Hi everyone, JR here. As Kaldath is taking some time off from the blog, I'm going to fill in for him for his Wednesday posts this week (we'll see what's going on next week before I completely take over). I apologise about the following post, I haven't watched as much anime as Kaldath so some of my examples may seem a bit different to what he usually puts.
This week we'll talk about something that's loosely related to what Kaldath was talking about last week; Shipping. In basic terms, Shipping is a fan term for the belief that two characters are/ should/ could be in a relationship (the term coming from the ship in relationship). The term was originally used for Mulder and Scully from X-Files, but has migrated to the world of anime, and also to other serials (the Harry Potter series for example).
The names of ships can vary, with there being lots of different ways to name a ship. You can have the names of the two characters with a / between (character1/character2), a word followed by the word shipping (e.g. Rocketshipping from the Pokemon franchise), portmanteau combinations of the two characters (e.g. Narusaku- Naruto and Sakura from Naruto) being the main ones used.
Of course, not all ships are canon, and many spring up through casual (sometimes unintentional or even dub edited) hints or through pure fan fantasy. Shipping is especially prevalent in series with multiple lead characters (often when there is one lead male and many female leads like in the harem genre), and often leads to rivalries between supporters of the different ships, especially if the issue of romance in the series isn't resolved.
Now that we know a little bit more about it, what are your opinions on shipping? Any ships you support? Discussion below.
