Anime’s 10 Greatest Couples Ever

While audiences may flock to anime for action, it’s the characters that keep them coming back for more, especially how characters interact with each other. Across many anime series, there are timeless romances that elevate the story significantly. With that in mind, here are the ten greatest anime couples ever.

Anime’s 10 Greatest Couples Ever

10. Cowboy Bebop – Spike and Julia

Like Romeo & Juliet, not every love story has a happy ending, and as far as anime couples go, few are more tragic than Cowboy Bebop‘s Spike Spiegel and Julia. Originally in a relationship with Spike’s best friend turned frenemy Vicious, Julia eventually turns her affections to Spike as they both attempt to escape the twisted Red Dragon Syndicate. Reunited toward the end of the series, the star-crossed couple rekindle their romance, only for Julia to be gunned down during their final bid to escape from Vicious and his associates.

While Spike is largely cool and confident for much of Cowboy Bebop, he is privately haunted by the loss of Julia before their brief reunion. Just when Spike seems to get the possibility of his happy ending by reuniting with Julia, she is cruelly taken away from him, this time for good. Julia’s death informs so much of how Cowboy Bebop ends and how Spike confronts his final fate, underscoring how much he truly loved her all along.

9. Kimi ni Todoke – Sawako and Shōta

After a 13-year hiatus, the anime series Kimi ni Todoke returned for a third season to continue its tale of innocent high school romance between its lead characters. The story follows high schooler Sawako, who is ostracized by her classmates for her physical resemblance to Sadako, the ghostly killer from the Ring horror movies. However, Sawako’s life changes forever when she attracts the welcome attention of her popular classmate Kazehaya, which opens up her social life considerably.

So much of Kimi ni Todoke is about a teenager overcoming widespread social stigma and finding true love along the way, and that only works if we buy into the chemistry between the protagonists. Fortunately, Sawako and Kazehaya make Kimi ni Todoke a complete joy to watch as their tentative first steps into friendship quickly grow into something deeper between them. That sweet innocence and watching Sawako come into her own and finish her high school experience on a significantly more positive note makes for an absolutely heartwarming tale of young love.

8. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War – Kaguya and Miyuki

True to its title, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War presents its own unique twist on coming-of-age romance, pitting its protagonists playfully against each other. The romantic comedy follows high school seniors Miyuki Shirogane and Kaguya Shinomiya, who are the president and vice president, respectively, of their class. Though the two classmates are attracted to each other, they feel if they were the first to confess their true feelings to the other, it would place them in a lesser position in the relationship.

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War revolves around the lengths Miyuki and Kaguya will go to get the other to admit their love, leading to escalating and increasingly calculated hijinks. As the audience, we know Kaguya and Miyuki will inevitably come clean with each other and embark on their romance in earnest, but the lengths they go to avoid that conclusion is the story’s prime source of comedy. And when Kaguya and Miyuki finally begin their romantic relationship, it certainly feels earned and rewarding to see this anime couple allowed to blossom.

7. Clannad – Tomoya and Nagisa

Clannad, which started out as a visual novel for PC and a variety of gaming platforms, really is the story of a school’s resident bad boy falling for a wholesome, shy girl from the other side of the tracks. At the start of the story, protagonist Tomoya Okazaki has already developed a reputation for being a local delinquent, unafraid to speak his mind unfiltered and air his grievances about his community. This is contrasted by his classmate Nagisa Furukawa, a chronically ill and withdrawn girl who is often ostracized by her peers and afraid to stand up for herself.

In helping Nagisa and several other girls around town, Tomoya gains a purpose that eluded him in school and his home life. More than just resolving his delinquency, Tomoya and Nagisa strike up a romance that eventually blossoms into marriage as the two face life’s ups and downs together. The people in a relationship should make each other better, and Clannad is a beautiful illustration of that as Tomoya and Nagisa fall in love by healing each other’s pain.

6. The Seven Deadly Sins – Meliodas and Elizabeth

For much of the fantasy series The Seven Deadly Sins, protagonist Meliodas finds a tavern as a means to glean information about his fellow Seven Deadly Sins. Working at the tavern is a server named Elizabeth, who privately admired Meliodas ever since she was a child. As Meliodas is preoccupied with restoring the good reputation of himself and his comrades-in-arms, he is often too busy with just how much Elizabeth cares for him and how much she means to him.

The fortunate thing about The Seven Deadly Sins, compared to many of its shōnen anime counterparts, is that it’s clear that Meliodas loves Elizabeth. Though it does take some time, Meliodas gradually comes to terms with his true feelings for his longtime admirer, even after trying to push her away. Despite this, Elizabeth remains steadfastly by Meliodas’ side, and the anime couple eventually tie the knot and has a son.

5. Komi Can’t Communicate – Komi and Tadano

High school can be one of the most paralyzingly anxiety-ridden times of many people’s lives, especially if they’re a student suddenly coming to a new school. That sense of anxiety informs the slice-of-life anime series Komi Can’t Communicate, with protagonist Shoko Komi wowing her new classmates with her grace and good looks but too anxious to effectively make friends. Helping Komi overcome her anxiety is her classmate, Hitohito Tadano, who vows to help Komi make 100 friends as they gradually grow closer to each other.

One of the underlying themes of Komi Can’t Communicate is that anyone, even someone as seemingly perfect as Komi, can suffer from anxiety and that help can come from anywhere. When the story starts, Tadano is regarded as one of the most average and unassuming students in his school, yet because of his compassion and hard work, he earns the friendship and eventual affection of the prettiest girl in school. This story of the everyman finding love and working for it gives Komi Can’t Communicate a solid emotional foundation amid all the screwball comedy.

4. Bleach – Ichigo and Orihime

It’s a recurring trope that many shōnen couples won’t admit their true feelings for each other until they’ve reached a major point in personal growth or achieved a significant goal. That’s especially true for Bleach and its central couple, Ichigo Kurosaki and Orihime Inoue. Though it’s visibly clear that Orihime has always been infatuated with Ichigo, it takes years for him to reciprocate her feelings, leading to them marrying and eventually having a son together.

There are certainly inklings throughout Bleach of how Ichigo truly feels about Orihime, with the normally brash warrior treating Orihime much better than all his other friends. With all the danger that Ichigo and his friends face, he is also considerably more protective of Orihime than the others. Another solid example of stoic romance within the Big Three of shōnen anime, Ichigo and Orihime’s love feels earned and patiently paced.

3. Naruto – Naruto and Hinata

Like so many other manga and anime protagonists before and after him, Naruto Uzumaki is driven by a single-minded goal – in this case, by rising through the ranks to become the greatest ninja and eventual leader of his village. Joining Naruto for much of this quest is Hinata Hyuga, who greatly admires Naruto and aspires to become stronger herself after witnessing his incredible feats and how he stands up for others. Though Naruto is initially focused on his own self-improvement and other rivalries, he and Hinata eventually start a romantic relationship, marry, and have children.

Even before the end of the series, there are moments when it’s clear how much Hinata means to Naruto, even if he won’t admit it for the longest time. This makes the payoff of the two finally becoming an anime couple all the more rewarding, ending a long-standing will-they/won’t-they dynamic. The relationship is elevated to even greater heights in the sequel series Boruto, revealing the older Naruto and Hinata and how they complement each other as parents to their two children.

2. Dragon Ball – Vegeta and Bulma

Dragon Ball is full of plenty of memorable romances, including between Goku and Chi-Chi and Gohan and Videl, but the real standout is the relationship between Vegeta and Bulma. When he is introduced, Vegeta is an unrepentant villain, while Bulma is in a longtime on-again/off-again relationship with her childhood sweetheart Yamcha. What starts as a casual relationship between them leads to them creating a family together and genuinely falling in love with each other.

Vegeta’s redemption is largely fueled by his love for Bulma and their son Trunks, with Vegeta thinking of them as he sacrifices his life in a failed effort to destroy the villainous Majin Buu. Dragon Ball Super provides even more perspective on Vegeta’s love for Bulma, like when he instinctively steps up to attack the God of Destruction Beerus after he strikes Bulma despite knowing Beerus is vastly stronger than him. Vegeta and Bulma truly bring the best out of each other, and while Dragon Ball’s other couples have their moments, none are on a fuller display than the Prince of Saiyans and his bride.

1. Sailor Moon – Usagi and Mamoru

The definitive shōjo manga/anime series, Sailor Moon is one of the franchises that helped spread the medium to Western audiences in the late ‘90s. Its core cast of Sailor Scouts, cosmically empowered teenage girls defending the Earth, set the template for the magical girl anime archetype. As protagonist Usagi Tsukino progresses through school and learns how to balance her life as Sailor Moon, she works with the enigmatic hero Tuxedo Mask, later revealed to be her friend Mamoru Chiba.

The great thing about the romance between Usagi and Mamoru is that it begins before they learn each other’s heroic identities, naturally evolving from their innocent friendship. This means once they learn about the full scope of each other’s lives, they’re able to handle challenges on both the personal and cosmic fronts together as a couple. Sailor Moon Crystal, the second anime adaptation of the manga, handles this relationship even better, avoiding the forced jealousy and prolonged start of the romance and hewing closer to the manga. This gives Sailor Moon one of the most enduring romances in the entire anime medium.

And those are anime’s 10 greatest couples ever.

Most of the anime that appear on this list can be streamed on Crunchyroll.