#renmei

Link to the forums

I mentioned this website atleast maybe 2 times half a year ago (mostly just complaining about lost media being deleted for RenMei on that website) and it honestly always makes me happy a fan group for RenMei exists outside over in the Chinese fandom, even if the forums group for them is inactive. But at the very least, they have 269 members so again, I'm glad they're loved by that many people and I'm once again relieved i'm not the only shipper who loves them TTwTT

I used to visit the forums in the past just to see all of the RenMei fanarts that were posted there and never bothered to translate what the topics and discussions they were talking about regarding RenMei until today and boy, I had a fun time reading everyone's discussions about my favorite OTP

It was mostly the usual discussions like how did RenMei got together, why do people love the pairing, people sharing their fanworks (fanfics, doujinshi (FYI there's only one SFW doujinshi of them over there), fanarts, photoshop picture edits, and AMV's), people making analysis's (both in canon and at least one person making an analysis based off from their zodiac sign's compatibility as a couple) , people sharing official artworks/screenshots from the manga, some people playing roleplay as Ren and Jeanne together (which is kind of cute), people making fun question games regarding the couple, etc.,

The forums used to be lively from 2009 until 2015 and since then, the forums has been completely inactive except the last time someone posted was in 2019, mostly posting an AMV and linking it to bilibili. It also turns out that there used to be moderators that ran the RenMei forums group on tieba baidu but as of 2026, there appears to be no moderators moding the group so I'm assuming they became inactive somewhere in the mid 2010s

Also this person was so real for this (I 100% relate to them so so much here ahhh... once again I am so glad I'm not the only person who feels so intensely passionate about RenMei as well as super passionate about Jeanne. It's quite rare to stumble upon another passionate defensive RenMei fan as I only ever stumble upon one shipper in my life time from afar on tumblr standing up for the ship cuz antis kept crossposting their ship hate directly into the RenMei tags but they ended up getting harassed and chased out by the big name RenMei antis in the early 2010s off tumblr (absolutely disgusting behavior honestly)

Children in doubt

Both Ren and Meiling were in deep, deep doubt of what their paths should be. They had both been taught that all of humanity was evil and untrustworthy, and that they should all destroy it and help their respective family rule the world. (Hao in Meiling’s case) They both knew in their hearts that was not the correct path, and spent years isolated and in denial before seeing the light.

——-

I reread Shaman King zero and it really hurts how they already wanted the same thing at their core. :,)

Takei really thought this through and it's something I really appreciate, even if 95% of the fandom disagrees but idc lol

You can also tell Ren is clearly influenced by Jeanne in these respective panels too

"Ren's original goals was to eradicate all hatred and change the world, not for him to settle down and get married to Jeanne and have a kid with her!"

"Jeanne has nothing in common with Ren and they don't even share the same goals!"

"Men is repeating the cycle of hatred again, breaking his promise and foiling Ren's goals!"

"Takei is a terrible writer who doesn't know how to write his characters in the sequels!"

To the whole quote-on-quote "Ren and Jeanne has nothing in common" bullshit, for starters: Ren and Jeanne does in fact, have many things in common and they do in fact, share the same goal: World Peace

Yes, it's true that Ren has stated he wants to end the cycle of hatred in the original series and that has very obviously came into fruition as seen in the sequels (Red Crimson, Marcos and The Super Star). However a lot of people seems to forget (for some damn reason) that Jeanne runs a damn humanitarian charity organization after the Shaman Fight ended (turning X-LAWS into X-Charity) and her main mission for running the charity is basically going to countries that are affected by war and deliver aid all while stopping wars and terrorists (as well as Jeanne pacifying the areas tortured spirits and basically exorcising them in a peaceful manner) And let's not forget, this is the same character THAT LITERALLY said word for word that she WANTS world peace in her very first appearance way back in the original Shaman King series.

In fact, here are the many main traits, actions and goals for achieving world Peace:

Creating and joining alliances, groups, organizations and coming together - The world can’t be at peace without the human race coming together because we are the ones who tore it apart. Tearing it apart is definitely not what humans are trying to do, but they are nowhere close to trying to stop it. The human race needs to all come as one and take on what has never been done before

Bringing social equality to such as the following: gender, sex, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, origin, caste or class, income or property, language, religion, convictions, opinions, health, disability, trade union membership, political views, parental status, family or marital status, and any other grounds. Equalizing everything in the world would better the world and another step closer to global peace

Stamping out exclusion - Evidence shows that conflict happens in places where people can’t trust the police or get access to justice, and their prospects for a decent life are stolen by corrupt elites. Governments everywhere need to stop the neglect, abuse and stigmatization of their own people. Media and others that promote ‘them-and-us’ thinking must be challenged to stop spreading hate. Having one main government would also solve many other problems like, war, sanctions, and even economic depressions. Solving economic depressions is also a step in the direction of equal wealth. Overall, if the governments stop the abuse of power over their own people and stop spreading the outlook of hate among people, humans would be in a better place.

Climate change - Climate change is increasingly being considered the greatest threat to peace and security in the 21st century. From more frequent natural disasters, such as heavy storms and extended droughts, to displacements of people living in high-risk areas, the rising temperatures are taking a toll on countries across the globe. There are many ways to end climate change such at the following: Recycling, protecting our forests, planting trees, supporting urban forests, mitigating wildfires, saving energy at home, conserve water, join and support organizations dedicated to ending climate change

Ending violence and hate - Wars doesn't bring peace. It just teaches the next generation new reasons to hate. War does not bring progress, unity, or development. It only causes suffering, loss of lives, displacement of families, and pain for people. Let us choose peace over war, hope over hatred, and unity over division — because only through peace can the world truly heal and progress. Real change comes from action, fairness, and equal opportunity—not just words. There are many actions you can take to combat against this which is the following: Speaking up for peace, educating yourself and others about peace, promote prevention, saying no to violence, practice understanding and solitary, standing up for those who have been bullied and harassed, protesting inequality and discrimination, embrace inclusion and diversity, support peace advocates and lastly, joining and supporting organizations that are dedicated to anti war and anti violence.

You have to remember that Ren and Jeanne were both raised in a very toxic, abusive and dysfunctional environment at the start in their childhoods. Love was something that was never present throughout their terrible childhoods. You can argue that Marco and Luchist gave some love to Jeanne but however, Luchist left the both of them and neglected Jeanne. For Marco’s case, his love is pretty twisted and fucked up familial love since he literally abused Jeanne by grooming, manipulating and brainwashing her into torturing herself in the Iron Maiden device 24/7 and basically used her as a weapon. Not only they were both raised and taught on how to kill people in preparation for the Shaman Fight but they were both indoctrinated by hate at very young ages by the adults around them (Ren's parents and Marco). Ren was taught to hate humanity and Jeanne on the other hand, was taught to hate all and anything that is "evil" which being Hao (thinking he's the main root of all evil at first) and religious extremism. They were both destructive people in the very beginning, they used unjust violence and killed many people, thinking they were justified for doing so. It wasn't until at some point later, they both eventually learn the errors of their ways; Ren meets Yoh and Yoh changes him, Jeanne meets Yoh but it took her quite a while for her to wake up (not just Yoh as he sowed the seeds of doubt within her but Ren was the final push to make her wake up and see the errors of her ways)

And while Ren and Jeanne may have learned from their grave mistakes and working to become better people, it still doesn't change the fact that so many prominent adult figures in their lives has failed the both of them and because the two children murdered and taken so many innocent lives, they have to live with the permanent scars, trauma, shame and guilt for the rest of their lives because they both truly believe they don’t deserve anything good or happiness because they are murderers (which was never their fault, in fact, it’s actually the adults fault in the first place and they’re the ones to blame) and so it all comes down to the conclusion: both vowing to never repeat history ever again and use what they've learned in order to change and improve the world for the better and make a difference. And they succeeded in doing so after the Shaman Fight ended

Like it or not, Ren and Jeanne very clearly has a massive influence on one another when they both reunited again in Europe years later after the SF ended which being Pacifism. Ren runs a electronics manufacturing company and his main objective is to achieve world peace without the use of violence. Meanwhile Jeanne runs a humanitarian charity organization, which main objective is world peace and her organization is anti war, which solely focuses on delivering aid to people that were affected by war as well as pacifying evil spirits. It's even stated in Day after Maize that X-CHARITY received aid from Ren's company, LEIDI and eventually grew into a large-scale charitable organization. It makes a lot of total sense as to why the two would want to get affiliated with one another because they share the same common goals and that being once again, world peace. By working and joining forces together, they both made a massive positive influence on the world and will continue to keep doing so until the world is completely at peace in order to change Hao's mind about eradicating humanity

(And also, Ren's goal for wanting to bring an end to the cycle of hate has not even changed like, at all. In fact, he's very much IS making A LOT of progress improving humanity and is continuously working on his long term goal. Takei didn’t forget about this)

After reuniting and finding out both parties shares the same goals and working together (and successfully making a difference in the world) Ren and Jeanne eventually grew close and fell in love with each other, later marrying and have a son together. Love is ultimately is what saved the both of them from their many years of anguish, self loathing and depression they have been going through for the longest time ever since they were both children and even after the Shaman fight too as well. Ren and Jeanne went from being full of hatred to eventually being saved by love in the end and finding love in one another. And I think it was a very beautiful and wise decision of Takei to pair them up together because they basically already match each other's preferences, have so much similarities and that they both literally can fix each other basically (as well as they're both smoking hot, they're both pretty and the chemistry between them brings a smile to my face every time I see them together side by side). Once again, it's okay if RenMei isn't your cup of tea. I respect people's preferences. To me personally, they are perfect for each other and it's why I strongly support this couple

Keep in mind that Ren and Jeanne knew what they were getting into when they got together romantically. They knew something like this (aka getting killed by their revengeful assailants one day) would happen eventually at some point in their lives because very obviously they were both child murderers and they both understand the consequences of their own actions. “if you hurt people, they will hurt you back.” This is also one of the reasons why Ren and Jeanne didn't wanted to be "revived"

And as for the whole "Men is repeating the cycle of hatred again, breaking his promise and foiling Ren's goals!", while it's true that Men did indeed made a his promise to Ren and Jeanne on never killing anyone, he has technically still has NOT KILLED ANYONE in the sequels. At all, yet.

In Flowers, Hana "died" because of two factors, 1.) being that he fell straight into the ground. This was not caused by Men as Hana went and performed hyou-gattai with his onis and purposely went after Shamash that was in the air.

2.) Literally what Hao says to Hana:

And yes, while it's true that Men went ballistic the moment he sees Black Maiden and says this

at best, it was just mostly attempted murder for the most part from him but Men again, did not killed her as he failed to do so because Jeanne is unfortunately her spirit alley and BM was using Jeanne as a O.S shield, making Men unsuccessful at his attempt on taking BM out and as a result, he nearly got himself killed.

And once again, Men does not kill anyone at all in The Super Star either. He even thought to himself and doubt that his mom would be pleased if he were to avenge her so very clearly, he still remembers his promise to his parents.

While it's true that Men harbors hatred towards the people that killed Jeanne and people who disrespected her, some may think he's "continuing" the cycle of hatred and can get extremely very disappointed about Men's lack of character development. However, this can eventually change later on in Shaman King Sky.

Just because we didn't get enough proper character development for Men doesn't mean the Shaman King sequels are over yet. We still have Shaman King SKY to look forward to

(The same can also be said for a lot of people and antis complaining about how miserable Ren is too and shifting all of the blame onto Jeanne for "abandoning" him and Men when she clearly didn't.) The sequels may be on hiatus but it's still very much an on going series and Takei intends to try his very best to complete everything he can in order to send a proper sendoff to his beloved series. You can criticize and be disappointed all you want but to say that Men has not "learned" anything at all and is still continuing the cycle of hate really isn't true at all when again, the sequels is still ongoing. Hana already got his character development, so have Alumni, Yohane and Gakko. Hell, EVEN Black Maiden is showing signs of character development in TSS as she is shown having doubts and guilt for "murdering" Jeanne and ripping a mother away from her family, remembering that she too also has her own parents that was apparently ripped away from her and currently being held hostage in a life or death situation by Spimea. Men is the only remaining character left who quite literally shows great promise of character development (since after all as again, he had doubts that his mom would be pleased if he were to avenge her right then and there. If that isn't a sign of character development, then idk what is cuz that is LITERALLY a sign) and I am anticipating for what Takei does with his character in SK SKY.

Bad things needs to happen in order for good things to happen in stories. This is literally the most important requirement a writer must have when it comes to storytelling and without it, the story won't be any good because then, there wouldn't be any character development for everyone now, wouldn't there?

I believe that Men will get his own character development in SKY and his own happy ending, so will Ren and Jeanne (I'm still hoping she gets revived lol) since these panels shows great promise that we will get our respective happy endings for our favorite ship and characters

No one has their happy endings yet so again, criticize all you want but the story is not even over yet. Either wait it out just like the rest of us fans or if you're so blinded by intense hatred for the sequels, then don't even bother reading it and stick with fanfics and fanon AU's instead

____________________________________________________

Sources and citations

https://hub.edubirdie.com/examples/is-world-peace-obtainable/

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/we-can-fight-hate-and-build-community/

https://www.philosocom.com/post/world-peace-1