>>52908619She was always one normal hairstyle away from BTFO Serena. To be more precise, the anime just have to stop drawing Misty's hair like Goku to match Ken Sugimori's early design. Since Sugimori copied Torimiya so his early characters looked more similar to Dragonball character but he already stopped copying him.
Even Original series step away from Ken Sugimori design of Misty from the game and instead draw her differently to make her better looking.