7 Best Male & Female Platonic Friendships In Anime

Whoever said male and female pairings simply must be romantic hasn’t read, seen, and/or played some of the best bits of media ever put to print, film, and/or disc. Anime, for instance, is no stranger to giving us guy-and-gal “couplings” that are purely platonic, or in some cases, close enough to warrant consideration.

That’s not to say it’s especially common. Indeed, examples of true “duos”, rather than characters who happen to be at separate ends of overarching ensembles, are not necessarily the norm. But for a medium like anime, with roots going back quite a few decades, it’s bound to happen. The following is our list of the very best bound-to-happens around.

7

Denji And Power – Chainsaw Man

One of the most entertaining approaches to friendship in storytelling is surely the “frenemy” angle, especially when it blossoms into something real. Denji and Power, the protagonist and a major supporting character of Chainsaw Man, respectively, are both rather straightforward individuals. Yet they’re straightforward in drastically different ways, which prompts quite a heated relationship between the two allies.

Power’s name rather betrays her, as she revels in violence. Denji, on the other hand, has more of a love for love. The poor guy’s doing whatever he can do to find romance. Funnily enough – and in a terrific twist on age-old tropes – we wouldn’t say that Denji and Power ever really have much romantic chemistry, even despite Denji’s propensities.

They’re simply friends, but that simplicity ought not be overstated, because the road towards friendship is a hard one. In the end, it’s the unlikelihood of their deep apprecation for each other that makes this platonic power couple click.

6

Faye Valentine And Jet Black – Cowboy Bebop

Faye is a woman out of time. Jet is a jaded former cop. They share a series-defining role: they’re protagonist Spike Spiegel’s closest friends. (Even if Spike might not necessarily admit that regarding Faye.) And, while Faye develops romantic feelings for Spike, and there’s been no shortage of jokes that Jet did the same, it’s the pair’s unlikely friendship which we love most.

At the center of Cowboy Bebop is the notion of “found family”, and that’s a concept which is near and dear to this article’s author’s heart. Faye and Jet hardly seem to get along, except when they do. Relatable, right? They both care deeply for their friend, and in part because of this similarity, their own interpersonal relationship is captivating in its own right.

We’d characterize them almost as fire and ice, and for all the reasons such things don’t get along in real-world practice, they sure can make the dream work in fiction.

5

Soma Yukihara And Megumi Tadokaro – Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma

This one’s just, as the kids (used to say), adorkable. In some ways, it’s fire and ice all over again, but more of a seared steak versus a chilled shrimp platter. Soma is a risk-taking chef not afraid to spice things up to wild results, whilst Megumi begins her Food Wars! journey in a softer state, preferring more conventional approaches to cooking.

They both rather rub off on one another, but it’s Megumi’s culinary inspiration via Soma which sticks with us the most. Soma is a firebrand of experimental cuisine; Megumi is a creature of comfort foods. In working together, both Soma and Megumi discover more not only about the art of food prep, but about themselves.

4

Banagher Links And Audrey Burne – Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

Admittedly, this is a bit of an odd one, given that Banagher Links and Audrey Burne, the hero and heroine, respectively, of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, don’t actually spend a ton of time together.

The series, which began as a manga before taking Universal Century fans’ collective breath away as a seven-part OVA (which was later reconfigured into a 22-episode anime), unmistakably uses them as leads, but they only sometimes occupy a shared setting, as the story splits them into separate threads.

In our minds, that doesn’t matter. Banagher and Audrey, whose true identity is Mineva Zabi – inheritor of Universal Century’s powerful Zabi throne – forge the most vital relationship in Unicorn. Banagher believes in the inherent goodness of humanity, and largely takes a pacifist stance despite a vast history of internecine warfare between mankind’s leading factions.

Mineva, who takes the Audrey alias in part out of necessity, but also out of personal need for liberty, is caught in the perpetual crossfire as inarguably the most important political figure in the aforementioned historical strife. Banagher doesn’t care. He refers to her as Audrey even after learning her birthright, because that’s who he knows she wishes to be.

This is a relationship with profound implications, one which shapes both the leads’ philosophies to the point of galactic ramification. Without Banagher, Audrey might have been forever adrift; and without Audrey, Banagher might well have been the same.

3

Mikasa Ackerman And Armin Arlert – Attack On Titan

This one has some big spoilers by its very nature, but we’ve kept things relatively clean in that regard. Reader discretion advised!

It’s not exactly a stretch to say that certain events prompt Mikasa Ackerman and Armin Arlert, protagonist Eren Yeager’s dearest friends in Attack on Titan, to spend a good deal of the show’s time alone together, rather than alongside their shared companion.

The show unquestionably fixates first and foremost on Eren, and his relationships with the pair – an unrequited love with Mikasa, and a powerful bond with Armin. Yet Eren’s struggles, from discovering his true nature as a titular all-powerful Titan to later revelations with even more robust consequences, bond Mikasa and Armin both as allies in a war for survival and richly connected friends in their own right.

Mikasa’s cold stoicism masks a deeply compassionate nature. Armin’s nigh-perpetual anxiousness masks, essentially, the exact same thing.

That might be a bit of a subjective spin – thoughts on both characters are wonderfully varied across fandom – but one thing I think it’s fair to say many of us are united on is that Mikasa and Armin are mightier together, and their mutual affinity propels them through many victories.

2

Kaguya Shinomiya And Yu Ishigami – Kaguya-sama: Love Is War

Kaguya-sama: Love is War is, ostensibly, chiefly about the title character Kaguya‘s love for Miyuki Shirogane. That’s the pitch, and while it works perfectly well on its own merits, it’s the overall main cast that makes the show click.

One of Kaguya’s closest friends is Yu Ishigami. Yu has his own rocky romantic journey, although Kaguya isn’t really a part of it. Instead, the two begin in such a state that the highly introverted and downright truant Ishigami genuinely fears for his life when he’s around the severe and at times overbearing Kaguya.

Of course, this is a slice-of-life comedy, so… you know. Kaguya doesn’t actually kill Yu. It’s a misunderstanding. But it’s the sort that offers the realized potential for both Kaguya and Yu to learn a great deal about each other, and to build their own forms of courage and conviction, through a fantastic friendship that might not be the show’s central focus, but it sure does crack a smile.

1

Ichigo Kurasaka And Rukia Kuchiki – Bleach

This tag team has one of the best friendship dynamics in anime, with such sterling chemistry, both comedic and dramatic, that scores of Bleach fans really, really, really hoped they’d hit it off romantically. Ichigo and Rukia form Bleach’s beating heart for much of its colossal runtime.

While, for a time, we couldn’t help but feel similarly, in the final telling (or rather, the near-final, as there’s still a bit more of The Thousand-Year Blood War left to adapt as of this writing), Ichigo and Rukia probably work better as allied friends than marriage partners.

There’s a connection here, a timeless one, as Rukia gifts Ichigo with his powers at the expense of her own. For a member of the evil-battling Soul Society, that’s one heck of a sacrifice. That’s not to say Rukia doesn’t go places from thereon out, however; indeed, her journey is every bit as compelling as Ichigo’s. Including, thank goodness, eventually getting her powers back.