Spiritshipping

Spiritshipping is the slash ship between Judai Yuki and Johan Andersen from the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom.

Meeting
Judai meets Johan the first time in Season 3. They meet on the rooftop of the Duel Academy after Judai has a nightmare that he is woken up from by his dueling spirit Winged Kuriboh. Johan, who is also able to see spirits, is looking for his best friend Rubin Carbuncle, a dueling spirit, and finds it with Judai. Johan tells Judai that he transferred to Duel Academy and they share a handshake in greeting. Both of them remark that it feels like they have seen the other before. Before they can introduce themselves properly, Judai is called by his friends Sho and Tyranno to join the meeting in the Aula. Later on Judai and Johan share the first duel of the new semester under the supervision of the director and the new Professor Cobra.

During their time in the Academy they become best friends very quickly, through bonding over their shared love for dueling and them seeing spirits.

After some time, it is revealed that Cobra working together with a demon named Yubel, which has a history with Judai. Cobra uses the students to collect duel energy, which goes to Yubel, who wants to reincarnate themself. It is later on revealed that Cobra just wanted to save his son and didn't know about Yubel's plan.

Yubel succeeds in coming back and possesses one of the students, Marvin, to execute their revenge. It also sends the entire Duel Academy to another world. Marvin challenges Judai to a Duel, threatening him by saying that the whole school will be stuck in the other dimension and turning the students into duel zombies if Judai doesn't Duel them. Without a choice Judai goes to take Yubel down, while Johan searches for Rainbow Dragon, the last Crystal Beast he needs for his deck to be complete. He finds the card and joins Johan in his duel with Marvin to bring their friends and the school back home.

During the duel Yubel abandons Marvin's body, to show Judai their real form. Judai is shocked to see his old monster back. He had sent Yubel to space, being afraid of their power, because they hurt all of his friends during his childhood. What Judai doesn't know is, that he was reincarnated and promised Yubel his love in his last life. Yubel reveals that they just wanted to protect Judai and sees his punishment - sending them away - as his form of love for Yubel. Being obsessed with the idea to return Judai's "love" now by hurting his schoolmates and friends, Yubel tries to end the duel. Johan steps in and takes the damage that would have cost Judai the duel and tells him to bring their friends home.

Afterwards, the school and the people are back in their world it becomes clear to Judai, that Johan didn't return with them. Feeling guilty about what happened, Judai tries to find a new way to the other dimension to bring his best friend back.

Dark World Arc
After returning to the Dark World, Judai and his friends, who decided to accompany him, learn that if you lose a Duel in this world, you die. They find a village full of Monsters, who tell the group that they might have spotted Johan in a slave camp. Judai follows this lead and ends up duelling Zure, Knight of Dark World. It turns out that Johan wasn't at the camp. After defeating Zure, he goes to Brron, Mad King of Dark World, to end his reign. He succeeds in defeating Brron, but has to sacrifice his friends in the process. Only three of his friends remain (Jim, Austin and Sho), but they betray Judai, because they saw how the Duel changed him.

After some time, Jim and Austin, who travel alone now, come across a Village, which is under the siege of the dark army lead by the Supreme King. Jim decides to Duel the King, but finds out later that the King's true identity Judai, who became corrupted by darkness after seeing his friends die and the last of them betraying him. Jim tries to free his friend, but loses the Duel. Shocked by what happened to Jim, Austin flees. Austin later teams up with Ryo and Edo, two other friends and rivals of Judai, who came to the Dark World as well, to free Judai from his curse. Austin succeeds, but he has to sacrifice himself.

Together with the now normal Judai, they continue their search for Johan. They encounter him at last, but he has changed, because he is possessed by Yubel. Ryo takes on Yubel, but loses in a spectacular duel. After this Yubel, as Johan, tells Judai that if he wants to get Johan back, he has to follow the duel monster. Judai does so reluctantly, being afraid of Dueling, because of his crimes as Supreme King, but the need to save his friend is stronger.

He duels Yubel at last, but he's having a hard time against her, since it is still Johan's body that he is attacking. After saving Johan's Crystal Beasts from Yubel, he realizes that Johan's soul was sealed in his Rainbow Dragon. In the end he succeeds in defeating Yubel and getting Johan's soul back, but before they can leave the Dark World, Judai has to duel Yubel one last time to ensure the safety of all 12 Dimensions. Since Johan is injured he gives Judai his deck to teach Yubel a lesson for him.

During the last Duel between Yubel and Juhai, it is shown that Juhai needs his power of the Supreme King to defeat the Light of Destruction, that possessed Yubel. He summons Rainbow Dragon and fuses him with his strongest card and remarks to his duel spirit partner Kuriboh that he would like to show Johan their Fusion Monster. Yubel gets jealous and asks Judai if he loves Johan so much to the point of using his cards, and whether all of his love belongs to Johan now.

Season 4
Judai encounters Johan at a pier, after being brainwashed by Darkness, the final antagonist. He duels Johan, because Judai thinks that he is the enemy. During the duel, Johan destroys the card in Judai's deck that was corrupted by Darkness and saves Judai. They team up again to save the Academy from their new enemy, Darkness.

What follows is a duel against Fujiwara, who was also infected with Darkness. During the Duel Johan sacrifices himself again to ensure Judai's victory.

Fanon
Spiritshipping is one of the most popular Yu-Gi-Oh! GX ships and the most popular ship for both of the boys as well. It sailed thanks to them very quickly becoming close friends after their first meeting, how they related to each other due to their Spirit-seeing abilities, and due to the way Judai embarked on his quest to save Johan no matter what.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

FAN ART

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TWITTER

Trivia

 * The ship's name comes from their ability to see duel spirits.
 * The names "1048" and "4810", which are commonly used in the Eastern fandom, come from their Japanese names.
 * The opening theme for Season 3, "Teardrop", has a 10 second part near the end which shows some past scenes. In the second version, it is wholly dedicated to showing moments between Judai and Johan.
 * Johan swears to protect Judai from Yubel, even if he has to sacrifice himself.
 * During their last duel against Darkness, Johan devotes himself to Judai in the Duel, since he feels like he owes Judai for saving him in the Dark World and also remarks to himself that he wants to duel Judai once it's all over.