Akuroku

AkuRoku is a popular ship between Axel (also known as Lea) and Roxas from the Kingdom Hearts series. 
The ship's name is a portmanteau of the Japanese-English transliteration of the characters' names, Akuseru (アクセル) and Rokusasu (ロクサス).
==Canon==
Axel was introduced in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (2004) and Roxas was introduced in Kingdom Hearts II (2005). Both characters have had important roles in the story, and their relationship in canon is important to each character’s development and the overarching plot of Kingdom Hearts.
==Fandom==
As of 2010, AkuRoku was the most popular Kingdom Hearts ship on FanFiction.NetzettaLOL. The Most Popular KH Pairing According to Fanfiction Is... posted to KH Insider on 5 February 2020. (Accessed October 2020.); however, as of 2020, it is only the second most popular KH ship tagged on AO3, following SoRiku.
===Axel’s Age===
AkuRoku had many young fans in its early days who were close to Roxas’ age of 15, and thought Axel was an attractive match for him.
During the KHII era in the 00s, the KH fandom commonly made jokes related to Pedobear and pedophilia when discussing Axel's interest in Roxas.KH FANFIC STEREOTYPESFile:2009-03-02 emily-bright Kingdom Hearts Stereotypes.jpg
Axel's original self, Lea, appears as a minor character in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (2010), in which he is close to Ventus' age (around sixteen years old), and Lea is visibly somewhat younger than Axel; the events of this prequel took place roughly a decade before Axel and Roxas met. 
Largely based on the appearances of Axel and Zexion, and their younger appearances as Lea and the child Ienzo in the BBS set around a decade earlier, most fans agree that Nobodies experience ageing,Forum:Do Nobodies Age? posted to The KHWiki on 6 July 2008. (Accessed October 2020.)Ages of the characters in BBS posted to KH13 on 6 December 2010. (Accessed October 2020.) and thus places Axel's age in his mid-twenties.
However, some other fans dispute whether it's been definitively confirmed that Nobodies age,Canon had not definitively confirmed whether Nobodies age as of 358/2 Days. Sometime after the release of BBS, Nobodies were confirmed to age depending on their situation, Xemnas says a heart returns to the body "as soon as possible, implying conditions must be met or it may come naturally. However, this does not confirm is having a heart can make a nobody age. and speculate Axel could still be about the age of seventeen when he meets and befriends Roxas in 358/2 Days.
Many fans object to AkuRoku based on their moral objections to real-life romantic or sexual relationships between adults and minors. Some fans don't have a problem with age differences for fictional shipping, and thus an age difference is not a factor influencing their attitudes toward AkuRoku. Other fans believe there is insufficient evidence to prove the existence of a significant age difference between Axel and Roxas.
Some AkuRoku fans who took issue with the possible age problem, or who had been swayed by others, chose to instead switch their OTP to AkuSai, as releases following Kingdom Hearts II revealed Saïx and Axel to have been best friends in their younger days. Some have pointed to anti-shippers as responsible for perpetuating negativity against the AkuRoku ship circa the release of Kingdom Hearts III (2019), and perhaps additionally for the ship's general decline in prominence.KichiMiangra and 56leon. That feeling when your excited for a potential resurgence in fic for your ship but "modern shipping culture" has to ruin it for you! posted to r/FanFiction circa 16 June 2020. (Accessed October 2020.)
===“Buddy” vs “Partner”===
The release of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix (2013) included a cinematic version of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (2009) with additional FMVs. Among these was a tearful goodbye between Axel and Roxas. In the original Japanese version of this scene, Axel told Roxas, “See ya, partner.”YouTube. In the English translation, Axel instead says “Back atcha', buddy.”YouTube. 
A popular AkuRoku fan artist, nijuukoo, made a Tumblr post explaining her frustration with the changes made in the translation, which made many other fans aware of the discrepancy.
The main issue fans had with the change was that it supposedly downplayed the importance of Axel and Roxas' relationship. Many assumed it was an intentional attempt to make the scene less romantic. Others argued that no translation is perfect and the difference was minor.
===Fanon and tropes common in fan works===
* common yaoi tropes 
** seme/uke stereotypes
** the Height Rule
* stalker Axelhttps://www.deviantart.com/beltanez/art/Slender-Man-319977652https://www.deviantart.com/mandachan/art/Akuroku-Strip-Nightmare-II-48932385
** "You're coming with me, conscious or not."https://www.deviantart.com/daintylittlemadam/art/Fangirlism-AkuRoku-252657751https://www.deviantart.com/liadebeaumont/art/Axel-vs-Roxas-94276342
** Pedobear and pedophilia jokeshttps://forums.animeboston.com/viewtopic.php?p=131203&sid=d4068f49db47fa36eb205bc005243413#p131203
* Roxel
== Example Fan Works ==
===Fanfic===
*Instead Of What The Books Say by Emerald Embers for springkink; with background Lexaeus/Zexion and Xigbar/Demyx
*Stuck in the Corridor by Cheezbuckets, 25 September 2024
*Day 177 by ruxadye, 22 December 2024
*Naivety by caseyvalhalla, 6 September 2013
===Cosplay===
* Roxas-Axel Yaoi PaddlesWBM by AlchemyGaara (2007) - featuring yaoi paddles
===Meta & Other Fan Works===
*Masters of A Nothing Place], a ship manifesto reposted in 2006.
*Let's Meet Again..., a zine published in 2021
==Links==
*Axel/Roxas on AO3
*{Axel, Roxas} and Akuroku search results on FanFiction.Net
*AkuRoku, RokuAku, and 813 on Pixiv
*Akuroku on 8tracks, with 55 playlists as of late 2021
==Recs==
*The Akuroku community on FF.Net
*MASSIVE AKUROKU REC LIST WOO by gold_panner
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Kingdom Hearts Relationships
Category:Yaoi Pairings
Category:Slash Pairings
Category:Boys' Love Pairings