May (anime)

May ハルカ Haruka
May in the Diamond & Pearl series
Age	10 (as of debut)
Gender	Female
Eye color	Blue
Hair color	Brown
Hometown	Petalburg City
Region	Hoenn
Relatives	Max (brother), Norman (father), Caroline (mother)
Trainer class	Coordinator
Game counterpart	May
Animated debut	Get the Show on the Road
English voice actor	Veronica Taylor (AG001-AG145) Michele Knotz (AG146-present)
Japanese voice actor	KAORI

May (Japanese: ハルカ Haruka) is a ten-year-old Pokémon Coordinator from the anime and a former traveling companion of Ash. Her goal is to become a Top Coordinator. She traveled through Hoenn and Kanto with Ash, Brock, and her little brother Max. She is the daughter of Norman and Caroline, and her starter Pokémon was a Torchic given to her by Professor Birch.

Character

File:May Anime Artwork.png

May in the Advanced Generation series

May is generally a very sweet and optimistic girl. She enjoys feminine and cute things as well as shopping. In fact, she and Brock occasionally went on shopping trips together throughout the Advanced Generation series. May cares about her appearance, sometimes spending so much time in front of this mirror that it caused her traveling companions to become frustrated with her, such as in The Bicker the Better. May also is interested in helping other people with their romantic problems.

Though she is generally kind, she occasionally argues with her little brother, Max. The two had arguments since Max's debut episode, but one of their most notable was in Take This House and Shuppet. May's harsh words to Max made him declare that he hated May and he ran away for a portion of the episode. Even though she had been angry, May quickly felt guilty for hurting Max's feelings and became very worried that he would be hurt on his own. In a later episode, May revealed that she had promised her mother to always take care of Max on their journey. So even though the siblings had many quarrels, May deeply cares for her brother and would go to great lengths to protect him.

May's rage at her loss of food

In A Ruin with a View May heard Brock used to act as a cook during Ash's journeys. As she, Max and Ash were hungry, she was the one who asked Brock, if he could prepare some food for them. If a person or a Pokémon were to steal her food she would become extremely angry, which was demonstrated numerous times. Food was one of the few things May would become angry about, so it was an important tool to show a different side to her usually cheerful character. When May returned for the Diamond and Pearl series, she expressed excitement over the chance to eat at the Seven Stars Restaurant, but having her meal stolen made her enraged. She was later shown enjoying a large cookie, once again affirming her love of food and sweets.

When May first left her home, she was only interested in the traveling aspect of the Pokémon journey. This sparked one of May's most memorable quirks in Hoenn, "May's Expeditions". Starting from A Mudkip Mission, May would occasionally make a camera lens with her fingers, pretending she was the host of a traveling show.

History

Advanced Generation series

When May debuted in the anime, she did not like Pokémon at all and was only interested in becoming a Pokémon Trainer so she could travel. Everyone expected her to become a Trainer, to follow in her Gym Leader father's footsteps. However, after seeing a Contest in All Things Bright and Beautifly!, she decided to become a Pokémon Coordinator. Since she initially knew almost nothing about Pokémon or attacks, Ash assumed the role of her mentor. She gradually gained experience through her journey and practice with Ash.

As a Coordinator, May was able to learn more about Pokémon and form stronger bonds with them. In Come What May!, after winning the Fallarbor Contest, May told her Beautifly that she loved it. This is an example of her growth - from someone who initially disliked Pokémon to someone who cared deeply for them.

With her Pokémon, May was able to come up with different attack combinations to use contest battles. For instance, she would use her Combusken's Fire Spin and her Squirtle's Bubble to create a combination of fire and water, dubbed Fire and Water Whirlwind by Lilian. This even got a rival of hers mad, thinking she thought he was not worthy of the move so May did not use it against him.

Also, on her Coordinating journey, she developed a love for making her own Pokéblock with recipes that she thought up, including ones called "May's Purple Surprise" and "May's Pink Surprise" (Japanese: Haruka's Delicious and Haruka's Delicious 2). Unfortunately, the only ones who liked her Purple Surprise were her Munchlax and Jessie. "May's Pink Surprise" came from the recipe Professor Oak uses to make Ash's Snorlax's food. Thus, after May first fed it to her Munchlax, it was automatically made full. This Pokéblock was regularly used to feed Munchlax in order to prevent it from eating the food of others.

Younger May, in a flashback

During her journey, she found a rival in Drew, a skilled and sometimes arrogant Coordinator. Drew became one of her main inspirations to try harder to sharpen her skills as a trainer. At first, Drew had claimed that May had "no style" as a Coordinator, but by the end of the Advanced Generation, when May beat him in the Kanto Grand Festival, he recognized her growth and skill as a Coordinator. Another rival of hers, Harley, is a flamboyant man who goes to extremes to beat May. And example of Harley's depravity was seen in A Cacturne for the Worse when recorded Max telling him a story from May's childhood. May had been wearing a blue swimming cap in the ocean, and her mother mistaken her for a Tentacool from afar. Her mother had attempted to capture May with one of her Poké Balls. Harley played the recording of this story during the Pokémon Contest to embarrass May into losing. May was able to beat Harley in the end, but she claimed that she had never been more humiliated.

At the Kanto Grand Festival, May also competed against Solidad, an experienced Coordinator to whom she lost to in the semi-finals. At the end of the Advanced Generation series, she left to compete with Drew, Harley and Solidad in the Johto region, aiming to find her own style. The decision to stop traveling with Ash was an important one for May's character. Because Ash played the role of a mentor to her through most of the series, she was largely influenced by his offensive battle style. By the end of their journey through Kanto, May had realized that an offensive style, while effective, was not necessarily the best for her and for contests. Her goal to find her own style is therefore also a goal to find her own independence and unique talents.

May has Contest Passes to compete in Hoenn, Kanto and Johto. She also has a personal theme song, I Won't Lose! ~Haruka's Theme~, performed by KAORI. It was first used as background music in the episode Curbing the Crimson Tide and was used multiple times after that during May's Contest Appeals or Battles. The song became the ending theme of the show between Pokémon Ranger - Deoxys' Crisis! (Part 2) and Home is Where the Start Is!

May at the Wallace Cup

Diamond & Pearl series

May reappeared from Our Cup Runneth Over! to Strategy With a Smile! to participate in the Wallace Cup. During this period, she wore the Emerald Version of her outfit. She shared that many of her Pokémon had evolved and that she had already won three Johto ribbons. Dawn recognized May upon meeting her and said that some people in the Sinnoh region called her the "Princess of Hoenn", causing May to blush. During the Wallace Cup, May battled against Dawn's rival Zoey and was able to beat her using Beautifly. She made it all the way to the finals but narrowly lost to Dawn in the end.

Best Wishes series

May reappeared in a flashback in The Dream Continues!.

Pokémon

The Pokémon she acquired on the course of this journey appear to resemble Pokémon that Ash had obtained at some point at the beginning of his own journey. She prefers cute Pokémon, dazzling techniques, and has a tendency to rely on luck, often using her Skitty's Assist or her Munchlax's Metronome to win.

Currently in rotation

Torchic → Combusken → Blaziken	Wurmple → Silcoon → Beautifly	Skitty ♀
Bulbasaur → Ivysaur → Venusaur ♀	Munchlax	Squirtle → Wartortle
Egg → Eevee → Glaceon

Borrowed

Mudkip

Debut	Get the Show on the Road!

When Professor Birch was attacked by Poochyena, May borrowed Mudkip from his bag to fight the wild Poochyena. However, May's lack of experience in commanding Pokémon got the Pokémon attacking her while Professor Birch fends off the Poochyena himself. Later, it reappeared as one of the options of May's starter Pokémon, but the previous bad experience led her to not choose it.

It reappeared in a flashback in A Mudkip Mission, when May wanted to capture another one.

Mudkip's only known move is Water Gun.

Hitmonchan ♂

Debut	Pasta La Vista

May borrowed Hitmonchan from Kyle Hamm after Master Hamm broke his back.

Hitmonchan's known moves are Comet Punch, Mach Punch, Agility, Focus Punch and Sky Uppercut.

Contests

May's Hoenn Ribbons

May's Kanto Ribbons

May's Johto Ribbons

Hoenn Ribbons

• Fallarbor Town Ribbon (Come What May!*)
• Verdanturf Town Ribbon (Disguise Da Limit*)
• Lilycove City Ribbon (Lessons in Lilycove!*)
• Izabe Island Ribbon (A Cacturne for the Worse*)
• Pacifidlog Town Ribbon (Pacifidlog Jam*)

Kanto Ribbons

• Saffron City Ribbon (A Hurdle for Squirtle*)
• Silver Town Ribbon (Weekend Warrior*)
• Chrysanthemum Island Ribbon (Spontaneous Combusken!*)
• Gardenia Town Ribbon (What I Did for Love!*)
• Mulberry City Ribbon (Going for Choke!*)

Johto Ribbons

• Three unknown Ribbons (prior to A Full Course Tag Battle!)

Grand Festival ranking

• Hoenn Grand Festival - Top 8 (Rhapsody in Drew)
• Kanto Grand Festival - Top 4 (Channeling the Battle Zone!)

Other achievements

• Pokémon Orienteering - Runner-up (Off the Unbeaten Path)
• Unofficial Terracotta Contest - Co-Winner with Ash (Home is Where the Start Is)
• Wallace Cup - Runner-up (Strategy with a Smile!)

Voice actors

Language Voice actor Japanese KAORI (currently credited as 鈴木カオリ Kaori Suzuki) English Veronica Taylor (AG001-AG145, M06-M08) Michele Knotz (AG146-present, M09, The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon) Mandarin Chinese 傅曼君 Fù Mànjūn Czech Klára Šumanová Danish Annevig Schelde Ebbe Dutch Nicoline van Doorn Unknown Voice Actress (movies 6-7) Filipino Charmaine Cordoviz Finnish Aksa Korttila (AG001-AG026) Henni-Liisa Stam (AG041-AG138) Unknown voice actress (AG139-present) Hanna Salonen (M05-M07) European French Maia Baran German Nicola Grupe Stephanie Kellner (M06-M07) Greek Stella Bonatsou (Στέλλα Μπονάτσου) Hebrew דון לני-גבאי Dawn Lanny-Gabay Indonesian Dewi Arifiani Italian Serena Clerici Polish Julita Kożuszek-Borsuk (Julita Kożuszek) Portuguese Brazil Tatiane Keplmair Portugal Carla (AG001-AG108) Sara Marques (movie 7) Isabel Ribas (AG109-AG192) Marta Mota (DP075-DP079) Spanish Latin America Ana Lobo (AG001-AG044) Liliana Barba (AG033-AG034) Mariana Ortiz (AG045-Present) Agustina Priscila (M06-M07) Spain Cristina Yuste Thai อรุณี นันทิวาส Arunee Nuntiwass

In the manga

May in Ash and Pikachu

In the Ash and Pikachu manga

May first appeared in Let's Save Pikachu!! where she became Ash's traveling companion.

Pokémon

Torchic → Combusken	Beautifly	Skitty ♀
Munchlax

In the movie adaptations

As May appeared all of the Advanced Generation series movies, she has appeared in each manga adaptations of them.

In the TCG

This listing is of cards mentioning or featuring May or her Pokémon in the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

May's Pokémon Cards listed with a blue background are only legal to use in the current Expanded format. Cards listed with a green background are legal to use in both the current Standard and Expanded formats.
Card	Type	English Expansion	Rarity	#	Japanese Expansion	Rarity	#
May's Torchic					ADV-P Promotional cards		037/ADV-P
May's Munchlax					Movie Commemoration VS Pack: Aura's Lucario		008/020
May's Combusken					Movie Commemoration VS Pack: Sea's Manaphy		002/019

Trivia

May's wishmaker

• As of the end of the Best Wishes series, May is the only female companion that did not have a Pokémon regularly disobey her.
• May owns four starter Pokémon, the most of any of Ash's traveling companions.
• May's Contest cry is "Take the stage!" (English) and "Stage on!" (Japanese). In the English dub, she also uses variations, such as "On stage!"
• May has competed in at least one Contest in each region where Contests are known to be held in the anime.
• All of May's major rivals have Bug-type Pokémon: Drew has Masquerain and Butterfree, Harley has Ariados, and Solidad has Butterfree.
• May is Ash's only female companion to have both of her parents appear.
• May is the first of Ash's traveling companions to have a relative also travel with them, the second being Clemont in the XY series with his sister Bonnie.
• May is Ash's only traveling companion to have traveled with him from the first episode of a series all the way to the last.
• May was the first character to own a Generation IV Pokémon, with Munchlax.
• May is so far one of only two former traveling companions who hasn't appeared in at least one Pokémon Sunday/Hoso-related spinoff episode after leaving the series, the only other being her brother Max (Misty and Tracey had appeared in some Pokémon Chronicles episodes, Dawn appeared in SS024, Brock, aside from appearing in the Chronicles episode A Family that Battles Together Stays Together, also appeared in SS025 and SS027, Cilan appeared in SS027 with Brock and met him, and Iris appeared in SS028).

Names

Language	Name	Origin
Japanese	ハルカ Haruka	From 春花 haruka, spring flower. Can also be taken from 遥か haruka, far away, in relation to her father, Senri (千里), 1000 li.
English	May	Could be a reference to her Japanese name, as May is a month in spring.
French	Flora	Similar to fleur, flower.
German	Maike	From Mai, May.
Italian	Vera	From primavera, spring.
Spanish	Aura	From aura, a figure of speech that means "gentle breeze" and is commonly associated to spring, as in aura primaveral (spring breeze).
Swedish	Maj	From Maj, May.
Korean	봄이 Bom'i	봄 bom, spring.
Chinese (Mandarin)	小遙 / 小遥 Xiǎo Yáo	遙 (distant) is taken from 遥か haruka.
Chinese (Cantonese)	小遙 Síu Yìuh	Same as Mandarin name.
Thai	ฮารุกะ Haruka	Same as her Japanese name.

Related articles

• Episodes focusing on May

External links

On Bulbagarden forums

• May Club on the Bulbagarden forums

May's Pokémon
In rotation:	Blaziken	Beautifly	Skitty	Venusaur	Munchlax	Wartortle
	Glaceon
Temporary:	Mudkip	Wurmple	Hitmonchan
Befriended:	Swablu

Top Coordinators
Abby • Fantina • Johanna • Juan • Marina • Robert • Solidad • Wallace • Yuma • Zoey

Pokémon the Series characters
Protagonists Ash Ketchum (Pikachu) • Misty (Togetic) • Brock • Tracey Sketchit • May • Max • Dawn (Piplup) • Iris (Haxorus) • Cilan • Serena • Clemont • Bonnie (Dedenne) • Lana • Kiawe • Lillie • Sophocles • Mallow • Rotom Pokédex • Goh (Grookey) Rivals Gary • Ritchie • Harrison • Drew • Harley • Morrison • Tyson • Solidad • Paul • Nando • Zoey • Kenny • Conway • Barry • Ursula • Trip • Bianca • Burgundy • Stephan • Georgia • Cameron • Aria • Alain • Miette • Tierno • Shauna • Trevor • Nini • Sawyer • Gladion • Horacio • Hau • Leon • Raihan • Horace • Bea • League Conference participants • Coordinators • Performers • World Coronation Series participants Antagonists Jessie (Wobbuffet) • James • Meowth • Giovanni • Butch • Cassidy • Dr. Namba • Matori • Pierce • Dr. Zager • Gozu • Tabitha • Maxie • Shelly • Archie • Hunter J • Saturn • Cyrus • Mars • Jupiter • Charon • Colress • Aldith • Ghetsis • Barret • Malamar • Lysandre • Mable • Celosia • Aliana • Xerosic • Bryony • Tupp • Zipp • Rapp • Plumeria • Guzma • Viren • Rose • Oleana Professors Professor Oak • Professor Ivy • Professor Elm • Professor Birch • Professor Rowan • Professor Carolina • Professor Juniper • Dr. Fennel • Cedric Juniper • Professor Sycamore • Professor Kukui • Professor Burnet • Professor Cerise • Professor Magnolia • Sonia • Professor Amaranth Relatives Delia Ketchum • Daisy • Violet • Lily • James's parents • Flint • Lola • Forrest • Brock's siblings • Norman • Caroline • Johanna • Chili • Cress • Grace • Meyer • Lana's father • Lana's mother • Harper and Sarah • Rango • Sima • Mimo • Kiawe's grandfather • Mohn • Lusamine • Gladion • Sophocles's parents • Molayne • Abe • Mallow's mother • Ulu • Walker • Camille • Halta Supporting Officer Jenny • Nurse Joy • Magikarp salesman • Todd Snap • Charles Goodshow • Casey • Liza • Sakura • Lance • Clair • Raoul Contesta • Mr. Sukizo • Steven Stone • Vivian Meridian • Robert • Scott • Lilian Meridian • Solana • Brandon • Marian • Yuzo • Rhonda • Cynthia • Reggie • Angie • Looker • Izzy and Cara • Lyra • Khoury • Tobias • Don George • Elder • Alder • Luke • Freddy O'Martian • Ingo • Emmet • Jervis • Virgil • N • Anthea and Concordia • Porter • Alexa • Sophie • Cosette • Clembot • Sanpei • Mairin • Astrid • Diantha • Korrina • Gurkinn • Monsieur Pierre • Palermo • Keanan • Malva • Samson Oak • Anela • Hobbes • Nina • Anna • Laki • Dana • Yansu • Wicke • Faba • Ilima • Acerola • Dia • Chloe • Chrysa • Ren • Parker • Talia • Lei • Danika • Quillon • Hop • Gym Leaders • Elite Four • Frontier Brains • Island kahunas • Many temporary characters Supporting Pokémon Fearow • Ho-Oh • Squirtle Squad • Pink Butterfree • Haunter • Jigglypuff • Mewtwo • Mimey • Lapras herd • Granbull • Pichu Brothers • Lugia • Silver • Delibird • Wynaut • Larvitar • Kyogre and Groudon • Articuno • Deoxys • Lake guardians • Forces of nature • Meloetta • Reshiram • Super-ancient Pokémon • Wooper • Florges • Squishy • Z2 • Guardian deities • Bewear • Toucannon's flock • Stoutland • Oranguru • Nebby • Stufful • Ultra Beasts • Grandpa Forest • Necrozma • Lunala • Shaymin • Mew • Rotom Phones • Pelipper • Thievul trio • Eternatus • Drone Rotom • Legendary heroes • Latias • Recurring wild Pokémon
See also: Pokémon Horizons characters

Ash & Pikachu characters Main characters Ash Ketchum • Pikachu • Misty • Togepi • Brock • May • Max • Jessie • James • Meowth Rivals Gary Oak • Drew • Morrison Gym Leaders and Frontier Brains Whitney • Clair • Roxanne • Norman • Noland • Greta • Lucy Other Anna • Azusa • Professor Birch • Calista • Caroline • Professor Cozmo • Drake • Eriko Eriko's grandmother • Mrs. Grimm • Hiroto • Jack Pollockson • Kaburagi • Kiyo • Lily • Professor Oak Oliver • Robert • Shelly • Solana • Susie • Tabitha • Team Rocket Scientist • Timmy Whitney's grandmother • Winstrate family

This article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.