I ended up going far down the rabbithole on Pokeshipping in movie two. It was a good distraction. All I can say definitively is, it's there. Pretty blatantly. My dumbass picked up on it when I was 9. It wasn't until the "finale" of Misty's arc where I noticed anything really different from my memory: She calls Ash her burden, rather than "he's always got me." Fine, 4Kids added more romantic nuance in that line. But you have to be incapable of reading cues to not get that Misty's portrayed as liking Ash more than as a friend here.
Then there's the Shudo blog from 2011, where he explicitly states:
>Kasumi doesn't have romantic feelings for Satoshi. If Kasumi's romantic feelings for Satoshi become one of the themes of "Pokemon", the entire structure of the "Pokemon" series will be destroyed. But it's hard to parse that with what's on the screen. And the motherfucker is so interesting that I want to understand him more than I want to know about shipping. He follows with metaanalysis on Pokemon's structure. He says if Misty was in love with Ash, it's a "condiment," and things that complicate Pokemon are a hindrance; Pokemon is not a shoujo manga or a light novel. He goes on about how Misty has less presence than Team Rocket, so he tried to give her more in the movie, but didn't know how to write (or pick up) women. And then eventually he says this:
>That scene, in which Kasumi's anger cannot be seen, could have been seen as an expression of affection by Kasumi desperately trying to save Satoshi's life. But then she's just a normal stereotype girl. In "Lugia Explosion," which I tried to fill with her unique characteristics, Kasumi became an ordinary girl. My guess is that Shudo, as screenwriter, wanted to do justice to Misty, but also did not want romance. From 2011, he feels he handled the movie poorly, and the romantic implication slipped in. I think. He is very confusing to read. He may be a genius, or an actual schizo. I love him.
>>54228410Appreciated.