MatchaBlossom

MatchaBlossom is the slash ship between Kojiro "Joe" Nanjo and Kaoru "Cherry Blossom" Sakurayashiki from the SK8 the Infinity fandom.

Canon
Although not explicitly stated in the anime, they are both childhood friends. Cherry also tends to be walk into Joe's restaurant with him even without Kojiro's explicit permission.

In one of the SK8 commercials, they both appear together in the quick scene. Joe is shown trying on prank Cherry by adding hot and spicy sauce on the spaghetti which Joe himself prepared and served to Cherry. However, his malicious plans succeeded yet failed at the same time, as Cherry easily consumed it and spat fire from his mouth. Coincidentally facing Joe at the moment, his face was burnt in an instant. Cherry is seen calmly cleaning his mouth after it.

When Reki asked for some advice from Cherry for winning against Adam, he invited Reki and his friends to Joe's restaurant. Kojiro asks angrily why they were using his place without permission, but gets no response. Ignoring Joe, Cherry shows Reki and his other friends how Adam's "Love Hug" worked, giving a demonstration to them on his skateboard. As he explains the move, he does a 180° spin on "Carla" and ends up inches away from Joe's face. Cherry looks up, acknowledging their height difference; and points out evenly that he is "too close" to Joe, which annoys Kojiro.

In Episode 6, Miya tries to get Joe's attention away from the ladies, pointing towards his "Mom" who will supposedly kill him if he doesn't come back soon. Joe is amazed and astonished by legs he thinks are those of a woman, but after peering closer, they turn out to be Cherry Blossom's. As payback for barging into Joe's restaurant, he orders five more meals in Cherry's private suite, and allows the others to dig in despite a very exasperated Cherry. In the same episode, the two are the first on arriving at the thermal waters together after taking a shortcut to go there. Not long after they had settled in, they exchanged spiteful but joking conversation, only stopping to shout in fear when both were attacked by the "mud creatures".

In Episode 8, Joe and Cherry are talking inside of Joe's restaurant alone after hours when it is revealed that they have traveled together. They are arguing about whether the "hunches" Joe has are credible or not, and they bring up several different places: a social studies trip, restaurant in L.A., and a bar in Paris. The reason behind the trip to L.A. and Paris are unknown.

In Episode 9, in an after credit scene Cherry visits Joe's restaurant, Cherry is seen in bandages after leaving the hospital prematurely. Cherry then later passes out after brief conversation with Joe about Langa and Adam's skating. While unconscious Joe makes a remark to Cherry that he is sure that Adam is unhappy because he's alone, and follows up by saying that at least they're not alone. When saying this, Joe is looking down on a sleeping Cherry with a fond expression, as he whispers softly "Right...Kaoru?".

In the recap Episode 9.5, Miya and Shadow explain that while at the beach, Joe picked up Cherry and threw him into the water at some point. They mention that Cherry was really angered by that and later used a paintbrush to skillfully write insults on Joe's aloha shirt.

In Episode 10, it was confirmed that Joe was the first to rush to Cherry's side after he was severely injured by Adam, yelling "Kaoru!" while Cherry laid unconscious on the ground. When Adam explains how boring it was to skate with Cherry, Joe becomes aggressive and is about to insult him, but Shadow suddenly pulls up behind them. Joe quickly picks up Cherry in bridal style and brings him to the car so they can get to a hospital.

Fanon
Fans like to joke that both Joe and Kaoru are in love with each other though they wouldn't directly admit it. This is the second most popular ship in the fandom after Renga, which tends to be shipped along with MatchaBlossom too.

A popular headcanon among MatchaBlossom fans is that Joe has been in love with Cherry since their teens, but Cherry developed a crush on Adam when they first met him, causing Joe to fool around with girls in the present because he still feels like his unrequited crush is going nowhere. Episode 9 especially sparked this theory. The flashbacks in that episode show Cherry being completely captivated by Adam, while Joe can be seen somewhat upset or suspicious in one frame. In the present during that episode, Joe is shown to be concerned about Cherry skating with Adam, although he can't bring himself to voice his worries before the race. In the meanwhile Cherry is fully focused on winning against Adam. Some speculate that Joe clinking glasses with Cherry in the after credit scene while Cherry is asleep symbolizes that Joe will always be at Cherry's side despite the obstacles and possible feelings. Fans of this headcanon enjoy Joe's loyalty, comforting nature and him pining for Cherry.

Many also simply joke that Joe and Cherry have been secretly married or dating for the entirety of the show.

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Trivia

 * "MatchaBlossom" is a reference to their hair color: Matcha Tea which is green for 'Joe', and Blossom which is Pink for 'Cherry Blossom'.
 * Their English voice actors both ship MatchaBlossom, often mentioning and teasing it on their social media.
 * Jonah Scott, Joe's voice actor, is a bisexual man and headcanons Joe as bisexual, while Daman Mills, Cherry's voice actor, is a gay man and headcanons Cherry as such.
 * Both have the tea and cherry blossom emoji in their Twitter display names, a common thing for matchablossom shippers to do.
 * Jonah Scott has made a YouTube video reading out multiple MatchaBlossom posts, as well as a video where he points at MatchaBlossom pictures and says "This thing right here? This? My favourite thing."
 * Episode 9's after credit scene in Joe's restaurant is especially beloved by fans. In an interview it was stated that Cherry has anxiety and often has Carla play lullabies, but Cherry easily falls asleep in Joe's restaurant in that scene. Fans see this as Joe's presence and the restaurant being comforting and soothing to Cherry.
 * There were many fanfictions and artworks depicting Joe to be the one to rush to Cherry and carry him to the hospital before Episode 10 came out, causing great joy among fans when this concept was actually revealed to be canon.
 * Because there was no footage of Joe picking up Cherry and throwing him into the water and it was simply explained over animation of previous episodes, many artworks and comics depicting this scene were made after the recap episode came out.