Serena (anime)

Serena is a Pokémon trainer of the Kalos region and one of Ash's traveling companions. Her goal is still unknown for the time being. She and Ash met before the start of the series, with Ash having helped her out. Having a crush on him, Serena blushes when looks at or talks to him.

Biography
Despite the fact that Serena is Ash's newest female companion and has just started her journey, she met him when they were younger back in Pallet Town years ago at Professor Oak's summer camp. Serena was lost in the woods and Ash had helped her out. Since that day, they have been together as childhood friends for a long time before Ash started his journey.

Serena is somewhat skilled at Rhyhorn Racing. She showed Ash how to ride a Rhyhorn, which shows she knows a lot from her mother teaching her about them. In the episode it is revealed that Serena does not like Rhyhorn Races, but throughout the episode she grew to like them better than before. On the day before the Rhyhorn Races, she baked cookies for Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie in the middle of the night. The next day, the Rhyhorn Races began, but it was interrupted when Team Rocket disabled the cameras. Serena became worried that something terrible might have happened to Ash, so she along with Clemont and Bonnie went off to see what was going on. When they found him, they discovered that he had been ambushed by Team Rocket and they find him trapped in a net while his Pikachu and the Rhyhorn were trapped in cages. As Clemont used his Bunnelby to trap Team Rocket in a ditch, Serena and Bonnie arrived to rescue Ash. Serena used her Fennekin to fight off Team Rocket and make them drop the remote. This indicated that this is her first Pokemon battle in her journey as a trainer. When Team Rocket was blasted off by the Rhyhorn they captured, she introduced her friends to her mother. She then tells her that she decided to travel with Ash and his friends. She thought her mother would disagree with her decision, but instead she said it would be a better experience for her. Afterwards, she gave her friends each a bag of cookies as a way of saying thank you to Ash for all he did for her.

Appearance
Serena marks a return to basing Ash's female companion off of that generation's female player character. However, Serena is also the first to have undergone minor cosmetic changes for the transition to the anime, whereas May and Dawn remained the same. Among the cosmetic changes are:
 * She appears younger or shorter than her game counterpart.
 * The hair is a much darker shade, and seems slightly shorter.
 * Her skin tone is very faintly darker than her game counterpart.
 * Her fingernails are short and trimed like most other characters on the show, rather than long like her game counterpart's.
 * Her fingernails are kept natural without any nail polish on, while her game counterpart wears a faint pink nail polish.
 * Shirt collar is white instead of black.
 * The sunglasses on the hat and the bracelet on her left wrist are absent (the bracelet depicted in her game artwork, though, is actually the Mega Ring).
 * Her eyes are blue despite the fact that her hair is not blonde like her game counterpart, where they should be grey, matching her current hair color.
 * The bow that's on her hat is not on her game counterpart.
 * Her hat appears larger, more curved, looking similar a straw hat.
 * She wears shoes unlike her game counterpart, who wears sneakers; however they are in the same design.
 * The line going down from the top of her shoes, down to the soles, is one straight line, while on her game counterpart's sneakers, they are two seperate lines.
 * She also does not have the purse that her game counterpart does, instead having a backpack.

Trivia

 * Serena is Ash's first companion to have known him personally before the very start of the series.
 * Serena is the first female companion to take the longest time to officially join the main cast since the start of the series. (7 episodes)
 * She is the second main character to keep her Japanese name. The first is Iris.
 * She is also the second of Ash's female traveling companions to choose a Fire-type Starter Pokemon (her Fennekin). The first was May when she chose Torchic.
 * Serena also marked the longest time where one of the female traveling companions will meet Ash at the beginning of series (even though she knew him previously in their childhood in Pallet Town).
 * Serena wears a similar hat that Leaf in FireRed and LeafGreen wears, but with a different color scheme.
 * Serena was the first female companion whom Ash asked directly to join the group.
 * Serena is the first female traveling partner to not get herself or her bike shocked by Pikachu at the start of the series.
 * Misty, May, and Dawn all had their bikes electrocuted, while Iris and Bonnie were directly shocked by Pikachu.