Arranged Marriage / Anime & Manga

Examples of Arranged Marriage in anime and manga.

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• Ai Yori Aoshi: Kaoru Hanabishi and Aoi Sakuraba are matched in an arranged marriage as young children, to cement a relationship between their powerful corporate households. This is an odd example, however, in that like the previously mentioned Gankutsuoh example, the engagement is technically broken off (Kaoru left his family after being orphaned and then terribly abused by his grandfather): the series' drama results from the two main characters genuinely falling in love and still wanting to get married, but not being able to do so for the whole scandal it'd bring.
• Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka has Yuuhi being arranged to marry Junichi, since Junichi's parents saved her father. Yuuhi doesn't approve of it, but that may change.
• Minamo's parents suggest to her (often) to try a modern arranged dating/marriage in the Azumanga Daioh anime. Fellow teacher, best friend, and pain in the rear Yukari shrugs the idea off and says to just do whatever she wants.
• Basilisk: Oboro Iga and Gennosuke Koga were engaged since childhood as a part of the truce between the Iga and Koga clans. It certainly helped that they came to genuinely like the idea when they knew each other better.
• In Beelzebub, Himekawa was revealed to have been engaged to his childhood best friend Kugayama since birth. The issue is that, well...he didn't exactly know that Kugayama was female in the first place. Traditionally, the heir of the Kugayama family is male, and thus she was raised a male. However, when she was young she gained a crush on Himekawa, and her feminine feelings conflicted with her masculine upbringing. Her grandfather, who cared about her deeply, decided to arrange the marriage so that way she could be a woman freely without an restraints. Though due to her not wanting to damage her relationship with Himekawa, she never told him about it, and her eventual betrayal made it so that Himekawa really hasn't been able to trust anyone through a bond of friendship, until Oga came along. He then started bonding with the rest of the Tohoshinki. Then, he met Kugayama again and the truth finally came out. Himekawa has admitted that Kugayama is perhaps the only person he will always consider a friend, and it's implied that while he is probably still confused about his feelings on this arrangement (and that fact that she's in love with him), his feelings do run deeper than platonic friendship.
• Black Butler: Ciel and his cousin Elizabeth have been engaged since they were young. While they aren't going to actually marry anytime soon, it doesn't stop Elizabeth from pouring her affections onto Ciel which in the manga includes a bold Declaration of Protection from Elizabeth herself, and he cares for her in his own way.
• Bleach:
  • In a flashback arc, it's revealed that Masaki was originally adopted into the Ishida family as part of the matriarch's plan to set up an Arranged Marriage between Masaki and her son Ryuuken. The family's beautiful maid, Kanae Katagiri, is told that the reason the Arranged Marriage will never work as the matriarch hopes is because they will never be Happily Married; additionally, this is followed by a short rant about how the best future for the Quincies is to Marry for Love instead of blood purity or status. While it's clear that Masaki is unhappy with the situation, the twist is that the desire to marry for love is not her confession, it's Ryuuken's, and Kanae says he's very kind for thinking that way. The arranged marriage eventually falls through, and both Masaki and Ryuuken get to Marry for Love - to Isshin and Kanae respectively.
  • In the Amagai filler arc, Lurichiyo, the heir to the Kasumioji clan, is set to mary Shun, who actually looks forward to being married to her. One of her friends has a similar arrangement, which she is not very happy about, and arranges to meet Lurichiyo and her other friends one last time before she's married.
• In Blue Ramun, protagonist Jessie's betrothal to her clanmate Yuan was organized by their tribe when they were still quite young. It's not a binding contract (as Jessie would be free to marry any other member of their tribe if she liked) but it's considered a good match as they're close in age (15 and 17) and they've been friends for years. Yuan recognizes that Jessie's feelings for Guard Captain Eagle threaten their arranged marriage, so he pressures her not to become too involved with Eagle — ostensibly so that they can maintain the purity of their tribe's bloodline (because marriage outside the tribe is forbidden), but also because he genuinely likes Jessie.
• Bokura no Kiseki: Princess Veronica and Prince Eugene are set up in a political marriage to help cement an alliance between their respective countries of Zerestria and Moswick. Though this doesn't stop Moswick from invading and killing everyone in Veronica's castle shortly afterwards.
• Boys over Flowers: The main antagonist, Domyoji Kaede, arranges for both of her children to marry the children of wealthy entrepreneurs in order to acquire their companies for the family's vast corporate empire. When her children Tsubaki and Tsukasa prove to be unwilling, she resorts to less than ethical means to browbeat them into it with mixed success.
• A Bride's Story: The story takes place in nineteenth century Central Asia, so most couples have at least an element of this; the extent is partially determined by the couple’s fathers. Amir and Karluk are a more typical example, as are the two by the Aral Sea, while others show a bit more input from the prospective match. Some story arcs actually revolve around how even those marrying for love need to get their respective families to arrange the marriage. That said, usually, both parties try to love their spouses (else they’ll be miserable for the next few decades), so falling for one’s betrothed or spouse is at least hoped for. That said, this is not the case for every couple, but very nearly.
• Bubblegum Crisis. Lenna's parents arrange for her to meet a prospective suitor, and she is surprised to find that she actually likes him. But she decides to return to Tokyo to rejoin the Knight Sabers anyway.
• Case Closed:
  • Almost happens when Sato's mother arranges an omiai date between her and Shiratori. Bad thing, Sato does have a guy she likes (Takagi) but he's caught up in a very weird case. Then, she tells Shiratori that if Takagi doesn't come by sunset, she WILL marry him instead. Takagi manages to get baaaaaarely in time so the arrangement falls through, some time later he and Sato get properly together... and so do Shiratori and his True Love, Kobayashi-sensei.
  • Similarly, Kogoro and his doctor Yoshiaki Araide consider an arranged marriage between Kogoro's daughter Ran and Yoshiaki's very hot son Tomoaki. Conan isn't pleased at all. It doesn't go through... because Yoshiaki is killed. After the murder case is resolved, Ran and Tomoaki prefer to just stay as friends.
  • The upcoming marriage of Kaede Katagiri and Kikuhito Morizono turns out to be this, and the one who arranged it was the Morizono clan's family butler, Akio Shigematsu. Problem is... Kaede was in love with Shigematsu's adopted son and fellow butler, Yuji Sakuraba, and they had to break up but still liked each other. Seeing this, Shigematsu changed his mind and tried to convince Kikuhito to cancel the wedding - but Kikuhito, thinking that the butler would blackmail him (since he knew that he was messing around with the family company) and that Sakuraba was trying to steal Kaede away, killed Shigematsu and tried to frame his rival in love.
  • This trope is vital to the resolution of the " White Sandy Beach Murder Case". The Dr. Jerk Tanaka was offered a very good arranged marriage to his boss' daughter, so he killed his beautiful ex-girlfriend Mitsuko Sekine so she wouldn't get in between and then made it look like she had been Spurned into Suicide after learning that he'd get married. Bad thing, Mitsuko's best friend Tomoko immediately suspected him, and since Conan and the Mouris were there she told Kogoro to investigate. Conan rather easily found out the truth and, through Kogoro, he unmasked Tanaka as the killer.
• Cheeky Angel: The heroes discover one of their group is entangled in an Arranged Marriage from which they must extricate her via a Zany Scheme.
• Citrus: Student Council President Mei Aihara was initially engaged with a homeroom teacher named Amemiya, set up by her grandfather (and the Aihara Academy's chairman); however, this was called off when the main character and Mei's step-sister (and eventual love interest) Yuzu Aihara discovered and reported that Amemiya was marrying Mei for the status and money; he already had a girlfriend. Eventually, it is revealed that arranged marriages are common practice for wealthier families to maintain financial stability; Himeko Momokino and Suzuran Shiraho say this is the case for them. Mei is then put into another arranged marriage, this time with Udagawa, Yuzu's manager at her job. This, too, is called off and Mei ultimately marries Yuzu.
• Attempted multiple times in City Hunter, as the police superintendent, unable to have a male child and heir, obsessively tries to arrange one for his eldest daughter Saeko... Who, not be thrilled by the idea and refusing to marry a man weaker than herself, beats up the suitors until they need to be hospitalized under the guise of a strength test. Then one day, to her horror, a suitor passed the test...
• Claudine: Instead of marrying for love, Claude's parents' marriage was arranged.
• Code Geass has a few of these, as one would expect from a series with so many royals:
  • Cool Big Sis Milly Ashford is engaged by her family to Earl Lloyd Asplund. She manages to sneak her way out of it. Lloyd doesn't mind. Well, not too much. He was just in it for the cool mecha, anyway - Milly's family owns the first true Knightmare Frame, Ganymede.
    • Before Lloyd, the Ashfords tried to set Milly up with various nobles in the hope of restoring their status. According to official info, she screws up the dates by acting overly goofy and exuberant and getting the men sick on roller coasters. The novels (authorized but not written by an official writer) say that she simply kicks them in the junk instead.
  • First Prince Odysseus and the figurehead Empress of China are arranged to get married by Britannian Prime Minister Schneizel and the Chinese Eunuchs. And the Black Knights use this to stage a Gambit Roulette.
    • After saving the Chinese Empress, Diethard floats the idea of arranging a political marriage between her and one of the Black Knights, which Lelouch mentally admits is not a bad idea; before Lelouch can get a word in edgewise, all of the Black Knights' higher-up female members (except Kallen, who is absent) shoot it down and call Diethard an idiot.
  • In the pre-series Picture Dramas, Suzaku's father and Japanese Prime Minister Genbu Kururugi attempts to force Nunnally to marry him so that Britannia would think twice about the possibility of invading. Suzaku attempts to change it to himself, because he was disturbed by his 50+ year old father marrying an 8 year old crippled blind girl - but apparently Suzaku, too, had his own arranged marriage, and the Sumeragi clan wouldn't approve Lelouch and Kaguya. When Lelouch finds out, he convinces Genbu and Kirihara, a pair of much older, highly intelligent and vastly more experienced men to let the matter go... completely off screen. Damn. (Word of God says he bought them off with information about Britannia's new super-weapon, the Knightmare Frame; still something that would have been cool to see, though.)
    • In the Nightmare of Nunnally, manga, Nunnally is set to marry Suzaku so that Genbu can become related to the royal family and have a place in the post-war administration of Japan.

• Doki Doki School Hours: In the last episode, Mika-sensei attends an omiai, which leads her students to fear losing her. Without much reason, though.
• What kick starts the plot in Engaged to the Unidentified, where on her sixteenth birthday Kobeni suddenly finds out that apparently her long-departed grandfather set her up with the grandson of one of his old friends from the countryside... And said surprise fiancé suddenly moves into her family's house in the city, with his bratty younger sister in tow as a "chaperone".
• In Fairy Tail, this turns out to be the indirect cause of the events in the Phantom Lord arc, as Lucy's father Jude hired Phantom to bring her back home just so he could have her participate in one of these for his business opportunities. However, Lucy did come back... for entirely different reasons.
• The plot of Flower Flower revolves around a princess arriving in a country to be arranged to a prince only to reject him as he's a Wholesome Crossdresser. She chooses his younger sibling instead, unaware that she's marrying another woman.
• Full Moon:
  • Mitsuki's rival Madoka Wakamatsu fled an arranged marriage and got plastic surgery in order to pursue her dreams of being a singer. The guy was Nachi; he got plastic surgery and started a singing career just to be closer to Madoka.
  • There's also Mitsuki's grandmother Fuzuki, who was betrothed to a very rich man named Kimiharu as a teenager. She and her best friend Moe both ended up falling for a violinist named Seijuurou, but Seijuurou only returned Fuzuki's feelings. He asked Fuzuki's parents for her hand, and Kimiharu was then passed off to Moe by Moe and Kimiharu's families, which were already bound by businesses. Needless to say, the whole thing ended very badly: Moe mistakenly believed that Fuzuki and Seijuurou had betrayed her (they didn't; Fuzuki was about to reject the engagement to Seijuurou because she didn't want to betray Moe, and the kiss they shared was a Last Kiss), fell into despair, barely managed to fend off an Attempted Rape from Kimiharu and then went the Spurned into Suicide way, which led her to become Yui Meroko. Fuzuki was so heartbroken that she called off the marriage to Seijuurou, cut all ties to him, and became comepletely embittered towards music as a whole.
• In Fun Territory Defense By The Optimistic Lord, there are several directed at the protagonist Van Nei Fertio, who is 8-years-old and thus has a few years to get to know his "suitors" before he has to walk down the aisle. The first is a merfolk girl he meets whose tribe then moves into his territory. She describes herself as his fiancé and the chieftan, who is her father, makes it official, no matter how Van says "no." As a result of Van wiping out a legion of "armored dragon" beasts that the clan was fleeing from. The second to date is the "useless" daughter of a neighboring noble who fears an armed invasion, since Van's father is a famous Warhawk, and Van turned the village he was given into a viable fortress. The girl in quesion is actually a very shy and awkward 10-year-old who just wants somebody to acknowledge her existence. When Van actually praises her [Puppetry] magic talent, there is much in the way of Ship Tease and she's ecstatic, quickly getting on board with hoping she and he marry in the future when they're both of age.
• Futari Ecchi: Main characters Makoto Onoda and Yura Kawada (later, Onoda) meet in an omiai. They actually like each other so much that they end up Happily Married, and the manga follows them in their daily life and principally in their attempts to improve their sex life.
• GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class: Apparently, the parents of Miyabi "Professor" Oomichi already arranged her a husband—despite she's only a tenth grader. A later chapter showed that she was not particularly pleased with that, and was glad that the omiai was delayed.
• Yomi and Noriyuki in Ga-Rei -Zero-. Unfortunately, Noriyuki's father breaks off the engagement when Yomi's life starts to go downhill.
• A Galaxy Next Door: According to Shiori's customs, anyone that touches her stinger and is jabbed by it is to marry her. While Kuga and Shiori manage to get the pact annulled, they realize they still loved each other in defiance of it.
• Gankutsuou: Eugénie de Danglars is initially arranged to marry Albert de Morcerf, but after a scandal in the Morcerf house, her father breaks the arrangement and makes a new one with Andrea Cavalcanti, to her horror.
• Gravitation: Eiri Yuki is engaged to a young girl named Ayaka Usami, who sincerely likes him and tries to go through the engagement. However, she does realize that it won't be the best option, so she pulls an I Want My Beloved to Be Happy so Yuki can be with Shuichi. After she gets better, Ayaka starts dating Hiroshi Nakano, Shuichi's male Unlucky Childhood Friend.
• Gundam
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Lacus Clyne was in an arranged engagement with Kira's old friend Athrun Zala before falling for Kira. After their break-up and getting together with Kira and Kira's twin sister Cagalli, respectively, they remain friends. At the same time, Flay Alster was engaged to Kira's friend Sai Argyle, and she breaks off said engagement after her father dies to pursue Kira. The PLANTS are also known to be enforcing arranged marriages among their population, in an attempt to counter their falling birthrates. It doesn't seem to be helping.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny: We get to see Cagalli's fiancé from childhood, Yuna Roma Seiran. It doesn't work well for him.
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury features a more unique example. Due to the rules setup in the school, whoever is the number one duelist is officially the fiancé of Miorine, and it doesn’t matter what the person’s gender is. In the first episode, Guel is the Holder, but following his defeat in the first episode and subsequent defeat in the rematch in the third episode, the protagonist, Suletta Mercury, is officially declared the Holder and Miorine’s fiancé. In this case, Suletta had no idea that she would become Miorine’s fiancé. She only fought against Guel because she wanted him to apologize to Miorine for his abusive treatment towards her.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Wufei was involved in one of these with a girl from his colony named Meiran (who called herself "Nataku"). It wasn't always a happy marriage (indeed, they were bickering through their own wedding ceremony!), but at the same time, they did care deeply for one another. Wufei still misses her.
• Haikara-san ga Tooru: Benio and Shinobu were engaged since birth to compensate for a love match that was annulled many years ago. They find out several years later: she's really not thrilled because she doesn't want to marry, he's kinda amused by the prospect, and then things start rolling around...

• Happy Negative Marriage: Keitaro is introduced facing company policies and customs that favor married employees, and is then forced into an omiai by his mother and his boss. Turns out the prospective bride is quite appealing to his tastes.
• In Happy Yarou Wedding, Kazuki shows up at his brother's doorstep claiming he's there to drop off marriage candidate portfolios for him. When Akira confronts his father about trying to arrange a marriage for him his father replies that he knows better than to try to interfere with his life and that the candidates were actually arranged for Kazuki, not Akira.
• Hayate the Combat Butler has both an arranged marriage and a omiai set up:
  • Nagi and Wataru are arranged to be married, presumably for the Sanzenin fortune. While Nagi and Wataru are antagonistic to the idea, both are 13, and show signs that there are the beginnings of love between them, hinting that they might not be entirely opposed.
    • Since Nagi no longer will be the inheritor of the Sanzenin fortune, whether it still stands at all hasn't been touched on.
  • Saki and Kaoru are set up on a omiai by their families. Both admit to being interested in other people, so nothing comes of this.
• Hello! Sandybell: Mark Wellington is forced by his father to enter an engagement with the bitchy, unlikable Kitty Shearer, because the Wellingtons, despite their Blue Blood, are entering poverty and he wants to save face. While Kitty genuinely loves him, he only has eyes for Sandybell. Later, Mark ends their engagement and runs away from her.
• Henkyou no Roukishi Bard Loen: Aidra Tersia got married off to Kaldus Coendera for political reasons, but it didn't calm the tension between two families and they've got divorced only after about a year and having a child. Why she returned is one of the Driving Questions. Prince Windellan requested Kaldus to give Aidra to her, which he obliged to earn favors from him and became a Secret-Keeper that Windellan is the real father.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • Lithuania and Poland meet for the first time when Liet's boss Duke Wladislaw Jagiello and Poland's boss King Jadwiga go through this to forge an alliance. As to whether Poland and Lithuania themselves were "married" or not, there's much discussion in the fandom.
  • Also, Austria and Hungary's marriage coincides with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise and thus is seen as this by fandom. Whether this falls into Perfectly Arranged Marriage or Unwanted Spouse (with or without a side dish of Domestic Abuse coming from Austria's part) it's up to the fans.
  • This may have been the case in regards to the Habsburg ruling of Spain. In a one-panel gag, Austria shows a ring he's wearing to Spain and says "I will NOT accept bigamy from you!"
• Honoo no Alpen Rose: In his youth, Count Georges de Gourmant was engaged to Hélène Dunant. While it was arranged by her father, he genuinely loved her, but she didn't feel the same way (in part, because the Count was an open Nazi) and became a Runaway Bride. Count Georges eventually married another woman, who he proceeded to maltreat for the entirety of their marriage.
• If I See You In My Dreams gets kicked off by an omiai. Lead male Masao was tired of being a virgin Unlucky Everydude, lead female Nagisa was totally burned out by bad suitors, and so they met in an arranged date...
• Ikoku Irokoi Romantan features a wedding aboard a Mediterranean cruise ship, meant to improve relations between two powerful yakuza groups. The bride and groom have been friends since childhood, and go into the wedding willingly, if not happily. This being a yaoi title, the unhappy bride throws the groom out of their cabin on their wedding night, and the groom promptly goes off and gets shagged by a hot Italian seme.
• Isabelle of Paris: For two years, Victor has been engaged to Geneviève. It is implied the marriage is for political purposes, since it was arranged by the latter's father, a wealthy landowner, to Victor, an army captain. However Geneviève only has eyes for her piano teacher Jules, and her parents won't let them get married because Jules is from a poor background.
• Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: Discussed in Chapter 142 when Shirogane misinterprets Kaguya asking him to hold her hand as he walks her home as her saying that her family is forcing her into an arranged marriage due to a combination of him having not gotten a good night's sleep for the past several days and her sending him a bunch of mixed signals. In a subtle case of foreshadowing, that chapter also happens to feature the first onscreen appearance of Mikado Shijo, who she very nearly does end up forcibly engaged to near the end of the series.
• Kaitou Saint Tail: Sayaka is trapped in an unhappy engagement that centers around a veil belonging to the other family; if Saint Tail steals it and returns it to Sayaka's fiancé, she'll be free to go. The only problem is that Sayaka has a tremendous crush on Asuka Jr. Meimi quickly helps the poor girl anyway, but the situation muddles her feelings even more.
• Kamisama Kiss: One plot arc involves Himemiko being in an arranged marriage with Nishiki despite the fact that she is in love with Kotarou. Things get violent before the situation is resolved.
• Common practise among the vampires of Karin. Partially because the vampires are slow to abandon traditions and partially because there's simply not enough of them left to go around.
• Koi Kaze: Koshiro works at a marriage-arranging company and setting up omiais is part of his job. At one point his boss also arranges an omiai for Koshiro himself, since clients would rather be assisted by someone who is married. Koshiro blatantly refuses to attend it though, because he and his sister are hopelessly in love with each other.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1999), Ruto ran off and hid in Lord Jabu Jabu because her father was going to marry her off the next day.
• Macross 7:
  • Miriya unintentionally sets off the series' central Love Triangle by setting up an omiai between her daughter Mylene and Gamlin Kizaki.
  • Then she messes things up again in Encore 2 by trying to convince Mylene and Basara to marry while at the same time she sets up another omiai between Gamlin and Miho Miho, one of the Bridge Bunnies. Of course it's justified that she thought she was dying at the time.
• Magical Project S: One episode revolves around a potential arranged marriage for one of the teachers.
• Maison Ikkoku: Shun Mitaka is introduced to his eventual wife Asuna Kujou by way of an omiai arranged by his uncle. He objects strongly to the union, partially because he is in love with Kyouko, but also because of her large number of dogs, which he is deathly afraid of. After accidentally proposing to her due to a misunderstanding, he warms up to the idea a bit more.
• In Maya's Funeral Procession, Reina is arranged to marry Taku, but is reluctant to do so, both because she only sees him as a brother, and because she falls in love with Maya. In the end, Maya commits suicide after learning that she and Reina are half-sisters, and Reina marries Taku despite not loving him.
• In Men's Love, Daigo's father tries to force him into a marriage that will be favourable for the Mercury company, to the extent of bribing and threatening Daigo's lover to break up with him.
• Present in the Ero-OVA series, Moonlight Lady: it was originally arranged for Suzuna Kuraki to marry her cousin, Io Azuma. When he grew up to be a "total pretty boy" instead of a "hunk", it was then decided that she would marry Kouichi Hayama.
• Moyashimon: Haruka is the daughter of an executive and is in an arranged marriage, with the caveat that she won't have to marry until she is done with the university. Naturally, she intends never to graduate, and an attempt by her father to push matters leads to him and the fiancé exposed to point-blank Surstr?ng.
• In the worldbuilding of My Hero Academia, it's established that once Quirks became seen as desirable rather than feared, it led to a resurgence in the practice of arranged marriages, as ambitious families attempted to create desirable Quirks in their descendants, even leading to the term "Quirk Marriages". Amongst the hero trainees of UA Classroom 1-A, Shoto Todoroki is known to be the product of a Quirk Marriage, his flame-wielding Pro Hero hero father having deliberately bought the hand of an ice-wielding woman from her family in hopes that they would have a child able to wield both elements in some fashion.
• In My Wife is the Student Council President: Hayato and Ui's parents arranged their engagement, pretty much on a whim. Ui is on board with it from the beginning, but Hayato is understandably reluctant to accept the fact that he suddenly has a wife... However, it quickly becomes clear that the two are perfect for each other, and Hayato falls in love with Ui before he even notices.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Konoka Konoe is usually in an Arranged Marriage of some kind, set up by her grandfather. This causes her great annoyance since most of the suitors she's set up with tend to be somewhere around twice her age or older. She generally either turns them all down without a look or runs away and hides till they're over. Later events imply that another problem with the above-mentioned suitors may have been their gender.
  • When Negi Pactios with Ku Fei, she states that he is now "committed to become her groom." She's pulling his leg, though. Chamo comments that FeiNegi is possible, given what his descendant Chao looked like.
• Ojamajo Doremi: Aiko's divorced father goes to an omiai with the daughter of his boss, the sweet Midori, much to Aiko's distress since she still hopes to get her parents reunited. Ironically, Kenji wanted to marry Midori because he believed Aiko needed a motherly figure. They don't go through it.
• Ojojojo: Haru's father gives her a week to choose from a list of suitors, and she accepts in an effort to make him happy despite having already fallen in love with Tsurezure. It's quickly canceled when she changes her mind and refuses, and her father accepts her decision without any hesitation. One of the suitors (a British noble named Chris), ends up becoming part of the main cast, eventually ending up in a relationship with Haru's best friend Akane.
• One Piece:
  • In the Dressrosa arc, Don Chinjao arranged a marriage with his grandson Sai and the daughter of the Nipposui Army, thus leading Chinjao to attack Sai when he thinks that his grandson has decided to marry Baby 5. When Sai retaliates, bending his grandfather's Drill Dragon Nail head in the process, Chinjao, proud of his grandson, names him Don and cancels his arranged marriage.
  • In the Zou arc, an arranged marriage is revealed to be set up between Sanji, the third son of the Vinsmoke Family and Pudding, the 35th daughter of the Charlotte Family. The reason for this is because Charlotte Linlin, a.k.a. Big Mom, wants to have the power of Germa 66, which is led by the Vinsmoke Family. Vinsmoke Judge doesn't want to give any of his precious children to her, but since defying Big Mom is way too risky, he wants to give her the son he never saw as a son. Although it ultimately turns out that it was all a ploy to get the entire Vinsmoke family together in one place unarmed, so her family could assassinate them all in one flew swoop, giving Big Mom control over the entirety of their Germa 66.
  • Arranged marriages are Big Mom's modus operandi for obtaining more power for herself. She arranges political marriages between her children and potentially strong subordinates and organizations who wish to ally with her, creating a bond between her and her new allies. Trying to escape these marriages is one of Big Mom's Berserk Buttons, as she has explosive cuffs she'll use on potential runaways and is perfectly willing to send hitmen after one of her own daughters who successfully ran away from such a marriage.
• Ouran High School Host Club:
  • The final arc of the anime shows Tamaki being engaged to a girl named Eclair Tonnerre, which creates havoc in the club. When that becomes an obvious non-starter for everyone involved, the engagement is broken off, but both Tamaki and Kyouya's fathers show interest in marrying their respective sons to Haruhi, the spunky protagonist.
  • An earlier arc also features two students in an arranged marriage to seal a business alliance between their families. It's clear that they love each other, but he thinks he's too dull for her and wants to study abroad so he can become more worldly, and she's hurt because he made the decision without consulting her. The Host Club can't help but make sure the misunderstandings get cleared up... using the most convoluted means as possible.
• In Pumpkin Scissors, Alice is engaged to be married to a high-ranking noble named Lionel Taylor. However, this went against her wishes to stay unmarried and continue working for Section III. She was even willing once to go as far as to try and get her fiancé to call off their engagement.
• Queen Millennia: Before coming to Earth, Yayoi was set to marry Doctor Fara, Leopardo's brother, when she returns. She makes some hesitations when he's on her way, but otherwise doesn't care about him.
• Ranma ½: The entire plot revolves around the chaos created by two former training partners determined to force their children to wed, despite the vehement protests of the children in question (and, in the eyes of some readers, despite the ridiculously dysfunctional relationship between said children). Adding even more chaos to the mix is the fact that the son, through no intention of his own, has gathered an Unwanted Harem consisting of a Bifauxnen Unlucky Childhood Friend who is also engaged to him (he made a promise to take care of her always as kids, though he didn't remember that, and shortly afterwards his father agreed to engage him to her — and then stole her dowry and Ranma both and ran off, leaving her behind), an Accidental Marriage to an Anime Chinese Girl with large breasts, and a Stalker with a Crush who is enacting her own warped version of a Rescue Romance (he saved her from a fall, having accidentally knocked her off the roof in the first place, so she's decided he's her destined lover). Then there's the guy who's in love with his female form (and who also happens to be the strange girl's brother).
• In Requiem of the Rose King multiple couples have these including Henry and Margaret, Anne and Edward the other Edward and Elizabeth.
• The "Flower Festival" arc of Rosario + Vampire involves Mizore trying to escape an arranged marriage with a leader of the powerful "Fairy Tale" group. Hilarity emphatically does not ensue.
• The Rose of Versailles covers arranged marriages from several angles:
  • Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI wind up kiiiinda okay but fall victim to the misfortune that everyone knows; little Charlotte... not so much and commits suicide over her Old Man Marrying a Child situation.
  • Then there's Oscar's case: when her father realizes that The French Revolution is coming and, due having raised her as a man and a soldier, she would be leading the charge, he tries to stop that by getting her married. Being ultimately a good man, he first chooses Girodelle (that he knows is a good person and has a personality compatible with Oscar) and then agrees to let her Oscar choose among her suitors at a dance. Oscar being very stubborn and popular with women, she acts as a man at the dance and flirts with the female guests (who don't mind at all), and then has her soldiers run everyone out with their terrible table manners, and Girodelle, who, differently from the other suitors, had not ran away (and in fact got a good laugh out of it) realizes she would never be happy with him and renounces.
• Sakura Gari: Viscount Kawamori really wants Souma to marry his daughter Kanako, as he desires to have a genius businessman like Souma as his right hand. Souma at first refuses, later starts thinking it over... but then the series ends.
• Sakura Trick: In episode 7A, it was revealed Kotone's rich parents already arranged to marry her off. She reacted by moving away from her Big Fancy House to her cousin Shizuku's home. The existence of romance going on between Kotone and Shizuku does not help. Kotone's betrothed eventually appears and is revealed to be a woman.
• Sand Chronicles: Fuji's mother tries to get him to do an omiai to ensure he marries the most suitable girl for his wealthy status, to his chagrin since he wants to marry the woman he loves. He leaves before it begins.
• Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei: Nozomu has been arranged to have an omiai but it's a pun; instead of an arranged marriage, it is a an 'eye-to-eye marriage' where he is betrothed to the first person he makes eye contact with. He spends the entire night not making eye contact until he sees an eldritch abomination with multiple eyes. His estate nulls the marriage as involving non-humans would create problems.
• One story in School Rumble features Harima and Tenma saving Eri from an arranged marriage (mostly by accident).
• In The Secret Agreement, Iori is the heir to an Impoverished Patrician family and has to marry into wealth. He doesn't see his marriage as an obstacle to his relationship with his lover, Yuuichi, simply because it's always been a fact of life and he doesn't feel he has to love his wife.
• Star Driver:
  • Wako and Sugata are supposed to marry on the basis of Wako being a Maiden and Sugata having inherited Samekh's mark, of the most powerful Cybody on the planet. This is why main character Takuto tries his best to not interfer in their relationship despite having fallen in Love at First Sight with Wako. It's made even more complicated when Wako develops feelings for him too, but her old, existing feelings for Sugata stay as well. By the end and through Word of God, it's implied the three of them stay together as they are.
  • In the past, Ryousuke and Sora (Takuto's mother) were this too. However, whereas Sugata and Wako appear to be in a Perfectly Arranged Marriage, Ryousuke acts very distant towards Sora. Then Head (Takuto's father) arrives and the whole thing goes down the drain.
• Stepping on Roses (Hadashi de Bara wo Fume): Featured between Nozomu and Miu, which is likely a source of their dysfunction. Since protagonist Sumi and male lead Soichiro both marry for money, however, they're not that much better off to start with.
• Tales of Wedding Rings:
  • Krystal, as the Princess of Light, has the power to name a Ring King by marrying him; Prince Marse of the Empire was chosen for this honor. Except when Sato, Krystal's childhood friend from Japan, accidentally stumbled into the wedding, Krystal immediately kissed him instead, both sealing their marriage and making him the new Ring King. Prince Marse is surprisingly okay with this and gives Sato all the help he needs.
  • Turns out that the reason Prince Marse wanted to become Ring King in the first place is because he was in love with Saphira, one of the princesses promised to the Ring King. They thought that if he became Ring King, they could be together. Saphira was initially pissed that Marse broke their promise, but Saphira's sister Saphir stole the ring and married Sato before anyone knew what was happening, leaving Saphira free to have a normal relationship with Marse.
• Less prominent, but the OAV Tenchi Muyo! storyline features Aeka betrothed to her half-brother Yosho; she's happy with the idea... until she falls into Tenchi's Unwanted Harem, of course. She does imply that she wouldn't necessarily mind if Yosho did ask her out, however.
• Narrowly averted in episode 19 of Twin Princess of Wonder Planet when the Evil Chancellor arranged a marriage between Princess Mirlo and the very young son of a rich man. When the father learned the reason was entirely due to the Water Drop Kingdom being broke, the father called it off.
• Urusei Yatsura: Ryuunosuke has an Arranged Marriage made between her father and one of his own friends, and thus a fiancé named Nagisa she'd rather do without. In her case, she has to deal with a Yamato Nadeshiko Wholesome Crossdresser rather than a Covert Pervert Tsundere.
• Vampire Knight: All pureblood marriages seem to be this in order to keep the pure blood line.
• Vinland Saga: Halfdan "Iron Chain", a powerful Icelandic farmer, betroths his son Sigurd to Gudrid, a member of Leif Eriksson's household and thus a way for Halfdan to expand his influence to the Greenland colonies. Neither Sigurd (who has a lover) and Gudrid (who wants to become a sailor) wants this, but feel duty-bound to obey their respective families. Gudrid ends up stabbing Sigurd (nonfatally) and running away, joining the protagonists in a Stern Chase with Sigurd seeking to recapture her to reclaim his honour.
• Yamazaki from Welcome to the NHK unwillingly attends an omiai arranged by his parents. He immediately falls in love with the woman and gets married to her shortly after.
• The World is Still Beautiful:
  • This is what kickstarts the plot to begin with: the Dukedom of Rain has to send one of its princess for the Sun King Livius to marry. Nike just happens to be it, chosen via rock-paper-scissors. Despite the rocky start, the two come to love each other.
  • In Chapter 30 when Luna reunites with Nike and Livius, she reveals she's just been put in an arranged marriage with the much older Marquis Claude Fortis. She decides to sabotage it by getting Nike to crossdress and pose as her fiancé. He offers to drop it after he's done with his plan to save Luna's family, which depended on the engagement, but by that point the two have fallen for each other and so the engagement goes ahead.
• Yakuza Fiance: Yoshino Somei, the granddaughter of the leader of a yakuza organization, is arranged to be married to the heir of another yakuza family, Kirishima Miyama. During their first meeting, she begins to take an interest in him, but starts to suffer bullying from his other admirers.
• Yuureitou: Reiko was engaged to a man by her adopted mother despite her huge disapproval. Reiko breaks off the engagement herself after telling him she wants to live as a man but wants them to become like brothers. It doesn't work out as she expected. Tetsuo later meets him again years later, with his ex-fiancée now being horribly disfigured. He doesn't seem to recognize his disfigurement but he also doesn't recognize Tetsuo is living as a man. Tetsuo plays along with his delusions even as he dies to save him.
• The premise of Zettai Heiwa Daisakusen, although the people getting married in question set it up themselves to put an end to the war between their respective countries. Hilarity ensues, surprisingly.

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