Max is May's younger brother and is one of Ash's traveling companions throughout his journey in the Hoenn Region. Since he is underaged to be a Pokémon trainer, he frequently just befriends Pokémon without actually owning any of them.
Appearance
Max is a small young boy. He has short, dark cyan hair and brown eyes, much like his father. He wears a money-green-colored T-shirt with a white collar and button, charcoal-colored shorts and green, black and white slip-on shoes without (or no-show) socks. He also wears black, framed half-moon glasses.
Personality
Max may not be old enough to be a trainer, but that hasn't stopped him from learning all he can about Pokémon before he starts his journey. As a result, he knows much more compared to May, who didn't even know the names of her starter Pokémon's moves. Despite acting mature, Max is prone to being childish should it benefit him.
Skills
Max has some top notch theoretical knowledge about Pokémon, despite his age, and is very good at navigating through his PokéNav, even though they sometimes get lost or if the PokéNav is unable to help them out.
Relationships
Family
Caroline and Norman
They are his and May's parents. Max cares for them a lot, especially his dad who he looks up to also he wants to be just like him someday. Max was the most upset when his dad lost to Ash in their gym but was calmed down by his friends, May, mother and his father.
May
Even though they fight a lot due to being brother and sister, Max does care for May and would do anything to try to make her happy. However, Max never misses a chance to tease May.
Friends
Ash
Max sees Ash as a big brother figure due to having a fondness for Pokémon and they are seen doing the most together while May and Brock are shopping in some towns. Max and Ash are also best friends.
Brock
Max does get annoyed when Brock falls in love with girls, but he does respect his knowledge for Pokémon and because of that he sees him as a mentor to help become a really great trainer someday, so Max and Brock really are great friends. He eventually ends up replacing Misty's role in pulling Brock away whenever he tries to flirt with a woman.
Misty
Max grew a little close to Misty, also he admires the way she pulls Brock away from girls during which he admired so much he did it himself after she went back to Kanto. Max and Misty share of being the youngest sibling, but promised to look out for them no matter what, shown when they got separated from everyone.
Biography
Max is a genius in the theory of Pokémon training, despite being too young to receive a Pokémon when he first appeared. Both May and Max are the children of Norman, the Gym Leader of Petalburg City and his wife Caroline. Just like any other siblings, May and Max do argue a lot and get on each other's nerves, but nevertheless, they're very close and genuinely love and care about each other, and May's been shown to be very protective of Max. May sometimes gets mad about the fact that Max knows a lot more about Pokémon and training than she does despite not being old enough to be an official trainer. He decided to travel with his older sister and Ash to see even more Pokémon
When Ash arrived at the gym without May in Petalburg City, he was met by little Max, who was surprised to meet a trainer who he had watched on television only weeks ago, through participation in the Johto League Silver Conference. But he also mocked him for losing in the quarter finals of the tournament. He also criticized May for choosing a Torchic as her starter, saying that if he were old enough to be an official trainer, he would've chosen a Treecko.
During his travels with his sister and his friends, Max was in charge of May's PokéNav, acting as a guide. Later on in the series, Max makes a habit of pulling Brock's ear when he sees and talks to a pretty girl, halting his romantic advances as Misty did in Kanto and Johto and the way Croagunk would Poison Jab Brock in Sinnoh for similar effect, dragging him off once incapacitated by the poison.
In the movie Jirachi: Wish Maker, Jirachi partnered with Max, becoming his first Pokémon. In Do I Hear a Ralts?, Max rescued a Ralts that was hurt and took the job of returning it back to its family, Gardevoir and Kirlia.
In Battle Dimension, Max made a brief cameo appearance with his parents watching May compete in the Wallace Cup, and also appears in a photo Brock had in the second Diamond and Pearl Special Episode.
Pokémon
Befriended
Borrowed
Voice actors
- English:
- Amy Birnbaum (Seasons 6 - 8) (4kids)
- Kayzie Rogers (Season 9) (PUSA/TAJ)
- Japanese: Fushigi Yamada
- Dutch: Lot Lohr
- Italian: Federica Valenti
- Greek: Loucas Fragoulis
- Brazilian Portuguese: Thiago Keplmair
- Hindi:
- Tirthankar Mitra (first)
- Prachi Save Sathi (onwards, Cartoon Network dub)
- Amit Diondyi (Hungama dub)
- Russian: Olga Golovanova
Trivia
- Max is the first major male character to:
- Be from Hoenn.
- Be a Trainer in wanting.
- Not have a Pokémon, although he has taken care of some of May's.
- Max is very similar to Bonnie from Pokémon the Series: XY and XYZ, as he is a younger sibling. Like Bonnie, Max shares the following:
- Aside from Bonnie, Max is Ash's youngest companion.
- He does his best to help out his older sibling May, like Bonnie does with Clemont.
- He is not old enough to be a Pokémon Trainer, like Bonnie, who is also too young to train Pokémon.
- He is involved in a running gag of pulling Brock away from girls, just like Bonnie who has the running gag of trying to get Clemont to marry a woman.
- He is related to a Gym Leader, that being Norman, like Bonnie is to Clemont, the Gym Leader of the Lumiose City Gym.
- Coincidentally, both are related to the fifth Gym Leaders of their respected region.
- Unlike Bonnie, he is the first younger sibling traveling with Ash that is not based off a game counterpart. Also, he doesn't have a Pokémon, despite not being of age to have one yet.
- Also, he is a younger boy with an older sister, whereas, in the XY and XYZ series, the genders were reversed, with Bonnie being a younger girl with an older brother.
- Max has also been seen in the anime using May's Munchlax to be his orienteering partner in the Battle Frontier episodes.
- Max is always seen holding a Pokéblock case in his bag or pocket, but May was seen several times getting it out from her bag.
- It has been said that Max is too young to get his first Pokémon, but numerous trainers in the show are shown to have Pokémon while they look younger than 10 years old. It's possible that the age limit to be 10 is mostly just for competitions like Gym Battles, Leagues, Contests, and Grand Festivals. However, if kids younger than 10 do have a Pokémon, it is usually because that Pokémon actually belongs to an older sibling.
- Like Misty, Max drags Brock away whenever he falls in love. Max first starts doing this in "A Different Kind of Misty!", and after meeting Misty in "The Princess and the Togepi", Max includes her style by pulling Brock away by the ear.
- Max looks somewhat similar to Conway. They wear glasses, wear a green shirt, and have the same hairstyle (Although, Max's hair is a little shorter).
- In the Brazilian Portuguese dubbing version, the voice actor of Max (Thiago Keplmair) is the younger brother of the voice actor of May (Tatiane Keplmair) in real life.
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