hi, i’m pikapikaabc — welcome to my little corner of tumblr.
this blog is dedicated to anime and games. i'll mainly be reposting, but i will occasionally have posts of me analyzing anime (mostly shipping and some character analyses). i started this blog because i was overthinking about how to reply to posts on reddit lmao. lowkey scared to post there sometimes, but that's why this corner is here, right? :D so i'll be posting some deep thoughts here instead of letting them live rent-free in my head.
✦ anime i like ✦
my anime journey started with pokémon and ojamajo doremi lol. based on these, you can probably guess how old i might be. nowadays, my fav animes are pokémon (particularly ag and d&p era), shingeki no kyojin, ao haru ride, kimi no todoke, and the love series of honeyworks (first gen mainly).
✦ games i like ✦
as you can guess, i also grew up with the pokémon games. my fav growing up was sapphire and pearl. i'm slowly getting back in to the games now that i own a nintendo switch.
i also enjoyed the harvest moon & rune factory games a lot. if you know the basis of these games, it's a lot of shipping involved lol. at least game wise, i probably won't be too deep in analysis, but i will enjoy an occasional post about the series.
✦ ships i like ✦
my shipping journey began with advanceshipping (ash/may) when ag 072 came out. after rewatching advanced again in middle school, i switched to contestshipping (drew/may) and they have been my fav shipping pair since. because i've had a looooong time to think about this pairing (esp since they haven't been in the anime for a while), my analysis on contestshipping is deep af. ready to throw hands if someone denies contestshipping's existence lmao.
i'm also absolutely obsessed with harumiou from honeyworks. we love our spring couple! haruki is also a big dummy but at least he came through in the end lol.
while some ships i like are canon, i feel like the ones that are more fun to talk about are the ones that could have been canon but aren't. so that being said, my other fav ones (that i'll talk about eventually) are giyushino and jeanpiku.
✦ wrapping up ✦
anyways if you got this far, thank you so much for reading this huge word jumbo lol. if you also enjoy an occasional deep talk about anime, you'll fit right in!
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Once more thinking about how Drew and Harley's reversed color schemes (green hair, purple jacket; purple hair, green clothes) mirror how they serve reversed roles to May despite fulfilling 'the same' role on the surface. They're both her rivals, they both push her competitively, but the motivation and modus operandi could not be any more different. It's a total 180.
Harley is nice to May on the surface and is disingenuously ebullient and complimentary, whereas Drew is at times overly critical to the point of it being uncalled for, and he's very closed off towards May at first. The difference being, Harley's praise is constantly misleading and manipulative, whereas Drew's criticisms, while acerbic, only ever include solid advice that seeks to improve May as a coordinator and trainer (and Drew gets gentler and more fond with his words over time). And Harley's rivalry with May stems from bitterness, manipulation, and questionable motive, and neither of them find much benefit from the rivalry, whereas Drew's rivalry with May stems from a genuine competitive spark and grown respect for each other as coordinators; and, notably, their rivalry with each other is each other's main source of growth. It's highly mutually beneficial, contrasting how May and Harley's rivalry is more of a hindrance to both parties than anything else, honestly.
I just think it's so neat how their flipped color palettes show how they're flipped versions of each other; there's one who wants the worst for May, and one who genuinely wants the best for her (while also finding the best in himself through it). Just... rivalry as conflict versus rivalry as synergy. I have so many thoughts about this.
when advanceshippers use drew’s “love bombing” as a reason to support advanceshipping over contestshipping lol.
putting contestshipping aside, drew is NOT a love bomber omg you’re misreading his character. he’s initially mean but he mellows out throughout the series. even from the get go, he was never malicious like harley was. and starting from the wynaut episode, his view of may shifts a lot and becomes a lot more friendly as a rival. he’s even helped may & friends a couple of times from harley’s schemes. at the end of the series, he helped may get over her grand festival loss.
ship advanceshipping because may and ash are cute together but please don’t mischaracterize drew as your reason to support it.
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I wasn't gonna do this, but I've read one too many comments in the year 2025 about Drew being worse than he actually is and it makes me wonder if we all watched the same show, so I'm gonna throw these ramblings out there—mainly for myself.
The intent isn't to convince anybody to like Drew. It's perfectly valid to not care about or dislike his character just like any other, but I do think the validity of the reasoning matters. He's boring/don't like his personality or character archetype? Valid, to each their own. Hate his design? Valid. Just don't like his vibes? All totally valid.
But if the reason behind feeling that way is because he's a legitimately snooty, rude jerk, I don't think that holds water at all. Especially if you get to the end of BF.
Useless rambling under the cut.
I'm gonna admit right here at the beginning that this is gonna be more along the lines of "why I think Drew is a great character" and won't only address why he's not a little asshole, but we'll get there. That being said, here are some of his redeeming qualities:
He works hard to be good at what he does
Frankly, this should be a given. We see him training his Pokemon or working on his routines all the time. He opts to skip out on social festivities so he can train because he's just that focused on achieving his goals and bettering himself. Does he gloat a lot? Of course, but we know that he's put in the necessary effort to get to where he is, and this leads into the next point regarding when he loses.
He isn't a sore loser
During the course of AG/BF, we see him sustain 4 losses: Grace, The Phantom/Timmy, Robert, and May (AG51, AG61, AG123, AG182). We also know that in the past, he'd suffered a crushing defeat to Solidad (AG180). At no point do we ever see him throw a fit over losing, nor does he hold a grudge against anybody he's lost to. Even against The Phantom, who grievously wounded his partner Pokemon, he's more worried about the state of his Pokemon than seeking revenge for his loss.
For someone who gloats the way he does, you would expect that kind of prideful attitude to carry over into his losses too, but it doesn't. Not even mentioning that we don't ever really see him gloating to anybody else outside of May and co. In the scenes where it really matters, the gloating jerk is nowhere to be seen.
He knows how to reflect on himself
This goes along with him not being a sore loser and a hard worker. Drew is, without a doubt, his own harshest critic. Keep in mind that he, like many other trainers/coordinators outside of the main characters, travels by himself. The only person we know he keeps in touch with periodically is Solidad, and she's stated that when they talk, they don't discuss contest strategies to each other (AG181). We never hear of his family situation at all, so for all we know, he doesn't have a support network the same way Ash and co do.
Despite all this, he's still managed to be as good as he is. This kind of improvement doesn't happen for anybody that doesn't take time out to consider their weaknesses and how to approach fixing them. When the cast finds Drew training Absol in AG181, we see Drew being critical of himself firsthand, blaming himself for his appeal not going as well as he wanted. The original line he says is 「僕が未熟だからです」, "Because I'm not good enough". It's not 僕ら/bokura here, which would include his Pokemon as well, it's just 僕/boku, himself.
One last thing about AG181/182 because this is actually just my excuse to blab about those episodes, but one of the important features of his match against May in the semifinals is that it's a clash of their ideals regarding how to raise their Pokemon. I think some people really harp on him for his outburst at May during that training scene, and I partially blame that on the dub having him call her a wimp. I'll quote the entire original exchange here with my own translation before I get into it.
Haruka: シュウ!失敗だったなんて…アブソルは一生懸命やってたしあんなにきれいに決めたのに…もっと褒めてあげてもいいんじゃないの?
(Shuu! Calling it [the appeal] a failure... Even though Absol did its best and did it so beautifully...would it be so bad to offer more praise?)
Shuu: ロゼリアもアメモースもフライゴンも常に上を目指してやってきた。一生懸命やったからって褒めるほど僕らは甘くない。君達とは違うんだ!
(Roselia, Masquerain, Flygon; they've always given 110%/aimed higher. We [Drew and his Pokemon] aren't so naive to think that just doing our best is praiseworthy. We're not like you guys!)
[Drew walks away here]
Haruka: みんなで頑張っても励まし合って優勝を目指すのは甘いことなの?ねえ、シュウ…
(Hey, Shuu...is it really naive to aim for victory through everyone doing their best and encouraging one another?)
I don't think I did justice to May's last line, but it's basically the "we'll get 'em next time, you were great" mentality. I'm going to be inserting my own personal opinion on self-improvement here, but I think Drew has a point. Improving yourself isn't doing your best, it's about being better than your best. There's nothing wrong with May's approach—that much is proven to Drew when she defeats him in the semifinals—but just like Drew's method, it doesn't work for everyone.
In the same way that Drew's method might feel too harsh on anyone that can't handle it, May's method assumes that encouragement and praise will always convince someone to work harder. There's a whole tangent I could go on about all this, but I'm digressing too much from my main point. As a final addition to this point, I do think it's naive to think positive reinforcement is all you need.
When Drew loses to May in AG182 after their disagreement in AG181, he acknowledges her side of their argument because the results are staring him in the face. A lot of people wanted him to apologize for yelling, but the look they share after the match is the apology. It's a recognition of her efforts and her methodology. There aren't any excuses for why he lost and no blame assigned anywhere. As a bonus, we also don't see him immediately start training after the Grand Festival ends like he did after the first one (although maybe he does after walking away, who knows).
Then we see him again in AG187 and, by his own admission, he's been spending the time since they last saw each other working on himself and his Pokemon. Note that in this same episode, he's noticeably nicer to May. He shows up and openly helps her through the funk she's in without any of the usual criticisms or goading that have been typical prior. Smells like character development.
He cares a great deal about not only his Pokemon, but Pokemon in general
I feel like this should also be pretty self-evident, but here we go. At various points, we see him taking care of and treating his own Pokemon well (Keeping Masquerain hydrated in AG122, petting Absol in AG182, feeding Roselia pokeblock in AG187, to name a couple). He's also shown to be torn up when Roselia gets seriously injured battling against The Phantom in AG61. Pretty typical for a trainer or coordinator worth their salt to care about their own Pokemon.
But we also get to see him care about Pokemon that aren't his. Despite how much he critiques May, it's always a critique of her and not her Pokemon. AG162 has Drew telling Ash to lay off of Sceptile because he's putting unnecessary pressure on him. AG139 has him giving up on capturing Arcanine despite the potential benefit because, and I quote from the original lines, 「久しぶりにポケモンたちの美しい愛情を見せてもらった。それで十分さ」("I got to see the beautiful love between Pokemon for the first time in a while. That's enough for me").
And then AG113 has one that gets lost in translation: the scene where May gets kidnapped and the Wynaut build a slide for him to get down from the cliff. What does he say before he uses them to get down? 「すまない!」("Sorry!"). He literally apologizes to the Wynaut before using their heads as a pathway instead of just thanking them for helping.
He's respectful and generally kind to his competition
Ignoring his treatment of May for a second, we've never seen him be mean to any of his other competitors or fellow coordinators. In fact, excluding the one time he pushed Ash to battle him (AG50), he's relatively civil with Ash and co too. He compliments Savannah on a good battle after defeating her in AG78, is nothing but kind and helpful to Brianna in AG162, and shows a great deal of respect towards Solidad and Robert.
With that out of the way, we can discuss his treatment of May, his main rival. Is he tough on her? Absolutely. He gloats and eggs her on and isn't afraid to criticize her when he thinks she's doing something wrong. But think about what kind of person May was, especially around the Rubello contest, and consider that she needed a reality check sometimes. Being critical of his first interaction with her makes sense to me, he's pretty properly mean there since they don't know anything about each other, but nearly every interaction after is "being cruel to be kind" coded.
To bolster this argument, we only need to look back at the clash from AG181 again. It's clearly established that Drew is the kind of person who takes a much more hardened approach to encouragement. Even if it makes him look like the bad guy, he pushes because he knows there's more potential to unlock. Most of his interactions with May are this in a nutshell.
And the kicker is that he really doesn't need to do all this. AG77 and AG187 imply that having fans isn't really something he thinks about when it comes to his coordinating career, and it puts him in an awkward spot when he's faced with the more overtly enthusiastic ones. Yet he's still willing to offer praise and advice to the ones who started their coordinating careers after being inspired by him, even if they might be his future competition. May is one of his direct competitors and he puts himself at a disadvantage trying to unlock her potential, but he does it anyway.
Also, side note but the actual character development from AG77 to AG187 is that he went from not giving out autographs to signing Nurse Joy's little photo book.
He's very perceptive
I added this point in just for fun, but he figures out Harley pretty quickly in AG122/123. Likewise, he catches wind of potential trouble happening in AG174/175 with Harley + Team Rocket. He wasn't there for everything that happened with Sceptile, but manages to zero in on the fact that he's not in the best shape pretty much immediately in AG162.
AG50 has him recognize the disconnect between Ash and his Taillow, as well as May's obvious lack of sync with her own Pokemon. AG187 has him correctly pinpoint May's current struggle (though this can be chalked up to him having been in a similar place in the past). There's also all the commentary he offers when he's sitting in the stands at contests.
He goes out of his way to help his rival and her entourage
This one sort of goes with the whole "being nice to his competition" point, but I separated it because he actually does this almost every time he appears, including his debut episode where he was at his meanest. If that doesn't show that he's not a complete asshat, I don't know what will. With that said, let's go through all the times he's given May and co some help.
AG33, his debut episode, he has no qualms at all about May cutting their battle short to go stop Team Rocket. Keep in mind that at this point, he knows zilch about who Team Rocket are and doesn't know May and her friends at all either. He just takes May at her word when she says they need those Bluk Berries for someone and helps the group take down Team Rocket, no questions asked.
AG35 has him dispelling May's nervousness before her turn on stage by egging her on.
AG50 has him witnessing May's failed attempted at combinations due to uncertainty. He does his whole gloating song and dance and then, very unusually, he challenges Ash to a battle after running into the rest of the group later on. This is something we never see him do again. Even stranger, he wants Ash to use Taillow specifically. Drew very pointedly doesn't decide to end the battle until May is in the vicinity to see it, and wouldn't you know it, he gives a whole speech about teamwork after defeating Ash. Gee, I wonder what lesson he's really trying to drive home here.
AG61 has him appear very briefly to lose a battle with The Phantom, but he still goes out of his way to inform May and co about the potential threat in the upcoming contest.
AG78 is when May starts letting her wins get to her head too much. Here again, he goes out of his way to give May advice regarding her current attitude. I can't remember what he says in the English dub, but his phrasing in the original line is kind of poetic: 「いつまでもそんな調子じゃリボンが泣くよ」("Keep that up and your ribbons will cry"). He and Brock exchange telepathic eye contact about it later when May blows up at Ash, recognizing that if verbal advice isn't going to dissuade her, then experience will.
AG113 sees him rescuing May from Team Rocket after they accidentally kidnap her, then teaming up to send them packing.
AG122/123, when Harley tries to trick May into getting eliminated from the Hoenn Grand Festival. Drew has his eye on Harley basically the entire time until he's certain the guy's up to no good. The moment he has confirmation, he tells May, then berates her for misplacing her faith. Even more, he's not telling her that she should've trusted him (he did warn her earlier, after all), he's reinforcing the idea that she should've trusted in herself and her Pokemon.
AG139, he's helping the gang again with defeating Team Rocket and rescuing the Arcanine and her pups.
AG174/175, he's keeping an eye on Ash and co as well as Harley and Team Rocket in secret. There's no reason at all for him to save them here, but he does it anyway. He also doesn't even mention that he saved them to May later when they interact, so if Ash and the others didn't say anything, he wouldn't have gotten credit for anything.
AG182, Drew offers May some advice regarding her upcoming match against Solidad.
And finally, AG187 where he has a hand in pulling May out of the depression she's been in. This one feels particularly egregious because what's he even doing there anyway? Same for Harley, who's also there for some reason.
If you've made it this far, congrats. The moral of this whole thing is that Drew is actually a pretty nice kid, even if he isn't the Ash-and-co brand of nice, and has tons of good qualities. You don't have to like him, but by AG187, it feels objectively wrong to make him out to be some asshole in any sense of the term.
I've been wanting to write this up for a while, and now that I've finished my JP AG watch, I can. As a companion piece to the post I had about localization changes that leaned into contestshipping (there's maybe one line I missed in that post), this one has some localization changes that took away from contestshipping.
Fair warning, but this is pretty long. All translations are mine; some of them may not be smooth because I wanted to try preserving the original line as much as possible.
I'd be remiss not to include this. Prior to AG113, Shuu refers to Haruka as "Haruka-kun", appending the -kun to her name as a means of condescension (when he isn't using kimi, "you"). This episode marks the moment he drops the -kun and calls her "Haruka" permanently. You won't miss the shift in their dynamic in the dub either, but in Japanese, it's made completely clear with this change.
Fun fact about Shuu: he only ever uses -kun or no honorific with Haruka. Every other character we see him interact with is -san out of politeness or distance, if he says their names at all. Satoshi and co are kimi-tachi ("you guys") and he never addresses Harley by anything, not even kimi.
AG123: Rhapsody in Drew (決戦!グランドフェスティバル➂!!)
English:
Caroline: May will give it her best, I'm sure of that.
Japanese:
Mitsuko「宿命の対決って感じね」
(It feels like a predestined/fated matchup, doesn't it?)
Haruka's mom says this line before the Haruka vs Shuu match begins. The rivalry is such a core component to Haruka and Shuu's relationship, one that's central to both Grand Festivals, and changing the line here feels like it shifts the focus to Haruka instead of their clashing as rivals.
宿命の対決 (shukumei no taiketsu) is a really battle shounen phrase, but I wanted to note the word shukumei ("something determined before birth that can't be avoided") because it comes up again later.
English:
Caroline: Yes, he's certainly a very good Trainer, huh? And I don't expect he's the type to take it easy on someone who's down either.
Japanese:
Mitsuko「確かにシュウ君ってすごい子ね。しかもなんだかハルカを挑発してるように見えるわ」
(Shuu-kun certainly is incredible. What's more, it almost seems like he's provoking Haruka)
Flygon dodges Combusken's attack and Haruka gets an eyeful of the sun. Takeshi then mentions how Shuu's making good use of the open stage. Mitsuko, however, doesn't feel like the move was purely strategic; he's purposefully drawing Haruka out too. It's a verbal acknowledgement of how they interact as rivals that we don't quite get from her dub line.
English:
Drew: I'm still determined to become the top coordinator someday. Hey, I'm already thinking about attacks I might wanna use in next year's festival!
Japanese:
Shuu「僕はトップコーディネーターを目指す。僕にしかできない方法でポケモンたちを輝かせるんだ」
(I'm aiming for Top Coordinator. I'll make my Pokemon shine in a way only I can)
I've got this one here because the 4Kids dub altering this line ends up looking silly when May calls back to it in The Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing! with the TPCi dub:
English:
May: Remember? When you told me you needed to find a battling style that was yours and only yours? Well, I want to find my own style too, and learn how to show off my Pokemon a lot better than I do now. All my own, like no one else!
Japanese:
Haruka「いつかシュウ言ってたよね?『自分にしかできない方法でポケモンたちを輝かせたい』って。私も自分だけの方法を見つけたい。もっともっとポケモンたちの魅力を引き出したい。私にしかできないやり方で!」
(You said it before, didn't you? "I want to make my Pokemon shine in a way only I can". I want to find my own way too, to draw out the charm of my Pokemon more and more. In a way only I can!)
With the dubbing company changing between S8 and S9, this was kind of out of their hands, but the mismatch means you might miss how influential that conversation on the beach is to her.
AG143: The Saffron Con (ポケモンコンテスト・ヤマブキ大会!(前編))
English:
Harley: I wonder if your little rival will enter this contest.
Japanese:
Harley「あ~ら、やっぱり二人は宿命のライバルなのねえ」
(Well now! So [as I thought] you two are predestined/fated rivals after all, huh?)
Here's that shukumei word again, this time in 宿命のライバル (shukumei no raibaru). Haruka and Harley both mention running into Shuu in Kanto and he says this line. It's another comment about their rivalry that gets lost in the dub, but also a small nod towards how convenient it is that they'd run into each other despite never talking about where they were planning to go.
English:
Brock: Gee Drew, why don't you tell us how you really feel?
Japanese:
Takeshi「全くシュウはハルカには厳しいな」
(Geez, you sure are tough on Haruka)
"Wasn't this in the other post?" Yep. One of the things this episode does in spades is show us the difference in how Shuu treats Haruka vs other people. This line, the way it's phrased in Japanese, serves a similar purpose. What Takeshi is saying is "I don't know about anyone else, but at least towards Haruka specifically, you're critical/harsh", highlighting the contrast.
English:
Brianna: C'mon, May! It seems to me your feelings for Drew go way beyond just contests and battling.
May: Huh? Me and Drew? He's just a rival, that's all!
Brianna: Oh yeah? Well, I wanna know if you like Drew!
May: Like him!? To be honest, I've never really given it that much thought...
Brianna: For your information, as soon as I win this, I'm telling him that I love him!
May: That's fine with me except for the 'soon as you win this' part.
Japanese:
Wakana「ハルカさん。結局ハルカさんってシュウ様のことどう思ってるんですか?」
(Haruka-san. So what/how do you think of Shuu-sama?)
Haruka「はあ?シュウはライバルよ。いつか絶対に勝ちたい相手」
(Huh? Shuu's my rival. Someone I absolutely wanna win against someday)
Wakana「そうじゃなくって。好きかどうかってことです」
(That's not what I mean. I'm asking whether you like him or not)
Haruka「好き!?そ…そんなこと意識したことないし…急に言われても…」
(Like him!? I...I've never considered it before...so even if you suddenly ask me...)
Wakana「私、ハルカさんに勝ったら、シュウ様に告白しようと思ってるんです」
(I'm thinking of confessing to Shuu-sama once I win against you)
Haruka「えっ!?あっ、ワカナがそう決めたんならそれでいいかも」
(Huh!? Um, if that's what you've decided, then [I guess] that's fine)
The part I wanted to highlight is how Wakana asks Haruka rather than the more pointed accusation in the dub, which colors how Haruka/May responds. The dub line feels like she understands the implication on some level, whereas the original line gives her that wiggle room to take the question at face value. "What/How do you think of Shuu?" → "He's my rival!"
She doesn't register her fixation as anything else, something Wakana picks up on, so it flows much better into the next set of lines when Wakana clarifies she meant "do you like him". Then she turns red, flounders with her answer, etc etc. This becomes relevant come The Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing!.
Detour note: Haruka has a habit of frequently ending her sentences with -kamo (short for kamoshirenai, an expression of uncertainty like "maybe"), which doesn't quite make it into the localization. Harley calls attention to it all the time, but it's usually treated more like white noise. I've written "I guess" in brackets for the last line to reflect that it's there.
AG174: New Plot, Odd Lot! (ハーリー&ロケット団!悪役同盟結成!?)
English:
Drew: Guess it had to be.
Japanese:
Shuu「そうこなくっちゃね」
(That's what I'm talking about/That's how it should be)
He has all of three lines in this episode (four if you count the flashback), but here's one where I don't think the localization really captures what he means. The phrase そうこなくっちゃ (sou konakuccha) is used often in response to something turning out the way you wanted, and he says it right after Haruka makes it past the appeal stage. The dub line is oddly more subdued than the original, which is kinda rare.
Extra tidbit, but he says this in his first appearance in Now That's Flower Power! too when Haruka agrees to battle him over the Bluk Berries.
AG181: Thinning the Hoard! (ハルカVSハーリー!ダブルバトルでステージ・オン!!)
English:
Harley: The poor little loser girl got her teeny feelings all hurt.
Japanese:
Harley「まあ、かもちゃんったらあんなに動揺しちゃって」
(My my, Kamo-chan's so shaken up)
Harley says this right after The Fight™. He orchestrates this altercation and his original line places emphasis on how much it affected her—an emphasis that sounds suspiciously like a line he's said before at a certain other Grand Festival (which got changed into the boyfriend line):
Harley「ふん。まさかシュウ君がこんなにあんたのこと気にしてたなんてね」
(Hmph. To think Shuu-kun would care/concern himself this much with you)
This was also in the other post, but I do think it's better than the boyfriend line even if it's not as funny. A decent chunk of Harley's commentary seems to exist to call attention to certain aspects of their relationship; these two lines are no different.
Side note, but if you have to watch any episodes of AG subbed/in Japanese, the Kanto GF arc is a good choice. The dub...certainly does a thing with some key lines.
AG187: The Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing! (ハルカVSシュウ!ライバルよ永遠に)
English:
May: You really gave me a shock back there. See, I was just thinking about you when all of a sudden, there you were.
Drew: Were they good thoughts?
May: Uh, c'mon! Of course they were!
Japanese:
Haruka「さっきはびっくりしたわ。シュウのこと考えてたらいきなり目の前に現れるんだもん」
(That was a surprise. I was thinking about you and suddenly, there you were)
Shuu「考えてた?」
(Thinking [about me]?)
Haruka「あ…いや、そういう意味じゃないの!」
(Ah, no, I didn't mean like that!)
Remember that exchange with Wakana in Spontaneous Combusken? Wakana asks her dou omotteru ("what/how do you think of—?) with romantic implications and Haruka answers at face value. Shuu asks her kangaeteta ("thinking?") with no implications and her immediate reaction is to not take it at face value.
This bit of dialogue provides continuity for the events of Spontaneous Combusken and is basically the only time Haruka reacts this way without some third party needling her. The dub change turns it into a funny but mostly forgettable interaction.
English:
Harley: How touching. It's dangerous~ Two kids alone like this.
May: Ah, c'mon! We were just talking! Really!
Japanese:
Harley「お二人さん!何やってんのよ、怪しいわね」
(Hey, you two! What's going on here? How suspicious)
Haruka「そんな!私たち別に…その…」
(No way! We're not really...um...)
I don't have much to say about this one—you can watch the scene yourself to hear the difference. If May had stuttered or sounded hesitant in the dub line, it'd be more accurate to the original.
A number of lines got omitted for one reason or another and I avoided cross-referencing tons of other episodes for some semblance of brevity, but if you made it this far, I appreciate your time
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ahhh yes so my first post is going to be about our beloved green hair boy. funny enough, i didn't care for drew when i first watched advanced but now he's one of my favorite characters of all time in pokémon.
not sure if this is going to be a total hot take, but i don't believe drew is overprotective or a jealous type, at least based on the series. drew is a naturally observant person and i think he steps in when it matters. overprotectiveness is kind of a stretch. people might think he fits the overprotective/jealous trope because he saves may and the gang twice via lingering in the background and stepping in when something goes wrong.
while i do think he has an interest in may since his debut, i don’t see these moments as him being overprotective or jealous. as her rival, he seems far more invested in beating her fair and square in contests rather than resort to dirty tricks like harley does.
the first instance of drew lurking in the background was at the hoenn grand festival. may's chances of advancing to the next round are jeopardized because harley convinced her to rely on a single move. drew isn't as trusting as may is, so it makes sense that he likely sus'd out harley's intentions early. this doesn't read as protectiveness to me, but more so awareness. drew's lurking came in clutch because thanks to him, may finally saw harley's real intentions.
the second instance was at the mulberry contest where drew saves ash and gang from team rocket. this part is more interpretation, but it's likely that drew noticed something off as well, which explains why he walked backstage even though he wasn't competing. when he saw ash them were already, he was about to go back to the contest when he overheard someone call ash for a "phone call from his mom". again, this feels like more like situational awareness.
so how does he notice tho? i think part of it is because he's interested in may — but it's also because she's his main rival. he pays attention to her, just as rivals are supposed to.
when may is blinded by her own confidence, like during the rubello contest, drew barely steps in. one can say that this was before they were more friendly rivals, but i can also see drew as the kind of rival who would rather let her learn on her own than interfere.
and while this didn’t happen in the anime, i’m also not sure if drew would have been jealous if other guys flirted with may. based on how he's written, he's generally pretty confident in himself and where he stands with her. i feel like he'd laugh it off or not react — unless someone was actively causing her harm. not saying he wouldn't feel jealousy, but i don't think he'd act on it, at least for the run of the advanced series.
✦ will drew be a overprotective, jealous type in the future? ✦
so everything above is based on how drew is written in the series. this section is more so if the franchise were ever to age the characters.
since i hope they're end game, i hope they do have a happy and healthy relationship :) i can see drew being protective of may in a general sense, but not in a controlling one. at this stage, their dynamic is like observant boy + naive girl — so it makes sense he'd look out for her. though he might scold her afterwards for being a little too trusting.
as for the jealous type? i don't see drew as a domineering jealous type, but i can see him as a silent jealous type. the only situation where i could see him crossing into something harsher is if he genuinely lost his cool — like at the kanto grand festival — but that would be an exception, not a norm. tbh, i doubt may as a partner would push him far enough for that happen in the first place.
✦ character vs. trope ✦
overall, i think drew is often misread because fandom tends to project the wrong kind of intensity onto him. in canon, he's usually observant and steps in when it matters — and that's why the overprotective or jealous type doesn't really fit how he's written.
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What are your top 5 favorite contestshipping moments and why?
5.
AG113 is overall an important episode for May and Drew’s relationship. It’s the first time May and Drew are together outside the context of their rivalry, and here, Drew is able to see May in the light that she is a girl and not just another coordinator. I would mark the above as the moment when Drew actually feels a genuine spark of affection toward May. In the Japanese translation, Shuu drops the honorific he uses for Haruka shortly after this scene, further indicating there’s been a change in the way he views her.
4.
May: Done this before, right?
Drew: You talk too much.
Role reversal! May is the one who gets to rib Drew for once, when it’s usually Drew doing all the teasing. It’s a nice, lighthearted moment for them. Moreover, it demonstrates a kind of familiarity in their relationship that wasn’t there before.
3.
If AG113 was when Drew began to harbor genuine affection toward May, then AG162 was when May, late to the game as usual, began to realize she might have feelings for Drew, too. Earlier in the episode, Brianna confronted May about her relationship with Drew, and she blushed, admitting she hadn’t really thought about it. Well, she’s thinking about it here.
2.
May: Well, I want to find my own style, too! and learn how to show off my Pokemon a lot better than I do now—all my own like no one else.
Drew: [Chuckles] Sounds good.
I will never shut up about this scene. The way he looks at her tells you exactly how he feels about her. He’s watched her transform from a clumsy rookie coordinator into a skilled performer, and she’s grown into his rival and love interest in that time.
1.
Drew: Man, that girl never fails to surprise me.
THERE IT IS. THERE IT IS RIGHT THERE. THERE’S THE REASON WHY MAY, ABOVE ANYONE ELSE, IS DREW’S TRUE RIVAL AND THE ONLY PERSON WHO COULD SUSTAIN HIS ATTENTION LONG ENOUGH FOR HIM TO FALL COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY HEAD OVER HEELS IN LOVE. She surprises him. She’s surprised him from the very beginning—from the first time they met, to the first contest in which they competed… In fact, nearly every episode in which Drew appears involves May somehow surprising him, whether it be by her skill or her compassion or her love toward people and Pokemon.
And he’s in awe of her. He receives loads of attention — unwanted attention — from nearly everyone who surrounds him, but the only person he wants to notice him is May. And he spends the entirety of their relationship doing anything he can to get it.
DUDE STUPID ASS SHIT POST BUT THIS IS IMPORTANT I REALIZED SOMETHING
OK so i was farming berries in hyperspace lumiose in the PLZA dlc, and almost immediately ran into a fucking shiny male alpha roselia. now usually this isn't much of a surprise to me, but when i made photos of my trainer and it and talking w my gf about it i realized something.
THESE FUCKERS. HAVE THE SAME COLOR PALETTE.
ROSELIAS PURPLE ROSE? DREW'S JACKET.
ROSELIA'S BLACK ROSE? DREW'S SWEATSHIRT.
AND THE FACT THAT ROSELIA IS GREEN, LIKE HIS HAIR (as it should), ALONG W THE FACT HE FUCKING HAS A ROSELIA N ROSES R HIS ENTIRE PERSONALITY?? OKAY??? i'm fangirling. screaming crying throwing up. this might be wishful thinking but im onto something this is not a coincidence i TELL YOU.