Top Four (Official) Anime Couples

We don’t often look to anime to warm the cockles of our hearts, and so in compiling this, my list of the top four official anime couples, I had to rule out anything involving large age gaps, harems, animals, sadomasochism and tentacles. Yes, official couples: shippers despair. But your hour may yet come.

And so, without further ado, it’s time to ask that all-important question: Just what the heck are “cockles?”

Warning: Minor spoilers follow, more drastic ones are marked line-by-line. These couples are main characters, so the spoiler, for those who’ve heard of a series but not yet seen it, is merely that it has a happy ending.

4) Haruhi and Kyon (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)

What man is capable of loving a woman as fickle, proud and generally insane as Haruhi? Probably a man too stubborn to be impressed, or put off, by anything. It’s no surprise in the series that these two end up together, but [spoiler] there’s nothing more adorable than the shocked expression on her face when Kyon finally smooches her.[/end spoiler]

3) Seiji and Midori (Midori Days)

I’m a huge fan of the relatively little-known mangaka Kazurou Inoue, whose Midori Days is the only title yet translated into English. He may be obscure because his work contains little fanservice, but he’s a clever and subtle storyteller; and nowhere is this more evident than in Midori Days where, unlike in ninety percent of manga, a plain and shy girl–Midori–slowly gains the affection of stand-offish tough guy Seiji.

2) Keitarou and Naru (Love Hina)

Akamatsu’s Love Hina, which introduced the Harem genre to many, is standard Harem stuff; but its climax between nerdy hero Keitarou and the Harem Girl he chooses to be with contains the most touching exchange of vows since Romeo and Juliet [spoiler]:

Keitarou: I just love seeing Naru naked! There’s something about her that drives me wild!

Naru: I feel the same way! Keitarou’s peeping escapades are the high point of my day! It’s fun seeing just what he’ll try next, and getting to beat the c**p out him makes it all worthwhile!

[/spoiler]

1) Hiroki and Sayuri (The Place Promised In Our Early Days)

To end on a serious note, Makoto Shinkai has a way of making us weep crazily with the silliest premises. In Voices From a Distant Star, it was cellphone text messages. Place, his second feature, develops the same theme: two ordinary people separated by a metaphysically vast distance. And some weird giant tower-thing. It also gives us a priceless line:

“The ends of my hair were stung with loneliness.”