KiriTama

KiriTama is the slash ship between Eijiro Kirishima and Tamaki Amajiki from the My Hero Academia fandom.

Canon
Eijiro and Tamaki maintain a "Senpai and Kōhai" relationship due to internship practices in which freshmen were put to the test under the guidance of a senior. Tamaki recommended Eijiro to work with him and Fat Gum and since then they have been working at the same agency. At first Tamaki was somewhat uncomfortable by Eijiro's optimism and said that when he was going to introduce him to Fat Gum, Eijiro did not leave him alone and scared him, showing that Eijiro got very close to his face in the memory. However, he also has respect for Eijiro and constantly compares his personality to Mirio's, whom he had known for many years.

Eijiro has a lot of respect for Tamaki due to his enormous abilities and control of his Quirk and during his internship, Eijiro develops more closeness with Tamaki, as he was constantly seen with him and praised the latter's abilities several times and encouraged and defended him. Eijiro is grateful to Tamaki because he was the one who invited him to join the Fat Gum team and wishes to fulfill his expectations.

They met when Tamaki, as well as the rest of the Big Three, were introduced to Class 1-A. After Mirio's fight against Class 1-A, Tamaki became interested in Eijiro and decided to invite him to participate in the Labor Studies with him at the Fat Gum Agency, when Shota Aizawa told Eijiro that Tamaki wanted to talk to him, Eijiro couldn't wait to find out what it was about and went to his room to look for it. Fatgum was shocked when Tamaki brought Eijiro to his office, showing that Eijiro was the first person Tamaki brought and introduced his teacher, Fat Gum.

The first time they can be seen together is when Team Fat Gum was on patrol in a city. At first, Tamaki found Eijiro's optimism uncomfortable and said that she scared him. After Tamaki thinks that Fat Gum was insulting him, Eijiro tells him that he was trying to cheer him up and Tamaki complimented him on his optimism and compared him to Mirio, saying that they are both quite optimistic. When a group of Villains appeared and Tamaki was able to defeat them easily, Eijiro was very impressed with the speed with which Tamaki acted to catch them and and when Tamaki became discouraged and belittled again, Eijiro told him that he was amazing and that he he did very well. When a Villain shot Tamaki in the back, Eijiro quickly stood in front of him to take the other bullet and when he saw Tamaki get up after getting the shot, he was glad to see that he was alright. After seeing that the Villain him who had previously shot Tamaki was on the run, Eijiro refused to let him run away and ran to catch him. After Eijiro left, Tamaki had a bad feeling and when the patrol finished he thanked Eijiro for protecting him.

Before Sir Nighteye's meeting began, they were seen together talking to Fat Gum and during the meeting they sat together. During the operation against Shie Hassaikai and Eri's rescue, Eijiro was visibly frightened when Fat Gum let Tamaki stay behind to fight three of the eight bullets, but after hearing Fat Gum's words, he quickly cheered up and expressed his confidence in Tamaki's abilities to defeat the three enemies. When the mission ends they can be seen together leaving the hospital.

In the School Briefs vol.4, it's seen the trio between Fat Gum, Kirishima, and Tamaki hanging together by walking around food halls, while Tamaki was yanking his hoodie like a "shield", a hawker heads to the trio praising to Kirishima for doing a good work as being Fat Gum's sidekick, and he offers him onions for his takioyaki while saying that he had to give his "gloomy pal" (Tamaki) more food, so it would put a bit of pep in his step. Kirishima thanks him and then Tamaki asks Kirishima about the "gloomy pal" nickname that was given to him, Kirishima said that Tamaki had his hoodie pulled up saying that was kinda dark but didn't have to sweat that, while getting happy at the fact that Tamaki got his powers back, since he was shooted with a quirk-killing drug that was added to a bullet before. While they were walking talking, Kirishima gives a compliment about Mirio, which makes Tamaki a bit happy, since they were talking about someone close with Tamaki.

They got more moments as Fat Gum was called by police headquarters, like snucking through crowds of people for getting drinks, and hanging out for then resting in a spot in an alley.

Later, Fat Gum called both guys for catching a robber that was free amid the hubbub, while they were in undercover wearing happi coats, since wearing their hero's costumes were going to be a bit more hard for catching them. After catching the robber, both Kirishima and Tamaki were mentioned that they were patrolling together after everything that happened.

Quotes
"More importantly, you defended me. Just like Mirio, you're a person who shines brightly, like the sun."

- Tamaki to Kirishima, EP 68

Fanon
This ship is considered more of a rarepair, due to it only having a few moments and the success of other more popular ships, such as MiriTama, KiriBaku, KiriDeku, and KiriMina. They are also both desirable to the fandom. However, people enjoy it due to the closeness the two developed from interning with Fat Gum, and how Eijiro always tries to encourage Tamaki. Tamaki also tells Eijiro that he shines brightly, which fans have interpreted to mean that both characters look up to and admire each other.

Most of the ship's fanart has Tamaki blushing or acting the crush type of nervousness around Ejiro, while Eijiro tries to help Tamaki to build up his self confidence with his own confidence to inspire Tamaki so he be the hero he is deep inside.

On AO3, the ship currently has 114 fanfics. Along with KiriTama having a reasonable size fanbase on Tumblr.

Fandom
FAN FICTION



TUMBLR



WIKIS



Trivia

 * On the color page for Chapter 132, Tamaki is seen standing behind Eijiro.
 * Both Eijiro and Tamaki have blonde hair best friends (Katsuki and Mirio).
 * During an image from the fourth light novel, Eijiro and Tamaki are seen going to the Festival together with happi coats.