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First Girl Wins

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"Life is so crazy
And love is unkind
Because she came first, darling
Will she hang on your mind?"
Gladys Knight & The Pips, "If I Were Your Woman"

In romantic works, the first girl introduced — either overall or as a potential Love Interest — has a very good chance of ending up with the protagonist (especially if the protagonist is male).

There are all sorts of explanations as to why this is. Things ending up the same place they started is a very old narrative technique. The First Girl "winning" has a Because Destiny Says So kind of appeal — she metaphorically "called dibs" on The Protagonist and tied a string to his heart. This might actually strike a chord with readers because of its Truth in Television overtones; psychological studies suggest that the first people someone meets in a new or unfamiliar social situation have a greater chance at becoming their close friends later on.

From a Doylist point of view, the Law of Conservation of Detail suggests introducing the Love Interest early. An early introduction allows you to get the audience interested in her and rooting for her, gives you space for Character Development, and give her relationship with her (eventual) partner the most time to develop organically. And conversely, the later in the story the Love Interest gets introduced, the harder it'll be to convince the audience to accept them in the role. Characters introduced earlier (be they a Romantic False Lead or even a character that was never intended as a romantic contender at all) will often pick up fan followings who root for them to "win", and it's not easy to convince those fans to abandon their initial preference in favor of the Official Couple.

And with all that said, it's such a common device that in all likelihood, it sometimes gets played for its own sake. It telegraphs, "Lookie here, serious contender for Love Interest." From this perspective, it's not so much that the First Girl wins because she comes first; rather, she comes first because she's going to win.

As weird as it may sound, sometimes it isn't that obvious which girl is the First. Is it the first girl the protagonist meets according to In-Universe chronology, even if we first see her halfway through the show's run? The first one to show romantic feelings? The first new girl the protagonist meets? If we have different adaptations, by which of them are we going? If you're suspecting some girl is supposed to be the First Girl, a good idea would be to take a look at how the writer has played her up. Is she a major character? Is her "first" interaction led up to, emphasized, treated as a big deal? All other things being equal, is she a strong contender for being the protagonist's Love Interest? These things may be the difference between the First Girl and a girl who happened to be first. Most writers will take care to put some effort into building a would-be triumphant First Girl as a romantic option in her own right, so as to avoid Strangled by the Red String.

The First Girl will rarely be the first one to confess her feelings, admit them, or sometimes even develop them. In fact, she's much more likely to be the one who does it last — maybe near the end of the series when she and the main character become the Official Couple. The logic behind this is that she's the one whom the main character loves (even if he doesn't want to admit it or doesn't realize it himself); if she showed him romantic affection, then he would immediately choose her. That's tantamount to throwing the Romance Arc (or in some genres, the whole plot) out the window, and we can't have that.

Of course, a writer can't outright admit that's what they're doing, which is why you can expect an in-universe justification for how these two people met so early and took so long to figure out they belong together. Their first impression of each other may be immense dislike or possibly indifference. Complications will abound, Romantic False Leads will show up, misunderstandings will arise between them, pride and denial will keep them apart. In extreme cases, it may turn out her apparent lack of interest in him was a major turn-on. Paradoxically enough, nothing screams "major romance incoming" like this sort of thing. A more subtle tactic is to get the First Girl "off the radar" somehow — Demoted to Extra, Put on a Bus and similar tactics — but this adds the additional challenge of bringing her out of exile in a believable way.

Inevitably, most shippers will already have their own idea of who the "right" girl is, so if she might conceivably have any sort of claim to being the First Girl they will gleefully reach out to put this feather in their Ship's cap. Given the above ambiguity of what exactly it means for a girl to be the "First", it's not a surprise that the question of which girl was first tends to become yet another front of Ship-to-Ship Combat.

Be warned before you proceed. "Winning", in this sense, tends to be very spoileriffic.

See also Victorious Childhood Friend and First Girl After All. Contrast Second Love and Last Girl Wins.

Be wary of adding Beta Couple examples. Their lack of screen-time means the "introduce the relationship early to get space for development" consideration becomes crucial, and as a result meeting "first" is all but a staple of the Beta Couple. They will sometimes have obvious C-List Fodder Romantic False Leads in orbit that we're not supposed to take seriously, but that's pretty much it. For those, list aversions, or instances where more than one possible relationship involving a cast regular gets seriously played up but the "first" one ends up winning anyway.


Examples

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  • In Ai Kora, Sakurako is the first girl introduced as Maeda comes to Tokyo, and they are arguably the closest couple. Though, Maeda actually wants all the girls (for a special reason) and quite a few of the other girls want him too. In the end, Sakurako is the one he falls for.
  • It's made very clear early on in Ai Yori Aoshi that Aoi has already "won" Kaoru, and vice-versa. The fact that they are forced to hide the relationship amongst the Unwanted Harem is when Hilarity Ensues.
  • Albegas: While Daisaku is a Hormone-Addled Teenager and would chase any woman he could lay his hands on, it's his co-star Hotaru who he thinks of the most thanks to her big breasts.
  • Bleach:
    • Souken Ishida's wife assigned Kanae Katagiri to her son Ryuuken when they were very young children, then organised an Arranged Marriage between Ryuuken and her niece when they were teenagers. Ryuuken was socially compatible but romantically incompatible with his cousin while being socially incompatible and romantically compatible with Kanae. When Aizen accidentally ruins the viability of the future marriage, Ryuuken is finally allowed to marry Kanae. Ryuuken's cousin, Masaki Kurosaki, is also permitted to marry her love, Isshin Shiba.
    • Out of Ichigo's female friends, Rukia is the first one seen by the audience whereas Tatsuki is said to be the first one he met. Then it's subverted because Ichigo marries Orihime, the girl who is both the second female friend he made AND the second one introduced.
    • By the end of the series, Rukia married the first guy in her backstory and life, Renji Abarai.
  • Blue Flag: Played with. Midway through the plot, it's revealed that the characters aren't in the love triangle they suspected. At the start, Taichi was playing The Matchmaker for Cute Clumsy Girl Kuze and his own Childhood Friend Touma while falling for her, but it's later shown that both characters end up in love with Taichi himself. While at first he turns down Touma and starts dating Kuze, the Distant Finale inverts this, with 7 years later, Kuze and him have broken up, and he has since been Happily Married to Touma.
  • Bunny Drop: Daikichi ends up marrying the now-adult Rin in the end. Yes, that Rin. The 6-year-old he adopts at the beginning of the series. Averted in the anime and live action adaptations, which imply he ends up with Kouki's mother.
  • Captain Tsubasa loved to play around with this at the beginning. The first girl shown is NOT the female lead Sanae but Tsubasa's old friend Yayoi Aoba, who's seen when he is moving to Shizuoka and she barely manages to say goodbye to him. This is brought up later when Yayoi reappears with a crush on Tsubasa, much to Sanae's despair... but several years later, Yayoi hangs out more with Jun Misugi than Tsubasa himself. He later comes to acknowledge and return Sanae's feelings for him.
  • Like its sister manga, Ceres, Celestial Legend does this with Aya and Tooya: Tooya is the first guy Aya kisses, and Aya in turn is the first girl Tooya meets. Yup, even in childhood.
  • Subverted in Code Geass when Shirley reveals that she has feelings for Lelouch (to Rolo), and is promptly killed (though not exactly for that reason).
  • Combattler V: Protagonist Hyoma ends up with Chizuru, Prof. Nanbara's granddaughter, who's the first girl he met upon entering the labratory. Impressive, since the rest of the Five-Man Band had the hots for her too.
  • Digimon Tamers: Juri and Ruki both make their debut in the first episode, and both have Ship Tease with the main protagonist, Takato. However, Juri is the first girl whom Takato interacts with, and she's the one whom Takato has feelings for. Per Konaka's notes, Takato is falling in love with Juri, but he doesn't realize it until the antepenultimate episode, where he admits as much to his cousin Kai. The final episode shows that Juri reciprocates Takato's feelings, and as revealed in the 2018 CD Drama, Takato and Juri are engaged.
  • Domestic Girlfriend: Played with by making it ambiguous as to which one counts as "first." Literally the first page of the story started with Rui and Natsuo having sex, but they just did it for the experience, and Natsuo was trying to get over his crush on Hina. He gets closer to both girls over the course of the story at about the same rate, but ends up dating Hina. Except because she's his teacher, it doesn't last long; soon she has to quit to avoid a scandal, and she breaks up with him. Much later, Natsuo ends up dating Rui for real, and even though they have to hide it, their relationship is much more stable than Natsuo and Hina's. One of the themes of the manga is that first loves, while real and important, are generally too innocent to last forever. In particular, Natsuo's relationship with Hina parallels her own failed relationship with her teacher.
    • In the end, Natsuo does end up marrying Hina, his first love.
  • Chi-Chi from Dragon Ball. She's introduced very early on, and a throwaway joke has Goku confuse her offering of marriage for something you eat. Much later during the Red Ribbon Arc, Goku is rescued by Suno, and she takes an immediate and more obvious interest in Goku. Despite this, it would ultimately be Chi-Chi who wins out when she confronts Goku at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai to take him up on the marriage.
    • It is worth noting that the anime makes the pairing with Chi-Chi more obvious, as the first Red Ribbon arc is expanded with a return to Chi-Chi where the marriage confusion is re-emphasized, Goku sees a vision of Chi-Chi in one of Korin's "time pots", and Goku bumps into Chi-Chi during the Daimao arc on the way to confront him again (Goku had already re-met Chi-Chi in the manga when this episode aired, making this Foreshadowing in the anime). In addition, several episodes during the two training filler arcs take inspiration from Suno, where Goku meets cute girls around his age who take an interest in him, only emphasizing this trope.
  • Miyako from ef: A Tale of Memories may not technically be the first girl Hiro meets, but she is the first girl introduced to him in the anime.
  • Elfen Lied:
    • The first main character shown is Lucy (aka. Nyu), with whom Kohta does not actually end up. He instead ends up with the first one he meets — his cousin Yuka.note  Although Yuka's insecurity and paranoia could lead her to believe otherwise, the other girls who boarded with them (Mayu, Nana and Nozomi) never really had a chance in the Unwanted Harem, and most of them simply didn't really like Kohta in that way.
    • In the anime the outcome is different. Kohta briefly reciprocates Yuka's feelings with a kiss, but almost immediately after forgets he ever kissed and it's never mentioned again. At the end of the anime he appears to have gotten with no one, but it is hinted Lucy returns to him.
  • Excel♡Saga pays homage to this — the designer of a pair of Ridiculously Human Robots gave them "imprinting" so they would love the first things they see. "Like," he explains, "a dating simulation game."
  • Louise is the first person Saito sees upon being summoned in The Familiar of Zero.
  • Flame of Recca: Sakoshita Yanagi and Kirisawa Fuuko both like Hanabishi Recca, but Yanagi is guaranteed to win since she is introduced first. However, as the story goes on, Fuuko's interest shifts from Recca to Ishijima Domon, giving her a happier end than most later-introduced love interests.
  • Fruits Basket has the trope and a Gender Flipped subversion: The main female character, Honda Tohru, meets Sohma Yuki before Sohma Kyo but develops mutual romantic feelings for Kyo. Later, Yuki starts a relationship with the first student council girl introduced, Kuragi Machi. Played with, however, in the manga: when discussing the various Zodiac signs, Tohru makes reference to the Cat first, which turns out to be the animal Kyo is cursed with. In the flashback which introduces the story, Tohru's mother tells her the story of the zodiac and how the Cat was tricked by the Rat; Tohru insists that from that moment on, she is going to "be" a Cat. It also may be relevant that Tohru's Mom knew Kyo well before Tohru did.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist manga and second anime: Winry wins. It probably helps that Ed really has more important things to do than be in a relationship, and he seems to be Winry-Sexual.
  • In Full Metal Panic!, although Sousuke knew Tessa before Kaname, the first girl who is introduced is Kaname. She's also the first girl to show (at least to the audience — obviously, Tessa had already been romantically interested in him offscreen) romantic interest in Sousuke. And she's also one of the last girls to admit her feelings for him. This makes Tessa something of a sort of Unlucky Childhood Friend (although she didn't know him since childhood — just much earlier than Kaname did). Interestingly enough, it's been speculated by quite a few fans that if he had actually met Nami (from the novels) before Kaname, he would have fallen for her (seeing as how, after spending a little time with her, and even after having already fallen in love with Kaname, he started developing feelings for her and even considered settling down with her).
  • Fushigi Yuugi:
    • Gender Flipped: Hotohori, Tamahome, Nuriko (maybe) and Tasuki all like Yuuki Miaka. Tamahome was the first guy introduced. Draw your own conclusions.
    • Fushigi Yuugi plays this straight and subverts it with Miaka (first girl introduced in the series) and Tamahome (first Seishi whom Miaka meets). And no, we're not counting the fact that Yui and Tamahome met at the same time.
  • In the first The Garden of Sinners movie, Shiki invokes this during her second fight with Fujyou about Mikiya.
  • In GUNĂ—SWORD, the first girl Van encounters in series is Wendy. The first girl he met chronologically would be Elena, assuming that dead women count. His devotion to Elena keeps him a Celibate Hero throughout the series, but the finale hints that Van and Wendy will end up as a couple, albeit after a delay of a few years.
  • Hanaukyō Maid Team:
    • Subverted in Season 1. While Mariel "won", the first girl Taro met was Sango, who was also his first kiss, and by the end of the first episode she and her sisters had all slept with him.
    • Played straight in La Verite. Taro met Mariel first and fell in love with her.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler: Nagi Sanzen'in is the first girl introduced, with Hayate Ayasaki, having gone past the Despair Event Horizon after being abandoned by his parents and sold to the yakuza, attempts to kidnap her (something she mistakes for a Love Confession). He ends up saving her instead after she's kidnapped by other people, and she hires him to be a butler in gratitude. While numerous other girls would fall for Hayate (or at least be teased with him), Nagi's act of kindness is the seed that grows into an intense emotional bond between the two, to such an extent that serving her and protecting her becomes Hayate's reason for being. While Hayate's feelings for Nagi are purely platonic for 99% of the manga, it lays the foundation for the post-Time Skip Relationship Upgrade in the final chapter.
  • Played with in Heavy Metal L-Gaim: Amu is the first girl that shows up in the show, and Daba eventually accepts her feelings about Leccee's. However, it turns out that Daba met his sister Olibee as part of the show's backstory and he chooses to become her caretaker after the war ends.
  • Hello! Sandybell: Both Sandybell and Marc are this to each other. Over the show they both accumulate their own fair share of unrequited admirers, but that doesn't change the fact that they met for the first time at the house of the Countess of Wellington and eventually end as an Official Couple.
  • Gender-flipped in Howl's Moving Castle, where the first guy Sophie met was Howl. Howl, on the other hand, has met several other women.
  • In I Am Here!, it's played with, as both contenders are "first guys." Hinata was the first person who "noticed" Hikage, the first to confess to her, and the first love interest introduced. But Black Rabbitrevealed to be Teru — is Hikage's first friend, the first to support her, and knew her first. And while Hinata was introduced before Black Rabbit, Hinata and Teru were introduced into the series at the same time. In the end, Hikage chooses to be with Hinata instead of Teru.
  • Inuyasha: Inuyasha and Kikyou had vowed to marry before being torn apart by Naraku. Kagome heals Inuyasha's heart, but their romance is complicated by the resurrection of Kikyou by dark magic. Being officially obliged to both women, Inuyasha cannot give up either, a situation only resolved when Kikyou is able to rest in peace, allowing him to move on with Kagome. However, while Kagome and Kikyou are two different women, Kagome is Kikyou's reincarnated soul. This results in a strange combination of First Girl Wins and Second Love at the same time.
  • Subverted in the manga of Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl. In the anime she wins at first, but this gets "corrected" in the OVA — in a way most fans found quite contrived.
  • Played straight in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple. Ma Renka tells Miu: "He only saw you first. That's all there is!".
  • Kimagure Orange Road: Kyosuke meets Madoka long before Hikaru's in the picture. A couple of days max. Now Madoka meeting Kyosuke... time travel is fun!
  • Love Hina: Naru Narusegawa is the first girl introduced, and despite Motoko Aoyama, Shinobu Maehara, Mutsumi Otohime and even his adopted sister Kanako also liking Keitaro Urashima, the pairing of Naru and Keitaro is inevitable. Additionally, Keitaro met Naru long before any of the others (except Mutsumi) as a child. She is one of the two girls he made the Tokyo U promise with long ago. (The other was Mutsumi).
  • Macross:
  • The Mazinger series:
    • Mazinger Z: Sayaka was the first girl introduced in the series, and Love Interest of The Hero Kouji Kabuto. In the anime she was the second female character introduced, though, but she was the first girl introduced that was a potential couple for Kouji (unlike Rumi, who was an adult woman, more of a Cool Big Sis figure than anything... and was, well, dead).
    • Great Mazinger: Jun Hono also was the first girl that showed up in the series. Her and Tetsuya's Belligerent Sexual Tension lasted the whole series.
    • UFO Robo Grendizer: The trope gets complicated with this series: Hikaru was the first girl that showed up in the series, and Duke was pretty smitten with her. However, later we found out that long ago the beginning of the show he had been engaged with Rubina, Big Bad's daughter, and he was still in love with her. However, Rubina died and Duke left Earth after the Final Battle.
  • In Martian Successor Nadesico, after Akito both ran into Yurika before anyone else and later bring up their shared childhood on Mars, all of the other girls lost right there and then.
  • In Midori Days, although Seiji had asked out another girl earlier, the first girl who was properly introduced was Midori, who of course (as this trope goes) wins out against the various other girls introduced later. Midori also had the advantage of being the title character.
  • Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Fa ends up with Kamille, by virture of being the only love interest left alive. And only after he recovered from his Mind Rape at the end of the series in the sequel. The Compilation Movie does have an alternate ending where said Mind Rape doesn't happen.
  • Played with in Monster Musume, Miia insists that since she was the first to move in with Kimihito, she's got dibs. Cerea quickly tells her to stuff it.
  • Although it's something of a Foregone Conclusion, in My Bride is a Mermaid, despite the fact that Lunar, the Class Representative, Mawari, and possibly Akeno are all interested in him, it's obvious from about the second episode that Nagasumi is dedicated to San.
  • In My-HiME, this is played straight for Mai, as Yuuichi s the first boy she meets in the series besides her brother. In the manga, in which Yuuichi is the main character instead, he meets Mai first, although he has known Shiho in the past (who averts this trope).
  • Naruto:
    • While the first girl Naruto crushed on was his teammate Sakura, the Canon movie The Last reveals that he met his future wife Hinata — the first and only girl to show a genuine interest in him — on a snowy day before they enrolled in the Academy, before he met Sakura. Also on a meta level, according to the first databook, Kishimoto created Hinata before Sakuranote , and the only reason he added Sakura into the story is because his editor told him to.
    • Sakura was Sasuke's first female teammate, and she marries him in the epilogue.
  • Omamori Himari:
    • At least three possible interpretations in Omamori Himari — Kuesu was the first girl Yuuto kissed (when they were children), Rinko was the first girl Yuuto met when he moved out to live on his own, and Himari was the first girl to appear in the series. Right now it seems that the series is going in the direction of having Yuuto and Himari be the Official Couple.
    • Subverted in Himari and Rinko's case in the manga finale. All the girls (yes, even the bad-turned-good ones that wasn't even part of the harem) jumped on him when he was in a coma, with the EXCEPTION of Himari and Rinko. Yuuto was trying to find the former in limbo, while the latter was locked out of the loop.
  • In Ouran High School Host Club, Haruhi falls for the first Host guy she meets, Tamaki. It does take her nearly the entire length of the manga to realize it though...
  • Averted in the manga Outlanders (the much-abridged OVA manages to avoid the subject altogether by paring down the cast and storyline considerably). The first girl that we're introduced to is Aki Okizawa, the coworker and boss of protagonist Tetsuya Wakatsuki, but he winds up marrying alien princess Kham — who tries to kill him when first they meet, later kidnaps him, and is finally won over by him...before being brainwashed into trying to once again kill him, by the most overprotective father in the universe. But even then Tetsuya remains faithful to her, rather than turning to another, less abusive member of his modestly-sized harem.
  • Please Teacher!: Kazami Mizuho is introduced to the audience before Herikawa Koishi is, leading to her inevitable romantic pairing with Kusanagi Kei.
  • Please Twins!: Miyafuji Miina meets the main male character, Kamishiro Maiku, before Onodera Karen does, and Miina also shows up at Maiku's house before Karen. Then, in the end, it turns out that Karen is Maiku's twin sister while Miina is unrelated to them, thus allowing her to end up in a romantic relationship with Maiku.
  • Implied in PokĂ©mon: The Series. The two female companions Ash had the most amount of Ship Tease with are Misty, the original female companion and the one he's last seen with before the franchise's Changing of the Guard. And Serena, who has an open crush on him to go along with first meeting him as a child.
  • Psychic Academy has two twists. First, Ai spends a third of the manga thinking that the first girl was Orina when it was really Myuu, and second, she wins posthumously.
  • The Quintessential Quintuplets: The story had the trope being played and flipped around quite a bit, since almost every girl had something to be considered "the first" in their relationship to male lead Fuutarou. In order:
    • Itsuki is the first quintuplet to be introduced in the story and the first who gets to meet Fuutarou's family, but is also the only one who doesn't develop romantic feelings, instead developing a Vitriolic Best Buds dynamic with him.
    • Miku is the first quintuplet who admits honestly to falling in love with Fuutarou on-screen, but loses her chance due to being afraid of confessing to him and constantly delaying it.
    • Nino is the first quintuplet who delivers a sincere Love Confession to Fuutarou, despite starting as the most hostile to him and being the last to accept him as their tutor. She later tries to invoke the trope by trying to be the first to kiss him, but doesn't get the chance to do so.
    • Ichika is a complicated case. She tries to invoke the trope by attempting to be the first to confess to Fuutarou, but Nino beats her to the punch. Her desperation leads her to sabotage Miku's own attempt to confess, and then tries to tell him that she was the girl he met in Kyoto six years ago, but due to her deception, he doesn't believe her (and also, while they did meet as kids, she never was the first one).
    • Finally, Yotsuba is the first quintuplet to support him as their tutor, the first one to have a date with him (notably averting Not a Date by calling it such), the first one to confess that she likes him (albeit she tries to pass it off as a joke) and the first one to kiss him (she did so disguised as Itsuki under the Bell of Vows). She was also the first one he met in Kyoto as children and took his photo with, thus making her the first one to fall in love with him, and ends up being the one who marries Fuutarou, turning her into First Girl After All.
  • Random Walk zigzags the trope. High schooler Yuka just broke up with her boyfriend, and decides to start afresh to find her One True Love. After two failed romances with Nozomu and Kaito, her middle school boyfriend (the one she broke up with at the start of the story) comes to beg her to take him back. Yuka eventually agrees, and Touko lampshades this trope by saying that the first boyfriend must be the most special, only for Yuka to reveal that Hikaru is not her first boyfriend — her good friend Hiro is. By the end of the series, she breaks up with Hikaru (again), and ends up with Towa, who might not be the first guy to be shown, or introduced, on-screen, but is probably the first guy she meets in-universe, as he came into her life when she was still in 6th grade.
  • Ranma ½ manages to invoke both this and Last Girl Wins at the same time; Akane is the first fiancee introduced in the series (although she is the last Tendo girl seen), serves as the primary love interest, is considered the feminine half of the Official Couple, and takes up the most screentime of any of the fiancee brigade. But she's the very last of the three official fiancĂ©es that Ranma meets. Although admittedly Status Quo Is God means that even after an Anguished Declaration of Love from Ranma to Akane, they still don't actually get married in-series.
  • At the very beginning of Rosario + Vampire, Tsukune first meets Moka (the first fellow Yokai student, friend, monster and member of his harem he ever meets in the series) after she runs him over with her bike. Not only does she become his closest friend and the only member of his harem who’s feelings he returns, but the feelings are mutual.
  • While there's no real confirmation of this in the show itself, it sure seems as though Lime wins out at the end of Saber Marionette J, given that she seems to get the most attention from Otaru. Now... J to X, that's another story.
  • Sailor Moon: Mamoru and Usagi take the trope to the extreme, as they met in their previous life.
  • While the true situation is slightly complicated in Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, in the eyes of Nozomu, the titular sensei, the First Girl (Fuura Kafuka, the first student of his he met) did Win. The truth is Kafuka was Dead All Along, and her organs were transplanted into twelve of Nozomu's students, causing the students and Nozomu to see Kafuka in the place of any one student at a time. In Nozomu's eyes, he married Kafuka and Kafuka alone, making it this trope. On paper it's an endless cycle of marriage and divorce between Nozomu and the twelve students. To outsiders, though, it looks like Marry Them All. For what it's worth, all the girls have children by him...that look eerily like Kafuka.
  • Played with in School Days. The first girl the audience sees is Kotonoha Katsura (better said, her photo in Makoto's cellphone), Sekai Saionji is the first girl we see him interact with, and Otome Katou is the first of all his possible love interests that he ever met (during junior high times; he only met the others in high school). Katsura ends up 'with' the guy in the end. Assuming cuddling the decapitated head of the protagonist while drifting off into the sunset on a nice boat counts as 'with'.
  • School Rumble: By the end, it's obvious that Tenma's endless devotion to Karasuma has paid off, even if he lost his memories.
  • In Sorcerer Hunters, Carrot met both Misu sisters at the same time, but Tira was the first sister introduced in the manga and the one Carrot marries at the end. This doesn't stop Chocolat, as she can be seen having snuck into their bed to be with Carrot after the marriage since she wants him to live up to his promise to let her bear his first child.
  • Steel Angel Kurumi: both Kurumi and Karinka like Kagura Nakaito, but Kurumi is introduced first (and has the extra advantage of being the title character).
  • Superior has a particularly twisted example of this this trope involving Exa and Sheila. They met back when they were both relatively young. Unfortunately, this was right after Sheila got done slaughtering everyone in Exa's home town. Neither saw the other clearly enough to recognize them when they meet again years later.
  • Asuna is the first of Kirito's love interests he meets in Sword Art Online. They end up Happily Married after Kirito is nearly killed. Unlike most examples of this trope, this happens relatively early on; episode 10 in the anime, and chapter 16 in the light novels.
  • Played straight in the Tenchi Universe continuity: Ryoko does "win" this time around. She's strongly hinted to be the one to end up with him near the series' climax, and does concretely end up with him by the end of Tenchi Forever. Interestingly, a tie-in manga set during the same movie also seems to suggest that Sasami is the winner instead, but that's further down in the future.
  • Toradora! is another prominent example for this trope as it seems obvious from the beginning that the main characters Ryuuji and Taiga, who are introduced simultaneously in the first scenes of the show, later become a couple. Nevertheless, the way to that outcome is executed in such a wonderful and lovely manner that the show still won't be boring for anyone who does see it coming.
  • True Tears has the main character choosing Hiromi at the end, who is the first girl introduced and the first girl he crosses paths with.
  • Umi no Misaki, by the same mangaka as Ai Yori Aoshi, is still up in the air as to who "wins," and is doing its best to manipulate this trope for all it's worth. Each girl can count as a different "first" for Nagi: Shizuku is the first girl he meets, Karin is the first who realizes and confesses her feelings to him, and Soyogi is his First Kiss (not counting Shizuku giving him CPR) as well as the first to make further overtures towards gaining his "favor" in the same night. Each girl has roughly equal potential to win, at this point. This was lampshaded when Karin and Soyogi realize that Shizuku may have had a leg up on them because he met her first.
  • In Urusei Yatsura, the first girl introduced is Shinobu, but Ataru ends up with Lum, which seems like a subversion... but Lum's popularity took the author by surprise and at the start of the series Shinobu was intended to be the girl Ataru ended up with.
  • In Vandread, Dita Liebely is the first female with whom Hibiki has personal contact. In the end she gets to hop on the space ship home with him.
  • Hak in Yona of the Dawn is the first male character besides Yona's father to be introduced in both the manga and anime, by insulting her, no less. That said, he already has had feelings for her for years, and Yona slowly comes to fall for him as the manga goes on despite the introduction of other possible romantic interests. Ironically, though he is the first guy introduced, he is also Yona's Second Love.

    Comic Books 
  • In Archie, Betty was intended to be this, but usually on a day to day basis Veronica is his girlfriend and Betty just wants to be; the days when Betty was Archie's sole love interest and Veronica hadn't yet come to town are unknown to modern readerships.
  • The Incredible Hulk: Betty Ross was Bruce Banner's first canonical love interest, and the one that the writers will always come back to.
  • Played straight in Captain Atom: Plastique appears in the second issue, before Cap meets Nightshade, Catherine Cobert, or the Crimson Fox.
  • Played straight in Nexus, since Horatio meets Sundra first; it didn't hurt that her only real competition, Ursula, is one of the villains. Also sort of averted though, in a manner similar to what happened with Superman, since it was revealed in Nexus: Liberator that Horatio had had another love interest, Juyl, before he met Sundra.
  • Robin (1993): Tim Drake met Stephanie months before meeting his first girlfriend Ariana. He later breaks up with Ariana to date Steph, and Convergence shows that even after all the trials their relationship faced he and Steph are happily together in the end.
  • Spider-Man: Played straight in the Ultimate comics where Peter and Mary Jane are childhood friends and fellow bookworms.
  • In Superman & Batman: Generations, Lana Lang was Superman's first love, before she used Merlin's staff to become a superheroine in her own right. Then there was Lois Lane, whom he met at a junket of journalist students in Gotham City, whom he fell in love with and married, fathering two children, Joel and Kara Kent. However, Joel, resentful that he was the only offspring of Superman born without any powers, gained temporary powers through his association with Lex Luthor, who was secretly the Ultra-Humanite using Luthor's body as a house for his brain, and with them killed his sister before the temporary powers destroyed him, while Luthor himself killed a very frail and aged Lois. Superman was left a widower for centuries until Lana Lang again came into his life, having now become immortal with eternal youth through her magic, and she became Superman's second wife in his later years.
  • X-Men: Jean was Scott's first love... until she died in The Dark Phoenix Saga. And then she came back. And then, later, they got married. For a few years, anyway, before Emma Frost showed up... but they are STILL Happily Married to a lot of fans. You can say she lost though, since she was actually his second wife. Even if his first wife was an identical clone of her...

    Comic Strips 
  • Two of the three Patterson children in For Better or for Worse get this trope. Mike marries a girl he had a crush on in preschool, with her having moved when they were still little, and they reconnect in college. Elizabeth ends up with her high school boyfriend. After they broke up, he got married, had a kid, and got divorced, and she dated a number of other guys before getting back together with the most milquetoasty one near the end of the strip's run, almost as an afterthought.

    Fan Works 
  • Subverted male example in Gankona, Unnachgiebig, UnitĂ : Between Germany and Japan, Italy chose Germany and Japan, therefore entering into a polyamorous relationship with them both. In other words, both won.
  • In the Tales of the Frog Princess fanfiction Confessions of a Vampire Prince, Garrid's two best friends are Andrea ("Andy") and Ben. Ben dates a girl named Miranda, oblivious to Andy's love for him. In the second-to-last chapter, Miranda dumps him. Guess who he ends up with.
  • Gender-inverted example in Empath: The Luckiest Smurf, where Hefty is the first Smurf that Smurfette meets (back before she was a real Smurf). However, in the normal timeline, she never ends up falling in love with or marrying Hefty, which makes him upset at first, but he ultimately decides to resolve matters with his rival Empath before the marriage. It's only in the alternate timeline, where Empath ends up going back to Psychelia and becoming the next Psyche Master, that Smurfette falls in love with and marries Hefty.
  • In Hero: The Guardian Smurf, Smurfette is Hero's first love interest. But then came his Opposite-Sex Clone and Second Love Wonder, who he then married a few years later and had a daughter with. Smurfette, who was jealous but willing to remain faithful only to Hero as her One True Love, waits until Wonder dies before she is married with Hero, whom she stays with and has a daughter with until he passes away.
  • The Child of Love: Asuka is the first girl shows up in the story. Shinji got her pregnant and throughout her pregnancy they must come to terms with their imminent parenthood and repair their strained relationship, eventually getting together.
  • Evangelion 303: Asuka is the first girl that shows up in the history, and the first girl that Shinji meets when he arrives to the base. They got together.
  • Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Asuka is the first girl shows up in the story, and she is the one Shinji falls in love with and eventually hooks up with.
  • My Lesbian Life with Monster Girls: Monster Yurisume: Yuisu ends up in a relationship with Haru, her first homestay.
  • Break Your Heart: Rainbow Dash ends up with Fluttershy.
  • Yin and Yang Series: Played straight at first. Romama and Kodada (childhood sweethearts) DO end up as a couple, but the pairing doesn't last too long.
  • In My Huntsman Academia Yang and Ruby are the first two girls to meet Izuku after Ruby literally steps on and trips over him. Yang is the first one to ask him out and becomes his girlfriend.
  • White Sheep (RWBY): Jaune marries the first person he ever met that wasn't part of his mother's faction: Yang. The final scene suggests Yang's also sharing him with his first friend, Ruby.
  • Gender-flipped in the Dragon Age: Inquisition AU Beyond Heroes: Of Sunshine and Red Lyrium. Varric was the first man Bethany got to know after her family moved to Kirkwall, and they're married by the end of the story.
  • In Archie Comics story Maybe the Last Archie Story, Betty Cooper is the first girl who appears, and the one who Archie ultimately chooses.
  • From the Doug fanfic Dear Journal: I'm Crazy: the day after he is cleared to leave the psych ward, Doug finally musters up the courage to tell Patti everything, including his crush on her. Luckily for him, she understands everything, and she reveals that she has been feeling the same way about him for a long time. From that day on, Doug and Patti are in a committed relationship.

    Film - Live-Action 
  • This trope is a staple of teen movies where the main character will spend the whole movie going after one girl because All Guys Want Cheerleaders, but ends up realizing his Hollywood Homely best friend is the girl for him. There are too many examples to list here.
    • In The New Guy, at the end the main character and his female friend have a close moment, complete with poetic music... Then she reaches over and snogs another of their group instead. Then the cheerleader comes back to him.
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Daisy is the first girl that Benjamin meets outside the old folks' home. Although he has a relationship with Elizabeth and a couple of flings along the way, it is Daisy who is his one true love. It turns out he's actually Caroline's birth father. This trope is actually subverted with Daisy herself, though. Benjamin leaves her to allow Caroline to have a normal life, and Daisy ends up Happily Married to another man.
  • In Definitely, Maybe, the mother of Maya is Emily, getting together again with Will after spending years apart. Subverted in that the two of them are divorced in the present.
  • Averted in Ed Wood, if only because it was a biopic. May be an example of Reality Is Unrealistic.
  • The film version of Flower Drum Song:
    • While the stage version opens with Ta and Linda on a date, the first time Linda is introduced, we see her winking at Sammy. They are a Beta Couple but Linda first pursues Ta when she thinks Sammy won't marry her, only to eventually come back to him.
    • Mei Li likewise is the first character we meet in the story, and she is who Ta will end up with.
  • The Hunger Games: Katniss Everdeen met Peeta first, he declared his feelings for her first, and she never did develop romantic feelings for Gale.
  • Indiana Jones: Over the course of four movies, Indiana Jones has had several lovers. The first one he knows chronologically is adventurous Marion Ravenwood, whom he knew as a young adult while studying with her father, and met again during the first movie's events. During the prequel second movie, set between the times of Indiana's times with Marion, he meets lounge singer Willie Scott, and in the third he has a fling with the scholarly Elsa Schnieder. In the fourth movie, he finds Marion once again and the romance blossoms despite them not having seen each other in 20 years. At the end of the film they end up marrying.
    Marion: I'm sure I wasn't the only one to go on with my life! There must have been plenty of women for you over the years.
    Indy: There were a few, yeah, but they all had the same problem.
    Marion: Oh yeah? What's that??
    Indy: They weren't you, honey.
    Marion has a soft smile on her face.
  • Subverted several times in the James Bond franchise. The major love interest can sometimes be the first woman (besides Miss Moneypenny or Judi Dench's "M") that Bond meets in the film, but because James is a such a womanizer, the first girl he meets will often be either a quick fling, or a quick fling that ends in the woman's untimely and bizarre death, a la Casino Royale (2006), GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, You Only Live Twice'', and so on.
    • In fact, this happens often enough that one might say that the Bond films tend to follow the Last Girl Wins trope rather faithfully.
    • Only in the context of a single movie. By the next one he'll be with another girl, so it's either No Girl Wins (if the goal is to be Bond's stable long term love interest) or Every (Hot) Girl Wins (if the goal is just to get to have sex with him).
    • Notably, the only women Bond ever loved were not the First Girls of his chronological life, though one was the first girl of that particular film/novel.
  • Liberal Arts ends with protagonist Jesse Fisher getting together with Ana, the Hot Librarian in the library where he constantly visits seen in the beginning of the film before female protagonist Zibby is even introduced.
  • Little Women (2019) uses its Anachronic Order structure to play this trope straight. While following the linear timeline that the book and other adaptations use, Laurie first falls in love with Jo, gets rejected and eventually marries Amy — in this film, Laurie's first scene is with the now-grown up Amy and it establishes him as her love interest.
  • Poor Things: Bella has sexual relations with many men and at least one woman, as well as a serious love interest in Duncan, but she eventually ends up marrying Max, the first man outside of Dr. Baxter that she'd ever even met and the first person she fell in love with.
  • Averted in Scaramouche, where Andre Moreau ends up married to the woman he met half an hour into the movie over the woman he was engaged to at the beginning.
  • Sky High (2005) ends with the Childhood Friend Romance of Will and Layla instead of Big Bad Hidden Villain Gwen.
  • In the Spider-Man Trilogy, Peter had a crush on Mary Jane since long before boys are even supposed to like girls, and only ever looks at any other girl when he suddenly had the urge to hurt her (and even then only when he's been corrupted by an alien symbiote).
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming establishes that Michelle Jones and Peter have known each other for a while and she seems to like him, although Peter spends most of the movie chasing his crush, Liz Toomes. Then the end of the movie establishes that Michelle's nickname is MJ, and sure enough, in Spider-Man: Far From Home, he starts to develop feelings for her. This gets subverted again in Spider-Man: No Way Home thanks to Peter's Heroic Sacrifice in which he has Doctor Strange erase people's memory of him to prevent a Cosmic Flaw.
  • Subverted in Too Many Husbands. Henry is introduced onscreen first, and Bill was Vicky's first husband, but neither guy really "wins." The court decides that Bill is Vicky's legal husband, but she declares herself unable to choose between them, and the last scene shows them both vowing to make her happy in the future.
  • Top Gun: Maverick: Penny Benjamin, the "admiral's daughter" Maverick is referenced as having had a fling with in the original film before his romance with Charlie, is actually the one he ends up coming back to and settling down with for good.
    Maverick: This is the last time I go out your window.
    Penny: [grinning] We'll see.
    Maverick: No. No, I mean it. [deadly serious] I'm never gonna leave you again.
  • In Unicorn City Marsha is quite obvious from her first interaction with Voss.
  • Male example in the Israeli movie The Wedding Plan. Shimi is the first man Michal sees in the movie, but he's married and he pops in and out periodically with many red herring suitors thrown in the way. But his First Girl status is confirmed at the end when he proposes and brings up this first meeting.
  • The World of Suzie Wong — Robert meets Suzie first on the ferry into Hong Kong, not meeting other potential love interest Kay until later.

    Literature 
  • 1Q84: While Tengo has had dalliances as an adult, he's never been able to forget Aomame. As such, he's never fully given his heart to any of his past girlfriends.
  • In Anahita's Woven Riddle, the prince Arash is established as the first of Anahita's potential suitors even before he and Anahita actually meet. Schoolteacher Reza and Unlucky Childhood Friend Dariyoush have no chance because their introductions come after Arash's (Dariyoush may have known Anahita for a long time, but we don't hear about him until after Arash's introductory chapter), not to mention that it's obviously Love at First Sight for Arash when he does meet Anahita.
  • Another male example in Jane Gardam's Bilgewater, although this is toyed with. You're led to believe that Terrapin will get together with the heroine, since he's the first boy her age to have a meaningful encounter with her and displays elements of Beautiful All Along... but a careful reader would see the first boy mentioned by name is Boakes, who she ends up marrying.
  • Played with in A Brother's Price. The first woman Jerin meets to whom he's not related is the Princess Odelia. The woman he falls in love with is her sister, Princess Ren. However, because in this world a man marries every sister in a family, he marries Ren and Odelia (and three other sisters of age, and several younger ones he's expected to care for until they're older), and he finds himself falling in love with Odelia, too. It's also mentioned that he was once in love with his teacher, since she was the first and for a long time only non-related woman with whom he had close contact, but that crush has passed.
  • The Cat Who... Series: To a small extent. In book #4 (The Cat Who Saw Red), Qwill is reunited with his first love, Joy; he admits that every woman he's ever been involved with since her, including his ex-wife, has reminded him of her. After she's murdered, he finally moves on.
  • In Coiling Dragon, Linley doesn't even notice when Delia smiles at him in their first class, but they end up together years later. At an auction, Delia spends a fortune to purchase a item proclaiming how Alice, the rival-in-love, gained and lost Linley's affection.
  • Reconstructed for Kelson in the Deryni novels.
    • He first marries Sidana, daughter of the Mearan Pretender and a human, in an effort to resolve the conflict with the Mearan separatists. The effort fails, and her brother kills her at the altar.
    • Later, Kelson meets Rothana nur Hallaj, a Deryni princess who is also a novice at a convent sacked by Mearans. Rothana is the first Deryni woman of his own age he's ever met, and she shares a rape victim's memory with him, which, as Morgan points out afterward, is an intensely intimate experience. Morgan and others suggest to both of them that they would make a suitable couple, and they make plans to wed, but Kelson and Dhugal are washed away in a mudslide and presumed dead. Kelson's cousin Conall plays upon Rothana's sense of duty and her sympathies, persuading her to marry him instead shortly before Kelson and Dhugal return.
    • Although Rothana is free to marry after Conall's execution, she plays Cupid for Kelson and his cousin Araxie Haldane, and we learn that Kelson had met Araxie and played with her when they were children. Thus, Araxie is the First Girl all along.
  • Yet another male example is in the Earth's Children series by Jean Auel. The female protagonist, Ayla, is told by her adoptive mother in the first book to leave the Clan of the Cave Bear and find her own kind (referred to by the Clan as the "Others"); more specifically, her dying mother tells her she must find a mate from among her own kind. In the second book, she meets Jondalar, who is not only a man of the Others, but the first "Other" she has met since she lost her family and got amnesia twelve years earlier. They fall in love by the end of the second book, and even though several more men fall in love with Ayla over the rest of the series, Ayla and Jondalar stay together, convinced they were destined to be together.
  • Pretty much the expected in The Edge Chronicles. Granted, Maris and Quint were a Late-Arrival Spoiler thanks to the first trilogy, but there's also Sinew Tatum (slaughterer girl Twig meets early in Beyond the Deepwoods), Madga Burlix (Chosen with Rook and Stob in The Last of the Sky Pirates), and Eudoxia Prade (the daughter of the man who owns the phraxmine Nate worked in in The Immortals).
  • Flowers for Algernon: Alice Kinnian is the first woman introduced in the story, as Charlie's teacher at the school for the mentally challenged and the one who suggested him as the first human test subject to increase one's intelligence. Charlie soon develops a crush on her, but Alice initially refuses to consider a relationship with Charlie, first because she doesn't want to interfere with the experiment, and then because Charlie begins to outstrip her in intelligence and she feels the relationship would be unequal. After some months, including Charlie disappearing, having a Friends with Benefits relationship with Fay, and him coming to conclusions about the experiment, he and Alice finally get together. However, they both know the relationship won't last: Charlie's conclusion was that the experiment failed and he would lose his intelligence as rapidly as he gained it. They both agree that the relationship will end as soon as Charlie sends her away, and Alice will try to forget him. When his intelligence deteriorates enough that he forgets he isn't in Alice's class anymore, he shows up ready to learn, only for her to run away heartbroken. He briefly remembers their past together and decides to leave for the state home so he doesn't hurt the ones he loves anymore (although one edition-namely the one made to look like Charlie's handwritten diary-hints he may have died before he could go to the home).
  • The Golden Demon: Kan'ichi has the eyes of two girls, first of Miya whom he was close with since he was adopted into her family and betrothed to her, and later of Mitsue after the Time Skip between the first volume and the rest of the book. It's Miya who gets together with him in the end despite their nasty breakup.
  • Harry Potter:
    • While the first girl Harry crushed on was Cho Chang, Ginny was the first girl of his generation with whom he ever crossed paths, both in the wizarding world and in the series (and the first one to show any interest in him). They get together in the sixth book and are married in the epilogue.
    • The first girl Ron meets outside his family is Hermione, and by the end, in spite of Ron's misconceptions about her and Harry's relationship, they're married, too.
  • Hive Mind (2016): Insecure Love Interest Lucas is convinced that Amber is going to dump him for her teen level boyfriend Atticus, but the trope is ultimately subverted as she stays with Lucas.
  • At the end of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, the widowed Henry rediscovers his lost childhood friend Keiko in New York, herself now a widowed parent.
  • In The Hunger Games, an early flashback reveals that Katniss met her future love interest and husband Peeta when he saved her from starving to death before she met Gale while hunting in the woods.
    • Technically she and Peeta met at the age of five on the first day of school but they never interacted until they were eleven.
  • In a science fiction example from The Lost Fleet, one of the first women "Black Jack" sees when he is woken from cryosleep is Captain Tanya Desanji, his future wife (and flag captain). While it is not noted if she is the ONLY woman there, she is the only one specifically mentioned.
  • Elend Venture in Mistborn: The Original Trilogy was the first boy Vin's own age to really talk to her. She eventually ends up marrying him, despite some nasty obstacles on the way.
  • In Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Annabeth is the first demigod female that Percy comes into contact with and they eventually get together at the end of the fifth book, after a long Just Friends relationship.
  • In a gender-flipped example illustrating the 'initial disinterest' principle, in Pride and Prejudice Mr. Darcy is the first man with whom Elizabeth is shown to really interact, but it's not until she's rejected a proposal from one man and toyed with the idea of marrying two others that she falls for him. Played with regarding the Beta Couple Jane and Bingley: he is the "first guy" who is even mentioned in the novel and marries the first girl he meets (or who is pushed at him) when he arrives at Netherfield. The narrative also mentions that he's the first man with whom she's ever considered herself to be even a little bit in love. However, from his perspective, his first girl is Georgiana Darcy, and his sister Caroline ships him with her.
  • Ranger's Apprentice: Will and Alyss grew up alongside each other in the ward, and were, in fact, the first two children in there in their age group, and they end up married in the end.
  • Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings, Fitz and Molly, though only after the Fools trilogy, not after the initial three books.
  • In Scaramouche, the two love interests are Aline, introduced in the second chapter as Andre-Louis's childhood friend who is about to get engaged to someone else, and Climene, whom he meets and immediately falls in love with nine chapters later. Andre-Louis nearly marries Climene, but it's Aline that he ends up with.
  • In Super Powereds, Camille gave Vince his first kiss long before the start of the story. She later ends up winning his love despite Sasha and Eliza both having spent time as his actual girlfriend.
  • Tortall Universe
    • Gender-flipped in Song of the Lioness, George is the first boy Alanna meets when she reaches Corus.
    • In the Trickster's Duet, Nawat is the first boy Aly meets who's her own age while she's in the Copper Isles. And when we say boy, we mean crow who can turn into a boy.
  • In Vampire Academy, Dimitri's relationship with Rose stands strong as the Official Couple in the end. He is the first guy Rose meets in Vampire Academy. Mason Ashford is introduced someone later and Adrian Ivashkov in Frostbite. They are the other two strong contenders for Rose's heart but are outclassed.
  • WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior: Kari was Eryk's One True Love in his first life, and is the first girl added to his harem in the Peggy Sue timeline and becomes Top Wife.

    Live Action TV  
  • Austin & Ally. Subverted early-Season 2, but played straight as of mid-Season 3. Coincidentally, Ally was the first girl Austin met and the first girl introduced in the show proper.
  • Beverly Hills, 90210 subverted it most of the time: Dylan picked Kelly over Brenda (several times), Brandon never actually got together with Andrea, neither Steve nor David ended up with Kelly (both, especially the latter, became a brother figure to her in later seasons).
  • Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World. Topanga is the first girl Cory speaks to outside his family, and the first girl he befriends. Though initially their relationship is a case of Slap-Slap-Kiss, they begin dating in the third season. Shortly after, however, they break up, but get back together a few months later. In Season 5, they break up again because Cory kisses another girl, but they quickly reunite. Finally, at their high school graduation, Topanga proposes to Cory, and they get married in the show’s final season.
  • ER with Doug and Carol... sort of. Subverted with Mark and Susan when she left the show, and when she came back he'd moved on and married.
  • Ephram and Amy in Everwood. Also Andy and Nina for some extent, although at first there was no clear sign of UST between them.
  • In Farscape, Aeryn Sun is the first Human-like female that John Crichton meets after his travel through the wormhole in the premiere. Naturally, they end up together.
  • Friends:
    • Ross and Rachel. It's revealed in the pilot episode that Ross has been in love with her for years even though he moved on with his life. She didn't reciprocate and the entire span of the show follows them falling in and out of love with each other, often completely out of sync with the other, so they're never in the same place at the same time. After several failed attempts, they finally get back together for good at the very end of the show.
    • A Season 5 Thanksgiving flashback to two Thanksgivings ten years before hand reveal that Chandler and Monica first met when Ross brought Chandler back from college for Thanksgiving two years in a row. Monica was immediately attracted to Chandler, but her attraction was killed when she overheard him calling her fat. She spent a year losing weight in a plan to get him back for calling her fat. The next year, he's completely bowled over by her new look, but her attempt to gain revenge for the previous year's insult results in a kitchen accident that leads to the loss of one of Chandler's toes and the death of his attraction to her. Unlike Ross and Rachel, however, once their interest in each other is rekindled in Season 5, they become a much more stable beta couple than the alpha couple.
  • Gilmore Girls also has a "first boy wins" situation with Luke and Lorelai. But it's averted with Rory, Lane and Paris, as neither Dean nor Dave nor Tristan stick to the end.
  • Played with in Glee. Will's first girlfriend was his wife Terri. However, it isn't portrayed as a good thing, as they are in an unhappy marriage. However, Emma was the first romantic interest of Will seen.
  • Gossip Girl:
    • Chuck and Blair. She's the first girl he ever had romantic feelings for and he never stops loving her, marrying her at the end of the series.
    • Dan's first love was Serena and the show ends with them getting married. Noted for being squicky rather than romantic since it turns out Dan is Gossip Girl and has been stalking and berating her online for years.
  • Quite obviously Grey's Anatomy with Derek and Meredith.
  • Played with in Hollyoaks: Craig was John Paul's first love, but not his first boyfriend. But after a break-up, a long period apart, and a fiance who got a bridge dropped on him, they end up together.
  • How I Met Your Mother:
    • Marshall and Lily. They are each other's first and only sexual partner (may be a technicality for Lily), a point of pride for the couple.
    • In the series finale it is implied that Ted and his first love interest on the show, Robin, do end up together following Barney and Robin's divorce and the tragic death of the mother of Ted's children.
  • Lost this can be seen to an extent with Kate/Jack, he ended up with her in the sense that they embraced death together. They were portrayed as soulmates. However, this is subverted when Juliet is proven to be Sawyer's soulmate.
  • Million Yen Women: The flash-back to the women moving into Shin's apartment shows that Hitomi was the first to arrive. She's also the one who ends up living with him permanently.
  • Modern Family: First Guy Wins with Haley and Dylan, who was introduced in Season 1 as Haley's first boyfriend. After they break up, Haley spends several seasons with various other Love Interests, before they get back together in Season 10, and later get married after Haley gets pregnant with Dylan's child.
  • Played with in Murdoch Mysteries with Constable George Crabtree and Edna Garrison. They meet in the very first episode of the series ("Power") when she's an animal rights activist protesting the planned electrocution of a dog to demonstrate the dangers of alternating current. The demonstration is sabotaged and a woman dies. George has to investigate Edna, who is found to have incriminating device plans, and the suspicion comes between them — at one point George says, "That ship has sailed." Several seasons pass, during which George has a budding romance with Dr. Grace that also fizzles out, partly over George's class insecurities. Edna reappears in the eighth season having married a soldier with a young son; she's recently received an official letter telling her she's a widow, and over the course of the season she and George rekindle their romance. Late in the season, after learning of his impending promotion to detective, he proposes marriage to her and she accepts. Just when the trio is discussing their new family life over dinner, Edna's first husband suddenly reappears and things go downhill fast.
  • A rather interesting gender-flipped subversion occurred in the Filipino series My Binondo Girl. Onyx, the protagonist Jade's childhood friend, was the first to be introduced. Word of God also stated that the original plan was indeed to have them end together. However, as the actor playing Onyx was sidelined by sickness, the writers chose to focus instead on the Jade-Andy (the second guy to be introduced) pairing. Eventually, the Jade-Andy pairing was declared as the Official Couple, and Onyx was turned into the Unlucky Childhood Friend and dies in the end.
  • Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide: In the Grand Finale, Ned does not end up with Suzie, but with Moze, his longtime best friend, who's been close to him since day one.
  • Happens for both of the Eppes brothers in NUMB3RS:
    • Right from the beginning of the series, Amita hangs around a lot more and works a lot more closely with Charlie than any other grad student, prompting both Don and Alan to comment on the romantic potential there. After two seasons of Will They or Won't They?, they get together in the beginning of Season 3 and stay together for the rest of the series, marrying in the series finale.
    • Though a couple of female characters are mentioned to be ex-girlfriends of Don's, the first woman we actually see him involved with is Robin Brooks. Though they break up six months later (her decision, not his, which is significant in and of itself), they end up getting back together after working a case together, and she accepts his proposal in the series finale. Even Liz Warner admits that she knew she was just the rebound and that Don still loved Robin.
  • Emily and Alison on Pretty Little Liars. Despite having several girlfriends for almost the entire series, Emily never stopped having feelings for Alison. When the latter finally confessed her feelings, the two come together after being in love since they were young teens. They get engaged in the series finale and are having twins.
  • Revenge: Emily Thorne/the real Amanda Clarke and her childhood friend Jack Porter. Took them the entire run of the show to sleep together in the series finale, and they married six months later.
  • In Sabrina the Teenage Witch, it's a First Boy Wins — despite dating other guys, literally creating room in her heart for her fiance, and nearly getting married, Sabrina winds up with Harvey, her first love.
  • Scrubs: JD and Elliot met at the beginning of the series, and while technically both have dated other people before, Elliot is the first girl JD falls for and dated in the series. But it didn't work out so they moved on to other people. Until JD fell for Elliot again. So they hooked up again. Then JD realized he didn't love Elliot so they broke up again! Then two seasons later, oh wait, JD likes her again! So they start dating again! Now that the show's coming to a close the show has ended, it looks like this one will actually stick so maybe, just maybe First Girl Wins after all. Yay!
    • On a much smaller scale, it also happened with Dr Cox: the first woman he's seen with is his ex-wife, then he dates another one and a crush on Carla's revealed, but at the end (although it's still very early in the series) he picks Jordan (even though she was pregnant and he thought the kid wasn't his).
  • Both of the Fisher sons in Six Feet Under eventually end up with the partners they are shown with in the pilot 'til death do they part. The Fisher women, not so much: Claire and Ruth both end up in relationships with men not introduced until much later in the series.
  • Averted in Smallville, as everyone knows Clark ends up with Lois, not for either Chloe or Lana. However, Chloe has his first kiss and first date, while later Lana and Clark lose their virginity to each other.
  • Josh and Donna of The West Wing are this trope to each other, finally getting together after a bunch of other relationships or potential relationships and seven seasons of buildup.
  • Averted in Wizards of Waverly Place, in that Harper never seems to catch a break in terms of landing Justin. They do, however, find out that they do make excellent friends — but things revert back, because Status Quo Is God. And now she's not interested anymore.

    Theatre 
  • Painfully averted for Eponine in Les MisĂ©rables. She has a visible crush on Marius from the moment they are first onstage together, and constantly flirts with and teases him. Nonetheless, Marius becomes enamored with Cosette the first time he sees her, and vice versa, and the show ends with their wedding while Eponine dies early into Act 2.
  • Taken to an extreme in The Tempest: Ferdinand is the first male (not counting the monster Caliban or her father) Miranda has ever seen. She instantly falls madly in love with him.
  • In Two Gentlemen of Verona, Proteus ends up returning to his first love Julia, after having spent most of the play pursuing Sylvia.
  • In The Two Noble Kinsmen, cousins Palamon and Arcite both fall in love with Emilia at first sight, but Palamon thinks he has more right to Emilia's love because "I saw her first". The two men end up fighting a duel for Emilia's hand in marriage. Arcite wins the fight, but then falls off his horse and dies, leaving Palamon to marry Emilia. Guess this means that the gods are also fans of "First Guy Wins." This play is from the early 1600s and based on Chaucer's "Knight's Tale" from the late 1300s, making this trope Older Than Print.

    Toys 
  • Barbie: According to Barbie Sings!, Barbie and Ken were each other's first loves. The two have been dating near consistently since the 1960s. The only time they broke up was during a publicity stunt in the 2000s where Barbie began dating a man named Blaine while Barbie and Ken became Amicable Exes. After a few years, Barbie and Ken were given another Relationship Upgrade and they've stated that way since.

    Video Games  
  • Cyberpunk 2077: The very first romance option introduced in the game is Judy Alvarez. She's introduced in act one, but her romance arc only starts in act two. The player (if female) can still finish it before even meeting the other three romance options.
  • In the Dark Parables games, Prince James (a.k.a. The Frog Prince) is immortal, and marries five princesses. But Princess Ivy, his first wife, remains his very obvious favorite.
  • In Dragon Age:
    • Dragon Age: Origins: Alistair and Morrigan, the gender-exclusive love interests with the most amount of content for the Player Character, are the first two companions encountered.
      • It's noted that if he's romanced, this trope is also in play for Alistair; the PC is the first woman his own age that he's ever really known, due to his sheltered upbringing and the fact that she's the first female Grey Warden in Ferelden in a couple centuries.
    • Averted in Dragon Age II, in which the potential Love Interests are the last four party members you meet, after your siblings, Aveline, and Varric. However, it might still apply with regards to the order in which you recruit the potential Love Interests; the game is flexible about which quests are done when, so you could go to Sundermount before anything else and then pursue a relationship with Merrill, for instance. (Installing the Exiled Prince DLC adds the possibility of Sebastian as a romance for female Hawkes; however, he doesn't become a companion until Act 2, so this trope can never apply to him.)
    • Dragon Age: Inquisition has Cassandra for male characters. For female elves, we have Solas. Female humans get Cullen, and depending on whom you recruit first, female dwarves and Qunari get Blackwall or The Iron Bull. For gay male Inquisitors, either Dorian or The Iron Bull can be the first guy depending on when they're recruited; for gay female Inquisitors, it's Josephine.
  • In Dragon Quest V you can choose to marry Bianca Whitaker, who in the original game is the first girl you meet as well as the hero's childhood friend.
  • Final Fantasy VII: You see Aerith first, but Cloud knew Tifa long before this. Tifa also joins your team first. Tifa and Cloud can confess their feelings to one another if the affection level is high.
  • Final Fantasy IX: Zidane is a notorious womaniser and skirt chaser, flirting with nearly every female character in the game. Yet Princess Garnet is the first one we see him interact with as well as being the first character we're introduced to.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light: Caeda is the First Girl for Marth.
    • In Fire Emblem Gaiden, Alm is the First Guy for Celica. Celica herself is definitely Alm's First Girl in the original game, but in the Video Game Remake Echoes: Shadows of Valentia she only qualifies from the player's perspective since he's known Faye longer.
    • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War: Lewyn only has three potential wives whose children can bring his holy weapon into the next generation: Erinys, Silvia, and Tailtiu. Silvia can be this since she's the first one seen in the game, but Erinys plays the trope straight as she knew Lewyn long before the others did. This is made canon in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776.
    • Princess Lilina of Ostia in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, if you get Roy's ending with her; she was his childhood best friend and classmate.
    • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, if Lyn goes off with her bodyguard Kent, it's first guy wins. (Though if you count all her possible endings, she knew Florina before she knew any of the males.) Additionally, Florina is First Girl for Hector and Ninian (whom he rescued from the Black Fang before meeting Lyn) is First Girl for Eliwood, whereas Serra is First Girl for Erk, Wil is First Guy for Rebecca and Jaffar is First Guy for Nino.
    • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones:
      • Played with Eirika's love interests. Seth the Silver Knight is the first of Eirika's love interests we see, but technically she has known Prince Innes since they were kids, so both can be seen as First Guy. Of course, she can also end up with the mage Saleh and that would be a Last Guy Wins situation.
      • In the case of Ephraim, Tana is undeniably the First Girl, unless you count Eirika as a love interest as well.
      • Out of Lute's love interests, Artur is first boy since they're childhood friends. In Amelia's case, Franz is one of the characters who can recruit her for your side, so he is her first boy. And finally, Natasha is the first girl for Joshua.
    • In Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Soren is Ike's First Guy, while Geoffrey ends up as Elincia's.
    • Fire Emblem: Awakening:
      • This is the case if a male Avatar marries Lissa or if a female Avatar marries Chrom. A rather extreme example: Chrom and Lissa are literally the first thing your character sees as they wake up.
      • While Chrom and Lissa are the Avatar's First Guy/Girl, story-wise, Chrom's First Girls can be either Sully or Maribelle (both of them his childhood friends, though no one knows which one he met first), while Lissa's First Guy can either be Frederick (explicitly mentioned to have been her First Love), Vaike (Vitriolic Best Buds with Chrom since childhood) or Ricken (whom Chrom is a Big Brother Mentor to).
      • Other First Girl/Guy pairings among the party include Gregor/Nowi (the former is introduced rescuing the latter from Grimleal slavers), Olivia/Lon'qu (who have been in Basilio's service together for a while), and Virion/Cherche (the latter is the former's retainer).
    • Fire Emblem Fates:
      • Felicia or Flora are this for a male Avatar, since when he was taken captive and locked away in a fortress, so were the two sisters. As a result they were among his only contacts as a child, and he can marry Felicia on all three routes and Flora on Conquest or Revelation. His "older sisters" Camilla and Hinoka also qualify.
      • Silas or Jakob is this for a female Avatar. Jakob was another one of the captured Avatar's only companions as a child, and Silas used to sneak her out of the fortress for adventures and a picnic. Her "older brothers" Xander and Ryoma can also qualify.
      • Selena is this with either Odin or Laslow, since the three of them were childhood friends as Severa, Owain and Inigo in Awakening.
  • Milfeulle is the first girl for Tact in the Galaxy Angel games. In the sequel trilogy, Galaxy Angel II, Milfeulle's younger sister Apricot can be the first girl for Kazuya (giving the possibility of making these couples Best Friends-in-Law should the player pursue both sisters).
  • Tanisha in Grand Theft Auto V was Franklin's Love Interest before she dumped him for her Disposable FiancĂ©. Franklin spends the entirety of his storyline trying to win her back but has the opportunity to sleep around and pursue relationships with other women such as Ursula and Liz Macallen. However, in Online it's shown that Franklin left crime behind, eventually managing to win Tanisha back and start a family with her.
  • Harvest Moon: The first potential love interest in most games, the one that lives closest to your ranch, is usually the easiest to win over. They're relatively low-maintenance and will accept most inexpensive gifts from you.
    • The Mineral Town games: Elli
    • A Wonderful Life: Celia
    • Another Wonderful Life: Rock.
    • Somewhat subverted with Story of Seasons (2014), in which the first potential Love Interest for a female character is their neighbor Fritz. He can be very tricky to romance, since the food gift that will help to win him over is extremely difficult to acquire.
  • Jade Empire, if a male character sticks with Dawn Star.
  • In Jak and Daxter, Jak and Keira. So much so that after Keira got Darrined and Naughty Dog shipped Jak with Ashelin, the fans got so pissed that Naughty Dog put them back together in Jak X.
  • While in The Legend of Zelda, Link and Zelda's relationship is not always necessarily romantic, when it is at least implied, Zelda is usually the first suitable female character that is met. The exceptions to Zelda being the first girl met are usually the game where a different first girl is the love interest — like Ilia from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Interestingly, the non-canon spinoff Hyrule Warriors actually makes this explicit. At one point, two characters in love with Link talk about how it is impossible to win in a lifetime where Link has already met Zelda (even if, such as in this case, they've barely spoken to each other).
  • Mass Effect:
    • In the Shadow Broker DLC of Mass Effect 2, Liara T'Soni can be this for Shepard, depending on the player's choices during Mass Effect and 2.
    • Ashley can also be this for a male Shepard assuming you carry the romance through the original trilogy, as Ashley was the first female character introduced in ME1 that isn't the middle aged non-love-interest doctor, or Shepard herself if you're playing Femshep.
    • Kaidan Alenko is the first potential love interest that you meet in ME1, having been on the Normandy already before Shepard became XO and before even meeting Ashley on Eden Prime. You can play this trope straight with Femshep or become celibate as Broshep until the third game where you can have a Relationship Upgrade with him.
    • In Mass Effect: Andromeda Liam Costa and Cora Harper are the on the team from the beginning and the first love interest encountered for straight characters. For gay characters, Gil Brodie and Vetra Nyxnote  are the first encountered.
  • In Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, the love interest for male characters is the first NPC to show up on screen. The main campaign has the 'first girl' die and deleted the romance arc with the second, leaving the third female party member as the only romance for male characters.
  • In Overlord, Rose is the first mistress that the Overlord gets to "liberate". While the game allows you to eventually dump her for her "saucy" sister Velvet, the sequel proceeds as if you had stuck with Rose, for she becomes the mother of the Fourth Overlord.
  • Persona usually goes by Last Girl Wins in canon, but players can freely ignore this.
    • In Persona 3, the first love interest the male protagonist meets in the main plot is Lovers arcana Social Link Yukari Takeba, while for the female Player Character from the PSP version, the first love interest she meets turns out to be Fortune Social Link Ryoji Mochizuki, as he is the grown-up version of Pharos, the kid who gives both protagonists the Velvet Room contract at the very beginning of the game. However, it's later revealed that Chariot Social Link Aigis is the actual first girl (for both protagonists), having been the one who sealed Death into them ten years ago.
    • Similarly, in Persona 4, the player can invoke it by choosing to romance Chariot Social Link Chie Satonaka.
    • In Persona 5, this trope comes into play if the protagonist ends up romancing his homeroom teacher (and Temperance arcana Confidant) Sadayo Kawakami.
  • Rune Factory games all have a "main heroine" that is the first girl the protagonist meets after losing his memory. That's Mist in Rune Factory (and Rune Factory Frontier), Mana in Rune Factory 2, and Shara in Rune Factory 3.
    • The one exception to this rule so far is Rune Factory Oceans, in which neither player character has amnesia and there's no one main heroine (instead, having three "main heroines"; none of them are the First Girl, and there's no Official Couple). Sonja, the female protagonist, is the first girl Aden meets and the first girl the audience sees, and that they both get jealous when the other starts forming a relationship with other candidates (along with the trope's prevalence in the series) makes it seem as though this was the intended outcome.
    • While Rune Factory 4 has no official love interest, Clorica can be this for Lest and Vishnal for Frey, as they're the first bachelorette and bachelor they meet after losing their memory and falling into Selphia.
  • Star Ocean uses this trope in all five games.
    • In The First Departure, Milly is the easiest character to gain relationship points with, and she is a childhood friend of Roddick.
    • In The Second Story, while it is logical that Claude would have met other girls in his past, they are never mentioned and Rena, the first girl you meet, is the intended love interest.
    • In Till The End of Time, Fayt starts the game being close friends with Sophia, who later becomes a party member and is the easiest of Fayt's potential love interests to woo.
    • In The Last Hope, Edge and Reimi have known each other since early childhood. Meracle and maybe Myuria express an interest in Edge, but he ultimately ends up with Reimi.
    • In Integrity and Faithlessness, Fidel and Miki have been friends their whole lives, Fidel's father having taken Miki in after her parents died, and Miki is the easiest party member for Fidel to gain affection with.
  • Uncharted: Nate and Elena.
  • While either the sexy sorceress Triss or cute nurse Shani can end up winning Geralt's affections in The Witcher, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings makes Triss the canon choice.
    • For those who have enjoyed the books that were the beginning of the The Witcher franchise, as well as the games, The Witcher 3 allows you to do this as well. After two or three years of wandering and amnesia, including engaging in a very serious relationship with Triss, Geralt gets the opportunity to rekindle his long-standing relationship with Yennefer.

    Visual Novels  
  • In Cafe Enchante, there are some potentials to be the First Guy depending on the route. It's revealed that Kotone meets Canus and Il when she was a young child visiting the cafĂ©, though neither of them remember the encounter. Then, there is also Misyr who meets a young Kotone through a wormhole.
  • In Collar Ă— Malice, Yanagi is the first love interest Ichika meets. Doubly so since they actually met twelve years prior when he rescues her as a child.
  • In Daughter for Dessert, Amanda is the first love interest to be introduced, so her epilogues fall under this.
  • Occurs in the Lauren epilogue of Double Homework. Lauren is the first girl that the protagonist dates in the story.
  • In Fate/stay night, there are three potential winners, each of whom can be seen as the First Girl. Sakura is the first girl introduced in the main storyline, the girl Shirou first met chronologically and also the first girl to show obvious interest in Shirou (who is, of course, completely oblivious to it), Rin is the first female character introduced and the first we get to see interact with Shirou because the prologue is from her point of view, and Saber is the first girl seen on-screen and heard as the second image in the Novel is of her.
  • In Frozen Essence, the first attainable character Mina meets is Rune, whose path is the only one that has a possible "True End", so he appears to fit this trope as well as a Dating Sim character can. ...Unless you remember that Mina actually met the Oracle before Rune, and find out how to unlock his path which reveals that he's actually Mina's childhood friend who met her long before any other character in the game did.
  • Katawa Shoujo:
    • One can make cases for both Shizune and Hanako as this for Hisao. On one hand, Shizune is the first of the five choose-able girls that addresses you directly (sorta, she's deaf/mute). On the other, when Hisao comes into the classroom, the first of the girls that he pays attention to is Hanako, due to the scars on her body.
    • On the other other hand, the very first girl, Iwanako, is a subversion. Hisao liked her at one point, she liked him back, but they never come close to getting together...except for the part where her Love Confession accidentally gives Hisao a literal heart attack and leads to them drifting apart. All of the actual heroines are technically Second Love candidates.
  • Key/Visual Arts does this in several works:
    • AIR, although it's quite ironic to talk about "winning" in this case though, considering how the story unfolds.
    • Kanon: Nayuki, the Unlucky Childhood Friend and cousin, seems to be the first girl introduced, because she's the first girl that Yuuichi meets upon his return. But if you remember the beginning of the series, with the first "dream" prologue... It had a narrator. (In the 2006 version, though, the prologue is moved, making it Last Girl Wins instead.)
    • It's played anviliciously straight in CLANNAD with Nagisa.
    • Also played straight in Little Busters! with Rin being both the first girl introduced and the first Riki met chronologically, being his childhood friend. Though arguably subverted given the very vague, No Romantic Resolution-style ending they got.
  • In the High School Sweetheart Ending in Melody, Isabella, whose romantic path is the first to be initiated, becomes the protagonist's girlfriend... long after the two of them first developed secret crushes on each other.
  • In Piofiore: Fated Memories, out of the love interests, Dante is arguably the first guy to meet Lili. In his route, he reveals to Lili that they had met at the church when they were both children. While Lili doesn't recall the meeting, Dante obviously does, as that first meeting was how he developed a crush on her.
  • Out of all the boyfriends in Shall We Date?: Ninja Shadow, the first one to show up onscreen is the Intrepid Reporter Ritsu, who shows up in the Prologue right before Saori aka the Player Character meets the Nagasaki Vigilantes.
  • In True Love Junai Monogatari, the first girl who shows up is Mikae Morikawa. By far.
  • Tsukihime: Quite a few female characters could possibly qualify as the "first girl" by some definition, but this title officially goes to Arcueid, who is the first girl whose story you see and Shiki meeting her starts the first plot.

    Webcomics 
  • Coga Suro: Yeah, Steve and Jane end up married with kids. Who saw that coming?
  • Dubious Company's Tiren would have realized she was this, had she not been preoccupied by Mary and Sue goading her into a catfight with Sakura. The result lead her and Walter back to UST territory.
  • Dan Shive of El Goonish Shive is rather fond of this; he initially intended all the relationships to be like this, although it didn't work out that way:
    • Tedd and Grace have never had any love interests except each other.
    • Averted with Elliot, as following a Ship Tease with Susan, Eliot is now dating a new character called Ashley. Whether this is permanent remains to be seen, but he's realised he sees his relationship with Sarah (first girl introduced) as more Like Brother and Sister, so that's definitely off the table, as is Nanase (first love interest) due to Incompatible Orientation.
    • On the other hand, you could argue that Ellen and Nanase qualify since Ellen was the first girl suggested as a potential love interest for Nanase, and Nanase was introduced as the love interest of the character Ellen is an Opposite-Sex Clone of.
  • In General Protection Fault, Nick, who has never been in a relationship before, meets Ki early on in his time at GPF, and they get married in spite of Trudy's attempts to get Nick for himself (and the fact that he seriously considers her for a time).
  • In Girl Genius, it's pretty clear that Agatha is going to end up with the first potential love interest introduced, Gil. At this point, the only question is whether Tarvek will be included as well. That question will probably be answered when we figure out whose side he's on. If the answer is yes... well, the Heterodyne castle already has a seraglio available.
  • Played with inThe Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!. The first woman we see Bob take an interest in is Voluptua, but she makes it plain she's not interested. The first woman who actually reciprocates Bob's feeling is Jean, and they do become an Official Couple — but it later turns out Voluptua does have feelings for Bob, and a Love triangle ensues for a while.
  • Kevin & Kell:
    • Fiona and Rudy knew each other when they went to the same day care, but never got along. Then Fiona moved away, then back, and then they fell in love. Note that they didn't even remember being in the same day care until a former teacher told them about it.
    • Fenton was the first boy to express interest in Lindesfarne...and what's more, the first to not care that she had quills (proving it by presenting her with a waiver absolving her of any liability). They eventually married and have a daughter.
      Colina: Go girl! It's notarized!
    • Literally the first person Corrie met after she escaped from the cloning lab that adopted her was her future partner Bruno.
  • Used twice in MegaTokyo: the first major female character introduced is Erika, whom Largo tries to grope to find out if her boobs are real and gets another broken arm in return. The second, Kimiko, almost immediately accidentally hits Piro in the head with a coffee pot. Insert joke about winning girls injuring their future boyfriends here.
    • And then, Yuki went and fell onto Kobayashi-kun from the top of a power pole, leaving him in hospital with concussion and fractured ribs. It goes to show... the quickest way to a man's heart is through his rib cage.
  • Misfile approached this trope with all the subtlety of a berserk elephant and pretty much settled it with this page
  • Subverted — probably intentionally, given Jeph Jacques' anime and manga fandom — in Questionable Content. Marten sees Faye in the third strip of the comic, actually talks to her in the fourth, and they've moved in together by strip 22 (not like that; she burned her apartment down making toast). 500 strips of wacky hijinks later, everyone (including the audience) is getting annoyed at how Marten and Faye haven't gotten together despite the obvious attraction. Faye then has a talk with Marten about why. She watched her father kill himself with a gunshot to the head and has yet to recover from the trauma.

    Web Original  
  • In Death Note: The Abridged Series (kpts4tv) the first guy wins: Ryuk at some point fathered a child with Light (who is male). Also Rem ultimately ends up with Misa by Jumping the Gender Barrier by possessing Mogi (also because Misa has become stupider) and they go on to make many pornos together.
  • Can be played straight or subverted in Memory Days. The first of her three potential love interests the protagonist meets in the prologue is Haru, but the trope is only played straight if she gets together with him in the end. It can be subverted in that she can also end up with Daichi, Kai, or even Sakka.
  • Stefan 'Twoflower' Gagne's "Unreal Estate" uses this: the first girl's house falls on him while he's still on Grunwald. Nevertheless, possibly to obfuscate the first girl winning, the main character manages to run into each of the girls before finding himself in the 'harem', a la Ai Kora. Though it's technically not a harem comedy towards the end.

    Western Animation  
  • American Dragon: Jake Long: The girl in question was brought back in the Grand Finale, and is implied to rekindle her relationship with Jake.
  • All three Official Couples of Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Suki is virtually the first non-related girl of a correct age Sokka ever meets, and they eventually end up together, even though he also has a brief romance with Princess Yue (who dies and becomes the Moon Spirit) and Ty Lee from the Quirky Miniboss Squad has a crush on him.
    • Meanwhile, Prince Zuko and Mai used to be friends since they were children, and despite Zuko's one date with one another girl while in exile, they become a couple again as soon as he's un-exiled, are separated when Mai gets herself imprisoned for treason while saving Zuko's life, and happily reunite in the series finale.
    • And then of course there's the two main characters Avatar Aang and Katara. She had never met a boy her own age before who wasn't her brother, while her face was actually the first thing he saw after being frozen for a century, and they likewise hook up by the end of the show.
  • Batman Beyond: Despite a couple of flings with Melanie/Ten and a few Girls Of The Week, and a Just Friends relationship with his Secret-Keeper/Sidekick Wannabe Max, The Fully Absorbed Finale confirmed that Terry seals the deal with Dana, his first girlfriend, whom he's implied to have dated since they were fourteen.
  • Ben 10's first official love interest was Kai Green, and a pop-up in the original series reveals she is Ben's future wife and the mother of his children. She doesn't reappear until Ben 10: Omniverse, where it's confirmed that she is the eventual "winner" of Ben's "harem". This comes to pass in "Most Dangerous Game Show".
  • In Codename: Kids Next Door, Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 4 each end up with their first person which results in them being married to each other. Numbuh 1, however, does not end up with Lizzie, Numbuh 362, or with anyone at all.
  • Danny Phantom had interests in Paulina and Valerie, but Sam was the first girl.
  • The Fairly OddParents!: Tootie was the first of Timmy's love interests to be introduced. The plot of the Live-Action Adaptation A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! and some of Butch Hartman's posts/tweets/dialogue regarding the movie suggest that Timmy was destined to fall in love with her.
  • In Futurama, Leela is the first girl Fry meets after defrosting in the future.
  • Harley Quinn (2019): No matter how much Ivy honestly liked Kite Man, Harley came into Ivy's life first and they had a much stronger bond way before Kite Man began dating Ivy. In the end, Kite Man himself realizes Ivy really wants to be with Harley despite her denials and calls off their wedding, leading to Ivy running off with Harley.
  • It was revealed by the creator of Hey Arnold! that, had the planned second movie (The Jungle Movie) been made (which it is now), Arnold Shortman would have finally recognized his feelings for Helga G. Pataki and they would have dated for years before he moved away in the also-planned Spin-Off The Patakis. It's worth noting that Helga was the first girl from their class that Arnold met when they were 3 years old. (During the series, he crushed on Ruth, then Lila and Summer. He lost his crushes on all three sometime during the course of the series.)
  • Throughout the series, Kim Possible and her sidekick Ron date or crush on a few other people, but in the end choose their oldest friend and partner in villain-fighting. It also works in relation to both their Backstory (they were each other's first friend in preschool) and the series itself (Kim tears into the school and Ron is the first person she stops to talk to).
  • The Legend of Korra: Subverted with Avatar Korra and Mako. Mako met Korra before Asami and at the end of the first season, Mako ends up with Korra. However, in the second season they realize they don't work as a couple and break up. Subverted even further by the Grand Finale revealing Korra and Asami Sato hooking up. Despite being literally the first (and only) girl among them, Asami was the last of Korra's potential love interests to be introduced.
  • While Alyssa was the second girl that Willy fell for in My Dad the Rock Star, she was also the first girl he met and befriended after his family moved into her town.
  • Star vs. the Forces of Evil ends with protagonist Star Butterfly and deuteragonist Marco Diaz as a couple. Naturally, the titular Star is the first girl (and first character) introduced, and Marco is the first boy she meets in the series outside her father. That said, the Romantic False Lead for each of them are the "first girl" in every other sense: Marco briefly dates Jackie Lynn Thomas, whom he had a crush on since kindergarten, while Star spends the second half of the show with nearly half the show dating Tom Lucitor, an old flame she broke up with prior to the start of the series but rekindles her relationship with. Both Jackie and Tom ended up breaking up with Marco and Star at least in part because they realized the two of them were in love long before Star and Marco themselves figured it out.
  • Teen Titans: Robin falls for Starfire, the first girl he encounters in the series, though it requires a flashback to let the viewers know that. It probably helps that their first conversation ended with her kissing him. While in the middle of tearing up a city.
  • Winx Club:
    • It's eventually revealed that Bloom was the original choice to be Sky's arranged bride, but after her presumed death during the Ancestral Witches' attack on Domino, Diaspro was selected instead, meaning Bloom is technically this trope. Bloom and Sky are also this within the pacing of the show, Sky is the first guy to show interest in Bloom when she meets the four sophomore Specialists.
    • Bloom and Sky also have aversions within the show's chronology: Diaspro was Sky's fiancĂ©e and Andy was Bloom's childhood friend in Gardenia, but it is Sky and Bloom who end up together.
    • Also averted by Nabu and Aisha. Nabu was the first introduced love interest for Aisha. They get engaged, but Nabu dies in the process, and thus Aisha moves on with other romantic interests.

 
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Alternative Title(s): First Guy Wins

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Marmaduke

In the end, Marmaduke does not end up with Jezebel, the collie he'd been crushing on, but with Mazie, the female dog he'd been friends with from the start.

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