RocketShipping

RocketShipping is the het ship between Jessie and James from the Pokémon fandom.

Anime (Overview)
Jessie and James are comrades in Team Rocket and have a friendship that dates back to their first meeting as co-workers. They work together on wacky plans to steal Ash’s Pikachu and impress their leader Giovanni, with their talking Meowth.

Jessie and James have a liability to embrace or hold onto each other when they are frightened (dubbed “fear hugs” by RocketShippers) or happy. Jessie and James also do not have a issue with physical contact such as sleeping onto each other or holding each other in ways that friends won't.

Pokémon: Indigo League
When the two are convinced they are going to die in “Pokémon Shipwreck”, they hold hands, promising never to forget each other. James says to Jessie that he thinks she is beautiful. When James is scared to cross Bulbasaur’s vines and begs Jessie and Meowth to go on without him, Jessie refuses to leave him behind, insisting that they will cross together.

In “The Ghost of Maiden’s Peak”, James declares his love to the ghost’s statue in a precarious position on the edge of a cliff. Jessie is holding onto his pants to keep him from falling off until she gets distracted and he falls. She tries to grab him but ends up falling with him into the sea. When the ghost is dragging him away at the climax, James finally cries that he doesn't want to be separated from Jessie. Upon hearing this, she pulls out a bazooka and shoots the ghost. James smiles tearfully and says her name adoringly, to which she responds, “Don’t get the wrong idea!” and attempts to hide the fact that she did it for his sake. When the group is fighting against Gastly, Jessie and James are in the background fear-hugging.

In “The Ninja Poké-Showdown”, Jessie gives James a rose, much to his surprise. He pricks himself on a thorn as Jessie goes on to say that beautiful things can be painful.

In “The Legend of Miniryu”, James stands in front of Jessie to block her from the line of fire after dodging some bullets from Kaiser. He tells her to relax and trust him, grabs her by the waist and jumps off the roof with a parachute. The parachute falls on top of them after they crash-land and they scramble underneath it, during which time Jessie says, “Where do you think you’re touching?!” When they emerge, James is wearing an unnaturally wide grin.

In “A Chansey Operation”, James expresses obvious unhappiness at the flirting between Dr. Proctor and Jessie. When Dr. Proctor asks Jessie on a date, James cocks an eyebrow and looks unimpressed. Later Jessie puts her hand on Proctor’s chest to which James responds by glaring angrily at Jessie and clenching his fists. When Dr Proctor asks Jessie to assist him and she agrees, James volunteers to assist as well.

In “Holy Matrimony!”, Jessie is crushed, thinking that James has decided to marry his fiancée Jessebelle and come into his inheritance. To her delighted surprise, James calls out with the motto, swooping down in the balloon to pick her up. When he tells her that he was not able to get the inheritance, she brushes it off, saying that they do not need it as long as they have their freedom. They shake hands to reaffirm their friendship. Their hands form a heart and they gaze into each others’ eyes as the music swells as they end up forgetting to pick up Meowth.

Pokémon: Journey to the Orange Islands
In “Snack Attack”, James blushes after Jessie flirtatiously nudges him and compliments him on having a good memory.

Pokémon: Advanced
In "Seeing is Believing!", James tries to calm Jessie down while calling her "Sweetheart" as Team Rocket continue to blast off again after being thwarted by Ash and his friends.

In "Abandon Ship!", Max comments on how he thought they were just a "nice old couple" in their disguises, which James happily denies.

In "Love at First Flight", Jessie and James dress up as Illumise and Volbeat during their recital of their motto. Illumise and Volbeat are also said to can't be able to live without the other. While the episode itself revolves around Romeo and his Volbeat not being able to confess their love to Juliet and Illumise, respectively.

"The Electric Tale of Pikachu" manga
They first appear in the third volume, Pikachu Shocks Back, where the two are waiting for Meowth to fetch some fish for breakfast. Jessie wonders how much longer it will take Meowth to find the fish as she looks over to James, who's still fast asleep.

Annoyed, she kicks him awake and tells him to get some work done, to which he responds by flirtatiously greeting her good morning. She yells at him some more telling him to start preparing everything else they need for breakfast, but James exclaims how they're out of butter. Meowth soon arrives, commenting how they're pretty lively for people who haven't had breakfast yet.

They're then greeted by a child from the jungle accompanied by a Kangaskhan, mistaking Jessie for a Kangaskhan and asking where her "pouch" is. He latches onto her chest, saying how he "wants a ride". This upsets James greatly, making him angrily chase after a panicking Jessie with a child attached to her chest, with the former exclaiming how he "wants to ride [her], too".

Meowth literally kicks the two back into their senses and says how, if they follow this kid and the Kangaskhan, they'll be able to find the secret village of rare Pokémon, much to Jessie and James' delight.

In the last chapter of the last volume, titled "Epilogue: Type Wild", it starts off with a picture of Jessie and James, happily married while expecting a child together, with Meowth living with them after the three have retired from Team Rocket. It cuts to James delivering a letter from Ash to the latter's mom on his behalf, with Jessie and Meowth waiting by the road on their shared car.

The letter narrates Ash's adventures, which includes him and Misty witnessing James confess to Jessie firsthand, which led to the latter two eventually getting together.

Throughout the manga, the two share suggestive physical contact, while occasionally having minimal clothes on, as well as sharing a bed together when invited to sleep the night at Ash's place.

Fanon
In the beginning, there was only one kind of RocketShipper - the one who thought that Jessie and James were attracted to each other. Some fans hoped they would eventually become a full-fledged couple. The RocketShipping fan community went wild after the publishing of The Electric Tale of Pikachu manga, which was officially approved by Nintendo themselves.

It finally had officially-sanctioned proof that Jessie and James were a romantic couple. Some believed that it was only a matter of time before something similar happened in the TV anime series.

This ship has over 300 works in Archive of Our Own and is often compared with NeoRocketShipping, due to Butch and Cassidy formerly belonging to the same organization as Jessie and James.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

FAN ART

WIKIS
 * RocketShipping on Bulbapedia

Variations

 * TRio — the friendship including Meowth