Risa is shown to be very close to her brother Rick. This is evidenced by the fact she visits him in hospital soon after learning that he was there. Another sign of this is the way she agrees to catch him a Pokémon, despite knowing little about them. Risa developed low self-esteem following her sudden injury, which ended her athletics record. However, Ash's spontaneity and unpredictability led Risa to adapt and overcome this problem.