May (anime)

"My bike's been barbecued!"

- May after Ash's Pikachu charred her bike.

May ('ハルカ Haruka) is a young energetic Pokémon Coordinator currently traveling through various regions to compete in Pokémon Contests. She started her journey traveling through the Hoenn region accompanying Ash and Brock, along with her little brother Max. On the way to the Grand Fesival, she met Harley and Drew (with whom she had a fierce rivalry, while the latter developed a friendly relationship with her as well). When Ash and Brock left for Sinnoh, she goes to Johto alone without Max. She appears in a few episodes of Diamond and Pearl: Battle Dimension, where she traveled to Sinnoh to compete in the Wallace Cup. She reappears as a flashback in The Dream Continues.

Personality
At the start of her journey, May didn't like Pokémon, as she wanted to start her journey just so she can visit places. However, her encounter with Ash and Brock changed that. May is a kind-hearted person, who would help people in need. Like Misty, she can get very angry at times, with her disagreements with Ash or her brother, Max. 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 at rare occasions.

Biography
May is a Pokémon coordinator from Petalburg City and is the daughter of the Petalburg City Gym Leader, Norman, and sister of Max. She met Ash Ketchum in Hoenn and starts 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 Pokémon and flashy techniques, competing in contests and making her own Pokéblock 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 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 decides to follow her rivals to Johto. However, she meets up with Ash, Brock, and Dawn in Sinnoh, wearing a green bandanna like the character Pokémon Emerald, then sometime later participates in the Wallace Cup. Dawn once referred to her as "Princess" which makes the fact that she has an unknown identification believable.



After narrowly losing to Dawn in the Wallace Cup Finals, she leaves the group to continue her journey in Johto.

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.

Grand Festival ranking
May placed in the following Grand Festival competitions:
 * Hoenn Grand Festival (Top 8)
 * Kanto Grand Festival (Top 4)

Voice Actresses

 * English: Veronica Taylor (Seasons 6 - 8, Movies 6 - 8)
 * English: Michele Knotz (Seasons 9 - present, Movie 9)
 * Japanese: Kaori Suzuki
 * Dutch: Nicoline van Doorn
 * Greek: Yro Loupi (Season 6-8), Stella Bonatsou (Season 9)
 * Spanish: Cristina Yuste
 * Polish: Julita Kozuszek-Borsuk
 * French: Maia Baran
 * 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

Trivia

 * Like Misty, May is last seen leaving the group and returning to her respective journey, with no mention or future appearance in the series.
 * May was the only character to give a personal narration of her introduction in the series.
 * In seasons 6-8, May and Ash shared the same voice actress: Veronica Taylor.
 * May has owned two Pokémon and befriended one Legendary Pokémon from the fourth generation: Munchlax, Glaceon (can only evolve from Eevee in Sinnoh), and she had befriended a Manaphy, a Mythical Pokémon.
 * She is the only female character to have three starters (Torchic, Squirtle and Bulbasaur).
 * The first Pokémon she used in fact was not Torchic but a Mudkip but she did not know how to command it to attack Poochyena and ended up getting hit in the face with a Water Gun attack.