Polarshipping

Polarshipping is a het ship between Mai Kujaku (Mai Valentine) and Jonouchi Katsuya (Joey Wheeler) in the Yu-Gi-Oh! series.

Canon
They first meet as opponents at the Duelist Kingdom tournament. They first meet her on the ship on the way to the island and Jonouchi is attracted to her. Mai challenges Jonouchi thinking that he would be easy to beat since he was only in the tournament because Yugi had given one of his Star Chips to Jonouchi. Jonouchi criticizes her superficial reasons for dueling since he only wanted the money for luxuries. Jonouchi narrowly defeats her in the duel but since he had more Star Chips then him she is still in the tournament. Mai arranges for Dinosaur Ryuzaki to duel Jonouchi for payback but Jonouchi wins that duel as well.

She does warm up to them some and shares her food with the ground. Mai later loses her Star Chips to an eliminator but Yugi is able to win them back. After entering the final matches Jonouchi's entry card is stolen by Bandit Keith and Mai gives him her card so that he can compete. Jonouchi starts to view Mai more positively after this.

During the Legendary Hero's mini-arc she meets the group in the virtual rpg. She was fighting Jonouchi anonymously but when they realize who each-other she joins with them in their mission to save Kaiba. At one point she does hug Jonouchi much to his surprise.

During Battle City, Jonouchi is upset when Mai accepts a duel with Jean-Claude Magnum with the terms that she had to marry him if he wins. Jonouchi supports Mai during the duel. Jonouchi saves Mai from falling (by her lands on him) when one of Jean-Claude Magnum's guys tries to abduct Mai one a glider and she has to jump off.

During the Battle City finals, Jonouchi is telling the others of a dream he had of his friends when he was knocked out. When Mai asked if she was in it but he lies and says she wasn't because he didn't want to admit it. This upsets Mai who was wanted to feel like part of the group. She briefly goes back to her old way of not trusting others while dueling Dark Marik. At the end of the duel she is almost burned by The Windged Dragon of Ra's attack and Jonouchi jumps in the way to save her before Yugi jumps in the way to save both of them. Mai is subjected to a dark game where she is trapped and watching everyone else go on happily without her.

Joey goes to duel Dark Marik to save her but is narrowly defeated. Jonouchi is injured in hospitalized for awhile. When he wakes up he goes to see Mai who is still in a coma-like state. After Dark Marik is defeated by Yugi, Mai plays a joke on Jonouchi by pretending to be in the coma still only to reveal she was awake after he said some emotional stuff.

In the Doma arc Mai is traumatized by the Dark Game and is brought into Doma by Valon. She thinks she has to defeat her former friends to grow strong enough to move on. She tries to duel Jonouchi and Jonouchi commits himself to trying to save her. She is eventually able to defeat Jonouchi but can't brings herself to make the last attack but Jonouchi collapsed from exhaustion and his duel is taken. Mai regrets her actions goes to face Dartz to try and get his soul back but is defeated by Rafael before she can get to him and her soul is taken as well.

Fanon
Polarshipping is one of the more popular shippings. Supporters found their relationship was good and that they grew together. It doesn't rival any other het shippings much.

Fandom
AO3

Trivia
Fans gave this shipping it's name because they felt like Mai and Jonouchi were polar opposites of each-other.