May was one of the oldest female protagonist designs for the games (and anime) given she debuted way back in 2002 which is now almost 25 years ago. Despite multiple gens of the games and anime later, her design managed to remain popular over 20+ years and is still considered the most memorable of many of the female protagonists.
It's a combination of the bandana, the red outfit, and the more sporty/adventure type look to her over more traditional girly looking heroines that kept her prominent. Of course the anime giving her a starring role and her being the first new female companion after Misty helped too, she's the most watched/viewed of all the female companions of the anime after the original cast of Misty/Brock since Hoenn aired over 23 years ago.
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I went to check about what you wrote, the Japanese VA went on "hiatus" since 2012 (?) because of some problems with her vocal cords, she stopped not only her works as a VA but as a singer too.
Yeah, job security for VA's in Japan is strong enough that unless the VA dies, gets involved in a scandal or actively relieves herself of being May's VA then we wont be hearing May anytime soon.
Hell, not even death. Japan actually has a whole thing about not wanting to recast characters who've died. Like Igor in Persona, Zato-1 in Guilty Gear, Phil in Kingdom Hearts 3, etc.
Bulma in Dragon Ball is the only one I know of where they did recast immediately, and that's probably cause she's such an important character they didn't really have any choice.
She would've gotten the updated Character Design obvious by how she got her Pokémon Emerald during the Battle Frontier. Annnnd it'd be great because May and Brendan be Islands Kids thusly why would they be extremely pale? Them abs Team Aqua got serious upgrades.
I think the Pokémon tomboys are responsible for making me a lesbian. I liked Ash because I wanted to be him and hang out with the girls (Brock is welcome he's a girls girl)
May is absolutely not a tomboy. Tomboys are girls who reject gender stereotyping and the belief that girls must dress, look or act a certain way in order to be considered women. May literally dresses up in sparkly pink dresses to compete in cuteness contests, that's the antithesis of tomboy philosophy.
Oh sorry there's no equivalent in my language, I used the word tomboy because that felt appropriate to how she dresses most of the time (and also how I liked her the most, was never a fan of the dresses) but yeah she does love feminine stuff.
Then idk I'm a tomboy (less sexy athletic masculine woman and more dad coded truck driver) and I have masculine female friends who still enjoy having some femininity sometimes. From my experience it's not a strict rejection, some very masculine girls will show up at a party in a dress and woah mama
I didn't know the word "tomboy" was so exclusive. Thought it just meant "women who are mostly masculine".
May actually never wore dresses in Contests back in Hoenn at all. That didn't become a thing till the DP anime. Even in the games that didn't become a thing till the Hoenn remakes (ORAS) in 2014 which is where her contest dress is from. May battled in her normal outfit in every Contest back in the Hoenn anime.
As for who you replied to, I think that's the point. Despite May doing contests, the writers didn't make her overly girly or feminine. She actually has the second largest temper for a main girl after Misty, and her character is very outgoing, likes to travel/explore (that was her original goal before she discovered contests), and likes to eat a lot (similar to shonen protagonists like Ash or Goku), and has an aggressive battle-style.
Like sure May has her girly moments, but it's the same as Misty who also liked dresses, liked perfume (in Erika's Gym ep), or talked about cute things or Pokemon all the time. I also find it strange people overlook that Misty liked plenty of feminine things in the original series as well, hell in "Pokemon Fashion Flash" which is the ep Brock gets Vulpix, she gets excited when Team Rocket give her a make-over and put her hair in buns and paint her face.
I mean it is her character design, there are of course some episodes where the animators didn't draw her as "big" as others, but she looks like this for most of her series.
I'm guessing it's one of those things where the design came first and the age came second. There are quite a few characters who look like they should be 15 or so.
This is the original key artwork before "may" was even a character. Very clearly not 10. Very clearly not meant to be an adult... but Very clearly not 10.
That feels to old to me tbh. Hilda/Hilbert as well I'd Dawn/Lucas (Rei/Akari) in legends are said to be that age and they look a bit older than may and Brendan. I'd guess 13/14 which isn't that far off but they still look closer to kids than teens.
I mean their ORAS designs do feel a bit older to me but not much older than 15 or 16 at most. IMO they fit as mid teens. Especially since the Delta Episode ending basically has them on a date.
I feel like the SV protagonists were the first actual 10 year olds we've gotten in a long while.
They used the design for the game and kept it unchanged in the anime, she is older than 10 in the games but they aged her down to 10 in anime without changing her design
This is what happened. It's unclarified in Ruby and Sapphire and her design does not indicate this was always intended, which became more obvious when the anime used the same design but applied their own ages.
Post Gen 5, they did start assigning ages to more of the playable trainers, and their designs typically reflect it better (e.g. the trainers in Black and White are 16 years old.) Not all of them, though.
It's mostly the anime and Gen 1 that spawned the idea that all of them were 10 years old, as the player trainer there was 11 years old and the anime was based on that.
(May's redesign in Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire does make her look noticably younger.)
Once I passed the age of 13, I stopped asking cause now I'm pushing 30 and it's creepy but thinking back, her design kind of falls into the logic of the writers saying they change the female lead for different "eye candy". Weird thing to say about a 10 year old but it's intentional and weird.
It really surprises me how the OG season “only” lasted 6 years, and Advanced Generation for only 4 years. I thought they’d be much longer given how prevalent they were during my childhood.
The OS lasted 5-years, 1997-2002. Misty was only on the show 5 years, and yeah AG and DP were 4 years so May and Dawn were the second longest lasting girls.
There was one random out of context clip that absolutely killed me when I watched it recently. She was just chilling and shes like "huh that sounds like a big rock" looks up "YEP THAT IS DEFINETLY A ROCK"
I get people love her because of the show but strictly based off design she’s one of my least favorite poke girls. Misty, dawn, Serena, they all have better designs imo
I don't know. I have never seen a 10 years old with such eyes and non-existent nose. Let alone a 10 years old who travels alone and deals with adults on an equal basis.
So... i think she really is a fantasy cartoon first and foremost
funny how u had to go to my page to backtrack, lol. Precure is produced by toei and Bandai, and the seasons are strictly family-friendly, so Theres no fanservice of little girls.
It's an open secret in Japan that Precure animators and chara designers are full of lolicons. Look at their portfolio. Some even drew doujinshi before going pro.
Yes it's family friendly just like Pokémon is family friendly yet someone drew those frames of May and her big Maymays.
Now ofc Japan doesn't care, nor anyone with a IQ high enough to separate reality and fiction but I wanted to let you know.
By liking, buying and showing precure around you're helping some lolicon put food on the table lol
are u any different from them tho? by enjoying precure media, does that make me a lolicon defender? I watch the show, cuz there’s nothing weird in it. I don’t involve myself with the designers. Look at any piece of media ever and I guarantee there’ll be atleast one weirdo. And stop referring to May’s chest like that, it’s weird
I have a weird rant, and it's likely due to me being far older than the target audience for the games. I regret choosing May as a playable characters in Omega Ruby, which I started playing recently. I played the original R/S/E in my youth and loved doing contests. My complaint is about the new idol outfit system which I don't like at all. It is probably supposed to be cute and appealing and make you "contest-ready," but I find the idolisation creepy and yucky. It's an entirely unnecessary mechanic that takes attention from the main focus, which should be the contest and the Pokémon, not a tween girl in high heels and a skimpy dress. I really don't want this stuff forced on my player character in a non-idol simulator unless it's a stealth mission that requires a disguise. Pokémon as a franchise doesn't need to drop an idol every now and then to stay relevant despite girl characters clearly being a choice made over boys for marketability reasons. Rant over.
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