Some shows on the 2024 TV schedule, like the animated Netflix original Pokémon: Horizons, owe their existence to the annals of Saturday morning cartoons that still hold up. As the original Indigo League adventures of Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu introduced the world at large to the gargantuan cultural franchise over 25 years ago, its continuing relevance has contributing factors. One of the most important components to the saga’s enduring appeal is the efforts of voice actors like Veronica Taylor and Rachael Lillis, among others. It’s that legendary sweetness we remember fondly today, even as Ms. Taylor has announced that her beloved co-star has died at the age of 46.
The news came by way of an announcement on a GoFundMe page that Veronica Taylor had shared to help fund Ms. Lillis’ medical care. The woman who was the voice of both Misty and Jessie throughout several years of Pokémon adventures, Rachael Lillis had been undergoing treatment for breast cancer during the last couple of months. Unfortunately, as seen in Veronica Taylor’s Instagram post below, this past weekend marked the end of her friend’s life:
On top of providing the voice for both Ash’s Pokémon training friend and a third of the arch-nemesis team known as Team Rocket, Rachael Lillis held plenty of other roles within the expansive saga. Some of those roles could be considered part of the best Pokémon characters from the original 151, especially those of Vulpix and Jigglypuff. However, Rachael Lillis more recently earned notoriety through newer anime introduced to the world, like the series Hunter x Hunter and Your Lie in April.
When it comes to her skill set, the Niagara Falls-born talent also participated in voice acting gigs involving audiobooks and video games. Rachel Lillis also served as an adaptor and translator for other anime series, such as Apocalypse Zero and Cleopatra DC, among others.
The world of animation and voice acting does seem to have been the home base for Ms. Lillis’ career as an actor, and her body of work is both impressive and memorabl. You can see (and hear) some choice examples, thanks to the clip provided below:
As the Pokémon saga has moved on, thanks to Ash’s emotional story arc ending with him becoming a Pokémon Master, the memories of the past have only gotten stronger. Running through the entire Pokémon series ranking, no matter how your personal preference shakes out, there’s a good chance that both Veronica Taylor and Rachael Lillis are present for a pika-ton of moments that helped define this series. The bittersweetness of that assertion rings clear today, as we say goodbye to Ms. Lillis, after a career cut short by illness.
We here at CinemaBlend send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Rachael Lillis. May her memory comfort them along their personal journey through processing their grief. As for fans of her work on Pokémon, you can honor Ms. Lillis’ roles as Misty, Jessie and more, when watching the series’ earlier episodes with the use of a Netflix subscription.
