History Main / ChildhoodMarriagePromise

* The ChildhoodMarriagePromise is a touching central theme in ''Manga/AiYoriAoshi'', as Aoi and Kaoru were promised to marry due to their families... but the promise was broken due to Kaoru walking out on his [[AbusiveParents horribly abusive grandfather]]. However, when he meets a grown-up Aoi who still likes him, [[ChildhoodFriendsRomance Kaoru falls for her all over again.]]

* A variant in ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': [[spoiler:Battler promised to Shannon that he would "come back to take her away on a white horse". She remembered it and waited desperately. He didn't return to the island for six years and completely forgot about her, not only having not taken that promise as seriously as Shannon did, but held back by MASSIVE family problems.]] [[ButterflyOfDoom It snowballed into]] [[KillEmAll a horrible tragedy for the Ushiromiya family.]]
* In VisualNovel/TrueLoveJunaiMonogatari, there was one between the main character and [[spoiler: the local {{Tsundere}}, Mikae Morikawa. The PlayerCharacter, as a little boy, repeteadly swore that he'd make Mikae his bride; as they grew up, he never really forgot it... and if he pursues Mikae, he's surprised to learn that she always took it seriously.]]

* The ChildhoodMarriagePromise is a touching central theme in ''Manga/AiYoriAoshi'', as Aoi and Kaoru were promised to marry due to their families... but the promise was broken due to Kaoru walking out on his [[AbusiveParents horribly abusive grandfather]]. However, when he meets a grown-up Aoi who still likes him, Kaoru falls for her all over again.

** A variant happens between Kyo and Tohru, though he makes the promise through Tohru's mother, Kyoko. When Tohru gets lost on her way home from school, Kyo makes "a man's promise" to find Kyoko's daughter and protect her. When Tohru is brought home by someone else, Kyoko teasingly tells him that she'll put the promise "on his tab". At the end of the series, when Kyo and Tohru are in their late teens, they agree to basically go live together after graduation (and eventually do get married). Kyo thinks back to his promise, and relates his vow to protect Tohru to him essentially being her husband - that he will keep his promise for the rest of his life.

* [[TheAdventuresOfTomSawyer Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher]], somewhat complicated by the fact that she's not the first girl he was ever engaged to.

* A variant in ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'': [[spoiler:Battler promised to Shannon that he would "come back to take her away on a white horse". She remembered it and waited desperately. He didn't return to the island for six years and completely forgot about her, having not taken that promise as seriously as Shannon did.]] [[ButterflyOfDoom It snowballed into]] [[KillEmAll a horrible tragedy for the Ushiromiya family.]]

* This was the basis of the {{Manhwa}} ''PigBride'', with the added twist that it's based on [[spoiler:a ReincarnationRomance.]]

''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':

* Hazumu and Tomari in ''KashimashiGirlMeetsGirl'', with the added complication that Hazumu is now a girl.
** Amusingly, the original promise was Hazumu promising to be Tomari's ''bride'', which received an angry response from Tormari that as a boy, he'd have to be the groom. [[GenderBender Oh, how things can change...]]

* Subverted real hard by James in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', since back then he didn't know Jessiebelle's real personality and once she showed her colors, he didn't want anything to do with her.

* It eventually turns out that Ranma and Ukyo in ''RanmaOneHalf'' have one of these, made when Ukyo tried to make some of her family's okonomiyaki sauce while they were kids. She promised to let Ranma taste it when it finished aging after ten years, if Ranma would vow to "look after her for the rest of her life" if it turned out good. Of course, at the time, Ranma didn't know either that Ukyo was actually a girl or what he was promising, and through a lot of confusion the promise ends up being broken when it comes up again. Unfortunately for Ranma, Genma and Ukyo's father had brokered an ArrangedMarriage shortly after he and Ukyo made their ChildhoodMarriagePromise (which Genma tried to run out on), meaning Ukyo still persists that she has a claim to his hand. [[CaptainObvious Because she does]].
** This is further complicated by the fact that Genma has promised Ranma's hand in marriage to several girls (and in the anime to a couple others as well) because he's a jerk.

* [[KissingCousins The cousins]] Li Shaoran and Li Meiling in the anime version of ''Manga/CardCaptorSakura''. [[spoiler: They don't go through it, since the promise was that Meiling would be Shaoran's bride until he found someone he loved more... thus [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend Meiling]] [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy steps aside willingly]] when she realizes that he's fallen in love with their common friend Sakura. The scene where Meiling breaks down crying on the lap of Sakura's own UnluckyChildhoodFriend, [[LesYay Tomoyo]], is ''[[TearJerker heartbreaking]]'']].

* Subverted quite impressively in ''[[RevolutionaryGirlUtena Shoujo Kakumei Utena]]'', in which Utena starts out the series looking for the prince on a white horse who rescued her as a child and gave her his ring, only to find... [[MindScrew well, it's kind of complicated]].

* In the anime version of ''InuYasha'', Koga lightheartedly promises to marry wolf-girl (and granddaughter of a very powerful wolf youkai [[TheObiWan whom he quite respects]]) Ayame, then still a young child, after [[RescueRomance he saves her from being killed]]. She reappears [[SheIsAllGrownUp all grown-up]] and demands he fulfill his promise, but he's already in a {{Love Triangle}} with Kagome and Inu Yasha. Even worse, the poor guy doesn't remember a thing about it, and Ayame not only is hurt and angry as Hell with quite the reason, but ''Kagome'' is pissed at him too because she doesn't want Ayame to be hurt.
** Actually, [[spoiler: he later ''does'' come to remember, but not only does Koga still prefer Kagome over Ayame, he [[ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies pretends to not recover his memory so she won't be involved in the fight against Naraku]].]]
*** The last episode has [[spoiler: Koga not just becoming leader of the wolf youkai, but marrying Ayame. So yep, he kept his word.]].

* In ''{{Dragonball}}'', Chichi and Goku first meet as children, and Goku promises to marry her, thinking marriage is a kind of food. He says so when an angry and [[SheIsAllGrownUp all grown-up (and very pretty) Chi-Chi]] brings it up in the Tenkaichi Budokai, but Goku keeps his promise anyway and marries her. [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Awwwww.]]
** The series treats Goku not recognizing her at first due to him being an IdiotHero, which is a bit of MoralDissonance as he hadn't seen her for 6 years.
*** To be fair, ''nobody'' had recognized her, with the exception of Oolong (who had met her only once, ''ten years before'').

* Played with in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', when Alphonse asks Edward if he remembers the time when they fought over who would marry Winry. Al won the fight but she rejected both of them saying "I don't like guys who are shorter than me."
** Incidentally, by the end of the series Ed is now (slightly) taller than Winry.

** Incest marriage is legit in the Holy Empire Britannia, even Charles was born in one.

* Not quite a childhood promise, per se, but flashbacks reveal that in ''MiraiNikki'' Yukkii and Yuno made a marriage promise a couple of years before the story takes place. Yukkii's now completely forgotten all about it, while fulfilling the promise and living happily ever after with him has become Yuno's raison d'etre, turning her into the AxCrazy {{Yandere}} she is throughout the series.
** In fact, the 'promise' wasn't even a promise to begin with. Yuki thought Yuno was joking when she suggested they should get married as part of an assignment of thinking about their futures and played along with it. He was joking but Yuno was quite serious...

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu''. A LonelyRichKid, in [[{{PrecociousCrush}} his attempt to woo]] Chidori, tells her about a recent tragedy that has [[ButtMonkey shattered his spirit]]. His tale begins as a [[TastesLikeDiabetes clichéd]] ChildhoodMarriagePromise [[TastesLikeDiabetes romance thwarted by a terrible car accident]]. Then it turns out that the 'tragedy' is that the girl in question eloped with a boy she met in the accident, and moved to Amsterdam. He still gets postcards.
* Implied, but not directly said in ''GaoGaiGar'', when Hana reminds Mamoru about a promise they made when they were young (''er'') children. Mamoru can only blush in response. Of course, they're [[ToyShip all but dating as it is]]...
* Hayate and Athena from Manga/HayateTheCombatButler. They promised to spend the rest of their lives together and even gave each other promise rings.
** Izumi promised to be his bride as well.
* Referenced in ''YuYuHakusho''. When Yusuke proposes to Keiko, she looks stunned... until her dad starts laughing and reminiscing about how Yusuke ''always'' tried to make up with her after a fight by asking her to marry him.

* A side quest in ''JadeEmpire'' involves sorting out one of these, with the twist that the UnluckyChildhoodFriend trying to cash in on the promise has grown up to be the leader of a gang. Fortunately, you can not only convince her to let it go, but you can also [[MatchMakerQuest find a suitable husband for her.]]
** Or, if you're in the right mood, convince her to kill her romantic rival, followed by accidentally killing the one who made the promise. And then she realizes what she's done, breaks down and attacks you, resulting in you killing her and her entire gang. Ahh, [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential sweet cruelty potential.]]
* Link has found himself engaged in this way to the [[FishPeople Zora]] Princess Ruto (who does grow up to be [[CuteMonsterGirl rather easy on the eyes]]) in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' and the Maku Tree in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle of Ages]]'', even though [[HeroicMime he never really agreed in either case]].

* Not quite a childhood promise, per se, but flashbacks reveal that in ''MiraiNikki'' Yukkii and Yuno made a marriage promise a couple of years before the story takes place. Yukkii's now completely forgotten all about it [[spoiler: (in fact it's possible only the first universe's Yukkii ever made the promise and he never made one at all)]], while fulfilling the promise and living happily ever after with him has become Yuno's raison d'etre, turning her into the [[AxCrazy]] {{Yandere}} she is throughout the series.

* A variant ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'': [[spoiler:Battler promised to Shannon that he would "Come back to take her on a white horse". She remembered it and waited desperately. He didn't return to the island for six years and completely forgot about her.]] [[ButterflyOfDoom It snowballed into]] [[KillEmAll a horrible tragedy for the Ushiromiya family.]]

* According to some side materials, a very young Dorothy Catalonia from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' made one with her distant cousin and her father's favorite pupil, Treize Krushrenada. [[spoiler: We don't know if Dorothy wanted to ask Treize to fulfill it, though she ''did'' show affection for him....and it doesn't seem to matter, considering that he dies at the end of the series.]]

* ''InfiniteStratos'' had Ichika promise that when she was a better cook, he would eat Rinin's sweet-and-sour pork every day. [[CluelessChickMagnet Being himself]], Ichika still does not get the implication.

* Just recently in Denmark, a very young couple, both 18 years old, got married. Turns out that they've known each other since kindergarden and around their early teens started dating eachother after remembering that they made a promise. Surely a CrowningMomentOfHeartWarming!

** The series treats Goku not recognizing her at first due to him being an IdiotHero, which as bit of MoralDissonance he hadn't seen her 6 years.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/RiseOfTheGuardians'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' crossover fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8772736/1/Protectors Protectors]]'', we get a very heartwarming example when the group of children, including Kid!Roxanne, defend Kid!Megamind (known as Teal here) from two ManipulativeBastards.

* In ''Rune Factory 2'', the second game in a spin off series of HarvestMoon, in the second half of the game in which you play as your child, you propose and "marry" your boyfriend/girlfriend (''s'' in the case of Serena and her twin, Sera). Though, it's just a promise that you will marry them in the future.

** ''RuneFactoryOceans'' also features one [[spoiler:between Aden and Sonja]], but it's never brought up unless the former proposes to the latter.

* A young ''ForrestGump'' and Jenny fall in love as children, in the shadow of, if not TheWorldTree per se, then at least a very very large tree.

* In StarWars Anakin tells Padme that he's going to marry her someday. Considering his abilities as a seer, this could either be a childhood marriage promise or stating what he sees as fact.

* Scout and Dill in ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird''. Scout was based on the author, Harper Lee, while Dill was based on her childhood friend, Truman Capote, author of ''Breakfast At Tiffany's'' and ''In Cold Blood''. Incidentally, Capote was gay, and Lee never married.

* Nikolai and Sonya in ''WarAndPeace''.
* 10-year-old Tommy Bangs and Nan Harding plan to get married in ''[[LittleWomen Little Men]]''; ten years later in ''Jo's Boys'', Nan can't believe Tom still expects her to go through with it. [[spoiler:They don't; she remains unmarried but happy as a HotLibrarian, and Tommy marries his other suitor Dora.]]

* OlderThanTelevision: GilbertAndSullivan operettas used this trope repeatedly.
** ''The Grand Duke'' (1896) has plot involving dueling to the ''technical'' death by cutting a deck of cards is a bit ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' to make the subject of a proto-musical. Suffice to say that Ludwig is saddled with all the commitments of the people he beats at cards, and they turn out to involve a lot of romantic ones. Once he's been forced to marry his third wife... well, it seems like he should have skipped that third one, when the woman the Grand Duke was engaged to in infancy shows up.
** This trope's central to the plot of ''The Gondoliers''
** ''Princess Ida'' devotes an entire song, "Ida Was a Twelve-month Old," to this:
-->Ida was a twelve-month old,\\

Twenty years ago!

* In ToshiieToMatsu, Matsu and Toshiie promise themselves to each other when Matsu is quite young (one source says she was only 11-ish at the time).

* Just recently in Denmark, a very young couple, both 18 years old, got married. Turns out that they've known eachother since kindergarden and around their early teens started dating eachother after remembering that they made a promise. Surely a CrowningMomentOfHeartWarming!

* A vuriant ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'': [[spoiler:Battler promised to Shannon that he would "Come back to take her on a white horse". She remembered it and waited desperately. He didn't return to the island for six years and completely forgot about her.]] [[ButterflyOfDoom It snowballed into]] [[KillEmAll a horrible tragedy for the Ushiromiya family.]]

* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'', there was one between [[spoiler:Battler and Shannon]]. [[ButterflyOfDoom It snowballed into]] [[KillEmAll a horrible tragedy that left several people dead]].

* There's a reason why ''The Grand Duke'' is considered the weakest of all of {{Gilbert and Sullivan}} works, as, you know, a plot involving dueling to the ''technical'' death by cutting a deck of cards is a bit ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' to make the subject of a proto-musical. Suffice to say that Ludwig is saddled with all the commitments of the people he beats at cards, and they turn out to involve a lot of romantic ones. Once he's been forced to marry his third wife... well, it seems like he should have skipped that third one, when the woman the Grand Duke was engaged to in infancy shows up. By the way: ''The Grand Duke'' is [[OlderThanRadio from 1896]].
** {{Gilbert and Sullivan}} operettas used this trope repeatedly, in fact. It's central to the plot of ''The Gondoliers,'' and ''Princess Ida'' devotes an entire song, "Ida Was a Twelve-month Old," to it:

A common staple of {{anime}} featuring ChildhoodFriends is the ChildhoodMarriagePromise. Years ago, when two of the main characters were small children, they promised to marry each other when they grew up. Now they're in HighSchool or university, and SheIsAllGrownUp. Sometimes, the couple fall in love for real and [[VictoriousChildhoodFriend they finally fulfill that promise.]] Other times, one of them is the UnluckyChildhoodFriend whose heart gets broken, since the FirstGirlWins BecauseDestinySaysSo.

* Scout and Dill in ''ToKillAMockingbird''. Scout was based on the author, Harper Lee, while Dill was based on her childhood friend, Truman Capote, author of ''Breakfast At Tiffany's'' and ''In Cold Blood''. Incidentally, Capote was gay, and Lee never married.