History Main / BoyMeetsGirl

* ''Ico'' was designed completely around this concept.

* The 1950 film ''Sunset Boulevard'' is interesting in how it subverts it: it's ostensibly a FilmNoir, but a boy does meet a girl in the beginning. Except the girl is a fading film star. Then he meets ''another'' girl in the middle of the film, which might actually do the trope straight, except [[spoiler:we know that he dies in the end]]. Interesting in that the first girl ''does'' love him, but he hates her.

* Billy Wilder, the director of ''Sunset Boulevard'', loved to play with and subvert this trope. ''Double Indemnity'' was a "boy meets girl and plans to kill girl's husband for money" story. ''The Seven Year Itch'' is a "boy meets girl, even though he's married, and has fantasies about her" story. ''A Song Is Born'' is a "whole group of boys meet a girl and together they sing jazz" story. ''SomeLikeItHot'' is "boy meets girl while on the run from the mob and dressed up as a girl".

* A reviewer's summary of ''{{E.T.}}'': "Boy meets alien, boy loves alien, boy loses alien". As Elliot's parting from E.T. is permanent, it's a subversion.

* The final episode of ''BusouRenkin'' was titled "Boy Meets Battle Girl". Subverted in that they met on the first episode and the titular ActionGirl actually ''retires'' from her life of combat at this point, as does the rest of the cast.

* ''HowIMetYourMother'', as the title suggests, is the story of how Ted meets the titular mother... only it's been [[strike:four]] six seasons and he's still building up to the point where he meets her.

* The TheyMightBeGiants song "Ana Ng" is as well. The reason given is that the titular girl is on the other side of the world.

* No mention of ''FiveCentimetersPerSecond'' yet? Boy meets girl; boy loses girl for a LONG time; [[BittersweetEnding boy may or may not]] [[TearJerker ever find girl again.]]

* The French film ''Les Jeux Sont Faits'' had the two main characters meeting and falling in love...after they were both dead. [[IGotBetter They got better]] [[spoiler:but died again anyway]].

* ''The Recognition of Shakuntala'', an episode from the [[OlderThanYouThink Ancient]] [[IndianLanguages Sanskrit]] epic ''{{Mahabharata}}'' that was later [[AscendedExtra Expanded]] into a theatrical drama by the Indian playwright Kalidasa around the 1st century BC, is probably the UrExample of this trope, though it's actually more of a [[SubvertedTrope Subversion]], since it's a Girl Meets Boy story. It revolves around a woman named Shakuntala who meets Dushyanta and they get married him, only for him to get cursed with [[LaserGuidedAmnesia Amnesia]] and completely forget her. The only way to lift the curse is to show him the ring that he gave her, but she loses the ring in a river. She eventually finds the ring by the end of the story, makes him remember, and then they live HappilyEverAfter.

* The myth of Pygmalion and Galatea (which makes this OlderThanDirt) goes as follows: boy meets girl. Girl is statue. Boy falls in love with girl and prays to Aphrodite to bring her to life. Aphrodite does and they live HappilyEverAfter.

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* ''{{Bleach}}'': Boy meets {{Shinigami}} girl. Girl gives boy {{Shinigami}} powers. Girl then gets captured by the {{Shinigami}} organization to be executed. Boy rescues girl, and they are reunited.
** Or rather, boy rescues girl, but girl decides to stay where she is until plot reunites them again.

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-->''"I can't hide it any longer. I love you. It's the old story, boy meets girl - [[RomeoAndJuliet Romeo and Juliet]] - Minneapolis and St. Paul!"''\\
- Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx), ''A Day at the Races''

-->''"Girl meets boy, that's a safe beginning."''\\
- Joe, ''Sunset Boulevard TheMusical''

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* There was an episode of ''BloodPlus'' actually titled "A Boy Meets a Girl" which had a slight variation of this plot. Well, Riku and Diva's entire relationship, really: Boy meets girl. [[spoiler:Girl rapes boy]]. [[spoiler:Boy impregnates girl]]. [[spoiler:Girl kills boy]].
** This also works on a slightly more conventional level with Saya and Haji. Boy meets girl. [[spoiler:Girl goes crazy, cuts boy's arm off, and disappears]]. [[spoiler:Boy finds girl and makes her drink his blood]]. ...Okay, maybe not ''so'' conventional.
* ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' can be boiled down to: boy meets girl. Girl turns out to be [[spoiler:a RealityWarper]].
** It's even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in the anime. In the first chronological episode as Kyon says "and so we met" in his narration the scene zooms in on the male sign in the boys' bathroom, followed by zooming in on the female sign of the girls' bathroom.

* ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma 1/2]]''. Boy meets Girl except Boy turns into Girl.
* ''SchoolRumble'''s Harima is one lucky boy. Boy meets Girl 1 (Tenma) but she thinks he was taking advantage of her. Boy meets Girl 2 (Eri) by confessing his love for Girl 1. Boy meets Girl 3 (Tae) and lets him stay overnight. Boy meets Girl 4 (Yakumo) because he needed her help.

* ''{{Eureka Seven}}'': Boy meets girl, boy joins mercenary organisation, [[BattleCouple boy and girl pilot giant transforming robot together]].

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* Krapivin's story ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Boy seeked girl]]'': Boy meets girl. Girl must return to her home on another continent. Boy [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome moves his continent closer to the girl's]] to find her again.

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* ''The Recognition of Shakuntala'', an episode from the [[OlderThanYouThink Ancient]] [[IndianLanguages Sanskrit]] epic ''{{Mahabharata}}'' that was later [[AscendedExtra Expanded]] into a theatrical drama by the Indian playwright Kalidasa around the 1st century BC, is probably the UrExample of this trope, though it's actually more of a [[SubvertedTrope Subversion]], since it's a Girl Meets Boy story. It revolves around a woman named Shakuntala who meets Dushyanta and they get married him, only for him to get cursed with [[LaseGuidedAmnesia Amnesia]] and completely forget her. The only way to lift the curse is to show him the ring that he gave her, but she loses the ring in a river. She eventually finds the ring by the end of the story, makes him remember, and then they live HappilyEverAfter.

* This troper recalls a reviewer's summary of ''{{E.T.}}'' as "Boy meets alien, boy loves alien, boy loses alien". As Elliot's parting from E.T. is permanent, it's a subversion.

** This troper has the greatest respect for Shaw as a dramatist and humorist but he knew zilch about women. The girl has not been born who would prefer a boy who's hers, all hers, to a man who is pretending very hard to be immune to her charms.

MeetCute is a subtrope of this.

* StarWars ExpandedUniverse has Luke and Mara, though a lot of other things were happening at the time.
** [[TheThrawnTrilogy Timothy Zahn]], in a panel summarized [[http://gabri-jade.livejournal.com/105471.html here]], is aware of this trope but believes that there are three basic treatments of that plot: The American novel, wherein boy meets girl and then loses girl; the French novel wherein boy meets girl, gets girl, and then boy and girl decide that they don't want each other after all; and the Russian novel wherein boy meets girl, never gets girl, and [[{{Wangst}} broods about it for 800 pages]].

* This is what ''[=~The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy~=]'' has to say about the rock band Disaster Area: "Their songs are on the whole very simple and mostly follow the familiar theme of boy-being meets girl-being under a silvery moon which then [[AwesomenessIsVolatile explodes for no adequately explored reason.]]"

* What ''[=~The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy~=]'' said of the rock band Disaster Area: "Their songs are on the whole very simple and mostly follow the familiar theme of boy-being meets girl-being under a silvery moon which then explodes for no adequately explored reason."

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* ''HowIMetYourMother'', as the title suggests, is the story of how Ted meets the titular mother... only it's been four seasons and he's still building up to the point where he meets her.

* ''{{Ranma 1/2}}''. Boy meets Girl except Boy turns into Girl.

* The French film ''Les Jeux Sont Faits'' had the two main characters meeting and falling in love...after they were both dead. [[IGotBetter They got better]] [[spoiler:but died again anyway]].

* The webcomic ''BoyMeetsBoy''.
* Steve in the ''{{KateModern}}'' episode "Free Will":
-->"So! Boy meets girl, girl meets new boy, old boy punches new boy, new boy goes to the police, old boy goes to prison..."
* Kryten in the ''RedDwarf'' episode "Camille":
--> "It's the old, old story - droid meets droid, droid becomes chameleon, droid loses chameleon, chameleon turns into blob, droid gets blob back again. Blob meets blob, blob goes off with blob and droid loses blob, chameleon and droid. How many times have we seen that story?"
* What ''[=~The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy~=]'' said of the rock band Disaster Area: "Their songs are on the whole very simple and mostly follow the familiar theme of boy-being meets girl-being under a silvery moon which then explodes for no adequately explored reason."
* The myth of Pygmalion and Galatea (which makes this OlderThanDirt) goes as follows: boy meets girl. Girl is statue. Boy falls in love with girl and prays to Aphrodite to bring her to life. Aphrodite does and they live HappilyEverAfter.
** Actually, he prays to Aphrodite to turn him into stone so he can be with her forever. In a rare act of compassion, she turns her to flesh instead.
* The RussellTDavies series ''BobAndRose'': boy meets girl. Boy is gay and girl has a boyfriend, but they fall in love anyway. Everyone else thinks they're crazy.
* ''AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin''. Lin comments on Will and Isabella's relationship, saying "Boy meets girl. Boy gives girl flower. Boy names girl. What's this world coming to?"
* ''[[TheTimeTravelersWife The Time Traveler's Wife]]'': Girl meets boy for the first time when she's a small child and he's middle-aged. Boy meets girl for the first time when they're both in their twenties.
* BoyMeetsBoy - TheMusical from 1975: No relation to the webcomic.

* ''The Shortest Science Fiction Love Story Ever Written'': "Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy makes girl."

* ''{{WALL-E}}'' could be considered a variation on this: Boy meets girl. Boy follows girl onto a space cruise liner. [[spoiler:Boy and girl save humanity]]. Oh, and they're both robots.
* ''Every single time'' there is a TV series with nerds and guns, the following happens: Boy meets girl on team (spies, alien hunters, whatever). one or other is a nerd, and quite likes the other one. About the last episode of the series, they finally get round to doing something about it. By the end of the episode, one or both of them is (or are) bleeding to death on the floor.

** The title of the first episode of {{Inuyasha}} is "The Girl Who Overcame Time... and the Boy Who Was Just Overcome," which is kinda a reference to this, I guess.
* ''PushingDaisies'': boy brings girl back from the dead; if boy touches girl ever again, she immediately dies. They try to work around this.

* StarWars ExpandedUniverse has Luke and Mara, though a lot of other things were happening at the time.
** [[TheThrawnTrilogy Timothy Zahn]], in a panel summarized [[http://gabri-jade.livejournal.com/105471.html here]], is aware of this trope but believes that there are three basic treatments of that plot: The American novel, wherein boy meets girl and then loses girl; the French novel wherein boy meets girl, gets girl, and then boy and girl decide that they don't want each other after all; and the Russian novel wherein boy meets girl, never gets girl, and [[{{Wangst}} broods about it for 800 pages]].
* In ''SleeplessInSeattle'', the protagonists are perfect for each other - but they've never met. The entire movie is about them ''not'' finding each other. They don't meet until the very end, when boy finally meets girl, ''after'' the girl believes she has lost him.
* ''Ranma1/2''. Boy meets Girl except Boy turns into Girl.
* SchoolRumble's Harima is one lucky boy. Boy meets Girl 1 (Tenma) but she thinks he was taking advantage of her. Boy meets Girl 2 (Eri) by confessing his love for Girl 1. Boy meets Girl 3 (Tae) and lets him stay overnight. Boy meets Girl 4 (Yakumo) because he needed her help.
* The ''MetalGearSolid'' series has an interesting one between Johnny/Meryl. Boy meets girl falls in love with her then she promptly kicks his ass and takes his clothing. Boy meets girl 10 years later and cheats the army's system to get into the same unit as her. Boy sucks at being a soldier and gets ass kicked by girl often. Boy saves girl using CPR, but Girl still doesn't care much for him. Girl gets mind controlled, different guy saves her while Boy gets knocked out and becomes useless. Girl gets into fight to help different guy, and runs out of ammo. Boy suddenly becomes a badass and saves girl. Epic fight insures. Boy and Girl fall in love and get married.
* Hilariously lampshaded by Wilson in an episode of {{House}}:
-->'''Wilson''': It's the story of life. Boy meets girl. Boy gets stupid. Boy and girl live stupidly ever after.
* The song ''Miracle'' by Cascada essentially begins this way. In fact, the first sentence in the lyrics is "Boy meets girl."

* MahouSenseiNegima is essentially "Boy meets girl'''s'''". And between all of them, most forms of this trope get played out.
* The Foreword to Neil T. Stacey's "Trespassers will be Prostituted" describes the book as "a simple story following the age-old pattern of Boy meets Girl, Girl praises Satan, Boy drowns in Filth". There is no romantic plot-line in the book.
* Krapivin's story [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Boy seeked girl"]]: Boy meets girl. Girl must return to her home on another continent. Boy [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome moves his continent closer to the girl's]] to find her again.
* FiveHundredDaysOfSummer. Like it says in the opening credits: It's a story of boy-meets-girl. It is not a love story.
* BusoRenkin had a chapter called "Boy meets [[ActionGirl Battle Girl]]
* EarthBound has Ness and Paula. Oh, by the way... The song that plays in Twoson is also called ''Boy Meets Girl'', and it kinda foreshadows Paula's disappearance.
* {{Eureka Seven}} Boy meets girl, boy joins mercenary organisation, [[BattleCouple boy and girl pilot giant transforming robot together]].
* Gender-flipped in MemoirsOfAGeisha. Sayuri meets the Chairman when she was just twelve years old, falling in love with him when he showed kindness to her. After that, she trains hard to become a geisha so she could meet him again. And she does eventually.

* In GeorgeBernardShaw's original ''Pygmalion'' (the basis for the film ''MyFairLady''), Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins ''didn't'' end up together. Instead, she married Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Of course, fans kept interpreting Eliza's and Henry's relationship as romantic (even up to the point where the entire ending was changed for ''My Fair Lady''), even when Shaw wrote an essay about why it was impossible for Eliza and Henry to end up together.
** This troper has the greatest respect for Shaw as a dramatist and humorist but he knew zilch about women. The girl has not been born who would prefer a boy who's hers, all hers, to a man who is pretending very hard to be immune to her charms.
*** He at least knew enough about women not to claim that there's any subject on which ''every girl ever born'' had the same opinion.
*** Not to mention that despite being played on stage and screen by "Sexy Rexy" Harrison, Higgins is a ''[[JerkAss jerkass.]]''

* ''HowIMetYourMother'', as the title suggests, is the story of how Ted meets the titular mother... only it's been four seasons and he's still building up to the point where he meets her.
* ''SilentHill 2'' does ''[[MindScrew something]]'' to the trope with James and Maria. Boy mourns over dead wife. Boy meets girl who reminds him of wife. Boy protects girl from town full of monsters. Girl wants to get into boy's pants. Girl is actually [[spoiler:a hallucination created from the guilt James has for {{Mercy Kill}}ing his wife who wants to trap him forever in his delusion]]. Girl then [[spoiler:goes OneWingedAngel and boy repeatedly shoots girl]].
** That's in one ending. Depending on how you play the game, [[spoiler: James had different reasons for killing Mary, from euthanasia to being exhausted from dealing with her illness so long to a little of both.]] There's even an ending where boy and girl leave Silent Hill together [[spoiler: but the game hints that it won't end any better this time.]]

* The final episode of ''BusouRenkin'' was titled "Boy Meets Battle Girl". Subverted in that they met on the first episode and the titular ActionGirl actually ''retires'' from her life of combat at this point, as does the rest of the cast.
* This troper recalls a reviewer's summary of ''E.T.'' as "Boy meets alien, boy loves alien, boy loses alien". As Elliot's parting from E.T. is permanent, it's a subversion.

* This {{Discworld}} quote:
-->"The Disc's greatest lovers were undoubtedly Mellius and Gretelina, whose pure, passionate and soul searing affair would have scorched the pages of History if they had not, because of some unexplained quirk of fate, been born two hundred years apart on different continents."
* In Connie Willis' ''ToSayNothingOfTheDog'', Boy meets girl, but it's the ''wrong'' boy and girl, thanks to a mis-aimed time traveler.
* Matt and Gilly from ''DorkTower'' are achingly perfect for each other. Both gamers, both comic book fans, both cosplayers, both from the ''same town'' in Wisconsin. Too bad Matt keeps salvaging his relationship with his gamer-hating girlfriend and Gilly doesn't know he exists.

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