#for the men's fashion they share a brand I'm pretty sure and it's functionally the same aesthetic with like. A few items on either side.

[regallibellbright]

So, I mentioned previously that Fashion Dreamer represents a significant improvement in the men's fashion over syn Sophia's past games, even if it still seems to be a lower priority compared to the women's. (It is sounding like there are fewer items for them on the whole, and I would not be at all shocked to hear there are fewer items for specific fashion niches than those equivalent niches in the women's fashion, but it is still meaningfully more diverse than what it was before.)

I promised examples.

Unfortunately, I only have one really good screenshot from my own 3DS, because I tend to take pictures of dialogue rather than inviting random characters to pose with me, and of the ones where you can clearly see what a guy is wearing, it's usually a character who's intentionally dressed as a sort of dorky scientist at best, and at worst...

Well, the best picture I have ALSO includes Johann, so you get to see him!

For those not reading the alt text, I feel it's important you know that that jacket of Johann's has TAILS. Also big gold buttons, I didn't note those because they're not really visible at all, and pants with a very gaudy floral pattern. So yeah, he's an Eccentric and Tortured Musician, so he dresses Like That. It's clearly intentional and not representative of the average character in the game (though he also has a student who dresses basically like him, with basically the same Eccentric and Tortured bit, who we see in a side quest.)

Oliver, on the other hand, is pretty much representative of how men in this series dress. He's a model, and as you can see, his default outfit (I checked the Style Boutique wiki to confirm, this is it) is... uh, kind of bland. He's not alone.

(Shout outs to the Style Boutique Wiki, where I got these screenshots.) This is Ricky, shown in his default outfit. (While there technically IS a menswear section in Fashion Forward, it's an extra you can only access from the title screen to dress up NPCs, and very limited. In the summer he'll take that jacket off, but that's it.)

I believe at least one of these outfits of Florian's is user-designed - they're both from Trendsetters, which is the game I've played the least of the four. Either way, not suits! But still not particularly interesting. But okay, maybe it's just that this STYLE is on the bland side? Let's try some others!

(In order: Vincent, Melvin, Ethan Quinn, Jim.)

I swear I didn't go looking for characters who are exclusively wearing T-shirts except Ethan, I am a bit limited in what the wiki has here. But also... yeah. I think Jim might be supposed to be a fan of bold fashion, given the belt and the hair? But you wouldn't know it from looking at the plain black t-shirt. Vincent and Melvin are a bit better - Vincent helps run the live music venue that opens midway through the game, while Melvin is in fact a nerd who doesn't take that much interest in fashion and only shows up to support one of the three central idols of the game, who also happens to be his best friend. Is it unfair to include him, then? No. Because at least his outfit is actually indicative of his character!

(Daisuke, Chad - though I believe he's renamed Brad in the North American release, and MC Mode, two photos. Tarquin, at the bottom, is one of my own screenshots.)

The same hat situation here is a bit amusing, but they were designed for different games and it makes sense to reuse fashion items like that between games - it let them add onto the wardrobe as the series went on, so there were a lot more items with different silhouettes and such by Styling Star. For the women. I think at least a few of these characters got to gain and lose jackets depending on the in-game season, and MC Mode here is a fashionable guy who gets to wear TWO outfits.

And the chic look isn't too bad - both Mode and Ethan wear it, so as you can see, there's definitely some range. I think Vincent might get to wear a leather jacket during the in-game winter, but I couldn't commit to it; I can't remember off-hand if Daisuke loses his jacket in the summer, though I hope not.

But yeah. You'll notice looking at all of these that even the rocker's outfit is a t-shirt and jeans. There ARE slightly more interesting options - those jeans might be distressed, there ARE leather jackets, and there are some pants with excess belts among the men's, I think - but not nearly as much as the women's fashion in the punk rock style. Tarquin's "lab coat" is clearly a suit jacket, and while it makes some sense not to make an entire unique item for one character, this game didn't even have men's fashion. I'm pretty sure they just used an existing suit jacket from Trendsetters. On the other hand, at least THAT ONE is reflective of his character. Daisuke's outfit is the closest the games come to athletic wear until Fashion Dreamer.

The characters in the later two games in particular were REALLY fun. There's a reason why I didn't have many screenshots just showing a male character facing forward, and none without dialogue - I actually really enjoy the writing here. Ethan wants to conquer the world with music, and multiple characters comment that this makes him sound like a supervillain. Tarquin is an endearing nerd who has a bunch of cute comments about all the items you bring in to make fashion items from. Florian likes bad puns.

But their outfits don't really tell you much about their personalities, where the female characters all do.

[mightyena-musings-yo]

Allow me to add on to this, and put my brand new pokemon side blog to use lol!:

It's been pointed out among many fans that Goh is supposed to be Ashs other half in a way. Ash is keen on battling pokemon while Goh is keen on catching pokemon, Ash upholds the catching style in the main pokemon games (relying on battling) while Goh represents Pokemon Go and the Let's Go games through the style of simply throwing the Pokeball no battling involved. (relying on purely catching)

Together they basically make up the Pokemon games as a whole. Making the concept of them like, actually married. The marriage of the style of pokemon games. :D

Additionally Ash is emotionally driven while Goh is logically driven, and while working together, they basically complete each other in that sense. (And the writers make a point in making this obvious, i.e. the train scene in ep.3) They're like soulmates, really. Whether that be platonic or romantic is up to the person of course, butttt, the shipper in me says they are romantic soulmates, send tweet.

It's also worth pointing out that Goh is most definitely a love interest for Ash. He's certainly undenibly crushing, and I'm pretty sure his intentionally androgynous appearance was meant to allude towards him being mlm, since lgbt+ men often are a little feminine. As in, I even think in design, Goh was planned to be a Ash love interest. (Which also explains Ashs lack of a typical female love interest, I believe Goh being a love interest was a very conscious choice on the writers part, that seems p obvious to me) That being said a part of his feminine appearance is supposed to show how he is a "fashionable city boy" but that in itself still goes towards my point and also goes with how he kinda contrasts with Ash in ways that complete him as well.

Goh is similar to Ash in that they have the same passions, and similar dreams and aspirations. Their futures are kinda intertwined too! But he also functions a lot differently, and the way he goes about doing things is like the other half to how Ash goes about doing things. I find that intriguing . . . Again, battling:catching, emotion:logic, and even Ash having rather humble origins while Goh is a well rounded city boy ever since his youth. They compare and contrast in all the perfect ways.

While I think Ash is p compatible with all his love interests, Goh is turning out to be the closest Ash's ever been with somebody. I mean, Goh is Ash's best friend, they're a duo, and their japanese op theme (1 2 3 After the rain) is basically a love song. Their friendship has literally become a prominent thing in the series, and this is the only instance where Ash only has one traveling companion (although heres to hoping Chloe goes on some adventures too!) Ash has never had this kind of relationship before, its really significant.

But I digress,, literally just bc of Goh being made into a MC, the Pokeani series has turned into a duo, buddy-buddy series. And the significance of that comes down to this: Goh is Ash's closest traveling companion. Not just that but Goh is the Ash love interest that Ash himself is closest to. Or at least, he will be. Their bond has yet to develop more over the course of the series but considering this is a duo series, it's pretty obvious that Goh is Ashs bestest bestie lol (They aren't even traveling just one region, they're going all over the place! Their bond is clearly written to be a special one methinks)

While I don't think firstfriendshipping will become canon, we can't deny the face that these two complete each other in many ways, and the closeness they share.

And yeah, I personally believe there won't be a proper Ash endgame since Ash DOES have a ton of love interests and I don't think they're gonna settle on just one. And also bc all the stupid homophobes that have been known to watch pokeani will be angered, and I think the staff is just gonna play it safe in terms of not pissing off homophobes.

Still, I think Ash reciprocates Goh's feelings at least a little, he often seems to with his love interests and Goh's no exception. I think the Japanese op is most blatant with Ashs feelings but he's also just,, super touchy with Goh in general (not in a weird way ofc) and their often sharing affectionate looks. While Goh's feelings are clearly stronger I don't think the feelings are quite one-sided. The writers certainly haven't been trying to allude to that anyway, it's more like a open book if anything . .

I also think, Ho-Ohs return being a sort of throwback to the first episode of pokeani kinda makes things come full circle. The fact that Goh lives in Kanto too, and Ash is still y'know, home, but also traveling all over the place and meeting a bunch of pokemon. Aka Ash is living his ideal life with Goh by his side. And theres something about the way they complete each other and the way their relationship has become a important thing in the pokemon series, a important thing in Ashs LIFE, him being a research fellow and all that,, and that just makes me KNOW deep in my heart that firstfriendshipping really is something special. Its not just yet another Ash ship in that way imo. And this is coming from a multishipper who quite likes other Ash pairings ! No ship hate intended at all here.

THEY! ARE! MEANT! FOR! ONE! ANOTHER! *insert keysmashing here*

I think that's all I have to say, although I could ramble about FFS for forever. Hope you don't mind this lengthy addition! (Parden my unorganized thoughts as well, I hope it's somewhat comprehensible) I tend to get passionate when it comes to these two dorks as a shipping haha!

(Also Pokemon Journeys, the dub, is fully coming out this month which means Pokemon Journeys said gay rights bc its pride month, in this essay I will-)

Everytime my brother said Ash x Goh not gunna happen I be like pft, What do you mean, they already married.

But on a more serious note, they are already married.

Like I realized every japanese opening always sings about the point of view of a character in the story.

Like "Your adventure"... It was Kukui's point of view

And Kira Kira was Clemont's POV.

And many more. (That's why Gotta catch em all is a strong theme because that's what Pokemon is and they needed someone like Goh to do the job since Ash had been kinda giving up on this part of his mission).

Going back to the point. Basically, there are songs that tells about the character POV of Ash. Now.... We are seeing for the first time an actual duet of Goh and Ash POV.

And they were totally talking to each other in the OP song. And it was the first time I heard that Ash is actually feeling alone?!!!! He has so many friends and yet he is alone?!!! Like Goh finally completes him like aahhhh

(I got a little sad for Ash cause that's a first time in an opening he actually said he was alone after so many opening in previous seasons with him doing his very best with Pikachu by his side)

And he literally made a statement in the song that Goh completes his life. And Goh be like hey if it's with me it can be anywhere (Only couples say these things like come on. I have best friends too and I don't always follow them everywhere and would be counting my money if I can afford to go or not)

So I'm like... So in this last season, the producer be like okay eff it, let's just marry him to someone and why not this one.

I mean, I can feel it Goh is a character made to fit Ash's taste lol.

Reasons because (I'm not bashing, I am just pointing out Goh's quality that might have blurred the line of love and friendship) :

Like Ash disagrees with Misty's hate of bug pokemon. Goh loves bug pokemons. His Cascoons everybody. He let them sleep in his room.

Ash doesn't like to be looked down upon. Like Iris keeps saying how Ash is such a kid and Goh, he compliments the heck of Ash and why is he not blushing yet after all that.

Also the fact that Goh has a fix goal and drive to achieve it. Like he knows exactly what he wanted. Opposite to Serena who was soul searching for quite sometimes. And Ash found Goh's fixation intriguing (cause catching em all is his dream too and that's why he was a supportive boyfriend).

Goh also have qualities that he likes. For example (a nerd). I'm onto you Ash. I know you love them nerds.

Like should I give an example. Clemont for example. A nerd who creates innovations no matter how useless it is or a failure or it's working fine. Let's face it, Ash pays more attention to Clemont's creation.

Or... Gladion. Gladion is a goth nerd who for some reason have all the data from his mum's research facility and he basically is Ash's duo in sun and moon. And Ash kinda look up to his family in general on their research thingy.

And Ash thought Max, the smart boy, like his little brother and they kick it off cause Max Loves Pokemon and a nerd. Goh also have extreme curiosity and love for Pokemon. And a nerd. I can't emphasize this more on how important this is.

Some people may argue why Goh doesn't befriend a pokemon first before capturing them (which I dunno, surprisingly is the main argument why they hate Goh although I suspect it was because there is a lack of waifu material accompanying Ash closely this time) but Goh is a direct representation of what a generic trainer (which is us) will do when we capture a pokemon. He just exercises the buddy system afterwards. I mean that's just how it is. I never play a pokemon game where I have the ability to ask a pokemon to be my friend before capturing them but I have the option to love them afterwards.

And Ash IS TOTALLY OK with this approach. Let's face it, he also helps to maintain the little home zoo they have since he also need it because of his desperate need to touch every pokemon in the world and Goh is ACTUALLY doing him a favour.

And if he gunna be loving them pokemon for a long time, I am convinced Goh and Ash are married to sustain their symbiotic lifestyle.

So my conclusion.

LUGIA MARRIED THEM.

That second episode is their wedding. Oak lied. It was never about the grand opening of the institute .

Thanks for reading my thesis why I totally think they should adopt more kids pokemons.