...when were Incineroar and Geno confirmed? Eh, doesn't matter. But one thing about all these potential leaks that kinda excites me is the fact that Ayumi IS popping up more and more frequently in them. Not only is there a chance that at least one of them is true, in which Ayumi would indeed be confirmed for Smash Ultimate, but even more importantly, it brings attention to her and the Famicom Detective Club games which is a very good thing. Because Famicom Detective Club is a series that desperately needs more attention in the general Nintendo fan sphere and by Nintendo themselves, considering it is indeed one of their oldest first-party IPs and it actually has more entries than some of their decidedly more well-known first-party IPs.
I'm not sure how you would approach making a reveal trailer for someone like Ayumi, though. Because face it, no casual Nintendo or gaming fan is going to know who Ayumi is. Most people found out who she is through learning Melee trivia which we got in 2014. She hasn't been known to most Nintendo fans for a very long time, I mean. Sure, Japanese fans got a notice about her lack of representation in Smash shortly after Melee was released, but that's such a minor detail in the grand scheme of things. What is important, though, is the fact that Sakurai actually remembered his idea to add her...13 years after the fact. And since Sakurai seems to be digging up all of his old scrapped ideas, it's pretty likely that Sakurai has at least considered Ayumi once more. The roster was reportedly decided around December 2015, one year after that very interview. It was perhaps still fresh in his mind by then.
So, then, the most remarkable thing to take from this is that even with someone who hasn't received a single game overseas, people still remember and appreciate the very idea that Ayumi Tachibana could become part of one of the biggest gaming crossover events in history. That, in itself, is a beautiful thing and I'm so happy to be surrounded in this thread by so many people who want more representation and attention for a long-forgotten retro character.
We may not have our retro rep announced yet, or perhaps even get one this time around. But if we do, honestly...Ayumi is one of our best bets.