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

PearlShipping (Japanese: サトヒカ SatoHika) is the possible pairing between Ash Ketchum and the newest character Dawn from the Pokémon anime.

Evidence

Dawn's hints

• In Dawn of a New Era, Dawn felt that Ash didn't respect or acknowledge her and both argued with each other through out most of the episode, so she challenged Nando to a battle hoping to make Ash realize how good she was as a trainer, and in the end after Nando managed to explain to them that there was no reason to argue both apologized to one another and exchanged a few very sentimental words thus strengthening their new friendship.
• In Setting the World on its Buneary, Dawn was having a bad hair day and had her Piplup fix her hair. Before fixing her hair, she refused to let Ash see her for fear of having him judge her, or that she was simply being self-conscious.
• In Mounting a Coordinator Assault, Dawn commented on how awesome Ash looked when making his appeal in the Jubilife Contest.
• In O'er the Rampardos we Watched, Dawn donned on a cute cheerleading outfit and she and her Pokémon began cheering and dancing for Ash to win and thus giving him the confidence to earn his first gym badge in Sinnoh. This is a first since neither Misty nor May ever went to such lengths in any of Ash's battles; they usually sat at the side lines discussing if he would win, though they would usually throw him a few cheers.

Ash's hints

• In Settling a Not-So-Old Score!, Ash calmed her nerves down after she had made what she thought was a bad appeal, and even used her frequent catchphrase ("No need to worry") to console her.

Other hints

• Dawn's Buneary seems to have a crush on Ash's Pikachu, this could be a sign that Dawn may have a crush on Ash since Professor Oak and Brock have said in the past that Pokémon represent the feelings of their masters, and when two Pokémon fall in love, there is a good chance the trainers will too. However, some can point out that Buneary developed this crush before Dawn caught it.
• In Settling a Not-So-Old Score, Kenny seemed jealous of Ash and Dawn being together.
• While Dawn battled a revived Aerodactyl in Wild in the Streets! Ash was fascinated with Piplup and Buneary's new dodging tactic that he asked Dawn to help him practice for his rematch. He then had Pikachu, Aipom, and Turtwig use them in O'er the Rampardos We Watched in his rematch with Roark, again in Getting the Pre-Contest Titters in his match against Kenny, and a few other times since, the tactic becoming a regular (if not frequent) feature in Ash's strategy.
• Ash and Dawn are often seen exchanging high fives whenever one of them accomplishes something, which might possibly portray a deep friendship, as Ash has rarely ever given a high five to anyone else on the show.
• Like Misty and May, Ash's Pikachu also destroyed Dawn's bike. However unlike the first two girls, she never once pestered him for it.
• This doesn't happen all the time, but Ash and Dawn smiles every time they look at each other, and usually aren't there without one-another.

Similarities

• Just like Ash's Pikachu, Dawn's Piplup wasn´t ready to obey her when they first met. Eventually, they became fast friends.
• Both Dawn and Ash saw a legendary Pokémon at the beginning of their journeys (Ash saw Ho-Oh in EP001 and Dawn saw Mesprit in DP001), meaning she could possess an important connection to the legendary Pokémon of Sinnoh like Ash possesses an important connection to the Pokémon of Kanto and Johto.
• Like Ash, Dawn is extremely confident, but unlike Ash she rarely looks back on her mistakes, and she is always looking to the future hoping that her dream of being a master coordinator comes true (just like Ash when he started out).
• Dawn is the only main character in the series, aside from Ash, who owns an Electric Pokémon.
• Like Ash is based on Red, the protagonist from Pokémon Red and Blue, Dawn is based on Dawn from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
• Neither the father of Ash nor the father of Dawn have ever been seen, as far as we know. They are also the only children known to have no siblings.
• Ash and Dawn both come from the player's hometowns in their respective region.
• They both have childhood rivals, Ash's is Gary Oak and Dawn's is Kenny.
• Though Ash had previously participated in an unofficial Pokémon contest before, he first participated in an official contest at the same time as Dawn.
• Both Ash and Dawn have owned a powerful Pokémon that refused to obey them (Ash's Charizard and Dawn's Buizel).
• They are the only main characters who battle members of the Elite Four.
• Both of their starters were able to defeat their evolved forms. Pikachu beat Lt. Surge's Raichu while Piplup beat Kenny's Prinplup.
• They both released the second Pokémon they caught: Ash released Pidgeot and Dawn released Pachirisu. However, Dawn recaptured Pachirisu and Ash said he would come back for Pidgeot (though he has yet to do so).
• Their starter Pokémon protected them in the beginning (Pikachu saved Ash from Spearow, Piplup saved Dawn from Ariados).

Alternate names

PearlShipping has also been called ShinouShipping, however this name conflicts with FortuneShipping (The pairing of Lucas and Dawn in the games) as both these shippings can be referred to as ShinouShipping.

External Links

• http://fan.akuseru.org/sakari/ The fanlisting for the relationship between Ash and Dawn.

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