Misty

Misty
Original appearance	Pokémon Red Pokémon Blue Pokémon Green
Information
Hometown	Cerulean City, Kanto
Birthday	April 1 16 (Year 1)
Gender	Female
Affinity	Water Ice
Relatives	Unnamed sisters

Misty is a Water-type Pokémon specialist and a Gym leader in training. She is sometimes seen amongst her peers as cold and distant, but she is highly respected for her independent and no-nonsense nature. Misty attends Kobukan Academy with the ambition of mastering Water-type Pokémon, but she has far more on her agenda.

First glance

Misty easily stands out due to the iconic side ponytail that sticks out from the left side of her head. She is also relatively tall for a girl. This is mainly the byproduct of being an accomplished swimmer who has trained alongside Water Pokémon her whole life. Naturally, she is fit with extraordinary stamina, capable of besting most male athletes when it comes to endurance.

Inherently independent, Misty rarely relies on others and is sometimes even offended when offered help or consolation. The earliest the player can see this behavior is if Red (player character) meets her during the prologue and attempts to help her move her belongings. In return, Misty lashes out and slams the door in his face.

Noted for being tomboyish, Misty does not invest much time maintaining her appearance or indulging in feminine activities. However, she does try to fit in with other female students, as she is often seen in the local shopping district on weekends. Despite her cold attitude, Misty has a caring side. She eventually changes if the player character progresses her story arc, otherwise she can be seen mentoring Candice, who is on the swim team with her starting in the second year.

Plot

A few years prior to the start of the story, Misty was living in Cerulean City, next in line to inherit the Gym leader title from her family. It was revealed early on, though, that Misty wanted no part of becoming a Gym leader. Regardless, because she genuinely loved working with Water-type Pokémon, Misty continued her training at the Cerulean Gym as the days counted down.

After a series of incidents involving her Starmie, which resulted in it disappearing, Misty set off on her own to search for answers. She eventually tracked information down to the Kobukan region and thus she applied to Kobukan Academy, adding a handwritten letter that detailed her personal goals of becoming a master of Water Pokémon. While her ambitions are true, she uses this as a front to take a sabbatical from Gym training.

Artwork

Original sprites early in development.	First redesign by dmjh93.	Current sprite design by dmjh93.

Trivia

• Her birthday is a reference to her anime counterpart's debut in the first episode of the original anime series in Japan, back in 1997.
• Misty's outfit is based on her anime counterpart's in the Advanced Generation series (anime season 7).
• Originally Misty was planned to be either the main heroine or at least share the role. Later this idea was scrapped and her Advanced Generation outfit was used to represent that she is not the main character, much like her representation later in the anime.
• In a public popularity poll hosted by the development team in January 2016, Pokémon fans ranked Misty as third among their top female characters based on over 300 tallies.
  • In another poll conducted in February 2017, she dropped to 8th from 835 total tallies.
• As of version 1.0.3, Misty and Candice are the only two characters with more than two outfit designs (both have a swimsuit outfit in addition to their casual outfit and academy uniform).
  • Her swimsuit tag reads カスミ Kasumi, her official Japanese name.