Fandom Shipping Polls 2025 - Yamato Ishida Shipping Analysis (Poll I + Poll II)
As pointed out in the main post, every single Chosen Child will get their individual analysis post to check on the status of the current popularity of their ships. We’re gonna take a look at Yamato here - if you are interested in the results of 2023, feel free to check out the previous analysis.
With that out of the way, let’s get started!
The overall results / spreadsheet
Disclaimer: As the “Someone from Poll 1″ and “Someone from Poll 2″ option have been excluded from the final analysis due to redundancy reasons and all results were culminated in another “final count”, the results will not be 1:1 to what the polls look like:
Overall votes: 142 (approx. 100 after excluding votes for “Someone from Poll 1” and “Someone from Poll 2” from the complementary poll). The main poll received 87 votes, and the secondary poll received 55 votes.
In the comments/tags, both the option "polyship (Taichi/Yamato/Sora)" and "a bandmate" provided choices that weren’t specifically mentioned in the polls themselves.
Ship Analysis
1st place: Taichi (36%) led the poll from the beginning and was, at no point in time, threatened to be surpassed by any other choice. As mentioned in Taichi’s analysis already, Taichi/Yamato has always been going strong and is a very popular choice for both parties. The ship is, not only in fandom but also in canon, a relationship that is highly focused on in terms of how they clash, but also complement, support and make each other better. Taichi is Yamato’s (ongoing development) foil for a reason (and vice versa) and the way their dynamics are being presented makes them an appealing choice for one another.
2nd place: Similarly to Taichi, Sora (21%) has maintained a comfortable second place throughout the entire voting period. Which shouldn’t be surprising either, as Yamato/Sora is one of the very few confirmed canon couples in the series to end up with each other - even if their screentime is severely surpassed by Taichi/Yamato, which may explain the discrepancy in the votes.
3rd place: Likewise, the third winner never really had to fear being overthrown; Jou (18%) easily established himself as the third pick, seeing how Joumato has gained more attention on both Twitter and Tumblr in recent years. Thus, it is no surprise to see him here - as several media forms have focused on their relationship (for example in the novels, the stageplay - and of course the episode that actually activated the Crest of Friendship).
Niche Ships (“Honorary mentions”): Yamato’s polls have gained notably more votes (142) than during the 2023 (116) run, but still received less attention than Taichi’s. The three choices mentioned above already take up the majority of the votes, so there aren’t many other choices to really point out. No other option surpassed the 10% mark after all, but his uni colleague from Kizuna (8%) and Jun (5%) may be singled out at this point; The former may have gained some attention in spheres that support the queer!Yamato headcanons, whereas Jun had always been a niche, but fun option in certain corners. With 3% and 2% respectively, Koushiro and Mimi also join the squad as well - even though it was stated that the former received one vote by accident. Koushiro is often associated with Yamato within the Taichi/Yamato/Koushiro trio and Yamato/Mimi is a popular ship in various internet spheres due to their theoretical potential (such as Instagram, Facebook, but also on Tumblr). The option for “No Ship (asexual/Ace)” (2%) indicates quite a minor interest in that direction as well.
Rarepair Hell (“The 1 vote squad”): This space is reserved for Ken, Meiko and Menoa, as well as the “Own Character (OC)” and “Others” option.
No audience (“0 votes go to…”): While it wouldn’t appear as outlandish to see Iori, Miyako, Hikari and even Imura receive 0 votes each due to a lack of screentime or interest… Seeing Daisuke not get a single vote is surprising, considering how he had gotten 6 votes in the 2023 polls, representing another Senpai/Kouhai ship.
Annotations: Takeru was automatically excluded as a choice up front. Yamato/Takeru does not seem to be a wide-spread choice in English-speaking fandoms, even if a look at Japanese-centric spaces may suggest that it’s fairly popular there.
What did the other polls say?
Yamato was sticking out as the character who won most of the other polls (in comparison to 2023, where he hadn't won any poll): He came out as first choice in Taichi’s (33%) Sora’s (38%) and Jou's (25%) polls, thus mirroring the result in the main poll consistently.
Due to these consistent preferences, Yamato didn’t receive more than 5% of votes in any other poll and was a rather niche choice overall: Ken (5%), Mimi (2%), Hikari (2%) and Iori (1%).
He received 0 votes in the polls for Koushiro, Daisuke and Miyako..
Notable additions / comments / thoughts
As mentioned above, Yamato has received notably more votes this time around in comparison to 2023 and got the third most votes overall. With 142 votes, he was only surpassed by Daisuke (144) and Taichi (162), who, as goggleheads, traditionally receive he most attention. The spike in numbers immediately resulted in Yamato taking the crown in winning 3 polls and thus, the highest number of polls. (For comparison's sake, Taichi and Hikari won two polls each.) Again, this is an interesting turn of events, considering how he hadn't won a single poll in 2023. The root cause for this change may be based on both poll/reblog exposure as well as an increase of overall fans that have joined Tumblr from other internet spaces since 2023!
The three winning pairs have never really been threatened, thus showing that the parts of the fandom that participated in the voting can agree on who they see as viable options for Yamato - and if we look at canon evidence, Taichi, Sora and Jou are likely to provide the most consistent results.
Some niche choices are very interesting to look at - even if they had no chance of ever getting close to Taichi, Sora or Jou: Jun may be considered more of a "crack choice" most of the time, but definitely left an impact in 02, thus having people think fondly of their potential. Yamato's uni colleague may provide more of a self-insertion option - for the lack of a clear characterisation, it makes sense to use him as a stand-in, as their interaction was positive and gives room to Yamato's mlm shipping potential. Koushiro and Mimi received VERY minor attention; however, the former does have some vital interactions with Yamato in the anime and the latter traditionally gets attention from the passionate Yamato/Mimi fandom corners. Aside from that, Yamato’s more aloof attitude in the series (and focus on the characters mentioned above) may have made it harder to see him as viable option for other characters.
Additionally, in recent years, it seems that there has been an increasing tendency to keep the groups of Adventure and 02 apart in terms of shipping options (possibly due to the age gaps as well as the lack of current interaction dynamics between the groups depicted in canon). This was most apparent in Yamato's polls due to the fact that the number of people shipping him with Daisuke in 2023 had decreased from 6 to 0 in 2025.
The comments in the tags have also only mentioned the "Taichi/Yamato/Sora polycule"- which is perfectly in line with Taichi and Sora being his most popular shipping choices as well as the fact that their triangle has been one of the most famous discourse topics for over 25 years. His bandmates also got an honourable mention, and even though those weren't introduced or fleshed out - they provide a similar shipping potential as his uni colleague for people who don't feel chemistry between him and the other male main characters, but still see him vibing with other men! The "Own Character (OC)" option, however, as well as the “Others” option only received 1 vote each. Last but not least, the “No Ship (Asexual/Ace)” options got only two votes as well.
Other Analysis Posts
Taichi Yagami Shipping Analysis 2023 | 2025
Yamato Ishida Shipping Analysis 2023 | 2025
Sora Takenouchi Shipping Analysis 2023 | 2025
Koushiro Izumi Shipping Analysis 2023 | 2025
Mimi Tachikawa Shipping Analysis 2023 | 2025
Jou Kido Shipping Analysis 2023 | 2025 (tbc)
Takeru Takaishi Shipping Analysis 2023 | 2025 (tbc)
Hikari Yagami Shipping Analysis 2023 | 2025 (tbc)
Daisuke Motomiya Shipping Analysis 2023 | 2025 (tbc)
Ken Ichijouji Shipping Analysis 2023 | 2025 (tbc)
Miyako Inoue Shipping Analysis 2023 | 2025 (tbc)
Iori Hida Shipping Analysis 2023 | 2025 (tbc)
