Also, SasuNaru is the best Naruto ship, no debate.
Summary:
“Shipping wars” is a term for arguments (or worse) over romantic relationships between characters.
Oreimo (2010) had one of the worst fallouts over shipping wars.
The industry seems to have learned its lesson and stopped adding fuel to the fire.
The start of the 2010s was truly a dark age of anime. Sword Art Online was heralding the inevitable onslaught of low effort copycat isekais, light novel adaptations became a shorthand for a low-risk high-return investments for new anime — and you can’t possibly forget about shipping wars.
No, we are not talking about bad blood between UPS and FedEx.
Shipping wars in anime fandoms
“Shipping” (derived from “ship”, as in “relationship”) is a phenomenon describing fans’ obsession over (usually romantic or sexual) relationships between two characters. Some ships are official — as in, supported by the official story, like the romance between Yor and Loid Forgers from Spy X Family. Others are undecided, or completely unofficial — like any combination of Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Hinata from Naruto had been until nearly the end of the original manga.
“Shipping wars” are, therefore, a term for arguing with people on the Internet that want to see a ship conflicting with your own. As of itself, it’s usually a harmless bit of fun born of wanting to see your favorite characters in a particular relationship dynamic. Unless taken too far. And of course, some fans DO take it too far.
The Fall season of 2010 saw an adaptation of Oreimo (Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai) — a romantic comedy about a schoolboy's introduction to otaku culture through increasingly incestuous relationships with his (secret otaku) little sister. Due to the popularity of romantic triangles, squares, pentagons and other geometric shapes at the time, the author had also introduced a secondary love interest for the main character — and then had done the unspeakable, and actually made the main character CHOOSE between the two during the series finale. As a result? Many hardcore fans of Oreimo trashed and burned their collections, and the author received plenty of death threats.
This is not the only such incident (many collections were destroyed in a fit of ship-fueled rage, both before and after), albeit this is one of the more extreme ones.
Modern shipping wars are far less bloody
You might ask yourself — are shipping wars still happening? And the answer is… Kinda?
Now, let it not be said that the Internet has suddenly stopped shipping and warring over it. Social media and fanfiction sites alike are ripe with shipping for both old and new shows — Satoru Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen isn’t safe from being shipped with Suguru Geto, nor can he even escape being paired with Makima from Chainsaw Man. Indeed, the shipping community is as strong as ever, with the potential to wreak untold havoc upon the industry.
There is, however, one major difference: we are getting less and less love triangles in anime, and even the rare modern harem often introduces “main love interest” to the fans, with other characters mostly serving as eye candy. In fact, it seems like the industry has learned the Oreimo lesson, and has finally stopped teasing anime fans with endless “Who will end up with whom?!”.
And honestly? Good riddance.
Also, SasuNaru is the best Naruto ship, no debate.
Summary:
“Shipping wars” is a term for arguments (or worse) over romantic relationships between characters.
Oreimo (2010) had one of the worst fallouts over shipping wars.
The industry seems to have learned its lesson and stopped adding fuel to the fire.
The start of the 2010s was truly a dark age of anime. Sword Art Online was heralding the inevitable onslaught of low effort copycat isekais, light novel adaptations became a shorthand for a low-risk high-return investments for new anime — and you can’t possibly forget about shipping wars.
No, we are not talking about bad blood between UPS and FedEx.
Shipping wars in anime fandoms
“Shipping” (derived from “ship”, as in “relationship”) is a phenomenon describing fans’ obsession over (usually romantic or sexual) relationships between two characters. Some ships are official — as in, supported by the official story, like the romance between Yor and Loid Forgers from Spy X Family. Others are undecided, or completely unofficial — like any combination of Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Hinata from Naruto had been until nearly the end of the original manga.
“Shipping wars” are, therefore, a term for arguing with people on the Internet that want to see a ship conflicting with your own. As of itself, it’s usually a harmless bit of fun born of wanting to see your favorite characters in a particular relationship dynamic. Unless taken too far. And of course, some fans DO take it too far.
The Fall season of 2010 saw an adaptation of Oreimo (Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai) — a romantic comedy about a schoolboy's introduction to otaku culture through increasingly incestuous relationships with his (secret otaku) little sister. Due to the popularity of romantic triangles, squares, pentagons and other geometric shapes at the time, the author had also introduced a secondary love interest for the main character — and then had done the unspeakable, and actually made the main character CHOOSE between the two during the series finale. As a result? Many hardcore fans of Oreimo trashed and burned their collections, and the author received plenty of death threats.
This is not the only such incident (many collections were destroyed in a fit of ship-fueled rage, both before and after), albeit this is one of the more extreme ones.
Modern shipping wars are far less bloody
You might ask yourself — are shipping wars still happening? And the answer is… Kinda?
Now, let it not be said that the Internet has suddenly stopped shipping and warring over it. Social media and fanfiction sites alike are ripe with shipping for both old and new shows — Satoru Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen isn’t safe from being shipped with Suguru Geto, nor can he even escape being paired with Makima from Chainsaw Man. Indeed, the shipping community is as strong as ever, with the potential to wreak untold havoc upon the industry.
There is, however, one major difference: we are getting less and less love triangles in anime, and even the rare modern harem often introduces “main love interest” to the fans, with other characters mostly serving as eye candy. In fact, it seems like the industry has learned the Oreimo lesson, and has finally stopped teasing anime fans with endless “Who will end up with whom?!”.
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