EreMika

EreMika is the het ship between Mikasa Ackerman and Eren Jaeger from the Attack on Titan fandom.

Canon
Eren and Mikasa are childhood friends and former comrades. The two were exceptionally close and arguably the closest person in each other’s lives. Mikasa in particular is exceptionally fond of Eren and overtly protective of him to the point of being willing to attack or kill others if they were to harm him, even including her friends and superiors.

The two first met after Mikasa’s family were massacred by slave traders when she was only 9 years old and was about to be sent off into slavery. Fortunately, Eren arrived at her family’s home with his father, who was the doctor for Mikasa’s family, and found her parents’ dead bodies. Eren’s father went to get help and told Eren to wait. However, Eren, by himself, tracked down where Mikasa was and attempted to save her. The two of them ultimately succeeded in killing the slavers and in turn Mikasa was taken in by Eren's family. Many years later, their town was attacked and overrun by Titans which killed Eren's mother and left them both orphaned alongside Armin. All three of them then decided to join the military for revenge, especially Eren, whilst Mikasa joined to stay by his side.

Mikasa sees Eren as the sole entity she wishes to dedicate herself to, joining the Scouts simply to stay by his side despite wanting to live a peaceful life with him, and it was Eren who allowed her to unlock her powers as a member of the Ackerman clan, which grants her superior physical abilities. Allegedly, this also comes with forming a bond with someone, and in the case of Mikasa, that someone is Eren. As such, she is fiercely protective of him and will not hesitate to attack anyone who tries to hurt him, this has included Bertholdt, Reiner, Levi and even Armin. When Levi assaulted him, whilst he was on trial, Mikasa became furious and had to be held back by Armin to stop her from doing anything in front of their superiors. Later, she would pin Levi down after he punched Eren and had to be stopped by Hange. Mikasa, if allowed to, can become ruthless in her quest to save Eren if he has been taken away from her. Without hesitation, she tried to kill both Reiner and Bertholdt immediately after it became apparent that they were threatening Eren, and at one point, terrified Bertholdt as she demanded he give Eren back to her. Such is her emotional attachment to him, that the scarf she wears, that was given to her by Eren when they first met, has become her only treasure. Eren wrapping the scarf around her helped her cope from the trauma of losing her parents to slave traders.

Eren treats Mikasa as one of his closest friends and sees her as one of the people he has the most cherished memories with, the other being Armin. However, he is often irritated by her excessive protective nature of him and can often be seen getting annoyed at her. On top of this, he develops an inferiority complex because Mikasa is physically superior to him. He loathes that he has to be saved or protected by her and tries to discourage her from effectively babysitting him, both on and off missions. Despite all this, however, Eren does care for Mikasa and will protect her whenever he can. When he transformed into the Attack Titan for the first time he arrived just in time to save her from being attacked by another Titan. Subsequently, when he was cornered by members of the military, as they feared his Titan ability, he protected her, as well as Armin, when they fired at the them. As he and Mikasa were surrounded by Titans, her emotional words motivated him to fight back against the Smiling Titan by meeting its punch, despite its much greater size, just to protect her. It is here that he unlocks The Coordinate and briefly starts controlling Titans. He then carries her on his back as they flee from Reiner and Bertholdt. Even after his betrayal and joining Zeke’s side, he admitted to his older brother that he only broke off his relationship with both Mikasa and Armin so he could protect them from what was to come.

The nature of Mikasa’s feelings for Eren have been the subject of much curiosity to other characters. Many people interpret her as being romantically interested in Eren. For example, Ian Dietrich commanded her to “defend your boyfriend”, which caused a usually stoic Mikasa to blush and quietly state they’re just family. Levi has also assessed the nature of her feelings for Eren and seems to believe she loves him. Annie, herself, believes Mikasa could not kill Eren, nor allow him to be killed, even after his betrayal. Even Zeke told Eren that Mikasa’s protective nature of him comes out of love and has nothing to do with her being a member of the Ackerman clan, something that Eren acknowledged. After his betrayal, she reflects on where it all went wrong and pondered if everything between them was decided from the start or if she made a mistake at some point and could have done things differently. In particular, she wonders when Eren asked her, “What am I to you?”, if she had said something different than “Family”, that things might have turned out better. At one point, Mikasa seemed to decide to act on her feelings when she believed that both she and Eren would die. As Eren fell into despair at the loss of Hannes, she starts to thank him for everything he has done for her, for being by her side and teaching her how to live after the loss of her parents. Her eyes start to fill with tears and thanks him for wrapping her scarf around him. She then seemingly leans in to kiss Eren but, after becoming motivated by her words, stands back up to face the Smiling Titan head on.

Above all else, Mikasa values Eren’s well-being, often making sure he has eaten and tells him to rest when he has been hurt or become exhausted. When she believed he had died she was prepared to let herself be killed until she starts to remember him, and resolves never to give up again because if she dies so would her memories of him. Later, upon seeing that he is actually alive as he emerged from his Titan’s corpse, unconscious, she holds onto him tightly and openly cries. This concern for his well-being led to her scolding her own superior, Levi, for failing to protect him after he had been captured by the Female Titan, as was his job, and ultimately works with him to save Eren. After Eren is successfully retrieved from both Reiner and Bertholdt she can be seen clutching onto him tightly as they ride away on a horse, relieved to have him back again.

Eren is very much aware of how much Mikasa thinks of him, which is partly what annoys him. Nonetheless, he is sympathetic to her feelings and even asked Mikasa what he is to her and is seemingly disappointed when a flustered Mikasa says “family”. When she thanked him for always wrapping her scarf he stands up to protect her and promises that he will always wrap her scarf, as many times as she needs, forever. Following his betrayal, he cruelly insults Mikasa, claiming that her Ackerman blood is why she is protective of him, and calls her a “slave” because of this. His words anger Armin who goes to attack him but Mikasa instinctively protects Eren, which proves his point. Eren then officially breaks his relationship with her. However, it's later revealed that Eren may not have truly believed what he had said, as he explained to Zeke that he needed to break his relationship with his friends and conceded to his older brother that Mikasa’s devotion to him comes out of genuine love, not because of her Ackerman blood.

Fanon
As of May 2018, Eremika as a ship often comes into conflict with other ships. Primary examples include Eremin and Ereri, which are often topics of debate in forums and videos. Both ships involving fairly large fanbases, Eremika being the most popular in Japan. Though Ereri currently has the larger fanbase in the United States.

A certain theory that has evolved from Mikasa's scarf being changed from grey to red for the anime and live action. Fans speculate that this could be a reference to the red string of fate, a piece of Japanese folklore often described as a force that connects soulmates or lovers. This was a change done by the anime director Araki, which Isayama has expressed his gratitude and admiration for Araki's keen sense of detail.

Many fans have speculated that Eren holds no romantic interest in Mikasa but cares about her differently, fans believe that when Eren confessed that he "hated" her this was his attempt at trying to save her life, fans believe that Mikasa will end up dying during the rumbling and Eren is desperately trying to avoid this outcome, the theory started coming together after fans noticed that another character that asked Eren why he was crying has now been killed in the rumbling. It is speculated that perhaps the reason Eren doesn't want to pursue a relationship with Mikasa is due to the limited time he has left to live.

On AO3, it is the fourth most written romantic ship (and 5th most written overall ship) for Eren and the second most written ship for Mikasa.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Mikasa/Eren tag on FanFiction.net
 * Mikasa/Eren tag on FanFiction.net

TUMBLR

PIXIV


 * エレミカ tag on Pixiv

Trivia

 * Mikasa's character theme song, No Matter Where You Are, is sung from Mikasa to Eren. In the song, she begs Eren to not go, not to leave her cold, and that he is her home to return to, no matter where he is.
 * In the official book, Marina Inoue (Armin's VA) stated that the scarf is Eren and Mikasa's "Engagement Ring".
 * The final exhibition in Kobe (July 22th 2020) only showed two ships on the cardboard display (ArminAnnie & ErenMikasa).
 * Hajime Isayama and Tomohiro Machiyama (Screenplay Author AOT Live Action) stated that the person who will make Eren unhappy if he lost them was Mikasa.
 * Ishikawa Yui (Mikasa's VA) and Kaji Yuki (Eren's VA) are EreMika shippers.
 * They have their own special OVA, only about the two of them.
 * In the spin-off "Spoof of Titan" Armin once dreamt about Mikasa and Eren having a baby and intended to name it after him.
 * Isayama has stated that separating Eren and Mikasa permanently won't be satisfying for him.
 * Isayama that Mikasa's presence to Eren is more of a mother figure rather than a lover to him, and that they will both grow independent from one another in the future.