I’ll just be considering the 5 main pre-SM Pokegirls (so no Bonnie, Lillie, Mallow and Lana).
— Bond With Ash
1. Serena
2. Misty
3. May
4. Dawn
5. Iris
This 1 easily goes to Serena. Her feelings started as blind infatuation, but gradually blossomed into feelings of genuine love espciallly after seeing Ash’s imperfections as a person. We know that Ash at the very least acknowledges and accepts her feelings given that he didn’t reject her kiss and also given that it was Ash who was shown remembering the major Amour moments in his final flashback sequence including a seemingly random moment where he fell on Serena in XYZ 22. Whether he reciprocates romantically is up for debate though regardless the writers have made it clear that Serena is currently meant to be Ash’s end game (even if we end up never actually seeing that end point). It should be noted that Ash and Serena have a very strong platonic connection as well with Ash inspiring Serena to better herself as a person and Serena motivating Ash to persevere and also to stay true to himself. Finally regardless of the current nature of Ash’s feelings for Serena, it’s clear that Ash values her over all of his other female companions since Ash never did what he did for Serena in XYZ 45 with any other pokegirl.
For the record I do not acknowledge Ash as a 10 year old or at least as a 10 year old by the standards of our world (I’ve already gone over the contradiction that arises from accepting Ash to be 10). In the same vein I don't acknowledge Serena as being 10 since you only need to be at least 10 and not exactly 10 in order to get your first Pokémon and before wanting to meet Ash Serena had no need of getting a partner pokemon since at the time she was training to be a Ryhorn racer at home. May and Dawn on the other hand both either wanted to or were encouraged to start their journey ASAP hence why they’d be 10 as of their debut. Just a heads up that I’m assessing Ash as a person who has gradually grown throughout his journey.
Misty was of course Ash’s first traveling companion and the 2 gradually went from being at odds with each other to being very close friends with teases of them possibly being romantically interested in each other especially in the Orange Islands series. My interpretation is that Misty and Ash were at some point attracted to each other though they couldn’t understand those feelings due to being too young during OS; however, when they needed to part Ash pretty much friend zones her after which all of their interactions in AG and SM are primarily platonic indicating that Misty has accepted how Ash feels about her and has moved on. Even with all of that in mind the 2 have an extremely strong bond given that Misty spent the most time with Ash out of any pokegirl and how emotional their parting was.
It’s a really tough call between Dawn and May. Ash served as a mentor figure to both of them and developed close friendships with them. Basically Ash was more influential to May than he was to Dawn since May tried to model aspects of herself after Ash in particular her battle style and this was due to not having a strong identity at the start of the series in contrast with Dawn; however, Dawn was more influential to Ash by doing stuff like cheering for him during gym battles and also providing Ash inspiration for some of his strategies (e.g. spin dodging, Ice Aqua Jet, Counter Shield). I’m giving May a minute edge due to her climactic contest battle with Ash and subsequent half ribbon that symbolized their friendship though Dawn despite being fourth for me had a really strong bond with Ash as well.
Yeah the BW tiro split held no emotional weight whatsoever; that should make it obvious how little Ash and Iris cared about each other relative to Ash’s other pokegirl relationships.
— Goal Improvement
1. Dawn
2. May
3. Serena
4. Misty
5. Iris
This category hands down goes to Dawn. Dawn initially thought she knew what it took to be a good co-ordinator though she was given a rude awakening. The main improvement is that she made was a switch from prioritizing the display of her Pokémon’s moves to prioritizing the display of the Pokémon themselves. What makes Dawn’s improvemnt atandout is not the quantity of improvement, but rather the detail and care given to illustrating where she was deficient and how she had since corrected that flaw not to mention the execution of how she became aware of the issue as well the journey she had taken before realizing how to resolve said issue. I also appreciate how emphasized Dawn’s training was as well as how intricate her combinations became as the series went by.
May and Serena both started out as not having a goal and while both of these cases had their own writing problems, I prefer how Serena’s was handled due to her actually trying other things before deciding to go all-in on showcases (gained a better appreciation for Ryhorn Racing, Battling (against TRio though what’s important is that she explicitly took note of battling as something she could do), Grooming, Pokevision and Baking), and while it was convenient that showcases incorporated a lot of what she had previously tried, I appreciate the underlying message that nothing you do in life is meaningless. Both May and Serena’s rate of improvement at their goal seemed undeserved to a degree though still May did struggle considerably more due to having far better rivals in the form of Drew and Harley in addition to her vanity mini arc. May truly came into her own during her return arc where she finally found her own distinct style after leaving Ash and this improvement is what gives her the edge over Serena (in this category) for me.
Honestly I’ve never been a fan of how this show handled type master goals. On the 1 hand Misty actually caught a good number of water Pokémon though on the other hand Iris was more pro-active in developing her skills by participating in several battle tournaments and emotionally connecting with several dragon type Pokémon. Yes there was the Whirl Cup arc though that on its own doesn’t make up for the lack of progress Misty made towards her goal throughout OS. Iris would’ve gotten the 4th spot for me if it was for 1 tiny issue; her Axew didn’t evolve even once! Her initial goal was to fully evolve Axew and yet she couldn’t make any progress towards that over the course of an entire series + a special. I’m not saying it had to become a Haxorous though it should have at least become a Fraxure towards the end of BW or in the special in order to show progress for Iris. Instead Iris just seems incompetent for not being able to evolve a Pokémon that explicitly wants to evolve. Despite this I would’ve put her over Misty if it weren’t for SM doing a good job at illustrating her progression by showing that she’s obtained a strong bond with a Gyarados (a species that she previously hated) to the point where she can use Mega Evolution.
— Looks
1. May
2. Serena
3. Misty
4. Iris
5. Dawn
May definitively has my favorite pokegirl design. I really like the extreme dark and light combinations of colors on her clothes and her bandanna is flipping aweosme. Serena’s design (after she cut her hair) gives a very classy and mature vibe. How do I say this; her design looks pretty but it isn’t sexualized unlike Misty, May and Dawn all of whom in one way or another seemed more sexualized (e.g. bikini outfits for Misty, May’s unrealistic breast size for her age in AG and Dawn showing way too much leg). Even when she wore that Fennikin oufit or wore supposedly “skimpy” (according to some people) outfits for her performances, she always maintained her classiness (for me anyways). Misty had an interesting design which could come off as tomboyish or feminine depending on her mood. While I did criticize Misty for being sexualized at times, I also think Misty could look really classy when she wanted to such as her kimono and mermaid outfits. Iris’s hair is wierd though it does symbolize her fiery spirit, so it’s not all bad. Dawn’s hat is a repulsive abomination that should be eviscerated from the face of existence... that is alll.
— Pokémon
1. Dawn
2. May
3. Iris
4. Serena
5. Misty
Dawn wins this category by a lanslide. All of her Pokémon had distinct and vibrant personalities with most of them having a good degree of depth. May’s Pokémon also had their moments though overall their personalities didn’t have the detail and nuance of Dawn’s; her Blaziken was especially awesome though. Iris is placed where she is primarily due to the badassary of her Dragonite as well as the character arcs for Excadril and Dragonite gaining trust and respect for Iris as a trainer. Serena only had 3 Pokémon but had an intimate connection with all of them. Misty on the other had many Pokémon with “fodder” or bare bone personalities. Her highlights would be Psyduck, Togepi, Politoed, and her Gyarados after she left Ash though I don’t think it was enough to put her over any of the others. I could go into lot of detail regarding each of the pokegirls’ Pokémon though this post is getting way too long.
Here are 2 additional categories that I think are the most essential to determining which Pokégirl was the best. I won’t go into detail on them in this post though I’ll probably critique the pokegirls on these aspects in a future post. Here they are:
— Characterization
1. Dawn
2. Serena
3. Misty
4. May
5. Iris
— Character Development
1. Serena
2. Dawn
3. May
4. Iris
5. Misty
Overall: Dawn >= Serena > May >> Misty > Iris
Basically when being critical I think Dawn is the overall best written pokegirl in the show (though Serena isn’t far behind); however, I think Serena is my favorite pokegirl because of her relationship with Ash (note that even without Amour I still consider Serena to be 2nd only to Dawn). It boils down to a “head vs heart” issue for me though I’m the type of guy to go with my head more often than not hence why I’d award Dawn the title of best pokegirl!
