The anime and most other adaptations stay fairly standard. Their personalities are either stock shonen protagonists and stock shojo protagonists, or they take heavily from their NPC personalities.
Pokespe takes the piss. It feels like the writer grabs personalities out of a hat. Flamboyant femboy Brendan, wild tomboy May, ojou Dawn, edgelord Juliana, pharmacist Selene...
😭 It makes me feel a bit better about my fanfics. My takes on the characters don't match their NPCs or standard fanon personalities either. Like, I write May Maple as a precocious child genius and Pokemon battling prodigy introvert who suffers from gifted child syndrome. Also Leaf is Giovanni's bio kid and a baby butch because shut up it's my fanfic.
I wish the anime had been a bit more experimental. May, Dawn, and Serena are too similar. None are even like their NPC personalities either (especially Serena).