ShuMako

ShuMako is the het ship between Joker/Akira Kurusu/Ren Amamiya and Makoto Niijima from the Persona fandom.

Canon
Makoto and the protagonist's first meeting doesn't start off on the right foot. After Kamoshida's confession, being the Student Council President, Principal Kobayakawa demands her to investigate the Phantom Thieves to save the school's reputation in exchange for a college letter of recommendation. She complies at first, and begins suspecting the protagonist and the others, even going so far as to stalk the protagonist inside and outside of school, with her face buried in a book she pretends to read. If the protagonist approaches her and strikes up a conversation, her reaction varies from making a casual comment about the protagonist and the others, to nervously acting surprised for "coincidentally" meeting the protagonist. Yet she would continue to follow the protagonist when he starts gaining distance. This would go on for a few days. In Persona 5 Royal, she would be more persistent that she even tails the protagonist around the new area, Kichijouji.

On 6/20, when the mafia boss Kaneshiro sees that Makoto's phone is in a call with the protagonist, he asks if it's her boyfriend's number.

At the beginning of Makoto's confidant, her friend Eiko mistakes the protagonist as Makoto's boyfriend, but Makoto denies it. However, later in her confidant, the protagonist has to pretend to be her boyfriend so that they could go on a double date with Eiko and her boyfriend.

On 7/24, when the Phantom Thieves go to Sojiro's house to talk to him, Makoto gets scared when they hear Futaba screaming, so she holds onto the protagonist's arm for comfort. When Futaba finally appears, it scares Makoto, and she ends up completely latching onto the protagonist's leg. When Sojiro shows up to check on Futaba, he immediately mistakes them as a couple.

When the Phantom Thieves went to steal Futaba's treasure after giving her the calling card, cognitive Wakaba showed up and produced a strong wind that blew debris in Makoto's direction. The protagonist dove in and saved her at the last second.

If the correct dialogue options are chosen within Makoto Niijima's social link, the protagonist is able to romance Makoto, this will unlock many extra dates with her, including an exclusive valentine's day cutscene on 2/14 in-game, examples of these dates are shown in the "Videos" section.

Persona 5 Royal
"I was thinking.... maybe we could study some things we don't have experience in yet... [...] ...I want to be with you."

- Makoto to Joker during Rank 10. "...I forgive you. But you need to stop shouldering all the burdens on your own, okay? I want to support you, especially when you're hurting. We can get through our problems together."

- Makoto to Joker during Valentine's Day

Fanon
The name of the ship came from combining Makoto and Shujinkō, a Japanese term for hero/main character/protagonist. With Makoto Niijima as a fan favorite from the Persona 5 series along with Makoto Niijima being a romancable character, ShuMako quickly became a fan favorite ship within the Persona 5 fandom. There are many examples of fanwork of ShuMako including fanfiction, fan accounts, and even a dedicated subreddit with 2300+ active members. On March 16th, 2017, a poll was made by a fan, surveying participants on their favorite Persona 5 ship. This poll had a total of 1735 votes, and the most popular ship was Shumako, obtaining 21% (362 votes) of the entire poll's votes.

On the week of March 8th to 14th, there is planned to be a "week of ShuMako", celebrating the ship. This event was planned by @shumakoweek on Twitter.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Makoto N./Ren A. on FanFiction.Net
 * Makoto N./Joker on FanFiction.Net
 * Queen/Joker on FanFiction.Net
 * Queen/Ren A. on FanFiction.Net
 * Queen/Joker on FanFiction.Net
 * Queen/Ren A. on FanFiction.Net

DEVIANT ART

FORUMS
 * /r/ShuMako subreddit on Reddit

TUMBLR

TWITTER