With a new Pokemon game out later this year, many fans are expecting some major changes in the longrunning Pokemon anime show. For the last decade or so, when the games introduce a new region to explore (like Pokemon Sun and Moon‘s Alola region), Ash will begin his new journey with only Pikachu at his side.His old Pokemon are left at Professor Oak’s gym and his companions typically leave Ash to pursue their own dreams.However, fans have begun a petition to break this thirteen year old trend to “save” Serena, a fan favorite character.
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In Pokemon XY: The Series, Ash’s main female companion is Serena, a Pokemon performer (she performs in the Pokemon Showcases seen in Pokemon: Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire) and Ash’s childhood acquaintance. After seeing Ash on the news, she remembered her friend from a Pokemon summer camp long ago and met up with him early on the journey. Serena has become a fan favorite due to her kind nature and also her very obvious crush on Ash, which is the closest that the Pokemon series has ever come to showing a romance between two characters. Ash, of course, is oblivious to Serena’s affections but it has still spawned a fandom known as “Amourshipping”, a reference to the Kalos region’s French origins.
While it’s expected that Serena will depart the show at the end of Pokemon XY: The Series, Junior Lopez, a Pokemon fan from New York, started a petition on Change.org a month ago asking the Pokemon Company to keep Serena on the show. “Many Pokemon fans are wanting Serena to travel with Ash to the next region,” the petition reads. “Serena has become Pokemon’s most popular female lead and with the release of the Sun and Moon trailer everyone is worried that she won’t be in the next series.” So far, over 5,800 people have signed the petition, although its goal is 7,500 signatures.
Ash hasn’t had a companion follow him to another region since Brock rejoined him during his travels through Sinnoh during Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl, which ran until 2011 in the United States.Ash’s first two female companions, Misty and May, joined Ash for journeys through two regions a piece, although both left when the show began a new “series” that coincided with a new Generation of games.
