AmourShipping

AmourShipping is the het ship between Ash and Serena from the Pokémon fandom.

Serena is obsessed with ash as she started her journey as a way to stalk ash during the tine traveling with ash they song seem to get along that well as they dong have any similarity unlike other pokegirls serena had the worst character development as she didn't have a goal but ot took her 50 episode to get one which was ripoff of contest unlike in the anime there were no show cases in game or manga so the writers just wanted something to do with serena plus amourshipping was just a market strategy. ... Leaving that when serena first fighter with ash she threw snowballs at him manipulating him.. And it revealed that serena just liked the perfect version of ash which she created in her head... This leads us to say that if they were to become a couple it would be unhealthy fans of ammoirshipping just like this ship because it was the first time a character had canon crush on ash and they feel like their shipping is superior

Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction
In the trailer of the movie, Serena and Ash are seen on the ground battered and bruised after Yveltal's awekening. They're alone in this, with other characters nowhere to be seen.

During the night after Ash and Diancie make a wish on a star, it shows Serena awake in her tent gazing at Ash adoringly from a distance without him being aware. When Ash is separated from Diancie and the rest of his friends, Diancie expresses her worry for him, but Serena instantly speaks up, believing that he will be fine. Sometime during the movie, Ash holds Serena's hand as they cross a log together even though the help was most likely unnecessary.

In the ending credits, after seeing a shooting star, Serena is making a wish and Ash is the only one who is looking at her while Clemont and Bonnie start sleeping.

Hoopa and the Clash of Ages
In the trailer, Serena becomes extremely worried about Ash and calls his name in fear when he becomes taken over by the Prison Bottle he caught.

Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel
Serena is shown to be carrying Ash's backpack for him when he is unable to. After they reunite, Serena gives Ash new clothes she bought for him to replace his water-damaged outfit. When he wears the outfit, she says he looks great and he is shown to be excited about it, expressing that he really likes it At night, when the group is camping, Serena is mending Ash's normal outfit. When she gives it back, Ash compliments and thanks her.

I Choose You!
During the credits, every travelling companion of Ash is seen, presumably from his point of view. When Serena is shown, her hat falls off, is caught from the camera's point of view, and handed to her. She takes it back and smiles.

Behind the scenes - Cast's opinion

 * Tetsuo Yajima, the anime director for the series, declared ”They didn’t become a couple in the episode itself but the way I ended it is meant to understand that they’re going to become one later. Serena tells Ash that she is going to improve herself and then come back again to him. And then she does something absolutely incredible, she is meant to be kissing Ash in that scene but since the main audience of ye show are kids so I couldn’t show the actual kiss scene instead Serena’s feet is shown floating upwards.”
 * Ash's reaction the kiss is described as surprised awe and that any ambiguity the scene has was put so that they could show the kiss on TV in the first place, as kissing mouth-to-mouth was viewed as an extraordinary intimate act in Japan and children were the main target audience. It's speculated so, that Ash's reaction was toned down too, but wasn't indifferent to the kiss.
 * Junichi Masuda, a Pokémon composer, has tweeted a picture of Ash and Serena as Pikachu, playing with one another. In the actual tweet, he tagged multiple AmourShipping accounts. He also retweeted for Valentine's day another amourshipping fanart and posted another amourshipping one.
 * Ken Sugimori, an illustrator and concept designer tweeted a picture of Ash and Serena figurines in front of a microphone.
 * Kensho Ono, voice actor for Aaron and Alain tweeted of picture of himself with his script for Pokémon the Series: XY with all the other characters, aside Ash and Serena, blurred out. He also expressed surprise. Since he was holding the script for the last episode, it was probably a hint to the kiss.
 * Shoko Nakagawa, former host of Pokémon Sunday and composer of DreamDream, has tweeted illustrations of Ash and Serena that she drew and a picture of Ash and Serena sleeping while holding hands. For the 20th anniversary of Pokémon, she made a collaboration with Pokénchi, where she drew Ash and Serena holding hands while wearing Sylveon themed hoodies.
 * Rica Matsumoto, Ash's Japanese voice actor, a picture of Ash encouraging Serena to accept Aria's challenge for a double battle from "Battling with Elegance And a Big Smile!". However, in an interview from 2017, she said she doesn't see Ash having a romantic relationship with anyone, so she probably doesn't support the ship or any Ash's ships.
 * Mayuki Makiguchi, Serena's Japanese voice actor, although does not say anything of Ash's relationship with Serena, clarifies in an interview from 2022 that she is very happy to play her character again in Journeys, 6 years after the last episode of XYZ, which indicates that she probably supports the ship.
 * Yusuke Oshida, one of the animators, has tweeted a picture of Ash and Serena in their Journeys outfits with a blue ribbon in the background.

Fanon
This ship is one of the most popular ships in the Pokémon anime. It is also one of the most popular ships between Ash and a female companion. The popularity of the shipping began even before the series actually started, when people caught info about her knowing Ash since childhood and catching hints of a possible canon crush, thanks to the official poster, some photos of a screening at a live exhibition in Japan and magazine articles. The populary furtherly grew after the crush was confirmed in the first episodes, even bringing some people who dropped the anime back for it.

Aside the constant hints between them and the moments they shared in the series, the kiss at the end of the second-last episode managed to keep fans attached to the ship and hopeful for its future. It's common belief between them that Ash has implied feelings/crush on Serena, which could eventually lead to them ending up together.

One of the biggest reasons for fans to ship them is the trope of Childhood Friends Romance, which is the one that's pushed with Ash and Serena. Another big element fans like in the ship is Serena and Ash's chemistry and supporting relationship, with the absence of exaggerate teasing, mocking, or arguing. Serena and Ash only argued once in the series and because of Serena's wish to break him out of his self-damaging depression, to which he then apologized and then thanked her for, as it helped him snapping out of his condition and giving him the strength to face again the obstacles that blocked him. While with his other companions Ash often had bickering situations where he got also teased (Not with extreme malice) or bigger but also less important arguments, with Serena it's appreciated how serene is the air between them. They are usually on the same line and when not they talk about it nicely and helping each other improve and be encouraged.

It's very visible also how fans adore Ash's attitude towards Serena, which while is always a bit dense, still shows him treating her with a sweetness and carefulness he rarely showed in the previous series, going out of his way to help her when not necessary, complimenting her multiple times on her appearance or her actions, seeking her out first and sometimes only when in difficult situations and more often than not being encouraged only by her words.

Interestingly, Serena has a completely opposite personality to Ash. She is not interested in science and technology unlike him, as he is not overly interested in fashion. She can dance and cook well while Ash cannot. While she focuses more on the visual part of Pokémon abilities, he focuses more on the battles. Their fans think it is beautiful to be so different in this way and thus complement each other better, as it's also seen that despite their differences, they both show full support in things the other is interested into with genuine appreciation.

This ship is usually ranked as top tier 1st in Japan when it comes to Pokémon ships, because it usually generates trends around Serena and her pairing with Ash on Twitter. It's also always victorious in Japanese polls, usually with big distance from the second place.

In the West its popularity stays between the highest, but often shifts between being the favorite of the fans and getting surpassed by other rival ships by the number of concent. With AmourShipping being the closest ship to reach canonicity and having still chances, it's both the most loved ship but also the most disliked by multi-shippers whom ship actively the two with other characters, mostly Ash, including het, slash and friend relationships.

Some of the most popular ships with Ash, excluding Serena, are PokéShipping, AdvanceShipping, PearlShipping, AureliaShipping, and recently in Journeys, NegaiShipping, ShalourShipping (Ash x Korrina) and JourneyShipping. Other appreciated ships alternative to SatoSere with Ash are BoulderShipping (Ash x Brock), PalletShipping, CafeMochaShipping (Ash x Cilan), DiodeShipping (Ash x Clemont), Z-ringShipping, PoffleShipping (Ash x Miette), ImaginationShipping (Ash x Bianca (BW)), BloomBoltShipping (Ash x Chloe) and all that included Ash's traveling companions and rivals, mostly females.

It should be noted that from all of them, AmourShipping rivaled also other ships involving other girls having also a crush on Ash, like FireShipping (Ash x Macey), AbilityShipping (Ash x Anabel) and MorpheusShipping, (Ash x Angie), as well as GoggleShipping due to Giselle the only girl that Ash explicitly shown feelings towards her.

On Serena’s side, the most shipped alternative is GeekChicShipping, followed by KalosShipping (SerenaxCalem), LacewoodShipping (Serena x Professor Sycamore), KingsRockShipping (Serena x Lysandre), BoutiqueShipping (Serena x Shauna), and recently in Journeys, FemJourneyShipping (Serena x Chloe) and DreamGirlShipping (Serena x Lisia). Other options, but much rarer are LimoShipping (Serena x Meyer), VanivilleShipping (Serena × Trevor), LovelousShipping (Serena × Tierno) and XEvolutionShipping (Serena × Alain). It should be noted that despite Serena's variable personality between the games and anime and Ash not exisiting in the games, AmourShipping still rivals the majority of ships involving members of rival ships both in games and anime.

Usually AmourShippers focus only on this pair, but when pairing up other Pokégirls and characters the choices are usually OrangeShipping, ContestShipping (May x Drew), PenguinShipping (Kenny x Dawn), WishfulShipping (Cilan x Iris), LaserbladeShipping (Clemont x Korrina) KalosRivalShipping (Tierno x Miette), TakenShipping (Hau x Lillie), NaheleAhiShipping (Kiawe x Mallow), SwordfishShipping (Gladion x Lana), VermilionShipping (Goh x Chloe) and others.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Ash/Serena tag on FanFiction.net
 * Ash/Serena tag on FanFiction.net

FAN ART
 * on DeviantArt
 * on DeviantArt
 * on DeviantArt
 * on DeviantArt
 * on DeviantArt
 * on DeviantArt

REDDIT
 * r/AmourShipping on Reddit

WIKIS
 * AmourShipping on Bulbapedia

SOCIALS
 * Amourshipping on Instagram
 * Satosere on Instagram
 * (Satosere: サトセレ) on Instagram
 * Amourshipping on Twitter
 * Satosere on Twitter
 * (Satosere: サトセレ) on Twitter

TUMBLR
 * Amourshipping on Tumblr
 * Satosere on Tumblr
 * Ash x Serena on Tumblr

Trivia

 * The ship name comes from the word amour which means “love” in French. It is because Serena is originally from Kalos, a region based on France in Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, and she has a canonical crush on Ash since childhood.
 * SatoSere, the Japanese name for this ship, comes from the original Japanese names: Satoshi (Ash) and Serena. It has been trending in Japan on Twitter at various times.
 * On the promotional poster for the series Pokémon the Series XY: Kalos Quest, Serena is depicted blushing while looking at Ash.
 * On the first official character connection table, an arrow is shown from Serena to Ash with the phrase "I love ...?".Drink.jpg
 * In the March 2014 issue of Onnanoko to Tame no Kuchikomi & Tōkō Magazine, there is a summary of Serena where among her character description it says that she has special feelings towards Ash. There is also another character connection table with an arrow from Serena to Ash that says "Very interested in".
 * The aforementioned magazine also includes a poster with Ash and Serena surrounded by Pokémon and balloons. Serena is holding a heart balloon while looking up at Ash. This is used by The Pokémon Company to celebrate the Valentine’s Day.
 * There is another official poster from Animedia Magazine of only Serena and Ash sitting next to each other and holding drinks.Donuts.jpg
 * There is an official poster for the movie Hoopa and the Clash of Ages of Ash, Serena, Pikachu and Hoopa, in the poster Serena is seen feeding Pikachu, Clemont and Bonnie were noticeably absent.
 * On the official Pokémon movie website for Japan, there is a quiz where one question asks what the dialogue from Serena was at the end of Summer of Discovery! and one of the options is Serena saying, "My dream is, to become Satoshi's bride... AH! I am embarrassed!"
 * Another quiz was made, where it asked what Serena decided for her future after the third-last episode of XY&Z. One of the options was that she refused Palermo's offer to follow Ash in his next travel. While this is not what exactly happened, we don't know what Serena planned to do if Palermo didn't suggest her to go to Hoenn. And since she refused beforehand, it's possible that it was really her intention to follow Ash back to Kanto and depart with him on another journey.
 * In another official event of Pokémon: Pokémon Fan (18/9/2015), there was a section where it asked what was in Ash's backpack. Looking inside, two objects are directly tied to Serena and one more possibly (out of 4): A picture of their meeting, a ticket for Serena's Showcase and two cinema tickets.
 * In an episode of Pokénchi, a side-show for games, commentaries and news sharing, a presentation for Serena's character was made and in the characteristics listed there was that "She is Ash's girlfriend."
 * At the last scene of "Till We Compete Again!" when Ash is shown entering his house, the white flowers in the foreground are Baby Breath flowers which symbolize everlasting love and are used in bride's bouquets. It's been confirmed that it's a hint from the writers that shows their content with the ending of XY&Z having Ash and Serena kiss and that it's a willing hidden message.
 * The flight Serena was going to board to head to Hoenn was H71 Latias. "H71" can be interpreted as the #071 in the Hoenn Pokédex in Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (which was released after Pokémon X and Pokémon Y games), which is Mawile, or Kucheet (クチート) in Japanese. This can be read as a corruption of 口と, meaning "with the mouth", suggesting that Serena kissed Ash on the mouth. This has then been confirmed by some workers, the storyboard release and Yajima. (Not to be confused with the original games Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald Pokédex, where Mawile is #069)
 * In Pokémon Journeys, episode 105, as Serena watches Ash's boat from a distance, the dock lights turn to green. This could be a reference to The Great Gatsby, in which a green light is symbolic of Gatsby's hope to rekindle his past love with Daisy. Also in South Korea, green lights symbolize "two people in love". This could suggest that despite Ash and Serena's reunion being brief, with their paths still being separate, the two hope for a future together.
 * Serena's third outfit does not include the blue ribbon Ash gave her. However, she wears a turquoise bead-anklet on her left leg during her contests and wearing an accessory on the left ankle symbolically means having a boyfriend, a lover or someone you're interested into.
 * In the second version of the first opening of Pokémon the Series: XY (Mega V), Serena looks sad about something and Ash is the only one that notices and calls her to be with him to try to make Serena happy.Covering her.PNG
 * The first Pokemon XY ending theme only shows Ash and Serena's hats, Ash's Pokédex, Serena's guide book and makeup box.
 * At the end of the third Pokemon XY ending theme, DreamDream, while Serena is sleeping, Ash places a blanket over her.
 * Many fans are intrigued by the ending theme since there is a line that says "two people finding a new love" followed by the scene of Ash placing a blanket over Serena.
 * In the episode "Battling on Thin Ice!", when Serena and Ash manage to have a conversion some interesting details are added:
 * After Serena asks Ash if he remembers her, Ash's Pikachu and Fletchling run to Clemont and Bonnie in response, implying that the two Pokémon sense that this is a sensitive moment between Ash and Serena and that they should be left alone.Alexa ships it.PNG
 * As Serena and Ash talk, Alexa is seen smiling at the two of them, suggesting that she enjoys seeing the two of them together and even senses a spark between them. However, she could also be smiling as a response to Serena restoring Ash's motivation to train, by quoting a sentence he once said in his childhood, about "never giving up".
 * Before the start of the rematch between Ash and Viola, Alexa tells Serena when she heard Ash and her talking, he needed some inspiration, but she didn't think it would be from her. This sentence implies that Ash would not be as inspired and determined to win the battle if Serena had not appeared.


 * The Japanese title of "Under the Pledging Tree!" is "Satoshi and Serena's First Date!? The Vow Tree and the Present!!"
 * In this episode, Ash gives Serena a ribbon, which is one of the very few times Ash has ever given a gift to one of his female friends (he gave a Beedrill to Casey in The Bug Stops Here and a flower to Iris in "The Path That Leads to Goodbye!"). It can be noted that unlike when he gave those gifts to Casey and Iris, he gave Serena the ribbon without any advice from another person.
 * The NegaiShippers see this episode as a rival of Ash and Iris's "date" version in "Lost at the Stamp Rally!". While in Iris's version of her "date" with Ash they do many things such as watching an American Football match, playing tennis, going to the Musical Theater and even working together to find the trainer of a female Axew at Nimbasa City, Serena's version of her "date" only have them working together for finding the perfect gifts for their Pokémon before Ash leaves Serena at Coumarine City.
 * Ash and Serena tend to gravitate towards each other a lot during the series. (It could be due to Bonnie and Clemont being siblings, but it's also known that Bonnies is extremely close to Serena and they're often seen together and sleep in the same spaces, just like Clemont and Ash enjoy a lot spending time with each other. So these are still relevant hints.)
 * When Ash and his traveling companions split up to go look for something, he tends to partner up with Serena.
 * When something dangerous happens or they are worried they tend to scream each other's name first and leaving their friends and Pokémon as "others" (Ex: To Catch a Pokémon Smuggler!). Sometimes they are also the only one voicing concern in the first place. It also happened that they would check on each other first and then the others, or focus only and entirely on one another (ex: Mega-Mega Meowth Madness!)
 * They are more often than not sitting besides each other, mostly when eating.
 * So far in the series, four recurring female characters have noted Serena's crush on Ash: Miette, Bonnie, Shauna and Nini. Every time it has been openly discussed with her, rather than attempting to deny it, Serena instead blushes and acts embarrassed.
 * So far Serena is the only companion of Ash who never denied her feelings for him.
 * At the end of the XY series, those feelings are revealed also to Clemont, Pikachu, Dedenne and most importantly Ash, with the kiss Serena gave him rather than through words.
 * To date, Serena is the only female traveling companion to ever dress up as and impersonate Ash.
 * Serena is the only one of Ash’s female companions who has kissed him, specifically on the lips.
 * There are other girls that also kissed Ash, but in the cheeks, such as Melody and Bianca from Pokémon Heroes, who are not Ash's female companions.
 * Serena is the first female companion who hasn't either argued or fought with nor insulted or mocked Ash on a regular basis or be easily irritated by his actions.
 * The only time both Ash and Serena had a conflict, it was over something serious instead of childish; to snap Ash back to his senses.
 * The idea to have a romance subplot apparently came from producer Shukichi Kanda who came up with the idea of portraying things though a female lead’s admiration for Ash, which then led to the suggestion that they have a flash back to a childhood meeting with romantic implications.
 * Ash and Serena met each other when they were young at Professor Oak's Summer Camp in Pallet Town. This would make it the first time a traveling companion of Ash's knew him prior to the series.
 * Ash has always shown to be someone who wasn't very interested in shopping and clothing, sometimes showing to be quite inexperienced with his choices. Even in XY series, he expressed displease when accompanying Miette to choose her dress. However, he went shopping 2 times with Serena willingly, one of the two being his idea in the first place to cheer her up and showing genuine enthusiasm and drive when bringing her in front of the shops' windows. He also seems to appreciate both her choices in clothing for herself, and the ones she made for him too.
 * Interestingly, in a Pikachu Short Meloetta's Moonlight Serenade, where there are no human Trainers, when Meowth imagines himself handing Melody Berries to Meloetta and falls in love with that Pokémon, the two strike a similar pose to when Ash gives Serena a blue ribbon. However, this short film was aired before the XY series and therefore, it could be said that they took reference from this short film.
 * In another Pikachu Short Eevee and Friends, a Sylveon appears as the first eeveevolution that appeared before its corresponding generation XY and is the Intertwining Pokémon that has a close relationship with Ash's Pikachu, 3 years before Serena gets her own one evolving Eevee. This is seen as another proof that the writers already had working in Serena and Ash's relationship taking Ash's Pikachu and the future Serena's Sylveon as a base.
 * In the lastest Pikachu Short Pikachu and the Pokémon Music Squad, Serena's Braixen is seen often in front of the squad, near Ash's Pikachu and even sometimes next to him.
 * Serena's cameo in Pokémon Journeys became a trending topic in Twitter (Japan)
 * Authors and Pokémon Company are most probably aware of fans' appreciation towards Serena and her relationship with Ash as many official polls told them so and they acted accordingly after them.
 * On the official Japanese site for Pokémon, a poll for the release of the movie "I choose you" was posted, asking fans who they preffered most of the characters aside Ash and would like to see again. Serena placed 2nd after Brock, with Misty placing 3rd by a huge gap. Some time later, Misty and Brock appeared in Sun&Moon.
 * Serena often placed in top 10/20 of the national characters popularity poll and being the highest scoring of the Pokémon characters. The most recent one she placed 17th.
 * The Pokémon Company International's English Twitter account tweeted the scene where Serena kissed Ash from XY140 on Valentine's Day of 2018 and 2020, and on May 31, 2021.
 * The kiss between Ash and Serena always ranked high among the kiss scenes in anime for Kiss Day in Japan.
 * In 2018 it placed 3rd.
 * In 2019 it placed 8th.
 * In 2020 it place 10th.
 * In 2021 it placed 18th.
 * In 2022 it placed 4th (gaining again popularity after her reappearing in Journeys).
 * in 2023 it placed 11th
 * SatoSere, since its existence, always placed first in the unofficial but very popular japanese polls about the best Pokémon ship. It similarly happens in the West, in unofficial polls in almost every social media, like Facebook, although sometimes is surpassed by at least one rival ship.
 * In an official Japanese magazine, Serena is also ranked the 14th most popular anime character, surpassing even Ash Ketchum and all other Pokémon characters, becoming the most popular Pokémon character until now.

Reciprocal ships

 * InsectivoreShipping - the ship between Ash's Froakie → Frogadier → Greninja and Serena's Fennekin → Braixen → Delphox
 * SparkRibbonShipping - the ship between Ash's Pichu → Pikachu and Serena's Eevee → Sylveon

Variations

 * MirrorAmourShipping - the ship between Mirror Ash and Mirror Serena, their Mirror World counterparts
 * MirrorKingShipping — the ship between Serena and Mirror Ash, his Mirror World counterpart
 * MirrorQueenShipping — the ship between Ash and Mirror Serena, her Mirror World counterpart
 * AlternateKingShipping — the ship between Serena and Alternate World Ash from Pokémon Journeys.
 * RougeluneShipping — the ship between Serena and Red, Ash's game counterpart
 * MangAmourShipping — the ship between Red and Yvonne Gabena, their manga counterparts
 * AncientAmourShipping — the ship between Ash and Irida, a possible Serena's ancestor from Pokémon Legends: Arceus.
 * NotAmourShipping — the ship between Ash and Professor Serena from Hoenn.
 * AdvancedAmourShipping — the polyship between Ash, Serena and May
 * JauneAmitieShipping — the polyship between Ash, Serena and Clemont
 * ChocolateParfaitShipping — the polyship between Ash, Serena and Cilan.
 * VanilleDynAmourShipping — the polyship between Ash, Serena and Skyla.
 * ImaginAmourShipping — the polyship between Ash, Serena and Bianca from Black and White.
 * LoveYouLikeALoveSongShipping — the polyship between Ash, Serena and Meloetta.

Navigation
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