Sayotarō

Sayotarō is the het ship between Sayorin and Kotarō from the Animal Crossing fandom.

Volume 1
They both meet during the Fishing Tourney in chapter 2. Sayorin instantly falls in love with him, claiming that he is handsome, but she is outwardly frustrated with his lack of skill during the competition. She and Kotarō work together to land a big fish, which turns out to be Chip.

In chapter 7, Kotarō gives Sayorin a t-shirt with a bell design. She travels to his town to give him a present too, this being a t-shirt with a mistletoe design.

In chapter 10, Sayorin gets mad at Kotarō because he didn’t give her chocolate for Valentine's Day. Pecan and the rest of the villagers refer to him as her boyfriend. At the end of the chapter we see Kotarō apologizing to Sayorin. This is the first and only time we see them in their real world appearances.

Volume 1: Short Stories
In Day-by-Day 33, Pecan and the rest of the villagers encourage Sayorin to ask Kotarō out, thinking about what clothes should she wear and what present should she bring him. In the end, she ends up wearing a cute pink dress and meeting him on a full moon night.

In Day-by-Day 34, Sayorin has already met Kotarō, but he asks her if Ruiko —Sayorin's best friend— is coming to the meeting too. She gets mad at him and doesn’t ask him out.

In Day-by-Day 35, Sayorin isn't angry at Kotarō anymore, just sad because he apparently loves her best friend. Turns out Kotarō didn’t have a crush on Ruiko, he just wanted to give her a gift, so they end up reconciling.

Fanon
Sayotarō is the main ship of the manga series, as well as the most popular in the fandom.

Despite this, it is held to frequent criticism.

While some people may find it cute, others think that Kotarō's crush came "out of nowhere" and find Sayorin's attitude a bit toxic.

It also has a certain amount of rivalry with Shigerin, the ship between Sayorin and Shige, or with Chitarō, the ship between Kotarō and Chiaki.

On AO3, the ship currently has no works written where it is the main ship. Most of the fan fictions where the couple is featured has them as backgroung characters.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Sayorin/Kotarō tag on AO3