Ship Sinking / Anime & Manga

• In Air Gear The Ikki Minami/Kururu Sumeragi ship is hit by Oh!Great and takes on water fast as of Chapter 327, since after gently thanking Kururu for her hard work, he chooses Ringo Noyamano as his "link turner" and Battle Couple partner.
• The end of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day implies Jintan/Anaru and Yukiatsu/Tsuruko, but The Movie outright scuttles the second (Tsuruko confessed to Yukiatsu but in her words "nothing came of it") and fires a torpedo at the first, showing that Anaru still has a long way to go before she can confess to Jintan, and Jintan has a long way to go before he can get over his Single-Target Sexuality toward Menma.
• Attack on Titan
  • Krista/Ymir is sunk when Ymir leaves Krista behind to escape with Reiner and Bertolt.
  • While it had always appeared that Eren never really returned Mikasa's feelings for him, he drives this home later on, when he claims that he hates Mikasa, considering her a slave who's driven to protect him by her Ackerman instincts. But in a final conversation with Armin, Eren admits to loving Mikasa but his plan requires that he die at her hands. At the end of the series, Mikasa ends up killing Eren to save the world, after having a vision of a life together with him.
• The Big O: Season one seems to imply there was a growing attraction between Roger and Angel. But when she finally tries confessing her feelings for him, during season 2, she is crushed that he doesn't reciprocate. Moreso, when she realizes it's because he has feelings for R. Dorothy instead.
• Berserk
  • The idea of Guts or Casca being with anyone else dies in chapters 45-48, and not even getting branded, hunted and Casca going insane can truly separate Guts from Casca. Farnese and Schierke, both of whom have a crush on Guts, learned this the hard way during their Journey to the Center of the Mind to heal Casca's mind.
  • Guts/Griffith and Griffith/Casca both got sunk hard with Griffith's actions during the Eclipse in which he betrays everyone and rapes Casca right in front of Guts.
• Bleach:
  • Any fan with an interest in seeing Momo and Captain Aizen get together had their ship sunk when Aizen almost fatally wounds her in a poignant Kick the Dog moment as the first act in his Face–Heel Turn betrayal of the entire Soul Society. He further twists the knife by calling Gin the only one he ever considered his lieutenant (a position that Momo had always hoped to attain), and said he'd only chosen Momo because she was a useful tool.
  • Shunsui x Nanao was taken down in the final arc after The Reveal that Shunsui is Nanao's uncle.
  • The final chapter sinks Ichigo x Rukia while making Ichigo x Orihime and Renji x Rukia canon. The ship had already been sunk in some past interviews; it was further torpedoed in a TV show where one of Kubo's editors referred to Rukia with the word aibou (implying non-romantic partnership) and to Orihime with the word heroine (used in Japan to refer not just to the female lead, but also to The Hero's Love Interest), and in the novel ''We Do Knot Always Love You" whose main theme is Rukia and Renji's Japanese-style wedding.
• In Bloom Into You, Sayaka/Touko gets sunk in Chapter 38. After the former makes a Love Confession to the latter in Chapter 37, the recipient of the confession turns the confessor down one chapter later.
• Captain Tsubasa sunk the two ships that had Kumi Sugimoto as one of the members. First, it was very obvious that she had no chance with Tsubasa and it was definitely sealed when he chose Sanae instead. And in World Youth Cup, the mildly-popular fan option Ishizaki got together with Yukari instead.
• Choujin X: Early on, some of the more popular pairings were Tokio/Azuma and Tokio/Ely due to Tokio's deep and fleshed-out friendships with both of them. Furthermore, a lot of people initially assumed that Palma, who had just recently been introduced, would be a love interest for Azuma due to the nature of their first meeting. And then chapter 43 happened, in which Azuma confesses to Tokio that he has romantic feelings for Ely, with Tokio wholeheartedly supporting them becoming a couple. On top of that, a lot of Ship Tease ramped up between Tokio and Palma, with Palma outright confirming that she has feelings for him in chapter 50. All in all, it became abundantly clear that two major romantic subplots among the main characters would be Tokio/Palma and Azuma/Ely, despite neither pairing being especially popular before that point. Admittedly, the signs definitely were there in retrospect from the get-go, though few people picked up on them at the time.
• CLAMP:
  • During the initial run of Cardcaptor Sakura, they very intentionally did this after one artist misunderstood and drew Tomoyo being infatuated with Sakura's brother Toya, making her behavior later get a Retcon of being because she thought he resembled Sakura, the real object of her affections. The ladies got a good laugh out of this later.
  • In Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, Fay D Flourite/Chii gathered a small but vocal fanbase. While this ship was pretty much doomed from the start in canon, due to Chii already having a canon soulmate in Hideki from Chobits, the ship was mostly based on a very misleading episode in the notorious Canon Discontinuity anime, 'Date With a Magician', in which Fay takes Chii out on a 'date' and Chii appears quite infatuated with him by the end of the episode. Also the two's affectionate behavior at the very beginning of the manga. The ship was officially sunk by CLAMP in the manga, however, when it was revealed that Fay had purposefully created Chii to look just like his deceased mother for her to protect and watch over his dead twin brother Yuui's body. People often forget that Syaoran's mother was Sakura too, but Sakura/Syaoran had been well known since Cardcaptors, so people don't think it is wrong..
  • ×××HOLiC sinks practically every pairing to a certain degree by the end of the story. Watanuki/Himawari and Watanuki/Doumeki (and Doumeki/Watanuki/Himawari) all get sunk when it's revealed that Himawari now has a husband, and that Doumeki marries Kohane. But Kohane also was in love with Watanuki, so that under-the-radar ship got sunk as well in the process. Watanuki now has a Single-Target Sexuality of sorts for Yuuko. Then there's Yuuko herself who died 3/4 of the way through the series. Basically, come the last chapter, no one gets to be with the person they love the most.
• CLANNAD:
  • In episode 18, the three alternate crushes are swiftly dispatched all at once during a tennis match, becoming increasingly miserable as Tomoya's unconscious behavior makes it crystal-clear what the Official Couple is. (There's always the Visual Novel, and the special episodes where Tomoya hooks up with Tomoyo or Kyou instead.)
  • The Visual Novel is not much less merciless, especially if you consider that more than a good third of the game (After Story, the canon sequel to the School Arc) is devoted entirely to Nagisa. Even if you ignore that third, the game still leans towards Nagisa.
• Code Geass:
  • Lelouch/Shirley: Sunk in the first season by Lelouch's belief that he's too bloodstained to deserve someone like her, making her forget about him "for her own good". Sunk for good a year later when Shirley is murdered by Rolo in full Yandere mode for accidentally letting him know that she was aware of Nunnally's existence. Also sunk in the Alternate Reality Compilation Movie when Lelouch still gets killed in the end despite Shirley remaining alive this time. The Lelouch Of The Ressurection film follows on this when Lelouch is Back from the Dead (apparently with her helping bring the body), but ultimately chooses C.C. in the end.
  • Lelouch/Kallen: Sunk late in the second season after many Ship Teases and Moment Killers, when Kallen pours her heart out to Lelouch, and he doesn't respond despite kissing her back, standing right after with a blank look on his face, which leads her to believe that he doesn't care. In Kallen's character poem, which came with the Complete Best CD, she states that if he had said he loved her, even if it had been a lie, she "would even follow [him] to hell", and acknowledges that this is probably the reason he didn't answer her. Given that he was about to embark upon the path to world domination, only to have himself assassinated to facilitate world peace, it makes sense he'd want to distance himself from her.
  • Lelouch/C.C.: Sunk (or at least badly damaged) by Word of God around the end of the first season, when Yukana (C.C.'s seiyuu) said in interviews that the love C.C. feels for Lelouch is purely motherly and not really romantic.
  • Really sunk in the Code Geass Complete Guidebook where it's stated that Lelouch never viewed her as a mother or as a lover, but rather as an equal.
  • At the very least, the Alternate Continuity Compilation Movie version of the serie, ultimately has it set sail in Lelouch Of The Ressurectionby having Lelouch turning immortal and by dismissing all of his other canon relationship to next to nothing. .
  • The possible Suzaku x Kallen ship, which may never have been meant to set sail from the get go, considering that Kallen truly despises Suzaku and has tried to kill him on many an occasion. But what really sunk the ship was when Suzaku decided to use Refrain on her, and then decided against it at the last minute, opting to drug her instead. Then in the next episode, just to make sure the ship stayed sunk, they had Kallen use a 7 hit combo to beat the tar out of him.
  • The possibility of Suzaku x Euphemia was sunk when Euphemia died after being shot by Lelouch in Episode 23 of Season 1.
• In DARLING in the FRANXX, the Hiro/Ichigo ship gets torpedoed in Episode 15. When Ichigo synchronizes with Hiro, she quickly discovers that Hiro solely thinks about Zero Two and has no room in his heart for anyone else. Ichigo realized that she'll never be with Hiro, and reluctantly helps him reunite with Zero Two.
• In Death Parade, despite the Ship Tease moments between Decim and his assistant, it's made clear in later episodes that her time with him is limited and is soon to end, since humans can only stay in his world for 3 months before they break down. A few characters point out that that it's "impossible" for the two of them to coexist in the first place. In the last episode, her soul is reincarnated and they part ways for good.
• In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, while it was heavily favored by the fandom and even the anime staff, Gotouge didn't pull any punches in sinking the pairing with killing Shinobu in her charge against the Upper-2 Doma, without ever having a close heart to heart conversation with Giyu first; the most Gotouge ever did to support the ship was to state in the 2nd Fanbook with Gyomei's observation that Giyu and Shinobu did enjoy speaking to one another, yet strongly keeping the two apart in two other situations where they could have still gotten together: 1) In the Academy/Gakuen universe where both are alive and well, with Shinobu as a 3rd year highschool senior and Giyu as a young P.E teacher. 2) In the series' epilogue where Shinobu's reincarnation is also a highschool student but Giyu's descendant is a little kid in pre-school, this one is particularly jarring since Obanai and Mitsuri's reincarnation, along with Uta and Yoriichi's were specifically born again to fulfill their romance without barriers.
• Digimon Adventure 02:
  • Fan Preferred Couples Taichi/Sora and Takeru/Hikari were sunk in the Distant Finale (though the former sinking was started earlier in the Christmas Episode). Most fans tended to ignore said finale...until Digimon Adventure tri. was released and it continued to pair Yamato/Sora.
  • Just for laughs, an episode had Daisuke doing his best to impress Hikari... and V-Mon trying to ship himself with Tailmon. It didn't ended well for them, and at the end of the series, both of them had given up on their crushes and moved on.
• Dragon Ball: Has a few pairings which end mostly for related reasons as Akira Toriyama has admitted to not caring about romance.
  • Goku/Bulma ends in the finale of the original series as Goku flies off on the Nimbus with Chi-Chi and gets married. Bulma actually lampshades it on Namek, regretting she didn't start a relationship with Goku.
  • Ditto to Yamcha/Bulma. It takes a while, they remain a bickering couple throughout the Saiyan invasion and Namek saga of Dragon Ball Z. But then Vegeta and stays on Earth... and then Trunks is conceived from Bulma, poor Yamcha. Toriyama said this was for the sake of having a new half-Saiyan.
  • Tien Shinhan/Launch sinks not due to events in the show but due Launch being Put on a Bus forever by Toriyama and later interview saying they didn't get together. Dragon Ball Super also gives Tien a new Love Interest.
  • Gohan has a small moment where he gently declines his school friend Erasa (who's drooling over him) when she asks for a lift home from Orange Star High School, though Gohan's reasons are justified: he has a flying cloud instead of a car. Further sunk when he ends up with Videl.
• Elfen Lied: Fan favourite couple Lucy/Kouta seemed to have some floating in the anime, but when the manga arrived to the part of having Kouta remember that she killed his family, all hopes came crashing down and he ended up with Team Mom Yuka — and this is after Lucy's death, much to the rage of some fans. In the anime, Lucy herself tells him that her destiny to remake the world for her species means they can't be together, though it ends on an ambiguous note.
• Fushigi Yuugi sinks Miaka/Hotohori to rock bottom. Hotohori gets over Miaka, realising he was in love with the idea of Suzaku no Miko, gets married to a court princess named Houki; Miaka gets married to Taka Sukunami.
• Gundam:
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: The sequel novel Frozen Teardrop, written by the show's head author, put coffin nails in a few popular ships:.
    • Wu Fei/Sally: Sally has a daughter named Kathy, but not with Wu Fei (Kathy is his subordinate in Preventer).
    • Duo/Hilde: Between the show and the novel they got married, got divorced, had a son, and Hilde died off-"camera" with Duo never remarrying). So it's less "Sunk" as it is "Decommissioned".
    • Heero/almost everybody: He spent the last 30-odd years in cryogenic stasis, meaning he's still a teen while all his friends are middle-aged and have children around his age...except Relena, who had also been placed in stasis around the same time. If that doesn't spell it out clearly enough, Heero and Relena become a couple by the end of the story, and a postscript chapter focuses on their settling down together and planning marriage.
    • A Zigzagging Trope in regards to Trowa/Quatre: At first Trowa (now Doktor T) was seen spending time with Quatre's little sister Catherine, and there was no word about Quatre. Then Catherine is also seen with Trowa Phobos, a young man trained by Trowa and Catherine Bloom... and also "Milliardo's" assassin., and her brother Quatre is now known as Instructor Q and Trowa's partner in building new Gundams. Neither of the two are married, and in the meantime, Trowa Phobos and Catherine are seen getting closer...
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED has a bad habit of doing this... especially with couples that involve a Natural with a Coordinator. The only Natural/Coordinator couple to maybe survive this trope is Athrun Zala/Cagalli Yula Athha, but the others below...
    • The first series killed the Kira Yamato/Flay Allster pairing with an actual Attack Drone. After coming to regret manipulating Kira and playing with his feelings to get him to kill his entire race, Flay was separated from him and immediately wanted to find him again so she could make up for what she did. Sadly for her, she only reunited with him at the moment that she died; Rau Le Creuset, the omnicidal Big Bad killed her and the rest of the Dominion crew with one of his Providence Gundam's DRAGOONs, blowing her to space dust as an anguished Kira looked on.
    • The heavily hinted at Dearka Elsman/Miriallia Haw ship from the first series was sunk in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny in an even more unsatisfying way. One scene where Athrun mentions he met Dearka on the PLANTs, and Miriallia's reaction is "Oh, him." The next scene when she arrives on the Archangel and Kojiro Murdoch asks her about what happened between them, and she says "I dumped him." All off-screen, of course. In a bizarre semi-subversion, it meant that the couple had gotten together at one point, but the audience never got to see it.
    • While their bond is ambiguously romantic in Destiny, Super Robot Wars Z ultimately puts a torpedo in the Shinn Asuka/Stella Loussier pairing. In Setsuko's route, provided Stella is saved, one of Shinn's first lines when she comes on board is to tell Lunamaria Hawke, his actual girlfriend, that he sees Stella more like a sister. In the Destiny series proper, the ship was sunk when Kira was forced to kill Stella as she was laying waste to Berlin, which served to fuel Shinn's grudge towards him and the Freedom Gundam.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, by pre-releasing the character designs of the three Generational Protagonists from the very start, is a unique case where any and all other possible pairings involving the first two main protagonists (aside from Flit/Emily and Asemu/Romary) are essentially killed off before they even begin - or for that matter, before the series has even started airing in the first place. It's especially vicious in the first case, since Flit's First Love Yurin L'Ciel is killed in the first arc by Desil Galette, which actually took place before the series chronologically started.
• Gunslinger Girl: Despite Ship Tease comments from cyborg Triela on how she feels for her handler Hilshire, the latter hooking up with prosecutor Roberta Guellfi appears to have killed off even a strictly platonic romance, with them instead reverting to their surrogate father/daughter dynamic. It doesn't help that Triela realizes that a good part of her feelings might be instilled by her training/brainwashing, hence deciding to not pursue him.
• Harukanaru Toki no Naka de: The manga, apart from the popular (and author-preferred) Akane/Yorihisa ship, had quite a bit of fans of Akane/Tenma, Akane/Yasuaki, and to a lesser extent Akane/Akuram^note of course, there are plenty of other guys, but these seem to be among the most popular. The last one was technically doomed by default^note via Akuram being the main villain and not even being a possible choice in the game until its remake version, and Akane becoming determined to defeat Akuram proved the ship to be too fragile to survive. Then the story continued going in the Yorihisa direction, firmly established when the incident with a not-fully-conscious kiss occurred. Even after Tenma was implied to have given up, the dramatic tension went on, since there was still a small possibility left that the manga might at least go for an open ending... until all alternate ships were sunk (or at least severely damaged) in the finale when Akane took Yorihisa to "our" world. Of course, Haruka being a franchise derived from a Dating Sim, it was bound to upset somebody...
• Hayate the Combat Butler: As a harem manga with a romantic resolution, there was plenty of this:
  • Hayate Ayasaki x Athena Tennos is torpedoed in chapters 264-265 when Athena recognizes that, although they are both still in love with each other, she isn't the most important person in Hayate's life anymore and persuades him to let them go their separate ways. Chapter 266 made it seem like the ship might get refloated when Athena reveals that she kept the ring Hayate gave her and warns Nagi Sanzen'in that she might not give him back next time, but it gets depth-charged in 552 when Athena tells Ayumu Nishizawa that though she still loves Hayate, she does not see herself reflected in his eyes anymore.
  • Hayate x Ruka Suirenji sinks in chapter 431, when she offers to give up being an idol if it means being with Hayate. When fireworks go off, Hayate simply tells her that he's sure that, as an idol, she will shine as brightly as the fireworks. Ruka sadly recognizes that Hayate cannot return her feelings (as he is both committed to serving as Nagi's butler and doesn't want to Ruka to throw everything away just for him). They both watch the fireworks together and wistfully wish the moment could last forever, before Ruka leaves and teasingly gives him a message that he'll regret not marrying her. His response is, "I already regret it."
  • Hayate x Maria had plenty of Ship Tease at the beginning, but started losing steam towards the middle of the manga when Maria's role was, while not quite Demoted to Extra, considerably reduced. It was truly sunk when Maria, recognizing that Nagi was maturing and no longer needed a Parental Substitute, resigned from being a maid and set off to pursue her own future, leaving Hayate and Nagi behind. Ancillary material in Volume 51, the manga's final tankōbon, also reveals that author Kenjiro Hata originally planned to reveal Maria to be Hayate's unknown sister but never got the opportunity. Whether their familial relationship is still canon is debatable, but it put an extra hole in the ship.
  • Hayate x Hinagiku Katsura is essentially sunk in chapter 563. While there is no Love Confession, the entire chapter serves as a reflection on her feelings for Hayate and why they were never reciprocated. It takes the form of High-Altitude Battle with Aoi Himegami in which the former Sanzen'in butler demands to know why Hinagiku is trying so hard to save a boy who never even noticed she loved him. Hinagiku ultimately recognizes that it was her fault nothing ever came of her feelings for Hayate; she was frightened to tell him and simply hoped he would one day realize her love for him. Her finally overcoming her fear of heights and embracing the joy of flying serves as a metaphor for how her fear caused her to miss out something wonderful. It is entirely finished off in 568, where Hayate and an older Nagi begin a relationship.
  • Hayate x Ayumu Nishizawa is sunk in chapters 564-565 when, after Ayumu enters the Royal Garden to rescue Hayate from being trapped in an illusion, they both experience a vision of Hayate falling in love with her had she been the one to rescue Hayate the night he was sold to the yakuza. Ayumu realizes that all her wooing the past year was for naught, because she missed the "start;" it was Nagi and not her that rescued Hayate. Ayumu then wakens Hayate from the illusion, telling him that though her love was not requited, the year she spent loving him was not meaningless.
  • All the other minor "Hayate x" ships are sunk in 568 when Hayate, after a Time Skip, hooks up with Nagi, the girl with whom he developed the strongest emotional bond with and an insane devotion towards. This includes Hayate x Izumi Segawa and Hayate x Kotetsu Segawa.
  • Wataru Tachibana x Isumi Saginomiya is sunk in Chapter 331 when Wataru, on the verge of confessing to Isumi, his long-time crush, realizes he's fallen out of love with Isumi and in love with Saki Kijima. This also sinks the other "Wataru x" ships, including Wataru x Sakuya Aizawa, Wataru x Sonia Shaflnarz, and Wataru x Aika Kasumi. Wataru x Aika is doubly sunk when it's revealed in chapter 389 that Aika does love her fiancé. Just for good measure all these ships are depth charged in 568 when it is strongly implied that Wataru and Saki have become a couple.
• Heat Guy J: The most famous (in its tiny Fandom) yaoi pairing (namely, Daisuke x Clair) seems to have an attempt at this. First of all, Daisuke's feelings are towards Antonia, and later towards Kyoko. Secondly, Kyoko returns those feelings for Daisuke. Thirdly, Clair has a girlfriend in the manga, although she does not exist in the anime. Fourthly, Clair takes some interest in Kyoko (albeit subtle; he doesn't actually make any moves towards her). Fifthly, just for added insurance, Daisuke goes off on an adventure and only says goodbye to Kyoko, who tells him I Will Wait for You.
• Hellsing: Any Ship with Seras Victoria other than Seras/Pip. Word of God states that that "if Seras wasn't a vampire and Pip wasn't a mercenary, they would be the perfect couple, everybody would be envious of". See also their entry on the Official Couple page.
• Honey and Clover: Quite a few fans kept hoping that Hagu would give Yuuta a chance, but saw all their hopes vanquished after Hagu starts avoiding Yuuta after his Anguished Declaration of Love.
• Despite the premise of Initial D being about touge (mountain road) racing, romance is also involved between drivers, but are sunk for a myriad of reasons.
  • Back in First Stage, Koichiro Iketani doesn't take up on Mako Sato's offer to sleep with him, as he foolishly believes her affections still lie with Ryousuke Takahashi. At the climax of Extra Stage 2, he decides not to confess his true feelings toward Mako so she can pursue her dream to go pro. The ending implies neither of them will ever encounter the other again.
  • In Fourth Stage, Kyoko Iwase does her best to form a relationship with Keisuke Takahashi. While he reciprocates her feelings for him, he doesn't want a Relationship Upgrade because of his narrow-mindedness at focusing on only one thing at a time - in his case, racing, thus he explictly ends any chance for her to be with him.
• Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl:
  • The anime adaptation did this in a rather cruel way. After Hazumu gets her girl, and the final episode had aired, an OVA came out. Hazumu and Yasuna had broken up, because the latter wanted to be independent; which makes no sense since that didn't mean she had to break up with Hazumu. At the end of the episode, Hazumu and Tomari gain a Relation Ship Upgrade and get married. The OVA seems to be pure fanservice for the shippers, since most strings had been tied and the ending did nothing.
  • The manga toyed with a polyamourous ending until it was revealed that Hazumu must choose one or she'll die. She ends up with Tomari.
• K-On!: Fans who had picked up on the chemistry between Yui and Azusa were very disappointed when in the movie, Azusa gets very upset when she suspects Yui might have feelings for her. But honestly, the fact that Azusa's emotional outburst from the manga got rewritten to be aimed at the whole group instead of just Yui should already have sounded some alarm bells.
• Land of the Lustrous: The Bort/Dia ship took a huge beating as of chapter 84, when Dia's resentment of Bort has grown into full blown hatred and Dia decides to go to Earth explicitly to grind Bort into dust. They aren't on murderous terms anymore after converting to Lunarians, but the ship is sunk for good in The Party After the End, which has Bort state that they've cut ties with Dia in the past 10 000 years. Both then disappeared after Phos prayed the Lunarians away.
• Played with in Magi: Labyrinth of Magic, shippers of Alibaba x Morgiana were dissapointed when it seemed Alibaba started dating Toto while he was in Reim but as it turned out Alibaba was just lying in order to keep from disappointing everyone over the fact he couldn't get a girlfriend and Toto's blushing face was because she was drunk. So the only ship sunk was the one that was supposedly doing the sinking.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • The Chrono/Nanoha and Chrono/Fate ships were simultaneously sunk after the Time Skip, when they had Chrono and Amy get married with kids.
  • The Nanoha/Yuuno ship was sank as well thanks to Word of Gay saying that Nanoha/Fate ended up together.
• Mazinger Z:
  • Sayaka/Boss: Early on Boss was very infatuated with Sayaka who was totally smitten with Kouji. However, Sayaka's reaction during one of the finalr arcs of the manga suggests maybe Boss had one chance... but he did not take it. So he (romantically) cared no longer or he valued his friendship with Kouji too for trying anything with Sayaka.
  • Kouji/Erika: Erika was a enigmatic, amnesiac girl showed up one day in the Institute. There was a certain chemistry between Koui and her, but it went nowhere since it was revealed she was an android. And then she got murdered.
  • Great Mazinger: Tetsuya/Misato. Misato was Boss' cousin and a secondary character during Mazinger Z last season. She also showed up in the Great Mazinger manga penned by Gosaku Ota. Even though he liked Jun, Tetsuya found himself attracted to her, but then she got brutally murdered by Marquis Janus. Tetsuya himself died shortly after commiting a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • UFO Robo Grendizer: Kouji/Hikaru. In one episode it was told Kouji was infatuated with Hikaru but he never tried anything with her out of respect for his friend Duke. Cue Duke's sister Maria Grace showing up in the next episode (and keep in mind it was Sayaka who was meant to show up instead of her).
  • Duke/Rubina: Their parents got them engaged when they were kids, becoming a Childhood Friend Romance. Then her father invaded and Duke's planet, killing the whole population and accidentally turning it into a radioactive wasteland, and they became Star-Crossed Lovers. Later she met Duke and tried to convince him the only way to stop the war was they getting married. Duke accepted, but she got murdered shortly after for a scorned suitor.
  • Duke/Hikaru and Kouji/Maria: Both pairings kind of sunk at the end of the series when Duke and Maria left Earth, forcing themselves to leave their friends behind for the sake of rebuilding their homeworld.
• Chapter 57 of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun officially kills off any Mikoshiba/Sakura potential, with Sakura once again claiming that Nozaki is the only one for her and Mikoshiba stating he sees Sakura as a little sister figure.
• In My-HiME, while Natsuki x Takeda never had much of a chance, "Natsuki no Prelude" included a scene in which Natsuki sent Takeda a letter saying she did not love him around the time the HiME fighting forced the school to shut down. The art books imply that she eventually ends up with Shizuru, which had been hinted at in the series itself, so it was sunk from the start.
• My-Otome: Arika/Sergay gets torpedoed when in Episode 22, Sergay admits that he had feelings for Arika, but that he will put them aside to follow Nagi's orders to capture or kill her for Nina's sake, and Arika also acknowledges that she will do what she must. At the end of the series, Sergay loses his memories and lives on a remote farm with Nina, enabling Nina to establish a new and presumably romantic relationship with him as a mature woman, without Sergay remembering or even encountering Arika.
• Naruto:
  • One particular ship, Naruto/Sakura, was sunk in a spectacular fashion several times over. First when it was revealed in the epilogue that they ended up hooking up with Hinata and Sasuke respectively. Secondly it was later revealed in a canonical movie that Naruto's one-sided shallow crush on Sakura was just another facet of his rivalry with Sasuke, the guy that Sakura always loved—which was implied back in Chapter 3—and it ultimately never went beyond a Like Brother and Sister friendship. Thirdly, with the revelation by the anime voice actors of Team 7 that they knew that Sakura would end up with Sasuke since the first airings of the anime because the author told them about it. The final nails in the coffin came with several post-series interviews with the author, who has repeatedly stated that Naruto marrying Hinata had been planned since the early stages of the manga, that all hints pointing otherwise were a deliberate mislead to mess with the shippers, and that Sakura was never intended to be Naruto's main love interest to begin with, while Hinata always was.
    • Prior to the above, there was Chapter 469, which featured Sakura's infamous fake love confession to Naruto (which itself was a verbatim reading of the favorite arguments made by the people who shipped them together). She did this in order to relieve him of the promise he made to her of bringing Sasuke back for her and suffering greatly for it. Naruto easily sees right through her, having seen first-hand how devoted Sakura was to Sasuke, calls her out for lying, and rejects her outright by telling her that he hates people who lie to themselves. In retrospect, this was the definitive sinking of the pairing and all of the rest only cemented it.
  • Another ship, Sasuke/Karin, was sunk twice over: first in the finale, when it's revealed that Sasuke married Sakura, and once again in the Post-Script Season Naruto Gaiden in even more spectacular fashion. Sarada begins to believe that Karin is her mother and not Sakura, and her search for the truth becomes a major plot point, with even a DNA test seemingly confirming it. In the end, it is made clear once and for all that Sakura is Sarada's mother, she and Sasuke are happily married, and Karin is the midwife who delivered Sarada. Karin herself states that as long as Sasuke is happy she is happy too finally putting the ship to rest. It's almost as though Kishimoto read the death threats and demands that he change the pairings following the finale, and decided to troll fans one last time.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi sinks all the most popular ships at the end. Negi tells Asuna who he likes and it's apparently someone surprising and definitely not her. Nodoka and Yue later indicate that they were both rejected, Evangeline is still after Nagi, Chisame is a NEET and even less popular options like Shiori and Anya seem to be shot down with their failure to even appear. Eventually in the sequel series UQ Holder! it's revealed who he does end up with: Chisame, despite the ending implying otherwise, in a sort of reverse sinking. Interestingly, this only applies to the original Negima timeline. In the UQ Holder timeline, he enters a relationship with Yue and Nodoka, and, after the finale, Asuna, Chisame, Konoka, and Setsuna too!.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • The manga devotes quite a bit of time to shifting Kaworu's status with the rest of the cast. Namely, Shinji makes it vocally clear he can't stand Kaworu, while Rei instantly susses out what he is and tells him to stay far away from her.
  • The end of End of Evangelion sinks Shinji/Rei. Shinji has the chance to stay with Rei forever in Instrumentality, with no barriers between them, however he chooses leaving and returning to the real world, even though Rei cannot leave the Sea of LCL.
  • Rebuild of Evangelion sinks nearly every single ship involving Shinji, after delivering piles of Ship Tease for them. The "main" "first" Rei is considered to be dead (or at dead, and neither Shinji nor her clone are interested in a relationship; Asuka confesses to Shinji she used to like him, but she moved on because of Bardiel and the very least, her soul is unable to leave the Eva-01) by everyone Time Skip, and Shinji refuses to accept Rei Q in replies he liked her place; Asuka would outright kill him if only Misato would let her; back but he has moved on, too; and Kaworu dies rather horrifically.gets over his feelings]]. By the end, Shinji seems to have hooked up with Mari Makinami.
• Nisekoi finally got to this point as of Chapters 225-227: Kosaki reveals to Raku that she was the girl whom he made a Childhood Marriage Promise back when they were 5; but she admits that right now he has someone else he loves more than her, thus finally letting him go. Then Raku finally confesses to Chitoge, to which she reciprocates.
• Ojamajo Doremi:
  • Aiko makes it ambiguous as to whether she likes Anrima or not, but they begin dating after Ojamajo Doremi Dokka~n! However, Aiko mentions in Ojamajo Doremi 16 that they've broken up.
  • Marina and Kimura break up in Ojamajo Doremi 17 offscreen. It's not explicitly mentioned, but when you read the context of how it's implied, you can reasonably guess that they drifted apart in pursuit of their dreams, which matter more to them than their relationship.
• One Piece:
  • Eiichiro Oda must be a least somewhat aware of fandom's shipping tendencies since he apparently had the foresight to launch a couple of good sized torpedoes at the potential Luffy/Hancock ship, such as Luffy explicitly rejecting her proposal of marriage after the Time Skip. Although this did little to stop the shippers, with some claiming Luffy was only rejecting her marriage proposal, not her.
  • When Luffy hears that Absalom the creepy invisible guy wishes to marry Nami, Luffy comments that he must be pretty brave to want to marry her. Sanji on the other hand rushes to her rescue.
  • The Zoro/Nami ship's main basis is the so-called "sexual tension" indicated by their fighting. It's repeatedly shown however that he's not even attracted to her, that his lack of interest is almost a running gag, dating back to the Alubarna onsen scene when he and the non-human Chopper were the only ones to not bother peeping at Nami and Vivi.
  • Inversely there seemed to be a short ship tease moment followed quickly with a sink in one of the series's side stories between Zoro and Robin where Zoro plays Sleeping Beauty and must be awakened by true love's first kiss. One panel after Robin sees Zoro she quickly turns away and calls him unlovable.
  • With the chapter 771 the Baby 5/Law ship has officially been sunk with Don Sai accepting her hand in marriage.
  • Sanji has this happen to him in two arcs back to back (Dressrosa & Whole Cake Island) though ironically despite being rejected most other woman Viola and Pudding genuinely cared for him and it's actually Sanji who does the walking away.
    • Viola initially was just pretending to be all gooey over Sanji, to fool and then trap him which worked, however Sanji could see her heart wasn't really in it and she was Good All Along. Unfortunately, despite Sanji and Viola working well together, when Domflamingo attacks the Thousand Sunny, Sanji had to fly off to save Nami and crew, leaving Viola behind.
    • Sanji's potential relationship with Pudding was hit with a warhead in chapter 850 when it was revealed that she was Evil All Along (or more exactly, Broken And Then Evil All Along. And then it's re-floated from 862 onwards, with Sanji's Spanner in the Works actions leading to Pudding actually beginning to fall in love with him. Shipping hits it’s peak when Pudding kisses Sanji... then she removes his memory of it and runs away. Sanji once again goes away without so much a backwards glance leaving Pudding crying in an alley.
  • Any and all ships involving Jewelry Bonney died with the Egghead Arc, when it was revealed she's only twelve years old.
• Ouran High School Host Club has minor Ship Tease for many different Haruhi pairings, but especially for Haruhi/Hikaru, to the point that many shippers of said pairing began to hope that it may become canon (although it was pretty obvious which pairing Haruhi would end up in), but that ship was sunk when it's confirmed in the manga that Tamaki and Haruhi would be together, and Hikaru gives up on her.
• Pokémon:
  • The anime seems to attempt to sink Tracey/Misty every single time they appear onscreen together. Misty outright says Tracey is not her boyfriend twice in the Pokémon Chronicles dub.
  • In Advanced Generation, Max develops a crush on Vivi, a girl that is the youngest member of a trainer family. When the twerps and that family have a friendly 4-on-4 battle, Max borrows Corphish from Ash so he can take part. Unfortunately, Corphish is not nice, and refuses to obey Max. Vivi ends up hating Max as a result of the beating Corphish ended up giving her Marill.
  • In Pokémon Black and White, N/Hilda is a very popular pairing, but in Pokémon Adventures, the possibility of N ending up with Hilda's counterpart White has been blown to pieces when N convinced White's Tepig Gigi to side with him and leave her, the action of which caused White to fall off the Nimbasa Ferris Wheel while N just looked on coldly.
• Power of Hope ~PreCure Full Bloom~ ended up sinking the popular Saki/Mai ship by revealing Saki is engaged and Mai has a boyfriend. However, due to the fact that both men are The Ghost and Saki's reaction to parting with Mai in the final episode, fans believe that both men are just excuses to hide their true feelings.
• Princess Tutu: Are you still waiting for Ahiru to end up with the Prince, despite how dark the series has gotten since the end of episode 13? You'll change your tune come episode 24 because he prefers Rue and Ahiru seems to have chosen Fakir. A lot.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica
  • Fans always treated Madoka/Homura as the capital ship above and beyond all others, and were delighted by the mountains of Ship Tease Rebellion provided. Until the ending, when Homura's Protagonist Journey to Villain is completed and she imprisons Madoka, making any likelihood of them getting together extremely slim for the time being (not that it will stop all fans from continuing to ship it). Furthermore, Gen Urobuchi has stated in an interview that Homura's feelings for Madoka are platonic rather than romantic (in the usual sense). This is somewhat played with, as when he was asked if Homura was in love with Madoka, he answered "Probably". Still we are talking about Urobuchi here... So make of that what you will.
    Q: Is Homura in love with Madoka?
    A: Probably.
    
    Q: Why did you choose to portray a homosexual love?
    A: I don't think it is that special — a really strong friendship turns into a lovelike-relationship without the sexual attraction, in their case.
  • Sayaka/Kyosuke is sunk the moment Sayaka makes her contract, though it takes a few episodes to reveal why. By the end of the anime, Sayaka/Kyoko has sunk as well when Sayaka chooses to stay dead in the new timeline.
• In Queen's Blade, though Irma and Echidna had a canonical Teacher/Student Romance as part of their backstory, in the present, Irma is no longer interested in Echidna. Making it very clear to her that when Echidna chose to up and leave her in the middle of the night, she ended their relationship permanently, leading to Old Flame Fizzle when they cross paths again.
• The Quintessential Quintuplets: Given the Flash Forward, it was a Foregone Conclusion that four out of the five ships between Fuutarou and one of the Nakanos would be sunk irremediably. However, the first one to sink is Fuutarou×Ichika, when the later attempts to sabotage Miku's confession by disguising as her, and when Fuutarou discovers her betrayal, he's not happy about it. The rest are sunk in Chapter 113, when Fuutarou finally makes his choice: Yotsuba. Also, the author seems to deny any possibility of the other 4 becoming his lovers, in some kind of free union, with Yotsuba being the legal wife.
• Ranma ½:
  • Ranma×Nabiki: The story "Nabiki, Ranma's New Fiancée" saw Ranma's engagement transferred to Nabiki by Akane after a temper tantrum on the latter's part. Nabiki promptly spends the rest of the story indulging her Jerkass side, emotionally tormenting Ranma and selling him off to dozens of people (including, in the manga, a scene designed to showcase that the other members of Ranma's Love Dodecahedron are villains by having Nabiki offer to auction him off to them, only for them to decide that they can just kill her and take him), in between attempts to offer to let Akane, Ranma or both pay her to get her to switch the engagement back to Akane. When Ranma approaches her and asks her out on a date, Nabiki decides that things have gotten too boring and promptly arranges for Ranma and Akane to make up.
  • Ranma×Ryoga: In the "Koi Rod of Love" story arc, Ryoga acquires a magical fishing rod that will cause anyone he "catches" to fall in love with him for cheap, and promptly tries to use it on Akane, only to accidentally catch Ranma. When he realises why Ranma is acting so weird, Ryoga is so disgusted that he promptly bundles the (presumed) sleeping Ranma up and carries "her" deep into the woods, digging a grave and planning on killing Ranma in his/her sleep so that he can then bury the body out here, thus allowing him to woo Akane and, more importantly, getting Ranma to stop flirting with him. While he initially finds himself unable to do it when Ranma tells him that "she" is willing to let him do it, he promptly resumes trying to kill Ranma when she takes that hesitance for a sign of affection. When Ranma is finally cured, he promptly beats the snot out of Ryoga and is shown deriding him as a disgusting pervert in the finale.
  • Ryoga×Ukyo: In "Oh, Cursed Tunnel of Lost Love! Let My Love Be Forever!" Ukyo makes plans to see Ranma and Akane go through a haunted tunnel whose resident spirits exist to break up loving couples, with a reputation that those split up by the tunnel are cursed to never repair their broken relationship. However, to get in, she needs to partner up with Ryoga. Ryoga and Ukyo act much like they themselves do (bickering and squabbling over Ryoga's bungling), and Ranma and Akane jump to the conclusion that they are a couple (and seem to approve, amusingly enough), as do the ghosts who wind up ignoring Ranma and Akane's Belligerent Sexual Tension to focus instead on "breaking up" the seemingly-reconciled Ryoga and Ukyo. In the manga, the story ends with Ryoga and Ukyo vehemently blaming each other for things going wrong. Whether it means the curse struck or not, for the entire rest of the series they hardly spoke to each another again. The anime, however, hits a somewhat different note — while they are eventually forced apart, they are shown taking turns saving each other from the monsters, getting a Back-to-Back Badasses moment in the process, and the story doesn't end with them yelling at each other but collapsing and being teased as lovebirds by practically all of Nerima.
  • Shampoo×Mousse: It's hard to say that this ship was ever sunk, as Mousse was pretty much always portrayed as a Stalker with a Crush, but the second-last story of the manga has Mousse give up a chance to make Shampoo his devoted slave (which is rather jarring, seeing as how all of his Establishing Character Moments are about how amoral and obsessed he is with getting Shampoo's "love", even declaring he would happily participate in a rigged fight if it would get him Shampoo's hand)... with the next panel showing the freed Shampoo glomping onto Ranma and thanking him for saving her, acting as though Mousse isn't even in the room.
  • Nabiki×Kuno: A common Fan-Preferred Couple, as Kuno is rich and gullible, while Nabiki really likes money and enjoys messing with people for her own amusement. The result is a Ship Tease Filler story in both the manga and the anime, both of which end with the idea being made fun of. In the manga, Kuno and Nabiki end up momentarily falling under a Umbrella of Togetherness and Nabiki promptly demands that Kuno pay her money for being there with her, and is horrified that she charged such a (relatively) small amount when they are set loose. In the anime, a wandering fortune teller predicts that Kuno will marry Nabiki; while the horrified Kuno tries to reluctantly go along with what he believes is foretold, he finds himself unable to give up his perverse lust and ends up with a beating from all three girls after announcing he's figured out that he will wed Nabiki as his official wife and keep Akane and Ranma-chan as concubines. He then discovers that the prediction was totally wrong, because Sasuke accidentally used the wrong firewood in the mystic flames, and goes berserk, savagely attacking both of them off-screen as the end credits roll for putting him through such an experience.
• Shakugan no Shana: Kazumi Yoshida never really had a chance with Yuji Sakai, as he only had eyes for Shana, but the ship was definitively sunk in volume XVI (episode 4 of Shakugan no Shana Final) when Yuji tells her that he returned her love letter because he chose Shana.
• Snow White with the Red Hair: Kiki/Mitsuhide starts picking up steam when Kiki informs Zen she intends to propose to Mitsuhide, and when Hisame tries to force the two of them to share a room for a night Mitsuhide is too aware of Kiki's presence to fall asleep. The ship then takes not one but three torpedoes. First Mitsuhide turns down her proposal, then after promoting from Hisame to reconsider tells Kiki that while he trusts no one more than Kiki and will never feel as comfortable fighting alongside anyone else he has never considered her in a romantic light and has no intention of pursuing a romance with anyone until Zen is married, and probably not even then. To top it off Hisame and Kiki get engaged with the aproval and oversight of the heads of their houses.
• Sonic X: Following the introduction of Cosmo and Tails' blossoming feelings for her, it lead to the sinking of the Tails x Cream ship, as well as starting the Ship-to-Ship Combat between the two pairings.^note That said, the Tails/Cosmo pairing didn't last either, due to a rather tragic Star-Crossed Lovers moment
• In Chapter 38 of The Story Between a Dumb Prefect and a High School Girl with an Inappropriate Skirt Length, Tsukishima and Tasaki (the only main characters without love interests) start hanging out discussing manga, and the conversation gets to talking about the tendency of manga writers to Pair the Spares...to which they both say in unison "I absolutely hate it when the leftover characters start dating each other!"
• Sweet Blue Flowers: Yasuko/Kyouko had its share of shippers, despite Yasuko's often cold behavior toward Kyouko. This ship finally sank for good when Yasuko starts studying in England and apparently begins a relationship with her roommate. The last smidgen of hope of Kyouko still winding up with Yasuko (or maybe even another girl) gets blown to smithereens when Kyouko gets back with her fiance, Kou, and marries him.
• The creators of Tiger & Bunny like to play around with this. Episode 4 reveals Karina's crush on Kotetsu, a Crusading Widow with a kid. She doesn't find out about his wife and daughter until ep.9, upon which she seems to abandon pining for him. But following a Love Epiphany in ep.14, she realizes she can't help her feelings. The 25th episode shows Karina apparently deciding that she wants to Romance The Widower after all (take a look at the picture on the trope's main page), but then...the first season ends. Kotetsu's utter obliviousness throughout the story frustrated a lot of fans, to say the least. However, the creators' later comments that "her crush was meant to be depicted as hopeless" did little to deter some shippers.
  • In the second half of Season 2, the ship is sunk by Karina herself because, as she admits to Ryan, she loves Kotetsu because he's a veteran superhero who is a loving family man. And if Kotetsu reciprocates her feelings, it would change him which Karina doesn't want. So, she chooses to let go of these feelings by spending more time with her fellow heroes.
• Tokyo Ghoul: The Ship-to-Ship Combat between fans of Kaneki/Touka and Kaneki/Hedai came to an end following Kaneki and Touka having sex together. Unfortunately, fans of the latter pairing didn't take it very well.
• Toradora!: Ryuuji/Minori, when he finally realizes he's in love with Taiga, and their friends force Taiga and Ryuuji to talk about their feelings.
• Wandering Son:
  • Two ships are sunk in the chapter they were first shown. Two children became infatuated with Takatsuki and Chiba in chapter 97, only for around page thirteen the mangaka stating they'll get married in thirteen years.
  • Takatsuki/Chiba itself was sunk when Chiba began dating Fumiya.
  • Takatsuki/Nitori, and Chiba/Nitori for that matter, were sunk when Nitori began dating Anna, and Takatsuki fervently denies dating Nitori. Anna and Nitori broke up but got back together later on. Takanito really sunk when Takatsuki, who now realizes she likes Nitori, confesses to her (though she's dating Anna) and Nitori doesn't reply. The ending chapter has Takatsuki tearfully holding Nitori's hand before she goes to college and clearly has Nitori/Anna as endgame.
  • Both Doi and Seya show attraction to Nitori however when Doi and Nitori become friends it disappears and Seya quickly becomes a happy Official Couple with Nitori's sister, Maho, and the attraction he feels towards Nitori eventually dies.
• Fan hype got big when the trailer for When Marnie Was There was released showing two cute girls forging an emotional connection. Some fans in particular were excited for the lesbian representation. It seemed to be blatant shipping fodder, with the two girls even exchanging "I love yous" onscreen. The shipping fervor died immediately when the girls were revealed to be closely related, a fact unknown to either of them until the end of the movie.
• The World God Only Knows had about nine One True Pairings (as listed in its YMMV Page, not counting the Played for Laughs Cargo Ship) as the story was nearing its closure. Come the penultimate chapter, FLAG 267, all but one of these were subjected to a mass sinking via a "Love Confession Wham Line"-class supercavitating torpedo barrage from the Author himself.
• Yes! Pretty Cure 5:
  • When Komachi and Nuts's mutual attraction became undeniable in the middle of episode 26, you could practically hear the maniac screaming from the Coconuts and Karen/Komachi shippers. (Meanwhile the Rin/Nuts shippers just kind of whimpered.)
  • The adverts for the sequel, GoGo, announced Syrup was going to be shipped with Rin. Next thing you know, he forms some kind of bond with Urara, especially in episode 18 (and the very couple-hinting scene near the end. Cue the collective Squee from the Syrup/Urara fan base.
• Though Yona/Hak is generally the Fan-Preferred Couple in Yona of the Dawn, there was a small but dedicated group in the fandom still shipping Yona/Soowon, due to Soowon's status as a Romantic False Lead and the forbidden, angsty nature of their relationship. It doesn't help that the anime cuts off at a point where it can seem like the ship had promise of becoming canon, and the marketing around it liked the play up the Soowon/Yona/Hak love-triangle more than it actually factors in the story. However, reading deeper in the manga it becomes very clear that Yona/Hak is the intended Official Couple, and it becomes ambiguous if Soowon even ever had anything besides platonic feelings for Yona in first place. The ship sunk completely in chapter 136-7, in which Yona sells the gift she'd been given by Soowon in chapter 1 and kisses Hak, cementing the fact that she has fully moved on from her First Love.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: People started shipping Judai with Asuka or Johan pretty quickly, thanks to all the Ship Tease / Homoerotic Subtext he was getting with them. Not only did he choose his Stalker with a Crush / Forgotten Childhood Friend Yubel instead, he swore to love them and only them forever, leaving the odds of Judai/Asuka or Judai/Johan happening practically nonexistent.
• Though usually the writers don't bother to sink shippings, in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds they seemingly felt like doing so. Pretty unusual case though, subverting the common First Girl Wins. Mikage Sagiri was the very first female character introduced in the show, crushing on Jack Atlas since the very beginning. Still she got pretty much dismissed by him in episode 30, and eventually was completely (and pretty harshly) turned down by him in episode 45, in favor of a girl who appeared an entire season later.
• Zoids:
  • Zoids: Chaotic Century: The Thomas×Fiona ship was sunk in episode 51, after Van went missing after being defeated by Raven. Irvine told Thomas that Fiona loved Van, and after this point, Thomas stopped flirting with Fiona.
  • Zoids: New Century: The Bit×Leena ship was sunk in the third episode. After Harry challenged Bit to a Zoid battle, Bit was horrified when he realised that Leena would go to the winner. After Bit defeated Harry, he told him that he could have her.

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