>>37993998>Bonus that they're pretty much opposites with personalities and goals but still fill emotional gaps with each other.I can dig that and agree there's a narrow minded bias on constitutes chemistry. But I think that matters most when people are looking from a romantic/shipping perspective, and Pokemon is an action-oriented anime primarily for boys (though girls watch it and that's important to my next point). I say May and Dawn are the best because I think it really they were taking heroines seriously by having girl companions who, while ultimately parts of Ash's story, are centers of their own stories that parallel the hero's. Being really balanced also helped.
Misty, no matter how much you like her personality and the chemistry with Ash, was just a tag-along who eventually overstays her welcome and her "competitiveness" didn't really amount to anything because she's visibly putting little effort toward her stated goal. You make good points about Serena and they come together with my referring to her as a classic romantic heroine for girls and a classic love interest for boys, which exposes the 'problem'. Serena is sorta like a shoujo protagonist in a shonen series and might wind up feeling like a support character rather than simply being a supportive person. She's not paralleling the hero in personality or goal, fighting with him and shit and that's fine, but I see where people see the character being subordinate to the hero, especially since he himself is a major object of her's. So people see Ash chasing greatness while Serena chases him, a disparity. It's a common complaint and I think it has to do with the realities in this kind of series clashing with wants and expectations.
