RANT WARNING *blares alarm* REMEMBER THIS IS MY RANT BOOK
Game serena: level-headed, calm, cool, friendly mostly, good trainer, helpful.
Anime serena: fairly shallow as a character, defined by her crush on ash, had little character development, is kind and pretty butisn'teveryonekindandprettyinsomeway, is stereotypical, looks pretty (this I will admit), wins performances constantly when she should only be around 3rd or 4th.
Now you may notice that GAME serena has little defining traits, but that's because she is a game character and it's not easy to make a lot of unique characters since the games has so many. That can also be argued with the anime but however anime serena is similiar to a lot of side characters and defined by her crush on ash, which doesn't give her much contrast with others, making her seem liek a shallow sue. The game serena (rival) is however coldish, calm, mature and a skilled trainer, contrasting with the player's innocent and happy nature (at least for me), Shauna's bubbly, naive and ditzy personality, trevor's shyness and tierno's loud, openness. while Anime Serena just seems like a kind, polite blonde who is rude to her mom and rather personality-less. Yes, she did get character-development with the whole never give up thing and always smile etc but that didn't exactly last and she faded away to being just kind and pretty and crushing and just there later on. I mean there was a time i liked her- haircut <-> sylveon- but then she just went back to the start and became a bland character.
~On another note, some side characters (as in recurring semi-rivals like drew etc) have defining traits and clear personalities such as bianca (ditzy, clumsy, bubbly) and Drew (arrogant and his whole thing with may) and others, but most one-episode characters or few-episode characters are just THERE for the purpose of the story (especially in kanto and johto, a little in hoenn).~
But if I had to defend anime Serena, I would definitely talk about the time when she was also a determined, brave girl with actual motivation and not defined by a crush, bland, and stereotypical.
