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"Well, it's kind of like James Bond. But instead of Bond, there are these two women..."
For some reason, female buddy-shows are rather widespread, especially in anime. This trope refers to adventure series starring two rather competent women with contrasting personalities — compare with Betty and Veronica, Red Oni, Blue Oni, Tomboy and Girly Girl, and Bifauxnen and Lad-ette. They're not usually romantically involved with each other and generally Just Friends. In recent years, however, it has become difficult to avoid this implication, and a few shows keep enough subtext to placate such fans or outright encourage it.
In contrast, female buddy movies are extremely rare, possibly because Most Writers Are Male.
More than two Lovely Angels eventually become known as an Amazon Brigade. Everything else of the above stays the same.
Compare Just Partners where it's a man and a woman who work together.
Examples
Anime
- The category is named after the official codename of Kei and Yuri, the Dirty Pair.
- Kiddy Grade, a Spiritual Successor of sorts to the above.
- Gunsmith Cats
- Read or Die, the original OVA version.
- They also had a third, male team member - he was just completely irrelevant to everything.
- You're Under Arrest!
- Noir and its second Spiritual Successor by the same studio, El Cazador de la Bruja. The first successor, Madlax, avoids this by large margin despite having a similar setup (unless you ignore the monstrous gap in Madlax and Vanessa's skills and put them in the same league).
- Tsukikage Ran.
- The Slayers had OVAs and movies where Lina is adventuring teamed up with a Vain Sorceress Naga, in Red Oni, Blue Oni contrast.
- A Code Geass radio drama taking place between the two seasons has Kallen and C.C. in this type of relationship. And then there's this piece of artwork.
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- Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger had Sayaka and Jun (even if it was for a short while). UFO Robo Grendizer has Hikaru and Maria.
- Hyperdoll.
- Futari wa Pretty Cure features Lovely Angel Magical Girls, as does Futari Wa Pretty Cure Splash Star.
- Excel Saga initially starred two ladies, Excel and Hyatt, but they were two incompetent henchwomen, not two smart heroes. The anime kept this dynamic, while the manga added a third character, Elgala.
- Sugar Sugar Rune
- Anak and Androssi Zahard from Tower Of God. Paired with Vitriolic Best Buddies.
- Najica Blitz Tactics Yay for intentional Les Yay!
- Michiko To Hatchin has some of this, despite the age difference between the leads.
- Noriko and Kazumi in Gunbuster.
- Mnemosyne - romantically involved or not, the Moe Les Yay is pretty brazen.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, with Nanoha and the newly-befriended Fate. Others are solo fares (1st season) or feature
The Squad Amazon Brigades (StrikerS, ViVid, Force).
- Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt takes this to the logical extreme with Panty and Stocking being literal angels... except they're not too angelic personality-wise.
- Tetragrammaton Labyrinth with Meg and Angela
- Rosario + Vampire. Kuruno Kurono: succubus with Gag Boobs, Femme Fatalons the size of your average assassination knife, wings, a tail, and need it come to that, seductive supernatural powers. Mizore Shirayuki: abominable snowgirl who can hurl icy shuriken at you, cut you open herself with claws of ice, and freeze you heel-to-hair if you've so much as a drop of liquid on you (and sometimes even without). It's not called the Black and White Duet because of their skin tone; it's because they're that different and they can still dance like that.
Comic Books
- Page image features Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, from the second volume of Heroes For Hire. The two of them happen to be so badass, even the Rhino is afraid of them.
- They are good friends and normally appear together, but the epitome of their Lovely Angels dynamic can be seen in Daughter Of The Dragon.
- Birds Of Prey started with a team of Black Canary and Oracle. Later, Huntress joined the team as well. Recently, it has become a full Amazon Brigade.
- DC has had Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn team up on occasion during the brief periods when the latter has gotten sick of the Joker. Les Yay abounds (Generally played as close to being involved as possible while still just about maintaining plausable deniability. On at least one occasion they were actually shown sharing a bed). Currently they are starring, along with Catwoman, in Gotham City Sirens as a trio of attractive, deadly women on the town in Gotham.
- And then there was that exchange where Harley informed Batgirl that Ivy had given her some kind of treatment so they could "play" together. More than one fan has taken this as outright confirmation of a canon relationship.
- Paul Dini says it was.
- And it ain't Slash Goggles before he said it. The quote is "She gave me a special shot once so we can play and I won't get sick at all." It is... highly unlikely that they meant playing checkers or badminton.
- Whiteout, before the changes made to the movie, starred US Marshal Carrie Stetko and pal solving murders down in Antarctica. Unfortunately, The Movie (For various ridiculous reasons) felt that two female leads was a bad choice for a film, and made one of them a man (And not even one of the already existing men from the comics, but a completely new creation).
- The Manhwa Yureka (translated as ID_Entity) features a pair of Idol Singer minor characters actually called The Lovely Angels.
- The Italian comic series Legs Weaver has such a team of the titular character and her sidekick May. The lesbian relationship is overt this time.
- Patsy and Hedy eventually had Patsy and Hedy in a relationship of this sort when they dropped the mutual romantic interest.
- Huntress and Power Girl have this dynamic in the New 52 series Worlds' Finest.
- Which is a throwback to their original team-ups on pre-Crisis Earth-2. Batman's daughter, Superman's female cousin — what could be more obvious than that they'd become a team?
Film
Literature
- Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books have Tarma and Kethry, a swordswoman and a mage, traveling the country as a team of mercenaries. (Tarma is a celibate priestess and Kethry eventually marries, but their relationship outlasts her marriage when Kethry's husband eventually passes on).
- Despite their differences, Angua and Sally of the City Watch appear to be on their way to this trope in the Discworld books.
- Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin and George Fayne.
- In the Vlad Taltos books, Norathar and Cawti, aka The Sword and Dagger of the Jhereg, were a two-woman assassin team, and for a long time they only had each other to rely on. After their lives changed radically, they continue to be the best of friends. In Tiassa, the two briefly resume their old partnership, to the enjoyment of both.
- The light and dark sisters in Jane Yolen's Great Alta Saga. Every light sister calls up a dark sister to be her lifelong companion in battle.
Live-Action TV
Video Games
Web Comics
- Last Res0rt has Jigsaw and Daisy as the only girl-girl team on the show so far. There are plenty of other characters they share the spotlight with though.
- Freija and Rachel for a girl-girl partnership in The Senkari, especially in the first story arc. Later they tend to share screentime more with other characters.
Web Original
- This trope is spoofed in the webseries 3Way, with Ladycops, an homage to creator Nancylee Myatt's unaired show Nikki & Nora. The characters in Ladycops are played by the same actresses from the Nikki & Nora pilot.
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