I added a new fankid ship recently, so I thought it would be nice to elaborate a bit on it. The ship is between Nerissa, the daughter of Erika and Valerie, and Luna, the daughter of Bugsy and Aaron. The two of them are both into traditional style and fashion and very much fit the ‘hime’ trope. Nerissa grew up wearing Valeries clothes and eventually became a professional model for them when she was older. She loves Wa Lolita fashion the most, favoring dresses that are both cute and have a traditional Kantonian flare to them. Towards the end of her teens, Nerissa also began designing her own clothing, and now has her own line of fashion and a small store in Celadon.

Luna embraces traditional culture in a different way. Rather than through fashion and etiquette like Nerissa, Luna is an avid herbalist. As a child, she loved exploring the Ilex Forest and Bugsy would point out all the different plants (and bugs) that lived there. Luna became interested in the medicinal use of plants when she watched the village elders make herbal medicine and began to learn the practice herself. Later on, she also began to experiment with making new types of medicine and vitamins, not only incorporating herbs, but also ingredients from her butterfly and moth pokémon companions. 

The two first met in Celadon, when Luna visited there for a convention on botany. She and Nerissa happened to cross paths and it was practically love at first sight. They spent the weekend of the convention together and after Luna returned home, she found herself wanting to return to Kanto as soon as possible to see Nerissa again. They kept up email correspondence (and wrote letters as well, after Nerissa got Luna hooked on her hobby of collecting cute stationary). Eventually, after quite a bit of convincing her fathers (she was expected to be the next Gym Leader after Bugsy retired after all), Luna made the move to Kanto to live with Nerissa. She opened up the first major herb shop in Kanto right next to Nerissa’s boutique and the two are happily dating.

Their ship name comes from the name of the lunar princess from the Japanese folktale, the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. I chose it since it fits their shared traditional, princess-like aesthetic (the two are even known as the Princesses of Kanto by fans) as well as Luna’s name. The two are a very sweet couple and are a nice break from all the angsty stuff I’ve been posting recently.