Serena kissed Ash on the cheek. Here's why.

So, i'm here to make a full analysis on whether or not Serena kissed Ash on the lips or cheek. Judging from what I've seen and what arguments that have been brought up, it's safe to conclude that it was a left cheek kiss. Here's why:


Ash's Feet Position: One of the biggest points I've seen to make a solid argument is how Ash's feet were positioned a bit towards his right. Ash's feet were not positioned straight if you look carefully and I thought maybe this might have been the way the camera is positioned but it seems that wasn't the case. Serena's feet however were straightforward making this comparison quite easy. His right foot is obviously heavily slanted towards his right. which i think we can all agree on but i think the winning piece here is his left foot. Why? If you lean on one leg while having the other leg facing another direction your body position would change because of the balance from the other leg. So Ash's left leg/foot being slightly positioned on his right side means his body was slightly facing the right exposing his left cheek more for the kiss. 
Side Note: During the kiss you can see Ash's right foot backing up a bit. I've seen people say he was backing up a bit from Serena because he was confused. 




Ash was last kissed during the early years: This one's tricky since we don't know whether or not Pokémon has changed in terms of TV Guidelines in Japan. We can all agree however that Pokémon has changed compared to the Indigo Plateau seasons/Johto seasons in a big way. IT's safe to say that Japan is more sensitive to their guidelines. For example, hugging is seen more of a romantic gesture when in the western culture it's a form of greeting. On top of that, are there really any lip kisses in kid friendly series in Japan? I honestly don't think so. One can argue that "Why was the cheek kiss not shown then?" Well because this is 2016 when it happened not 2001. When did we get any form of kiss in the Pokémon episodes? A long time ago. One of the latest movies named " Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction" showed a really quick (and i mean REALLY quick) cheek kiss from 2 minor characters. This lead me to believe maybe Pokémon hasn't changed that much right? Well, films tend to be separated in terms of weekly TV episodes in terms of guidelines. On the Silver screen you can slightly get away with small things and this was one of them. Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark Side of Dimensions had a TV-PG rating where as the episodes wasn't. On top of that, you really honestly can not compare that semi-second cheek kiss to the ones from Pokémon Heroes or Pokémon 2000. The difference is day and night as well as it involving the main protagonist. But i personally think that this was just a slight testing water to see how the reception/reaction would be seeing as how we haven't seen anything like this since Pokémon Heroes Though this goes back to my point, that no lip kisses are in kids shows.


No evidence/No confirmation and only opinions: Saved the obvious last one. We have no confirmation or any evidence that Serena kissed Ash on the lips. The only shred of proof there is it's what storyboard director Tetsuo Yajima stated. "But since i couldn't have them kissing on screen, I had Serena's feet "float" upwards instead." Keep in mind this is from a fan translation so nothing is 100% concrete. Regardless, people claiming it's a kiss on the lips have nothing supporting it while people stating it to have been a cheek kiss have some sort of ground to stand on. Opinions, fan theories and everything else aside, bottom line is there is no direct confirmation. 


Let me know what you guys think! I think with these 3 major points, it really drives home the reasons as to why it was never a lips kiss intended by Amourshippers. But let me know if you think i missed something.