Fuugen

Fuugen is the het ship between Fuu and Mugen from the Samurai Champloo fandom.

Canon
Fuu and Mugen first meet in episode 1 of the show when he enters the tea shop she's waitressing at. Mugen calls Fuu over and tells her that he'll help her "deal" with the customers causing trouble if she makes him 50 dumplings. At first she tries to lower the price when Mugen tells her he's not going one dumpling lower. Then when Fuu is about to get her hand chopped off from one of the thugs, she yells out 100 dumplings! and Mugen immediately jumps in to save her. Fuu then later in the episode tries to save Mugen and Jin from being executed by the shogun's men. She then gets the two to become her bodyguards and help her find the samurai who smells of sunflowers.

In the next episode Mugen gets annoyed at a passed out Fuu and tells Jinn "let's strip her and dump her". In the Japanese version he says he'll rape her. In episode 4 There’s a scene where after abandoning Fuu at the brothel, he stops walking in the rain and remembers her scolding him, he then quickly runs back to save her. When he gets back to the brothel, Fuu had already escaped. Mugen then says “Ran away?! That idiot!” and keeps searching for her, clearly worried. But when he finds her with Jin at the gambling den, he says “I only came here because no one was chasing after me.” as an excuse.

In the next episode Mugen jealously asks Fuu who that guy is. Referring to the painter she was briefly working with. He then goes to save her when she gets kidnapped. In episode 7 when a pickpocketed puts a knife to Fuu's throat Mugen goes ballistic and tries to fight him. He then tries to kill him until Fuu tells him to stop, to which he does.

Fanon
Fuugen is one of the most popular ships within the Samurai Champloo fandom. It's Fuu's biggest ship and Mugen's second biggest. Most people who ship these two like the dynamic between them and think they have sexual tension. It is also a typical anime trope where the main character has feelings for the sole female on his team. It is also notable that Fuu is one of the few people who Mugen listens to, which is impressive considering that he doesn't take orders from anyone.

Fandom
TUMBLR

Trivia

 * Shinichiro Watanabe has heavily implied in some interviews that Fuu and Mugen secretly have feelings for each other.