Kenkeru, and Taken on rare occurrences, is the common term used by Digimon fans to refer to a romantic relationship between Ichijouji Ken (the Digimon Emperor/Kaiser in season 2) and Takaishi Takeru (the bearer of the Crest of Hope in season 1 and the Digimental/Digiegg of Hope in season 2). This term comes from the practice of combining the names of two specific characters together to come up with a 'slang' of sorts. The first part is the first syllable, sometimes the first two, of the 'dominant', or seme, personality in the pairing. The second part is the last syllable, sometimes the last two, of the submissive, or uke, personality in the pairing. Kenkeru is the more typical relationship used for these two as Ken has a more controlling personality while Takeru is a bit more shy. That does not rule out Taken, as under differing circumstances even Takeru can be more aggressive.

What's yaoi or that shonen ai thing mean? Yaoi is a Japanese term normally used to refer to a homosexual relationship in any specific fandom, with the main emphasis on sex. Shonen ai is also Japanese and literally means 'boy love' which also refers to a gay relationship, with an emphasis on romance and the relationship. If you know what slash is, you'll be able to figure this out real quick. If you like slash and you like Digimon, odds are you might like what this shrine is here for. If you have no idea what slash is, it's basically the English term for what yaoi is and is a common term used in American/British fandoms. I think that covered all the bases don't you?

This shrine is originally the creation of Meimi and Ajora Fravashi, two happy fangirls who like Digimon and really like Ken. In the beginning of season 2, Meimi really didn't like Daisuke/Davis, Ken's most popular yaoi pairing, nor did she like Miyako/Yolei, Ken's most popular straight pairing. Daisuke was too much of a clone of Taichi, Meimi's favorite season 1 character, and Miyako really whined entirely too much those first couple of episodes. While she later came to grudgingly like their characters, Meimi just doesn't find either of those pairings very appealing. Up until the Kimeramon fiasco, she briefly toyed with the idea of pairing Ken up with Hikari... that is until Takeru picked a fight with him. And well, that really sort of decided it for her, so a Kenkeru fan she has been ever since.

Ajora had been introduced to Digimon by Meimi, and while she found it fun, she didn't feel truly partial to any of the characters until season 2 when the Kaiser came along and Takeru grew up. While she has come to like Miyako a little bit and tolerate Daisuke, her respect for Takeru really went up a dozen notches during the dogfight in the Kaiser's base. And since she does so enjoy the idea of goody-goody Takeru trying to help his former enemy (in more ways than one), she's become extremely fond of Kenkeru/Taken. Having the Japanese episodes on DVD hasn't helped deviate from this obsession much either.

Combining their talents and their favorite obsession together, Meimi started writing fanfics and Ajora started drawing fanart until they finally decided to make a mailing list devoted to their love of Kenkeru. Their mailing list being: kenkeru@topica.com , which they urge you to join if you're at all interested. But Ajora wasn't quite content just yet and thus decided that Kenkeru needed its very own shrine. Meimi, of course, agreed to this and what you see is what they came up with. Enjoy!

If you like us enough to link to us, feel free to use either the spiff banner or cool button that Ajora whipped up for the site (please don't link to them, just download them). If you'd like to contact either Meimi or Ajora, any and all contact information can easily be found on the Submit page.

Ajora had a bit of fun one day with Photoshop and produced the following images as a sort of parody of all those support banners scattered around all the Digimon sites. Feel free to snitch them to share the joke or even just because you want to. They are pretty cute after all.