ShinjiHam

ShinjiHam is the het ship between Makoto Yuki and Yukari Takeba from the Persona fandom.

Canon
Kotone meets Shinjiro in May when she, Yukari, and Junpei visit Akihiko at the hospital. Before Shinjiro can leave the hospital, he briefly stops to look at Kotone for an unknown reason. She encounters Shinjiro at the back alley of Tatsumi Port Island on 6/6. She joins Akihiko to see Shinjiro to convince him to rejoin SEES on 9/2. After Shinjiro decides to rejoin SEES because of Ken, at first, Shinjiro complains Kotone is the leader of SEES, but it turns out he is concerned about her since someone needs to keep an eye on her. On October 4th, if Shinjiro’s Social Link was maxed, he told Kotone not to cry, and this is how it should be before he went comatose for the rest of the game. The player can formally develop their bond through Shinjiro’s social link after the September full moon operation in Kotone’s route. It focuses on Shinjiro growing to trust Kotone as the leader and concern for members of SEES’ health and wellbeing. However, unlike most Social Links, Shinjiro’s social link is limited and must be completed before October 4th.

Social Link
Shinjiro is available after the September full moon operation, where she can hang out with him, and they get along quite well. In ranked 4th, after Shinjiro helps and teaches Fuuka some cooking skills, Kotone suggests to Shinjiro, regardless of the choice, "Make enough for everybody" or "Why don't we do a party?" at first, he is surprised by her suggestion, but he likes the idea of cooking for everyone once in a while. In rank, 5-6th Shinjiro decides to make dinner with everyone with Fuuka's help. The reason for this was because of Kotone. In Shinjiro's Social Link, ranked 8th, Shinjiro took Kotone to where they officially met in June, where he called her a pain. He explains she keeps messing things up for him. He keeps thinking that his life is how it should be, but her face pops up in his head.

Dear Girls Comic Anthology
While non-canon, in the Dear Girls Anthology commissioned by Ichijinsha. In the last chapter, “Smile,” a what-if scenario, Kotone doesn’t return Shinjiro’s pocket watch on time before October 4. It shows she didn’t take Shinjiro’s death very well. It is not only Kotone forcing herself to smile, but it results in her inability to summon her Persona. She tries to keep smiling and keep thinking about the good times with him.

The Weird Masquerade
They were given moments from Act 2 and Act 5 in the stage play adaptation. In the summer festival, Shinjiro tells Kotone twice that she looks best when she smiles. Shinjiro is the only upperclassman who calls Kotone by her first name, while Akihiko and Mitsuru only call her by her last name.

The stage play adapts two of Shinjiro’s Social Links from the game. The first is when Shinjiro mentions losing his pocket watch to Kotone during the summer festival in September instead of the dorm. Kotone was willing to search for Shinjiro’s pocket watch. The second was during the typhoon instead of at Naganaki Shrine; Kotone went to the 2nd floor to return Shinjiro’s pocket watch; she heard him in pain due to losing control of his Persona. She asked him if he was alright, but Shinjiro lied to her before he took suppressants to suppress his Persona. After she returns his pocket watch to him, nothing comes from it. During the October full moon operation, slightly different from the game, Kotone abandons the battle against the two Shadows halfway to find Shinjiro and Ken. She tries to stop Ken from killing Shinjiro since they are her precious friends, and she doesn’t want to lose either of them. After Shinjiro sacrifices himself to protect Ken, Kotone comes to his side, and Shinjiro lets Kotone hold his hand before he falls into a coma. It shows how grief-stricken Kotone is after he falls into a coma.

In early January, Kotone meets Shinjiro in her dreams; whether or not it is a real Shinjiro or a dream version of him is unknown, but it doesn't matter since she is glad to see him again.

The Journey

 * During the Inada trip, Yuko asks Kotone if she has someone she likes, if she admits she likes someone, and if the dialogue chooses “You don’t know him.” It implies Kotone was referring to Shinjiro.
 * At the beginning of March, before March 5, if the player speaks to a student from her classroom, she will reveal that Shinjiro has awakened from his coma and escaped from the hospital. It implies the reason for this was to find Kotone.
 * In the New Plus Game of the PSP version, a non-canon alternative ending sees Kotone die with the player's chosen love interest. Shinjiro is one of the options for this ending, where he tells her that the girl he saw in his dream was her, who was crying and smiling. He tells her that he's glad to meet her.

CD Drama

 * Shinjiro found Kotone’s other geta shoe after Kotone fell and tripped. He was willing to fix her geta show with his handkerchief.

Persona Q2

 * During Shinjiro’s introduction, when he refuses to reveal more about himself, Kotone is the only one to interrupt him and adds more about him based on the Shinjiro from her world. This is Shinjiro completely flutter.
 * During the credits in one of the CG shows where Hikari is filming, Kotone interlocks Shinjiro’s left arm. These are the first and only CG features together.

Fanon
The ship's name came from mixing Shinjiro Aragaki with Hamuko Arisato (fan name before her canon name, Kotone Shiomi, was announced). Kotone Shiomi is the name for the female protagonist used in the stage play adaptation.

ShinjiHam is considered the most romantic and tragic fan shipping in the Persona series due to their short time together. They think Shinjiro is the main love interest because the female route is the only route where Shinjiro can be saved. If Shinjiro’s social link hasn’t started or been left incompletely, Shinjiro will die just like his canon counterpart in the main series. She can max out his social link and possibly begin a relationship in the lover route. Most fans do fan art or fanfiction, which will either portray them happily living together to create a family without consequences or one of them dying. Some fanfiction displays Shinjiro wielding Wild Card ability like Kotone because Persona 3 Portable lacks the Epilogue from Persona 3 FES. Their fan shipping was slightly increased, which was only shown in Persona 3 Portable, Persona 3: The Weird Masquerade (Female Route), and Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. On AO3, ShinjiHam is divided based on how one calls Kotone. Between Kotone Shiomi (23), Female Persona 3 Protagonist (274), and her fan manga name Minako Arisato (222), there are 519 works.

Quotes
"This is your fault, you know. I'm all confused. You're all I can think about, day and night. Dammit, this isn't how it's supposed to be..."

- Shinjiro's confession to Kotone during Extra Scene after Rank 10 is maxed

"The girl I saw in his dreams... It was you... You were crying and laughing like usual... Yeah... This ain't a dream... You're really here..."

- Shinjiro reveals his dreams to Kotone in his ending

"I'm glad I met you."

- Shinjiro, Persona 3 Portable

Fandom
FAN FICTION