Top 10 Anime Characters Who Escaped the Friend Zone

WatchMojo

Turns out that even the friendzone can be defeated! Join Ashley as we count down our picks for the anime characters that succeeded in turning friendship into true love

Transcript

00:00 Hey guys, it's Ash here with WatchMojo and these are the top 10 anime characters who

00:10 escaped the friend zone.

00:12 For this list, we're looking at the lads and lasses who did the impossible.

00:16 They battled their way out of the friendship circle and locked themselves into their dream

00:20 romance.

00:26 Number 10, Kenji Koiso - "Summer Wars"

00:35 This is what happens when you combine the driving force of hormones with the power of

00:40 math.

00:44 In order to stop a crazed AI from dropping a space probe onto a power plant, Kenji uses

00:50 his innate talent with equations to outwit Love Machine and save the day.

00:56 Just need to remind you, he did all this because he was roped into trying to impress his crush's

01:01 family as a pretend boyfriend.

01:04 After literally saving the world and proving how hardcore calculus is, it's nice to see

01:09 the anxious nerd earn his chance to prove that he was the genuine article.

01:23 Number 9, David Martinez - "Cyberpunk Edgerunners"

01:28 In Night City, you can find practically every vice around every corner, but true love is

01:34 a little hard to come by.

01:44 Originally just a mock used by Lucy in order to get her hands on a rare piece of chrome,

01:50 David quickly proved that he wasn't just the average choom.

02:02 Not only did he become a valued member of Mane's crew, willing to throw himself in

02:07 the firing line, but vowed he would make Lucy's dream of going to the moon a reality.

02:13 In the face of such charming optimism, Lucy couldn't help but fall, and fall hard.

02:27 Number 8, Jun Sato - "Working"

02:30 It's the obstacle every anime bad boy with a shy personality must face; the adorable

02:36 love interest whose obliviousness makes her totally unaware she's getting crushed on,

02:41 even though everyone else knows it.

02:46 Evidently, all that time in the restaurant business finally hardened Sato enough to confess

02:53 his feelings before hanging up his chef's hat.

03:08 Given that she accepted, it just goes to show that with diligence and perseverance, even

03:13 the most reserved of cooks can make a feast out of the friend zone.

03:17 Alright, that was terrible, but you get the idea.

03:26 Number 7, Sakura Mato - "Fate/Stay Night/Heaven's Feel"

03:31 It's the cruelest of ironies that the one timeline in which Sakura has a chance to finally

03:36 be with the boy of her dreams, she suffers immensely due to the nature of the Holy Grail

03:54 War.

03:55 Infected with the power of the shadow, Sakura's desperation leads her into the arms of Shiro,

04:01 who in this route doesn't have Saber or Rin occupying his heart.

04:10 Thus, we have Fate's most explicit love scene.

04:16 Given that she was getting Shiro's noble phantasm, we'd say Sakura definitely escaped

04:21 the friend zone.

04:30 Number 6, King - "The Seven Deadly Sins"

04:34 For a while, it seemed that the universe was against King ever having a snowball's chance

04:39 in hell with the giantess of his dreams.

04:42 Even though he had spent a great deal of his life protecting and caring for her.

04:52 Everything from Diane's crush on Meliodas, several cases of amnesia and other contrivances

04:58 ensured the Lord of the Fairies was never going to have the chance to make the Earth

05:02 move.

05:03 At least, until the memory loss plotline was finally dropped, and Diane was finally free

05:08 to return his feelings.

05:10 Patience of a saint, this guy.

05:20 Number 5, Hinata Hyuga - "Naruto Franchise"

05:24 Speaking of patience, give this shinobi a medal, because she put the effort in and got

05:29 herself a happily ever after.

05:40 Crashing on the knuckle-headed, loud-mouthed ninja from the jump, Hinata's crippling

05:45 shyness and Naruto's fixation on Sakura prevented them from getting together until

05:50 they were both on the cusp of adulthood.

06:02 And even then, it took a maniac from the moon kidnapping Hinata to hammer home the point

06:07 that Naruto had a bonafide waifu sitting next to him the entire time.

06:21 Number 4, Kaguya and Miyuki - "Kaguya-sama, Love is War"

06:26 To be fair, these two kept themselves in the friend zone because they were both too damn

06:30 stubborn to admit they adored the other.

06:40 But then again, if they confessed right away, we wouldn't have one of anime's most beloved

06:45 rom-coms.

06:46 Instead, these two tried to circumnavigate the friend zone by having the other admit

06:51 their feelings first, and thus win the game of love by default.

07:01 Naturally, this goes about as well as you'd expect, with neither giving an inch.

07:10 Until one admittedly godly show of affection finally allowed them both to put their pride

07:15 aside and take things to the next level.

07:18 Not down time.

07:30 Number 3, Edward Elric - "Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood"

07:35 The eldest of the Elric brothers has certainly made some bad decisions in his life, even

07:40 with the best of intentions.

07:42 Getting his ligaments and his brother's body lost to a ritual in an attempt to bring

07:47 back his deceased mother, pretty harrowing stuff.

07:56 One of the only anchors keeping him focused on redemption being his childhood friend,

08:01 Winry, who brought out the best in him while constantly being on hand to repair his new

08:06 mechanical physique.

08:18 He had to fight his way through a bunch of homunculi and put his fist through father,

08:23 but eventually Ed was able to recognise how incredibly Winry was, leading to this adorkable

08:29 perfect confession.

08:40 Number 2, Mai Shiranui - "Fatal Fury"

08:45 You heard that right, Mai from "Fatal Fury" was once a resident of the friend zone.

08:54 One of the sexiest and most revered ladies in the fighting game scene, and she was having

08:59 trouble finding love with her gentleman of choice, good old Andy Bogard, at least when

09:04 it comes to the collection of animated movies.

09:18 Beyond perplexing, we know, and yet, after beating down the bad guys, Andy finally wisens

09:24 up and decides that the super sweet, super kick-ass and super gorgeous Mai is the only

09:29 one for him.

09:30 Now that's a hard-fought victory.

09:46 If you like what you're hearing, be sure to check out the full song at the link below.

10:00 Number 1, Subaru - "Re-Zero - Starting Life in Another World"

10:04 By this point, we just wanted something good to come Subaru's way, anything good.

10:10 The poor guy had suffered physical and mental anguish since being thrown into a fantasy

10:15 world, not to mention his love life was in tatters.

10:24 He may have had the chance to find happiness with Rem, but he chose to stick to his guns,

10:29 as the only one for him was the beautiful Emilia.

10:38 So seeing him pull off a world-class confession, score a kiss and finally get the girl he had

10:44 literally died for multiple times, to accept and return his affections, wasn't only romantic

10:50 to the nth degree, but had many a fan doing somersaults out of sheer relief.

10:55 Never has the friend zone felt more like a mountain, and Subaru clawed his way to its

11:00 summit.

11:12 So do you agree with our picks?

11:14 Let us know in the comments.

11:16 And hey, if you're a fan of the song playing right now, be sure to check out the music

11:20 video for it, right here.

11:21 And as always, thanks for watching.

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