Enemy Mine / Anime & Manga

Enemy Mine in Anime & Manga.

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Examples:

• Attack on Titan discusses the whole idea of the whole of humanity settling its differences with each other to fight a common enemy, finding it overly optimistic. Indeed, even in the story, with humans on the brink of extinction against such an enemy, there's still plenty of infighting.
• In Berserk, Guts and Zodd have an AWESOME one of these when they temporarily team up against the Emperor Ganshika, who is a giant fog/storm cloud apostle. Naturally, they do it in the most badass way they can. Schierke finds Ganshika's "core", the only really physical spot in his apostle form, but says that only a powerful magical weapon can do anything. Guts has been slaughtering demons, apostles, and other nasty spirits every single day and night, for about three years straight, with his BFS and so all that pain and hate has made it a magical weapon. Zodd, in demon form, lets Guts ride on top of him, and they use the Dragonslayer to ram Ganshika's 'core'.
• Black Clover: For most of the early arcs, the magic knights of the Clover Kingdom and the Eye of the Midnight Sun have been at odds against each other. Then it turns out that the latter were manipulated into being by a devil; once this comes to light, what few people become aware of the deception promptly join forces to kill him (which is easier said than done).
• In Black Lagoon, the various criminals and factions of Roanapur all hate each other and are either actively trying to kill each other or at the very least stay one step ahead of their rivals. When news starts circulating of the return of Roberta, the maid who nearly tore the city asunder just to retrieve the son of her master, the criminals put aside their differences for a common goal: get rid of Roberta, before she kills all of them.
• In Episode 3 of Blade & Soul, the Pleasure Gang saves Alka from the Bounty Hunter, Hazuki, trying to collect on a bounty of 7000 gold from the Palam Empire. Their leader, Dan Roana, has no love for Palam either, and many of their friends and relatives were killed by them, so she suggests they work together to get their payback.
• Bleach:
  • Ichigo and Ishida put a stop to their Hollow-killing competition once Ishida's Hollow Bait accidentally attracts a Menos Grande.
  • Once Aizen stops faking his death and reveals himself to have manipulated virtually every party involved, Unohana has her Lieutenant communicate his deception to both the rest of the Gotei 13 and Ichigo's group, who until now have spent the better part of a week leaving a trail of mayhem across the Seireitei in their attempts to save Rukia from execution.
  • During the battle for Karakura Town, the Visoreds team up with the Shinigami, despite having once been exiled from Soul Society, because Aizen is the reason they were exiled. However, they make it clear to the Shinigami that they're not Soul Society's allies. They are there because Aizen is their enemy and Ichigo is their ally. Upon Aizen's defeat, the Visoreds are accepted back into the Soul Society.
  • Hollows are enemies of Humans, Shinigami, and Quincies, and Aizen recruits Hollows and turns them into Arrancars to fight against Soul Society. In the final arc, the surviving Arrancars from Aizen's war with Soul Society team up with the Shinigami to fight the Quincies, who have conquered both Hueco Mundo, the Hollows' domain, and the Soul Society, the Shinigami domain. They are also working with Humans, such as Ichigo's group and Fullbringers. Eventually, even some of the Quincies switch sides when they begin to realise what Yhwach's plans really are. Yhwach is such a threat to existence itself, he's basically uniting all four enemy groups, and any exiles from those groups, against him.
• Even though catching the Kaitou Kid is one of Conan's chief aims, second only to busting up the Black Organization, he often ends up working together with Kid to catch bad guys or otherwise avert disaster, especially in his Non Serial Movie appearances (For that matter, he has occasionally worked together with Black Organization agents against other Black Organization agents, as well). His TV-special team-up with Lupin III would probably count as well.
• Code Geass has Lelouch and Suzaku teaming up to get rid of the Kyushu invaders.
  • Then a season later they team up again to conquer the world, make themselves out to be two of the most hated people in history, dress Suzaku up as Zero after faking his death, then assassinate Lelouch in a highly public manner in order to bring about world peace. It worked.
• Happened at least thrice in the first season of Corrector Yui, where Yui and War Wolf had to teamwork to save either themselves or others. Also happened in the second season of the anime, with Yui and Dark Magical Girl Corrector Ai.
• Discussed in D.Gray-Man: When a new originally part of the main big bad team appears, the heroes don't all have the same point of view. Some say that as an enemy of the main big bad they can't consider him as an enemy while others don't trust him at all. Others even plan to use it to their own advantage. Even on the Noah side, the villains all consider each other like family, but there are important clues that in the future the existence of this third side will lead to dissension within their own ranks. This would become a deconstruction.
• In Darwin's Game, Ryuji refuses to team up with Kaname's group at first because of the Florist's presence but quickly changes his mind when he finds out they have a common enemy that Ryuji hates even more.
• In Death Note, Near and Mello are bona fide enemies, despite being Worthy Opponents. When Kira manages to be a bigger fish to fry than they had expected, they do end up de facto needing to work together, using the only female on their teams as a liaison, and pretending viciously that they want nothing to do with each other.
  • Near's pretty clear that he'd have no problem working with Mello, to the point that it could be argued he does want to. Mello's the one who wants nothing to do with Near (besides win against him) and tries to verbally pretend he's not helping.
    Near, I have no intention of working with you. However, it wouldn't be right to just take my picture and leave. So, I'll settle my debt.
  • Afterward, he still maintains contact with Lidner but pointedly doesn't dwell on the fact that he knows that Near knows about the contact.
  • Also, at one point the investigation team is forced to temporarily ally with Kira himself, as one of the Death Notes ends up in the hands of the Mafia, something that both sides consider the worst possible scenario.
  • Also in the first arc when the Second Kira first appears L agrees to let Light work with the taskforce to use one Kira to lure out the other in order to get evidence on both of them. Light finds this fortuitous because then he can keep tabs on both L and the Second Kira.
  • The entire Yotsuba arc can be considered this, with Light and L working together to track down the new Kira. Light's temporarily turned good thanks to a Memory Gambit, but L accepts working with him despite still being suspicious of him.
• Dragon Ball does this a lot:
  • For a while, the original Dragon Ball had a pattern where the main antagonist of the previous arc would team up with Goku against the villain of the current one, earning good guy status in the process. This started with Yamcha (who tries to rob Goku in his first appearance) and continues all the way to Frieza when Akira Toriyama finally gave us a villain too evil to ever join Goku. Here is a list of some of the former villains who joined Goku, mostly through Enemy Mine Heel Face Turns: Oolong, Yamcha and Puar, Tien and Chao-tzu, Piccolo, Vegeta, Android #16, Android #17 (though he never actually met Goku before leaving off-screen shortly after his turn), Android #18, Dabra (according to anime filler in Other World), Majin Buu, Nuova Shenron (in GT), and Abo and Kado (in the recent special which introduced Tarble to the world).
  • It'd be easier to list the friends Goku didn't fight at some point - even his lifelong friend Krillin was his training rival for a while. Near the beginning of the Android Saga, Krillin mentions this pattern when Bulma asks the guys why they don't just find Dr. Gero and stop him from ever creating the Androids. So long as they have a common enemy, Vegeta is less likely to revert to being a full-blown villain.
  • During the Namek arc of Dragon Ball Z, when Vegeta was still a bad guy, he teamed up with Gohan and Krillin against the Ginyu Force and then Frieza in the name of survival.
  • Cell actually forced quite a bit of this. Being an Android threat, he and the rest of them give Vegeta someone beyond Goku to kill. Later, Piccolo, after trying to kill 17 to keep Cell from absorbing 17, then decides to fight Cell, despite being weakened, to try to save 17. After Cell does absorb 17, Trunks and Krillin try to protect 18 from Cell, even if it means having to go through Vegeta to do so. It is then because of how dangerous Cell has become upon getting 18 that convinces the Z-Warriors to let 16 fight with them.
  • During the "Tournament of Power" arc of Dragon Ball Super, Buu goes into hibernation at the worst possible time, leaving our heroes one team-mate short. Who does Goku pick to replace him? FRIEZA. Goku shows no sign of thinking he can be redeemed, he just doesn't feel like there's any other option given the opponents they'll be facing. For his part, Frieza understands that it's in his best interest to cooperate during the Tournament, and does nothing to backstab the heroes (the one time it looked like he was betraying them, it was a ploy to get an enemy to lower their guard). Amusingly, Goku and Frieza display an impressive level of teamwork in the final fight against Jiren, to the point where Vegeta is left stunned at how well they work together.
• In Endride, Guidoro, a member of the Truculent, shows up to save the leader of the Ignauts, Demetrio, just in the nick of time from Ibelda, who killed all of their teammates and ran him through too. Demetrio quickly invites him to join the Ignauts, but Guidoro makes it clear he isn't in this for the Ignauts' revolution, but he's going to kill Ibelda and Ibelda is after Emilio and Shun, so he'll stick around.
• All the non-Shinryuuji Naga players on Team Japan and Agon in Eyeshield 21. And to a lesser degree, all the non-Hakushuu Dinosaurs players and Gaoh (especially Kid, Hiruma, and Banba).
• At one point in Eureka Seven, Renton and Dominic are forced to work together to save Eureka and Anemone.
• Natsu and Gajeel teaming up against Laxus in Fairy Tail, though it's more "rival mine" since they were supposed to be in the same guild by then.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Envy works briefly with Ed and Ling when they have to get out from Gluttony's stomach.
  • Ed joins forces with Greed— albeit under the condition of "working for" him— after Greed splits off from the Homunculi.
  • Scar joins up with the protagonists when they have to defeat Father. Envy lampshades the absurdity of it all.
    What?! You're friends now? You guys are no fun at all! Ugh! What happened to trying to crush each other's windpipes?!
• Every time Gun for Hire Katana joins the rest of the Techode pilots in Gad Guard to stop a rogue Gad from destroying everything it touches. Interesting in that half the team (both girls, who met him under different circumstances) don't consider him an enemy. His adorable Morality Pet helps.
• In the final episode of Giant Robo, Alberto suddenly appears to rescue Daisaku. He deems it necessary to point out he hasn't made a Heel–Face Turn, it's just that they have a mutual enemy.
• In Guardian Fairy Michel, episode 14, with both Salome and Michel kidnapped, has Kim and the Black Hammer Gang work together to free them.
  • Episode 23 has a long-dead evil pharaoh with magical powers arising to kill the heroes, forcing Michel and Salome to team up against him.
• Hellsing: The Battle of London culminates with Millennium standing off against the Papal Knights when Alucard shows up. The second Integra commands him to unleash his restraints down to Level Zero, both the nazis and the catholic paladins realize that Alucard is about to kill them all unless they kill him first, and simultaneously open fire on him in a desperate attempt to do so. It doesn't work.
• In Inuyasha, anytime Inuyasha and Sesshomaru team up, this happens, though at the end of each scenario Sesshomaru walks off just a little more of an Anti-Hero than before.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Battle Tendency: Rudol von Stroheim and his German soldiers assist Joseph against Kars and the Pillar Men.
  • Stardust Crusaders: Hol Horse is forced into helping Jotaro and Polnareff against Enya after she turns on him as vengeance for abandoning her son. After Enya is defeated though, Hol Horse makes a quick escape and soon joins back into serving DIO.
  • Diamond is Unbreakable: Yuya Fungami initially wasn't planning on assisting Josuke fighting Miyamoto until hearing Josuke's words on how he wouldn't sacrifice Koichi knowing he was led into a trap made Yuya decide to do the same to protect his girlfriends.
  • Stone Ocean: Jolyne is thrusted into temporarily working with Pucci when Weather Report starts going rogue with his Stand and its ability causing The Virus to transform people into snails around the vicinity.
  • Steel Ball Run: Hot Pants and Diego reluctantly work together to help Johnny in his battle against Funny Valentine.
• Occurs twice in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, in Kenichi's last battles against Hermit (a.k.a. Natsu Tanimoto) and Boris Ivankov. Both times, a problem occurred to interrupt the battle, and Kenichi would team up with the person he had been fighting moments ago to resolve it, mostly because one party (Hermit in the first, Kenichi himself in the second) didn't want their opponent to get injured and thus be unable to finish the battle. Naturally, the instant the problem is resolved, both cases have Kenichi and his enemy resume the battle, but Hermit at least would later become a full-time ally (Boris may do so as well in the future, but for now, he's been Put on a Bus).
  • The most recent arc has had Akira Hongo, YAMI's "God Fist" joining forces with Ryozanpaku to get revenge on YAMI's "Demon Fist" Silcardo Jenazad for using him to almost kill Kenichi during his fight with Sakaki (which Silcardo did for the purpose of kidnapping Miu to brainwash her into a Face–Heel Turn). Not only that, but the "One Shadow" leader of YAMI even gets in on the act, albeit not directly; in his case, though, the team-up is somewhat justified because he's Miu's father.
• Kill la Kill has Ryuko form a tentative alliance with Nudist Beach in order to fight against Satsuki and her cohorts, but later events have Ryuko, Satsuki and Nudist Beach join forces in order to fight Satsuki's mother Ragyo once it becomes clear that they've all been fighting her from the start.
• Life with an Ordinary Guy who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout: The Elf Chieftess is pursuing Jinguuchi and Tachibana because she can not accept Tachibana as someone prettier than she is. However, she agrees to help Jinguuji in rescuing Tachibana from a cult just so she can kill the god of the village that kidnapped and then ditched her for a prettier sacrifice (Tachibana).
• In Lone Wolf and Cub's last several books, the final showdown between the titular protagonists and their ultimate nemesis Yagyu Retsudo is delayed at least twice:
  • First, after Retsudo and Ogami Itto finally meet blade to blade, a large part of Edo (the future Tokyo) is flooded by the folly of another villain, the two must work together to stop the water by blowing up a hill with an ally of Ogami's (who, not being Made of Iron like the two rivals, makes a Heroic Sacrifice).
  • The second example is extreme, with Itto and Retsudo teaming up with the aforementioned idiot villain - Master Poisoner Abe no Kaii, mortal enemy to both of them by that point - to treat Ogami Daigoro's frostbite, in a three-headed version of the trope.
• Lupin III: Inspector Zenigata is usually willing to team up with Gentleman Thief Lupin whenever it involves taking down a more clearly evil criminal (which is surprisingly often). This is implied to be main reason why he hasn't been fired yet.
• In Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story, Iroha succeeds in convincing Touka and Nemu into a Heel–Face Turn to abandon their main plan, but their reunion is cut short when Alina Gray reveals her intentions to hijack Embryo Eve to turn all of humanity into witches, forcing Touka and Nemu to utilize their Doppels in an attempt to stop her, at the cost of their lives.
• The battle against the Medium in Magi: Labyrinth of Magic unites the Seven Seas Alliance, the Reim Empire, the Kou Empire, Alibaba and Morgiana, Yunan, and Aladdin. Even then, it's a very close call.
• In Episode 9 of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Fate tries to activate all of the remaining Jewel Seeds at once, causing a massive storm that nearly kills her. Nanoha, disobeying orders, rushes to her aid and they team up to seal the Jewel Seeds with a Combination Attack. This event would set in motion the events that lead to Fate's Heel–Face Turn.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 00 has the alliance between the Big Three (Union, HRL, AEU) which was formed to defeat the rogue paramilitary organization Celestial Being.
  • In Episode 17, all five sides (Celestial Being, Katharon, the coup d'etat forces, the regular Earth Federation military, and A-Laws) temporarily dispose of their hatreds in a Moment of Awesome for all sides that involves stopping a potential Ice Age and the slaughter of tens of millions of lives by shooting down the countless falling pieces of the damaged Africa Orbital Elevator.
  • Later in Season 2, the Federation army reluctantly allies itself with bitter enemies Celestial Being and Katharon against the A-Laws and the Innovators.
• This something that happens a lot in Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, given the setting and all the Realpolitik that goes on.
  • In episode 17, Kudelia makes a deal with Nobliss Gordon, in spite of the fact that he spent all the previous episodes trying to kill her, as he's a media mogul and she needs someone to get her message out. This carries over into Season 2, where Nobliss becomes one of the top investors in Kudelia's company and later uses this to leverage her into not supporting Tekkadan.
  • Tekkadan receives help all throughout the first season from McGillis Fareed, who hopes to exploit their journey to Earth to bring about the reforms he wants to Gjallarhorn. In Season 2, he strengthens their alliance by offering them sovereignty over an independent Mars and letting them and their allies in Teiwaz use Gjallarhorn trade routes, in exchange for their help in the uprising he plans to lead within Gjallarhorn.
  • In response to McGillis and Tekkadan's alliance, and to get revenge on them for humiliating him, Iok Kujan forms an alliance with rival Teiwaz executive Jasley Donomikols, helping him in his treacherous plans in order to undermine Tekkadan's support base in Teiwaz.
  • After Iok blunders by using Dainsleifs on women and children, Rustal Elion is forced to make a deal with Teiwaz don McMurdo Barriston to save face for the Arianrhod Fleet, getting him to keep the incident quiet in exchange for cutting off Iok's alliance with Jasley and leaving Jasley at the mercy of a vengeful Tekkadan.
  • At the end of the series, Rustal, who had just crushed Tekkadan and made himself sole autocratic leader of Gjallarhorn, co-signs a treaty with Kudelia, who is now the elected head of state of a newly independent Mars, to ban the use of Human Debris. Kudelia signs it because she cares about the issue, Rustal signs it to get good publicity for himself.
• In the Three-Tails filler arc of Naruto, Naruto ends up working with Guren to escape the inside of the Three-tailed beast. The fact that they both have an interest in Yukimaru's welfare and neither wants to see the Akatsuki get the beast helps, too.
  • This is also the reason for the very existence of the shinobi alliance, rival nations working together to stop Obito Uchiha from executing his moon's eye plan. Though by the end the alliance is in Fire-Forged Friend territory, as fighting on the same side made most of them (including the leaders) [1] realize that they're not so different.
  • Even Kurama joins in. He even spells it out loud and clearly. Then he befriends Naruto for real, making both of them stronger.
    • A similar situation happens in The Movie, with Naruto quoting the proverb in response to Kurama offering to help him battle his Alternate Universe equivalent.
• In the finale of Night Wizard, after spending the entire show chasing the heroes, Bell Zephyr ends up fighting alongside them to defeat the true Big Bad.
• The Impel Down arc in One Piece was one big Enemy Mine moment. Luffy has infiltrated the Impel Down prison in order to free his older brother who's being held on the lowest level. During the infiltration he ended up "teaming up" with two former enemies (Buggy the Clown and Mr. 3) who are constantly trying to go up and out, only seeing Luffy as a means to distract the guards. But, through various mishaps they end up falling down to the lower levels anyway and find themselves forced to co-operate in order to stay alive.
  • In Level Six of the prison: Luffy teamed up with Crocodile. Let me say that again: Luffy teamed up with Crocodile. This is another one-sided Enemy Mine situation, though. Crocodile's willing to work with Luffy, but he's evil enough that Luffy is highly reluctant to take him along. Mr. 1 also joins them, but Luffy never met him before and doesn't know who he is. Of course, Impel Down is such an awful place, if anything warranted an Enemy Mine with any of Luffy's old foes, this would.
    • The Whitebeard War arc has Crocodile protecting Luffy, fighting alongside the Whitebeard pirates, and generally being the closest thing to altruistic he's ever been thus far. Buggy fights on Luffy's behalf (even if Luffy forced him into it). This war is absolutely crazy in the temporary partnerships it has formed.
  • Earlier on, Luffy's crew, the Galley-La company, and the Franky Family, despite having fought in a three-way battle before, team up when they realize that they're facing the same enemy, albeit for different reasons (rescuing Robin, dealing with Iceberg's assassins and preventing Pluton's revival, and saving Franky, respectively). Then again, the Galley-La crew had been fighting the Straw Hats under the mistaken belief that they were responsible for the attempt on Iceberg's life, which they just realized.
  • Luffy and his crew have also had to team up with Smoker and Tashigi a few times due to circumstance, once during the Alabasta Arc and once in Punk Hazard. Though it should be noted that they're not villains per se, just Marines that would very much like to capture the Straw Hats.
    • During the Punk Hazard arc, there's actually two Enemy Mine situations: the Straw Hats form an alliance with Trafalgar Law (and by extension, his crew) to capture Caesar Clown and take down one of the Yonko (Kaido, to be exact), and both groups end up teaming up with Smoker and Tashigi again, this time to rescue the children Clown had kidnapped and escape the island safely.
  • A slightly more comedic example takes place during the Dressrosa arc, where Luffy and a reluctant Law team up with some of the Corrida Colosseum gladiators (and later with Kyros) after Sugar turned them into toys to serve as slave labor for the Donquixote Family, only for Usopp and the Tontatta Tribe to save them by knocking her out. After Doflamingo uses his Birdcage to stop everyone in Dressrosa from leaving or telling the outside world of his deeds, the gladiators decide to kill him both to repay the Straw Hats and to get their payback on Doflamingo (and because killing him or knocking him out is the only way to dispel the Birdcage). Luffy, however, refuses their aid since he called dibs on Doflamingo first; in response, the gladiators tell their "idiotic savior" to shut the hell up since they're going anyway. They bicker all the way to the palace, until it becomes clear that they can't get past the Donquixote Family officers unless they work together. The gladiators then focus on holding off the officers while Luffy and Law head to the palace to fight Doflamingo.
    • The vast majority of the gladiators, however, did not join Luffy, instead accepting Doflamingo's offer to turn them in for their bounties (the gladiators who did follow Luffy beat them up in retribution). Later, however, when Doflamingo is the last man standing and Luffy is resting off his Heroic RRoD, Gatz convinces them to hold off Doflamingo until Luffy gets his Heroic Second Wind.
  • The Whole Cake Island arc has the Straw Hat Pirates ally with the Firetank Pirates and Caesar Clown, all three parties hating each other's guts, in an attempt to assassinate Big Mom and save the Vinsmoke Family from being killed during Sanji's wedding. When the assassination fails, the Vinsmokes begrudgingly ally with their saviors so that everyone can escape the island alive.
  • A major one happened years before the series took place. Gol D. Roger and Monkey D. Garp worked together in order to stop the dangerous Rocks D. Xebec from continuing to wreak havoc.
  • The Wano Country arc culminates in a massive one when the Straw Hat Pirates, Heart Pirates, Mink Tribe and Kozuki Clan loyalists form the Ninja-Pirate-Mink-Samurai Alliance for the sole purpose of taking down Orochi, the Shogun of Wano whose despotic rule is enforced by Kaido of the Four Emperors (though everyone with a functioning brain can tell that Kaido is the real enemy, something which Kaido himself makes blatantly clear after he beheads Orochi). They are joined at the last minute by the Kid Pirates and Jinbe just in time for the Onigashima Raid, where they have to fight both Kaido and Big Mom. During the raid itself they gain new allies in the form of Marco the Phoenix and Izou of the Whitebeard Pirates (who wish to avenge Kozuki Oden as a former crewmate), X Drake (a Marine spy who infiltrated Kaido's crew), Zeus (one of Big Mom's homies who stuck with Nami after Big Mom discarded him), around 6,000 of Kaido's crew (both those who were tamed by Tama and those whom Queen treated as expendable after the loss of the SMILE factory) and Yamato (Kaido's son, who wishes to sail with Luffy's crew and fulfill Oden's Last Wish).
  • In the Egghead Island arc, after the Seraphim stop responding to Vegapunk's orders and start trying to destroy the island as well as trying to kill the captive Rob Lucci and Kaku, Luffy and Zoro are forced to free and team up with their old Enies Lobby nemeses. Of course, once that's dealt with, they quickly go back to fighting each other.
• Gainax's teaser◊ for the (eventual) second season of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt suggested that, after the Gainax Ending, the Demon Sisters would be teaming up with the heroes in order to fight the bigger threat: Demon Stocking (and presumably their father Corset as well).
• Happens fairly often in Pokémon Adventures. Sabrina, Koga, and Lt. Surge of Team Rocket aid the protagonists against the Elite Four in the Yellow chapter, while Lorelei of the Elite Four helps the protagonists when Team Rocket invades her hometown.
• Near the end of Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure!, Cyrus and his three top officers team up with the heroes to stop Charon from taking over Sinnoh. When he was last in power, Cyrus had attempted to destroy the universe.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • The heroes are forced to work with Team Rocket every once in a while, most often in the movies where the whole world is in danger. It happens just often enough that the trio performs a Lampshade Hanging on it in Movie 8:
    James: Looks like everything's back to normal.
    Jessie: Which means we're back to being losers.
  • This is the whole plot of the episode "Pikachu Re-Volts". After Jessie and James's Pokemon are controlled and taken by their fellow Team Rocket members, Cassidy and Butch, Ash and company team up with them to get the Pokemon back.
  • The most bizarre version of this has to be the Season 7 episode "The Bicker the Better", where after much squabbling between males and females, Jessie recruits a (slightly reluctant) May into a tag team battle...versus James, who also formed an alliance with Ash, in what Brock calls "the battle of the sexes".
  • And in a first season episode, Ash and the gang even help Team Rocket try to kidnap the Monster of the Week: a Snorlax, which they thought was the one causing the drought in a nearby town.
  • A more traditional example is in the Tag Battle Tournament mini-arc, the finale of the first Diamond and Pearl season. Ash and Paul were randomly picked to compete as a team for a pair of Soothe Bells as the prize. Paul just wanted to get some experience for his team, none of the happiness items for him. They ended up winning the whole thing, though neither really enjoy working together.
  • In episode XY063, Team Rocket and Ash's crew work together to foil a Pokemon hunter. The impetus for it was the hunter kidnapping Meowth, James' Inkay, and Jessie's Pumpkaboo. It even features a Just in Time moment for Wobbuffet.
  • At the climax of Pokemon XYZ, Meowth again throws a lampshade on their helping the twerps, this time against Team Flare.
  • Team Rocket often teams up with the heroes in the show's Paranormal Episodes, most notably "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak" and "Celebrating The Heroes Comet!" (the latter involving them turning on the heroes after being helped).
• Pixie Misa does this twice in Mahou Shoujo Pretty Sammy. In the same episode. Misa and Sammy also team up briefly in the second and third OVAs.
• This happens far more than it should in Psychic Squad, where BABEL and PANDRA team up on occasion, mostly when fighting Black Phantom. Also happens in Unlimited Psychic Squad, where they team up to defeat the USEI.
• In the final 3 chapters of Psyren, Yoshina Ageha teams up with Amagi Miroku against Mithra.
• In Ranma ½, several Enemy Mine alliances emerge among the various members of the Love Dodecahedron. Shampoo, Ukyō and Kodachi regularly team up against any external threat to Ranma (or a new potential suitor). Ranma himself teams with Ryōga and Mousse against Prince Herb. Ranma and Ryōga do this often enough that they inch into Friendly Enemy territory by the end of the series.
  • And inverted with Ryōga and Mousse in the anime: although they aren't enemies when they initially team up against their common enemy Ranma, by the end of the episode, they work so poorly together that they can't stand each other. The fact that Mousse is far more ruthless than Ryōga, and also has no qualms whatsoever about hurting others to get rid of Ranma — even Akane Tendō, Ryōga's oblivious crush — does not help matters.
• During a match in the individual tournament in Saki, everyone in the table gangs up on Saki, despite one of them being her own teammate (although said teammate mentally notes that they are in competition with each other and Saki promised not to hold back). It doesn't work.
• Kougaiji's team and the Sanzo party do this or help each other out in some way so often in Saiyuki that Kougaiji's "it would be unfair to attack you now but next time we will get the scripture" is met with "yeah, yeah we know."
  • Happens accidentally with comedic villain Zakuro. Goku — who wasn't around for Zakuro's first appearance and has no idea who he is — helps him when he's passed out from hunger, and Zakuro tries to repay him by defending him from a group of random youkai thugs. Zakuro is horrified when he realizes who Goku is, especially when the rest of the party show up and cheerfully tell the youkai that Zakuro has totally come over to their side.
• In Saki Achiga-hen, this happens in the semi-finals, when Toki, Kirame and Kuro go up against Teru, the champion of the mahjong tournament, in order to avoid going below 0 points, resulting in some unspoken cooperation between Kirame and Toki, with Kuro unwittingly helping by preventing Teru from getting dora and making it more difficult for her to increase the value of her hands. In the end, Kuro breaks Teru's winning streak, and while Teru ends the first round with an overwhelming lead, it's eventually reduced to the point at which her school barely advances.
  • A more complicated example comes up in Kiyosumi's turn at the semi-finals. At the start of the third round, Rinkai and Himematsu have a comfortable lead, while Kiyosumi is a distant third, and Usuzan is dangerously close to being eliminated. Knowing that if Usuzan goes under while Kiyosumi is still in third place, they'll both be eliminated, Hisa decides to protect Usuzan's points while winning off Himematsu and Rinkai. Unfortunately for Hisa, Usuzan's third player realizes that it's just as advantageous to win off Kiyosumi as the other two.
• In Sekirei, Higa of the East's repeated attempts at violating the rules of the game drive Mikogami of the South to come to the rescue of Minato on more than one occasion.
• For most of the latter half of Season 3 of Sonic X, Dr. Eggman and his robot minions team up with Sonic and his team in order to battle against the Metarex. Earlier on, he also joins forces with Sonic and friends to stop the Space Colony ARK from crashing into the Earth, in the arc that adapts Sonic Adventure 2.
• Two examples from Soul Eater:
  • In order to further her plans, Medusa joins forces with Shibusen and leads a team to infiltrate Baba Yaga castle, the Arachnaphobia base.
  • Werewolf Free and shinigami Death the Kid fight Mosquito together. Neither are happy about the idea.
• Sara and the Space Squadron make amends with Mariette and her Gambee pilot brigade to defend the Libertad at the end of Str.A.In.: Strategic Armored Infantry.
• In Spriggan, Spetsnaz officer Victor Shutrov (or Stolov, based on the Singaporean English translation) tries to kill Japanese KGB agent Koichi Moroha when he learns of his plan to dominate the world via the Fire Shrine and not on behalf of the USSR, helping Yu somewhat. He's killed later, not being able to stop the renegade agent. Yu and Jean team with two of their enemies near the end of the manga. They consist of Iwao Akatsuki, ex-Trident Corporation commando, and Bo Brantz, ex-Neo Nazi and ninja, to defeat Larry Markson from using the natural energy of Gaia in the South Pole.
• In Tenchi in Tokyo, Ryoko and Ayeka are romantic rivals for Tenchi, but they share a deep hatred for Sakuya Kumashiro.
• In Tomica Hyper Rescue Drive Head Kidou Kyuukyuu Keisatsu, in the finale of the TV series, Kuroeda calls for a truce with Karigari, whom he'd been spending most of the series trying to arrest. The two fight together against the fake Drive Heads, buying time for the kids to get to The Evil AI's location.
• Transformers: Armada's title refers to the Autobot-Decepticon alliance formed in the final episodes to combat Unicron.
• Subverted in UFO Robo Grendizer. In one of the manga versions, Great Mazinger Big Bad, Emperor of Darkness, offered Kouji Kabuto an alliance to fight the Vegans. It was subverted because Kouji refused the offer and Big Bad King Vega killed the Emperor to impede that alliance and get rid of a possible enemy and competitor.
• In the anime version of Valkyria Chronicles, Episode 12 has Welkin and Faldio team up with Jaeger and Selvaria to foil a plot to kidnap Princess Cordelia (and Alicia, who was captured in the process) and use her to BS an impromptu alliance between the Federation and Gallia, which is really a cheap way for Prime Minster Borg to usurp the throne "legally" and force the Imperial forces into a two front war situation, which at best leaves him in control of Gallia with Federation backing and gives the Imperial forces pause, or at worst ensures the Imperials are forced to fight a much bigger enemy on two fronts, with either outcome leaving him at an advantage. Everyone launches obvious objections to Welkin's proposed Enemy Mine until Welkin points out the massive mutual gain they stand to profit from, leading to a brief Imperial-Gallia alliance to foil the plot.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yami Yugi and Seto Kaiba are frequently forced to team up against a bigger threat, and it almost always ends with Kaiba walking away muttering about how he is destined to beat Yugi someday.
  • Yugi and Kaiba are more like rivals than enemies - Kaiba is never actually on the 'evil' side except during the very start of the series (given a partially accurate incarnation in Season 0, which was so much Darker and Edgier than the rest of the series that it's never had an English dub).
  • Also, Marik and Yami Bakura's alliance, specifically in the duel against Yami Marik.
  • Similarly during the formation of the same team in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, Marik proclaims, "And the enemy of my friend is also my enemy!" Bakura informs him that's not how it goes.
  • In fact, it seems to be a Yu-Gi-Oh! tradition that there will be at least one time when the hero and his rival have a tag duel together.

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