was insufferable? She was probably the most popular female lead in the anime for a long time, and she totally made up for how boring, stale and useless Misty was in the Johto arc. Pretty much the whole reason the writers decided to abandon Misty's character was because of how popular May and the Contests were.

As for Misty and Brock, I definitely don't see them returning. As mentioned, Misty was fairly disliked over the course of the Johto arc 10 years ago. People may not remember this anymore, but she was poorly received over that entire arc and that's why everyone knew right from the beginning of Hoenn that she wasn't going to return. The only reason the dislike towards Misty died down in the fandom is because she's now been gone for so long it doesn't really matter anymore. Likewise Brock got really boring in DP, so 'nuff said.

It was actually the mistake of using Misty/Brock as leads that made people hate the Johto arc, which is why the writers pretty much gave up on them after that point. Misty was dropped permanently, and even though Brock stayed, he was largely treated like a background character.

So I suspect new characters like Iris and Cilan.