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Rica Matsumoto Denies Reportedly Leaked Pokémon Document on End of Ash/Pikachu Era

On Thursday, the Pokémon games' developer GAME FREAK announced it had suffered a data breach in August. The company said the breach leaked 2,606 names and email addresses of current and former employees. Over the past weekend, posts on social media claimed to leak gigabytes of information from upcoming projects and assets from past projects. ANN has not confirmed the details of the reported leaks.

Among those documents is a purported meeting on how to end the Satoshi (Ash) and Pikachu era of the Pokémon anime series. One of the cited reasons for ending the era was “strained relations” between cast members Rica Matsumoto (Satoshi/Ash Ketchum) and Ikue Ōtani (Pikachu). However, Matsumoto denied the claim on Monday.

In her post on X (formerly Twitter), Matsumoto denied any animosity between herself and cast mate Otani. She added, "I've been friends with Iku-chan [Ikue Ōtani] since we were rookies, and she even came as a guest on the Rica fan club tour." She concluded her post wondering if people enjoyed writing "these things," and that she found it in poor taste and childish.

笑笑
誰かがでっちあげてるね。
いっさいこのような事はないから安心してください。
育ちゃんとはもぉ新人の頃からだし、梨香のファンクラブツアーにもゲストにきてくれていますょ😊✨
知らない人、こんな事書いて楽しいのかな、誰も嬉しくないよ。悪趣味だし幼稚だと思うな。 https://t.co/7B5MOCNbW5

— 🌈✨松本梨香✨🌈 (@rica_matsumoto3) October 14, 2024

Lol
Someone is making this up.
Don't worry, nothing like this has happened.
I've been friends with Iku-chan since we were rookies, and she even came as a guest on the Rica fan club tour.😊✨
I don't know you, do you enjoy writing these things, no one is happy about it. I think it's in bad taste and childish.

As of press time, Matsumoto's post received about 30 responses and 389 reposts. The reaction to Matsumoto's post has been generally positive with most glad to hear that she denied the report and that Matsumoto and Otani are on good terms.

Sources: Rica Matsumoto's X/Twitter account, Pokémon anime's X/Twitter account via Hachima Kikо̄