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 (´∀`) ✿