May ('ハルカ Haruka) is a young energetic Pokémon Coordinator currently traveling through various regions and competing in Pokémon Contests. She started her journey traveling through the Hoenn region accompanying Ash and Brock, along with her little brother Max. When Ash and Brock leave for Sinnoh, she goes to Johto alone without Max. She appears in a few episodes of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: Battle Dimension, where she traveled to Sinnoh to enter the Wallace Cup.
She has rivalries from some contest participants, Drew, Harley, and Jessie of Team Rocket, and goes on to win many contests. She is in four Pokémon movies. She picked Torchic as her first Pokémon and Squirtle as her first KantoPokémon. May is generally a very sweet, fun-loving, caring, kind-hearted, and a brave person. But sometimes a real go-getter type of confident person. When it comes to certain things, she can be a glass half-full type of a straight woman that she is, even though she is a very nice person.
But she can have a tougher side sometimes, such as when she argues with her brother, Max. Despite that they argue once in a while, she has definitely shown that she really deeply cares for her brother. She helps people a lot, especially ones with romance problems. May has a tendency to rely on luck once in a while when it comes to certain things.
She really loves cute Pokémon and flashy techniques, and competing in contests. She really loves making her own Pokéblock with recipes that she thinks up, including ones she calls "May's Purple Surprise" and "May's Pink Surprise" while everyone else rejected them after tasting them, the only ones who liked her Purple Surprise are her Munchlax and Jessie.
When May saw a contest battle for the first time, she decided to become a coordinator. She then had to overcome her fear of bug type Pokémon by raising her Wurmple into a Beautifly.
While Ash and Brock chose to travel to Sinnoh, May decides to follow her rivals to Johto. However, she meets up with Ash, Brock, and Dawn in Sinnoh, wearing a green bandanna like the character Pokémon Emerald, then sometime later participates in the Wallace Cup. Dawn once referred to her as "Princess" which makes the fact that she has an unknown identification believable.
After narrowly losing to Dawn in the Wallace Cup Finals, she leaves the group to continue her journey in Johto. This was May's last appearance, and the future of her appearing again remains uncertain.
May has a unique taste for food. She loves to taste many different types of food. As a Coordinator, May was able to learn more about Pokémon, and her knowledge became greater during her journey in both Hoenn and Kanto for her contests that she competes in, that she can come up with different types of attacks.
She was also able use these combinations in battle. For example she would use her Combusken's Fire Spin and her Squirtle's Bubble to create a combination of Fire and Water. Which was dubbed by Lillian's Medichan as a Fire and Water Whirlwind. She was able to knockout Drew's Flygon and his Absol. During her journey she won numerous ribbons in both Hoenn and Kanto and she is still using those skills and talents in Johto currently. But May did reappear during the Sinnoh saga in four episodes Meeting Ash, Pikachu, Brock, Dawn and Zoey for the Wallace Cup. May also has a personal ending theme song called I Won't Lose also called Haruka's theme in Japan in two episodes of the Pokémon anime's Kanto battle frontier saga the theme was used as background music in Curbing the Crimson Tide! and again in the next episode What I Did For Love!. It was also used during the Sinnoh Wallace Cup saga.
Blaziken was given to May by Professor Birch in Littleroot Town when it was still a Torchic. She chose it as her starter Pokémon because she thought Treecko was creepy and scary (though she later called them cute in Tree's a Crowd), while the starter Mudkip had attacked her earlier with a Water Gun to the face. As a Torchic, it evolved in the episode A Shroomish Skirmish, when trying to fend off some Shroomish and Breloom. It later evolved in the midst of a Pokémon battle with Team Rocket.
Skitty was caught in I Feel Skitty! when Torchic ran away from a training session with May and found a sick Skitty. She knows powerful moves like Blizzard, DoubleSlap
May recieved Glaceon as an Egg and watched every contest that May entered. It was the third Normal-type Pokémon that May obtained. It knows Shadow Ball, Ice Shard, Secret Power and Mirror Coat.
After May left Skitty and Beautifly in Hoenn, she met Ash in Pallet Town and one of Oak's Squirtles seemed to take a liking to her. Professor Oak allowed May to have the Squirtle and traveled in her Poké Ball. He learns powerful moves like Ice Beam, Aqua Tail and Rapid Spin.
May was kidnapped by a Skarmory and ended getting lost in a place called the Forbidden Forest, which is a preserve for Grass-type Pokémon. Then May met a clumsy Bulbasaur trying to pick flowers. It eventually evolved in a Ivysaur and much later it evolved into a Venusaur. She knows moves like Petal Dance, Razor Leaf and Vine Whip.
After May saved the Manaphy egg in Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, it hatched and imprinted on May and thought she was its mother. It had such a close bond with May, it began learning words and even learn May's name. But it knew it had to leave and protect Samiya, the Sea Temple, even though it did not want to leave her side. Leaving her behind, it left with a few words including "love" and "you".
Generally, May appeared in the episode frequently when traveling with Ash in the Hoenn region. However, she briefly appeared in Sinnoh and accompanies Ash, Dawn, and Brock to the Wallace Cup.
These are the episodes that May appeared in Sinnoh. May also battled with Dawn but narrowly lost.
"Do you think I'm some kind of idiot?! WHAT HAVE YOU TWO DONE WITH MY TORCHIC?!!!"
Dawn, May and Zoey
Angry May
May in her dress in Pokemon Movie 8
May, Ash, Brock and Max
May's contest outfit
May, Dawn and Zoey
May and her Brother Max
May and Zoey looking at Dawn
May putting on her Bandana
May, Ash, Brock and Max looking very cross
May in her yellow swimsuit
May looking worried
May and Max
May and Dawn
May pointing
May wins a ribbion
Cross eye May
Ash, Brock, May and Max looking at Pikachu
May, Ash, Brock and Max
May looking at Dawn (off screen)
May, Dawn and Zoey
May and Jessie holding there Warmples
May and Max sarrounded by Sharpedos
May and her friends underwater
May, Dawn and Zoey getting ready for there contest
May dancing with a guy in Pokemon the Movie 8
A beautifly on May's head
May's Glaceon touching the big ice cristal
May saying goodbye to her friends
May, Ash, Brock and Zoey watching Dawn's contest battle (off screen)
May with her Torchic
May hitting her brother on the head
May getting pulled into the water
May throwing her Bandana
May's detective Squad
May holding her pokeblock case
May waking up from her bed
Trivia
May is the only female character to meet all of Ash's previous traveling companions.
Like Misty, May is last seen leaving the group and returning to her respective journey, with no mention or future appearance in the series.
May was the only character to give a personal narration of her introduction in the series.
In the episode Brave the Wave, while May was taking off her clothes, she appeared to never take her gloves off.
In seasons 6-8, May and Ash shared the same voice actress: Veronica Taylor.
May is a third generation character, and she owned three Pokémon from the fourth generation: Munchlax, Glaceon (can only evolve from Eevee in Sinnoh), and she had a Manaphy a Mythical Pokémon.
May has a fear of Bug types like Misty, only she got over her fear.
The first Pokémon she used in fact was not Torchic but a Mudkip but she did not know how to command it to attack Poochyena and ended up getting hit in the face with a Water Gun attack.
May and Ash both have Bulbasaurs.
In Brave the Wave, because May is energetic, she loves to take her clothes off on beaches to reveal and pose in front of her friends in a bikini.