RocketShipping
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Jessie (Musashi)/James (Kojirō) |
| Alternative name(s): | Rocketshipping, KojiMusa, コジムサ, JAJL |
| Gender category: | het |
| Fandom: | Pokémon |
| Canonical?: | semi (yes in the manga, no in the anime) |
| Prevalence: | common |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
RocketShipping is a Pokémon ship involving the characters Jessie and James.
Canon
Jessie and James are partners in Team Rocket and have a friendship that dates back to their childhood. They work together on wacky schemes to steal Ash Ketchum's Pikachu and impress their boss Giovanni, alongside their talking Meowth. While their appearance is slick and stylish, the two are huge bumblers; Jessie is a vain drama queen while James is a nerd who collects things like bottlecaps.
Their relationship is mostly platonic, but they have some very strong moments of hinting at something more. Shippers' favorite episodes for this are "Shipwrecked", "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak", "A Holy Matrimony", and "Princess vs Princess."
The loosely-based-on-the-anime "Electric Tale of Pikachu" manga has the two married and Jessie pregnant, but their relationship remains ambiguous in the anime.
Fandom
For a long time, Rocketshipping was the most popular pairing among fans of the Pokemon anime to the point of being juggernaut. A lot of fans felt more invested in them than in the lead characters, so web shrines and fanfiction and fanart ran rampant. The manga at one point gave fans hope for the anime to end the same way, before it became clear the anime wasn't ending anytime soon.
At one point, there were several different categories of Rocketshipping:
Rocketshipping classic
These fans shipped the pairing and wanted them to get a happy ending, plain and simple. Their fan works could be sappy and shmaltzy, but still kept the characters more or less in-character.
R*cketshipping
This was the extreme end of the spectrum, fans who not only wanted Jessie and James to live happily ever after but insisted they were already canon and would have fits at anyone suggesting otherwise. Their characterizations could range from merely OOC to completely abysmal, portraying Jessie as more fragile and James as more heroic than either is in canon. Cori Falls was a prime example of this.
Queershipping
In which the fans shipped them together, but swapped the traditional gender roles. To them, James's constant crossdressing and Jessie's hot temper meant James was the beautiful princess and Jessie the handsome prince. Fans often got very creative with their stories simply because it allowed them to explore how the pair didn't fit traditional gender roles, though to some the stories would go too far the other way making James too girly and Jessie too masculine.
WrongRocketshipping
Fans who saw Jessie and James as friends with benefits rather than a romantic couple. To them, the relationship was fraught with sexual tension and opportunities for the two to express it while alone in the woods. This side of the fandom was full of lemon fanfiction, and usually relied on some kind of plot device to get Meowth out of the way to avoid potential squick.
Fanworks
Fanfic
- Featured Fics on Team Rocket Palace
- Thunder by Boo2020
- Restless Night by MaplePucks
- Let Me Love You by Kanna-Ophelia
- Waking the Sleeping Princess by Kanna-Ophelia [NSFW]
Fanart
- Kally's Fanart Central page (Some NSFW)
- untitled by buchichu
- Rain by stagesiren
- Doctor Who crossover by MistressAinley
- waking up in his arms by buchichu and aveerockets
- They must know by MistressAinley
- Drowsing by nyarths3
Fansites
- Dark Roses (archived version, NSFW)
- What Kind Of Rocketshipper Are You?
Fan Vids
- Rocketshippy Scene by Shaami
- Dangerous by Dragon ofShadowland
- Partners in Crime by Len Kagamine
Doujinshi
Links & Resources
- Kojirou | James/Musashi | Jessie tag at Archive of Our Own
- [James/Kojirō, Jessie/Musashi] pairing filter at FanFiction.Net
- Shipping:RocketShipping at Bulbapedia
