Top 10 Anime Characters Who Escaped the Friend Zone
Top 10 Anime Characters Who Escaped the Friendzone
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Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Anime Characters Who Escaped the Friendzone. For this list, we’re looking at the lads and lasses who did the impossible – they battled their way out of the friendship circle and locked themselves into their dream romance!
#10: Kenji Koiso
“Summer Wars” (2009) This is what happens when you combine the driving force of hormones with the power of math. In order to stop a crazed A.I from dropping a space probe on a power plant, Kenji uses his innate talent with equations to outwit Love Machine and save the day. Just need to remind you, he did all this because he was roped into trying to impress his crush’s family as a pretend boyfriend. After literally saving the world and proving how hardcore calculus is, it’s nice to see the anxious nerd earn his chance to prove that he was the genuine article.
#9: David Martinez
“Cyberpunk Edgerunners” (2022) In Night City, you can find practically every vice around every corner, but true love is a little hard to come by. Originally just a mark used by Lucy in order to get her hands on a rare piece of chrome, David quickly proved that he wasn’t just the average choom. Not only did he become a valued member of Maine’s crew, willing to throw himself in the firing line, but vowed he would make Lucy’s dream of going to the moon a reality. In the face of such charming optimism, Lucy couldn’t help but fall and fall hard.
#8: Jun Satou
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“Working!!” (2010-16) It’s the obstacle every anime bad boy with a shy personality must face – the adorable love interest whose obliviousness makes her totally unaware she’s getting crushed on, even though everyone else knows it! Evidently, all that time in the restaurant business finally hardened Satou enough to confess his feelings to Yachiyo before hanging up his chef’s hat. Given that she accepted, it just goes to show that with diligence and perseverance, even the most reserved of cooks can make a feast out of the friendzone. Okay, that was terrible – but you get the idea!
#7: Sakura Matou
“Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel” (2017-20) It’s the cruelest of ironies that the one timeline in which Sakura has the chance to finally be with the boy of her dreams, she suffers immensely due to the nature of the Holy Grail War. Infected with the power of the shadow, Sakura’s desperation leads her into the arms of Shirou, who in this route doesn’t have Saber or Rin occupying his heart. Thus…we have Fate’s most explicit love scene. Given that she was riding Shirou’s Noble Phantasm, we’d say Sakura definitely escaped the friend zone.
#6: King
“The Seven Deadly Sins” (2014-21) For a while it seemed that the universe was against King ever having a snowball’s chance with the giantess of his dreams, even though he had spent a great deal of life protecting and caring for her. Everything from Diane’s crush on Meliodas, several cases of amnesia and other contrivances ensured the lord of the fairies was never going to have the chance to make the earth move. At least, until the memory loss plotline was finally dropped, and Diane was finally free to return his feelings. Patience of a saint, this guy!
#5: Hinata Hyuga
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“Naruto” franchise (2002-17) Speaking of patience, give this shinobi a medal because she put the effort in to get herself a happily ever after! Crushing on the knuckled-headed loudmouth ninja from the jump, Hinata’s crippling shyness and Naruto’s fixation on Sakura prevented them from getting together until they were both on the cusp of adulthood, and even then it took a maniac from the moon kidnapping Hinata to hammer home the point that Naruto had a bonafied waifu sitting next to him the entire time.
#4: Kaguya Shinomiya & Miyuki Shirogane
“Kaguya-sama: Love is War” (2019-22) To be fair, these two kept themselves in the friendzone because they were both too damn stubborn to admit they adored the other. But then again, if they confessed right away, we wouldn’t have one of anime’s most beloved rom coms. Instead, these two try to circumnavigate the friendzone by having the other admit their feelings first, and thus win the game of love by default. Naturally, this goes about as well as you’d expect, with neither giving at inch…until one admittedly godly show of affection finally allowed them both to put their pride aside and take things to the next level! About damn time.
#3: Edward Elric
“Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood” (2009-10) The eldest of the Elric Brothers has certainly made some bad decisions in his life, even with the best of intentions. Getting his ligaments and his brother’s body lost to a ritual in an attempt to bring back his deceased mother – pretty harrowing stuff. One of the only anchors keeping him focused on redemption being his childhood friend Winry, who brought out the best in him while constantly being on hand to repair his new mechanical physique. He had to fight his way through a bunch of Homunucli and put his fist through Father, but eventually Ed was able to recognise how incredible Winry was…leading to this adorkable perfect confession.
#2: Mai Shiranui
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“Fatal Fury” franchise (1992-94) You heard that right – Mai from Fatal Fury was once a resident of the friendzone. One of the sexiest and most revered ladies in the fighting game scene, and she was having trouble finding love with her gentleman of choice – good ol’ Andy Bogard, at least when it comes to the collection of animated movies. Beyond perplexing, we know. And yet, after beating down the bad guys, Andy finally wises up and decides that the super sweet, super kickass and super gorgeous Mai is the one for him. Now that’s a hard-fought victory!
#1: Subaru Natsuki
“Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World” (2016-) By this point, we just wanted something good to come Subaru’s way. Anything good. The poor guy had suffered physical and mental anguish since being thrown into a fantasy world, not to mention his love life was in tatters. He may have had the chance to find happiness with Rem, but he chose to stick to his guns, as the only one for him was the beautiful Emilia. So, seeing him pull off a world-class confession, score a kiss, and finally get the girl he had literally died for (multiple times) to accept and return his affections wasn’t only romantic to the nth degree, but had many a fan doing somersaults out of sheer relief. Never has the friendzone felt more like a mountain, and Subaru clawed his way to its summit!
