AnnemaeShipping

AnnemaeShipping is the femslash ship between Dawn and Iris from the Pokémon fandom.

Canon
Dawn came to the Unova region prior to “All for the Love of Meloetta!”, residing into the house of Cynthia’s butler. In the next episode, Dawn first meets Iris and Cilan (both known beforehand from Professor Oak), alongside Ash. Iris is very curious to know more about Dawn, as she confirms her to be Ash’s travelling partner in the Sinnoh region. The future Dragon Master also appreciates her Piplup and even cuddles him. She finds it exciting how much fun it is to participate in contests, and later watched Dawn’s battle with Cilan. Dawn then decides to have her next battle with Iris, to Ash’s dismay.

In “Expedition to Onix Island!”, Dawn decides to play along with Iris, both calling Ash a “little kid” and leaving him to enjoy himself on his own. When Ash explores the Onix cave, he is sure that the Rock Snake Pokémon always live there. Dawn says that is not always true, to which Iris replies that he is a “kid who thinks he knows everything”. They both look into each other’s eyes in amusement, which this does not please an angry Ash, who decides to enter the cave alone. But when a group of Woobat come out of the cave, Ash falls in fright, causing Dawn and Iris to say together that Ash is a “little kid” for the third time, leaving him alone with Cilan. Once inside the cave, the Onix come out to attack everyone, causing Dawn and Iris to become even more separated from Ash and Cilan, each fleeing for their accounts, but Dawn just realized that her Piplup had just gotten lost Dawn and Iris begin to have their experiences alone together. First they try to find their way out to the beach, but without success. Then, they touch some wild Pokémon that were lurking around thinking they are rare, but receive attacks from them such as Magnemite’s Thunder Shock and Foongus’ Stun Spore. Afterwards, Iris teaches Dawn how to climb and jump trees with the help of vines. At first Dawn was afraid of it, but she got used to Iris’s routine. In the end they both praise each other saying that they each have good reflexes. Unfortunately, the Onix attacked again, this time towards them. The meeting alone between the two ends when the group is reunited again and a shiny Onix calms their group.

In “The Mystery of the Missing Cubchoo!”, Dawn and Iris separate from the rest of the group to tell each other some things about Ash, Cilan, and Brock’s strange behaviors in secret. When Cilan exhalts himself as the best detective who is searching for the mystery of Cubchoo, they both show distrust to him, even cutting off his speeches, leaving the connoisseur depressed.

They both enter the Junior Cup along with everyone else in the next few episodes, defeating many trainers. When it is their turn to face each other, Dawn takes out her Mamoswine while Iris her Dragonite. Despite having a type disadvantage and being disobedient to her trainer, Dragonite manages to defeat Mamoswine, leaving the future Dragon Master as the winner. Dawn encourages her to keep winning through the cup, until finally Iris lost to Ash’s Krookodile.

After the Junior Cup, Dawn and Iris are amazed by the song of Meloetta, the mythical Pokémon that always accompanied them. Before Dawn flies to Johto to participate in the Wallace Cup, she thanks everyone (especially Iris) for the company.

Both appear in Pokémon Journeys, but they have yet to have direct interactions with each other. They did meet Goh, Ash’s current traveling partner and research fellow, in their returning episodes.

Fanon
Pairing Dawn and Iris is rare in the fandom. It is superseded by the two ships involving Ash: PearlShipping and NegaiShipping. Other rival ships include AppealShipping (Dawn×Zoey) and BusterShipping (Iris×Georgia). There is currently only one work in Archive of Our Own that is a friendship pairing of the two, rather than them interacting romantically.

The few who ship the two want to combine Performer and Dragon-type battling styles, even though Iris is a gym leader (and later champion) in the games. Others would just look forward to them meeting once again post-Black & White with Iris as the Unova League Champion, since the Performer has been already appearing in a few episodes of Pokémon Journeys.

The name Annemae was coined by Silvermoon602, supposedly translated as “rebellious pearl”. However, this has partly no linguistic backing as Anne would mean “grace” rather than “rebel”.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Dawn/Iris on FanFiction.net
 * Dawn/Iris on FanFiction.net