The 10 Best Couples In Anime
What’s that smell in the air? Is it cherry blossoms? Summer rain? Close! It’s anime love! While handwritten confessions and tsundere antics are staples of the genre, some anime love stories rise above well-trodden tropes to bring something truly beautiful and original. These anime couples are the result of some of the finest romance sagas around, blending humor, heart, and belligerent sexual tension. If you’re looking for #couplegoals inspo or some motivation to keep swimming through the dating pool, look no further than the 10 best couples in anime.
Okarun and Momo
The lovers at the paranormal heart of Dandadan, Okarun and Momo prove that opposites attract. Okarun is a nerdy social outcast. Momo is admired for her looks but ostracized for her temper. Okarun is a UFO fanatic who is skeptical of the existence of ghosts. Momo is a spiritual medium who doesn’t buy into extraterrestrials. When they decide to settle the debate once and for all by visiting supernatural sites one night, their close encounter with the third kind and phantasms proves that they were both right. While Momo and Okarun are still in the beginning stages of what’s shaping up to be a series spanning courtship, it’s their teamwork that really makes them shine as a couple. Momo’s dominant personality often puts her in the driver’s seat of their paranormal investigations, and Okarun is happy to be along for the ride. In a genre where women often take a back seat to the plot-forwarding desires of men, it’s a refreshing twist on a standard dynamic. Find someone who listens like Okarun, and you’ll be happy for the rest of your days.
Loid and Yor Forger
While Loid and Yor Forger’s marriage is technically built on a lie, Spy x Family‘s overarching romance plot hints there’s a kernel of real love growing beneath the sham. Loid is an emotionless spy whose family man cover identity is putting him in touch with his feelings, and Yor is a cool-headed assassin who is slowly warming up to the idea of letting other people in. While this espionage caper is a comedy at its core, watching Loid and Yor slowly surrender to their feelings is an unexpectedly moving experience. With their adopted daughter Anya at the center of it all, it becomes clear that Loid and Anya aren’t just good at keeping up their cover stories; they’re genuinely good parents and partners. Well, almost. Yor needs to stop jumping to murder to solve every problem, and Loid needs to stop denying his growing affections, but they’re getting there. When it comes to learning how to be a better person, there’s no better teacher than love.
Yuri and Victor
A groundbreaking queer anime, Yuri on Ice circles around the love story between an Olympic figure skater and his mentor-turned-partner. The sweetest part of Yuri and Victor’s romance is their mutual esteem for one another. Yuri admired Victor as a figure skater long before they first met, and Victor genuinely believes in Yuri’s abilities and wishes to nurture him. As Yuri mounts his career comeback, Victor guides him through every hurdle with patience and compassion, and Yuri returns this with gratitude and devotion. Love is all about bringing out the best in your partner, and Victor’s love makes Yuri shine like Olympic medal gold.
Ed and Winry
Unlike most anime love stories that revolve around the central romance, Ed and Winry’s takes a back seat to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood‘s greater “save the world” plot. That doesn’t diminish it. In fact, it makes their love all the more powerful. Friends since childhood, Ed and Winry became each other’s protectors after the loss of both their parents. As the pair matured into adults, their feelings for one another matured too—evolving into a mutual devotion that can weather any storm. It’s easy to hold on to love when all you’ve got to worry about is getting to class on time and turning in homework, but it’s hard when you’ve got to save millions of souls from being turned into a science experiment by a centuries-old sociopath. Despite the grim odds, Ed and Winry manage to hang on to their feelings for each other—their struggle serving as a crucible that makes their love burn all the brighter. In sickness and in health, for richer or poorer—they’ve suffered the poorest and sickest, and their love is still standing strong.
Utena and Anthy
Arguably the most iconic sapphic romance in anime, describing Utena and Anthy’s love as anything less than “legendary” does it a disservice. The magic girls at the heart of one of the greatest shoujo anime ever made, Revolutionary Girl Utena‘s Rose Bride and her pink-haired protector are a couple of mythical proportions. After saving Anthy from a cruel classmate, Utena is unwittingly thrust into a series of magical duels, which she fights with a magic sword that she pulls from Anthy’s chest. Anthy and Utena’s love isn’t built in mundane moments of connection, but in high-stakes struggles for their lives. Their story is a Romance with a capital “R,” a sweeping love story that feels like a dark sibling of The Princess Bride. Epic, literary, surreal, it may not be how first love plays out in reality, but it’s how first love feels.
Shoya and Shoko
One of the greatest redemption arcs in all of anime, Shoya’s transformation from Shoko’s tormentor to partner makes A Silent Voice a powerful romantic drama. After being socially ostracised for bullying his deaf classmate, Shoya spends years repenting before finally seeking out his former victim, hoping to atone. Shoko and Shoyo tentatively rebuild their shattered relationship as friends, but soon their platonic feelings become romantic as they grow closer than ever. A Silent Voice is a story about the healing power of love, an example of how people truly can change for the better. Shoyo helps Shoko heal from some of the damage that he’s done—his love for her soothes her self-loathing. In turn, Shoko helps Shoya find forgiveness from her, from the community, and from himself.
Sophie and Howl
A sweep-you-off-your-feet romance like no other, Howl’s Moving Castle stands at the pinnacle of anime love stories. After being cursed by a witch, the young-turned-old Sophie seeks out the help of the wizard Howl, a loner who lives in a castle that wanders on mechanical feet. After getting a job as the perambulatory palace’s housekeeper, Sophie slowly grows closer to Howl and his fire demon friend Calcifer. It’s no secret that love can make anyone feel young again, and Howl’s Moving Castle takes this literally—de-aging Sophie the more she leans into her romantic desires. And to Sophie’s credit, it takes a certain type of person to support a moody bird-man trying to stop a war between two kingdoms. Another example of love’s ability to heal, Howl and Sophie are the magic key to breaking each other’s curses—what could possibly make this more romantic? Maybe if Howl was voiced by Christian Bale? Wait, he already is.
Taki and Mitsuha
Taki and Mitsuha are the comet-crossed lovers at the center of Your Name—a sci-fi epic about two teens who start switching bodies as a heavenly body draws near. After this period of Freaky Friday antics draws to a close, the two lovestruck teens attempt to find each other in their own bodies, but realize that they’ll have to cross both space and time to do so. What makes Taki and Mitsuha such a great couple? Their unending devotion to one another—which involves body switching over decades and drinking each other’s spit. They had to do it for plot reasons, but it’s certainly a signal that they’ve got some serious dedication to one another, and some equally serious chemistry. Taki also helps save Mitsuha’s village from being annihilated by a space rock. If he wanted to, he would, and in this case, he did.
Sasaki and Miyano
One of anime’s best slow burns, Sasaki and Miyano centers around a coming-of-age romance between two high school boys. Miyano is a shy first-year with a secret love for BL manga, and after meeting the charismatic second-year Sasaki, he opens up about his hobby. Despite their romantically charged first meeting, the pair begin their relationship as friends, each unwilling to risk their bond with a love confession out of respect for the other. The strength of Sasaki and Miyano’s love comes from the mutual care for one another, and it’s this sensitivity that serves the plot’s dramatic tension—not lovers’ spats or will-they/won’t-they antics. Sasaki and Miyano are a picture of healthy love, built on countless small moments of consistency and kindness instead of grand romantic gestures. Not every high school love can be as sweeping and dramatic as Utena and Anthy’s, and that’s a relief—fewer duels to fight that way.
Haruhi and… Everyone
Ouran High School Host Club takes place at a ritzy private school, where the most popular boys run an amateur host club—providing romantic companionship to the school’s female population for money. When the genderqueer Haruhi becomes the club’s newest member, all eyes turn collectively to her—and all hearts are aflutter. Ouran Academy is smitten with Haruhi, and not even the romantically aloof host club boys are safe from her natural, guileless charm. While Haruhi’s budding romance with the club’s leader Tamaki transforms the pair into the series’ most adorable couple, Haruhi has quiet love affairs with a slew of her classmates—sometimes without even realizing. Her sensitivity and compassion make her the apple of each host club member’s eye, and each member changes for the better after knowing her. Love brings out the best in us, and Haruhi brings out the best in everyone.
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