History Main / PenPals

* The FramingDevice for ''AQUA'' and its sequel ''Manga/{{ARIA}}'' is that protagonist Akari Mizunashi writes letters about her life on Aqua to an unseen pen pal. The anime invents Ai to take up the pen pal role up until ''The Origination'', but the finale of the manga reveals that [[spoiler:she's really just making a public blog that ''sounds'' like she's writing to somebody]].

* ''Film/TheGreatestShowman'': Phineas and Charity keep their ChildhoodFriendRomance alive while Charity is at finishing school and Phineas works on the railroad through writing letters to each other.
* In the film adaptation ''Film/MansfieldPark'', Fanny's older brother William is written out and her Pen Pal relationship and sibling bond is transferred to her younger sister Susan.

* In ''Literature/MansfieldPark'', Fanny Price is sent to live with her rich relatives when she is just nine, and her older brother later becomes a midshipman and goes to sea. William is Fanny's favourite among her MassiveNumberedSiblings and their mutual correspondence provides her a great comfort and he's one of her two most beloved people in the world.

* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'' has the episode appropriately titled "Pen Pals." After [[spoiler:Tilly moves back to the country]], she starts to become pen pals with [[spoiler:Andromeda]]. The episode is then about their experiences with it, and what they've been up to while they were separated.

* ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'': In "Pen Pal", Ami gets a visit from her pen pal from Paris. [[spoiler:Paris, Idaho, to be exact.]]

* On ''WesternAnimation/PeppaPig'', Peppa has a French pen pal named Delphine Donkey, who appears in some episodes.
* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': In "Mindy's Bedtime", it is revealed that Sydney has an Indian pen pal named Ahana. Since it is night in India when it is day in Boxwood Terrace and vice versa, Sydney and Ahana email each other.
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' has the episode "No Speak Da Ed", where the Eds all have pen pals as a part of their International Studies class. Edd is pen pals with a Norwegian girl named Gerta, while Eddy has been assigned a Korean boy named Hyuck. Ed's pen pal, however, sent him various wolf-themed gifts, pressing Rolf's BerserkButton and causing the Eds a lot of trouble. It's eventually revealed that Ed's pen pal is the same as Edd's, who Rolf recognizes as Gerta the Goatmilker, apparently a well-known prankster. Rolf then laughs the whole thing off as just a prank. Meanwhile, Eddy tries to scam his pen pal by sending him "moon rocks" (actually just discarded wads of gum painted blue). His scam actually works, and Hyuck sends him a massive pile of money, but being Korean money, it's worthless to Eddy.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': [[spoiler:[[OddFriendship Hooty and Lilith]]]] start up a correspondence after the latter gets PutOnABus early in the second season, and one of the former's letters is used as a FramingDevice in a later episode.

* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold''": Arnold has a pen pal from France named Cecile who is about to visit him on Valentine's Day. But Helga forges the letter so she can set up her date with Arnold and prevent him from meeting up with his crush, Ruth. Then things get complicated when the real Cecile meets Arnold in person.

* ''VideoGame/StickyBusiness: In ''[[DownloadableContent Plan With Me]]'', Tim and Sanjay are best friends even if they're half a world apart, the former being from England and the latter from India. They write letters to each other to keep in touch.

* ''VideoGame/StickyBusiness: In ''[[DownloadableContent Plan With Me]]'', Tim K. is from England, and he writes letters to his Indian best friend Sanjay.

* ''VideoGame/StickyBusiness: In ''[[DownloadableContent Plan With Me]]'', Tim K. is from England, and he writes letters to his best friend from India.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' has Finley and Sasan. Finley is a [[FishPeople Zora]] girl who is [[OlderThanTheyLook several decades old]] but looks like a short child [[ProportionalAging due to comparatively slow Zora growth rates]]. Sasan is a [[HumansByAnyOtherName Hylian]] guy who has regularly been receiving love letters from Finley by way of [[MessageInABottle messages attached to barrels]] that she drops from the Bank of Wishes, to which he regularly responds. Link can [[RomanticWingman convince Sasan to finally go meet Finley in person]] despite the latter's initial reluctance to reveal that he isn't the muscular athlete he made himself out to be in his letters (though he does resolve to make up for it by exercising rigorously).
* In ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'', Cornelia gives the player an Email Bag at the start of Chapter 3, and explains that it’s a way for friends to keep in touch over long distances. True to her word, she sends you several well-wishing emails throughout the adventure, although sadly the player has no way of sending her any replies.

* ''ToShapeADragonsBreath'': Anequs starts up correspondence with ten-year old Ingrid Hakansdottir, a half-nackie girl who lives in Vastergot, after an article is published about her in the local paper. They finally meet face-to-face during Fyrafax, when Anequs invites her to come to the school's celebration.

Not to be confused with [[Literature/PenPals the Sharon Dennis Wyeth series]] or [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E15PenPals the Star Trek: TNG episode]] of [[SimilarlyNamedWorks the same name]].

* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'': Charlie Brown often wrote letters to his "pencil pal". It is unknown whether the pencil pal ever wrote back.

* In ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'', Max fell out of contact with her best friend Chloe until she moved back to their hometown because of the strain Chloe's dad's death (who Max was also close to) put on her. In episode 4, one of the more noticeable differences that comes about from her TimeTravel is [[spoiler: the alternate version of her in the timeline where Chloe's father didn't die not only stayed in contact, but wrote letters on "fancy parchment paper".]]
** The prequel ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrangeBeforeTheStorm'' reveals that Chloe tried to become this with Max after she moved away, but she couldn't bring herself to send the letter when Max stopped answering her texts, and started writing letters to an imaginary Max in her journal instead. [[spoiler: The final entry in said journal is that she's moving on with her life and focusing on her friendship/relationship with Rachel, which only serves to make the events of the original game more heartbreaking.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "YOLO", Marge invites Homer's childhood penpal, Eduardo, over to help him fulfill his bucket list.

Not to be confused with [[Literature/PenPals the Sharon Dennis Wyeth series]] or [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E15PenPals the Star Trek: TNG episode]] of [[NamesTheSame the same name]].

Supertrope to UnseenPenPal, which is about a pen pal relationship that has cracks in it due to lies and secrecy.

* ''ComicStrip/PugadBaboy'' has Kules Sungcal who writes with penpals who claim to be attractive women, but are comedically not. When he switches to e-mail, he told his colleague 'Adre about "email pals" or "e-pals" about it, by which 'Adre replies "epal", which is a Filipino term for AttentionWhore; Kules softens it to "e-mail buddies" instead.

* ''WesternAnimation/MaryAndMax'': Mary discovers Max' name in a phone book and decides to write to him, leading to a friendship through correspondence that endures for several decades.

* ''Film/TheShopAroundTheCorner'': [[Creator/JimmyStewart James Stewart]] and Margaret Sullavan are coworkers in a leather goods store who snipe at each other, neither knowing that they are falling in love as anonymous pen pals.

* In ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrange'', Max fell out of contact with her best friend Chloe until she moved back to their hometown because of the strain Chloe's dad's death (who Max was also close to) put on her. In episode 4, one of the more noticable differences that comes about from her TimeTravel is [[spoiler: the alternate version of her in the timeline where Chloe's father didn't die not only stayed in contact, but wrote letters on "fancy parchment paper".]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': In "Carl Wheezer, Boy Genius", Carl's European penpal comes to visit, leading him and Jimmy to try to pass Carl off as a genius because he claimed Jimmy's many adventures as his own in his letters.
* ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'': In "Pen Pal", Ami gets a visit from her penpal from Paris. [[spoiler:Paris, Idaho, to be exact.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': Although they had known each other in person for quite some time, the only person Korra sent reply letters to during her sabbatical was Asami. [[spoiler:Fitting, that they would later become a couple.]]

[[/folder]]
----

* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': In "Mindy's Bedtime", it is revealed that Sydney has an Indian pen pal named Ahana. Since it is night in India and when it is day in Boxwood Terrace and vice versa, Sydney and Ahana email each other.