A true anime shipper isn’t stopped by trivial details like two characters not living in the same universe. Sure, cross-series anime ships may consist of characters who never actually meet each other, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a great match or that fans can’t enjoy thinking about them together. After all, fan fiction has spliced Twilight with Supernatural for years now, so why can’t anime fans do the same?
Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to ideal relationship dynamics. Some of these fantasy anime ships are wholesome and mutually fulfilling, like Phichit Chulanont of Yuri!!! on ICE and Shoyo Hinata of Haikyuu!!. Others are delightfully disturbing, like the imagined liaison between Akira Midousuji of Yowamushi Pedal and Sawa Nakamura of Flowers of Evil. Some, like Faye Valentine of Cowboy Bebop and Motoko Kusanagi of Ghost in the Shell are totally badass power couples.
1. Tohru Honda From ‘Fruits Basket’ And Ryuuichi Kashima From ‘School Babysitters’
Tohru Honda spends years of her life embroiled in the Sohma family’s dismal affairs, and while she obviously adores them, the emotional labor she constantly performs for them must be exhausting. That’s why she needs a relationship with someone just as focused on the needs of others as she is. Ryuuichi Kashima might just be her perfect match.
Like Tohru, Ryuuichi is a total sweetheart, fully dedicated to his own caretaking duties. He has a preschool aged brother named Kotaro for whom he acts as a surrogate parent, and he works in a daycare center. He goes out of his way to help anyone with their problems. Also like Tohru, he has a tendency to ignore his own needs and work so hard he literally makes himself sick.
Since both Tohru and Ryuuichi are so in-tune with the needs of others, they’re both best suited to people on the same wavelength. Tohru might not notice when she needs a break, but she’ll notice when Ryuuichi does and make him take one – and he’ll do the same for her.
2. Olivier Mira Armstrong From ‘Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’ And Vegeta From ‘DBZ’
Few people want to break up Bulma and Vegeta, but should the Saiyan prince and his mad scientist wife ever stop getting along, Vegeta will want something pretty specific from his next relationship. Citing his Saiyan blood as the reason, Vegeta makes it pretty clear he prefers strong women. As a human, Bulma may not be able to match his physical strength, but she never hesitates to put him in his place.
Another woman who fits this criteria is Olivier Mira Armstrong, a commanding officer in the Amestrian army. She may not be able to defeat him in battle – even the best swordplay encounters some difficulty when put up against a Super Saiyan – but she could easily command his respect and esteem with the sheer force of her personality. Meanwhile, Olivier would dig Vegeta’s pride and his relentless drive toward self-improvement.
3. Violet Evergarden From ‘Violet Evergarden’ and Decim From ‘Death Parade’
Violet Evergarden and Decim both lack a fundamental understanding of human nature. For Violet, this stems from a combination of inborn personality traits and traumatic experiences as a soldier. For Decim, it’s because he’s not human: he’s a living mannequin tasked with determining whether human souls should be reincarnated or destroyed.
Both Decim and Violet spend their respective series trying to understand human emotions from the outside, while struggling to understand their own unique experiences with these feelings as they start to experience them. Because the two of them share the same struggle, it would be quite touching to see them approach the problem as a team, and to experience romantic love with one of the few individuals either could successfully relate to.
4. Faye Valentine From ‘Cowboy Bebop’ And Motoko Kusanagi From ‘Ghost In The Shell’
Motoko Kusanagi and Faye Valentine, both utterly badass women from action-packed anime series, make perfect choices for an anime power couple. Faye works as a bounty hunter who plays an integral part of the Bebop crew, while cyborg Motoko Kusanagi serves as a major in the Public Security Section 9. They’re independent, intelligent, women capable of holding their own in a fight. However, both of them spend most of their time working with men, and each is sorely in need of the company of a woman as awesome as herself.
5. Mello From ‘Death Note’ And Deidara From ‘Naruto’
A relationship between two terrorists who love explosions probably isn’t the greatest idea, but it sure would be entertaining to watch. Mello and Deidara have different motives – Deidara is an artist who sees destruction as a form of expression, while Mello wants to show up his rival Near – but their aggressive personalities and liberal use of bombs show they actually do have a bit in common.
Will they come up with a mutually desirable goal and bomb their way toward it? Or will they end up killing each other? Who knows, but the furious make out sessions would go down as some of the best kisses in anime history.
6. Aoyama-kun From ‘Cleanliness Boy! Aoyama-kun’ And Sakamoto From ‘Haven’t You Heard, I’m Sakamoto’
Haven’t you heard? Sakamoto is the most charming, elegant, exquisite human being to ever grace the earth with his presence – and so is Aoyama-kun. Both of these unusual teenage boys always appear flawlessly dressed, unfailingly polite, and supernaturally skilled at nearly everything they try. Both have flaws; Sakamoto doesn’t always find it easy to comprehend human nature, and Aoyama obsesses over cleanliness to the point that he spends hours every day scrubbing down his soccer team’s locker room. Sakamoto isn’t bothered by much of anything, and he’d probably help engineer a way to make cleaning easier and quicker. Aoyama could easily relate to Sakamoto’s social strangeness, as he possesses it himself.
The only problem with this couple lies in the fact their respective classmates are so obsessed with them that they’d lose their minds completely if their perfect forces combined.
7. Phichit Chulanont Of ‘Yuri!!! on ICE’ And Shoyo Hinata Of ‘Haikyuu!!’
Shoyo Hinata is a happy-go-lucky guy whose main goal in life is to be awesome at volleyball. Phichit Chulanont is just as cheerful, and just as dedicated to his own sport, figure skating. With their similar personalities and passions, the two would get along great.
Also, Hinata can occasionally have issues with anxiety. Phichit has assisted his friend Yuri through more than one freakout, and he handles it with ease. Their relationship would be adorable and, for the most part, problem-free.
8. Tomoko Kuroki From ‘Watamote’ And Tatsuhiro Satou From ‘Welcome To The NHK’
For this one to work, Tomoko Kuroki would have to meet Satou Tatsuhiro when she’s a little bit older; assuming that both are adults, the two could really hit it off if they can get past their crippling anxiety. For Satou, it gets so bad he can’t go outside most of the time. Tomoko gets through her daily life, but not without intense struggle. Both want desperately to break out of their depressing daily life of social failure and dating sim addiction, but they can’t seem to make it work.
In their respective canons, both try to solve their problems through relationships with people with better social skills than they do; as a result, neither can really empathize with them. As a couple, Tomoko and Satou would have at least one person who had their back when the rest of the world proves too daunting. Since both of them constantly strive to improve themselves, they’re not likely to enable each other – instead, they might just help each other feel more comfortable with being themselves.
9. Mei Hatsume Of ‘My Hero Academia’ And Tomoyo Daidouji From ‘Cardcaptor Sakura’
Tomoyo Daidouji‘s unrequited crush on her best friend Sakura Kinomoto will likely dissipate over time, and when it does her attentions may wander toward someone who she can relate to. One such person might be someone like Mei Hatsume.
The two girls both obsess over design and engineering: Tomoyo makes adorable frilly battle outfits for Sakura, while Mei enjoys making technology for heroes. Their passions could easily combine, which not only gives them plenty to talk about, but also the potential to start a business together as they get older. Besides similar interests, the two are excitable, loud, enthusiastic, and a little bit nosy when it comes to the recipients of their technological efforts.
While their big personalities might occasionally clash, the two would likely get along great – as long as Hatsume doesn’t get axle grease on Tomoyo’s pretty dresses.