AmourShipping

This article is about shipping. As hints and evidence for ships are mostly speculation, this page may contain personal points of view.

AmourShipping (Japanese: サトセレ SatoSere) is the belief that Serena and Ash belong in a romantic relationship. The name is derived from the French word amour, meaning love. It was chosen as the name because the Kalos region is inspired by France (known for its romantic atmosphere) and Serena has a crush on him. Its popularity began before the premiere of the XY series due to Serena being revealed to have known Ash in their childhood.

Anime evidence

Serena's hints

• Lumiose City Pursuit

• When Serena sees a live news report of Ash trying to calm a rampaging Garchomp on Prism Tower, she silently looks on, seemingly in awe at Ash's bravery. When Ash jumps off the tower to rescue Pikachu, she gasps in fear for his safety. However, this may have been merely general concern, since the news camera never showed Ash's face in full until he was safely on the ground.
• Upon seeing Ash's face on TV, she ponders whether she recognizes him, having a flashback scene of a younger Ash at the end of the episode.

• XY003

• Serena decides to begin her journey after seeing Ash on TV. Upon arriving at Professor Sycamore's laboratory, and before choosing her starter Pokémon, Serena tells the professor that she is looking for the boy who was on the news. Her eyes seem to light up considerably when Sycamore identifies him as Ash.

• XY005

• When Serena is walking down the steps in Santalune City, she thinks about how she cannot wait to see the look on Ash's face when he sees her. Then, she has a flashback of a young Ash extending his arm, as if he was offering her his hand. When the flashback ends, she is seen blushing slightly.
• When she sees Ash battling Viola, she is so overcome with excitement that she runs toward the battlefield, seemingly planning on going directly on there to greet Ash without noticing that the battle is still in progress.
• Later, when Ash loses the battle, Serena is obviously remorseful and attempts to speak to him, but is further saddened when he runs past her without noticing her, since he is concentrating on his injured Pokemon.
• When Serena returns Ash's backpack to him (which Ash had left behind at the Gym), she starts to ask Ash something while blushing a little, only to be interrupted by the Pokémon Center bell.
• When Ash is on the ground from the intense training, dirty after falling to the ground while catching Pikachu and Fletchling, Serena walks up to him and hands him a handkerchief to clean himself up with, showing her thoughtfulness towards him.
• Serena looks evidently nervous before she asks him if he remembers her. It is interesting to note that when she is seen interacting with her mother, Serena has a sassy and rebellious attitude towards her, but whenever she is around Ash, she seems to be extremely hesitant and nervous, contradicting the personality that viewers have seen from her in prior episodes.

• XY006

• After she asks Ash if he remembers her, Serena mentions that they met in Professor Oak's Pokémon Summer Camp in Pallet Town. When Ash remembers attending the camp, she is overjoyed and tells him that she went there as well. However, when he says that he does not remember her specifically, she is visibly disappointed, but instantly cheers up, obviously not wanting to be upset or angry with him.
• When the group is having dinner after the training session, Serena glances at Ash and smiles at him while he is eating. Since this is directly after him saying that he is sure to win the rematch, this strongly implies that she is admiring his determination and is impressed by it.
• Throughout the entire Gym battle, her cheering for Ash seems to be in a more enthusiastic way than Clemont and Bonnie. She also keeps reassuring Clemont, Bonnie, and Alexa that everything is going to be okay and that Ash would win, showing that she strongly believes in him. Later, when Ash becomes overwhelmed by Viola's new battling strategies, Serena cries out to Ash that he should not give up (echoing a motto Ash had told her in their childhood). In that scene, the emotions are seemingly emphasized. Her encouragement snaps him out of his panic and helps him win the battle.

• XY007

• After Ash asks Serena to join them in their travels, the camera zooms to Serena where she puts a hand over her heart and smiles. Then she winks at him and accepts.
• When Clemont asks Serena why she started her journey, she pulls out the same handkerchief Ash used to bandage her, and shows it to Ash trying to get him to remember their past. This shows that Serena has kept the same handkerchief Ash used to tie up her knee with all these years.
• In a flashback of when Ash and Serena first met as children, Ash bandages Serena's knee and then pulls her up from the floor. She ends up falling into his arms and the camera zooms on her surprised face. Then she quickly pulls away and looks at him. When Ash is showing her the way out of the forest, she is wide-eyed and blushing. This flashback shows that Serena develops feelings for Ash after that incident.
• When Ash identifies Serena as the same girl he helped when he was younger, she blushes.
• Serena puts on a pink outfit for Rhyhorn Racing and then asks Ash what he thinks of it with a blush on her face.
• When Serena is on top of the Rhyhorn and demonstrating for Ash how to ride one, she is blushing.
• When it is nighttime and everyone is sleeping, there is a view of the whole room with Serena's bed shown to be empty. It is then revealed that Serena is in the kitchen baking. At the end of the episode, she hands Ash a pouch filled with cookies. She blushes and tells him that it is because she is thankful towards him. Then she has a flashback of her and Ash when they were younger holding hands. At the end of the flashback, she winks at him.

Ash's hints

• XY007

In the beginning of the episode after Serena says she doesn't know what she is going to do, Ash asks her to travel with them. He tells her that thanks to her, he won his gym badge and that they can help each other out in the future as well.

• In a flashback of when Ash and Serena first met as little kids, Serena hurts her knee and Ash takes out a handkerchief and bandages it up for her. Then he holds out his hand and when she hesitates to take it, he grabs it and pulls her up quickly taking her by surprise and making her fall into his arms in a hug. Afterward, he holds her hand and helps her find her way back to the camp.

Other hints

• On the second promotional poster for the series, Serena is depicted blushing while looking at Ash.
• XY006

• 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 sensed that this was a sensitive moment between Ash and Serena and that they should be left alone.
• 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 have also smiled 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, "I knew Ash needed a trigger (something to cheer him up and motivate him), but I didn't expect it to be you." This sentence implies that Ash wouldn't have been as inspired and determined to win the battle if Serena hadn't appeared.

This article is part of Project Shipping, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each couple in Pokémon.