History Main / LongDistanceRelationship

* The film ''The Lake House'' has an interesting variant: the distance isn't in space so much as in time.

* ''Manga/AsteroidInLove'': While eventually, it's just [[spoiler:WithAFootOnTheBus]], in Episode 8 / Chapter 27 [[spoiler:Ao revealed her family's plan to move out of town.]] To some of the cast (especially [[ShipperOnDeck Moe]]), this trope is [[DefiedTrope barely prevented]] for the [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship her and Mira; the "emergency meeting" the Earth Sciences Club had over it is more like brainstorming for ideas on how to maintain a long-distance relationship, to the point Moe suggested taking turns to be each other's "weekend commuter wife".[[note]]Rejected as too expensive.[[/note]]

Perhaps AliceAndBob started out dating while they [[GirlNextDoor lived close together]] and one had to move away (at least far enough away where they can't see each other on a regular basis); perhaps they began the relationship through the mail (or, in more modern stories, over the Internet) and never met in real life at all (but may be planning to at some point).

** A nonromantic example occurred in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' A Sitch in Time when Ron's family moves to Norway (courtesy of Future Shego). Despite Kim saying they can still make Team Possible work, two times, Ron shows up late to the mission, and when they're finally together, they're out of sync, so they regrettably agree that Kim should go solo. Fortunately, Ron accidentally hits the ResetButton and causes everything to go back to normal.

* In ''Manga/KodomoNoOmocha'', Sana goes on an extended film project out in the woods and is plagued by rumors and [[YokoOhNo angry fangirls]] of her colleague Naozumi, who hate her for apparently dating him. Later, the prospect of her love interest Hayama going overseas to recuperate from serious injury is enough to send her into a HeroicBSOD, though eventually she comes to terms with it and they are reunited in the DistantFinale.

* Implied at the end of ''Manga/PsychoStaff''.

* It's never explicitly stated, but it's implied that Walter and Lyn's relationship is this in ''VideoGame/FrontMission 5''. Likewise for Darril and Elsa, the protagonists of ''VideoGame/FrontMission4'', who got married in between 4 and 5.

* It's never explicitly stated, but it's implied that Walter and Lyn's relationship is this in ''VideoGame/FrontMission 5''. Likewise for Darril and Elsa, the protagonists of ''[=FM4=]'', who got married in between 4 and 5.

At any rate, a story that has a long distance relationship often deals with its pitfalls, the #1 being that AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder. If they've promised to reunite but one party takes his / her ([[DoubleStandard generally his]]) time, it may result in IWillWaitForYou; if outside pressures force the waiting party to be with someone else, this then becomes YouHaveWaitedLongEnough. For when someone ''pretends'' they have a long-distance relationship as a transparent cover-up for actually being single, that's GirlfriendInCanada.

* Koyuki and Maho in ''Manga/{{BECK}}'', but [[GeckoEnding only in the manga]].
* In ''Anime/{{GunBuster}}'', Kazumi's relationship with Coach Ohta is not only long distance, it very quickly becomes a MayflyDecemberRomance because relativistic effects means that Kazumi will outlive Ohta (and most of human civilization, as a matter of fact) by a long shot.

** During the ''Sailor Stars'' arc, Mamoru went to America to study, leaving Usagi behind for a large part of the series. (And then it turns out that [[spoiler: Mamoru actually was killed by having his Star Seed ''stolen at the airport'', and Usagi witnessed it, but she was so traumatized that she repressed this memory. In the [[Anime/SailorMoon anime]] it's slightly changed; Mamoru gets killed off a little after his plane took off, and since Usagi didn't see it she truly believed Mamoru wasn't able to contact her, unti Galaxia shows her Mamoru's Heart Star Seed and tells her how she killed him.]].)

* The anime version of ''Manga/MarmaladeBoy'' had this for a while, when Yuu takes a scholarship and goes to study in America leaving his girlfriend Miki behind in Japan. [[spoiler: It didn't work very well though: they did their best to try mantaining their bond, but Miki is emotionally exhausted due to being pursued by other two guys and, after a rather tasteless prank from an American ClingyJealousGirl who's after Yuu, they break it off for a while and it takes them quite the time to mildly rekindle their bonds.]]

* Used in ''Manga/KimiNoIruMachi'' and ended badly, when the female lead Yuzuki decided to cut off all contact with the male lead Haruto and date her dying childhood friend as a pity date. Since this is a Seo Kouji series, [[JerkAss it never crossed her mind to explain this in any way shape or form to the male lead]]. They try it again later when Haruto gets a job that requires him to move. He is initially encouraged when he finds out his senior at work has maintained a successful long distance relationship with her boyfriend for five years. Until she shows up at his apartment distraught and begging to sleep with him since she just broke up with her boyfriend. The distance was more emotional in her case. As much as she and her boyfriend loved each other, their dreams for the future were just incompatible. Her boyfriend wanted her to quit her job and move in with him so they could raise a family, and she wanted to stay at her job. They avoided confronting the issue for years, but it finally came to a head... to which they once again break up.

* ''Manga/DomesticGirlfriend'': At roughly their one year anniversary, Natsuo's girlfriend receives a training opportunity in America. It will take a full year. Natsuo isn't happy about it, but is insistent that she look at it objectively and do what she thinks is best. She does decide to leave after all, and they [[VideoPhone Skype]] as much as possible despite the time difference. Their relationship is complicated a bit because Natsuo has several girls who consider taking advantage of his girlfriend's absence to seduce him, and his girlfriend has a sex-crazed roommate who keeps trying to convince her to go on dates.

* Samantha Argus and Dave Hamper of the newspaper comic ''ComicStrip/SafeHavens'' have a long distance ''marriage''. This is a source of angst for Samantha, as she knows Dave wants to make Italy (where he plays professional basketball) his permanent home and she wants to stay in Havens. Eventually the situation resolves itself when Samantha reveals to Dave [[spoiler: that they'll be going on a mission to Mars together.]] In preparation for that, he retires from basketball and moves back to Havens. Then again, by the time they married, they've become pros at this sort of relationship: in the course of their relationship, they've been separated by Dave being transferred to another school (her school's ''rival'', no less), their respectively demanding college schedules (Dave's as a basketball player, Samantha's as an R.A. and a doctorate candidate), and Dave had already been playing in Italy a few years before they tied the knot.

* In ''Fanfic/OneYear'', much like Continuance, Yu and Yukiko are in a long-distance relationship for most of the fic, except for when Yu visits Inaba for Golden Week and summer vacation, while Yukiko, accompanied by Chie, visits Yu, his old friends and his parents in Minagi for Christmas and winter break. Yu and Yukiko's ultimate goal is to get into their first choice school together, [[spoiler:and ultimately succeed in this endeavor]].

* The movie ''Film/GoingTheDistance'' is set around a couple trying to have a long distance relationship.

* ''Film/LikeCrazy'': Jacob and Anna first meet in the US while she's attending university there. However, when she's deported for overstaying her student visa, they struggle maintain to things while she's in the UK.

** In ''Rilla of Ingleside'', many of Anne and Gilbert's children carry on long distance relationships during World War I. The one emphasized, obviously, is Rilla's sort-of, unofficial (she's confused) long distance relationship with her childhood friend/crush Ken Ford.

* This is one of main plot points in ''Literature/TheGhostWriter''. Gerard Freeman and Alice Jessell not only interacted with each other via letters, but they also never even meet each other until the story's climax.

* This trope is petty much the entire point of the show Ny-Lon, which is about a relationship between a girl in New York and a guy in London... which, naturally, leads to a break-up or major fight about how hard long distance relationships are just about every other episode so that one character can dramatically fly across the ocean to re-proclaim their love. Of course, in the end [[spoiler: they break up anyway.]]

** Andy takes a job in London for several months while April remains in Pawnee. They know it will be ok because they already did the long distance relationship before.

* ''Series/{{Zoey 101}}'': Chase and Zoey attempt this via webcam after [[spoiler: she overhears Chase tell his roommates he's in love with her and they switch places in an attempt to be together]], but after their video date fails, the come to the conclusion that it wont' work and resolve to try it for real when they're together again.
* ''Series/{{CSI}}'', post season 9. Grissom and Sara are married, but Sara is working at the lab in Vegas, while Grissom travels and researches and lectures.
* Ted in ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' with Victoria, his first serious girlfriend in the series when she moves to Germany for a baking scholarship. Future!Ted tells us right from the start that long distance relationships never work. Including theirs.

* This comes up from time to time in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' multiverse. {{Lampshaded}} by [[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Trip Tucker]] when he receives a DearJohnLetter; 100 light years is as long-distance as it's ever been for humans of that era.

* The Music/{{deadmau5}} and Music/ImogenHeap collab song "Telecommunications" is about a troubled long distance relationship.

* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', a male Shepard can wind up with this trope if they romanced Miranda or Jack in the previous game and don't chose to hook up with someone different, due to neither of them choosing to rejoin the Normandy.

* In ''[[WebOriginal/{{KeitAi}} Keit-Ai]]'', the boy has a long-distance relationship by [[PunBasedTitle cellphone]] with his crush because she's not actually the same girl he fell in love with. She is instead the girl's [[AlternateUniverse alternate universe]] counterpart, who has fallen in love with the boy's own [[AlternateSelf AU self]].

** A nonromantic example occurred in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' A Sitch in Time when Ron's family moves to Norway (courtousy of Future Shego). Despite Kim saying they can still make Team Possible work, two times, Ron shows up late to the mission, and when they're finally together, they're out of sync, so they regrettably agree that Kim should go solo. Fortunately, Ron accidentally hits the ResetButton and causes everything to go back to normal.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': [[spoiler:This is what Lincoln Loud and his oldest sister, Lori, end up doing with [[LovingBully Ronnie Anne]] and [[KindheartedSimpleton Bobby]], respectively, after they and their mom end up moving in with their mom's extended family in "[[Recap/TheLoudHouseS2E13TheLoudestMissionRelativeChaos The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos]]."]]

* ''Fanfic/SonOfTheSannin'': Shikamaru and Shino are respectively dating Temari and Fu, both of whom live in different ninja villages (there's mention of Choji being PenPals with his canon LoveInterest Karui, but they aren't a couple [[ForegoneConclusion yet]]). [[spoiler:After Akatsuki's temporary take over of Takigakure, Fu ends up moving into Shino's family compound for the time being as her village's leader felt that she'd be safer in Konoha until the threat can be dealt with.]]

* This trope is petty much the entire point of the show Ny-Lon, which is about a relationship between a girl in New York and a guy in London... which, naturally, leads to a break-up or major fight about how hard long distance relationships are just about every other episode so that one character can dramatically fly across the ocean to re-proclaim there love. Of course, in the end [[spoiler: they break up anyway.]]

** Ron was worried about a straighter version occurring after graduation, believing that the distance would ruin his relationship with Kim. Whatever happens, WordOfGod says they stay together forever.

* Cross-Clan relationships are this in ''Fanfic/WarriorsRewrite''. They're only allowed to see one another at monthly Gatherings and it's not even guaranteed that both cats will go to a Gathering. Still, they make do and oftentimes end up having kits nevertheless; once they're older, the kits chose which Clan they want to be with.

* The film ''TheLakeHouse'' has an interesting variant: the distance isn't in space so much as in time.

* Cross-Clan relationships are this in ''Fanfic/WarriorsRewrite''. They're only allowed to see one another at monthly Gatherings and it's not even guaranteed that both cats will go to a Gathering.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark: Kenny manages to have one with Kelly in "Rainforest Shmainforest" and "Spontaneous Combustion". [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Unfortunately, his girlfriend inexplicably disappears after Season 3]].

* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': Chandler and Monica in Season 9, when Chandler is transferred to Tulsa. Being HappilyMarried and hating his job Chandler eventually quits so they can spend christmas together.

* [[LesYay Subaru and Teana]] fell into this after ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'' when their personal goals stationed them in different posts. But as Teana told [[GenkiGirl Subaru]] [[{{Tsundere}} in an annoyed tone]] when they reunited in ''Audioplay/StrikersSoundStageX'', the latter kept on bombarding her with so much e-mail that she didn't even notice the distance.

* ''Fanfic/MarriedToTheKoopaKing'' implies that Pauline and Mario are in a long-distance relationship.