23 years ago, watchers of the original Pokemon anime series were shocked due to Misty's departure. While some of Ash's other companions had already changed out over the course of the show, Misty had been a constant up to that point in the Pokemon series, having been there since the very first episode.
Though it may be hard for some to believe, the original Pokemon anime is getting closer to its 30th anniversary, as it originally premiered in 1997. Though he remained an eternal 10-year-old, Ash's journey spanned 26 years before he was retired from the lead role of the anime, but that was far from the first time that something unexpected happened to the cast in the series.
Every Pokemon Anime Season, Ranked
The Pokemon anime has been around for a long time. As such, it's worth considering which seasons are the best of the bunch.
Pokemon Anime Underwent a Major Shift 23 Years Ago
Though Ash's traveling group of friends occasionally traded out members over the course of the series' quarter of a century on the air, Misty's departure was a particular shock to viewers at the time. In 2002 in Japan and 2003 in the US, the episode Gotta Catch Ya Later spontaneously said goodbye to Misty, as she was called back to Cerulean City to run the Pokemon Gym belonging to her family. The move came with no real lead-up or implication that Misty would be leaving the cast, and at that point in time, she had been a constant companion of Ash for five years.
Fans of the franchise will likely remember that while Misty's departure was unexpected, she wasn't the first member of Ash's group to leave. The first person that exited the Pokemon group was Brock, who left during the Orange Islands era. While his departure was surprising as well, he wasn't gone for long, exiting the series in episode 83, returning in 115, and becoming a part of Ash's traveling group again in 116. Fans of Misty likely expected something similar to happen, especially since the plot seemed to suggest that she would only have to run the Cerulean Gym until her sisters returned from a trip. However, that didn't end up being the case.
Misty would return to the series in a number of cameos and flashbacks over the years, as Ash's travels would occasionally cause them to cross paths. She had multiple appearances in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, as well as Pokemon Sun and Moon, but was completely absent aside from brief mentions and flashbacks in both Diamond and Pearl and Black and White. Eventually, she would return to the franchise as a main character and became part of Ash's group again, but not until the final season in 2023 in episode 1,223. In other words, there were 950 episodes aired between her leaving and rejoining Ash's party.
Ultimately, Ash would end up traveling with a lot of different friends over the course of the series. The two main companions he ended up with were Dawn in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl and Goh in Pokemon Journeys, but there were plenty of others as well, like Tracey, May, Max, Serena, and more. Once a pattern was established, it became much more expected for Ash's companions to come and go as the series progressed.
Perhaps the biggest surprise change to the line-up, however, was when Ash was eventually written out of the show. After so many years, the franchise was handed to new protagonists Liko and Roy in Pokemon Horizons, and Ash hasn't been seen since. The senior director of media production at The Pokemon Company noted that it wasn't out of the question for Ash to have a Pokemon cameo appearance of his own someday, given that he's returned to traveling on his own Pokemon journey once more. But since the goal seems to have been to revitalize the show by bringing it to new regions and with new characters, fans probably shouldn't hold their breath for it to happen anytime soon.
- Release Date
- 1997 - 2023
- Network
- TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi, TVh, TVQ, TSC
- Directors
- Shigeru Omachi, Koji Ogawa, Fumihiro Ueno, Hideki Hiroshima, Maki Kodaira, Makoto Ooga, Ayumi Moriyama, Keitaro Motonaga, Shigeru Ueda, Fumihiro Yoshimura, Minoru Ohara, Yoshitaka Makino, Kiyoshi Egami, Makoto Sokuza, Bjarne Heuser, Naoki Murata, Kenichi Nishida, Tomoe Makino, Masahiko Watanabe, Hiroaki Takagi, Tazumi Mukaiyama, Ryohei Horiuchi, Yoshihiro Oda, Hiromichi Matano
Cast
-
Rica MatsumotoSatoshi (voice) -
Ikue OtaniPikachu (voice)
WHERE TO WATCH
- Writers
- Junki Takegami, Atsuhiro Tomioka, Hideki Sonoda, Yukiyoshi Ôhashi, Yuka Miyata, Takeshi Shudo, Shouji Yonemura, Shinzo Fujita, Michihiro Tsuchiya, Deko Akao, Reiko Yoshida, Aya Matsui, Junichi Fujisaku
- Franchise(s)
- Pokemon
- Creator(s)
- Naoko Takeuchi
