Keeping its cards close to the vest, the Pokémon franchise has long touted itself as concerned with nothing more than that unquenchable drive to enslave the varied beasts of Kanto and force them into a lifelong career of bloodsport. But if you look closely, you’ll realize that the real bloodsport are the friends we made along the way. Or something like that. See, those of us who tuned into the original anime weren’t impelled to return week after week thanks solely to the excitement of seeing a stories-high rock snake lay waste to a sentient cluster of eggs; no, we kept watching due to the relationships accrued by our hero Ash. Relationships with his ever-growing collective of animal prisoners, yes, but also with his human pals: namely, Misty and Brock. Which is why it’s so disheartening that this duo doesn’t seem to be making the leap to the big screen in the latest Pokémon movie.
Though we cannot say for sure that the uptight pisciculturist or the girl-crazy rockhound will not at least make a cameo in the developing Pokémon the Movie 20: I Choose You–which, to be clear, is a traditionally animated project entirely separate from the CGI/live-action-hybrid Detective Pikachu flick, about which we’ve heard very little since its announcement last year–but we can justify losing a bit of sleep over the characters’ absence on the film’s official website and in all accompanying promotional material. Instead of Misty and Brock, Ash appears to be teaming up with two newbz named, per Kotaku, Souji (who is ostensibly accompanied by a Lucario) and Makoto (who packs a Piplup).
Ash: Misty and Brock who?? pic.twitter.com/JXsqlYzkLo
— Red (@Incineroarz) July 8, 2017
Now, Souji and Makoto may well be a fine pair of youngsters, and likely more than worthy of the company of a self-entitled tween who only wound up with a career in Pokémon wrangling because the local mad professor wanted to spite his jackass nephew. Nevertheless, these newcomers will have a tough time holding a Litwick to Misty and Brock, who deserve far more credit than they got for couriering Ash through his preadolescent misadventures.
Why on whatever the Pokémon equivalent of Earth is they’d opt to ditch these beloved and universally recognizable characters is a question as vexing as that of whether Farfetch’ds are actually born with the stick in their hands, or if they all just know where to find them. So let us know how you feel about this Misty- and Brock-less development below!
Image: The Pokémon Company
