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Life is so crazy And love is unkind Because she came first, darling Will she hang on your mind?
—Gladys Knight & The Pips, If I Were Your Woman
In harem anime, the first girl introduced, either overall or as a potential love interest, has a very high chance of ending up with the main character. Girls introduced after the first often either become Pretty Freeloaders when their arc ends and/or just want their beloved to be happy.
Possibly derived from the old saying, "The first love is the best love." Or, possibly, because the first girl "called dibs". There is also the old saying "A man will love the first woman to tie a string to his heart."
Note that the First Girl will rarely be the first one to confess her feelings or even admit/develop them. Indeed in most harem series, she's the one who does it last, maybe even near the end of the series, when she and the main character become the Official Couple. The logic behind this is that she's the one who the main character really loves (even if he doesn't want to admit it/ doesn't realize it himself) and if she showed him romantic affection, he would immediately choose her, thereby completely destroying the whole
harem setup, which resolves around him not choosing anybody for most of the series' run.
Or maybe he doesn't like the whole over-affectionate treatment he gets from other girls, and her lack of romantic persuasion is what makes him lean her way.
As weird as it may sound, sometimes the fanbase itself can't decide which girl was the First. Various shipping factions will then insist that their Girl was the First. This usually comes to a somewhat unclear definition of what classifies a particular Girl as the First: Is it the first girl the protagonist meets according to in-universe chronology even if she was introduced halfway in? The first girl to appear in the manga? The first one to show romantic feelings? Or maybe the first new girl the protagonist meets?
The easiest way to tell is to look at the amount of screen time and plot importance (hint: the First Girl will have a disproportional amount of both compared to the rest of the harem). Other rules are if a girl is chronologically first, but first appears on screen much later in the series, she will end up as the Unlucky Childhood Friend. If a girl is already acquainted with the guy before the series starts, but he meets a new girl during the Pilot, the already known girl will end up as the Unlucky Childhood Friend and the new girl is the First Girl. In general, the Pilot is important in determining who the first girl.
To a certain degree, this is Truth In Television, as recent psychological studies suggest that the first people someone meets in a new or unfamiliar social situation have a greater chance at becoming their friends later on. This effect continues even once friends are established, as the first members of a group of friends that someone meets are usually closer than other friends.
Be warned before you proceed. "Winning", in this sense, tends to be very spoilerific.
See also Victorious Childhood Friend. Contrast Last Girl Wins.
Examples
Anime
- Love Hina; Narusegawa Naru is the first girl introduced, and despite Aoyama Motoko, Maehara Shinobu, Otohime Mutsumi and even his adopted sister Kanako also liking Urashima Keitaro, the pairing of Naru and Keitaro is inevitable.
- Additionally, Keitaro met Naru long before any of the others (except Mutsumi) as a child. She is the girl he made the Tokyo U promise with long ago.
- Onegai Teacher: Kazami Mizuho is introduced to the audience before Herikawa Koishi is, leading to her inevitable romantic pairing with Kusanagi Kei.
- Onegai Twins: Miyafuji Miina meets the main male character, Kamishiro Maiku, before Onodera Karen does, and Miina also shows up at Maiku's house before Karen. Then, in the end, it turns out that Karen is Maiku's twin sister while Miina is unrelated to them, thus allowing her to end up in a romantic relationship with Maiku.
- Flame Of Recca: Sakoshita Yanagi and Kirisawa Fuuko both like Hanabishi Recca, but Yanagi is guaranteed to win since she is introduced first. However, as the story goes on, Fuuko's interest shifts from Recca to Ishijima Domon, giving her a happier end than most later-introduced love interests.
- Steel Angel Kurumi: both Kurumi and Karinka like Kagura Nakahito, but Kurumi is introduced first (and has the extra advantage of being the title character).
- Gender Flipped on Fushigi Yuugi: Hotohori, Tamahome, Nuriko (maybe) and Tasuki all like Yuuki Miaka. Tamahome was the first guy introduced. Draw your own conclusions.
- Fruits Basket has the trope and a Gender Flipped subversion: The main female character, Honda Tooru, meets Souma Yuki before Souma Kyo but develops mutual romantic feelings for Kyo. Later, Yuki starts a relationship with the first student council girl introduced, Kuragi Machi.
- Played with, however, in the manga: when discussing the various Zodiac signs, Tohru discusses the Cat first, which turns out to be the animal Kyo is cursed with.
- Kanon: Nayuki, the Unlucky Childhood Friend, seems to be the first girl introduced, because she's the first girl that Yuuichi meets upon his return. But if you remember the beginning of the series, with the first "dream" prologue... It had a narrator. (In the 2006 version, though, the prologue is moved, making it Last Girl Wins instead.)
- Key Visual Arts did the same thing in AIR, except the first girl Yukito meets does turn out to be the same girl that the prologue talks about. (Not the narrator, though, considering she's a) his mother, b) the reincarnation of his ancestor, c) dead.)
- It's quite ironic to talk about "winning" in this case though, considering how the story unfolds.
- It's played anviliciously straight in Clannad with Nagisa, however.
- Excel Saga pays homage to this — the designer of a pair of Ridiculously Human Robots gave them "imprinting" so they would love the first things they see. "Like," he explains, "a dating simulation game."
- The first girl introduced in Urusei Yatsura is Shinobu, but Ataru ends up with Lum, which seems like a subversion... but Lum's popularity took the author by surprise and at the start of the series Shinobu was intended to be the girl Ataru ended up with.
- Not necessarily a subversion since Ataru and Lum's first meeting occurs during the Pilot and Ataru first met Shinobu before the series started.
- Ranma 1/2, Follows this trope pretty straight, Akane is the first Fiancee introduced in the series, and serves as the primary love interest, and takes up the most screentime of any of the fiancee brigade. Ukyo, while introduced earlier in the series timeline-wise shows up pretty late story-wise, and is relegated to being the Unlucky Childhood Friend. Shampoo shows up earlier in the story (though later than Akane) and winds up acting more like a Stalker With A Crush than an actual fiancee. Although Ranma series never ends with him outright choosing anyone, it ends with his wedding to Akane being crashed by his other Fiancees/Stalkers.
- Captain Tsubasa loved to play around with this at the beginning. The first girl shown is NOT the female lead Sanae but Tsubasa's old friend Yayoi Aoba, who's seen when he is moving to Shizuoka and she barely manages to say goodbye to him. This is brought up later when Yayoi reappears with a crush on Tsubasa, much to Sanae's despair... but several years later, Yayoi hangs out more with Jun Misugi than Tsubasa himself. He later comes to aknowledge and return Sanae's feelings for him.
- In Vandread, Dita Liebely is the first female with whom Hibiki has personal contact. In the end she gets to hop on the space ship home with him.
- She's probably the first girl anyone from his planet (outside of spies) has seen. In about a hundred years. What an surprising act of diplomacy.
- In Martian Successor Nadesico, after Akito both ran into Yurika before anyone else and later bring up their shared childhood on Mars, all of the other girls lost right there and then.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion, once again, plays with this just for the sake of screwing with us. Shinji sees an image of Rei at the very beginning of the series, followed by immediately being actually met by Misato. In his fantasy (or whatever) of a Lighter And Softer romantic comedy version of his life, Asuka shows up first (as his Unlucky Childhood Friend for no readily apparent reason). The two or three Alternate Continuities based on this dream sequence run with the latter. In the original show of course, the whole romance thing is pretty pointless.
- Dude, where's my Macross? Lest we forget that Hikaru first had his butt handed to him (verbally) by a fairly cross "old lady" before he ever came to Lynn Minmay's rescue. And that "old lady" turns out to be Misa Hayase.
- In Elfen Lied, the first main character shown is Lucy (aka. Nyu), who Kohta does not actually end up with. He instead ends up with the first one he meets - his cousin Yuka (Note that's NOT as Squick in Japan as it is in many other parts of the world). Although Yuka's insecurity and paranoia could lead her to believe otherwise, The other girls who boarded with them (Mayu, Nana and Nozomi) never really had a chance in the Unwanted Harem, and most of them simply didn't really like Kohta in that way.
- In the anime the outcome is different. Kohta breifly reciprocates Yuka's feelings with a kiss, but almost immediantly after forgets he ever kissed and it's never mentioned again. At the end of the anime he appears to have gotten with no-one, but it is hinted Lucy returned to him. I suppose, however, this depends on if you prefer Kohta with Lucy or Yuka, if you believe the anime exists, or your interperetation of the ending.
- True Tears has the main character choosing Hiromi at the end, who is the first girl introduced and the first girl he crosses paths with.
- In Sorcerer Hunters, Carrot met both Misu sisters at the same time, but Tira was the first sister introduced in the manga and the one Carrot marries at the end.
- Though this doesn't really stop Chocolat, as she can be seen having snuck into their bed to be with Carrot after the marriage since she wants him to live up to his promise to let her bear his first child.
- There is a gender-switched, not-quite-realized version going in Ouran High School Host Club, as it becomes clearer and clearer that Haruhi has fallen for the first Host guy she met, Tamaki.
- Miyako from ef: A Tale Of Memories may not technically be the first girl Hiro meets, but she is the first girl introduced to him in the anime.
- Played with in School Days. The first girl the audience sees is Kotonoha Katsura (better said, her photo in Makoto's cellphone), Sekai Saionji is the first girl we see him interact with, and Otome Katou is the first of all his possible love interests that he ever met (during junior high times; he only met the others in highschool).
- Kimagure Orange Road: Kyosuke meets Madoka long before Hikaru's in the picture.
- In Ai Kora, Sakurako is the first girl introduced as Maeda comes to Tokyo, and they are arguably the closest couple. Though, Maeda actually wants all the girls (for a special reason) and quite a few of the other girls want him too.
- Brutally subverted in Shuffle. Poor Kaede.
- While there's no real confirmation of this in the show itself, it sure seems as though Lime wins out at the end of Saber Marionette J, given that she seems to get the most attention from Otaru. Now... J to X, that's another story.
- In Midori Days, although Seiji had asked out another girl earlier, the first girl who was properly introduced was Midori, who of course (as this trope goes) wins out against the various other girls introduced later.
- Like Kurumi, Midori also had the advantage of being the title character.
- At least three possible interpretations in Omamori Himari - Kuesu was the first girl Yuuto kissed (when they were children), Rinko was the first girl Yuuto met when he moved out to live on his own, and Himari was the first girl to appear in the series. Right now it seems that the series is going in the direction of having Yuuto and Himari be the Official Couple.
- This happens in the manga of Kashimashi Girl Meets Girl. In the anime another girl wins at first, but this gets "corrected" in the OVA—in a way most fans found quite contrived.
- In Full Metal Panic, although Sousuke knew Tessa before Kaname, the first girl who is introduced is Kaname. She's also the first girl to show (at least to the audience - obviously, Tessa had already been romantically interested in him offscreen) romantic interest in Sousuke. And she's also one of the last girls to admit her feelings for him. This makes Tessa something of a sort of Unlucky Childhood Friend (although she didn't know him since childhood - just much earlier than Kaname did). Interestingly enough, it's been speculated by quite a few fans that if he had actually met Nami (from the novels) before Kaname, he would have fallen for her (seeing as how, after spending a little time with her, and even after having already fallen in love with Kaname, he started developing feelings for her and even considered settling down with her).
- It's made very clear early on in Ai Yori Aoshi that Aoi has already "won" Kaoru, and vice-versa. The fact that they are forced to hide the relationship amongst the Unwanted Harem is when Hilarity Ensues.
- Fushigi Yuugi plays this straight and subverts it with Miaka (first girl introduced in the series) and Tamahome (first Seishi whom Miaka meets). And no, we're not counting the fact that Yui and Tamahome met at the same time.
- Like its sister manga, Ayashi No Ceres does this with Aya and Tooya: Tooya is the first guy Aya kisses, and Aya in turn is the first girl Tooya meets. Yup, even in childhood.
- Although a plethora of characters fall in love/lust with both Mamoru and Usagi, they actually met when they were children (though Fiore met Mamoru first of all). Despite this, the first male the audience meets is Motoki, Usagi's crush. He ends up with a two-shot character.
- Mahou Sensei Negima. There are four, count 'em, four "First Girls." Chronologically, Anya is the very first, being a childhood friend and appearing in the first page of the manga—but she then disappeared for a hundred chapters. Then we've got Asuna, a standard Tsundere type who seems like the traditional love interest. However, from the beginning, its unclear whether she cares for Negi as a brother-type figure or something else. Ayaka is the first girl to show an interest in Negi, up to and including having his face painted on the side of her private jet, but an early chapter makes it apparent that she may just see him as the brother she never had (hers died during birth). Last but certainly not least is Nodoka, the Covert Pervert bookworm. She's the first to confess to Negi (actually the only one, of the four mentioned). Although no girl has "won" yet, its pretty clear that its coming down to one of these. Well, at least one of them.
- Technically, there are six; the Narutaki Twins had the first traditional
 confession, although it's fairly obvious that they were just messing with Negi's head, so Nodoka still counts as the first real confession/legitimate love interest.
Comic Books
- The Patterson children in For Better or Worse all seem destined to end up with the first person of the opposite sex they met in pre-school, which is a more extreme example of this trope.
- All but April. She gets a line or two in the finale strip that says she ends up with some nameless guy she meets when she moves far, far away from the rest of the family.
- Either played straight or averted for Superman, depending on your point of view: Lois Lane appeared in Action Comics #1, so she was the first potential love interest for Clark introduced in the series, but it was later established that Clark had in his youth had Lana Lang as a potential love interest, before he met Lois.
- Played straight in Captain Atom: Plastique appears in the second issue, before Cap meets Nightshade, Catherine Cobert, or the Crimson Fox.
- Played straight in Nexus, since Horatio meets Sundra first; it didn't hurt that her only real competition, Ursula, is one of the villains. Also sort of averted though, in a manner similar to what happened with Superman, since it was revealed in Nexus: Liberator that Horatio had had another love interest, Juyl, before he met Sundra.
- In the movie adaptation of Spiderman, Peter has a crush on Mary Jane since long before boys are even supposed to like girls, and only ever looks at any other girl when he suddenly had the urge to hurt her (and even then only when he's been corrupted by an alien.)
- Played straight in the Ultimate comics where Peter and Mary Jane are childhood friends and fellow book worms.
- Still up in the air in the Spectacular Spiderman. Currently childhood friend and fellow bookworm Gwen Stacey is the First Girl and looks like the one he will end up with, with Mary Jane being a former girl friend similar and Liz being his current girl friend to fill out the UST quotient. However given Mary Jane's and Gwen Stacey's track records things might not be as good for Stacey as they look. Then again, this is a saturday morning cartoon show, so who knows.
- Greg Wiesman is a fan of Mary Jane as well as the Spider-Marraige...so whenever or not this series gets a second chance, you might see it turn out as history intended.
- Jean was Scott's first love... until she died. And then she came back. And then, later, they got married. For a few years, anyway, before Emma Frost showed up...but they are STILL Happily Married to a lot of fans.
Film
- Indiana Jones has just managed this, also with a childhood friend (well, anyway he knew her before we meet her).
- In Disney's Hercules the first girl he meets after becoming a hero will be his love interest. Bonus points for a meet cute.
- Pretty much every Disney movie is this way, really.
- This trope is a staple of teen movies where the main character will spend the whole movie going after one girl because All Guys Want Cheerleaders, but ends up realizing his Hollywood Homely best friend is the girl for him. There are too many examples to list here.
- But I can put down a subversion. In The New Guy, at the end the main character and his female friend have a close moment, complete with poetic music...Then she reaches over and snogs another of their group instead. Then the cheerleader comes back to him.
Literature
- Arguably, this is a convention of just about any story which revolves around romance. During the opening chapter, the first character of preferred gender our protagonist meets and is attracted to is almost guaranteed to be the character s/he ends up with. (This might be First Boy Wins if the viewpoint character is female.)
- Harry Potter: Despite Harry's notable Just Friends relationship with Hermione, his obsessive crush on and disastrous date with Cho Chang, his other disastrous date with Parvati Patil, and a school full of devoted fangirls, fans will note that Ginny Weasley, whom he ultimately fell in love with in The Half-Blood Prince, and married, according to Deathly Hallows, was the first Wizarding girl Harry ever crossed paths with in the series.
- Hermione is also the first female character that Ron meets (outside of his family) on the train to Hogwarts.
- Again, Lily is the first witch that Severus Snape meets outside of his family (and we all know that our main characters never fall in love with a muggle)
- Unfortunately, Snape is relegated to unlucky childhood friend, which superceeds first boy.
- Lily is also the first girl that interacts with James Potter on the train to Hogwarts, before which he had probably talked a little to Sirius Black (who shared the train compartment), before Severus Snape and Lily came in to sit in the compartment with them.
- And if Sirius is gay or gay-leaning bisexual (as many in fandom would argue he is), his first interaction on the train is James Potter, who becomes his best friend and throughout the rest of his life he speaks of in an obsessive, infatuated manner because of his tragic early loss of him (much like Dumbledore speaks about Grindelwald).
- In Robin Hobb's Assassin cycle, Fitz and Molly, though only after the Fools trilogy, not after the initial three books.
- In Anahita's Woven Riddle, the prince Arash is established as the first of Anahita's potential suitors even before he and Anahita actually meet. Schoolteacher Reza and Unlucky Childhood Friend Dariyoush have no chance because their introductions come after Arash's (Dariyoush may have known Anahita for a long time, but we don't hear about him until after Arash's introductory chapter), not to mention that it's obviously Love At First Sight for Arash when he does meet Anahita.
- The protagonists of Tamora Pierce's stories tend to be Action Girls, so it's more a case of "First Guy Wins".
Live Action TV
- Scrubs: JD and Elliot met at the beginning of the series, and while technically both have dated other people before, Elliot is the first girl JD falls for and dated in the series. But it didn't work out so they moved on to other people. Until JD fell for Elliot again. So they hooked up again. Then JD realized he didn't love Elliot so they broke up again! Then two seasons later, oh wait, JD likes her again! So they start dating again! Now that
the show's coming to a close JD has left the show, it looks like this one will actually stick so maybe, just maybe First Girl Wins.
- The new series of Doctor Who with the Doctor. Rose wins in the end (or as close as can be given the series' nature), Jack and Martha move on, Joan fell in love with his amnesiac self, not him, Astrid dies, sort of, Donna never liked him in the first place, River also dies, sort of and Christina gets rejected.
- Ross and Rachel in Friends.
Theater
- Taken to an extreme in The Tempest: Ferdinand is the first male (not counting the monster Caliban or her father) Miranda has ever seen. She instantly falls madly in love with him.
Video Games
- Milfeulle and Apricot in the Galaxy Angel games.
- In the Quest For Glory series, Elsa von Spielberg is the first of four eligible bachelorettes the player character meets, which plays this trope straight if she's wooed in the last game.
- Princess Lilina of Ostia in Fire Emblem 6, if you get Roy's ending with her; she was his childhood best friend and classmate. In FE 7, if Lyn goes off with her bodyguard Kent, it's first guy wins. (Though if you count all her possible endings, she knew Florina before she knew any of the males. *grin*)
- Additionally, Florina is First Girl for Hector and Ninian (whom he rescued from the Black Fang before meeting Lyn) is First Girl for Eliwood, whereas Serra is First Girl for Erk, Wil is First Guy for Rebecca and Jaffar is First Guy for Nino.
- Played with in Fire Emblem 8. Seth the Silver Knight is the first of Eirika's love interests we see, but technically she has known Prince Innes since they were kids, so both can be seen as First Guy. Of course, she can also end up with the mage Saleh and that would be Last Guy Wins situation, huh.
- In the case of Ephraim, Tana is undeniably the First Girl, unless you count Eirika as a love interest as well.
- Out of Lute's love interests, Artur is first boy since they're childhood friends. In Amelia's case, Franz is one of the charas who can recruit her for your side, so he is her first boy. And finally, Natasha is the first girl for Joshua.
- In Fire Emblem 4, Levin only has three potential wives whose children can bring his holy weapon into the next generation: Fury, Sylvia, and Tiltyu. Sylvia can be this since she's the first one seen in the game, but Fury plays the trope straight as she knew Levin long before the others did.
- There are three potential winners in Fate Stay Night, each of whom can be seen as the First Girl. Sakura is the first girl introduced in the main storyline and also the first girl to show obvious interest in Shirou (who is, of course, completely oblivious to it), Rin is the first female character introduced and the first we get to see interact with Shirou because the prologue is from her point of view, and Saber is the first girl seen on-screen and heard as the second image in the Novel is of her.
- The first potential love interest in most Harvest Moon games (or the one that lives closest to your ranch) is usually the easiest to win over, as they're relatively low-maintenance and will accept most inexpensive gifts from you.
- the Mineral Town games: Elli
- A Wonderful Life: Celia
- Rune Factory: Mist
- Island of Happiness: Natalie (for guys)
- Semi-subverted in Chrono Trigger - while Marle is the first girl to join your party, Crono has known Lucca for years beforehand.
- Star Ocean uses this trope in at least three games.
- In The First Departure, Milly is the easiest character to gain relationship points with, and she is a childhood friend of Roddick.
- In The Second Story, while it is logical that Claude would have met other girls in his past, they are never mentioned and Rena, the first girl you meet, is the intended love interest.
- In Till The End of Time, Fayt starts the game with a girlfriend who later becomes a party member and remains the easiest to woo.
- Slightly subverted in Final Fantasy VII - you can go on a date with one of four people, but the two most common are Tifa and Aeris (arguable which one is the "First Girl" in this situation, you see Aeris first but Cloud knew Tifa far before this). Yuffie is not nearly as likely to date, and... Barret...
Webcomics
- Misfile is approaching this trope with all the subtlety of a berserk elephant.
- Coga Suro: Yeah, Steve and Jane end up married with kids. Who saw that coming?
- In Girl Genius we have our dear Agatha Clay, who currently has two suitors, though some will argue she has 3. She had 4 at one point, but he died... poor guy
- The author has on more than one occasion seemed to favor our dear Gilgamesh, as he was the first one introduced to show actual romantic interest in her, he's even proposed(and is still wearing the ring round his neck), she's even kissed him.
- of course, she's currently very upset with him, in addition to the other man, but she's admitted to actually liking #2...
- Dan Shive is rather fond of this, all of the major relationships at the moment are examples of the first girl winning If you count Ellen's birth taking Susan out of the picture.
Web Original
- Stefan 'Twoflower' Gagne's "Unreal Estate" uses this: the first girl's house falls on him while he's still on Grunwald. Nevertheless, possibly to obfuscate the first girl winning, the main character manages to run into each of the girls before finding himself in the 'harem', a la Ai Kora. Though it's technically not a harem comdedy towards the end.
Western Animation
- Danny Phantom had interests in Paulina and Valerie, but Sam was the first girl.
- American Dragon Jake Long The girl in question was brought back in the Grand Finale, and is implied to rekindle her relationship with Jake.
- Teen Titans: Robin falls for Starfire, the first girl he encounters in the series, though it requires a flashback to let the viewers know that.
- Thought the series Kim Possible and her sidekick Ron date or crush on a few other people, but in the end choose their oldest friend and partner in villain-fighting.
- In Codename Kids Next Door, Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 4 each end up with their first person which results in them being married to each other and Numbuh 1 does not end up with Lizzie, Numbuh 362 or with anyone at all.
- All three Official Couples of Avatar The Last Airbender:
- Suki was virtually the first non-related girl of a correct age Sokka meets, and they eventually end up together, even though he also has a brief romance with princess Yue (who dies and becomes the Moon Spirit) and Ty Lee from the Quirky Miniboss Squad has a crush on him (and discounting Toph, whose crush on him she has not verbalized and he has not noticed).
- Meanwhile, Zuko and Mai used to be friends since they were children, and despite Zuko's one date with one another girl while in exile they become a couple again as soon as he's un-exiled, are separated when Mai gets herself imprisoned for treason while saving Zuko's life, and happily reunite in the series finale.
- And then of course there's the two main characters Aang and Katara, of whom she had never met a boy her own age before who wasn't her brother, while her face was actually the first thing he saw after being frozen for a century, and they likewise hook up by the end of the show.
Online Role-playing
- Although any specific examples would probably best be left to Troper Tales, most roleplaying communities tend to fall to this for different reasons. Players are excited to get their characters involved in as many ways as possible, so they tend to fall for the first reasonably aged, unattached person of the opposite (or in some cases same) gender they see. Since breakups rarely happen in these games unless preplanned, they tend to last the long haul.
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