History ChildhoodFriendRomance / AnimeAndManga

* In the one-shot GirlsLove manga ''In The Pool, Two [=OLs=] Around Thirty'' one of the women states she's been courting her friend for nearly twenty five years. We're shown her asking her to marry her as a little girl.

** {{Canon Immigrant}}s Shiba and Rena are childhood friends and classmates from the UsefulNotes/PlayStation game. Then in the middle of the game [[spoiler:Rena kissed him]], and their relationship is established in ''SIN'''s ending.

** The first to be introduced is Mousse; Ranma's Chinese rival for the affections of the Chinese Amazon Shampoo, to whom Ranma has an AccidentalMarriage. Mousse has been pursuing Shampoo's hand since they were three years old... unfortunately, she has never liked him, especially thanks to his tendency to confuse random creatures and objects for Shampoo. She regards him as little more than a StalkerWithACrush, and whilst she ''does'' refer to Mousse as a "stupid friend from child times" when introducing him to Ranma, this might be a simple slip of the tongue, given Shampoo's [[YouNoTakeCandle notoriously]] [[HulkSpeak poor]] Japanese skills... In the present, Shampoo treats Mousse with obvious and unmitigated disdain, often punctuated with insults and/or physical abuse. In the manga, at one point, when told that Mousse might ''die'' if she doesn't help, she instead goes off to play on her [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom]].

** Naruto's parents, Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, met as children in the Academy, with Minato even admitting the first thing he noticed about her was [[HeroesWantRedheads her beautiful long red hair]]. They were no more than 14 when they fell in love.

%%* ''Manga/GokinjoMonogatari'': Mikako and Tsutomu and Mariko and Shuu.

* Hiura Mihate of ''Manga/IThinkITurnedMyChildhoodFriendIntoAGirl'' is very much in love with his childhood friend, Mido Kenshiro. One of the reasons Hiura became a WholesomeCrossdresser is hoping that Mido would notice him more.

* In ''Manga/{{Claudine}}'' the titular character's neighbor Rosemarie confessed her love to him but was rejected. She does seem to be the girl who understands him better, out of all of these involved in his life: she calls him "[[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} a true man given a female body]]".

* Serena in ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesXY'' is definitely in love with Ash Ketchum, stemming from a chance meeting when they were younger. Unfortunately, since Ash is a ChasteHero, she's got a lot of work to do. By the end of the series, and the two part ways (as is tradition for every series), Serena makes it clear that she hasn't given up on him just yet. [[spoiler:She tells Ash that he is her ultimate goal, and Serena kissed him as they literally parted. She is the first of the girl companions to give him a kiss (though the KissingDiscretionShot and the EasterEgg suggests that she kissed him on the lips as cheek kisses were shown before).]]

** [[TheStoic Chrono]] and [[BridgeBunnies Amy]] were friends ever since they met in school and got married with kids after the TimeSkip. [[ShipSinking Caused a good amount of screaming in the fandom as]] the [[VisualNovel/TriangleHeart3SweetSongsForever Chrono/Nanoha]] and [[NotBloodSiblings Chrono/Fate]] factions were quite up there in the [[ShipToShipCombat Shipping Wars]].

* ''Manga/DungeonNoOsananajimi'': Not main characters Ryuuka and Van, though the signs of it potentially developing are there, but rather Golde and Sylvia, a pair of human adventurers. Despite Sylvia's youthful appearance, she and Golde are the same age, have known each other since they were children, and are married with a teenage daughter of their own. This revelation immediately sets Ryuuka's minions to imagning Ryuuka and Van as a married couple with children.

** The "Takamachi Family" refers to Nanoha, Fate and [[HasTwoMommies their daughter, Vivio.]] HomoeroticSubtext to the max with two main characters who have been best friends ever since they were nine.

%%* The aptly-named Najimi in ''LightNovel/{{Akikan}}'' is in love with her childhood friend Kakeru.

* ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}'': Jacuzzi Splot and Nice Holystone. Their backstory in the later episodes is quite touching: [[spoiler:After Nice permanently scarred her face and lost an eye as the result of playing with explosives when she was little, Jacuzzi got a large jagged sword tattoo on his face so she wouldn't be the only one with a distinctive face.]] They've been together ever since (although Nice still hasn't given up her love of explosives yet).
* Yuuji Sakamoto and Shouko Kirishima from ''LightNovel/BakaAndTestSummonTheBeasts''. Although Yuuji is in denial due to Shouko's {{Yandere}} tendencies, while Shouko keeps chasing after him [[spoiler: because he was her OnlyFriend and later [[RescueRomance rescued her]].]]

* In ''LightNovel/{{Corsair}}'', when Aura was young she found Canale lying on the streets and [[ImTakingHimHomeWithMe took him in]]. She's more or less had been planning to marry him ever since, but since this is a BoysLove series, she ended up on the wrong side of the triangle. She's upset about it, but doesn't push the issue when she finds out.

* ''LightNovel/GoodLuckNinomiyaKun'': Both Reika and Mayu are childhood friends to Ninomiya and both are still fighting over him years later. Complicated by the fact that [[spoiler:he [[ForgottenFirstMeeting forgot them both]] because Mayu wiped his memories with a kiss.]]

* ''LightNovel/GunotaGaMahouSekaiNiTenseiShitara'': Lute's first, and primary, love interest (Snow) has been with him since they were both infants.

* Deconstructed in ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}''. [[spoiler: Perhaps due to her clear social cluelessness, throughout most of the series Yozora simply assumes that being Kodaka's childhood friend means that [[BecauseDestinySaysSo him loving her is inevitable regardless of anything else that happens.]] When she realizes that, in real life, this isn't an instant romance button, [[HeroicBSOD she has a very bad freak out.]] All the more so because the entire time, she's only been able to [[GreenEyedMonster control her envy]] of [[TheOjou Sena's]] various merits by constantly telling herself that none of it matters, because she is the childhood friend and thus no amount of [[TheAce beauty, talent, wealth or even genuine love on Sena's part]] would win her Kodaka. When she discovers that he's actually known and was friends with Sena ''[[FirstGirlAfterAll since long before he ever knew her]]'', she falls into utter despair once again.]]

* ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'': Irina was Issei's ChildhoodFriend (although he [[USedToBeATomboy thought she was a boy at the time]]) and was even his FirstKiss, but is now a member of his harem.

* ''LightNovel/HorizonInTheMiddleOfNowhere'': Toori Aoi and Horizon Ariadust. They were really close friends when they were children, until Horizon died in an unfortunate accident. Years later, Toori meets and falls in love with an automated doll named P-01s who looks just like Horizon. He later finds out P-01s ''is'' Horizon reborn in a robotic body. Despite now being an automated doll without emotions and memories, Horizon does reciprocate his feelings.

* ''LightNovel/InfiniteStratos'': Ichika's harem includes a few childhood friends.

* [[NiceGuy Tanda]] from ''Literature/MoribitoGuardianOfTheSpirit'' has been in love with [[ActionGirl Balsa]] since they were children, and they're now in their thirties. She obviously has feelings for him but is apparently too badass to settle down.

* Due to an accidental HostileShowTakeover, Katarina from ''LightNovel/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'' ends up becoming close friends with most of the cast during her childhood, and all six of them are in love with her (yes, that includes [[EvenTheGirlsWantHer the two girls]], and [[NotBloodSiblings her adoptive brother]]). [[CluelessChickMagnet She remains completely oblivious to all of this]] despite none of them making any effort to hide it. And some of them trying rather hard to make it obvious.

* Safu from ''LightNovel/No6'' is in love with her childhood friend Shion. She [[DoYouWantToCopulate very straightforwardly]] confesses her love, he says he thinks of her as a friend but tells her to ask him again in two years, she promises to wait for him... then he runs off with Nezumi, and the series is drowned in HoYay.

* Manami from ''LightNovel/{{Oreimo}}'' has an obvious crush on her childhood friend Kyosuke, but he doesn't have any strong feelings for her other than close friendship.
* ''LightNovel/{{Osamake}}'': Taken to the extreme where all 3 of Kuroha's primary love interests are all his childhood friends. It's even in the title; ''Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won't Lose''.

* Jin and Misaki in ''LightNovel/ThePetGirlOfSakurasou'', but with a twist -- while Jin remained loyal to Misaki, he felt unworthy of her, so he became ''TheCasanova''. [[spoiler:In spite of this, as of the fifth light novel volume, after they graduate, both become a couple.]]

* In ''LightNovel/SorcererStabberOrphen'', a fairly strong case can be made for [[BlackMage Hartia]] holding an UnrequitedLove for [[HomoeroticSubtext his male]] best friend [[MagicKnight Krylancelo]], aka the titular Orphen. The strongest hint would be how, in the first series, he [[spoiler: bonds with Cleao (the girl who loves Orphen and is the closest to be his LoveInterest) [[BirdsOfAFeather over their mutual thoughts on him]].]]
* ''Manga/SpecialA'': [[spoiler:Hikari and Kei & Akira and Tadashi.]]

* ''LightNovel/TheTestamentOfSisterNewDevil'': Yuki was Basara's childhood friend who [[RescueRomance fell even harder for him after he rescued her]] eventually even leaving the Hero Clan to be with Basara. Her younger sister Kurumi also counts as she was Basara's friend too before joingin the harem.

** [[IllGirl Anju Kitahara]] is Yuu's childhood friend and probably first love.

* ''Anime/AfroSamurai'': Afro and Okiku/Otsuru, kinda. ([[DeathBySex Okiku/Otsuru gets killed,]] but she [[GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex gets to have passionate sex with Afro,]] it is shown that the [[TheStoic normally emotionless]] Afro [[PetTheDog does care for her]], and there is [[WildMassGuessing always the possibility that Afro might bring her back to life with the power of the Number One]].)