May (anime)

May is a young and energetic Pokémon Coordinator who is currently travelling through various regions to compete in Pokémon Contests. She started her journey traveling throughout the Hoenn region accompanying Ash Ketchum and Brock, along with her brother Max. On the way to the Grand Festival, she met Harley and Drew. When Ash and Brock left for Sinnoh, she goes to Johto alone without Max. She appears in a few episodes of Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl where she traveled to Sinnoh to compete in the Wallace Cup. She reappears in a flashback in "The Dream Continues!".
==Appearance==
May is a skinny girl of average height with long, chocolate-brown hair that has a single fringe at the center with three edges secured by a red and white bandana. She has blue eyes with long eyelashes with her single fringe on her brown long hair is nearly identical to Norman's (May's father).
===Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire===
She wears a red short-sleeved shirt with a navy blue semi-circle on it, a yellow fanny pack, white gloves with navy fingertips, a white mini skirt over dark blue cycle shorts, and black ankle socks along with red shoes with black and yellow stripes. Her most common swimsuit in this series is a yellow bikini with boyshorts bottom, but she has also worn a green bikini.
===Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl===
She is wearing her Emerald-based outfit. This is a sleeveless orange tunic with a black collar, white gloves with black fingertips, and white pockets and stripes over black cycle shorts. She also has a mint green fanny pack, a green and white kerchief, the same black ankle socks and orange, white and black shoes.
May wore a special outfit for one of her contests, namely the Wallace Cup. This outfit is an Arabic-themed pearl-pink veil which has a green gem at the top, pink top with saffron borders and heart on the chest area, lilac-purple long skirt with a pink fabric in her waist, saffron-colored necklace with a red heart-shaped gem, and brown flip-flop shoes with toe rings. In this outfit, her entire midriff and belly button are uncovered.
In her cosplay as Nurse Joy, she wears a pink mini-dress, white dress coat, a nursing cap with a pink cross, and white Mary Jane flats, basically the outfit worn by Nurse Joys in the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh regions. In the Diamond and Pearl series, she was shown wearing orange and white pajamas.
In her cameo appearance in Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series in her battle against Serena as well as watching the final battle between Ash and Leon, she wears a contest outfit; a shades of pink, purple and white top to reveal her midriff with a shades of pink and purple bow adorned on her top, her white sleeves reach to her elbows with frill designs at the edge, a matching shades of pink, purple and white party skirt with frilly designs and pink and purple tutu shoes. She also accessorize with a pink ribbon with yellow, pink and purple hanging loose and a yellow bracelet on her left wrist.
==Personality==
Despite her beauty, May is a sweet, very kind-hearted, optimistic, energetic, cheerful, and beautiful girl, who would love to eat desserts, try different foods in every town she visits and would help people in need. Like Misty, May can get very angry and hot-tempered at times when disagreeing with either Max (May's younger brother) or Ash Ketchum, but May is able to overcome her fear of Bug-type Pokémon. However, she can get very sad, especially when she loses a Contest, but does her best to prevail. She is also shown to have a side for romance, though on rare occasions. However, she became angry at her Munchlax because it was eating food that belonged to someone else and ran off when she didn't keep an eye on it, she had Max give Munchlax "pink surprise" in order to stop Munchlax's appetite and prevent it from eating.
At the start of her journey, May didn't like Pokémon as she only wanted to start her journey just so she can travel and visit places. However, her encounter with Ash and Brock changed that and her love for Pokémon began to grow steadily.
==Skills==
May has a knack for finding various food places to eat, which amazed her friends. May has grown to make good Pokéblocks. Even with the recipe from Professor Oak that could satisfy Snorlax's appetite. She also became a good battler and performer for her contests.
==Relationships==
===Family===
====Norman and Caroline====
Caroline and Norman are the parents of May and Max. May cares deeply for her parents that she would do anything to make her parents proud and get their support, but May felt let down when her dad lost to Ash in their gym battle, but she knew her father fought hard, which she felt was what mattered to her. She was bummed out when her mother couldn't come to the Kanto grand festival to watch her, but understood her reasons and she was happy that she had her mother's support.
====Max====
Max is May's younger brother who fight a little bit like most siblings do, but they do care about each other no matter what happens. Despite their sibling rivalry, May would go out of her way for him, especially if they get separated or if he is sick or needs protection. After making the decision to travel to Johto alone, May decided to have Max return home in Hoenn as she knew if he went with her she would start to depend on him. Despite being apart, May knows that she'll always have Max's support no matter where her journey takes her and will be waiting for her visits.
===Friends===
====Ash====
May met Ash when he witness him trying to save his Pikachu from danger when he was confused from an Electric build up, after an accident caused by Team Rocket. Like with Misty, May got her bike fried by Ash and his Pikachu accidentally. However, in contrast to Misty, while May considered Ash and Pikachu responsible for her bike's destruction, she didn't blow her top nor scolded them for it as not only did she understood it wasn't on purpose and forgot about it, but she also never demanded payback as she immediately understood how much Ash has been taking care of his Pikachu. Instead, May simply guilt tripped her accidentally destroyed bike on Ash and hesitantly asked to travel with him, which worked. Overtime, May and Ash developed a fond sibling-like relationship over their traveling period together. Through their journey, May would go to Ash for help or advice and she would have practice battles together. Much like with Max, however, May sometimes has fights with Ash, with one of their fights resulting in them to almost lose their friendship, but they make up in the end. May and Ash have shown numerous times that they are best friends. May and Ash went their separates ways to pursue their goals but promises to always be friends till the end.
====Brock====
May sometimes is exasperated by Brock's constant falling-in-love with most girls he meets. She thinks he might be a nuisance but doesn't deny the fact that he is a great cook and has a good reputation with Pokémon. She thinks she had a lot to learn from him, always curious about how to treat a Pokémon properly. May also considers Brock a close friend. May went her separates ways from Brock but will always consider him a friend not matter where she goes.
====Misty====
Even if May and Misty weren't with each other for that long, they became very good friends towards each other. They bonded during the incident at the Mirage Kingdom when Togepi was kidnapped. They met up again in Kanto when Ash was about to challenge the Battle Frontier, teaming up to defeat Team Rocket with Misty's Azurill and May's Combusken. Finally, they teamed up again at the Mirage Mansion, where they took on the Mirage Master after he used Mirage Pokémon to kidnap Professor Oak.
Whenever Misty was in trouble May would be there for her. Also, May was instantly impress by the way she handle Brock's habit of being smitten with girls.
====Dawn====
Although she haven't really shared a long bonding time with Dawn, during their Wallace Cup battling, it is seen that she greatly admires and respect Dawn's coordinating skills. Their friendship is not yet deeply developed but it is clear that they both have positive appreciation for each other.
===Rivals===
====Drew====
At first, his first impression towards her was bad and ill-mannered. He commented on her lack of confidence a skills, thus agitating May. But as the series went on, Drew seemed to genuinely care for May; appearing at a contest he's not competing just to see her and even coming to her rescue when she was being tricked into using the wrong skills at a contest. It is even seen that he was at one point holding her hand while they were falling down a water fall. He always seems to produce a thorn-less rose for her, always insisting that it was for her Pokémon, Beautifly, but it's obviously for May. He is even heard to be referred as her "boyfriend" by a third party but never denied the fact.
====Harley====
May and Harley were friendly to each other when they first meet. However, May and Harley in the end became rivals over being friends. May gets annoyed with Harley and even sometimes feels scared to be around him. Harley would sometimes try to make May lose the contest.
====Solidad====
Although they became rivals when they first meet but they became friends as well. Despite spending a little time together, May has great respect for Solidad and she in return helped her when she needed the most.
===Pokémon===
====Blaziken====
Blaziken is May's first Pokémon, partner and one of her best friends as she had it since it was a Torchic. May cares very much for Blaziken as it was one of the few Pokémon that changed her opinion about them. When she became a coordinator, May didn't use Blaziken while it was a Torchic but when it evolved into Combusken she used it in a lot of her contests. Also, May would have Blaziken come out for battle due to being her ace battler as both times were shown when it was still a Combusken and when it evolved into its final stage. May has Blaziken continue traveling with her to pursue her dream.
====Beautifly====
Beautifly was the first Pokémon she ever caught and during her travels in Hoenn as she first caught it as a Wurmple. May has a very close relationship with Beautifly due to it being one of the Pokémon that changed her opinion about them. Also, May raised Beautifly well and it would't have evolved into Silcoon and into its final stage without it. May used Beautifly in a lot of her contests due to it being her ace in that area but she has used in battles as well. After separating from Ash, May brought Beautifly back to help her become a stronger coordinator.
====Skitty====
May instantly found Skitty cute and wanted to catch it right away. Although, May got her wish and got Skitty as a new friend along with it becoming her second Pokémon she caught in Hoenn. However, May had some trouble with Skitty due to its playful nature but still cared about it despite it. Over time, May got Skitty to mellow out a little and became one of experienced Pokémon for contests. May calls on Skitty in a lot of contests, after partying ways from Ash.
====Venusaur====
May has known her third Pokémon from Hoenn Venusaur since she was a Bulbasaur and they instantly became friends when they first meet. During their time together, May help Venusaur in her confidences and abilities. Through a suggestion of Professor Oak, May left Venusaur with him to help her grow and knowing that Ash's Bulbasaur can help her in that growth. After returning from Battle Frontier, May got Venusaur back from Professor Oak and after that she evolved into Ivysaur then evolved again into her final stage.
====Munchlax====
When she first meet it, May was instantly excited that Munchlax liked her Pokéblock. However, hearing that other Trainers were accusing it of stealing theirs, May jumped to Munchlax defenses and decided to catch it. After realizing who the real culprits, Team Rocket, were and stopped them, May made her move and caught Munchlax as her fourth Pokémon from Hoenn. May and Munchlax formed a friendship with one another but she does get annoyed with it sometimes. Also, May and Munchlax enjoy eating food. Although she didn't use it in the Grand Festival in Hoenn, May decided to have Munchlax make its debut in the Kanto contests and has proven a big help for her. May usually has Munchlax stay with her during her journey as she lets it outside its PokéBall every now and then.
====Wartortle====
May first meet Wartortle during its time as a Squirtle as it instantly took a liking to her and picked her as its Trainer right away. Seeing its natural talent for Pokémon Contest, May used Wartortle in her contest and grew a lot in them even after it evolved.
====Glaceon====
May received Glaceon when it was an egg and hatched into an Eevee. After hatching, May and Glaceon became close friends with one another. May had Glaceon watch her contest before entering it in them and she trained it very hard for them as well. After evolving and losing in the Wallace Cup, May assured Glaceon that it did its best and she was very proud of it.
==Biography==
===Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire===
May is a Pokémon coordinator from Petalburg City and is the daughter of the Hoenn Pokémon League Petalburg City Gym Leader, Norman, and sister of Max. She met Ash Ketchum in Hoenn and started traveling with him after obtaining her first Pokémon, Torchic. She has rivalries from some contest participants, Drew, Harley, and Jessie of Team Rocket, and goes on to win many contests. She picked Torchic as her first Pokémon and Squirtle as her first Kanto Pokémon.
She loves cute and pretty Pokémon and flashy techniques, competing in contests and making her own Pokéblocks with recipes that she thinks up. "May's Purple Surprise" and "May's Pink Surprise" were such examples, as everyone else rejected them after tasting them, while the only ones who liked her Pink/Purple Surprise are her Munchlax and Jessie.
When May saw a contest battle for the first time, she decided to become a Coordinator. She then had to overcome her fear of Bug-type Pokémon by raising her Wurmple into a Beautifly.
While Ash and Brock chose to travel to Sinnoh, May decided to follow her rivals to Johto.
===Pokemon the Series: Diamond and Pearl===
May meets up with Ash, Brock, and Dawn in Sinnoh, wearing a green bandanna like her game counterpart in Pokémon Emerald, then sometime later participates in the Wallace Cup at Lake Valor. Dawn once referred to her as "Princess" which makes the fact that she has an unknown identification believable.
After losing to Dawn in the Wallace Cup Finals, she leaves the group to continue her journey in Johto and participate in Pokémon Contests there.
She would use her Combusken's Fire Spin and her Squirtle's Bubble to create a combination of Fire and Water, which was dubbed by Lillian's Medichan as a Fire and Water Whirlwind. She was able to knock-out Drew's Flygon and his Absol. During her journey she won numerous ribbons in both Hoenn and Kanto and she is still using those skills and talents in Johto currently. But May did reappear during the Sinnoh saga in four episodes meeting Ash, Pikachu, Brock, Dawn and Zoey for the Wallace Cup. May also has a personal ending theme song called I Won't Lose also called Haruka's theme in Japan in two episodes of the Pokémon anime's Kanto Battle Frontier saga the theme was used as background music in Curbing the Crimson Tide! and again in the next episode What I Did For Love!. It was also used during the Sinnoh Wallace Cup saga.
===Pokémon Journeys: The Series===
May was shown in flashbacks and non-speaking cameos. She reappeared in person watching Ash's match against Leon, alongside Max and Serena. It is also revealed that May and Max met Serena offscreen and even befriended.
==Pokémon==
===In rotation===
===Befriended===
===Borrowed===
===Traveled with===
==Achievements==
*Pokémon Contests
**Slateport Contest: Top 8
**Rubello Contest: Top 4
**Wisteria Contest: Runner-Up
**Unofficial Terracotta Contest: Winner (tied with Ash)
**Wallace Cup: Runner-Up
*Crossgate Town PokéRinger: Group Stage
*Pokémon Orienteering: Runner-Up
*May placed in the following Grand Festival competitions:
**Hoenn Grand Festival (Quarter-Finalist)
**Kanto Grand Festival (Semi-Finalist)
===Ribbons===
Ribbon 	Competed against
Fallarbor Town Ribbon 	She won against Grace and her Medicham with her Beautifly.
Verdanturf Town Ribbon 	She won against the Phantom's (Timmy)'s Dusclops with her newly acquired Skitty.
Lilycove City Ribbon 	She fought against Kelly's Grumpig with her newly evolved Combusken which had a few power control issues.
Izabe Island Ribbon 	She won against her new rival Harley and his Cacturne with her Bulbasaur.
Pacifidlog Town Ribbon 	She won against a jealous girl called Erica and her Jynx with her Skitty.
Saffron City Ribbon 	Won again against her rival Harley with her new baby Squirtle and Combusken.
Silver Town Ribbon 	She won against wannabe rockstar Jeremey and his Venusaur with her Squirtle and Combusken.
Chrysanthemum Island Ribbon	Battled against a girl in love with Drew by the name of Brianna and her Vibrava with her Munchlax and Combusken.
Gardenia Town Ribbon 	She won against Brock and his Marshtomp with her Squirtle and Eevee.
Mulberry City Ribbon 	She was able to win her fifth ribbon in Kanto against Jessie with her Squirtle and Combusken.
Teracotta Town Ribbon 	Getting half by tying with Ash's Sceptile, where she used Blaziken (unofficial).
Johto Ribbon 1 	It was revealed in DP 76 that May has won three Ribbons in Johto.
Johto Ribbon 2 	It was revealed in DP 76 that May has won three Ribbons in Johto.
Johto Ribbon 3 	It was revealed in DP 76 that May has won three Ribbons in Johto.
==Voice actors==
*English:
**Veronica Taylor (Seasons 6–8) (4Kids)
**Michele Knotz (Seasons 9, 11) (PUSA/TPCi)
*Japanese: KAORI (credited as Kaori Suzuki since Season 11)
*Dutch: Nicoline van Doorn
*Greek: Yro Loupi (Season 6–8), Stella Bonatsou (Season 9)
*Spanish: Cristina Yuste
*Iberian Spanish: Mariana Ortiz
*Polish: Julita Kozuszek-Borsuk
*Korean Hyejeong Seo
*Russian: Zhanna Nikonova
*French: Maia Baran, Isabelle Volpe (Movie 6), Laurence Sacquet (Movie 7)
*German: Nicola Grupe, Stephanie Kellner (Movie 6 and 7)
*Italian: Serena Clerici
*Filipino: Charmaine Cordoviz
*Czech: Klara Sumanova
*Portuguese: Carla (Season 6–8), Isabel Ribas (Season 9), Marta Mota (Season 11)
*Mandarin: Fu Manjun
*Danish: Annevig Schlede-Ebbe
*Brazilian Portuguese: Tatiane Keplmair
*Iberian Spanish: Ana Lobo, Liliana Barba, Mariana Ortiz, Agustina Priscila
*Thai: Arunee Nuntiwass
*Hebrew: Dawn Lanny-Gabay
*Serbian: Марија Дакић / Marija Dakić
*Hindi:
**Urvi Ashar (Cartoon Network dub)
**Neshma Chemburkar (Hungama dub)
==Trivia==
*May had been voiced by the same voice actors:
**In Seasons 6–8, May shared the same voice actress as Ash Ketchum and his mom Delia Ketchum: Veronica Taylor.
**In Season 9, she shared the same voice actress as Misty and Jessie: Michele Knotz.
*May has owned two Pokémon and befriended one Legendary Pokémon from the fourth generation:
**Munchlax
**Glaceon (can only evolve from Eevee in Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Hoenn, Alola if it leveled up in an area containing an Ice Rock and it can evolve via an Ice Stone in Generation VIII)
**She had befriended a Mythical Pokémon named Manaphy.
*Currently, May has the most starter Pokémon out of all of Ash's traveling companions as she originally owns 4:
**Bulbasaur
**Squirtle
**Torchic
**Eevee
*The first Pokémon May used in fact was not Torchic but a Mudkip. However, she did not know how to command it to attack Poochyena and it ended up spraying her with a Water Gun attack.
*May shares some Pokémon in common with Ash:
**Their first caught Pokémon is a type:
***Caterpie for Ash
***Wurmple for May
****May and Jessie were both hoping for Beautifly after they both caught a Wurmple. May was the lucky one when she actually got Beautifly as nobody (except Professor Birch, James and Meowth) knew that Jessie's Wurmple was actually evolving into Cascoon, which then evolved into the Bug/Poison Pokémon called Dustox. 
**They both have members of the Bulbasaur and Squirtle evolutionary lines. While Ash's Bulbasaur and Squirtle are still in base form, May's have both evolved at least once.
**They both had them alongside their fully-evolved -type starter (Ash's Charizard and May's Blaziken, respectively).
*May is the first major female character to:
**Be from Hoenn.
**Have a caught or received a , , and -type Pokémon.
**Have or had caught or received a pure , , and -type Pokémon.
**Have a single type Pokémon change to a dual type upon evolving.
**Have caught or received a member or more from the Generation III and IV groups.
**Have more than one -type.
**Have a type first partner Pokémon as her Starter.
**Have a and type first partner Pokémon.
**Have two starter Pokémon from the same region.
**Have a fully evolved -type, , -type and -type Starter Pokémon.
**Have a one type change its type upon evolving.
**Have her Pokémon evolve off-screen.
**Have her Pokémon team in rotation.
*May is the latest female character to start with an M, and end with a Y, following Misty, Melody and Molly.
*In the Hoenn Grand Festival, Harley suspects that Drew and May have feelings for one another as Harley calls him "her annoying boyfriend".
*Although not appearing in-person in Pokémon Journeys: The Series, May was implicitly referenced by Serena in Reuniting for the First Time! by her title “Princess of Hoenn”.
*May's Japanese voice actress, KAORI, came down with a variation of the debilitating disease focal dystonia called spasmotic dysphonia, as early as 2007 (a year before her reappearances in DP), and hitting its peak by May 2012. This forced her to retire from the anime. To date, a replacement has not been cast.
**Because of this, she is the only one of Ash's female companions who has not reunited with him during Pokémon Journeys: The Series, and the only one who has not met Goh or Chloe Cerise.
==Gallery==
==See also==
*May (trailer)
pl:May (anime)
Category:Main characters
Category:Ash's companions
Category:Pokémon movie characters