Fire Forged Friends / Anime & Manga

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• The members of the 104th Trainee Squad become this, in Attack on Titan. Those that weren't already this after three years of brutal training become it in the aftermath of the battle for Trost.
• Berserk: All around hardass Guts starts off hostile and cold towards the rest of the mercenary group Band of Hawk due to his extremely Dark and Troubled Past. Most of the Band of Hawk hate him and barely accept him as Raid Leader, but after fighting numerous battles alongside them (ending a hundred year war in process) and even celebrating victory together, the Band come to adore him. When Guts leaves, things go From Bad to Worse as not only are the Band distraught but their leader Griffith can't cope with losing his man crush and sleeps with the princess of the kingdom, earning him a year of being tortured. Guts returns in timely fashion to save the Band from assassins in a Big Damn Heroes moment, earning the trust of the Band again and helping them free Griffith from captivity.
  • Things do not go well for the Band of Hawk in the end however, as Griffith pulls a brutal Face–Heel Turn and sacrifices all of them to a horde of demons, so he can have the power of the God Hand. The unjust deaths of most of his friends puts Guts on an Unstoppable Rage for two years where he straight-up kills every demon he sees, and plans to avenge his companions by killing Griffith as slowly and painfully as possible. However, Guts eventually attracts a new group of allies, a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits who develop into True Companions as they fight alongside each other.
• Bleach:
  • After being forced to team up, Ichigo Kurosaki and Uryu Ishida quickly became best friends...though Uryu refuses to admit it. He tries to insist that Ichigo is still his sworn enemy, except that his actions (and words) prove he's full of it.
  • In a flashback, Ichigo and Chad seem to be this to a degree. Ichigo was initially hostile towards Chad (questioning him being a Technical Pacifist and passively accusing him of lying) but turned up to save him when he was attacked (and of course refused to defend himself).
  • While he was initially hostile to Ichigo, blaming him for Rukia's impending execution, Renji begs Ichigo to save her after he's defeated by the latter in a fight, and later becomes one of Ichigo's staunchest allies after they work together to stop the execution and save Rukia's life. They still bicker from time to time, though.
  • Ichigo refuses to join the Visored, intending to use them to gain control of his Hollowfication and being upfront about it. After his training is complete, however, said training involving the Visored fighting and containing a Hollowfied Ichigo while Ichigo fights his Inner Hollow in his inner world, Ichigo's indifference mellows out into something closer to friendship, and the Visored later acknowledge that they are allies of Ichigo.
• In Brave10, most of the Braves are weirdos who come to appreciate each other through tense combat situations rather than the usual avenues.
• Captain Tsubasa: Downplayed example between Tsubasa Ohzora and Pepe when the two become roommates in the trials for the Sao Paulo FC. Pepe comes from the favelas and is hoping for a big break to support his family, and despises Tsubasa because he's clearly well-off (even bringing a brand new pair of shoes). However, during the trials the two are placed in the same team, and Tsubasa assists Pepe with his passes so he can score the goals, ensuring that they both pass the trials and are accepted into the team. Afterwards, the two become fast friends.
• Akina and Hibari of Don't Become an Otaku, Shinozaki-san! dislike each other immediately upon meeting, however their experience winning a Tabletop RPG, and Akina's realization that Hibari is wrapped around Ayu's finger much like she is Kaede's, help them start to bond. In a later chapter, they bond further when Akina learns that, like herself, Hibari keeps her being an otaku secret and they have to work together to protect each others' secret from their non-otaku friends. They eventually develop into a pair of Vitriolic Best Buds.
• Nearly every hero besides Goku in Dragon Ball became one this way: getting defeated by Goku, spending some time getting used to his cheerful good nature, and then having to fight alongside him against a new threat. Krillin (who is Goku's rival-turned best friend in Dragon Ball) spells out this trope partway through Dragon Ball Z, arguing that despite having foreknowledge of their next threat, they should merely prepare to battle rather than make a preemptive strike, as nobody was sure whether or not Vegeta wouldn't just kill them all if he didn't have something other than "defeat Goku" on his to-do list.
• In Endride, it is an understatement to say Emilio and Shun don't get along, but from jailbreaking to running off to join revolutionaries to fighting off the Truculent, they begin to rely on each other out of necessity, and keep coming to each other's rescue even when they can't explain it to themselves.
• In Fullmetal Alchemist, Ed and Ling start out with a rough (very rough) alliance based upon mutual goals. After finally escaping a pocket dimension, in which they had to fight a giant hellbeast, they immediately fistbump, and have a better understanding of each other in the continuing crises. Not that they ever stop bickering.
  • In a more general sense, almost everyone in the series got closer to their friends facing adversity together (and everyone fights less while fighting other stuff).
• Futari wa Pretty Cure: Nagisa Misumi and Honoka Yukishiro are complete opposites, and initially barely know the other exists (barring a brief interaction in a math class). They only become the best friends they're famous for being after becoming Cure Black and Cure White and fighting Pisard together.
• Haruhi Suzumiya: Sure, Mikuru Asahina, Itsuki Koizumi, and Yuki Nagato may have competing objectives and ideals, but when Kyon tells them that, for example, he needs Yuki and Mikuru to help him fix an alternate universe, they will move mountains to achieve the goals. This has reached the point where the three of them have sworn allegiance with the SOS Brigade, and are willing to go against their vastly more powerful superiors if they end up with a conflict. Kyon and Koizumi are particularly noteworthy given Kyon's initial dislike and distrust of him. By the ninth light novel, Kyon has come to trust Koizumi and begun to include him on the list of people he cares about whereas earlier novels he only lists Haruhi, Mikuru, and Yuki. Kyon and Koizumi are still definitely Vitriolic Best Buds, but they know they have each other's backs. Koizumi and Asahina also stand out given that they were the two who were most philosophically opposed regarding Haruhi's power, and both separately tried to convince Kyon to distrust the other one. But Koizumi is the first person Asahina goes to in Endless Eight when she finds out she is stranded in time, Koizumi and his Organization work to rescue Asahina when she is kidnapped in the seventh light novel, and by the eleventh book Koizumi tells her older self that he considers present-day Asahina to be a loyal friend even though he doesn't trust the older one.
• In Heavenly Delusion, despite the lack of true animosity Maru wasn’t an open book for Kiruko when they started on their journey together. This was due to Maru having lived most of his life doing his best to survive a post-apocalyptic Japan by seeking out adults willing to watch over children like himself, but that ultimately led to him being passed around to adults who didn’t care about him and only used him. However, after fighting alongside Kiruko to defeat the Bird Man-Eater, Maru started opening up to her more, eventually developing a crush on her and wanting to be more than friends in the future.
• Higurashi Rei shows that, if the tragedies in everyone's life never happened, they wouldn't be friends. On top of that, Rika's closest friend Satoko would be bullying her and Keiichi wouldn't even be in Hinamizawa.
• Imaizumin-chi wa Douyara Gal no Tamariba ni Natteru Rashii: ~DEEP~: It's implied the girls have befriended each other before the start of the series. Reina and Yukina were openly aggressive to each other when they've first joined the basketball club.
• Joseph and Caesar in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency both hated each other when they first met, and couldn't stand the idea of working together. After their first confrontation with the Pillar Men, they became close friends to the point where Caesar's final action before he dies is to retrieve the antidote to the poison inside Joseph.
• Nanoha and Vita in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, with Vita's hostility towards Nanoha decreasing drastically after they worked together to beat up the self-defense program. Fate and Signum might also count but both were shown from the start to be perfectly willing to be friends if they weren't on opposing sides.
  • During the time between A's and StrikerS, Vita became much less distant to Nanoha after she failied to protect her in the mission involving the Type IV Gadget Drones who nearly killed Nanoha.
  • Similarly, Nanoha and Arf in Season 1; Arf initially dislikes Nanoha, thinking of her as far weaker than Fate and being suspicious of her motives for reaching out to Fate. After Arf gets thrown out of the Garden of Time, she reluctantly decides to accept Nanoha's help in saving Fate. By the time Nanoha becomes friends with Fate, Arf has also come to like her.
• In My-HiME, Natsuki and Mai initially dislike each other, but by the end of the series, consider each other close friends.
• Naruto:
  • Pretty much the background of Kakashi Hatake. Back then a Drill Sergeant Nasty who isn't really in the best terms with his teammates Obito Uchiha and Rin, his strict by-the-rules persona was changed by Obito's choice to save Rin when she was kidnapped, even calling out Kakashi on his callousness. As a result, Kakashi intervenes to save Obito, and helps Obito activate his Sharingan. Unfortunately, the rescue mission ends with Obito having to protect them in a cave-in, crushing him in the process and giving his Sharingan to Kakashi. This tragic ordeal made Kakashi more lax and understanding of others, even adopting Obito's lackluster work ethic.
  • Initially, Team 7 starts out as a jumbled mess of dysfunctional relationships: Naruto hates Sasuke and has a one-sided shallow crush on Sakura, Sasuke finds both Naruto and Sakura annoying, Sakura loves Sasuke and can barely stand Naruto. Once Kakashi puts them into a situation where they're forced to work together, they start to get along and become friends, although Sasuke and Sakura still found Naruto too annoying to actually care about his problems. However, Sasuke pulls a Face–Heel Turn at the end of Part I and from then on goes through quite the Heel–Face Revolving Door. Not that it ends up mattering much, since Naruto "How can I be Hokage if I can't save one friend"/"I'll take all your hatred" Uzumaki and Sasuke "My body moved on its own"/"I've come to accept you" Uchiha exemplify this trope.
  • At times, even the bitter relationship between Naruto and the Kyuubi is like this. When Naruto is on the brink of death, the Kyuubi would willingly lend chakra to him to protect himself. However, during the War, when the real Madara appeared and attempted to summon the Kyuubi, he gave as much chakra as he could to Naruto, saying that he would rather help Naruto than be controlled by Madara.
• One Piece:
  • Pretty much the formula for adding onto Luffy's True Companions. He makes an offer, which they usually refuse at first. He then fights the current Arc Villain by their side and afterward they usually make the decision to join his crew. Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Chopper, and Brook all join this way, while Usopp and Jimbei are invited after the villain is defeated and the former doesn't hesitate while the latter accepts but defers his official joining until later (after he finishes some other business first), and Robin invites herself.
    • Franky may be the best example of this among the Straw Hats. Initially, the dislike is mutual; Luffy (and the rest of his crew) hate Franky for beating up Usopp, and Franky wants revenge on Luffy for blowing up the Franky House and beating up his family (in retaliation). The two put aside their differences when CP9 step into the picture, and Franky's reluctance to join the crew after the whole thing is over was mainly due to having attachments to Water 7 and his family.
    • Robin herself also counts as a lesser example, since she, too, begins as an enemy of the Straw Hats, albeit a Friendly Enemy. Still, Luffy only lets her on the crew once she shows up on his ship and explains why she should be allowed to join, and most of the crew is displeased that he allows it. Even after she wins most of them over to at least accepting her presence, Zoro still doesn't fully trust her and she remains a bit distant from them. But by the time that CP9 appears to arrest her and take her away, Robin has come to love the Straw Hats enough that she goes willingly to spare them from being killed, and they in turn care about her so much that they follow after her and declare war on the entire world just to get her back.
  • Surprisingly, Gold Roger invokes the trope as he speaks to Vice-Admiral Garp right before he's executed. He says that they are as good as friends, given how long they've known each other, and, on this principle, trusts Garp to protect his soon-to-be-born child from the Marines. Despite the other person's initial disbelief, it works: Garp locates Roger's girlfriend Rouge, stays with her as she entrusts him with the baby before dying, and ultimately raises Roger and Rouge's child Ace alongside his own grandson Luffy.
  • A pair of slightly lesser examples are Smoker and his protégé Tashigi of the Marines. They pursued the Straw Hats to the Grand Line after they escaped Loguetown, and didn't think of them any differently than other pirates (aside from considering them more threatening than most). Then comes the Alabasta arc, where the Big Bad, Crocodile, imprisons some of the Straw Hats and Smoker in a cage and explains his Evil Plan to them. Smoker shows the first sign of this trope when they escape—he only escaping with his life because Luffy had him saved—by letting the Straw Hats go free, though it would be fair to say that that's because of his nature. After that, Smoker passes command to Tashigi while he informs his superiors, and she allies with the Straw Hats in order to bring Crocodile down. At the end of it all, Smoker and Tashigi still hold a grudge against the Straw Hats as pirates, but they respect them a lot more.
    • Then, after the Time Skip, we have the Punk Hazard Arc. Vice-Admiral Smoker and Captain Tashigi, now the commanders of a base filled with Ax-Crazy Marines, are waiting to intercept the Straw Hats in the New World, but when they take an unexpected detour to an island that is supposed to be deserted, they head there. They soon find out that something very fishy is going on, and are caught in the middle of it, undergoing a "Freaky Friday" Flip as one of the first fragments of trouble. Eventually, both of them end up trapped in a cage with the Straw Hats again, (and Robin, who was The Dragon when it happened last time, lampshades it) along with the Big Bad's subordinate, Shichibukai Trafalgar Law, who had revealed himself to be a Wild Card, and watching the Evil Plan play out in front of them. When they escape, the Marines are forced into a full-blown Enemy Mine with the Straw Hats and Law, including such things as Sanji taking command of the Marine underlings and Tashigi and Zoro teaming up against The Dragon. At the end of it all, Smoker and Tashigi seem to be almost friendly with the Straw Hats, while their subordinates flat-out state that they admire them.
  • Law himself seems to have become this to the Straw Hats over the course of his fairly long partnership with them, though he tries to deny it and continues to insist that the Straw Hats are merely his allies. Nevertheless, it's pretty clear that he has come to genuinely respect the Straw Hats, particularly Luffy, and they often treat him like a de facto tenth member of the crew. Luffy even refers to Law as his friend with the same word in Japanese that he uses for the members of his crew.
  • In the Dressrosa arc, the number of Fire-Forged Friends forged against Donquixote Doflamingo gives rise to the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
• Negi and Kotaro go through this in Negima! Magister Negi Magi: they start out as enemies, have to join forces to defeat a demon, and are good friends after that.
  • Ditto Yue and Emily Sevensheep: Emily starts off as the Alpha Bitch, but opens up to Yue after Yue saves her from a Griffin Dragon.
• Persona 4: The Animation deconstructs this trope. The Protagonist Yu is forced to live out his nightmare in which the murders stop in his town. With no more murders, all of his friends drift apart, because the only thing keeping them together was solving the murders, and without them, they had nothing in common. In the end, it was just that, a nightmare induced by Mitsuo's Shadow. In reality, they had already developed into True Companions.
• Pokémon Adventures gives us Gold and Silver. They first meet after Silver steals one of Prof. Elm's Pokemon, and Gold sets out to beat Silver and retrieve said Pokemon. They meet up a few more times, and Silver tells Gold to stay out of his way each time. They don't start to act like friends until the Lake of Rage, when Gold finds out Silver's backstory, Silver sees Gold stand up for him, and they realize they have a common enemy in The Mask of Ice. At the end of the saga, Gold sacrifices himself to so that Silver (and Crys) won't have to, and Silver almost cries because of it. Gold gets better.
• Pokémon: The Series gives us an odd example in Ash's Charizard. It started perfectly happy and loyal as a Charmander, but after evolving into Charmeleon, became defiant and disobedient. This trend continued for quite some time after it evolved into Charizard, though its disobedience was more a result of pride and overconfidence than simple spite. When Charizard came close to death when hit by a Poliwrath's ice beam, though, it watched as Ash worked hard to keep its tail flame lit, even though he was hurting himself in the process. Thereafter, it became steadfastly loyal.
  • This is the case for almost every Pokemon Ash has ever caught. He wouldn't even have the trust of his starter Pikachu if the two hadn't been attacked by Spearows. Combine that with how many Pokemon he befriends specifically because of a Team Rocket attack...
  • The same can be said for some of his companions and their pokemon: Misty and Gyarados, Dawn with both Piplup, and Mamoswine, Tracy and Syther, and Iris with both Dragonite and Exadrill to name a few.
• In Ranma ½, this is Ranma and Ryoga's friendship to the core. Ryoga may have spent half his life obsessed with exacting vengeance against Ranma, and Ranma may hate the whole P-chan situation, but by the end of the series they've had so many Enemy Mine team-ups that they're probably the most trustworthy ally either one has. After Mousse joins them to help defeat Prince Herb, he too falls under this category.
• Rebuild World: Nuanced case. Despite Akira’s first meeting with Reina being a fierce argument, and a Mexican Standoff (multiple) with her bodyguard Shiori, this eventually happens between him and the two, but it’s a long road. The first sign of it is Akira being forced to trust the two in a Back-to-Back Badasses situation. But Akira still ends up being distrusted by Reina and forced to fight Shiori shortly after, showing them his Unscrupulous Hero side which causes the two to be quite fearful of him, even if they do have many friendly conversations and team ups after. It’s only after Reina makes The Promise to Akira that they can be said to be True Companions.
• Usagi and Rei in the 90's Sailor Moon. Rei was outright mean to her at times and they always teased or mocked each other, then the whole love triangle between them and Mamoru/Tuxedo Mask started. By the end of the first season they become really close in senshi-related issues. When Rei dies in the second to final episode of the first arc, Sailor Moon goes Heroic BSoD, after everyone's revived and they go through more adventures, Rei is almost always the first one to shout Usagi's name and stand up for her when she needs it, and Usagi returns the favor as much as she can.
• This is a recurring trope in Studio Ghibli works due to the rarity of actually evil antagonists:
  • Air pirates in Castle in the Sky and Porco Rosso.
  • Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke.
  • The Faceless One in Spirited Away.
  • The Witch of the Waste in Howl's Moving Castle.
  • Tolmekians and the Pejiteans in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
• In Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Lag Seeing first meets Gauche Suede when the latter is assigned to deliver Lag to Cambel Litmus. Gauche saw delivering Lag as just another job, and coldly kept a certain distance from Lag, while Lag often made fun of Gauche. During the trip, the two end up viewing each other's memories due to an accident with Gauche's Shindanjuu, they fight together to survive against a vicious Gaichuu and Lag carries a wounded Gauche to safety. By the end of the journey, they've become friends, and Lag decides to become a Letter Bee to see Gauche again.
• From Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Yoko to Kamina and Simon. Later on, Viral becomes this towards Simon.
• Ushio and Tora: Ushio often whacks Tora with the Beast Spear to keep him in line, and Tora always makes the excuse that no bakemono but him is allowed to eat Ushio, but as the story progresses the two become fast friends and watch each other's back — even while still giving the same excuses as ever.
• In Yona of the Dawn, Hak, Jaeha and Kija can count as this as each one of them started of insulting, being competitor and cheeky to one another when they first met this was due to their different personalities. but as time went on they started to gain respect, undering and admiration for one another to the point that they will risk their lives for one another and has become good friends.
• In YuYu Hakusho, most of Team Urameshi don't start off on friendly terms. Kuwabara goes from being an Unknown Rival to Yuusuke to being his best friend this way after they find themselves on the same side by coincidence more than once. Hiei is a cold, unfriendly demon who first meets Yusuke as an enemy but gets along better with him and Kuwabara (the two humans) when they battle the Saint Beasts together, becoming The Rival instead. The only exception is the friendly and quiet Kurama, who even begins the series in alliance with Hiei, since the latter would rather have him as an ally than an enemy.

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