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Why do fans like Serena so much?

The main reason for Serena's overwhelming popularity in Japan is that she's really exactly like the heroine in a shoujo series. She reminded me so much of Sakura and Madoka and it's the exact reason why I love her. It's the whole I don't know what I want to do with my life but I will ganbare and try my best cause everyone else around me is working hard and I don't want to let them down. Most of the complains you all have seems like you all just don't like or don't get shoujo tropes. And yea Japan goes crazy over haircuts. It's a huge deal. \

Did her crush and eventual kiss make her more popular? Undoubtedly yes. Love is huge in shoujo. Her kissing may seem like nothing to western audiences but confessing is HUGE to Japanese girls. Many Japanese girls make chocolates for their crushes on valentine's day and yet fail to give it to their dream boy. Serena making the first move is HUGE. Falling in love and saving the day is not mutually exclusive for shoujo heroines. They want to do both. So her saying that Ash is her goal doesn't mean that she's neglecting her Kalos Queen dreams. It's just part and parcel of her heroism.

Also she's really cute, looks good in anything, cooks, and is also a nice big sister to Eureka.

Lastly, it also helps that she's white. Japan loves white people. It's literally the only reason why Avril Lavigne is so popular in Japan.
 
I don't think I'd consider Serena white exactly. Even though the series doesn't take place in Japan, I always just figured that the characters were still supposed to be Japanese. I also generally assume that characters in anime are supposed to be Japanese unless stated otherwise.
 
SerenaToAlola said:
Hair/skin colour? They used realistic colours mostly. And the Japanese characters were obviously Japanese (i.e. Valerie and the ninjas).
Click to expand...
Many people have varying skin colours and they may not belong to an ethnicity. I think it is hard to tell the ethnicity of most characters tbh and I wouldn't want to assume. I personally don't think that hair colour is an indicator of whether someone is Japanese. Valerie perhaps but she was designed that way.
 
SerenaToAlola said:
Hair/skin colour? They used realistic colours mostly. And the Japanese characters were obviously Japanese (i.e. Valerie and the ninjas).
Click to expand...

Considering that a lot of anime characters who are Japanese don't have realistic hair color or realistic hair styles, I wouldn't use that to determine if a character is Japanese or not. The skin color is even a bigger stretch since a lot of people tend to assume that most anime characters are white for the same reason. Maybe I'm just too used to the whole assume anime characters are Japanese unless stated otherwise mentality, but using stereotypes like ninjas as signs that characters are obviously Japanese doesn't sit right with me either.
 
I assume based on the region mostly, and there's also the names. Satoshi is a Japanese name and he is from Kanto, Hikari is from Sinnoh and has a Japanese name, Iris, Dent, Serena, and Citron are not Japanese names, and they aren't from regions based on Japan.
 
SinnohEevee said:
I assume based on the region mostly, and there's also the names. Satoshi is a Japanese name and he is from Kanto, Hikari is from Sinnoh and has a Japanese name, Iris, Dent, Serena, and Citron are not Japanese names, and they aren't from regions based on Japan.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if I'd use names either. I don't think it would be that uncommon for Japanese people to have non-traditional Japanese names. I could be mistaken, but having a foreign name wouldn't necessarily mean that they aren't meant to be Japanese. There are a few regions that aren't based in places from Japan now, but I don't know if that means Iris and Cilan are supposed to be American or that Serena is supposed to be French instead of Japanese.
 
Iris is obviously black. She's wearing a dress based on african traditional clothes, and we even had a recent discussion about whether her hatedom is based on racism or not.
 
Hidden Mew said:
Considering that a lot of anime characters who are Japanese don't have realistic hair color or realistic hair styles, I wouldn't use that to determine if a character is Japanese or not. The skin color is even a bigger stretch since a lot of people tend to assume that most anime characters are white for the same reason. Maybe I'm just too used to the whole assume anime characters are Japanese unless stated otherwise mentality, but using stereotypes like ninjas as signs that characters are obviously Japanese doesn't sit right with me either.
Click to expand...

Generally yes but the story is set in France, have non-japanese names, speak French on many occasions. It's very clear that they are mostly not Japanese.
 
SerenaToAlola said:
Generally yes but the story is set in France, have non-japanese names, speak French on many occasions. It's very clear that they are mostly not Japanese.
Click to expand...

Kalos being inspired by France really isn't the same thing as the series being set in France and I still don't think that having non-Japanese names necessarily means the characters aren't Japanese. Speaking French is a better case, but I don't remember it going more than throwing in a few French words/terms. Maybe it was more apparent in the Japanese version than it was in the dub, but it just comes off as reading a bit too much into inspirations for the Kalos region more than definite proof that the characters aren't supposed to be Japanese.
 
I always thought everyone was French during the XY(&Z) arc (aside from Ash, Sawyer, and Steven and characters like Valerie who obviously came from different regions). The ninja village was more or less just created for the sake of Greninja promotion.

I don't know if Serena's ethnicity had anything to do with her popularity but her living in poke-France probably did help promote the romance subplot because of the France=Romance connection.
 
Please note: The thread is from 6 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.

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