Misty (anime)

Misty (anime)
Misty (Japanese: カスミ Kasumi) is a friend and former traveling partner of Ash Ketchum.

Original series
A stubborn tomboy, Misty is the youngest of four sisters who live in the Cerulean Gym. Fed up with her more glamorous older sisters, Misty left the Gym with the goal of becoming the world's greatest Water Pokémon Trainer. She first met Ash when she "caught" him with her fishing line in a river between Pallet Town and Viridian City. She traveled around with Ash, Brock, and Traceythrough the Kanto region, the Orange Archipelago, and the Johto region.

Her purpose was ostensibly to get Ash to replace her bicycle, which he had accidentally destroyed when they first met. However, Misty often seemed to have forgotten about the bicycle, indicating that her real reason for following along was that she simply wanted to remain with her friends. During her travels with Ash, she, aside from training to become the best Water Pokémon Trainer, also acted as his coach in many Pokémon battles. It was also her job to drag Brock away from women by his ear.

Misty made her anime debut in Pokémon, I Choose You!, fishing in a nearby river onRoute 1. As her fishing rod snagged something, she managed to pull out not a Water-type Pokémon, but Ash and his injured Pikachu, who were being chased by a flock of Spearow. After pointing Ash in the direction of the nearest Pokémon Center, the one in Viridian City, he borrowed her bike, saying that he would return it someday.

In the next episode, Misty appeared in the Pokémon Center after Ash dropped off his Pikachu, holding her charred bike and demanding a new one right away. She got distracted from her demands when Nurse Joy brought Pikachu out, sad to see Pikachu in such condition. Before anything else could be said, an Ekans and Koffing burst through the ceiling, and Team Rocket come through as well. After helping Nurse Joy and Ash wheel Pikachu into the back room, she told Ash to help defend the Pokémon Center with the Pokémon in stock. After a few failed tries, she decided to step in herself, and sent out her Goldeen to buy some time, though she quickly recalled it since it couldn't battle on land. Later in the episode, it was revealed by Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy that Misty had gone with Ash to the Viridian Forest. As the screen cuts to them, Misty lets out a scream, seeing a Bug-typePokémon, which happens to be a Caterpie, revealing her fear of Bug Pokémon. She told Ash to do something about it, so he decided to throw a Poké Ball at it.

Misty participated in the Whirl Cup alongside Ash from Octillery the Outcast to The Perfect Match!. She defeated Ash in the second round and made it to the best eight of the competition before she narrowly lost to Trinity.

After Ash competed in the Silver Conference, however, her bicycle was repaired and returned to her by the Viridian City Nurse Joy. Misty was shown to be sad that she no longer had the convenient excuse to travel with Ash, especially when she saw that Ash hadn't learned that and had assumed she followed him because of her bike. In addition, her sisters Daisy, Lily, and Violet, called Misty at this time to tell her they were going on a world tour, and needed her to return to Cerulean and watch the Gym in their absence. However, Misty saw how Ash truly cared for her when he saved her from a trio ofPokémon gangsters. Misty wanted to stay with Ash, but felt it was her responsibility to take over the Gym, which would be shut down if left unattended.

Upon the return of her sisters, Misty remained the sole Cerulean Gym Leader. Since their return, only Daisy appears to spend any significant amount of time at the Gym. While working in the Gym, Misty sometimes receives help from Tracey when he is either visiting or running an errand for Professor Oak.

Advanced Generation series
Misty reappeared from The Princess and the Togepi to A Togepi Mirage!, where she met up with Ash and Brock again, along with meeting May and Max for the first time. InA Togepi Mirage, her Togepi evolved into a Togetic and helped defend the Togepi Paradise. Towards the end of the episode, Togetic decided to stay with the other Togepi to protect them, sharing one last tearful moment with Misty. She made a cameo appearance in both Saved by the Beldum andShocks and Bonds, where she was shown watching Ash competing in the Ever Grande Conference. She also made three more appearances in this series; from The Scheme Team to A Real Cleffa-Hanger, as well as The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon. She later appeared in flashbacks in Gathering the Gang of Four.

It was revealed in Cerulean Blues that Misty feared Gyarados, having climbed into one's mouth as a baby, and that she doubted her own ability to run Cerulean Gym alone. It wasn't until she selflessly protected her Gyarados from a Poison Sting assault that she was not only able to conquer her fears but regain the confidence to run the Gym with a now obedient Gyarados.

Character
Misty can be sweet and optimistic at times, but she is best known for how easily she can be angered or frustrated and how loud and violent she can become in response. She is very extreme in most of her moods and can switch between them quickly, but as time went on Misty mellowed. She is also picky and sensitive about love. There are many episodes where she is seen getting along with the younger siblings of the family, namely Mikey, Sakura, and Max. This stems from the fact that she understands what it's like to be the youngest because she has three older sisters.

Her goals are not as clear as those of the other main characters, since though her main interest is training Water-type Pokémon, there are many things she loves to do and she is very confident in her abilities in all aspects of life. Fishing is one of her hobbies and she even has a special lure which she designed to look like herself. In The Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing!, she sent one to Ash as a gift.

The one Pokémon type that Misty cannot stand is the Bug type; she tends to freak out in most cases whenever she encounters a Bug-type Pokémon, which was first demonstrated when she refused to befriend Ash's Caterpie. However, Bug Pokémon are only one of three things Misty strongly dislikes, the other two being carrots and peppers. The only Bug-type Pokémon Misty is not afraid of are the kinds that she deems "cute" or "pretty", like Ledyba and Butterfree, some belonging to her friends, like Tracey's Venonat and Ash's Heracross, or ones that don't look like bugs, such as Pineco.

Misty's usual hairstyle is a side ponytail which sticks out on the left side of her head. There are times she has let her hair down: sometimes when she goes to sleep, when wearing formal outfits like a kimono, or when wearing her mermaid costume in The Misty Mermaid and Cerulean Blues. In the original series, Misty is taller than Ash but shorter than Brock, but from the Advanced Generation series onward, she and Ash are the same height. She has worn three main outfits in the series and all of them sport the colors yellow, blue, and red.

Pokémon
Either through the tradition of her family's Gym or merely her love of them, Misty prefers to train Water-type Pokémon. She usually bases her choice of Pokémon to train by looks, preferring Pokémon that she thinks of as "cute" over ones that she thinks are "ugly," but is willing to overcome such differences. Her love of Water Pokémon stems from the fact that they are extremely flexible in battle, meaning that they can easily adapt to the opponent, as she stated in Some Like It Hot. Since becoming Gym Leader, she has overcome her fear of Gyarados and continues to learn more about caring and battling with Water Pokémon as challengers come to the Cerulean Gym.

This is a listing of Misty's Pokémon as of the most recent Japanese episode. As she is currently residing in the Cerulean Gym, all of her Pokémon are there and none are listed as "on hand."

Achievements

 * Beach Beauty and Pokémon Costume Contest - N/A (Beauty and the Beach)
 * Queen of the Princess Festival contest - Winner (Princess vs. Princess)
 * Seaking Catching Day - Winner (Hook, Line, and Stinker)
 * Pokémon Balloon Race - Winner (with Ash and Brock; tied withSkyler and Tenma; The Big Balloon Blow-Up)
 * Whirl Cup - Top 16 (The Perfect Match!)
 * Tour de Alto Mare - Winner (Pokémon Heroes: Latios & Latias)

Trivia

 * Even though Misty is said to be 10 in the anime, she is said to be 12 in The Electric Tale of Pikachu.
 * Misty is the only one of the main characters to have a Pokémon along with itsevolved form on her team at the same time.
 * Misty is the first of Ash's friends to challenge a Gym (albeit an unofficial Gym), since she challenged and tied with the unofficial Johto Water Gym Leader in Just Add Water.
 * She is the only main character to have Pokémon labeled as genderless in the games in her team. In fact, she has two, Staryu and Starmie.
 * She is the first main character to be seen owning a Generation II Pokémon, that Pokémon being Togepi.
 * Misty is the only one of her sisters not named after a flower, the names of her sisters being Daisy, Violet, and Lily. However, she does have the name for baby's breath in Japanese.
 * Misty is the first victim of the recurring gag in the anime where Ash's Pikachu shocks a main female character's bike or the character herself at the beginning of each series.
 * Misty is the female traveling companion to have appeared in the most amount of episodes, with 280 - Dawn is second with 200, May is third with 197 and Iris is last with 141.
 * Both Misty and Jessie were voiced by Rachael Lillis and then switched at some point to Michele Knotz.
 * Former director and storyboard artist of the Pokémon anime, Masamitsu Hidaka, stated in an interview that Misty will not return as a main character in future seasons, but she will continue to make guest appearances from time to time like she has in the past. He also mentioned Contests in connection with Misty, although the translator neglected to mention what was meant by this.