NegaiShipping

NegaiShipping is the het ship between Ash and Iris from the Pokémon fandom.

Pokémon Black & White
It all begins in the Unova region, where Ash and Iris meet for the first time in the episode "Enter Iris and Axew!". This time, the way they meet is unique, as Ash notices something moving in the bushes and only sees the top of Iris' hair, believing it to be a Pokémon. Scanning it with the Pokédex, he thinks it's an Axew and decides to throw the Poké Ball at it. Iris gets angry about it until Ash apologizes.

Iris blushes slightly upon meeting Ash, and throughout most of the episode. Later on, after Pikachu and Axew are stolen by Team Rocket, Ash jumps off a tree and falls down to the ground. Iris immediately jumps down from the tree, asking if Ash is all right, rather than trying to save the Pokémon. Iris also later thanks Ash for saving Axew, even though it was Oshawott who saved him. The morning after meeting Iris, Ash seems a little disappointed when she has suddenly gone missing. Iris then tells Ash that because of his actions she has started to change her view of him and she starts traveling with him.

During a rescue of some Pokémon, Ash loses his grip on a bridge made of Sandile, but Iris is there to grab his wrist, keeping hold of him as the Sandile righten themselves to safety. Afterward, the two look to each other and smile, having silently reconciled their differences. It is to be noted, however, they shared this look a moment later with the main Sandile; ultimately, it means, "A job well done." Later, the two decide to relax in the new thermal bath created by the geysers.

During Ash's gym battle with Chili, Cress, and Cilan, fans of the brothers stayed on one side of the arena to cheer on the Gym Leaders, while Iris stays on the opposing side and quite blatantly gazes at Ash with a look that could easily be interpreted as attraction or cool admiration (among others, both positive and negative, given she's been calling him a "kid" up until now, and not kindly). After their battle, Cilan comments on the nice "flavor" that Ash and Iris have together. Iris moves to leave and Cilan asks if they were not traveling together. Indignantly, Iris states "We're not together!" and leaves, which is a common expression said by tsundere characters.

In the Nacrene City Museum, Iris is very attentive to Ash as they enter the Nacrene Gym. When Lenora examines how Ash behaves as a trainer, Iris feels flirtatious with him.

Pokémon Black and White: Rival Destinies
In “Lost at the Stamp Rally!”, Iris is very bored listening to Cilan's long speech about the Stamp Rally, so she decides to go alone with Ash with the excuse that he had promised to take her on a tour of the Nimbasa City. First they walk together until they reach a stadium. When Ash asks what Iris wants to see first, she points to a poster of the Gurdurr vs Darmanitan teams match. Iris reveals to Ash that she is a big fan of the Gurdurr team since they trained in the Village of Dragons, which happens to be her hometown. After watching the game, Iris is thrilled that her team has won the match, to the point of blushing in Ash's presence. Then, Iris proposes to Ash to have a game of tennis, to which he accepts on the condition that he will not lose to her. After playing, they both went to the Musical Theater. where they both sat together for a while until Oshawott came out of his Poké Ball to want to get on stage. Later, when Iris buys some Casteliacones for both of them, she finds a female Axew different from her own male counterpart wearing it in her hair. Their meeting alone together ends when they manage to find Cilan and Erina, the real trainer of the female Axew.

Pokémon Black and White: Adventures In Unova and Beyond
In “The Path that Leads to Goodbye!”, Iris kept getting angry at Ash or he kept getting angry at her for certain things and after Ash gave Iris a bitter apple she attempted to throw it back at him (although Cilan caught the apple before it hit Ash), and Iris angrily declared she and Ash weren't friends anymore and then she stormed off. When Iris noticed that Team Rocket had stolen Pikachu and Scraggy she freed them both and then she and Ash worked together to send Team Rocket "blasting off again". Iris and Ash made up and both gave each other gifts (she gave Ash an apple and he gave her flowers).

Having to stop travelling with Ash because she has to go to Blackthorn City to challenge its gym leader Clair, Iris felt a little bad about the times they had spent together through between joys, arguments and “childish” fights. She thanked Ash for what they have experienced together. Then, she gets on the Magnetic Train with Cilan and they leave for Johto, leaving the group for good and leaving Ash and Alexa alone.

Pokémon Master Journeys
Years later, in the episode “Thrash of the Titans!”, Iris personally sends a letter to Ash with the goal of challenging him to a Pokémon battle at the Opelucid Gym in the Unova region in the World Coronation Series. Ash and Goh then head to Unova to enter the gym. Iris suddenly appears and surprises everyone and especially Ash with her own champion costume. In doing so, she reveals that she is the strongest trainer in Unova, which allowed her to become the champion of the region. However, the two begin to fight in a "childish" manner when Iris says that Ash's childish behavior never changes.

During the argument, Ash brings his face close to Iris's regardless of the intensity of the fight. Fortunately, Drayden stops this fight and says they must settle this with a battle. Ash and Iris use their Dragonite to fight, plus Iris later uses her Haxorus and Ash uses his Dracovish. In the end, Ash wins the battle, moving up to the Ultra Class of the Coronation World Series. Iris promises to battle Ash again later as he leaves the Unova region.

Pokémon Ultimate Journeys
When Ash manages to defeat Raihan, the data of the World Coronation Series is updated, where Ash and Iris become two of the 8 masters along with other 6 champions from other regions. Initially, Ash is in the 8th place, while Iris is in the 7th place. Together, they are currently participating in it, aiming to become world champions by entering the Masters Tournament.

In episode 115 they both are shown running into the Masters Eight meeting together and later on exchange a gaze and a smile at each other when being presented in the tournament's opening ceremony. When the tournament begins, Ash is introduced, followed by Iris. Seeing them together, Goh supports them both.

Fanon
Fans of this shipping consider that Ash should be with Iris because Ash wants to become a Pokémon Master and Iris wants to become a Dragon Master. Both are Pokémon Trainers. And they say that Iris is the strongest trainer of the PokéGirls. Ash might feel hatred for Iris, but at least there are more feelings he showed more to her than to the others.

Ash and Iris have almost the same habits and the same personality, as they both carry their main Pokémon on their shoulders (Pikachu and Axew), they both want to become masters, they are childish representing that the anime is kodomo (only for children) and they are almost at the same level, so fans consider Iris to be the real Ashley (the female version of Ash).

When Ash and Iris are alone in Nimbasa City, fans consider this the best moment for both of them. They even said that this was the best of all the dates Ash could have had, even though they both hadn't planned it.

In the shipping war, this shipping was popular along with Pokéshipping during the Best Wishes series of the anime, because Misty and Iris have similar personalities (Both of them are tsundere-like girls). However, with the arrival of the XY series, this shipping drastically dropped in popularity. Most of Pokémon fans consider Negaishipping is the worst shipping due to Iris arguing a lot with Ash and calling him "a little kid" repeatedly. However, Iris has a lot of support from all the people who don't like Serena.

With the recent news of Ash being Alola champion and later Iris returning as Unova champion, this shipping has regained its lost popularity, although it still has a long way to go to become the most preferred ship by all Pokémon fans, like PokéShipping. Now their fans expect NegaiShipping to become canon, whatever it takes. They even think that this ship should be made official in the Pokémon anime to reduce the criticism the haters have been making of both Iris and NegaiShipping, and thus, reduce rather controversial issues such as "discrimination against dark-skinned people". Still, it is one of the Pokémon ships that has very few fics and is the least written in AO3.

It rivals with WishfulShipping (Iris×Cilan), ImaginationShipping (AshxBianca), PokéShipping (Ash×Misty), AdvanceShipping (Ash×May), PearlShipping (Ash×Dawn), AlohaShipping (Ash×Mallow), AureliaShipping (Ash×Lillie), and BlueAngelShipping (Ash×Lana). The giant rival of this shipping is AmourShipping because Iris has a totally opposite personality to Serena. This became more serious to the point that all AmourShippers are automatically considered Anti-Negaishippers.

Fandom
FANFICTION
 * Ash/Iris tag on FanFiction.net
 * Ash/Iris tag on FanFiction.net

DEVIANTART

FAN POP
 * Ash and Iris Club on Fanpop

Trivia

 * The name of the ship comes from the Japanese word "negai" which means wish, making a reference to the Best Wishes series of the anime.
 * SatoAi, the Japanese name for this ship, comes from the original Japanese names: Satoshi (Ash) and Airisu (Iris).
 * “Thrash of the Titans!”, the episode where Iris returns in Journeys, makes reference to the movie “Clash of the Titans”.