Hello and welcome to this wild crackship!
In this pinned post I'm going to explain the reason for the name, the reason for the ship, and what I plan to do with this blog.
I decided to call it Sho-Dan because it's a play on the name Chō-Han, a Japanese dice game that was a favorite of Zatoichi's, the character that was the inspiration for Issho. It's not hard to imagine Dadan might be a gambler as well, albeit probably not a successful one.
Why did I start shipping them?
Issho has been my favorite One Piece character for years now. It's impossible to know at this point what kind of man Issho was before becoming Fujitora, but I get the impression that he hasn't let his new status in the world change how he views it. Despite being an Admiral, he doesn't follow Sakazuki's orders, nor does he seem to give a damn about the opinions of celestial dragons or whatever punishment they might want to inflict on him. He does what he thinks is right, including letting a certain pirate alliance save a kingdom. He sees the nuance of life.
I always wanted to ship him with someone that would make sense, but he canonically seems like a loner to me. (This isn't meant to be disrespectful to any other ships, this is just how I feel.) I got into the Zatoichi movies because of him, and Ichi always fell in love but always left them behind because his life was too dangerous (he was always on the yakuza's radar) and had to stay on the move. It made sense in my mind that Issho could be similar, making enemies when he acted on his sense of justice, being a wanderer before and after being drafted into the Marines. That he could have left a love behind to keep them safe.
I am fond of Curly Dadan because she's a big, loud woman who swears and smokes, is a coward who makes mistakes, but will be brave when it counts. The characters she interacts with (obviously excluding ASL) treat her like a daughter (Garp saying "I'm leaving these kids with you, raise them well" gives toxic dad vibes) or older sister (her underlings respect her but fear her wrath.) I couldn't help but think she might be lonely, too.
My first thought was shipping her with a woman, but the only woman she's canonically interacted with is Makino. Makino is nice, but I see her dating either a normal person or a great adventurer, not a cowardly mountain bandit.
In 2020 I became part of the Women! Wanted Zine. We had to pick a woman from One Piece and create fanworks for her, so I picked Dadan. This was also during the midst of my Zatoichi movie spree.
It started with a prompt. We were making flash art to spark interest in the zine, and the prompts were based on arcs and movies.
That week's prompt was One Piece Film: Gold.
I drew Dadan. To be honest, hadn't seen Film Gold yet. I looked up character references from the movie, and settled on an outfit I thought was appropriately cool.
This movie had casinos and gambling, though, and of course I had to draw Issho- It's how we're first introduced to him!
Suddenly, things fell into place.
What kind man would love Dadan? What fierce woman would love Issho? What lover would Issho abandon to protect, and what in Dadan's past made her so embittered?
In my mind, it made sense that Issho could've been a wandering swordsman in his youth, maybe catching rides from island to island. He could have met Dadan on Dawn Island, well before the arrival of Ace, Sabo and Luffy into her life. Knowing what we know from SBS 110, maybe he was on the run! Maybe it was before his association with that kingdom!
I'm making this blog as a testament to this crackship. I will share art about them, and share things that remind me of them. If I'm ever motivated to continue it, I may share my fanfiction here.
Thanks for reading, hope you liked it 💜🧡
