Pokemon as a franchise has been around for over 25 years, and in that time we’ve seen hundreds of characters introduced across games, anime, manga, movies, and even a trading card game. While there are plenty of no-name copy trainers and NPCs scattered throughout Pokémon, the characters that are part of the story tend to be very diverse, with no two main characters being all that alike.

You have eclectic cowboy gym leader Clay from the Unova region, flamboyant gym leader turned champion Wallace, Twitch streamer gym leader Iona, and many more. However, what is largely missing from these main characters is LGBT+ representation.

In recent years, The Pokémon Company has made some efforts to be a bit more LGBT-friendly – ​​the decision to let both genders of players in Scarlet and Violet wear any clothing, accessories and hairstyles is a welcome step – but true canon LGBT+ characters are few and far between myself.

However, you may be surprised to learn that there are actually several canonical LGBT+ Pokemon characters, and a few others that are heavily hinted at but not directly confirmed – at least not yet. Some characters are better than others, but the franchise has actually had LGBT+ characters for almost as long as it’s been around.

Pokémon’s first foray into LGBT+ representation was only in 1999, when a manga titled How I Became a Pokémon Card was released. The series featured mostly self-contained stories with each chapter each designed to expand upon a specific Pokémon card’s blueprint.

The 38th and final chapter of How I Became a Pokémon Card introduced a character named Akari, a trans boy who aspired to be a great trainer. He begged his mom to get him a cool Pokemon to have as his first partner—his friend Akira had packed a Scyther—but his mom thought a cute Pokemon like Pikachu was a better choice.

Akari is actually handled surprisingly well considering it’s Pokemon in 1990s Japan – not usually a great combination for LGBT+ representation. There are small hints of the problems he faces as a trans boy, along with some more overt issues like being forced to wear a skirt in high school. Akari hasn’t been featured in anything but one chapter of the Japan-exclusive manga, and that’s a bit of a bummer since it’s handled as well as it is.

Another canon LGBT+ character wouldn’t come along for another decade and change, and if you weren’t paying attention, you might have missed them entirely. There is a random Beauty Nova in Pokémon X and Y that has the following line after defeating it:

“Just half a year ago I was a Black Belt! Quite a transformation huh?”

At first glance, this probably doesn’t seem particularly indicative of LGBT+ representation, but reading between the lines makes things a lot more interesting. The Black Belt class in Pokémon X and Y—and most other games in which they appear—is all-male. There are no Black Belt Trainers who are female, and likewise no Beauty Nova Trainers who are male. So the logical conclusion is that this character once presented as a man – a Black Belt – and now presents as a woman.

However, if that’s not enough to convince you, we should look at the Japanese text for the same character. Here is how he translated Legends of Localization:

“I was a karate king half a year ago; the power of medical science is amazing, what do you say?!”

The explicit mention of medical science makes it clear that this is not just a career change, but a change in gender identity as a whole. It’s a small detail for a supporting character that was more ambiguous in the localization process, but it’s definitely there and it’s definitely real.

The latest representation of the LGBT+ canon in Pokemon comes from a somewhat unlikely source: Pokemon Go. And it’s not in the form of some random NPC, either — the leader of Team Mystic Blanche, who roughly a third of the players interact with every day in the game, is decidedly non-binary.

There is a lot of evidence for this too. No piece of official English media has ever used gender pronouns for the character – each one either refers to Blanche directly by name or uses their/their pronouns. Languages ​​that are inherently gendered, such as Spanish and French, use feminine prose when referring to Blanche, but it’s worth noting that in many of these languages, it’s common for non-binary people to default to feminine language. other options.

Japanese is not a particularly gendered language, so Blanche’s pronouns (along with all the other characters) are mostly not used there, but German is a gendered language, and the German version of Pokémon Go, as well as social media accounts, have made concerted efforts to use non-gendered language when he refers to them, after initially using feminine language.

Blanche actually shares this trait with Rhi, a member of the GO Ultra Recon Squad who is usually based in Ultra Space. Rhi is explicitly indicated by the pronouns they/them in English, although in the opposite situation to Blanche, masculine pronouns are usually used in strongly gendered languages.

These three – or four if you count Rhi – characters are the only canon LGBT+ characters confirmed so far, but that doesn’t mean they’re the only ones in the franchise. There have been hints here and there in Pokémon Masters that Steven and Wallace might be in some sort of romantic relationship. The Valentine’s Day update added new dialogue where they express their affection for each other, and Barry dwells on the two being romantically involved, but it’s certainly hinted at nonetheless.

The franchise’s latest anime series, Pokémon Horizons, similarly hints at the potential for queer romance. Many fans have interpreted Murdock — Brave Olivine’s chef — and his history with another man named Mitchell as potentially romantic. Likewise, in a more recent episode, Orla’s ship mechanic said some very interesting things towards the Poké Ball craftswoman Karnathat, who certainly had some level of romance behind her.

Of course, none of this is directly confirmed, but the sexuality and gender expression of most characters in most media is rare. More explicit LGBT+ representation in Pokemon would be a huge win for the franchise, and I absolutely wish gay and lesbian couples were represented in some way, in much the same way that straight relationships are shown.

Whether or not this will happen anytime soon is anyone’s guess, but as time progresses, so does social progress, and it’s really only a matter of time before we see real representation come to the fore.