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Ships That Pass In The Night / Anime & Manga

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Ships That Pass in the Night in Anime & Manga.

Examples With Their Own Pages:

  • Yomi and Sakaki from Azumanga Daioh are a semi-popular ship, even though the two barely exchange words with each other.
  • Beastars:
    • Jack/Louis is a ship that is surprisingly popular, even though neither character interacts with the other in canon. In fact, it's likely the story ended with Louis being unaware of Jack's very existence.
    • Dom/Kai are two characters surprisingly popular as a background ship in fanfics, but in canon, they have minimal interaction outside of their time together as part of the stage crew.
    • Ibuki/Oguma. Neither character interacts or even knows about the other, but because both are parental figures to Louis, some people ship them and even make fan content of Louis being raised by them as a couple.
  • Bleach:
    • There are quite a few fanfics for Renji/Tatsuki. In the manga or anime, have those two ever had even one conversation with each other?
    • Toshiro/Karin, their only interaction being in a couple of anime-only filler episodes
    • Ukitake/Nemu seems to be gaining a nice following.
    • Ikkaku/Nemu, based on a single panel in which they smile at each other while Ikkaku is getting medical treatment, as well as Nemu objecting to Mayuri interrogating him.
    • Grimmjow/Nelliel, whose sole interaction is Grimmjow kicking and yelling at Nel.
  • Cardcaptor Sakura:
    • Eriol and Tomoyo from are a textbook example. They have a handful of conversations, all about other people, and the numerous fans take that as a sign of deep connection and possibly also current affections. Not to mention the fact that in the manga, Eriol/Kaho is indicated as canon and Tomoyo was in love with Sakura. The less popular ships Touya/Tomoyo, Touya/Meiling, and Eriol/Meiling are even better examples, as the two halves only interact on one or two occasions.
    • Tomoyo/Meiling also has a following, mainly because it's a way to Pair the Spares (due to their respective crushes, Sakura and Syaoran, being the Official Couple) and it allows Tomoyo to move on from her unrequited love for Sakura. Their most major interactions are in the Series Finale movie, where they team up to play Shipper on Deck for Sakura/Syaoran, but up to that point they had hardly spoken to each other.
  • Case Closed:
    • Hakuba/Sera, despite neither of them having made any contact whatsoever and Hakuba making no more than two manga appearances (he is a character from a canonically welded series Magic Kaito).
    • Likewise, Hakuba/Ai Haibara and Kaito/Ai Haibara also have a small but rather solid fanbase, which is weird since Haibara never personally met Hakuba and her interactions with Kaito are usually through Conan's rivalry with him as Shonen Tantei group.
  • In A Certain Magical Index, The Hero Touma and the Misaka's The Team Normal Saten get paired in a surprising amount in fanfics, despite the fact that they've only met face-to-face when he borrowed her good luck charm for the Daihasei Borrowing Race. Probably because they're both normal (mostly).
  • Code Geass:
    • There's more than a few Rolo/Euphemia fanfics out there. Euphie was killed off before Rolo was even introduced as a character and almost certainly never met him or even knew of his existence.
    • Rolo/Nunnally at least get some cute interaction in official art, but it's unknown whether the two ever met, and Rolo wanting to kill Nunnally kind of puts a damper on the whole shipping thing. Rolo and Nunnally interact in Nightmare of Nunnally, although in that case, Rolo is a clone of Lelouch conditioned to think that he is Lelouch and Nunnally's brother, and has a significantly different appearance, personality, and role.
    • Kallen and Gino has some implication that the writers tried for it but hit a Relationship Writing Fumble.
  • Death Note has Light/Mello, despite the two never meeting face-to-face in canon. The same is true for Beyond/Light.
  • Digimon:
    • Back in the day, Matt and Mimi from Digimon, who have a single bit of interaction in the series aside from standing next to each other. The reason they were such a popular ship was that everyone paired all the characters according to "hierarchy": Tai and Sora because they were the male and female leads (and because they had actual chemistry), TK and Kari because they were the two youngest (they have chemistry too), and Matt and Mimi because... they were the only boy-girl pair left. There were Izzy and Joe, of course, but they were both really nerdy, and weren't Troubled, but Cute like Matt. (And yes, this meant that Izzy and Joe were often paired together — even though either of them would have been a better match for Mimi).
    • A lot of Digimon Tamers fans who like Ruki/Takato will pair Juri (Takato's canon crush) with Lee or Ryo (both of who're frequently paired with Ruki) despite the fact Juri is rarely seen interacting with them, if ever.
    • V-mon/Tailmon in Digimon Adventure 02 could also be seen as this. He was shown to crush on her... for about five minutes, and it was never mentioned before or again.
    • The rival shipping Patamon/Tailmon is an interesting case that at first could be passed up as just to get one more matching set for TK and Kari youngest but just like their partners, they're arguably seen closer than with any other partner digimon. And there is famous scene of Angemon holding Angewomon's shoulders, and once Patamon joked about how good they look together to rile Davis up.
  • Fairy Tail:
    • Zeref/Mavis, Zeref being the Sealed Evil in a Can and Mavis being Fairy Tail's angelic-looking founder. Not only have they never met, but Zeref having no idea Tenroujima was a guild island is as good an indicator as any that he has no idea Mavis exists. No longer the case as of Chapter 340. And then Chapter 450 made them canon, with tragic results.
    • Mashima seems to love subverting this trope. Mira/Laxus is a fairly popular crack pairing in the fandom. However, there has been no sign from either side that could make them a viable pairing until chapter 352. Cue shippers going crazy.
    • Wendy and Romeo, who haven't interacted at even one section of canon material, and yet fans seem to think the viable reason to pair them up is that Romeo is finally the same age as Wendy.
    • Natsu and Juvia are also being shipped from time to time, due to the whole fire/water dynamics. While they do hang around each other now and then and probably consider each other friends due to being in the same guild, they have had almost no direct interactions throughout the series even though Natsu is the main character, and Juvia is also fairly prominent. In fact, they have so suspiciously few interactions that one would almost think Mashima is keeping them away from each other on purpose to defy any fire/water shipping.
    • Loke and Lyon is a fairly popular ship despite the two of them never interacting in canon and both being clearly heterosexual.
    • But the biggest offender by far is Bickslow and Lisanna. The sum total of their interactions throughout the series is the Thunder God Tribe greeting her when she returns from Edolas and when she happens to be watching the Grand Magic Games with said team. Fanon insists they're friends because they both enjoy trolling Elfman and Evergreen (though anyone with eyes does), but objectively, the ship is just there to Pair the Spares with Elfman/Evergreen and Laxus/Mirajane and as Ship Mates to keep her away from Natsu.
  • Sousuke/Makoto became very popular in the Free! fandom (especially among gay male fans) despite hardly ever interacting. They did share some dialogue in the OVA but the ship was popular before that was released, and they would later have a phone conversation in the third season.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • There is a following amongst manga/Brotherhood fans dedicated to Greed/Riza, who have appeared in the same CHAPTER maybe all of twice.
    • Fans of the 2003 anime sometimes ship Alfons and Alphonse (usually with Edward involved), which is borderline selfcest considering that Alfons is Al's Earth counterpart from the other side of the Gate. The two never interact in Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa because Alfons dies shortly before they can.
  • Full Metal Panic!:
    • Sousuke/Insane Police Lady. Sure, they've had some (hilarious) interactions, and the Police Lady is obsessed with him... and Sousuke did compliment her skill and ability (in his mind). The only problem is that she's only like that with him when he's in his Bonta-kun mascot costume. Which can only say stuff like "Fumo-fumo fuu!!" As for actual interaction between them when he's dressed normally... there's little to none. Except an instance where he asks Kaname if he should "off" the Police Lady.
    • Foursome pairing of Gauron/Xia Yu Fan/Xia Yu Lan/Sousuke. Not so much the Gauron paired with any of them part, as much as the Yu Fan and Yu Lan together with Sousuke part. Especially since the only interaction he's ever had with either of them was with Yu Fan, whom he never actually saw, and whom he said all of two sentences (consisting of, at most, three words) to. Though, as absurd a pairing as this seems (Sousuke being in a foursome with three people he hates is... not very realistic), it is true that both Yu Fan and Yu Lan had been watching and pondering over Sousuke for a while (since their Sensei kept talking about him, and sent them to find him).
  • Hayate the Combat Butler fandom has Athena/Ikusa. This does at least make sense, considering that Ikusa was the one who released Athena from her Gilded Cage.
  • The Hetalia: Axis Powers fandom can be justified in doing this since the characters are countries and the story is based on history. Even if the author has not covered a time where the nations interact, fans can call upon their history classes or The Other Wiki for evidence of their ship for fan works. A list of them can be found here.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry has Keiichi/Satoshi shippers... even though not only do the two never meet (until Kira came out and that was a dream sequence), but Keiichi is more of a Lovable Sex Maniac and Satoshi was a more serious version of Keiichi to begin with (though chronologically Keiichi is the one who is similar to Satoshi).
  • Inazuma Eleven:
    • Someoka/Fubuki seemed to have become extremely popular a long, long time before the two shared any decent amount of screentime, having spent an arc and a half (about 50 episodes) taking turns getting Put on a Bus starting shortly after Fubuki's introduction. In the video games — which the show was based on — though they have a lot more interaction.
    • Fudou/Fuyuka, who never interacted in either version, yet it remains the most popular hetero shipping for that character.
  • InuYasha:
    • Pairing up Kagome and Sesshomaru is incredibly popular within the fandom even though they show next to no interest in each other in canon and he tried to kill her or otherwise did not care if she lived early on. This is mainly because Kagome is the Ordinary High-School Student that many female readers identify with and Sesshomaru is the "bad boy" character that many of these same female readers want to be with.
    • Pairing up Kagome and/or Sango with the Band of Seven's leader Bankotsu, even though he never had any dialogue with either of them; it's more about the chemistry between their personalities.
    • There are also Bankotsu/Kikyo ships. They did share one scene together, after all.
    • Sango/Inuyasha, which seems to come out of the clear blue. The two very rarely speak directly to each other, unless it's regarding Kagome or Miroku, in the entire course of the series. Granted, there is one episode in the anime where they get drunk in a mist and Sango professes her love for Inuyasha and tries to make out with him, but that was a Filler-only episode and no such thing ever happens between the two of them in the original manga.
    • One scene together in the anime, one in the movie "The Love That Transcends Time", and a scene where he chastises Inuyasha for letting her die (calling her by name, no less!) has caused Sesshomaru to be shipped with Kikyo by some fans.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Jotaro/Kakyoin is one of the biggest ships in the whole fandom, and it's been big since Stardust Crusaders launched—it's big enough that a Jotaro/Kakyoin doujin by CLAMP where Kakyoin somehow lays an egg spawned one of the fandom's crazier in-jokes. This can make it something of a shock to read the original manga, count the number of times Jotaro and Kakyoin share a conversation deeper than utilitarian musing on their next objective, and end up with fingers left over on the first hand. The closest they ever get to Ship Tease is a somewhat intimate-looking scene early on of Jotaro cradling Kakyoin's head while he removes the flesh bud◊. Even Araki pointed out that they're not really all that close. It seems to come from the fact that JotaKak maps so well to traditional yaoi archetypes (an aggressive and masculine Jerk with a Heart of Gold and a reserved pretty-boy who's been rescued from a traumatic situation), and has so little canonically preventing it from happening (they have no competing love interests, are on good terms, and spend most of the manga traveling together with plenty of unseen downtime), that it seems like a very natural step to assume that it would happen, even though it's not much rooted in how the two actually acted around each other.
    • Giorno/Jolyne, the protagonists of Part 5 and Part 6. The two have never met, and Giorno is technically Jolyne's great-great-great-uncle.
  • In K, Shiro and Saruhiko. They're both main characters, but they've been in the same room twice, both times in meetings with large groups. But they're both geniuses who would probably appreciate each others' thoughts and tastes more than others, so they have something of a following.
  • Early on in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Ishigami/Hayasaka was a popular ship due to them both being Ensemble Darkhorses without love interests, despite the fact that they only directly interact three times over the course of the entire series (four if you count Hayasaka's Flash Forward dream near the end). It's especially noticeable since Ishigami is a Launcher of a Thousand Ships, and every other girl he's been shipped with has had far more interactions with him.
  • Kill la Kill has Uzu Sanageyama and Mako Mankanshoku. They only share one scene together in the entire series so far and don't even talk. Yet there's plenty of art of the two together.
  • Little Witch Academia:
  • Loveless fans have the suprisingly popular Kio/Yayoi.
  • The Yuuno/Hayate pairing has its small but still surprising share of fans in the Lyrical Nanoha fandom, despite, well... have they even talked to each other? Even in the supplementary materials?
  • Mobile Suit Gundam Wing:
    • Trowa/Relena is a decently popular het alternative for Heero/Relena (at least among those who don't want Relena to die in a fire); however, the sum total of their interaction throughout Wing canon is nine lines of dialogue, all related to Heero. Such a ship could be seen as Loving a Shadow since Trowa and Heero are remarkably similar personality-wise, an idea quite a few 3XR fanfics run with.
    • Wufei/Relena. The two never interact in any form or fashion, not just in the anime or The Movie but in all the official sidestories and sequels (though they do interact in games like Super Robot Wars). Even beyond that, they're polar opposites (he's an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy, she's an Actual Pacifist), and he makes it plain that he doesn't like her on several occasions. So any pairing would require either romance with Belligerent Sexual Tension of epic proportions, or a serious Ass Pull.
    • Once upon a time, a Gundam Wing fansite had a Crack Pairing Fanfic contest. One of the entries paired Relena with Rashid, Quatre's Battle Butler. Not only do the two of them never interact, but Rashid is old enough to be her father.
  • My Hero Academia has All Might aka Toshinori Yagi and Inko Midoriya (Toshinko) All Might is the mentor and Inko is the mother of the protagonist, Izuku Midoriya. Not much screen time is shared between these two, apart from the scene in which All Might, with help from Izuku, convinces Inko to let Izuku return to U.A., but there is a passionate and lively, yet small, section of the fanbase dedicated to these two.
    • Due to Deku being a Launcher of a Thousand Ships, he gets shipped a lot with classmates who he hardly interacts with.
    • Bakugo and Himiko Toga get quite a bit of fanart shipping the two, possibly due to their personalities fitting a Red Oni, Blue Oni dynamic, their only on-screen interaction however has been the latter throwing a knife at the former.
    • Tomura Shigaraki has some interesting pairings with characters he never and/or barely canonically interacted outside of the League of Villains. Two of these characters that come to mind are Natsuo Todoroki (Natshig) and the rabbit hero Miruko (Dustbunny), the latter being quite popular.
  • Naruto:
    • Kakashi/Iruka is a very popular pairing, even though they haven't interacted that much, not even having met at all when the pairing became popular. Some people responsible for Naruto merchandise had seemingly latched onto this Fan-Preferred Couple and produced an astounding quantity of merchandise with only the two of them (these included, back in 2006, posters, mousepads, and mugs).
    • Kakashi/Anko, who have occasionally been in the same room together, but have never spoken.
    • Iruka and Anko have fans due to their Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy dynamic, but they have never been seen interacting.
    • Some fairly well-known ships are between characters who never speak at all. Sasuke/Hinata is one such example, even though Hinata only talked about Sasuke once in the manga. Of course, a fair portion of that ship's popularity might stem from the fact that it removes the two competing love interests for the Naruto/Sakura pairing, and others enjoy the irony of Sasuke falling in love with the one girl who spent a significant amount of time with him and never developed a passing interest in him. In Boruto: Naruto the Movie, they have their first canonical interaction: Sasuke asks Hinata if she knows where her husband Naruto is, she says that he's probably at work, and Sasuke leaves. Among their fanbase, this sparked major celebration and shippers made tons of gifs of the scene.
    • Naruto with nearly every female and male character.
    • Konohamaru/Hanabi seems growing too well as side pairing mostly for the sake of Generation Xerox (cough-Naru/Hina-cough). Boruto finally adds fuel to the fire by showing them drinking together and having Hanabi refer to Konohamaru as "Konohamaru-senpai".
    • Although Sakura gets shipped with pretty much everyone, the new favorite person seem to be Itachi, of all people. This probably has to do with The Reveal that he was actually a good guy all along (sort of) and the fact that Sasuke has become an evil bastard (ironically... thanks to Itachi).
    • This is the reaction to the canon pairing Chouji/Karui. People are still trying to figure out how this could have happened. There's still no information given on how they even met, let alone got together.
    • Naruto/Ino and Kiba/Ino manage to be very popular despite little-to-no interaction between Ino and either boy, fillers aside.
    • Kiba and Karui have never even interacted but are often shipped together due to the way their personalities mesh.
    • The next generation has had this occur with Inojin. Two of the most popular pairings are Inojin/Himawari and Inojin/Sarada, but at the time both became popular neither had interacted with him. Inojin/Himawari comes from the fact Himawari's name means "sunflower" while Inojin is presumably associated with flowers, as his clan is. Inojin and Sarada most likely have interacted off-screen as their mothers, Ino and Sakura, are best friends, however, they haven't been shown interacting much in canon yet. Inojin and Himawari are later seen interacting in Boruto where they bond because of their drawings.
    • Akamaru and Tonton are two animal characters of opposite genders so they're sometimes shipped together. Never mind that they're a dog and a pig, respectively.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • Kaworu only has one canon interaction with Rei, but the two are often paired up in fics that has Shinji get together with Asuka. They also have enough similarities to make a suitable Theme Pairing.
    • Asuka/Kaworu seems to have some popularity, despite the two never interacting in canon. This is probably because of a combination of non-Shinji/Asuka writers Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends, and the comedy value of Asuka's Tsundere nature struggling against Kaworu's Dissonant Serenity.
    • Shinji is paired with everyone, but Shinji/Hikari is the best example: she and Shinji barely know each other. Although with her being Asuka's best friend and Toji being one of Shinji's friends, they at least have some chance of social contact.
    • Shinji/Maya isn't anywhere near as popular, but it crops us disproportionately frequently. It might have to do with the fact that she's essentially a female Shinji in character design (and thus a subtle Screw Yourself factor in the pairing), though it's not known if that was deliberate on part of Gainax.
    • Although most likely a deliberate-joke Crack Pairing, there's also Rei/Rei and Rei/Rei/Rei, despite the fact that Rei I is killed by Ritsuko's mother before the series, and that Rei III is introduced after Rei II dies. This ship/OT3 can expand near-infinitely with the Rei clones in the dummy plugs and the Reiquarium. And the fact that Rei I may well be the soul inside EVA-00.
    • There's a fic somewhere where, among other pairings, Ritsuko and Kensuke are paired up.
    • There's at least one hentai doujinshi out there (EVANGEL FIRST, if you're curious,) that has the utterly implausible pairing, out of all the people, Rei and Aoba. (Though it was published before EOE's release, so that explains it somewhat.) Hilarity Ensues when one remembers that Rei and Aoba’s original English voice actors are married in real life.
  • Inevitable in One Piece due to the huge cast, but X Drake/Smoker crops up quite a bit. The two have never even shared screen time in over 600 episodes, though X Drake's past as a former Marine does hint at a possible shared history (Additionally, it's later revealed that Drake is actually still a Marine and has been working undercover for years).
    • Another one that pops up often is Ace/Nojiko; though while the two never shared any kind of screentime either, they are two of the main protagonists' older siblings (Ace is Luffy's adopted brother and Nojiko is Nami's adopted sister).
    • A third popular ship is between Belle-Mère, Nami and Nojiko's adoptive mother, and Corazon / Donquixote Rocinante, Doflamingo's more heroic brother and an important figure from Trafalgar Law's past. Despite only appearing in flashbacks (and not in the same one), they are frequently paired as they are both marines who protected their children at the cost of their lives.
  • Osomatsu-san:
    • Ichimatsu/Nyaa is a rather popular pairing in the fandom, who are put together based on cat theme alone. She also gets paired up with Choromatsu and Osomatsu a fair bit: the former since he goes to her concerts, the latter because he crashed a handshake event Choromatsu went to (and did a faux-declaration of love while he was at it). Nyaa hasn't talked to any of the brothers personally in the first two seasons, and the one time she sees them after work is when she prays for them at their funeral in season 2. She even goes as far as to lampshade it:
    "I know I haven't hung out with you guys that much, but I hope you find peace in the next world."
    • Interestingly, the Season 3 episode "Just Don't" not only has her interact with the sextuplets directly, but has her fall for the aforementioned Osomatsu.
  • The Ouran High School Host Club fans who keep up with the anime rather than the manga see Kyoya/Kaoru as this since their time together in the anime is limited to one scene of about 2 lines each. The pairing has developed a niche in the fandom due in part to continuing interactions in the manga.
  • Most ships in the Pokémon anime fandom are nevermets, have something to do with filler characters, or with characters who have had little interaction with each other. Here is a long list of the anime's ships, including "never-mets." Most of them, the characters only interacted during one episode; James saves Cilan once, James/Cilan is born; Max talks to Misty, Max/Misty is born; and so on:
    • Dawn and Paul are extremely popular, despite how the two rarely speak and when they do, it's the farthest thing from romantic (he once even forgot she existed).
    • Misty/Gary was popular in the old days. It still occasionally pops up as a ship mate if you ship Ash with a female companion besides Misty.
    • Of course, Ash has been shipped with plenty of girls that he met at only one time. A handful of them, such as Anabel, actually do like him, but Ash never catches on.
    • Ash's mother and Giovanni never met yet there is a fairly popular pairing revolving around them. This has less to do with their chemistry (though many do like them as Angel/Devil Shipping) and more to do with people liking the idea of the Big Bad being Ash's father. It's given a nod in Pokémon Live!, where it turns out that Delia and Giovanni used to date when they were younger; according to the play's writer, he even left in some subtext that Giovanni is Ash's biological father.
    • Jessie's Missing Mom Miyamoto from Pokémon: The Birth of Mewtwo gets shipped with Giovanni. This is less because they go together and more to explain the whereabouts of Jessie's never discussed father and why Giovanni keeps such an incompetent person like Jessie around, as well as a being a possible interpretation of a line in Pokémon Gold and Silver stating that "Giovanni's kid has red hair." Miyamoto was an elite member of Team Rocket and was friends with Giovanni's mother, but the two didn't interact in the radio drama.
    • During the climactic battle at the end of X/Y, Steven Stone joins the assembled group of protagonists and their allies across the Kalos region. This includes fellow Champion Diantha, who Steven personally teams up with later on. While most focused on the inherent cool factor of two Champions working together to help save the world, something that had never been seen up to that point in the show, others began to view their brief scenes through a romantic lens, interpreting them as a Battle Couple in the making. Their introduction didn't help matters; while entirely professional and respectful, Steven and Diantha do appear to lightly gush over having the opportunity to fight side by side.
    • And now Max/Bonnie is gaining speed because they are both the younger siblings of another main character, and both Max and Clemont are really nerdy, which suggests Bonnie may be such in the future.
    • Delia x Jessie has become a popular pairing in The New '20s thanks to fan art of the two from Kiana Khansmith (storyboard artist and director at Disney Television Animation), to the point that there are several news articles dedicated to talking about the pairing. This is despite the two having little-to-no interactions in the entirety of the anime.
  • From the Pokémon Adventures manga, Wally/Yellow is really popular, despite the pair having never been in the same REGION at the time.
  • There's a small but growing group of Princess Tutu fans who think that Autor/Pique and Femio/Lilie are viable pairings. Partially due to Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends (with Autor and Pique's crushes on Rue and Fakir respectively), and partially just for the sheer crack that would develop (Femio's self-obsession and Lilie's sadism).
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Mami/Kyoko used to be this. While observant viewers might catch the signs that Mami and Kyoko knew each other before the start of the series, they only show up on screen together for two episodes and have very little dialogue between them. But then the third Drama CD was released... it turns out they were very close, before a personal tragedy altered Kyoko's personality and caused her to part ways with Mami.
  • Reborn! (2004): Hibari/Chrome is a popular pairing for Chrome due to the Future version of Hibari saving Chrome's life, despite the fact that his present version barely interacted with her and there's the problem of Chrome being the vessel of Mukuro.
  • Fans of Revolutionary Girl Utena have an odd fondness for Juri/Wakaba—the two pretty much never spoke onscreen, and by all appearances never have. It seems to be born out of a mix of the belief that Juri deserves a break after dealing with her last girlfriend, and from one scene in the movie where Juri drives a car that is clearly a transformed Wakaba.
  • Rurouni Kenshin: Misao/Soujirou. They barely know each other of each other's existence (they crossed paths at Shingetsu village, and Soujirou probably collected intelligence on her as part of seeing what they could use against Aoshi), but fans who feel that Aoshi's too old for Misao and that her Genki Girl personality would be perfect for Soujirou ship them.
  • Sailor Moon has its fair share:
    • One of the most popular ones is Hotaru/Shingo due to their similar ages. They’re never actually seen together (unless you count Sailor Moon: Another Story), though as Chibiusa's close friends, it is plausible that they have met off-screen. Sometimes it is done to allow Shingo's crush Ami to be with someone else.
    • There is Black Lady/Mistress 9, a technical case as they are the brainwashed, evil, grown-up versions of best friends Chibiusa and Hotaru, respectively, who are already a very popular pairing. The problem with the former pairing is that those transformations are one season away from each other, and Chibiusa turns into and back from Black Lady many episodes before she and the audience actually meet Hotaru.
    • Depending on the continuity, shipping any of the Inner Senshi with the Shitennou as Ship Mates with the Official Couple of Usagi/Mamoru becomes this. The closest it gets to canon is Sailor Moon Crystal, which implements scrapped plans for the manga that the Inner Senshi and Shitennou were all couples in their past lives in the Silver Millennium but goes no further because the Shitennou are still killed off. Otherwise, there's little canon basis outside of Minako/Kunzite (she had feelings for him in her past life in the manga, they tend to be paired in musicals, and Sailor Moon: Another Story makes a point of Minako finding two villages that worship her past romance with Kunzite), to the point that Makoto debuts after Nephrite is killed off in the first anime.
  • Shaman King:
    • Despite that Ren and Pirika barely talk to each other in either the anime or manga and the Distant Finale of the manga has Ren marrying Iron Maiden Jeanne (which is also an example of this trope), they seem to be incredibly popular as a couple, with the half of the fandom that doesn't dislike Pirika supporting the pairing. The reason for this is most likely the comedic potential stemming from how Pirika's brother Horohoro and Ren fight almost constantly.
    • Horohoro/Tamao is also a fairly popular pairing, even though (in the manga at least) they've barely talked to each other. Again, Tamao is considered The Scrappy to one part of the fandom, but not in the part that supports this pairing (or Tamao/Yoh, which has a lot more of a basis in-canon).
  • Rima and Utau from Shugo Chara!. No, really. There is a whole fanbase of them together out there.
  • Sylphiel/Valgaav from Slayers is mildly popular, usually as a result of Pair the Spares.
  • Soul Eater has Crona/Death the Kid. Although they only interact twice in the anime and once in the manga, it's a rather popular pairing in the fandom. And then the end of the manga provides some kind of fanfic fodder by clarifying that in a strictly technical sense they are rather similar, having both been raised for the specific purpose of replacing/counteracting the Mad God Asura. However, Kid and Crona never actually acknowledge this similarity (Death does so only to remark that he's as bad as Medusa), and Crona ends up trapped on the moon. So, the ship is actually no closer than before.
  • Spy X Family has Yuri Briar/Fiona Frost. Fans noted that both of them are heavily invested in trying to break up the series' primary Loid/Yor pairingnote . As a result, there's a Fandom-Specific Plot where Yuri and Fiona meet and decide to join forces to break up Loid and Yor, only to fall in love with each other in the process. This despite the fact that they've never actually interacted with each other in canon.
  • Tiger & Bunny: Ivan (Origami Cyclone) and Pao Lin (Dragon Kid), based on them being the youngest heroes for their respective genders and both of them having names that end in "Lin". However, the manga adaptations of the anime show that Ivan and Pao-Lin are indeed friends and do spend time with each other. Also, the official guide book "Hero Gossips" contains interviews with all the characters and there Ivan claims that Pao-Lin is the hero he's most friendly with.
  • In the Weiß Kreuz fandom, the only trend as popular as pairing the four Hitman with a Heart leads off with one another is the practice of Foe Yay Shipping them with their opposite numbers in Schwarz, the team of Psycho Rangers who turn out to be the ultimate villains of the first anime series, despite the fact that for the most part Weiss and Schwarz have very little direct interaction over the course of the series. The oddest case is that of Omi and Nagi, paired off with one another by virtue of being their teams' respective teen hackers (and helped along by an infamous piece of official artwork◊). The two characters exchange no dialogue and interact a total of once in the original 24-episode series when Nagi telekinetically slams Omi into a pillar. The sequel series, however, shows that they've begun working together offscreen in the interval between the two storylines and Nagi is now acting as Omi's bodyguard, a writing decision that seems designed to capitalize on the popularity of a relationship that didn't exist in the story up to that point.
  • Yona of the Dawn: The characters of Lili and Tae-woo are shipped surprisingly often on Pixiv, despite that the characters have never met in canon. It may be due to their relation and similarities to the series' Official Couple of Yona and Hak; Lili being Yona's closest female friend and often being used to draw contrast to Yona's Character Development, and Tae-woo being Hak's friend/little-brother figure, as well as the successor to his position as general of the Wind Tribe. It may also come down to the characters appearing to be (though not confirmed to be) the same age, and having similar blue-clothed/dark-haired aesthetics.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
    • Silentshipping. Kaiba and Shizuka are shipped because of one scene in which Kaiba agreed to get medical treatment for Bakura because Shizuka openly begged him to do so. (Never mind that Jonouchi, who openly hates Kaiba, would never approve of his little sister dating the guy.)
    • Ryuzaki and Shizuka, who have never met and probably don't know the other even exists. The pairing was likely spawned PURELY out of the fact that Jounouchi would flip a shit, causing angst or comedy, depending on the writer.
    • Anzu/Kaiba is a surprisingly popular pairing for two characters whose direct interactions can be counted on one hand. They're in the same general vicinity multiple times and he does save her life during the Death Trap duel between Yugi and Jounouchi at the dock, but they rarely have an actual conversation. The most that they get is Anzu delivering a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to him at Duelist Kingdom for guilting Yugi into throwing their duel with the threat of suicide, but even that is based on dub differences (in the dub, he has one line in response; in the original, he doesn't answer at all).
    • Ishizu's second-most-popular pairing after Kaiba is probably pairing her up with Mai. They've never interacted onscreen, and Mai likely doesn't even know Ishizu's name. It seems to arise from a mix of Ishizu lacking good options and the two having enough in common (skilled female duelists of similar age with tragic pasts) while still having contrasting personalities.
    • Yugi (not Pharaoh Atem) and Dark Magician Girl is a rare but still present ship. Almost every pairing plot for this goes as follows: Yugi Did Not Get the Girl (Anzu) for varying reasons, Dark Magician Girl tries to ease her young master's broken heart, and things proceed from there. The most recurring "varying reason" is Atem being around for Anzu to bag since it fixes the snags caused by the canon continuity's Ship Tease, though getting Dark Magician Girlnote  a physical presence (nevermind Atem himselfnote ) usually requires a blatant Ass Pull.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds has most of Sherry's pairings, mostly because her obvious paramours are Yusei and Aki, who are very frequently paired with each other. Sherry/Crow, Sherry/Bruno, and Sherry/Hat Guy are some of the most common alternatives.
  • Thanks to the preponderance of Ho Yay and Yuma having a canon female love interest already, Anna of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL ends up with a good number by default, thanks to most of her episodes being dedicated to unresolved Ship Tease with him. Anna/Fuya (they teamed up against Mizael for about five minutes) and Anna/Rio (no interaction whatsoever) pop up with some frequency.
  • YuYu Hakusho:
    • Kurama/Yukina — they only exchange lines once in the anime.
    • A far more popular example is Kurama/Botan. While they interact a bit more than the above pairing, it's never much (at least not in the manga). This may be an example of Ship Mates since every other member of the main group has a romantic interest (Yusuke/Keiko, Kuwabara/Yukina, Hiei/Mukuro) except these two.
    • There's also Touya/Yukina, which had a decent-sized fanlisting and fanfic representation in the early 2000s. This seems to stem from them both having ice powers. At least with Kurama and Yukina or Botan, you can probably find a screencap of the two in the same crowd scene.
  • Yuri!!! on Ice:
    • Mila/Sara is the favorite ship involving women of the fandom. They have only interacted once, very shortly in episode 9, but fans absolutely love them together. However, they are implied to have met before, since Sara is ranked 4th and Mila 3rd in women's singles figure skating.
    • Phichit/Chris is fairly popular even though the two have barely interacted in the show outside of group settings. It makes more sense why people ship them when you consider they're the best friends of Official Couple Yuri/Victor.
    • Minako and Lilia don't interact at all, but there are quite a few fans who ship them together since they're both retired prima ballerinas.

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