Not everyone wants to spend their life as a voice actor or voice actress. People have lives and other goals they want to pursue. Why hold them back from doing something they might be better at, and can make more money doing? For example, Kasumi's VA has a singing career now and she's on a world wide tour. It's probably in the contract that the voice actors and actresses are the only ones who can voice a specific character and no one else can take their place. That means another VA can't voice Misty. Only that one person is able to. They're not getting rid of characters, because they don't like them or they're sick of them. They remove characters, because the voice actors want another career. It's in the contract. Who knows how well the voice actors get paid there?
Even if it had to do with Voice acting, that means little to me. They could have easily just replaced her voice actors (And I have a hard time believing that Japan seems to hold their voice actors in high regard to the extent that they actually kill off the character they voiced just because they left the series in some way, shape, or form. I mean, the mere fact that they actually went as far as to replace Giovanni's VA in Japan after his old one croaked is more than enough to prove to me that they would replace their VAs. To me, proof of their actually holding their VAs in high regard would require them to not even show Giovanni at all, period. At best, he can be verbally mentioned. Heck, even when their alive, sometimes they are replaced anyways. A good example of this is in Birth by Sleep where Captain Hook was voiced by a completely different VA than usual.). If Ash was the one replaced and Misty and Brock were still there, I also would argue that it was completely pointless. Same with replacing Brock and keeping Misty and Ash, or replacing both Misty and Brock, and keeping Ash, or replacing Misty and Ash, yet keeping Brock, or replacing Ash and Brock, yet keeping Misty. The mere fact that I even cited how even replacing Brock yet keeping the rest, a character I no longer have any sense of respect for aside from lingering thoughts in the back of my head, is enough to prove that I am not fond of the whole replacing factor they've currently got, and would rather have an absolute version and not a partial replacement/revision. I always go with absolutes.
I miss the old characters as well, but there's nothing we can do. Why stop watching a show you love just because some characters you loved are now missing? Watch it anyway. You may love these new characters as well as the old ones. Even though Misty isn't there with Ash, I'm still going to continue supporting Pokeshipping. Because who knows if Iris will leave someday, too? Also, it's my favorite Ash shipping. That's why we have fanfiction. So we can write how we want the characters to end up together. Plus, they're keeping his character ten throughout the series, so he could marry anyone in the future when he's older. All shippings are plausible. Pick your fave and roll with it. Write fanfics. :)
I do write fanfics. In fact, I actually was writing one about Misty. However, writing fanfics don't mean squat if they aren't even officially recognized by the Pokemon Company, since as far as I can tell, my fanfics are lies compared to the PC's explainations, even if it's a bregrudging belief on my end. And for the record, I did not want Misty to come back because of Pokeshipping. I just wanted her to come back because she really was needed to eliminate the Female Anime Stereotype, especially seeing how Health Classes were not stopping the Anorexia/Bulimia problem at all [if they did, then Anorexia/Bulimia would cease to even exist.], the people protesting against Barbie aren't helping at all, and even Ariel of The Little Mermaid, and the later Disney Princesses aren't helping. Then we have the whole issue of Love Hina and all that. Now maybe if this whole thing didn't even exist, and especially wasn't a constant problem in this society, and Misty actually got decent closure, I could let her leave.
Heck, when reading up on May in a Disney Adventures Magazine, I didn't even have a problem with Misty being replaced. It wasn't until after my Pneumothorax and the first time I technically heard May speak that it really hit me hard that she had to come back, that she was the key to stopping the sexism/pornography/anorexia/bulimia problems in this world. If it was just a simple case of Misty being "better" than May, I wouldn't have needed the Pneumothorax or even a mistaken voice for me to hate May, just seeing and reading about May replacing Misty would have been enough of a fuse to set off the fireworks (which is a microscophic fuse, at best.).
Now, on topic:
I'm anxiously awaiting the premiere of the Best Wishes saga in the dub version. I can't wait to see the new Pokemon, and all the new characters. I love Ash's new look. His eyes are beautiful. I hope we'll see the other two gym leaders in the first gym with Dento. I'd like for Ash to battle all three or have two other people battle them. (I want to see the cute fire monkey and the water monkey as well.)
He might fight the other two, he may not, they may not even exist. Whatever the case, all we know is that Ash will end up winning against him sooner or later.
Iris seems like a pretty cool character as well.
As I said before, let's just hope she's more similar to Misty in terms of personality and not the equivalent of Kaolla Su from Love Hina (who WAS a Female Anime Stereotype).
Personally, I like the idea of a fresh start for Ash. I wonder why his mom is there. Maybe Ash has relatives in Issu, and Delia will stay with the relatives so she can be closer to Ash? That sounds better than just moving there, because after Issu, he'll be travelling to a new location.
The only way that the show will ever achieve a true fresh start is if Ash himself is erased as well. In my mind, and also basically the very definition of a "fresh start" is similar to transforming a dusty room into the equivalent of a Clean room in a computer factory, where it is soundproof, hermetically sealed, and most importantly, absolutely clean (as in, 100% germ, dust, and stench free), which also means that in order for a true fresh start to be achieved, every old thing has to be erased, that includes Ash.
![Pokémon Best Wishes [Discussion Thread]](https://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/thumb/f/fe/Delia.png/240px-Delia.png "Pokémon Best Wishes [Discussion Thread]")
![Pokémon Best Wishes [Discussion Thread]](https://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/thumb/1/1d/Araragi.png/140px-Araragi.png "Pokémon Best Wishes [Discussion Thread]")