Earlier this week, a teaser for the upcoming, still untitled summer 2018 Pokémon anime movie was released.
Kaneko has spun the art style 180 degrees from the squashed cartoonishness of the current Pokémon Sun and Moon TV arc and instead given main character Ash a slick, archetypal anime protagonist look.
While the pink Pikachu is pretty strange, Ash’s female forms really only look unusual because of the 20 years of pre-existing Pokémon anime in which he’s a boy.
Other artists took it from there, giving the character longer eyelashes and, with s single stroke above the chin, the appearance of fuller lips.