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alt title(s): Fellowship; Like Family; Comrades; Ohana
All for one...
Simon: Captain, why did you come back for us? Mal: You're on my crew. Simon: Yeah, but you don't even like me. Why'd you come back? Mal: You're on my crew. Why are we still talking about this?
"Nakama" is a Japanese term that describes, roughly, the members of a group who are as close as real family would be because of the circumstances under which the group of companions find themselves. As the term is not a uniquely Japanese concept, other words such as "comrades", " brothers in arms", crew, team, posse, war buddies, and clique are also nearly synonymous.
The members of the group may not necessarily like each other, but know they can depend upon each other in crisis. The relationship is often considered as "more pure", or deeper than mere friendship, but more innocent than romance. After one helps another in danger, gratitude is often dismissed with " Think Nothing Of It — you would have done it for me."
This sort of group dynamic appeals to younger audiences who are unfamiliar with romance, and appeals to older audiences who live in a world of complex relationships and convenience masqueraded as false friendship, who are feeling nostalgic about the times when friendship meant a lifelong bond.
Killing a fellow member of such a group, especially if the murder is done for personal gain or because the killer just doesn't care anymore, is often a sign that a character has crossed the Moral Event Horizon and joined the dark side — except in the case of a Mercy Kill or I Cannot Self Terminate, where one mark of the Nakama is that they insist on doing it themselves, even when people less close to the victim offer.
Likewise, a Big Bad Friend will find himself in a very difficult situation between his comrades and his villainous lifestyle.
This can be somewhat incompatible with shipping characters. Those who move from comrade to "lover" usually have trouble adjusting to the change within the group dynamic. Occasionally, the dynamic changes for the worse and starts interfering with the plot. It is much more common for characters who are going to be introduced romantically to be distinct from this group. A Westermarck effect can occur which shifts a gaggle of admirers into a chaste Unwanted Harem of "brothers" and "sisters", which may explain why it often leads, in due course, to the Honorary Uncle trope.
A writer may use this to avoid writing romantic relationships, though this usually doesn't stop fans from making up their own.
See also The Power Of Friendship, Blood Brothers, A Friend In Need, Fire Forged Friends. Often, a Nakama is formed after a Misfit Mobilization Moment. If the members of the Nakama happen to be particularly badass, you get a Badass Crew. And Zoidberg for the member who's still valued as an ally but often pushed to the side, say a crazy uncle in the "family" analogy.
Examples
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Advertising
- A current (12/07) series of adverts for a Carling lager, with the tagline "You know who your mates are".
Anime & Manga
- Use of the actual term has recently been popularized by a One Piece fansub.
- Especially evident in the Enies Lobby story arc, when the crew literally declares war on the World Government(a ruling body that encompasses over a 170 different countries) just to prove that Nico Robin's immense burden isn't enough to make them betray her
- Or Whitebeard/Luffy in the latest arc, causing a full-scale world war between pirates and the government just to save Ace. Also notable because Ace is revealed not to be blood related to Luffy, instead being Gol D. Roger's son.
- The core teenaged cast of Ranma ½ can possibly be interpreted as a nakama unit, particularly in the later seasons and OVAs. This still didn't keep them from beating each other up at the drop of a hat, of course.
- A dramatic shift in the Ranma-Ryōga-Mousse dynamic took place during the Musk Dynasty arc. Since Ranma is locked as a girl, Ryōga and Mousse plot to let Herb kill her (or do so themselves) while they remove their own animal curses. However, when they start to put their plan to action, and it backfires, Ranma doesn't just fail to begrudge them, she actually yells at them to save themselves even as Herb is about to kill her. Later, Ryōga and Mousse come back to help Ranma unlock the curse and even save her life from Herb. Notably, and despite the unavoidable bickering and squabbling later in the series, the "bitter-rivals" relationship changed to "loyal-allies" after this event.
- The cast of Tenchi Muyo! is another such example, although being that they are all related, if distantly and via fusion in places, the label for this is somewhat murky.
- As are the Sailor Senshi in Sailor Moon. This was also one of the first things we learned about Sailor Uranus and Neptune's relationship to show they weren't just Sixth Rangers.
- The Shitennou of the Dark Kingdom fit the example in the original manga. Kunzite, Zoisite, Nephrite, and Jadeite were like brothers and were visibly upset when members of the group were killed.
- In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Tsuna, Gokudera, Yamamoto, Ryohei, Hibari, Mukuro, Chrome and Lambo form a very literal nakama.
- The good guys in Dragon Ball Z are definitely a Nakama: they're all close friends, despite going anywhere from three to ten years without speaking to each other, and although Vegeta spends the rest of his life resented over being beaten up by Goku, he eventually becomes part of the group.
- This actually goes further back to the original Dragon Ball. It started out with just Goku and Bulma, then we have a bandit and his sidekick, and a pig who won't "behave" himself.
- Furthermore, the original Chinese novel that inspired it, Journey To The West (which is where the "real" Son Goku comes from), is also an example.
- The core heroes of Digimon; all five seasons. Although they don't always get along initially, they become Nakama fairly early in the plot.
- The Bronze Saints from Saint Seiya. The Gold Saints to an extent too.
- Every one of the sagas in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure has the protagonists as a nakama, but probably the third's (Jotaro Kuyo, Noriaki Kakyoin, Jean Pierre Polnareff, Muhammed Avdol and Iggy) are the most close knit of them all. In fact, the ending of that saga is actually a Crowning Moment Of heartwarming, a considerable feat for such a violent, macho series.
- Megumi's Instant Fan Club becomes her nakama in Tenshi Na Konamaiki.
- The Samurai Pizza Cats.
- In Outlaw Star, the crew is a nakama. Even though they all met under different circumstances and some at first didn't like the main character or each other, they all eventually become allies. This is best shown in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogXESrra56I.
- Gluttony's relationship with Lust in the Full Metal Alchemist anime could be interpreted to be like this, as he was absolutely devastated when she died (despite the fact that Lust really didn't care about him; she just wanted To Become Human). In the manga the Homonculi are literally family all coming from the same being, Father. It's just that out of the siblings, Lust, Gluttony, and Envy were the closest.
- After an amnesiac Greed kills Bido in the manga, Lin whose body Greed shares demands to know why Greed killed someone who was his "soul family", Greed claims that it was the previous Greed, but after getting back his memories does a Big No, and attacks King Bradley wanting to know what happened to his "possessions" and why King Bradley is in his memories.
- Mustang and his subordinates are very much like this.
- To show how much Scar has developed, he refers to May Chang as one of his nakama.
- In Keroro Gunsou, Keroro refers to his team as nakama.
- There is an entire episode of Martian Successor Nadesico dedicated to sending up the concept of nakama; it includes what is possibly one of the funniest sequences in the series.
- Lottie in Soukou No Strain refers to her team as nakama and tries to convince Sara of such.
- In Naruto, probably the most striking example is Shikamaru's speech to the squad retrieving Sasuke about how he personally didn't care much for Sasuke, but would try to bring him back anyways, because he was their nakama. Also a very good illustration of the nebulous nature of the term.
- The dub used "comrade", in the military sense of the term.
- Another example later in Naruto involves the difficulties Naruto and Sakura have accepting newcomer Sai to their team; despite his betrayal, they still see Sasuke as their nakama, and Sai is treated with much hostility as an interloper. (His grating, offensive personality doesn't really help matters.)
- While not specifically stated, Akatsuki leader Pain hints at a Nakama-like relationship during their holo-bijuu-meeting when he tells the group they should quietly mourn recently deceased member Deidera's death. Take from that what you will.
- The School Festival in Manabi Straight has "from friends to nakama" as its theme.
- The Genei Ryodan in Hunter X Hunter are a rare villainous example. Shooting Star City is a mix of Breakfast Club and Nakama on a mindbogglingly massive scale. Maintain some semblance of a society among the trash heaps of the world's largest landfill takes some teamwork.
- Akira, Shuji, and Nobuta of the Japanese drama Nobuta Wo Produce. Despite some romantic tension between certain members, the three generally function as a nakama group later in the series, and recognize themselves as such.
- The episode of Death Note in which Light joins Ryuzaki's team is entitled "nakama" — unusually, the official English translation is the singular, "comrade".
- There is also a background music theme used from that episode on. It's called "L no Nakama."
- If you're a fan of the taskforce members (and face it; you're just here for Light and L, and maybe Mello), this makes some parts absolutely horrible. They clearly are a nakama, and when Near first accuses Light of being Kira (and even way back when L did), they stand by him as long as they possibly can, pointing out that there was no way they would have gotten this far without the perfect trust that comes from being nakama. Such loyalty and friendship is wasted on Light.
- GOD does not need friends foolish mortal!
- This could probably account for Matsuda's reaction to Light's final Hannibal Lecture.
- In Bleach, Ishida often refuses to acknowledge the other members of the group as his friends, but goes to extremely great lengths to assist them, to the point that he once temporarily lost his supernatural powers and in several instances has nearly died.
- Tatsuki becomes violently offended when Ichigo refuses to confide in her, and yells that he shouldn't be hiding anything from because they are nakama.
- And Rukia bitchslaps Ichigo for leaving her and Renji behind when he goes to Hueco Mundo, citing that exact same reason.
- Section 9 in Ghost In The Shell. Being a paramilitary special unit of the Ministry of the Interior in a mostly failed state, they regularily get into conflict with other government institutions, as well as terrorists and organized crime. Togusa and Aramaki seem to be the only ones who still maintain normal lives next to their job, while the others seem to be almost completely isolated from the rest of society.
- In Mirage of Blaze, both the Kagetora clan and the Uesugi army are eventually betrayed in favor of Haruie and Nagahide.
- The student council candidates in Kujibiki Unbalance.
- The Basketball Teams in Slam Dunk tends to be like this. There is also the Sakuragi's gang, who acts as nakama when the plot calls for it.
- The main characters of Red Garden. The girls all hang out with different cliques, and they never would've even spoken to each other if it hadn't been for Lise dying.
- The Gurren Brigade in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is La Resistance brought together by fate.
- Both the Sanzo-ikkou and Kougaiji-ikkou in Saiyuki. While the latter are very open about it, the former will deny it until they're blue in the face. The Konzen-ikkou in Gaiden are somewhere in between: they're not as comfortable together as Kougaiji's group, but they're a much more cohesive unit than their reincarnations.
- Yes Precure 5 features a nakama-powered kamikaze mecha-butterfly. (Coco and Nuts get left out, though.) Featured as a logical expansion of the previous seasons' use of The Power Of Friendship.
- Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni details what happens to Nakama if supernatural stuff starts eroding their bonds of friendship; the second season details exactly what they're capable of when it doesn't.
- Justy Tylor from Irresponsible Captain Tylor sees the crew of the Soyokaze as his Nakama ("You're like everyone else on the Soyokaze is to me...You're my crew...and you're all important to me"). Some of the Marines might beg to differ, though. Even so, they will face against the entire UPSF to save him. Twice.
- In an episode of Jigoku Shojo, Hone-Onna asks if Ren considers her and Wanyuudo to be Nakama, and is patently dismayed when he replies that he does not. He later mutters to himself that he actually sees them as kazoku, family, which implies that this is the only thing closer than nakama. This is especially poignant as none of them actually have ever had families.
- Enma Ai is very much part of this Nakama as well. They'd do anything for her, and her extremely rare moments of warmth are reserved for them.
- Used extensively in Vandread.
- The main cast of Cowboy Bebop.
- Arguably, only very late in the series, perhaps only from ep 23 onwards. In fact, it's their becoming nakama proper rather than just sharing a ship that makes the ending quite as poignant and difficult as it is.
- Also, at least in the dub, Gren says that within his unit he thought everyone, including Vicious were comrades, which is why he takes the betrayal by Vicious so personally. Unfortunately I can't make out whether he actually says nakama is the Japanese version.
- The main cast of Yu Yu Hakusho.
- The Lagoon Company and Hotel Moscow in Black Lagoon, both to themselves and each other. Of course, the reason why the Hotel Moscow unit under Balalaika act the way they do is because they used to be a unit of the Soviet Army, and so therefore their bond is literally a soldier's bond. However, Balalaika's relationship to the Lagoon Company, a band of mercenaries that are not always on the same side as her, but who she is quite friendly to, is a good example of a nakama. Revy and Eda's relationship is another good example.
- The Dola Gang of sky pirates in Castle In The Sky, aka Laputa.
- Even if most of them are actually related. They even call their boss "mom".
- The five primary Blade Children in Spiral. It's worth noting that The Stoic Eyes is the one who actually uses the word "nakama," when he tells Rio not to get herself killed.
- Just about everyone in Get Backers forms some kind of complicated extended Nakama, with "That doesn't mean I like you" and "The second we're not being paid to work together, all bets are off" in full effect. The various members of the VOLTS hierarchy in the first Mugenjou arc are probably the best example, however. Emishi wanted to treat Shido to a good time before killing him because they were nakama once; later, after foiling his double-suicide attack, Shido drags him to the doctor. When asked why he would save an enemy, Shido smiles and answers that while they are enemies now, they used to be nakama; one day, they could be nakama again.
- The Yashies (Inu-Yasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango and Shippo) in Inu Yasha.
- When Miroku and Sango fall in love, he tells her that he doesn't want an actual relationship with her until they have completed their mission, because he values her too much as a "companion in battle".
- Mahou Sensei Negima has the Ala Alba, which is Negi's nakama. Jack Rakan even explicitly refers to them as such.
- Negi's father, Nagi, had the Ala Rubra, who were his nakama.
- Likewise, the tenants of the Hinata House in Love Hina qualify. Witness the way that every time one of them leaves, the others all go out to try to find them. Even Kanako, who joins up late and is initially hated by all of the others, ends up becoming part of the "family" by the end.
- Also the main characters in Ai Yori Aoshi, which at first glance seems like a Love Hina clone. (They're very different in tone, though, as well as in their emphasis on realism vs. fantasy.) Completely understandable in the case of male lead Kaoru, in that he really has no family to return to. Several of the other characters have issues with their families, too.
- The Band of the Hawk in Berserk certainly qualifies as nakama, especially later on in the anime. Void, the de facto leader of the Godhand, even refers to them using that word during the episode where they offer their Deal With The Devil to Griffith to sacrifice the Hawks in exchange for joining them as their fifth member. Griffith's acceptance of their offer and betrayal of his nakama is one of the reasons why Guts hates his guts (the other is what Griffith did to Casca upon being incarnated as Femto). Guts later gains another group of nakama after this, with Casca being the only survivor of the previous band (though given her post-Eclipse state, she's not going to be participating in any fighting anytime soon).
- One could also argue that band of Apostles gathered by Griffith in his so called Quest for Peace could be a Nakama, although they only stick by Griffith out of respect for his Femto-self. However, even as bad as Griffith is, they are actually necessary to defeat someone even worse: Emperor Ganishka.
- The SOS Brigade very gradually becomes one over the course of the Suzumiya Haruhi novel series, in spite of three of them being secret agents with competing agendas and the other two being Kyon and Haruhi.
- Eventually it gets to the point where in one of the light novels, Itsuki tells Kyon that if his Organization ever comes into conflict with the SOS Brigade, he will betray them and side with Kyon
- If you don't hear this in Fairy Tail, you're deaf, stupid or both. Comes complete with moments of "but s/he's your nakama!", among others. Being nakama is practically the whole premise, really.
- The fact that the some of the scanlators obstinately refuse to even translate the word pretty much hammers the point home.
- The main characters in Soul Eater touch on it minimally, or at least it's hinted at.
- The four main heroes of Chrono Crusade are like this, possibly to replace their lost family members (they're all orphans except for Chrono, who betrayed the members of his race twice-over). This is probably the reason why Chrono and Rosette don't become the Official Couple until the very end.
- In the manga, the Sinners are shown in Chrono's memories to form an odd sort of family with Mary Magdalene — which makes Chrono's eventual betrayal all the more traumatic to the rest, and also shows how ruthless Aion is when he proceeds to sacrifice them one by one for his goals.
- The titular group of Ouran High School Host Club is portrayed as being like a family — to the point that Tamaki calls himself "father", Kyouya "mother" and Haruhi his "daughter". When Tamaki begins to develop romantic feelings for Haruhi, he constantly denies them by focusing on their relationship as "father and daughter" (to the point of squick levels for some fans).
- Gatchaman. One of the original Five Man Bands, the Science Ninja Team may fight, argue and generally crawl all over each other's nerves, but when push comes to shove they'll go through hell for one another. Arguably the origin of the Super Sentai version of the trope.
- The Shuffle Alliance in G Gundam. Also Argo and his pirate crew, which he specifically refers to as "nakama".
- The movie version of Howls Moving Castle has Howl refer to the castle gang explicitly as his "little family". Howl, Calcifer, and Markl have a nakama-like relationship going from the start, with the orphaned Markl having Howl as a kind of surrogate father; Sophie, Heen, Turniphead, and the Witch of the Waste all join later. Turniphead leaves when he becomes a Prince again.
- The main cast of Azumanga Daioh. Miss Yukari and Nyamo interact with them regularly but are their own Heterosexual Life Partners unit.
- The cast of Transformers Super God Masterforce forms a pair of these. Unusually, the nakama sense is more pronounced with the Decepticons, which eventually leads to Clouder, Wilder, and Bullhorn joining the Autobots after King Poseidon and Devil Z abandon them.
- Allen in D.Gray-Man considers his fellow Exocist his nakama. Even Kanda, with whom he is constantly having glaring matches with when they're not fighting Akuma. Lavi has a strange "nakama" moment. When he goes nuts on the crew of the ship for holding him back from chasing after Linali, he accuses them of not caring for their nakama. Miranda then asks him if he's their nakama or not too (of course he is, but the Bookman thing is complicated).
- The six party members from Record of Lodoss War? The way their interpersonal dynamics go, it may be a dysfunctional one at times, but they definitely still count.
- In Pokémon, Ash refers to Chimchar as his nakama. This is a general thing for all good trainers.
- By the end of Baccano, quite a few of the Immortal Lovable Rogues of the series (to wit: Firo, Maiza, Ennis, Czes, the Gandor brothers, Isaac and Miria, as well as some others) have forged one of these — a huge contrast to the original set of the highly distrustful immortals in 1711 that had be scattered just to keep them from eating each other.
- Jin, Mugen, and Fuu in Samurai Champloo.
- The five ( or six, if you count Cloney) main characters from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. Goes so far that at one point, trying to explain their dynamic to an outsider, Fai jokingly/seriously (the outsider can't tell which) says that Kurogane is Syaoran, Sakura and Mokona's father. The nicknames "Kuro-daddy" and "Fai-mommy" have since caught on in Fandom.
- Italy, Germany and Japan of Axis Powers Hetalia.
- Celestial Being seems to become this in the second season of Gundam 00.
- The Cyber Coil Detective Agency along with Daichi and Denpa make one big group of "nakama" in Dennou Coil. There are also a few smaller nakama circles such as Tamako, Haraken and Yasako, but the most notable is Yasako and Isako, who come to have their own special nakama relationship.
- The Deimon Devil Bats from Eyeshield 21 with Mamori as Team Mom and Hiruma as Team Dad / Drill Sergeant Nasty / Heroic Sociopath.
- There's a few groups in Gintama that sometimes duke it out but sometimes overlap: The Yorozuya (Gintoki, Shinpachi, Kagura and Sadaharu), The Shinsengumi (Kondou, Hijikata, Okita, Yamazaki, etc.,) and the sort of disbanded Joui (Gintoki, Katsura, Takasugi and Sakamoto).
- However, by the end of the Benizakura Arc, it is pretty clear that whatever ties and sense of camarederie that Takasugi has had with Gintoki and Katsura in the past have been completely broken, with both Gintoki and Katsura pretty much declaring war on Takasugi for his actions.
- In the manga Vagabond, the Yoshioka school of swordsmanship as a whole are essentially an independent samurai clan that, whatever their feelings about titular head and playboy layabout Yoshioka Seijuurou, are extremely devoted to his younger brother Denshichirou to the point that disciple Otagurou Hyousuke offers his arm (shattered in a training accident) as a "sacrifice" with which Denshichirou may proceed with his training, they accept senior disciple Ueda Ryouhei as their leader, perhaps even the "soul" of the Yoshioka all along, after Miyamoto Musashi cuts down the two brothers. Unfortunately this is the undoing of both themselves and the school, as Ueda's able to get all seventy remaining swordsmen except for the crippled Hyousuke to join in his plan to ambush and kill Musashi at Ichijouji, but the plan isn't changed even when the leaders know that Musashi's found out. On the individual, tactical and leadership levels they have not prepared to fight in what's "no longer a duel," and except for the absent Otagurou all of them pay for this failure with their lives, ending the Yoshioka school.
- Twenty's gang in The Daughter Of Twenty Faces is like this. Chiko even thinks of Twenty Faces as her father, and refers to him as such at least once, and calls Ken "Ken-nii-chan" (roughly, "big brother Ken"). Even after episode 6, Chiko forms another sort of Nakama with Shunka and Tome.
- Tohru, Kyo, Yuki, and Shigure in Fruit's Basket (Furuba) could arguably be called this, though it's possibly subverted in that three of them are related. Their attitude, however, is very much that of a nakama; Kyo and Yuki fight constantly and Yuki thinks of Tohru as a mother figure. Kyo and Tohru are both orphans and Yuki's family (except for his older brother, unfortunately) alienate him and think of him as a means to gain status within the Souma clan, making them even more familial.
- Hikaru, Umi and Fuu (plus perhaps Mokona) are this.
- Riot Force 6 from Nanoha StrikerS are this. It helps that Fate is a mother figure to Erio and Caro.
- Hamel, Flute and the rest from Violinist Of Hameln are this. It is actually stated within the manga that as most of the group had lost their mothers, Flute was like a mother to them.
- The main cast of CLANNAD, of course; what were you expecting from a show where the main theme is "family?" Tomoyo even uses the actual term when she talks about what she considers to be the most important thing in life, obviously referring to Tomoya, Nagisa, and the rest.
- The Contractors of the MI6 in Darker Than Black. The fact that one of them (July) refers to the group as such is even a significant plot point, as it's one of an increasing number of indicators that Contractors and Dolls aren't quite as soulless and exclusively self-serving as everyone thinks.
- All 3 Yu-Gi-Oh! series. In fact, one could say "nakama" is the entire point of the series (other than them dueling of course). And the families the characters start out with grow with impressive speed.
- The protagonists of Project ARMS fit this. At one point, they are described by an enemy as parts of a whole body (Yugo as the "ears", Kei as the "eyes", Takashi as the "legs", and Ryo and Hayato as the "arms"). In the anime, they jokingly refer to each other as "comrades in ARMS".
- Debris Section, the heroes of Planetes, qualify, especially considering they spend all day, every day together and still hang out on their (rare) days off.
- Brutally subverted in Jin-roh: The Wolf Brigade. Given a choice between fleeing with his Love Interest or loyalty to his 'wolf pack', the protagonist shoots her on the orders of his superior.
- The Girl Who Leapt Through Time has spades and spades of this trope. Makoto has a lengthy conversation with both her aunt and the two other members of her nakama, Kosuke and Chiaki, about how their group dynamic would change if any of them started to date, be it outside their group or with each other. In fact, Makoto goes to incredible lengths with her time-traveling powers to prevent Chiaki from asking her out due to this.
- Watanuki, Doumeki and Himawari from Xxx Holic often make sacrifices for each other and some side characters end up falling into this as well.
- No matter how much crap and drama they go through, the Suzaku Seishi from Fushigi Yuugi love one another to bits. This trope is shown in its extremity when Tasuki attempts to commit suicide to repent for nearly raping Miaka in the OVA.
Comics
- The various teams of X-Men display this trope at times. The Fantastic Four would qualify as well, if three of its four charter members weren't already directly related by blood or marriage.
- The various Teen Titans teams in the comics are just as much a surrogate family as the animated version. This is especially true of two teams: the "original 5" (Robin/Nightwing, Wonder Girl/Troia, Kid Flash/Flash, Speedy/Arsenal/Red Arrow, and Aqualad/Tempest) and writer Dan Jurgens's team (almost all of whom were the children of women impregnated by an alien species, the H'san N'atall).
- Indeed, the reason that the 26-strong collection of Titans opposed the Justice League in JLA/Titans is that they refused to believe the League's idea that fellow Titan Cyborg had finally lost all his humanity and had completely become an uncaring machine. Even those mostly unfamiliar with Vic Stone, like the aforementioned Jurgens team, took up arms on his behalf. This, after he had taken over the JLA's moon base, caused various disasters on Earth, and kidnapped/"collected" all the Titans in the first place, all justifying the JLA's desire to take him down. Given that level of loyalty, that's a Super-Nakama!
- In fact, Nightwing and Arsenal's Outsiders were formed in a deliberate attempt to avoid creating a nakama. They failed.
- Arsenal's daughter Lian constantly refers to the various Titans as "Aunt ____" or "Uncle ____" just to illustrate how close they are not only that, but she also has the privilege of knowing all her "godparents" REAL NAMES.
- This is how the Justice Society Of America is set up as well. The four old men of the team (Hawkman, Wildcat, Flash I and Green Lantern I) have all lost children or otherwise had problems being fathers, as elaborated upon in the "Princes of Darkness" arc. Many other characters have parental issues, such as Jesse Quick/Liberty Belle II (dead father), Hourman III (absentee father returned from the dead), Stargirl (stepfather is crimefighting partner, father is a dead criminal) and Damage (son of the original Atom, created by Vandal Savage). Ma Hunkel, the original Red Tornado, is the maternal glue keeping the team together.
- Easy Company, of Sergeant Rock fame.
- The core members of Justice League International sometimes fall into this category. The perception of them as jokes or rip offs of more popular heroes by the rest of the outside world helped forge a bond between them that has lasted long after the team broke up, highlighted in recent issues of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. The last time they all worked as a team, however, was in Superbuddies/I Can't Believe It's Not The Justice League.
- The Batfamily. Batman has adopted the first three Robins and the second Batgirl, Oracle (the original Batgirl) is part mother figure, part sister figure, part lover (to Nightwing), Nightwing (the first Robin) grew to take the role of a big brother figure to the third Robin, the fourth Robin is the third Robin's girlfriend and the second Batgirl's best friend, Huntress herself is definitely part of the gang through Oracle (and in a lesser measure, her conflictual relationship to Batman), Catwoman skirts along the edges, and Alfred, of course, is Team Mom.
- Many of the Avengers teams over the years have been as close as Nakamas. One good example is the nearly-first lineup: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man, and the Wasp. (The Hulk was a founding member, but quit almost immediately, with Cap taking his place.) All five were practically in tears when they first parted ways, even though they'd only been together for a dozen issues.
- Of all the ties formed in the Avengers' long history, none match those between Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. The team is always at its strongest when these three are in it, and any two of them would lay down their lives for the third without hesitation. This is what made the Cap/Iron Man conflict in Marvel Civil War so devastating; one has to wonder if it might have been averted if Thor hadn't been dead at the time.
- And it is made even more devastating when Iron Man uses a clone of Thor in the Civil War.
- Likewise, the three main members of the Invaders (a World War II-era group consisting of Namor the Sub-Mariner, the original Human Torch, and Captain America) are a nakama. They might not always like each other, they may be on different sides of a fight sometimes, but they have a bond that can't be broken.
- In Y: The Last Man Yorick, Dr Mann and 355 (despite their conflicting personalities) and later Rose; plus the all-girl nakama of Hero, Beth II, Natalya and Ciba.
- Marvel's Agents Of Atlas. Their Nakama bond is Lampshaded in their original miniseries, with super-spy Jimmy Woo as the Nakama's leader.
- The Runaways team originated as six kids who discovered that their parents were actually supervillains, and banded together to try to stop them. The main cast did suffer dramatic changes, though, such as the revelation of Alex as The Mole and his subsequent death, Gert's death, and the additions of Victor, Xavin, and Klara.
- The Legion Of Super Heroes - particularly the Founders Three, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad/Live Wire - and, separately, the Legion of Substitute Heroes. In the case of the latter, there is at least one instance of one of the Substitutes turning down an invitation to join the Legion proper out of loyalty to the other Subs.
- The Filipino newspaper and web comic Beerkada follows the hijinks of a Nakama of Filipino young adults. In fact, the title of the comic is a portmanteau of "beer" and "barkada," which is essentially the Filipino equivalent of nakama.
- The Autobot special forces team known as the Wreckers from Transformers, particularly concerning its seven core members (Springer, Broadside, Sandstorm, Twin Twist, Topspin, Roadbuster and Whirl). Possibly the Insecticons as well, in that they're a trio of freaks despised by both Autobot and Decepticon and are really only loyal to each other.
- Rorschach and Nite Owl II from Watchmen have this sort of bond. In fact, it could be argued that Rorschach sees all masked superheros as his nakama, given that he warns them about a potential mask killer at the beginning of the book, even though he doesn't much care for most of them on a personal level.
- Oddly enough Flash's RoguesGallery seem to have this thing going for them, especially when Johns is writing them. They're still terrible people, and will do terrible things if you turn your back on them, but when Captain Cold leads, "There's nothing more important than family (except maybe revenge)."
- The vibe gets even stronger with the addition of Axel Walker, the second Trickster, and psychotic little-brother character. Cold breaking his ribs and docking his pay for acting out comes off as the evil equivilant of a spanking and no allowance.
- The gladiators with whom the Hulk formed a Warbound pact in Planet Hulk; They even joined hands together like in the page picture up top. Warbound are new families forged in conflicts, with whom teamwork and understanding are the only ways to survive. This is made all the more significant given that each member of the Warbound has lost their actual family, as Miek saw his entire hive slaughtered before him, Korg was forced to kill his own brothers in the Maw, Hiroim was exiled for breaking a previous Warbount pact, the Brood was separated from her sisters, Elloe's father was killed by the foreman of the Maw, etc.
Film
- Manfred, Diego and Sid in Ice Age. Circumstances bring them together despite the fact that they can't get along, what with Manfred distrusting Diego (with good reason, for he turns out to be The Mole) and Sid annoying the hell out of Manfred and Diego. This dialogue puts it best:
Diego: Why did you do that? You could've died trying to save me.
Manfred: That's what you do in a herd. You look out for each other.
Sid: I don't know about you guys, but we are the weirdest herd I've ever seen.
- A similar example is found in The Land Before Time. It is repeatedly stated that each species of dinosaur doesn't get along with the others (even amongst herbivores). When Littlefoot's gang gets together, even The Narrator remarks "there had never been such a herd before". However, all feelings of xenophobia amongst the adults seemed to vanish once they got to the Great Valley.
- This is explained in the seventh movie. While the kids were off doing their thing, the adults decided to band together too for safety. Even then, they still argue a lot more than the kids do.
- Jim, Rizzo, and Gonzo have one of these in Muppet Treasure Island, despite not even being the same species.
- The Hawaiian term for this is "'ohana", as anyone who has seen the movie Lilo And Stitch should know:
"ʻOhana means family and family means nobody gets left behind. Or forgotten."
- Brother Bear is about a human transformed into a bear who adopts an orphaned bear cub as his "little brother." (Eventually.) The Japanese version of the movie even explictly uses the phrase "nakama" to refer to them.
- Timon, Pumbaa and Simba are one of these in The Lion King. Even though Timon was angry at Simba for ditching them to be with Nala, he and Pumbaa still followed him back to the pridelands, and upon seeing the desolate wasteland and asking if Simba was sure he wanted to fight his uncle for this tells Simba that if it's important to him, they're in.
- The plot of the Japanese film Densha Otoko (Train_Man) revolves around a Nakama forming around the title character, a shy otaku who saves a girl from a drunk on the train. The nakama is made up of people intrigued by his story, who encourage him and give him advice on how to woo the woman. He in turn inspires them to get out of the various ruts they have been stuck in.
- The British film About a Boy revolves around a young boy and a 30-something bachelor, both of whom are isolated from those around them, the bachelor by choice and the kid involuntarily. Over the course of the movie and their friendship with one another, they manage to accumulate a pretty strong Nakama of others.
- The titular rodents in G-Force are one hell of a nakama. The original nakama is Darwin, Juarez (sp), Blaster, Speckles and Mooch. Later, Speckles fakes his death, kicking him out of the nakama. It's made better by the big fight scene at the end, with Speckles realizing that he doesn't need to avenge his family; he's already got one in the form of G-Force, Ben and Marcy, and possibly Hurley too. Darwin actually references this during the original sneak-in to Saber's house; "We leave no rodent behind."
- The Ghostbusters.
- The GSE, the West Ham United's firm from Hooligans.
- A variant on this pops up in The Maltese Falcon. If you're a detective, it doesn't matter that you hated your partner and were sleeping with his wife- he's your partner, and if he's killed you have to do something about it.
- The Mighty Ducks: DUCKS FLY TOGETHER!
- Danny Ocean's 11-man band, especially in Ocean's 13 where in the beginning much of the team wants to drug, kill, and bury the villainous casino owner who betrayed their friend and caused him to go into shock (he gets better).
- The Burns Gang of The Proposition are a perfect example of an evil Nakama. Arthur considers all of them to be brothers, including the ones who aren't his genetic brothers, one of whom is of a different race. He truly loves them all, and has not a single cruel word for any of them. When told that his youngest (genetic) brother has found a girl and wants out, he is completely supportive. And if you're not his brother, you're liable to get shot, knifed, kicked to death, robbed, or possibly raped.
- The Punisher movie.
Dave: They tried to make me talk. I gave 'em nothing.
Frank: You don't know me. You don't owe me anything. I've brought you nothing but trouble. Why are you ready to die for me?
Dave: Because... you're one of us. You're family.
- Rent has this when the seven friends band together in the wake of Benny's Face Heel Turn, as well as the fact that half of them are HIV-positive. Even Joanne, an Ivy League lawyer who was only there because she was dating Maureen, gradually joined the gang and even stuck around after the couple's breakup which was fortunate, since Angel's death brought them back together.
- Saving Private Ryan: Private Ryan, asked by Captain Miller what they should tell his mother if he stayed to fight, said to tell her "when you found me, I was here, and I was with the only brothers I have left. And that there was no way I was deserting them. I think she'd understand that."
- In fact, most relatively positive war movies involve a squad of soldiers that becomes a Nakama. The exceptions usually have anti-war messages (such as Platoon).
- Each member of the Power Trio was bound and determined to sacrifice himself to save the other two, spectacularly, in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, where Kirk steals and destroys the Enterprise and McCoy risks his own life to return Spock's katra to his body.
- Star Wars. The crew of the Millennium Falcon form up a nakama pretty quickly. Exactly along the lines of a Five Man Band.
- In fanon, the crews of the Ebon Hawk become Nakamas. MUCH more common in the first than the second (especially since the cerw of the second spent a lot more time sniping at one another), but Your Mileage May Vary.
- Since Newsies is about a strike, the importance of solidarity and sticking together is repeatedly emphasised, as in the song "Once and for All":
''Once and for all we'll be there to defend one another
Once and for all every kid is a friend, every friend a brother!''
- Zombie Land has this as the moral of the story with Columbus, Tallahassee, Little Rock, and Wichita.
- Todd Browning's Freaks centers on a Nakama of circus "freaks," including a couple of folks with dwarfism, an intersex "half-man,half-woman," a pair of cojoined twins, a fellow with no limbs, etc. A "normal" trapeeze artist marries one of the "midgets," and is treated to a wedding feast by his Nakama, who cheer their friend's fortune, and welcome the arialist as "One of us!" in the film's most memorable scene. When it's revealed that she only married him so that she could get to his money, kill him, and run off with her boyfriend, the pissed-off "Freaks" take revenge on her and the boyfriend, mutilating them and condemning them to a life as freaks, but without the solidarity of the others that made such a fate tolerable.
- The Wizard Of Oz's Dorothy and crew, (both the movie and the original books).
- The tradition continues with the live-action miniseries Tin Man. Dorothy's great-granddaughter DG and the three gents she picks up.
Literature
- The officer Cadre in Dan Abnett's ''Gaunt's Ghosts' play this more or less straight in the later books, but subvert it earlier in the series, Elim Rawne is desperate that his CO not die because, in his own words: "if you're going to die, it's got to be me who kills you".
- The Animorphs started out like this. Jake and Marco, and Cassie and Rachel, were best friends before all the crazy stuff went down (Jake and Rachel were cousins, but not close). Eventually, thanks to Character Development and saving each others skins' from danger, they become as close as family and Jake even comments so.
- The Animorphs series also gives us the Andalite term "shorm" — meaning "tail blade" in the Andalite language, it is used to refer to a friend you trust enough to let them hold their tail blade against your throat. He and Tobias are like this even before Tobias is revealed to be Elfangor's son—and thus Ax's nephew.
- Orson Scott Card calls this a "jeesh" (though only in the Ender's Shadow series), but still essentially the same thing in Ender's Game. The fact that they're a group of military super-geniuses makes them particularly dangerous. Also referred to as a "jeesh" in Empire.
- The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy has an unusual (read "tenuous") example of this. It's used as a plot point when the main character attempts to use it as a [semi] legal defense of his friend .
- The core of the titular mercenary band in Glen Cook's The Black Company is a nakama, and it's the only way the survive all of the crazy shit that happens to them.
- Possibly the definitive Nakama in western literature; The Three Musketeers. They even have a catchphrase about it.
- In the Daughter, Servant, and Mistress of the Empire books by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurts, the society is supposed to be much like feudal Japan. One nation divided by Noble "Houses". When you become a member of a house, you swear on the House natami (a rock) as a member. From that point on, your life is your oath and the House will protect you (even if that means rescuing you from an enemy to execute you themselves for your crime). The worst thing that can happen to someone is to be without a House.
- Stephen King created his own word for this: ka-tet, which in the High Speech of The Dark Tower means a group bound together by fate.
- The perhaps "truest" nakama in King's world, and also the most tragic, has got to be the Losers Club from IT.
- Garth Nix's The Seventh Tower: This describes the relationship between Tal and Milla pretty nicely. For most of the series, they do not like each other. At all. In fact, Milla's reaction to another character admitting he had attempted to kill Tal was "You should practice harder." Even at the end of the series the two couldn't really be called friends. But they trust each other, and know they can depend on each other in a crisis.
- In Andre Norton's Catseye, Troy's ability to communicate with the enhanced animals leads to a Nakama of which he is the only human member.
- Harry in Harry Potter seems to think like this about most people who aren't Death Eaters, especially in the later books; although it could be argued that Ron and Hermione are a sort of inner nakama within the bigger nakama. The end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince also makes very clear the difference between the relationship between nakama and romantic relationships: Hermione and Ron are allowed to join Harry in his quest for the Horcruxes, Ginny is not, because they are in Harry's nakama and she is not yet.
- Luna's mural of her friends is another example: Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville, and Ginny. Given that Luna practically lives on a different planet, she doesn't even notice the minimal added difficulty of inter-House rivalry.
- As far as the inter-House rivalry goes, outside of Quidditch matches Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff seemed to get along all right.
- Ginny, Neville and Luna rally together a nakama of their own during the seventh book.
- The Fellowship of the Ring from the Lord Of The Rings ends up like this, especially the four hobbits and the three hunters. In fact, many novels that are based on small long-term groups with fixed rosters that do D&D-style adventuring result in a Nakama of sorts.
- Indeed, the Japanese translation of the books directly translates "Fellowship" as "Nakama".
- This shown when, despite Borimir's betrayal, the team goes instantly to rescue him. Also, Borimir fighting past when he should have died, to defend two of their number.
- Kurt Vonnegut's word for it (in Cat's Cradle) was karass. This is perhaps the closest to it in English (sort of), except that it carries an additional connotation that are together for some fated purpose.
- In fact it's explicitly stated to be very different: a karass is the group of people whose actions shape each other's destinies or who share destiny-shapers, with no regard for whether you've met them or are even aware of their existence. So, for example, if an airline pilot becomes suicidal and decides to take his passengers down with him, the man whose rejection of his advances led to that despair is part of their karass.
- The Companions of the Hall — Bruenor Battlehammer (dwarf king in exile), Regis (halfling thief on the run), Drizzt Do'Urden (drow ranger), Catti-brie (human orphan, Bruenor's adopted daughter), Wulfgar (human barbarian, prisoner-of-war turned adopted son), and Guenhwyvar (magical panther summoned by a talisman) — from RA Salvatore's Drizzt novels, are a sort-of Nakama. None are related by blood — in fact, when Wulfgar isn't there, no two are even the same race — and they each maintain a different alignment in their official statistics, but they will all fight to the death for each other. His rage when he thought all the rest were slain was twice the thing that kept Drizzt fighting despite exhaustion, numerous wounds, and daunting odds.
- Definitely applies to the direct associates of Gotrek And Felix (as well as the titular pair themselves) in the Slayer series. The pair have gained and lost more than a few members of their ever changing Nakama due to the grim, dangerous nature of the Warhammer world, but their enemies pay dearly for every one. Very dearly. Both of the Titular characters have gone into unstoppable killing rages because of a lost friend, slayer or no. Though originally brought together by a binding oath to record Gotrek's mighty doom in battle to redeem himself of a past shame(The goal of all members of the Slayer cult,) It becomes obvious that Felix sticks around for more than just the Oath.
- Elfslayer: Felix runs up on an exploding, magic powered submarine to pull off Gotrek, not even knowing if he's alive and in the midst of a desparate escapes sees he is breathing and thinks "Well, that's all right then."
- Doc Savage and his five aides are consistently described as being "closer than brothers".
- The Flock in Maximum Ride is composed of six avian-human hybrids who are completely unrelated (except for Angel and the Gasman, who are brother and sister) but have formed their own sort of "family" because they have been living together practically since birth. However, it's revealed in book 3 who Max's mother and father are, but she leaves them behind (with promises to visit frequently) because she and her Flock have to go save the world. However, this makes Max and Fang's relationship more than a little awkward.
- Max also states more than once in the books that the Flock are pretty much the only 5 people on the planet whom she trusts implicitly, and Fang seems to have his own even higher level of trustworthiness within that circle.
- This is basically the concept that makes up the entirety of Karen Traviss' take on Mandalorians in her Republic Commando novels.
- Totally Lampshaded in the fact the Mandalorian language doesn't have separate words for "friend" and "family member," and has a proverb that translates to "Family is more than blood."
Carth: From what I do know of Mandalorians, ones without a clan have no place in their society, but they can offer themselves to another clan in hopes of being…well, of being adopted.
Mission: So did we just adopt Canderous, or did he just adopt us?
Carth:: I think the answer is "yes," Mission.
- Following on from the other D&D-based examples, the Heroes of the Lance in Dragonlance.
- In his alternate history novel The Years Of Rice And Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson uses the device of the karmic jati, or a group of individuals who are reincarnated in close proximity to each other throughout successive lives, to maintain a link between his characters over the seven centuries of narrative. The same half-dozen souls reincarnate into each stage of the story, maintaining their individual personalities even as their names, genders, ethnic origins, social standings and even species change.
- The Lions of Al-Rassan deals with an unlikely Nakama made up of two Crystal Dragon Christians, two Crystal Dragon Muslims, and two Crystal Dragon Jews. They repeatedly do things like ride hundreds of miles to protect the family of other members of the Nakama, or fight off members of their own ethnic group to protect the Nakama.
- Vikram Seth's novel An Equal Music is largely about the bond between four musicians performing as a string quartet.
- The four protagonists of Circle of Magic and its sequels eventually begin to refer to themselves as siblings.
- Roran begins seeing his various groups of fellow soldiers like this in Brisingr, although his most notable relationship is with Carn. Furthermore, Eragon and Saphira have been this since day one, and Eragon's larger Nakama not only includes Saphira and Roran, but also Arya, Orik, Nasuada, and Katrina. Granted, Roran is his cousin that may as well be his brother, and Orik is his foster brother.
- Several of these form during the Horus Heresy novels. Most of them are torn into shreds over the course; we are talking the backstory to Warhammer 40000, after all. The best example is the Mournival, which starts as a Four Temperament Ensemble and ends up as Torgaddon and Loken vs. Aximand and Abaddon in a fight to the death.
- And the rest often don't have the characters survive. Tarvitz and Garro's Fire Forged Friendship means that Garro trusts Tarvitz and so Tarvitz can warn the betrayed marines of Isstvan V, and Garro brings back word of the treachery — but Tarvitz ends up dead. (Presumably.)
- The stormtroopers who become the Hand of Judgment in Timothy Zahn's Allegiance. An Imperial Security Bureau officer comes down on one of them for refusing to shoot unarmed civilians and in the process aims a blaster. The trooper's training kicks in and he kills the officer. The trooper's four friends collectively go "Oh Crap" and very quickly decide to go with him as he leaves, since he'll be executed if he stays and they'll probably be executed too, for associating with him. Although they argue, they stay together even later.
- The main group of Greasers in The Outsiders.
- Aside from the original (as mentioned above), other books in the Oz have also had this in some form or another.
- In Robert A Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land, the main character (who was raised on Mars) thinks sharing water with someone means forming an eternal bond of love and trust. Because he's very special, the first half dozen or so people he "shares water" with really do feel connected through him, so they quickly end up forming a close-knit Nakama. After that, more and more people get invited to share water with the group, eventually forming the beginnings of a worldwide cult.
- Harry has a talent of sorts for this in The Dresden Files; not only has he forged bonds with Murphy, Thomas and several other wizards, he's been nakama to (at least) three Knights of the Cross, the Archive, and the 'Za-Lord, complete with a loyal (and adorable) guard. Not to mention Mouse.
Live Action TV
- Most obviously, the senior staff of The West Wing, which goes so far as to mimic a nuclear family; with the President and Leo representing the parents, Toby and CJ the older siblings, and Josh and Sam the younger ones.
- The Scoobies in Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Angel Investigations in Angel. The crew of Serenity in Firefly. Joss Whedon loves this trope.
- Angel neatly summarised the concept in the episode "Awakening":
Angel: We've been pushed to the edge so many times; done things we were sure could never be forgiven. But we're always there for each other when it counts. We've never let the darkness win. And it's not because of the Powers That Be or the super strength or the magical weapons. It's because we believe in each other, not just as friends or lovers, but as champions. All of us, together.
- The Scoobies have formed bonds that seem stronger than those of kinship, as pointed out in the episode "Family", when Tara's family comes to take her home against her will.
Tara's Dad: You people have no right to interfere with Tara's affairs. We are her blood kin! Who the hell are you? Buffy: We're family.
- The crew of Serenity in Firefly in particular will do just about anything for each other. For example, Simon and Jayne hate each other, but Jayne has saved Simon from feds at least once (despite being the one to rat him and River out to them in the first place), and Simon has promised that he will never let Jayne die. Not to mention this exchange after Mal and crew save River from being burned at the stake in the Big Damn Heroes moment that named the trope:
Mal: Cut her down! Patron: The girl is a witch. Mal: Yeah, but she's our witch. *[ KA-CHINK!]* So cut her the hell down.
- Mal himself proved how violently protective of his crew he could be near the end of "Ariel", when confronting Jayne and preparing to throw him out the airlock for the above-mentioned ratting out.
Jayne: What're you takin' it so personal for? It ain't like I ratted you out to the feds!
Mal: Oh, but you did! You turn on any of my crew, you turn on me! But since that's a concept you can't seem to wrap your head around, then you've got no place here. You did it to me, Jayne. And that's a fact.
- And, in turn, the rest of the crew showed their own unblinking loyalty to Mal in "War Stories", when even Simon and Kaylee took up arms to save him.
- Ariel also has Simon going off to save a dying man, risking capture and leaving River in Jayne's care - which he probably wouldn't have done if he didn't actually trust Jayne to get River to safety should anything happen to him. One can't help but wonder how the extent of Simon's trust factored in Jayne's decision to save Tams instead of simply making a run for it at the first opportune moment.
- The Dollhouse is slowly becoming this. In "Epitaph One", we see Adelle caring for Topher (who has gone insane) like a mother for a child.
- Unsurprisingly, Joss's habit of reusing actors, writers, directors, and other staff has created a Nakama among them, with Joss himself as Team Dad.
- On top of this, at least two couples met on the set of one of his shows:
- Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg) and Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndham-Pryce) have since married, and have a daughter.
- Amber Benson (Tara Maclay) and Adam Busch (Warren Mears) are currently dating - ironic, given their relationship onscreen...
- Xena Warrior Princess: Xena and Gabrielle, often including Eve and Joxer.
- Any Super Sentai or Power Rangers team. (And Power Rangers Reunion Shows make it seem that all teams are like an extended family... again, if you remember that it doesn't necessarily mean you like each other.) Not always the case with Kamen Riders, though.
- Though, with the Kamen Riders, there are many good examples. The entire Heisei-era Riders, for example. Or, for something more recent, Kick Hopper and Punch Hopper from Kamen Rider Kabuto, or the good Imagin from Kamen Rider Den-O.
- The Easy Company from Band Of Brothers is very definitely a Nakama; in fact, the title of the series comes from William Shakespeare's quote above.
- Private Kurt Gabel, 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, quoted in the book Band Of Brothers...
The three of us became an entity. There were many such entities in our close-knit organization. Groups of threes and fours, usually from the same squads or sections, core elements within the families that were the small units, were readily recognised as entities. Often three such entities would make up a squad, with incredible results in combat. They would literally insist on going hungry for one another, freezing for one another, dying for one another.
- Battlestar Galactica: If adult adoption were legal, Bill Adama would declare his entire crew as his children... though as the series wears on, his fatherly patience has been repeatedly tested.
- Yeah, things definitely start to break down later. Considering what the Battlestar crew has been through, it's actually surprising that more of them haven't become clear nakama. The pilots arguably are nakama, however.
- Farscape: The Moya crew sure qualifies. Certainly it's a very screwed-up Nakama, but it's still a Nakama. Pilot and Moya in particular are the first to feel this way, but as the series goes on, they get closer and closer until eventually their one rule is "look out for the family, at all costs."
- Heroes Volume Three had this exchange:
Sylar: Peter, you stayed? Peter: I wasn't going to leave you...
- Also as of Fugitives Peter, Matt, Mohinder, Hiro, and Ando have formed a Five Man Band that keep rescuing each other.
- Done cloyingly on Just Shoot Me to the point of Jumping The Shark.
- Leverage Inc. — they're a little more than a team.
- The plane crash survivors on Lost don't always get along, but thanks to their circumstances (and hostility from the Others,) they realize they're in it together. The background characters are wholly apathetic, but the regulars are always going off to rescue each other despite the many dangers. Jack and Sawyer, in particular, hate each other, but still look out for each other against common threats.
- This trope was done with the News Radio ensemble quite early in developing the dynamic, with Jimmie James eventually becoming the defacto father figure, to eccentric and near ridiculous extent.
- Despite being barely able to tolerate each other, the main characters of Red Dwarf certainly fit this trope.
- The staff of Sacred Heart in Scrubs are constantly said to be "like a family".
- The Stargate Atlantis crew captures the Nakama spirit perfectly with their "We don't leave our people behind" refrain.
- Stargate SG-1 epitomizes nakama. Major Carter even says to one of the other characters, "We were a team. No one can even begin to understand what that really means."
- Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Voyager both feature crews of people who don't even want to be on the same ship/station with each other, but over the courses of each series have wound up going as far as disobeying orders to save one another.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation had a bit of this going on, particularly during the first season, before the characters had worked each other out. Riker was uneasy about their second officer, Picard had to tell people not to let him "make an ass of himself" around children (and shouted The Wesley out in the very first episode, thus enraging Wesley's mother with whom Picard already had an uneasy relationship), Worf disliked everyone (but especially Data), and Troi and Riker had Uncomfortable Ex's syndrome. But within a matter of episodes (and fairly ridiculous episodes at that) it became obvious that they'd all pretty much die for each other.
- Every version of Star Trek has this, from the original to the latest incarnations. This is apparently also Truth In Television as the writers are inspired by real life crews and teams who became close through mutual experience. Even more, the cast and crews of the various TV series have been working together for roughly 10-20 years and have come to regard each other as an extended family in Real Life. The greatest example of this is how Avery Brooks has become like a second father to Cirroc Lofton, mirroring their roles as father and son on TV.
- Like the above, although it took a decade or two, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy eventually developed the same friendship Kirk and Spock share, if not to quite the same intensity.
- This was never better exemplified than in the original series episode "The Empath", where each member of the Power Trio was bound and determined to sacrifice himself to save the other two. McCoy eventually wins that particular argument - with a hypospray. The more things change, the more they stay the same...
- Mulder and Scully in The X Files, to the point where they're extremely suspicious of anybody else and trust only each other (although towards the end of the series, they do come to trust Agents Doggett and Reyes... as much as they ever trust anyone that isn't them, anyway).
Mulder: You were my friend, and you told me the truth. Even when the world was falling apart you were my constant — my touchstone.
Scully: And you are mine.
(...)
Mulder: Scully, you have to believe me. No one else on this whole damn planet does or ever will. You're my one in five billion.
- The Gunmen have their own Nakama going on in much the same vein, though they expand it a bit when they take on Jimmy Bond.
- Doctor Who's "Children of Time".
Sarah Jane: You know... you act like such a lonely man. But look at you! You've got the biggest family on Earth!
- Any Doctor Who companion(s), ever, even if they don't always get along (viz., Captain Jack, etc.), there's a certain bond.
- The original CSI team has been entering this trope over time. The season nine premiere only made it explicit, with even The Spock, Gil Grissom, calling the team his family. In return, more than one teammember has stated they think of Grissom as a father figure.
- Catherine also acknowledges it when she walks into Grissom's office and sees Sara — as Nick and Greg walk in behind her, she hugs Sara tightly, looks around, and says, "At least we can all be together."
- Team Gibbs in NCIS, made abundantly clear any time any one of them ends up in some kind of trouble. The Season 4 premiere episode "Shalom", in which Ziva is suspected of being a Double Agent and goes on the run from the FBI, provides a particularly clear example, as do the first two episodes of Season 6.
- Which makes the ending of Season 6 all the more poignant.
- The HBO adaptation of Generation Kill has an interesting subversion. The Marines are every bit the Nakama you'd expect them to be, but they also quickly adopt their embedded reporter, Evan Wright, as one of their own instead of turning him into a Butt Monkey. In the novel (discussed below), Wright is self-conscious of this process in a way that might pass for Casual Danger Dialog, noting that he realized the Marines were starting to like him when they began poking him with their combat knives, among other forms of hazing.
- Friends was described by one critic as a show about a bunch of young adults finding a replacement family for their own, dysfunctional ones.
- Priority Homicide from The Closer has become this over time. In the first episode, the entire squad requested transfer out of Brenda's division. In that season's finale, the entire squad threatened resignation when the misogynistic Captain Tanner lodged an IA complaint against her. They still take issue with her sometimes, but God forbid anyone tries to get rid of her.
- From the Season 3 finale:
Sgt. Gabriel: For keeping the team together, despite some pretty hefty pressure, and, um, for trusting her instincts — about us too, by the way — and, um, for how she always works so hard to get her man. I say hail to the Chief. The Squad: The Chief!! Brenda: Well, that was, um, well, y'all are a little bit like my... a little like my own... Oh, for heaven's sakes. Thank you, and right back at you. All of you.
- The main characters of Being Human.
- The main crew of Pushing Daisies: Olive and Chuck are like sisters, and when Chuck comments on Ned needing to reconnect with his family, he says that Chuck and Olive are his family. Emerson is a lot more reluctant to express affection for the others, but it's there.
- The Merry Men in Robin Of Sherwood or the outlaws in BBC's Robin Hood (or indeed, any retelling of the Robin Hood legend that includes all the Merry Men). In the case of the BBC version, this is more true in the first season. In the second season Allan turns traitor and begins working for the enemy, but in the same episode he has his Heel Face Turn and returns to the nakama, outlaws Will and Djaq opt to stay in the Holy Land together as the others return to England. The third season has less emphasis on the outlaws, and newcomers Tuck and Kate never achieve the closeness of a nakama that the previous incarnation of the gang did.
- Subverted on "The Shield": At the start of the series, the Strike Team is a Nakama, with the team members considering each other brothers and Vic Mackey as the ultra-loyal father of the group. Needless to say, once Vic shoots Terry Crowley in the face and tells Shane to literally file away the murder under "Dis Continuity" as far as Vic refusing to let his guilt-striken conspirator in the crime ever mention it in his presence, it all falls apart. By the end of the series, everyone's dead or betrayed by Vic, who ends up amid all of the backstabbing and murdering, having to replace the picture of the Strike Team with a photoshopped version of said photo that only has him and deceased Strike Team member Curtis "Lem" Lemansky left in the photograph. With the irony of course being that Lem was killed by fellow Strike Team member Shane Vendrell SPECIFICALLY so that Vic COULD keep a picture of Lem in his pocket and not feel guilty for murdering him, since a big part of Shane's justification for killing Lem (which Vic had earlier forbid him to do) was Shane knew quite well how far Vic would go to save his own asshole and that by killing Lem himself, Shane would be able to let Vic live with the lie that he wouldn't have killed Lem no matter what.
- In Burn Notice Michael Westen is closer to Fiona and Sam than he is his actual family, having placed his life in their hands more than once in their long history as spies. Over the course of the show, he has to learn to to re-relate to and even trust his mother and brother Nate as well as he does to his friends.
- The team on Criminal Minds is practically the definition of this trope. Hotch is Mom, Gideon or Rossi is Dad, Morgan is Older Brother, Emily is Older Sister, JJ is Younger Sister, and Reid is Little Brother. Garcia is the little sister's best friend that is always over the house and therefore becomes a part of the family by default. Never, ever mess with a member of the BAU, because the rest will hunt you down and kill you dead.
- "We really ARE a family. Only a family could be this messed up!"
- Entourage. It's there in the freaking title. And it extends to Jerk With A Heart Of Gold Ari Gold as well, hilarious douchebag that he is.
- The gang from Glee is on their way to becoming this. Especially after episode seven's closer, "Keep Holding On," in which the glee club closes ranks around a very distraught Quinn in a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
Music
Puppet Shows
- In The Movie of Sesame Street (you heard me), Big Bird is pulled away from the neighborhood to be adopted by "his own kind" (other birds). The Aesop at the end is that his family isn't those related to him but those close to him, on Sesame Street... in other words, his nakama.
- The Muppets, especially in the movies, as shown by the quote from Kermit.
Tabletop Games
- The werewolves of White Wolf's Tabletop RPGs follow the combined social instincts of humans and wolves to form small "packs" with each other, ideally a Five Man Band. These packs follow the entire nakama trope: packmates are practically family, you might love or hate them, and intra-pack romantic relationships are considered incestuous. (But then, in The World Of Darkness, any werewolf/werewolf relationship effectively is incestuous, as werewolves must mate with normal humans — or, in the original World Of Darkness, wolves — or breed twisted abominations.)
- The same goes, to a lesser extent, for most of the other supernatural groupings (Mage cabals, Promethean throngs, Changeling motleys, Hunter cells). Which, given the often cathartic nature of the supernatural societies, makes a lot of sense. Vampire coteries, on the other hand, tend to be brief marriages-of-convenience, formed by the recently Embraced until they get to grips with Vampire existence.
- The line about coteries jossed, sort of, in Clanbook Ventrue. As part of a section on how The M spreads, the author talks about how young coteries drink each other's blood to form bonds deeper than family.
- Kindred Cyclical Dynasties are another good example. Closer than family, often to the point where the lines between them begin to blur, cyclical dynasties are made up of two or more kindred, with the eldest acting as mentor to the next eldest, who acts as a mentor to the next eldest, etc. When the eldest falls into torpor the next eldest takes over, secure in the knowledge that his dynasty-mates will take him under their wing when he wakes up confused and isolated in decades or centuries.
- Most adventuring parties in Dungeons & Dragons wind up like this, if they last.
- And just about every other kind of adventuring party in every other tabletop RPG that allows for them, really.
- Except Paranoia.
- Shadowrun tends towards extremes. Groups of runners who are largely indifferent towards each other tend to drift apart. Most established teams are held together by tight bonds. It's also not uncommon for every member of the team to have a plan to kill any or all of his teammates, just in case.
- In Warhammer 40000, Tau Fire Warriors can undergo a bonding ritual that effectively turns a squad of Warriors into a tightly knit squad of blood-bonded brothers.
- The full version of Shakespeare's Henry V page quote reads as follows:
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, from this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers... for he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition. And gentlemen in England now-a-bed shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day!
- "Band of Brothers" would be another good name for this trope, come to that...
Video Games
- Mother 3 has DCMC, who are all true band bros. When their bassist, Lucky/Duster has to leave do to reasons of heroism and amnesia, they sing a heartfelt little song begging the "Big Guy in the Sky" to look out for their pal. Awwww.
- In the vast majority of RPGs where the player is accompanied by a party of disparate characters, they will usually become this by the halfway point of the game. If the game has a Karma Meter this will often only be the result for the good path, whereas the evil path will have any characters who survive being more like minions.
- Final Fantasy V. The four Light Warriors hold together through failure, poisonings, and the death of one of their own without fail. Galuf even calls a retreat when he's attacking Castle Exdeath to go and rescue the other three, alone. And in the ending, a lonely Krile is told by the other three that there's no way she's going to be alone when they're around.
- Final Fantasy VII and Crisis Core both stress the importance of having Nakama. Cloud needs his friends and comrades to be a complete and effectual person. Furthermore, it is revealed in Crisis Core that even Sephiroth had Nakama through Angeal and Genesis. When Sephiroth rejects Genesis' plea for help to give his cells and allows Genesis to die, abandoning his Nakama, its a good indicator of how evil this man will become.
- In the FFVII: Advent Children movie, Cloud actually calls the other characters his 'nakama' in the dialogue. predictably, the English version (and the subtitles) translate this as 'family'.
- Final Fantasy X. Although Tidus functions as the narrator, the story as a whole is centered around the exploits of Yuna's guardians, as mismatched and misfit as they were, in their efforts to protect her and defeat Sin. It's carried on to a lesser extent in FFX-2, with Yuna as the main protagonist, though much of the original cast has disbanded and moved on.
- Tidus' sword is even named "Brotherhood," and powers up as he grows closer to the party.
- Rainbow Six pulls this in Vegas with Bishop, especially with Logan and Gabe where she stresses they are a team and a family. Logan says the same thing back to Bishop in the final mission. Her reply? "Who said that horse shit?"
- While the main cast of Final Fantasy XII (a rogue princess, a convicted general, a sky pirate, a forest exile, and two orphans) isn't a significantly different nakama from the rest of the RPG games, what makes Final Fantasy XII interesting is the presence of a villainous nakama, comprised of a prince, a scientist, and a god/goddess (Vayne, Cid, and Venat), all three of whom work to liberate humanity from the shackles of the other gods so they can create their own future, and all of them sacrifice themselves doing so. And they do this by donning the mask of the villains and working together to manipulate everyone into this end.
- Fire Emblem support conversations often develop into this. A more blatant example is the Greil Mercenaries from Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
- A notable part is a speech Griel gives before chapter 6 "In times like these, it matters not what our blood ties are. We are family." Right before the final chapter, Ike states in a Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night speech that he finally understands what it means.
- Sakura Taisen takes camaraderie very, very seriously, with the main force, the Teikokukagekidan, having reinforced it to its most extreme in multiple games, blurring the line between friendship and family.
- Shin Megami Tensei subverts the hell out of this. In the original JP versions, your demonic allies are called "nakama", with the "ma" replaced with the one meaning "demon" (魔). Although in most of the games, the demons exhibit loyalty on this level to you, you're often encouraged to do some pretty horrifying and unfamily-like stuff to them in return, such as offering them as a blood sacrifice to enhance the power of a fusion; deleting them to make space for new ones; and in Soul Hackers, feeding them to your companion Zouma through fusion to increase his power.
- On the other hand, Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3 plays this very straight, to the point where The Power Of Friendship prevents The End Of The World As We Know It... though at great cost.
- The level of friendship you form with your team in Persona 4 is truly heartwarming; not surprising in a game where building social links increases your potential and efficiency in battle. Most of the storyline, apart from being a supernatural/murder mystery, is about the bonds you share with others. At the last battle of the game, your teammates sacrifice themselves one by one to protect you; don't worry, they all live.
- In the spin-off game Digital Devil Saga, the militaristic main characters — suffering from a case of What Is This Thing You Call Love — settle on the word "nakama" (translated as "comrades") to express their friendship.
- The Super Robot Wars games are unique in having Nakama groups within a nakama group, in regular SRW games this is done with characters been closer to characters in their own anime; with the Original Generation series this is done by using small groups, the three most famous Nakama squads are the SRX and ATX teams, and the Octo Squad. Characters can also have close relationships outside their squad like Ryusei and Latooni.
- Dingo from Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner says that BAHRAM "killed his comrades" so many times, it starts to sound completely ridiculous.
- One character gives a passionate speech about what it means to be nakama to another character in Ever17. A bit blatant because if you listen to the audio during the argument about every fifth word is 'nakama' and they even define what the word means (iirc, People with the same goals drawn together in Japan are called
nakama friends) yet the translation is always 'friends,' which doesn't suit the relationship properly at all.
- The chosen ones of the Red Night in 11eyes refer to themselves as a nakama several times, though sometimes it feels like it's being used to hold team spirit together as the challenges get tougher. Their group even has a motto. "For our friends and tomorrow!"
- Anyone who plays the Japanese version of Dissidia: Final Fantasy will have this word and this trope drilled into their head by the time they are done with the story portion of the game. The ten main heroes in this crossover form not only one big nakama but several smaller, fluctuating ones as well and the concept serves as a major overarching theme across their stories.
- Star Fox has this for both teams: the main team Star Fox are like family to each other, but on recent plot themes, they have then become disbanded or at least one of them would leave to fly solo. Ironically, Star Wolf experiences this in reverse - Star Wolf originally has Wolf, Leon, Pigma, and Andrew. The last two were kicked out because of the lack of loyalty and code of honor, and were replaced by Panther. Panther is then a permanent member, and the trio have become so closer than ever.
- Chapter 8 of Valkyria Chronicles has Welkin refer to the main players in Squad 7 as a family, with himself and Alicia as the father and mother, Rosie and his sister Isara as the daughters, and Largo as the grandfather. This scene is referenced again, as well as the reactions they all have to certain events in the game.
- Philanthropy in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Ho Yay aside. Sure, Old Snake has the social skills of a toad, sure, Otacon is a walking civilian form of PTSD from sexual abuse and the tendency for people he cares about to die, and sure, Sunny
can't cook to save her life has never left the Nomad to have anything resembling a normal childhood...but they're all in it together.
- This also comes up a few times earlier in the series, when characters note that being on seperate sides in a conflict doesn't need to mean the end of a bond.
- Sly, Bently and Mury from the Sly Cooper series of games.
- Delta Squad from Gears of War, especially Marcus and Dom. To some extent, this applies to the entire COG army.
Dom: Do we have time?
Marcus: They're Gears. We'll make time.
- Most likely Neku and the other protagonists from The World Ends With You, given everything they went through, and the final fusion attack from the last boss fight. Summed up nicely by Neku in the epilogue.
Neku: Trust your partner. And I do. I can't forgive you, but I trust you.
- The protagonists from the Sonic the Hedgehog series exhibit this trope.
- Guild Wars uses this trope as a game mechanic: if you can't gather enough human players for your party, you can hire NPC henchmen to fill the empty spaces. The same group of henchmen can be found in every town in the game and it's implied that all of them, including the ones the player never literally uses, are progressing through the stroy with the player. The latest two releases, Nightfall and Eye of the North, take this even further with heroes, a type of customisable henchmen that permanently join the player's party.
- If a character is recruited into the main character's workshop in Mana Khemia Alchemists Of Al Revis, expect them to stick by him even during the last part of the game (be it a Cute Ghost Girl, an alien and even The Rival).
- Sora of Kingdom Hearts fame could be considered to have a very large nakama, though the most obvious central examples are the Sora-Riku-Kairi and Sora-Donald-Goofy trios. Also Mickey-Donald-Goofy, and Axel-Roxas-Xion (at least it looks that way).
- Dogmeat, Ghost, Catfish, and Falco could be considered the nakama of the legendary FMV video game Sewer Shark...although they most likely resemble the Badass Crew more specifically.
- In Tales of Symphonia, towards the end of the game, the main party is split into multiple groups as a result of a trap. Lloyd and his Soul Mate go and rescue their friends, and Lloyd goes to each event, where the characters are being tormented by their own fears and demons. He accepts them for who they are and they manage to break the trap. This is most prevelant in Genis & Raine's torture, where they are singled out for being half elves. Lloyd disperses their fears and returns them to the group.
- Super Paper Mario has a much darker example: Count Bleck and his henchmen. Their plan is to destroy the entire world and remake it, except Count Bleck has no intention of fulfilling the "remake" part. He doesn't tell this to his henchmen because he genuinely likes them, and wants them to have hope for a better future even up until the final moments of existence.
- Star Ocean: The Last Hope. Dear god. Edge has this strange way of insisting people he has literally met five minutes ago are his 'friends' and basically coercing them into joining him, then devoting as much of his time as possible to driving them away, then doing ludicrously stupid things that typically have horrific consequences in the name of comradeship.
- Planescape Torment, if one plays it with a team. Very significant is a moment, when a female character (young, rich and arrogant) insults Annah. Not only the Nameless One (player's character) stands up for her, but even Morte (always rude towards the tiefling), if the player let's him, does the job of insulting back said NPC.
- Fatal Fury has a few, which led into the King Of Fighters series. First and foremost, the Bogard brothers, Terry and Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi, and Mai Shiranui. We also have the Hero Team with Kyo Kusanagi, Benimaru Nikaido, and Goro Daimon. From the Ikari Team, Colonel Heidern, Ralf Jones, Clark Still, and Leona Heidern. And one evil example, The Howard Connection, Consisting of Geese Howard, Billy Kane, Raiden, well sometimes, and much later, Kain Heinlein.
- The third Mario And Luigi game revealed Bowser and his various minions to be this.
- Although one wouldn't think this because of Bowser's nature as an Evil Overlord, the game makes it very clear that a large part of the troops have more respect for him than fear. In fact, during Bowser's fight with Fawful, the Goombas offer themselves to be punched so that Bowser can counter-attack Fawful.
- Cave Story shows this forming, but it only comes to fruition if you get One Hundred Percent Completion. Quote and Curly Brace go from fighting each other, to fighting side-by-side, and they even convince Recurring Boss Balrog to help them at one point. In the Standard Ending, this is as far as it goes. But if Quote saves Curly after the Core battle, and then restores her memories, she gives him the Iron Bond: "Your tie to Curly Brace, the only warrior you would trust your back to." The endgame then involves them fighting the True Final Boss together as Back To Back Badasses, with Balrog swooping in to rescue them at the end. And then the three of them decide to move someplace with a nice view and live together.
Web Comics
- Arguably the main cast of Questionable Content, if not just the workers at Coffee of Doom. Despite the relationship that developed between Marten and Dora, the group has held together quite well.
- The Foxhound unit from the Metal Gear Solid fancomic The Last Days Of Foxhound is a highly dysfunctional covert ops group that, in the earlier parts of the comic, all more or less hated each other. (Particularly with members Psycho Mantis and Revolver Ocelot, who do everything from exchanging put-downs to fighting deathmatches, and in one case Mantis only avoids being poisoned by Ocelot by sheer luck.) Of course, later on the group (well, aside from Mantis and Ocelot) does seem to be getting closer to each other to the point that the entire group risks causing, (or at least not preventing) an international incident just to save Sniper Wolf.
- And when Liquid discusses the idea with the ghost of the Sorrow, the latter mentions how the Cobra unit were closer than family, with them all considering the Boss to be a mother figure, in spite of her being the youngest of them. This leaves Liquid slightly squicked out as he notes the fact that the Sorrow and the Boss were lovers.
- In The Order of the Stick, the rest of the team saves Belkar from being killed by Miko, even though they hate him. Yes, they hate Belkar, but they hate Miko more, and Belkar's still a member of their team. They also keep him in the group to lessen the amount of damage he can do.
- The exact words Vaarsuvius said when saving Belkar from Miko were, "Belkar is a horrible, loathsome, supremely selfish creature who behaves contemptibly, laughs at the pain of others, has no manners whatsoever, and whose mental acuity would be compared unfavorably to that of a table. And yet I find I still prefer him to you."
- Also when Elan gets captured, they all go to rescue him, even though his stupidity has gotten them in trouble often. Roy at first refuses to but then realizes how horrible it would be to abandon Elan. It's later mentioned that if he hadn't changed his mind, he would have gone straight from Lawful Good to True Neutral. Note that this decision wasn't so much based around the concept of nakama, but Roy realizing that Elan is an innocent and the kind of person he should be trying to protect, even if he is annoying.
- Belkar hates his companions as much as they hate him. But does he even slow down when it comes to killing lots of people in order to save Haley from execution? Of course not...
- Of course, Belkar is a Heroic Sociopath, so part of it might be that he just likes killing people.
- The eight main characters from El Goonish Shive seem to have crystallized into a Nakama. See the "Painted Black" and "Grace's Birthday Party" arcs for particularly telling examples. Like any number of examples, they don't always get along, but once Tedd and Susan, of all people, became friends, the Nakama was probably inevitable given what goes on in Moperville. Like Code Lyoko further down, they didn't start out as a Nakama... The transition was a bit smoother, though, with the friend of friends having your back when the deadly stuff starts even if you were bickering only hours before.
- In Dominic Deegan, the Deegan family and their various hangers-on could be considered a Nakama, as could the faculty and students of the School of Arcane Arts, especially the students that fended off the Infernomancer's attack (although they were merely a random group of students in the wrong place) — Nimmel almost committed suicide because he felt he had failed the comrades who died. The clearest example of a Nakama, however, is Lord Milov's "pack" of himself, Jayden, and Siegfried. A Nakama that has since been shattered.
- The main characters in Sluggy Freelance. Even after all the craziness and dysfunction in their lives, they still care about each other and will be there for each other.
- The protagonists of Looking For Group are also forming one. This is even more blatant with Richard and Cale (to the point that the Omnicidal Maniac warlock is turning into The Atoner as he stays in prolonged contact with the once-naive elf) and with Ben'Joon and Krunch (with the latter being the former's adoptive father). The original "nakama" is however a bit broken since Krunch's supposed death (which may or may not be confirmed)...
- Krunch is perfectly fine. The nakama is intact.
- What about Girl Genius? The traveling circus at least could be seen as this. Even the relationship between Zeetha and Agatha could count, even if it is bordering on Les Yay.
- Most of the relationships in Something Positive have something of this, especially the original core of friends Davan, Aubrey, PeeJee and Jason. Davan was described by the author as being often difficult to get on with and you might wonder why you bother, but he will be there if needed.
Web Original
- If you have an account on gamefaqs you have a chance to join the yusketeers. Its members have become this.
- The teenagers of the group Team Kimba, at the Superhero School Whateley Academy in the Whateley Universe. Not only are they brought together by a common characteristic, but many of them have the classic family issues: Phase (disowned), Generator (mother dead, abusive father in prison), Bladedancer (orphaned), Lancer (his brother sicked an anti-mutant military force on him), Tennyo (forced to leave her family because of assassins and worse), Carmilla (mother dead, father a demon), Heyoka (orphaned)... Only a couple of them have a supportive family.
- Interestingly enough, this nakama ends up shifting quite a bit. Carmilla forms her own, loosely allied team. (Sara's Pack). Also, it is stated in Jade's stories that Poe is designed to specifically create this, and Whateley itself has some elements of it.
- There is a second team of nakama, who band together almost specifically because they are all ridiculously outcast from rest of the school due to bad fashion sense(on purpose) and severe GSD(they look like monsters).
- There is a villainous (sorta) version with the bad seeds, who all watch each others backs, as they are all the children of supervillains, more, they are KNOWN to be the children of super villains, although some have not had their parent's identities ousted to the public.
- The Saga Of Tuck and the group of boys around its main character. At one point, one of them is attacked, and the rest — geeks all — immediately charge.
- The four main protagonists of Broken Saints have a bond akin to this. Of course, they all immediately feel a connection because they "recognize" each other from their shared visions/dreams/nightmares. With Raimi and Oran, who spend half the series together (and who are the only heroes to survive the Grand Finale), this enters Heterosexual Life Partner territory. Kamimura does not have as much time to bond as the two of them, but after he joins the team, the three men become a Power Trio. Shandala only really interacts with the guys for about two chapters of time, but The Dulcinea Effect—plus her being The Empath—connects them all very quickly very fast.
Western Animation
After tracking down the stolen device, they're captured and Shane is forced to fight Killbane. During the bigger dust-up, Killbane sneers at his "little brother."
Killbane: you're not human, you're not a Supertrooper. just what are you, Gooseman?
Shane: I'm a Galaxy Ranger. Make sure you never forget that.
- Mindnet also marks the first time the Rangers "pool their badges" in a Mental Fusion tactic that is used occasionally throughout the rest of the series.
- Zachary is very quick to fall into the Team Dad role, especially when it comes to the parent-less Niko and Shane. Fanon states that his Nakama with the Rangers is what has kept him relatively sane after the loss of his wife and his rebuilding into a Hollywood Cyborg.
Real Life
- "We don't leave our wounded/our buddies/Marines/etc. behind!" is a principle of various real-life military cultures — and of course their representations in fiction.
- Semper Fidelis
- Which is Latin for "ever faithful" (or forever faithful, if you want to be less poetic)
- Not only that, but the military unit is often analogized as a family, with the commanding officer filling the role of a traditional father or head of the household, and the senior NCO as the mother. The rest of the unit, of course, is like their numerous children, brothers and sisters who sometimes bicker amongst each other, but trust in one another like a family.
- The White House staff during the Kennedy administration has been described as a band of brothers by multiple historians and former members. Turned into a kind of private support system after JFK's assassination.
- Of course, that was helped by the fact that Kennedy's Attorney General was his actual brother.
- Those of Nixon's advisors and staff who were "in" on the Watergate conspiracy could also be deemed a nakama, as no one else was trusted with the knowlege of Nixon's scheming.
- The Soviet Union very cynically tried to foster this. Camaraderie, afterall, means brotherhood. The international brotherhood of the proletariat are all comrades, bound together by toil and labor against their collective bourgeois enemies. After a while, no one bought it, especially in the USSR itself. When the leadership sends its "brothers" to work in gulags in slave labor conditions, it sort of stretches the reasonable definition of camaraderie.
- This is, however, in line with patriotism as promoted by countries in general. Your Mileage May Vary, but Russia still enjoys positive (and sometimes very positive) foreign relations with Belarus, Armenia (in particular), Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan—all countries that Moscow wronged at one time or another. Patriotism is, of course, extremely relative.
- This is working on a national level, not a personal one, as well.
- Evan Wright's book Generation Kill, an account of the USMC's First Force Recon in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, showed a rather striking scene where a group of Marines were under heavy fire in a field, and were laughing and joking. When asked why they were in such a good mood, the answer was that the Marines were surrounded by their closest friends and combat brothers; if they died in combat, they would die right alongside their best friends.
- Due in part to their isolated location, the University of Hawaii has to focus their recruiting efforts on locals and players who are persona non grata elsewhere in Division I due to off-field issues. As a result, they resemble an 'ohana' more than most football teams would. See this article for more details.
- Carl Sagan eloquently made the case in his "Pale Blue Dot" speech that the entire human race ought to feel this way:
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.... [F]or the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
- In Australia there is this thing called mateship. Its not the same thing as friendship, you might not even be friends with your mates, but a friend might never become a mate, because friends come and go, but mates stick together. Doesn't matter if you fight, doesn't matter if you argue, you stick by your mates. That's the principle at least.
- It's been said that an Australian man sorts his surroundings as such: His mates, his dog, his car, his beer, his wife, his friends, strangers, colored people. Or So I Heard.
- Depending on how difficult (by which we mean emotionally intense/draining/scarring) any given play is, this can happen to some degree with theatre casts. You see each other go through incredibly intense emotions, and everyone involved is very vulnerable during rehearsal... and that sort of thing does tend to create a bond. Whether or not you actually like each other is beside the point... you just have to trust each other.
- "Friends and lovers come and go, fight partners are forever."
- Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité: France Motto is basically the idea that the French Republic is supposed to be a Nakama the size of a Nation. This being Real Life, and French people being very diverse in every senses of the term, it is subverted more often that not, but it is nonetheless a great motto.
- Everyone always forgets the second, most important bit of the famous quote:
We are born alone, we live alone, and we die alone
Only by our friends and relationships can we create for a moment the illusion that we are not alone.
- This is the whole point of human life sometimes.
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