New Pokémon Movie Rewrites History, Ditches Brock And Misty

The upcoming Pokémon movie is a re-telling of the Indigo League stories, with two glaring omissions.

Warning: This article has spoilers.

Namely, the absence of Brock and Misty, who were two of Ash’s first cohorts in original anime.

Both might be Ash’s most well-known friends, with Misty even appearing in the first episode I Choose You! after which the upcoming film is named.

Yet, in the official site, there are two other random children, Makoto and Souji. Both of them are apparently brand new.

Via the movie’s official site, here is Souji.

And Makoto.

You’ll see that neither Brock nor Misty appear in the list of characters appearing in the main part of the movie. Nurse Joy? Yes, but Ash’s old friends? Nope.

People have noticed this.

https://twitter.com/embed/status/883745295913410561

https://twitter.com/embed/status/883725696417312768

https://twitter.com/embed/status/883087702400286721

About to catch the world premiere of Pokémon, I Choose You at #JapanExpo! Still annoyed at the apparent absence of Misty and Brock though… pic.twitter.com/Ikk5sKMHq0

— Alex Aniel (@cvxfreak) July 6, 2017

https://twitter.com/embed/status/884033772831686656

Souji and Makoto are even showing up in 20th anniversary images instead of Brock and Misty.

サトシ「ソウジ…マコト？オレはオマエらなんて知らない！」
マコト「なにいってるの？私達ずっと一緒だったじゃない！」
ソウジ「ほら、先月やった20周年パーティの写真だ」
サトシ「！　…でもオレは確かに他の仲間と…タケ…カス…うッ！頭が！」
ソウジ「忠告しておく。余計なことは考るな」 pic.twitter.com/HTQV84CSft

— もあちゃ (@moa151) July 9, 2017

Twenty years of ten-year old Ash!

I agree. Misty and Brock were there from the jump. They needed to be there.

Also calling attention to 20 years and Ash is still 10.

— Josh Cajun Samurai (@KhakiBlueSocks) July 9, 2017

It’s almost like Brock and Misty never existed. As Pokemon Matome points out, the new movie has a retelling of this old scene with Butterfree

In the new version, Brock and Misty have been written out.

The characters do have a tacked-on appearance in the closing credits. That’s according to Alex Aniel, who saw the movie at Japan Expo and who provided PokeBeach with a summary, writing, “In the end credits we see brief shots of Ash’s old friends — Brock, Misty, Tracey, May, Max, Dawn, Iris, Cilan, Serena, Bonnie, and Clemont.”