About

Rarepairs Month is an event dedicated to celebrating lesser-known and underrepresented pairings within the Persona series! Our goal is to shine a light on all kinds of different dynamics and ships throughout the franchise.All characters from Persona-related media are welcome! This includes characters from spinoff games (like Kanami from P4D), reading material such as manga/light novels (like Sousei from Detective Naoto), and anime-only characters (like Shin from Trinity Soul). Everyone from Persona 1 up to the most recent character in P5X's Chinese servers (currently Aran Hirano/Anri) will have a place in the event!

Access our prompt-planning voting form here!

Social Medias

Mod and Organiser: hypogryffin

Schedule

Our prompt-planning form is closed as of June 1st!The prompt calendar is expected to be released on the 11th.

Rarepair Month will be hosted in September 2026!

Theme Week 1 (Theme TBD): September 6-13
Theme Week 2 (Theme TBD): September 19-26

Bingo Cards

We will be including bingo cards within the event! These will be 5x5 (containing a free space) cards with a randomised list of character-focused prompts that participants can request and fill out throughout the month. Participants who completed a bingo according to any accepted pattern can send in their submissions, and we'll compile a list of them (including all associated works) to close out the event!NSFW works for bingo submissions are allowed so long as they follow event guidelines. They will still be listed in the compilation of completed bingo cards, but will be marked as NSFW as necessary.Bingo submissions do not have to be used in tandem with any of the daily prompts in the event calendar! As long as the work created features the ship/character specified and is posted within an appropriate time-frame of the event, it will be accepted as filling out the space.Any form of fanwork will be accepted!

Bingo sign-ups will be up June 20th!

Accepted bingo patterns:

  • Single line, vertical or horizontal (5 spaces)

  • Single line, diagonal (5 spaces)

  • X-Shape (9 spaces)

  • O-Shape/Square/Outer Ring (16 spaces)

  • Four Corners (16 spaces)

  • Polka dots (12 or 13 spaces, alternating)

  • Black Out (25 spaces)

Rules

Ineligible ships

  • All romantic pairings between an adult and a minor are strictly off-limits. To that effect, romantic pairings between Ken Amada and any of the other members of SEES are also prohibited.

  • Incestuous pairings are also disallowed. Yosuke Hanamura & Teddie and Joker & Futaba Sakura will also be considered as this category for the sake of the event at this time, and as such are also off-limits.

  • We ask that people refrain from franschise-crossover ships, OCxcan0n pairings, or yumeshipping when participating in the event.

Ships that will not be promoted by the event (regardless of a romantic or platonic nature) include;

P1
     - Protagonist x Maki Sonomura
     - Protagonist x Eriko Kirishima
P2
     - Tatsuya Suou x Jun Kurosu
P3
     - Either protagonist x any members of SEES
     - Either protagonist x Ryoji Mochizuki
     - Yukari Takeba x Mitsuru Kirijo
     - Akihiko Sanada x Shinjiro Aragaki
     - Junpei Iori x Chidori Yoshino
P4
     - Yu Narukami x any Investigation Team member
     - Yukiko Amagi x Chie Satonaka
     - Kanji Tatsumi x Naoto Shirogane
     - Rise Kujikawa x Naoto Shirogane
P5
     - Joker x the Phantom Thieves
     - Joker x Goro Akechi
     - Joker x Sumire Yoshizawa
     - Ryuji Sakamoto x Ann Takamaki
     - Ann Takamaki x Shiho Suzui
     - Ann Takamaki x Makoto Niijima
     - Yusuke Kitagawa x Futaba Sakura
     - Makoto Niijima x Haru Okumura
     - Sumire Yoshizawa x Futaba Sakura

Polyamorous ships will be allowed! For anything containing three or more characters, we will be accepting/promoting only romantic works.

On NSFW work

  • NSFW content is fine as long as it is tagged appropriately! However, in the interest in keeping the account (and event) accessible for all ages, no submissions containing adult content or suggestive scenes will be promoted/interacted with the account.

  • We ask that works remain strictly consensual and that anything explicit be limited to adult characters! Any mention/depictions of sexuality with regards to characters under 18 should generally adhere to PG-13 rating guidelines.

On gore

  • As with NSFW works, gore will not be promoted on any official accounts. We ask that any creations including blood and injury be tagged appropriately so that it can be filtered by those who do not wish to engage with it.

You can ask us anything you'd like here! All answers will be compiled and accessible here.

Q: I wonder what would be considered a rare pair? I know there are some that are completely obvious but I also feel like it can be a bit confusing in terms of their popularity. Would you go by fanfiction count, or some other thing?
I'm so excited for rarepair month and glad this is happening :D

A: It's hard to put exact numbers on the definition of a rarepair, especially with the varied audience between different entries in the franchise, so for the most part we will be asking each participant to use their own judgement to decide for themselves.There are many pairings that have an established following large enough to make it unclear if it qualifies that will still be new to many other people! If there's a ship you truly feel is underappreciated and lacks representation in the fandom, we encourage you to make something for them in this event.But as a general rule of thumb, if a ship includes a side character or a character from a spinoff material, or has been tagged in less than 100 fics on A03, it's a safe bet :)

Q: Would submissions with background or implied ships that aren't rarepairs be allowed?? (not as the main focus of the work)

A: Other pairings can be included so long as the rarepair is the focal point of the work!

Q: Would ships between Ken Amada and members of the Phantom Thieves be allowed (since they're canonically about the same age), I'm a big fan of Joker/Ken but I don't wanna break the rules by mistake

A: Ships between Ken and the Phantom Thieves are perfectly fine! The reason we aren't allowing Ken/SEES ships is due to the large gap between his and the others' developmental maturity levels. So long as the pairing contains comparable status in that regard, create away!

Q: Are poly ships allowed?

A: Definitely! Go wild!

Q: Since polyships are allowed, would a polyship between two party members and their respective protagonist be allowed? Like for example Ryuji x Goro x Joker?

A: Since romantic pairings between more than two people are generally a lot less common within the fandom, as long as it doesn't break any other rules (like including adult/minor pairings), we don't plan on restricting any specific polyships for the event.

Q: I've been curious for a while but all the ships I see under the "will not be promoted" section are monogamous ships. Does this mean poly pairs are considered rarepairs by default? How does it work for poly pairings like Royal Trio and Shujin Trio which are more popular, or Polythieves for example? Will they also be promoted? Or are they not consider rare enough? How about poly pairs where all the mono pairs within it are considered popular (ie: p4 protag x Naoto x Kanji) according to the guidelines? I hope I didn't come off as rude

A: We are considering poly ships as rarepairs by default, yes! That includes even the more popular ones, or for ships where each of the separate dynamics are considered unfit for the event (like SoKanNao, from your example, or AkiShinjiHam)— so long as the focus of the work is on the full dynamic of the polyship rather than any given pairing within.For large pairings like Polythieves that span an entire game's party, we would ask for it to remain a background ship with most of the focus being on smaller rarepairs within the full ship dynamic, in order to ensure the work remains consistent with the event theme.

Q: This is a question on the NSFW portion, mainly out of personal concern. When you say NSFW is allowed, is it only between adults?
Sorry if this question is a bit dumb, I just got worried since the part of the carrd talking about NSFW didn't specify.
I don't mind NSFW things when it comes to adult characters, but it shouldn't be done with minors no matter the reason.

A: For NSFW work, we ask that participants stick to adult characters and pairings! In cases like a future fic or an AU where characters that are minors in canon are at an adult age (for example an AU where they're in university), explicit work will also be allowed.For pairings set in canon timeframe where the characters are minors, we ask that works remain generally within the realm of PG13— suggestive scenes/mentions of sexual activity are fine but depictions should be kept brief, and we ask that you please avoid anything explicit or detailed!The general rules for the carrd will also be updated to avoid any more confusion.

Q: I have a couple questions about your rarepair event regarding what ships are or aren’t allowed.1. Banning Shutaba and Yosuteddie is a little weird and I say that as someone who always writes them as siblings in every fic that involves them. Regardless of what we personally headcanon them as, it’s still just a headcanon, and thus I don’t think it being a popular or personal headcanon should ban them from being used in the event. That would be like running a Persona queer event and insisting that Naoto must always be written as transmasc and no other interpretations of their gender are allowed. It’s a Persona fandom event, you’re gonna get some weird interpretations.2. Some protagonist X party ships are popular, don’t get me wrong, but ALL protagonist X Party ships are banned? Yeah like Yu X Teddie or Yu X Kanji have any prominence in the fandom whatsoever. Minato X Junpei and Minato X Shinjiro, classic ships. Couldn’t imagine the fandom without them. Joker… okay you got me there all of his party member ships are decently popular other than like, Morgana, but that’s different for reason I would not like to explain.Overall the NSFW rules being strictly the adult characters, gore ban, and Ken clause all make a relative amount of sense, but those two rules in particular I think need to be looked at more carefully when defining which rarepairs are actually rare and which ones are problematic.

A: Both rules causing confusion were made for the sake of simplicity considering the size and scope of the event, and will be followed through with for this first year, but will be open to be changed if this event is hosted again! As of right now, the "mod team" is just one person with extremely limited experience of hosting events, especially to the scale of something both a month long and intended to span the entire series. This is the primary reason why we're not including modern protag x party ships this year.Joker x Futaba is specifically being disallowed from the event at current in response to some comments we received in the interest check that referred to them as incestuous in a way that celebrated such a dynamic. While we agree that the interpretation is simply a headcanon and shouldn't be completely disallowed in the future of this event, for the sake of the first year it's being hosted we'd rather detach ourselves completely from that kind of interaction while it's so small. Yosuke & Teddie was something we included in the addendum to the rule as a precautionary measure due to both popular headcanon and the canonical "caretaker" role Yosuke is shown at points to perform for Teddie within the game.As much as we'd prefer not to completely ban these dynamics forever if there's an audience/interest in them by their own merit, for this year at minimum we ask participants to hold off until we feel more comfortable with the necessary aspects of moderating their inclusion. Apologies for any frustration or disappointment this rule may cause in the interim.

Q: I know P3 Protag x SEES member isn't allowed, but will fem protag x male protag be allowed?

A: We'll be accepting any protag x protag ships, including Kitahamu!