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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."
However, this isn't the be-all, end-all rule of anime pairings, especially when the Unlucky Childhood Friend is involved. Sometimes it's even the opposite.
Be warned before you proceed. "Winning", in this sense, tends to be very spoilerific.
See also Victorious Childhood Friend
Examples:
Anime
- Love Hina; Narusegawa Naru is the first girl introduced, and despite Aoyamo Motoko, Maehara Shinobu and Otohime Mutsumi 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 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 and Tasuki all like Yuuki Miaka. Tamahome was the first 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.
- Mahou Sensei Negima seems to teeter between following and subverting the trope. Negi's relationship with First Girl Asuna Kagurazaka is a big part of the story, and while Asuna doesn't deny that she cares about him, their relationship is defined as being strictly platonic. Even so, it occasionally shows signs of veering the other way.
- Considering that the manga no longer even remotely resembles an unwanted harem, it's likely that this is going to be subverted somehow.
- The whole mess is further complicated by the fact that both Anya (technically the first girl introduced, she first appears on page 1 of the manga), and Nodoka (the first girl to show any genuine romantic interest in Negi), could both technically qualify as "first girl".
- Ken Akamatsu is totally messing with everyone, even without the Unwanted Harem angle he did release a love list for Negi. Asuna is TIED for second with Yue (Nodoka is winning, one point ahead of them). At least as far as the female characters feel for the Negi Springfield, since Negi is 10 and has no idea what women want.
- 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 completely straight in Clannad with Nagisa, however.
- Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu follows both this and Last Girl Wins, strange as it may sound. Thanks to the Anachronic Order of the anime, Haruhi is both the first girl and the last girl, while Mikuru is both the last girl and the first girl.
- 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."
- Inverted and subverted in Samurai 7: Katsushiro Okamoto is the first boy met by Kirara, and the most obvious love interest. Only, she really loves Kambei Shimada, a love he doesn't return.
- Some would say that the trope was subverted in Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040, as the writers seem to be building up a love triangle between Linna, Priss, and Leon, only for Bait And Switch Lesbians and Last Minute Hookup to do a tag team beatdown on the possibility.
- 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.
- Subverted rather directly in Tenchi Muyo, all continuities by Tenchi just not picking ''anyone''.
- Amusingly, some fans have decried the Tenchi Universe continuity for not subverting this tropes, citing a specific Ryoko/Tenchi leaning, especially in the second movie's ending. If this is in fact true, it would ironically be fulfilling this trope, as Ryoko was the first girl that Tenchi met in the series.
- That'd be the third movie, actually, though it is the second movie set in the Tenchi Universe continuity... Said leaning is present in the series itself as well, but Tenchi never does pick anyone, so Ryoko still doesn't really "win" ... Tenchi in Tokyo also focused a bit more on Ryoko than the other main girls, but only when it wasn't busy trying to drama things up with Sakuya.
- Averted in .hack//SIGN where the first girl who befriends Tsukasa, Mimiru, does a lot of work in teaching social skills; but it's Subaru who later becomes Tsukasa's most important person.
- Captain Tsubasa: Sanae thought she'd become the Unlucky Childhood Friend when the Fangirl Kumi Sugimoto became a manager and crushed openly on her best friend *and* crush Tsubasa. Tsubasa, however, made clear to Kumi in the end that he only wanted Sanae; Kumi stepped outta the way gracefully and not only Tsubasa and Sanae became Highschool Sweethearts, some years later they got married.
- In Vandread, Dita is the first female with whom Hibiki has personal contact. In the end she gets to hop on the space ship home with him.
- 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.
- Although this turns out to be a half-subversion in the last episode, when you consider Akito met Inez way back in the prologue as a little girl. His childhood friendship with Yurika probably still counts, though.
- 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 Minmay's rescue.
- 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. (luckily that's not as Squick in Japan as it is in many other parts of the world). Although Yuka's 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, as they didn't really like Kohta in that way.
- 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.
- Although Ukyou is technically the first girl Ranma meets, this isn't revealed until 1/4th of the Ranma 1/2 manga, and worse, he thought she was a boy. Therefore, the honor goes to Akane, the first girl in Ranma's "harem" that the audience ever meets.
- 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.
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.
- Lilina in Fire Emblem 6 if you get Roy's ending with her; she was his childhood best friend. In FE 7, if Lyn goes off with 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*)
Comics
- 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.
- Either played straight or averted in 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.
Literature
- 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 in The Deathly Hallows, was the first girl Harry ever crossed paths with in the series. Not counting Aunt Petunia, of course.
Webcomics
- Misfile is approaching this trope with all the subtlety of a berserk elephant. It was foreshadowed before, of course, but when the First Girl's date, her childhood crush and the (female) protagonist all turn out to be gay, well.
- Actually, Ash is not gay, he is semi-permanently stuck as a girl. This actualy is one of the major hangups of their relationship, as Emily (said First Girl) has trouble with the idea of having a lesbian relationship and Ash has trouble with the idea of doing it as a girl (and not for lack of trying).
Western Animation
- Danny Phantom had interests in Paulina and Valerie, but Sam was the first girl.
- American Dragon Jake Long kind of subverts it, in that Jake does fall for the first girl immediately, but she is Put On A Bus at the end of the second season, so it remains up in the air.
- Actually, 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.
- Played straight and inverted on Kim Possible: Kim is Ron's First Girl, and Ron is Kim's first boy.
- Played straight and averted in Codename Kids Next Door: Despite his enduring and crippling crush on Cree, Numbuh 2 ends up married to Numbuh 5, Cree's little sister. However, 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, near as this editor can tell.
- Played straight and in 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.
Film
- Though this is hardly a harem series (the first film has precisely two women as acting characters, total, not counting Jim's dead mom and the legions of Infected) 28 Days Later plays with this trope a little. Selena is the first woman Jim meets after coming out of his coma, and the one he ends up with in the end.
- Indiana Jones has just managed this, also with a childhood friend (well, anyway he knew her before we meet her).
- Both played straight and subverted in Far Scape with John and Aeryn: neither is the other's first, but within the confines of the show's timeline they are each other's first--they show some tension in the first episode--and it's pretty much a foregone conclusion, even with PK Tech Girl and Look At The Princess.
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