Akishinji

Shinjiaki is the slash ship between Shinjiro Aragaki and Akihiko Sanada from the Persona fandom.'''

Canon
Akihiko and his sister Miki met Shinjiro in the same orphanage and grew up together 14 years ago before the series. However, four years later, after Akihiko lost his sister in a fire, he and Shinjiro swore to get strong together and always be on each other’s side. In 2007, Shinjiro left SEES after he lost control of his Persona and ended up murdering Ken’s mother; both he and Akihiko kept in touch.

In 2009, Shinjiro visited Akihiko in the hospital on May 1st. He gets annoyed that Akihiko only came for a check-up and left his hospital room. During the past few months, Akihiko unsuccessfully persuaded Shinjiro to rejoin SEES. On September 2nd, Akihiko convinced Shinjiro to rejoin SEES by mentioning that Ken Amada had joined the group with his own free will. After Chidori loses control of her Persona at the hospital, their friendship becomes restrained after he finds out that Shinjiro was taking suppressants to suppress his Persona. On October 4th, after the battle against Arcana Fortune and Arcana Strength, Akihiko was the first day Ken’s mother was murdered and left the group to find him and Shinjiro. When Shinjiro sacrifices himself to protect Ken, he requests Akihiko to look after Ken in his last moments, which Akihiko accepts. The following day, Akihiko did not attend Shinjiro’s funeral at the school; he went to Shinjiro’s memorial after school, where no one was around. He will admit that he obsesses about getting strong because he doesn’t want to lose someone important to him again. He breaks down when he realizes his best friend is gone. He manages to pull himself together and learns to accept it since Shinjiro would want him to continue living and fight for the future. This results in the resolution in his heart, causing his persona to evolve into Caesar.

In the movie version, it plays slightly differently than the original game. Akihiko and Shinjiro were the only ones facing Arcana Hermit, while others were fighting the lesser Shadows to break out of the Shadows' power sources. Akihiko and the others witness Shinjiro’s Persona go berserk and viciously defeat Arcana Hermit during the September full moon operation. After Shinjiro ran off, Akihiko was the only one to go after him while the others stayed behind. He is also the first to realize that Shinjiro rejoined SEES because of Ken. Akihiko demanded that Shinjiro ask why he didn’t talk to him about this. Shinjiro’s response to him is that asking him for advice makes no difference. During the operation in October, Akihiko attempts to leave the battle to find Shinjiro, but the two Arcana Shadows block his way. Shinjiro’s death scene is different since he couldn’t stand due to losing a lot of blood, so he ends up dying in his best friend’s arms. Akihiko, still holding Shinjiro’s lifeless hand as he grieves for him.

The Weird Masquerade
In the stage play version in Kotone’s route where Shinjiro is alive, Akihiko, along with Ken, stays behind to have a brief reunion with Shinjiro, who recently woke up from his coma, before they decide to catch up with the others to find Aigis and Kotone in Act 5’s final scene. In the same scene during their brief reunion, they didn’t say to each other except they each other a meaningful look.

Journey

 * In Kotone’s route, if Shinjiro’s Social Link is maxed before October 4th, Akihiko reacts in sadness and fear of losing Shinjiro just like he loses his sister. He desperately begged the comatose Shinjiro to wake up.
 * Akihiko will mentions few times that he has been visiting Shinjiro at hospital.
 * Before the final battle against Nyx, if the player talks to him, Akihiko will says he want Shinjiro to wake up without the Dark Hour someday.

The Answer

 * Akihiko reveals the reason Shinjiro joined SEES was that he joined first. He entered the dorm and wanted to join the group for Akihiko’s sake.
 * During the debate about using their keys, Akihiko chooses the present since he doesn’t want to change the past to prevent Shinjiro’s or his sister’s deaths.

Persona Q

 * Akihiko and Shinjiro often compete against each other in childish matters. They even compete by drinking shrink potions and having an eating contest with Chie by Akihiko’s side.

Persona Q2

 * During the credits in one of the CG shows, Akihiko and Shinjiro compete against each other by eating movie popcorn.

Fanon
AkiShinji was one of the famous ships in the Persona 3 fandom when the game came out. Fans often portray them as either sworn brothers due to growing up together since childhood or lovers, which is seen in many Yaoi fan art and fanfiction about them. They are mostly portrayed as gay due to a lack of interest in women. It could also be a tragic fan pairing due to Shinjiro sacrificing himself and Akihiko outliving him. Their fan shipping increased in Persona spin-off series like Persona Q and Persona Q2, where they interact more than the original game. On AO3, there are a total of 302 works.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

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Trivia

 * Akihiko's Persona, Polydeuces, is a giveaway towards his connection with Shinjiro if looked at in depth. Polydeuces - other than being a celestial body - is another name for Pollux, one of the Gemini Twins, with the other being Castor, the latter of whom is the Persona for Shinjiro. Both Personas have similar physical stature and facial build and focus on sheer strength.
 * This connection also gives away Shinjiro's fate; Polydeuces was immortal, and Castor was not, and in their myth, Castor dies (in response, Polydeuces requests to share his immortality with Castor, which leads to the two brothers forming the Gemini Twins constellation).