Serena

Serena
Original appearance	Pokémon X Pokémon Y
Information
Hometown	Vaniville Town, Kalos
Birthday	October 17 16 (Year 1)
Gender	Female
Affinity	Fire Dark
Relatives	Grace (mother)

Serena is a refined and graceful girl from Vaniville Town in the Kalos region. She enrolled in Kobukan Academy as a means to discover her own goals and dreams after her mother—a famous retired Rhyhorn racer—pushed her to pursue the same career. Early on, Serena quickly becomes involved with many extracurricular activities.

She and Shauna are close friends and the two of them are roommates at the academy.

First glance

Serena often gives off the impression of a sophisticated lady from a respected background. In fact, she does maintain the ladylike persona, something she has developed from a young age. In combination with her desire to be involved with a plethora of activities, many of her peers misjudge her as a overachieving, snobby socialite out for attention. In response, Serena works extra hard to fit in, which prompts her to try to be involved even more. Her most notable activities center around the student council, but she also takes part in several clubs and community events.

Despite her seemingly uncoordinated participation, Serena benefits from a small circle of supportive friends. She is closest with Shauna, who is also from the same hometown. Also from Vaniville Town is Calem, Serena's next-door neighbor whom she's known since childhood. The two no longer see eye to eye due to conflicting ideologies, though they wish each other nothing short of success and happiness.

Plot

Serena enrolled in Kobukan Academy in order to find out what she wants to do in life, knowing that Rhyhorn racing is a future she wants no part of. On opening day, she runs into Calem and Red (player character) and the latter soon witnesses first hand the strained friendship between the two Kalosians. As times goes on, the struggle for self-identity and the freedom of choice become central themes of Serena's life at the academy.

Artwork

Original sprite early in development.	Current sprite design by dmjh93.

Trivia

• Her birthday is a reference to her anime counterpart's debut in the first episode of the XY anime series in Japan, back in 2013.
• Serena's original design early in development was based on her anime counterpart's look starting from Episode 60 of the XY anime series.
• In a public popularity poll hosted by the development team in January 2016, Pokémon fans ranked Serena as fourth among their top female characters based on over 300 tallies.
  • In another poll conducted in February 2017, she moved up to third from 835 total tallies.
• Originally, along with May, Serena was one of the shortest female characters. This was because there were few height references for dmjh93 to work with early in development. While the development team kept the size differential as defining characteristics early on, later the two received revisions and were no longer as petite.