Three things:
1) I really question whether you have seen XY007 or not. There is no doubt that Serena has a crush on Satoshi. And if that episode still did not convince you, I don't know what will. If she doesn't like him in the romantic sense then damn that is some admiration going on there lol
2) Yes, one event can lead to infatuation. You cannot compare real life to anime
3) Satoshi has not changed significantly from the past. Serena even points that out. I don't know why you think that Satoshi helping Serena when they were younger is OOC. He has always been that way: selfless, determined, and kind.
1. I certainly did watch ep 7. In fact I watched it at least 5 times mainly for the hug part though but I did watch through the whole episode that many times as well with several different subs. Perhaps the better question is will Serena continue liking Ash? Serena has not spend a great amount of time with Ash. You can't say she understands Ash just from one event. I mean if some random stranger guy did something nice for you, will you fall heads over heels for him and even several years later?
2. Something tells me you don't watch anime a lot. You will be surprised at the number of animes that mirror real life and try to tell realistic stories. I get that pokemon is in the fantasy realm but I don't think it's wrong to look at the human interaction in pokemon through real life lens. I think this kind of one time flashback event leading to present day infatuation would be played for laughs in a lot of animes as well.
3. Yeah that part of Ash has stayed the same. But that's not what only makes up Ash. It's not just the good qualities that only make up Ash but the bad qualities as well. Serena has not spend enough time with him yet. That's why I want to see in a future episode, Serena seeing the other sides of Ash and her reaction as well. At least in that way, we will know that Serena has come to know Ash very well.
I don't understand them really, they complain Ash doesn't age, but if he shows the slightiest sign of character development they say its OOC... But I think it's kind of expected, I guess those in denial would say that if it doesn't include their fav shipping.
actually no.......at least I don't complain Ash doesn't age.... In fact I did see character development in x and y. I don't think anyone makes the argument that slight signs of character development=OOC. That's a stupid and pretty paradoxical argument to make. OOC is what happens when a character acts in a way that is totally unexpected to us the audience. If there was character development, then we wouldn't find it unexpected at all. The only exception is when certain circumstances forces the character to act out of character. There is character development when Ash maturely said to Pansy's sister that he will be back for a rematch. And when we see him pondering over his loss, that's character development. In the early beginning we got Ash crying or getting really upset and angry. Few years later, he is no longer as visibly upset but still retains some angsty thoughts that he makes known through his monologues. And now,Ash is taking his loss like a mature trainer using that as motivation to train harder. Not only that, it seems like he is really thinking about why he lost from a technical standpoint and is trying to think of new strategies. That really shocked me and I think Ash has become a lot more mature and calm.
In fact I know what my problem is. It's not the pairing itself because I quite like it but the fact that it's so much more shoujish than shonenish. I rather see romance from a shonen angle because at its very core, pokemon is a shonen anime.
