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ShokoHime is the femslash ship between Shoko Ieiri and Utahime Iori from the Jujutsu Kaisen fandom.
Canon[]
Shoko Ieiri and Utahime Iori first appear together in Gojo’s Past Arc. Utahime is 3 years older than Shoko, who is, at the time, a second-year student at Tokyo Jujutsu High. When Utahime and Mei Mei are sent on a mission, they encounter certain difficulties, and loose contact with the Jujutsu High faculty. This results in Yaga sending the second-years, Shoko Ieiri, Satoru Gojo, and Suguru Geto to their rescue. When Gojo and Geto arrive, they tease Utahime much to her displeasure, so when the young woman sees Shoko, she runs towards her for an embrace. Utahime begs Shoko not to become like her two classmates, and Shoko amusedly replies that she never would.
Ten years later Shoko works as a doctor at the Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College, and Utahime is a teacher at its Sister College in Kyoto. Utahime and Shoko appear in a one-shot story set between the events of Volume 0 and Exchange Event Arc. Yuta, Inumaki, Maki, and Panda need extra money, and Shoko has a friends who needs a hand at her cosmetics shop. Shoko gives Utahime free coupons from that shop, and when Utahime is staying in Tokyo, she drops by. When Panda mentions eels, Utahime calls Shoko and says she found someone who can cook fish that Utahime had delivered to Shoko’s apartment from her hometown. Utahime ends the call and tells the students that they will be eating over at Shoko’s place later that day and invites them too — to cook and wash dishes for her and Shoko. She says that if they want to have something specific for dinner, they should call Shoko, and she will buy whatever they want. Utahime is in high spirits, and she leaves the shop almost dancing — she is on her way to buy sake for their dinner with Shoko.
"I'm finally in Tokyo and figured I'd use the coupons Shoko gave me."
"Shoko! Shoko, don't become like [Gojo & Geto]!"
"... if you want something to eat then make sure to let Shoko know!!"
Apparently, due to distance, they don't see each other often. When the Sister School Event in Tokyo goes south as Geto's group interrupts the competition, Utahime rushes to the students' help. She makes sure that after Nishimiya finishes her task, she goes to Shoko for a check up. Both sorceresses take part in the Shibuya operation. Shoko sets up a place to heal the wounded, while Utahime arrives with her students in Tokyo and fights with Geto's group alongside other sorcerers. When Misamichi Yaga asks Shoko why she's smoking, even though she quit that habit some time ago (due to Utahime whose insistent chiding finally convinces her), Shoko says that she is feeling nostalgic about her student days. In the Shinjiku fight, Utahime, alongside Gakuganji, was tasked with the mission to accompany Nobara during the plan against Sukuna's finger. Utahime mentions Nobara just woke up from a coma 10 minutes before this. Fans assume Utahime and Shoko paired up to supervise Nobara during he recovery after the Shibuya incident, since Nitta took Nobara to Shoko's infirmary, and Utahime knew about how she had just regained conscious. [1]
Fanon[]
ShokoHime is quite a popular ship in the general fandom. Its popularity grew due to their shared interactions, and especially with the anime adaptation, as it showed how they both cared for each other. It seems that out of other Utahime’s peers, she likes Shoko the best. Another thing that caught fans’ attention is Shoko quitting her bad habit all due to Utahime’s power of persuasion. ShokoHime fans like a certain aesthetic contrast between the two: Shoko has brown hair with warm, reddish overhue and wears a blue turtleneck, while Utahime wears red hakama and has dark hair with a bluish overhue. ShokoHime popularity also increased after Shoko mentioned hell would freeze over before she would fall in love with Geto or Gojo, a very strong statement, in contrast with ShokoHime warm and familiar dynamic.
In fanfiction, the ship often appears alongside with SatoSugu or NanaGo, as well as in fan arts (like here). Currently ShokoHime is Jujutsu Kaisen's second most popular femslash ship after NobaMaki, and there is a number of works, where the ships appear side by side (like this one). The pairing also features other ships fanfiction as a backgound couple, or ShokoHime is being hinted at, for that reason it is not always tagged, that's why the number of fanfics on AO3 isn’t that big. However, ShokoHime is the second most popular ship for both Utahime and Shoko on AO3.
In fan interpretation, whether it is romantic or platonic, Shoko and Utahime often meet up to gossip about their colleagues and friends, especially Gojo and Yaga. Both women are keen appreciators of alcoholic beverages, so it is speculated that they go out to try out new izakayas, sometimes stopping by karaoke, considering Utahime greatly enjoys singing. Given Utahime is described as a "bad drinker", some of the fan arts depict the two coming home, with Utahime heavily leaning on Shoko for support and incoherently blabbering about her feelings to Shoko, who is due to her high alcohol tolerance seems flushed but pleased. Another common theme for both fan arts and fiction is Shoko's bad habit, whether it's Utahime begging Shoko to quit, or Shoko taking it up again, and then having to explain to Utahime, why she smells of tobacco, with both case scenarios usually leading to the happy ending. ShokoHime shippers also speculate how Shoko reacted to Utahime's incident that led to her scar. The recent chapters that depict Shoko heavily smoking make the last one especially relevant, as many ShokoHime fans wonder what Utahime will do or say when she learns her friend is back on the bad track. Considering Shoko's worsening mental health condition after the Shibuya incident and Shinjiku Showdown, recent fanfics have angst and anxiety fused overtones.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Ieiri Shoko/Iori Utahime tag on AO3
- MUSIC
- ShokoHime playlist on Spotify.
- NOTABLE TWITTER PAGES
- @kyunu_kun on Twitter
- @ShokohimeWeek on Twitter
Trivia[]
- Both Shoko and Utahime love alcohol and hate sweets.[2]
- Utahime persuaded Shoko to quit smoking.[3]
- Both women have a marking on the right side of the face, right under the eye — Shoko has a mole and Utahime has a scar.
- According to mangaka Gege Akutami, Shoko is a heavy drinker (the heaviest among the characters), and Utahime is a "bad drinker".[4]
- While Utahime prefers beer, Shoko is seen taking much stronger beverages.[5]
- Japanese mangaka Takako Shimura, a manga artist who Akutami Gege called inspirational in one of his interviews[6], made five ShokoHime arts. Takako Shimura known for her manga works which feature LGBT topics.
- One of them features student era Shoko and Utahime hugging; another one is an art of Shoko and Utahime holding hands, Shimura called it "Shoko and Utahime (Wink)". Another art depicts Utahime gifting Shoko with a cup (from the JJK Movie booklet with her name on it — "Show子" — which reads as Shoko), and said that he personally thinks that it would be "cute if Shoko's cup was a gift from Utahime". Another art shows Utahime on the phone with Shoko saying "Ah, Shoko, did it arrive?" with the outfit she wears in Jujutsu Kaisen 0.5[7]. The 5th art shows Utahime holding onto Shoko's lab coat.
- ShokoHime official merch shows their color duo match, Utahime being pink and Shoko being purple/blue.
- Shoko and Utahime used to canonically speak every day during Hidden Iventory. [8]
- In JJK 0.5 Utahime's speech bubble carried a bubbly design when she is talking to Shoko on the phone, to represent her excitement to drink with Shoko later in the day.
- In the Phantom Parade Official Game, Shoko invites Utahime to go out and get drinks, and she is using a flirty tone while she touches her hair.[9]
- “Utahime-senpai, how about we go drink after this? Please, just one drink~!"
- Utahime's official character profile lists Shoko as her only friend from Jujutsu Tech staff.
- Utahime's character profile for Season 2, during Hidden Iventory Arc, mentions "she gets along pretty well with Ieiri, who is also her kouhai" [10]
- When Gojo mocks her asking if she's crying, Utahime denies it and gets angry, but as soon as she sees Shoko, she starts to cry and runs to get comforted by Ieiri. This shows Utahime feels safe to be vulnerable with Shoko, solidifying their close bond.
- Shoko is usually non-chalant and unbothered, but with Utahime she openly voices her concern for her safety, being one of the only times we see Shoko communicating her emotions.
- In the Season 2 Official Guidebook, Utahime's character profile states: "She is Geto and Gojo's senior. She dislikes the two people (Geto and Gojo) who don't respect her but has a good relationship with Shoko.".
Gallery[]
Manga[]
Official Art[]
Fan Art[]
- All art in this section is fan made, and must be sourced back to the original artist. It also must have permission from the original artist to be posted here. If your art is here without your permission and you wish to have it taken down, please inform an admin, so that we may delete it.
Videos[]
