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>...Darn. Just a human... Also, ugh, a girl...Ash was disappointed.
Misty's Staryu also causes Ash to question his sexuality. Pic related. Obviously Shudo didn't foresee the ending 26 years later, but it's still funny that this kind of thing keeps happening.
Misty's family is strictly part of the anime canon, like Brock's, so if we're to take Shudo at his word at how hands off he was, the Cerulean Sisters were created by the screenwriter for episode 7, Yukiyoshi Ohashi (most consistently the writer for the Pikachu Shorts). Shudo's interpretation of them was that their parents, much like Brock's, had abandoned the Gym to them. Misty still has some attachment to her dad at least, and says that its HIS Gym that she's defending the honor of.
Otherwise, Shudo doesn't deviate much from the Misty we see on the screen. He makes some things about her personality more explicit (such as her inferiority complex breeding her self-aggrandizing), but it's mostly the same. I think Pokeshippers would appreciate the novel at least. Even though Shudo said he didn't want to make Misty having a crush on Ash into a storyline for the anime, he seems a bit more comfortable prodding at their relationship here. He emphasizes marriage, family, etc. quite a bit more in the novel, so even though I doubt he had a Pokeshipping endgame in mind, I'm sure there would've been enough development to warm the cockles of the Pokeshippers' hearts.
