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I have no strong feelings about fujoshit, but Ash and Goh have definitely hit 99% of the relationship hallmarks that Serena and Ash did: They've held hands, gone on "dates," and now Ash has complimented Goh's outfit. If Goh kisses Ash off screen at any point, then I'm sorry, but the fujos win. Yeah, I know its that they're both male and therefore the writers don't feel intimidated by having them act intimately with each other, but it's funnier this way.
I'm up to the episode where Chloe catches her Eevee. Up to now she's been a pretty fun, low-key developing character. She's mostly been warming up to Pokemon in the background, sometimes going on trips with Ash and Goh and usually coming out of them more interested in Pokemon. I get that by this point, long time fans were burned out on the female companion having to find a goal. They'd done it twice in a row with Serena and Lillie (and to a lesser extent, May much earlier), so Koharu getting the Eevee and not getting her future is tiring. At the same time, it does show a sea change in how they're writing the show to demonstrate that one does not have to be a battler/Gym trainer to "do" Pokemon right (you could even say that the CotD episodes are largely focused around this idea too, but I digress). Unfortunately in the Ash-group, it had to be all-female focused, since Ash was the MC and he can't waver from whatever being a "Pokemon Master" entailed. Now Horizons has come and we have both a female and a male MC whose goals aren't "win the League" or "befriend Pokemon." Hopefully they do more of that in the future.
