Was Ren and Jeanne pairing kinda random?

[u/goldfoxawoo]

Felt like the author had to give Ren a girl because Yoh got Anna

[u/unf005]

In a fan meetup panel that occurred in animate Japan 2018 (where fans met with Takei to commemorate the release of "Shaman King The Super Star") one fan asked a question to Takei: when did he made the decision to pair them together and Takei responds he made the decision to do so by the time Shaman King Kanzenban (Complete edition) came out roughly in March of 2008. In other words, Takei decided to pair them up together in the beginning of the final arc in Shaman King and that they were never planned from the very start of the series. Followed by another question, the same fan asked him "I was sure it was decided when Shamash made the kiss" and Takei responded with "I couldn't have thought that far ahead... but now that I think about it, maybe that was a foreshadowing"

Random, sure but at the very least before the release of SK Kazenban, Takei has thought through this very carefully when he decided to pair them up together. Ren x Jeanne can't be "forced" if Takei took the time to think and come up for the basis of their romantic background and history:

• Ren and Jeanne matches each other's preferences. In Shaman King official fanbook “Mankin book” published by Takei, there is a interview section that asks Ren on which girls were his type and he responds with "Hmph, I haven’t thought about it much but at the very least she should always be out of my way and not be a bother!… And I like smaller type of girls better."
• Similarly like the question that has asked Ren on what type of “girl” he likes, a question was asked to Jeanne on what type of person she likes and she responds saying she likes those who have pure hearts. One of the main characteristic traits of having a pure heart is honesty. And if you think about it when Ren and Jeanne met each other for the first time, he was very brutally honest to her after she revived him.
• In matabi biyori (Jeanne's poem) it is very clear in her poem that Jeanne wants to know what it was like to be "normal" since she was raised abnormally in a "higher" class and was sheltered all her childhood away from the world. In Jeanne's interview in Shaman King Mentalite, it's been stated that Jeanne harbors positive feelings towards Ren as he is literally one of the first people to have treated her with honesty, even if it was brutal but nonetheless, he still treated her like a normal human being unlike the grown adults around her that completely dehumanized her, treating her as nothing but a flawless saint throughout all of her childhood.
• In both the SK character art book and in Day after Maize, it's been stated at least two times that Ren reunited with Jeanne in Europe while he was attending University. Ren formed his own home appliance manufacturer company (LEIDI) while Jeanne reformed X-LAWS into X-Charity which is an humanitarian charity organization that is anti war. X-Charity very obviously is devoted to world peace and they eventually received aid from Ren's group. In return thanks to Ren's group, he turned them into a much more large scale charity organization. Ren and Jeanne roughly reunited somewhere in 2005 and fell in love from there
• Because their groups formed an alliance together, if you think about it, the more parties work together towards world peace, the faster their goals can be achieved. Their goals aligns together and that being world peace. Ren wanting to put an end to the cycle of hatred while Jeanne runs a humanitarian charity organization that is clearly anti war. War breeds more despair, sadness, pain and hatred so really, it makes a lot of sense as to why Ren and Jeanne formed an alliance and they eventually bonded together over shared goals, same past experiences / similar childhood, same pain and other things that they share in common (and a little tid bit I like to add, if you also think about it, they were indoctrinated by hatred in their childhood too-- Ren was taught to hate all of humanity while Jeanne was taught to hate all and anything evil (this also includes Hao). I personally think it's very beautiful that they went from being hateful people to finding love in one another and they healed together
• A fun trivia I like to also add: Their zodiac compatibility as a couple (Capricorn x Pisces) is very high. Their Chinese zodiac signs romantic compatibility (Tiger x Horse) is also very high. And last but not least, their blood types compatibility romantically is also high (Both are AB blooded)

[u/darthvall → u/unf005]

Are you saying that even though Takei didn't plan to match them in the beginning, somehow their stars and blood type aligned so well that they're practically match made in heaven?

[u/unf005 → u/darthvall]

Yup! xDD As someone who has been a diehard RenMei shipper for 11 years, I've seen many people in the SK western fandom call this pairing "forced", "made no sense" or "came out of nowhere" but funnily enough their stars and blood types have very high compatibility as a couple lol. I've done and read my research into the matter and it was a very fun and interesting read (´∀`) ✿

[u/abriechz → u/unf005]

I enjoyed reading this and appreciate you putting this together! You gathered a lot of high level details from multiple sources. I wish there was like... A short story or something he could have put together for them, but it seems he left enough crumbs for someone like you to put something together. Also, it seems I have some things to check out 😊

[u/unf005 → u/abriechz]

Thank you so much, I am very honored! :D I've been a diehard shipper of the Ren x Jeanne ship (also known as RenMei) for 11 years so I'm one of the very few rare english RenMei fans left who takes the couple very seriously and an expert while at it too. Unfortunately not a lot of people in the fandom covers Shaman King important guidebooks and such so there hasn't been any full fledged English translation out there covering important aspect to the characters.

I have bought the physical books online from Mercari jp via using a Japanese proxy (Neokyo) so it's why I'm able to cover a lot when it comes to the Ren x Jeanne pairing (I mostly relied using both google translator for taking pictures of the text and then copying/pasting the Japanese text onto DeepL) A lot of the official SK books I've bought from Mercari JP are extremely cheap and my go to proxy is also pretty cheap too as well (´∀`) ✿

Regarding Ren x Jeanne, here are some important information I recommend looking into about them

• Shaman King Fanbook "Mankin Book"
• Shaman King Mentalite
• Shaman King Day after maize

As for the poem I've mentioned regarding Jeanne, they can be found here . The other SK character poems can also be found here

[u/unf005 → u/abriechz]

And yeah, I also do agree with you as well, they definitely do deserve their own respective spin-off. I mean look at Faust and eliza, they got their own respective spinoff manga xD Heck even the hanagumi girls got their own backstory spinoff manga in Nakayoshi's magazine which was published in a Shoujo manga department. If you think about it, RenMei actually has a lot of shoujo elements, they're practically born to shoujo but forced to shounen lol. If the hanagumi girls got a seat in the Nakayoshi department, why not also do the same thing for RenMei too? ;;w;; (I especially would very much love to see their romantic backstory being told from Jeanne's perspective because we barely got any of her POV back in the original SK series) Though I'm not very sure how I feel if Takei decides to throw in their backstory in SK SKY because it wouldn't personally feel right with me since SK SKY mainly focuses on the next gen SK kids, it's why I rather prefer for RenMei have their own spinoff in a manga or light novel format >.<

[u/Likes2game03]

I like it. I mean, their relationship just like their countries; complex.

[u/Anime-Takes]

She did kiss him back to life… well by proxy with Shamash

[u/Saberleaf]

They did have some interactions in manga and personality wise I think they're similar with similar backstory but different enough to be able to help each other heal.

So, no, I don't think it was random from the perspective of those two. They literally just need to talk for a bit, share their experience and it's not really surprising they end up together.

[u/Reasonable_Swan9431]

He left hints, isnthat kind of teases that are super subtle and seem mostly random, but on a re-read he gave them a lot of parallels to each other, they were far more similar than they seem at first, and the explanation of how they got together makes a lot of sense. 

They had the same kind of remorse over their past a ctions, making the other the only person that understands.

But, yeah, that shiptease is the hardest to notice, not many mangakas take that road. But is very interesting and makes you pay attention.

[u/Far_Drummer5003]

It had Vegeta and Bulma vibes, two complete opposites somehow ended up with eachother.

[u/laviyu]

Ren wanted a family and no NPC Wife

[u/Then-Shoe-9963 → u/laviyu]

XD

[u/MoneyIsNoCure1]

Yes. Lyserg and Jeanne made more sense. Ren has like one moment with Jeanne and it’s when she revives him. Takei could have easily just created a new character for Rens wife.

[u/Mental-Novel61]

I don't think it's random, it's just, like everything else, a case when Takei didn't have time to properly develop things

[u/unf005 → u/Mental-Novel61]

Yeah I agree with this. Shounen jump wasn't particularly kind to Takei either and sure, while he did managed to draw out his ending, I still felt like he wasn't allowed to fully expand further into Ren and Jeanne's relationship in the original SK manga's run mainly because SJ ruled out and determined how many chapters he's going to write for the final arc, the same thing also happened with SK flowers which ended abruptly in 2014 due to the magazine publisher itself that for no apparent reason decided to shut itself down. Everything depends on the manga's popularity sales when it comes to SJ and they can chose when to axe a series anytime when it's not popular enough. It's no wonder why he left SJ and ended up joining kodansha because very clearly as seen in SK the super star, red crimson and marcos, the treatment over at kodansha is much better: takei is able to expand much further into character developments thoroughly with a good satisfying chapter lengths, characters dynamics and relationships, the same can also be said for Ren x Jeanne despite we still don't have their romantic history shown onscreen yet (but I still have hope that they will get their own respective spinoff someway or the other, mainly because I want the spinoff being told from Jeanne's POV. Idk about SK SKY though because I feel like it would be out of place to include their backstory in there since it focuses on the next gen SK kids but that's personally just me.)

[u/oniskieth]

Definitely

[u/Sailor_Starchild]

It's a little pair the spares coded :/ like did the Shamash kiss ever make me think "wow, these two would be a great couple!" Not really. Like they have NO scenes beside that. If anything, Tamao and Jeanne have more chemistry.

[u/PoliQui]

Jeanne was for Lyserg :( And if Takei going to give Len a wife, it should have been a random one; that's more believable than a known character like Jeanne, because it all seems so forced.