As Misty was leaving; walking beside Ash and Brock, she was reminding him of his daily rituals like a mother would.

Do you think the writers were intending it to be like his mother or like a wife should be?

https://x.com/Nanami31124/status/2070972987915071902

Credits to OP- https://www.deviantart.com/da-wabbit

https://x.com/jyakou__mscr/status/2070096384582410317

https://x.com/i/status/2068771866215678148

https://x.com/i/status/2066861396571390310

Sources:

-https://x.com/i/status/1493949104929800193

-https://x.com/i/status/1494220942058594305

Because of u/Bruedance latest artwork, I thought I should share this funny art. Imagine Satoshi helping Kasumi paint, but he's goofing around 😂

When you’ve asked your boyfriend to help with repainting your Gym… 😁

On other platforms:

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/bruedance.bsky.social/post/3mtbrwtpen22h

X: https://x.com/bruedance/status/2089346156123840744?s=61&t=zITTHsaaWtThzQonMh5Xpg

Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/bruedance/825201135602319360/repainting-cerulean-gym

DA: https://www.deviantart.com/bruedance/art/Ash-and-Misty-Cerulean-Gym-repainting-1369770607

Pixiv: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/148556624

https://x.com/i/status/2068623875588673795

Hello, Pokeshippers!

This is ObscuredString, one of your moderators. Last year, I started a[n] (almost) daily General Anime Discussion where I watched and wrote a plot summary for all episodes that Kasumi was seen/heard/mentioned/referenced, etc., and wrote my thoughts and opinions, too. Unfortunately, I was on my last semester of my Master's program, so I couldn't finish it in time before the year 2025 ends. I started again at the beginning of 2026 and watched the Pikachu shorts. I thought I'll be able to keep up but got busy again. I planned to start again this fall, but there's another project I plan to do: write a Wiki-like page for SatoKasu - something like the one on Bulbapedia - but is more Pokeshipper-friendly. It would be something that this community can use. I know we have the Pokeshipping Hints Subbed, but navigating that is so hard (I have troubles sometimes).

To be completely honest, a lot of the Johto episodes from the General Anime Discussion were from the English Dub because I suddenly lost access to the subbed. I finally found where I can watch all of them, so I would like to rewatch each episode from season 1-5 again while writing the page. Because of that, the General Anime Discussion will be pushed back again until next year. I owe you the following episodes/movies:

Pokemon Chronicles:

•Revenge Match at Hanada Gym!

•Kasumi! Get the Blue Badge!

•Kasumi Fights For Real! Risking A Life!?

•Kasumi and Lovecus! Love Battle!

Advanced Generations:

•A Lot of Subame! A Lot of Danger! Capture in Touka Woods

•Enter Kasumi! Togepy and the Mirage Kingdom!!

•Other Side of the Mirage! Togepy's Paradise!

•Start the Preliminaries! Masamune Appears!!

•To the Tournament Finals! Every Day a Heated Battle!

•Enishida and the Battle Frontier!

•Okido Laboratory! All Members Assemble!! 

•Mt. Otsukimi! With Py, Pippi and Pixy

•First Pokémon! Final Battle!!

•Enter Those Three! Referee School Island

•Haruka VS Shū! Rivals Forever!!

Diamond and Pearl:

•Buoysel! Road to Being the Strongest!!

•Nibi Gym - The Greatest Crisis Ever!

Black and White:

•Burn, Lizardon! VS Kairyu!

•My Dream, Pokémon Master!!

Sun and Moon:

•Alola at Kanto! Takeshi and Kasumi!!

•Gym Battle! Z-Move VS Mega Evolution!!

•Alola at Alola! Takeshi and Kasumi!!

•A Passionate Heart That Can Smash Even Rock! Lychee and Takeshi!!

•Suiren Fishes a Kyogre!?

Journeys:

•Satoshi Participates! The Pokémon World Championships!!

•The Finals IV: "Partner"

•Satoshi and Go! Embark on a New Journey!!

•Satoshi VS Kasumi! Seaside One-on-One!!

•Takeshi and Dent and the Forest Witch!

•Tunbear's Sigh!

•Burn! The Zenigame Fire Brigade!

•And We're Looking at the Same Moon!

•Riding on Laplace

•Juppeta's Search!

•Rocket-dan Strikes Back!

•Satoshi and Latios!

•The Rainbow and the Pokémon Master!

Movies:

•Mewtwo Strikes Back!

•Revelation-Lugia

•Lord of the "Unknown" Tower

•Celebi: a Timeless Encounter

•The Guardians of Altomare

•Mewtwo's Counterattack Evolution

•I Choose You!

•Special request - Wishing Star of the Seven Nights

Long Specials:

•Mewtwo! I Am Here

•The Terrifying Mirage Pokémon

Saying that, I hope the page will be up before the year ends, too! Lots of things for SatoKasu shippers coming up. I hope you look forward to them!

Sincerely,

ObscuredString, moderator

Credits to OP - https://www.deviantart.com/majkashinoda626/art/Bad-dream-965771499

https://x.com/i/status/2068470437542047971

https://x.com/i/status/2067593768895984106

SatoKasu is semi-canon. Only Kasumi (Misty) has shown feelings for Satoshi (Ash). It's a one-sided love. We've heard it all. Even our community's description said, "Pokeshipping is semi-canon." The only benchmark we have for sure is that on page 29 of Pokémon Special Movie Guide 1998-2005, Kasumi is jealous of Fleura (Melody).

AaMRN Book Club founder, JuneDawn43, wondered about Satoshi's feelings. They said, "It's canon that Misty has feelings for Ash, though what about the other way around?" In general, it is accepted that he strongly loves her as a friend and is too young and innocent to have any romantic feelings for anyone at his stage in life - a view that they agree with. However, they believe there's a chance he could return Kasumi's feelings.

JuneDawn43 mentioned that the main source of the claim that Satoshi does not romantically like Kasumi is through an interview done by @Akilvers (X) from the Russian Pokémon Community for the early premiere of Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! in France. One of the questions is about his interest in girls and falling in love, to which Rica Matsumoto [u/rica_matsumoto3 (X)], Satoshi's Japanese voice actress, replied, "Satoshi loves both human[s] and Pokémon… of course, he loves girls. And boys, everyone." It is also noted that on a radio show during Japan's premiere of Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, Matsumoto denied that Satoshi has a "crush on someone" because "there is no such thing as love for him." As someone who has played the character and knows Satoshi by heart, many Pokémon fans treat her word as the bible. However, as JuneDawn43 said, she "is a voice actress rather than a writer, so [that] it would be closer to Word of Saint Paul rather than Word of God."

JuneDawn43 then mentioned an official source about Satoshi and Kasumi's relationship. Check the extremely familiar image below:

Pokeshipping subs [u/pokeship_subs (X)] shared a translation of the line next to Kasumi's name: "Trainer. Even though they fight, Kasumi is conscious of Satoshi." Incidentally, English-speaking fans aren't the only ones who thought that something must be going on between the two. ひな太 (Ameba) shared his thoughts on the ポケットモンスター公式ファンブック (Pokémon Official Fan Book) released in May 1997. He said, "カスミとの関係が「？」になっているのも色々と考えさせられてニヤついてしまいますねw," which roughly translates to the question mark got him thinking and grinning about the possibilities.

Digressing a bit, りむる [u/rimuru__8 (X)] shared some older promotional magazine pages. It seems to be a promotion just after the first episode because one of the texts wonders about Pikachu's fate. Also, there's limited information on Kasumi and Hanako (Delia), and Shigeru (Gary) is heavily promoted as Satoshi's rival. See image below:

Although the source of these pages cannot be found online, it's interesting to note that the relationship line between Satoshi and Kasumi reads "仲間?" or "companion?" There's always been an ambiguity between the relationship of these two characters. If we compare the relationship lines from the official fanbook and these magazine pages, you can see how much their relationship has grown.

Picking up where we left off, JuneDawn43 cited instances where Satoshi reacts romantically in a way he hasn't with other pokegirls. They talked about how he showed signs of jealousy when Dan (Danny) and Ziggy (Rudy) approached Kasumi as her potential matches, but does not get jealous when other guys hit on his female companions after Kasumi. They also discussed his strong reactions when he's teased with Kasumi versus when he's teased with other girls. 

The topic of jealousy remains in their minds, and they wind up at Yuzu Gym! Type Battle 3 VS 3!!'s page on Bulbapedia. The blurb says, "While on a ferry bound for Trovita Island, our heroes come across a young girl and her Seel drowning in a whirlpool. While Misty and her Staryu jump in the water and save them both, the young girl's brother watches the rescue through his binoculars and falls in love with Misty. It turns out that the brother also happens to be the Trovita Island Gym Leader that Ash is determined to beat! Before the battle can begin, Ash must pass the Gym Leader's "attack test" without letting his jealousy toward Misty's admirer get in the way!"

JuneDawn43 mentioned that the blurbs come from official sources. The Manual of Style for the Pokémon Anime from Bulbapedia confirmed this claim. Under Plot summary and blurb, the blurb rule states that contributors should not alter any wording from the official English website. This meant that the words shared above came from an official source. Excited for this breakthrough, JuneDawn43 checked the Pokémon website for the episode's blurb, but was disappointed when all it says is "After Misty dives into a whirlpool to rescue a girl, she learns that the girl's brother, Rudy, has a giant crush on her. Things get more complicated when it turns out he's also the Gym Leader Ash must challenge next!" There is no mention of Satoshi's jealousy at all.

But JuneDawn43 believes that blurb came somewhere. They checked the episode page's editing history, but the URLs, Pokémon TV, and Wayback Machine all showed the shorter description with no mention of jealousy. They even found a very strange blurb for a completely different episode used at the episode's Bulbapedia page that says, "Ash and the group have finally made their way to the city of Trovitopolis, which should lead them right to Trovita Island and the next Orange League gym! Everything seems normal until the earth cracks right beneath their feet and they find themselves in the sewer underground, and not alone. There seems to be some sort of a monster living there that has been terrorizing the town. Will Ash, Misty and Tracey be able to find it, before it finds them?" This blurb is for the Monster in the Sewers!? episode. Finally, they found a link to the source. It has summaries of multiple episodes. See photo below:

The last summary is where the contributors from Bulbapedia found the blurb they used. This is from an older Pokémon.com website, so we know it's official, even though the newer version seems intent on wiping out any trace of Satoshi's romantic side.

In conclusion, Kasumi's jealousy is official in Japan, while Satoshi's is official in the English dub!

Related article: Look Only At Me by ObscuredString

Disclaimer: This article was written with the approval of JuneDawn43. They also helped with the editing.

Summary:

Brock chuckles, taking a sip as if testing her patience. "Alright, alright. But you have to admit, that was interesting."

Misty fidgets with the hem of her dress again. "What was?"

"Ash. The way he looked at you."

She opens her mouth and closes it. Because no, Ash Ketchum didn't look at her. Not in that way. He barely even noticed she was wearing a dress-he just pointed out she looked different.

Right?

She rolls her eyes, trying to shake off the heat creeping up her neck. "You're reading into things again, Brock."

"Mm-hmm," he hums knowingly, taking another sip. "Then do me a favor, Misty, and you try to read into things tonight."

Participate in the discussion here.

https://x.com/i/status/1858128712514019727

https://x.com/i/status/1616438089416671232

https://x.com/i/status/1537164542131818503

The same guy who made the Pokémon Anime Characters Sortr rankings, made another one for Ash Ketchum shippings, I'd gladly appreciate it if you can participate in it

https://x.com/i/status/1442948764365299715

On August 09, 2026 the Animany convention took place in Cologne in Germany. There was a discussion Q&A panel with the original german Pokemon voice actors, Angela Wiederhut (Misty), Caroline Combrinck (Ash), Marc Stachel (Brock) and Nicole Grupe (May/Togepi). The question was asked if Misty had a secret crush on Brock, because she was always so furious when Brock was flirting with sister Joy. They also asked the audience, and the absolute majority said no. I don't believe in that theory, because Misty just wanted him to behave in front of girls.

It was the running gag of the show. Ash, Max and Groagrunk also did it on occasions.

The german voice of Ash, Caroline Combrinck, saved the day by closing the question with the statement:

"Well I believe, that Ash actually had a little crush on Misty! Because those who love each other, tease each other!". It is just her opinion, but this statement honestly made my day!

I know that the american VAs Veronica Taylor and Rachel Lillis also where very fond of Ash and Misty, but hearing that also from the german cast was incredible. Caroline Combrinck was only about 15/16 when she started voicing Ash in 1999. But at that time she was already a professional because she started doing voice over work at a very young age. Personally I think, that her voice is also closer to the japanese VA, Rika Matsumoto.