Unknown Rival / Anime & Manga

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• Peorth is this towards Belldandy in her introductory arc in Ah! My Goddess. It goes away once the gang gets Peorth to explain exactly why she's so angry at Belldandy.
• Part-time model Sakiyama Kaori in Airmaster becomes an amateur wrestler, semi-berserker streetfighter solely to challenge Aikawa Maki. Downplayed in that she is too loud and crazed to fully ignore, to the point everyone memetically mentions her full name when she appears.
• Sakaki never notices Kagura's self-proclaimed rivalry, even when it is proclaimed to her face, in Azumanga Daioh. Despite that, Kagura doesn't take their rivalry personally and is nice to Sakaki even before they get to know each other. Kagura eventually moves on to establish a genuine rivalry with Tomo, as both have similar levels of energy.
• Bakuman。 has a hilarious variation on this: the main protagonist sees genius mangaka Eiji as his rival, but Eiji's not ignoring him because he's conceited. It's because Eiji is such a total fanboy of the protagonist's work that he barely seems capable of understanding why he'd consider him his rival.
  • Eiji is conceited, but in a clueless, Genius Ditz kind of way, and he gets into the rivalry on a couple of occasions, since it is visibly true that they're both less commercially and critically successful, and having a harder time finding their voice than he is, and he wants to encourage them.
  • As Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's project right after Death Note, it's milking the 'rival' thing Obata used to such acclaim in both Death Note and Hikaru No Go, and as an outrageously meta project, it's playing with it.
• Tajima is this to Hanai in Big Windup!; Hanai uses his one-sided rivalry with Tajima as motivation to improve, while Tajima competes against himself.
• Black Clover: Played for Laughs. After seeing Asta fight, Leopold declares him his rival. Asta accepts but also asks Leopold what his name is. He also considers himself to be Yuno's rival as well because they're both Asta's. Yuno, on the other hand, doesn't care and only sees Asta as his rival.
• Bleach: In the "Howl From The Jaws of Hell" arc, Szayelaporro escapes from Hell to attack Renji, then also attacks Ichigo when he intervenes. Since Ichigo never met him before, he has no clue who he is, and gets confused and annoyed by Szayelaporro's familiarity with and desire to kill him.
• Played with in Cardcaptor Sakura. It's not that Sakura doesn't know Syaoran is rivalling her for the Clow Cards, she's even a bit genuinely intimidated by it, just she doesn't understand why it's a rivalry for the large part. She even thanks Syaoran for helping her collect some or even gives him ones she believes he earned more. This complete lack of animosity eventually wears down Syaoran's competitive streak until he's more just her ally.
• A Certain Magical Index:
  • Mikoto hounds Touma on a regular basis trying to get him to fight seriously with her, having misinterpreted his mysterious ability to negate her lightning as a sign of some incredible power that he's holding back. His nonchalance toward her and her otherwise remarkable power is a blow to her pride as one of the strongest espers in the city. While no evidence he keeps forgetting her is shown, an instance of this occurs when he receives amnesia, which causes him to forget their previous meetings.
  • Because of Magic Versus Science and The Magic Versus Technology War, various magical organizations or individual mages try various plots to destroy Academy City, which are constantly foiled by Touma and friends. Other than the heroes and a few of Academy City's higher-ups, no one in Academy City is even aware that magic exists or that several science-hating mages want to destroy them.
  • Accelerator and Kakine. Kakine, as the #2 Level 5 esper, desperately wants to defeat Accelerator (the #1 Level 5). There's no indication that Accelerator even knew who he was prior to their fight.
  • Kuroko wants nothing more than to get Touma out of the way so she can have Mikoto all to herself, while he's unaware that she hates him so much.
• Momoko in Chou Kuse ni Narisou considers Nagisa to be her rival, but Nagisa doesn't learn of Momoko's identity until the second half of the series.
• Cowboy Bebop inverts this trope with Andy from "Cowboy Funk", who is The Rival to Spike for one episode and never remembers Spike, constantly confusing him (and everybody else) with the episode's bounty.
• The Dangers in My Heart: Neither Adachi or Nanjou have realized until later that Ichikawa is an obstacle to their pursuit of Yamada. Or that they've been lost to Ichikawa as far as Yamada's concerned.
• In Death Note, Near blatantly ignores Mello's attempts to beat him. Ironically, Not So Harmless Mello ends up actually helping in the end, with his own death.
• Dragon Ball:
  • After Master Roshi/Jackie Chun was forced to destroy the moon, Man-Wolf was trapped in his wolf form and swore revenge. When they face each other, he says Jackie will pay for what he did, but Jackie has no idea who he is. Man-Wolf gives a long rant about why he hates him, but Jackie gets so bored that he almost falls asleep. Man-Wolf furiously attacks him, but Jackie doesn't take him seriously and effortlessly dodges and counters his attacks, then beats him up while paying more attention to the ladies. Though after Jackie wins, he cuts him a break and helps him return to his human form.
  • Practically all of Goku's rivals count as this to a certain degree, where they all take Goku incredibly seriously, but Goku is too easy-going and forgiving to notice since he's more concentrated on the fight itself than personal grudges (for example, much of Vegeta's boasting and posturing only elicits a confused reaction from him). Even Frieza eventually falls into this because Goku becomes so much more powerful he no longer takes him seriously anymore.
• In the El-Hazard: The Magnificent World OVA, Makoto is largely unaware of Katsuhiko Jinnai's hatred for him; in fact he considers Jinnai a friend. Whereas Jinnai thinks that Makoto has a secret vendetta against him, given the number of times that Makoto has coincidentally gotten in his way and/or pissed him off.
• Inverted and later played straight in Eyeshield 21 where initially Kotaro considered himself to be Musashi's rival... but he only knows Musashi by reputation, and has no idea what he actually looks like or where to find him. Later, though, after Musashi's identity is known, Kotaro ends up becoming the normal kind of unknown rival himself to Musashi. It's revealed at one point that the legend of "Eyeshield 21" wasn't just something Hiruma made up; there's a real Eyeshield 21 who is also star running back on his high school football team. Sena doesn't learn just who it is until the penultimate story arc, though there was a fake-out along the way and he had a few hunches.
• Fairy Tail:
  • Evergreen was jealous of Erza for having the nickname "Titania" (townspeople were awed by her strength and called her that, meaning "Queen of the Fairies") and tried to kill her so she could take it. Erza defeats her and says that she never cared about that nickname.
  • God Serena, the #1 Wizard Saint and strongest of the Four Emperors of Ishgal, views himself as the up-and-coming rival of Acnologia on account of possessing multiple elemental Dragon Slayer magics, going so far as to abandon his home country and become one of the Alvarez Empire's Spriggan 12 just to get a shot at gunning for him. Acnologia views him like he does most humans: beneath him, and only worth noticing because he's a Dragon Slayer, all of which Acnologia intends to kill off to destroy the legacy of the dragons. When they finally face off, Acnologia murders Serena faster than he or any of the onlookers can react, only remarking that's another Dragon Slayer down.
• Fist of the North Star: Despite Juda's obsessive hatred of Rei, Rei paid him little mind. It isn't until Rei finds out Juda's former enslavement of Mamiya and his betrayal of the Nanto Roku Seiken that their hatred becomes mutual.
• In Food Wars!, Italian-Japanese student Takumi Aldini considers Soma Yukuhira his rival. Despite the fact Soma does know about the rivalry, the universe constantly tries to downplay it, so that it always looks like Takumi is being overdramatic about a "serious" rivalry for no reason, much to his chagrin (and his younger brother's amusement).
  • More classically, Kuga Terunori attempted to challenge Eishi Tsukasa in the hope of having a Defeat Means Friendship-moment with him (not an uncommon thing in this series). However, when overhearing Tsukasa talking with Rindou the following week, it turns out that Tsukasa barely remembers the challenge, and has no memory whatsoever of who his opponent was.
• When Al faces off against Barry the Chopper in Fullmetal Alchemist, Barry gets rather annoyed when Al reveals he's never heard of Barry's infamous past.
  • Though they recognize each other when they meet up again. There's also Yoki, who starts out as a corrupt official who gets exposed and cashiered from the military because of Ed. When he and the brothers meet up again in Briggs, Yoki is outraged that they don't recognize or remember him.
    Yoki: Don't tell me you forgot what happened in Yoswell!!
    Al: Brother, did we meet any hobos in Yoswell?
• Gabriel DropOut has this with between Gabriel and Satanichia, the latter of which considers the former's actions (tardiness, sleeping in class, and doodling on textbooks) as high level acts of villainy, and strives to one-up her someday. Gabriel, on the other hand, doesn't give a damn about Satanichia.
• Tachikawa Satoka from Gate Keepers 21 spends most of her non-BFS-swinging time talking to/critiquing/lecturing Badass Bookworm Isuzu Ayane only to get ignored, or ditched when her back is turned, much to her chagrin.
• Gintama has Sougo Okita, the 1st captain of the Shinsengumi, constantly trying to kill his superior, vice-commander Toshiro Hijikata, just so he can take over his vice-commander position. Hijikata, in turn, never seems to take notice of any of this (even regarding Okita's attempts on his life as "unfunny pranks").
• During most of Glass Mask, Maya is unaware that Ayumi sees her as a huge threat to her acting career. And as result, Ayumi sees her as the main rival. Maya, instead, sees Ayumi as an inspiration worth looking up to. It's not until near the end of the Anime series that Maya realizes this when Ayumi, herself, admits it. Once Ayumi confessed that she was thinking about letting Maya fall off a weak wooden bridge and die, but saved her at the last minute, the two end up fighting. Afterwards, they both declare each other rivals.
• Saurva in The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! is deeply jealous of Jahy and repeatedly tries to defeat and overthrow her, only to fail due to her own cowardice and incompetence. Jahy fails to notice any of these attempts, and when Saurva runs into Jahy in her Fun Size form, Jahy doesn't even recognise her.
• There are such characters just in every Gundam series.
  • In the original Mobile Suit Gundam series: Hayato for Amuro. Hayato spends much of the series angsting over how much better a pilot Amuro is and desperately trying to prove that he's just as good (unfortunately for Hayato, Amuro is The Ace and leaves him in the dust from the start). Amuro never realizes any of this is going on, being much more preoccupied with his own issues and rivalry with Char. In a sense this is also the case for Amuro and Char's rivalry, at least at first — Char does recognize the strength of the Gundam and Amuro's growing potential, but doesn't see him as any specific threat and only focuses on him because of the interest Zeon as a whole has in getting the overpowered and undefeatable Gundam out of the picture; in fact, he meets Amuro face-to-face at one point and helps him out of a ditch. Then Lalah sacrifices herself to protect Char from Amuro when they meet in battle again over Solomon. From then on, It's Personal for both of them, even on through multiple series and movies.
  • Yzak Joule to Athrun Zala, and in a degree to Kira Yamato, in Gundam SEED. In their earlier battle, Yzak just viewed Kira (as the Strike's pilot) as a normal enemy that he must shoot down, but then in one battle Kira badly damaged Yzak's Duel and injured him to the point he got a large scar on his face. As a result, he hated Kira down to his deepest heart, counting his scar as his Mark of Shame that reminds him of Kira (and Strike particularly). After the end of the series, he chose to remove his scar, and marking the conflict between him and the Strike's pilot, Kira.
  • In the above's sequel, Gundam SEED Destiny, Shinn and Kira spend the entire series as faceless enemies to each other that only know each other by their Gundams. They do meet briefly, but don't know who each other is. This means that they only know each other by their actions in battle, and Shinn in particular without knowing of Kira's kind shy nature, believes that he's either evil or crazy and either way a very arrogant person that needs to be put down. Kira doesn't think much of Shinn at all, and when Shinn changes machines, doesn't initially even realize it's him he's fighting (while Shinn interesting immediately correctly assumes the guy piloting the brand new Strike Freedom is still Kira). When Shinn meets him again and is told who he is, the idea that this kind man was the guy he was fighting kills any remaining notion that his side was correct.
    • Averted with Shinn and Athrun, and in fact pitted against someone that he couldn't write off as a faceless guy who he could believe to be evil (because Shinn knew Athrun was a good person at heart), Shinn couldn't quite muster up his usual performance.
  • Gundam 00 has many. In the first season, Patrick Colasour is this to Tieria Erde, while Neil "Lockon Stratos" Dylandy hunts down Ali Al-Saachez for personal issues. In Season 2, Mister Bushido fills the role to Setsuna F. Seiei, his Season 1 rival. Soma Peries is this to Andrei Smirnov after he killed his father Sergei, while Andrei is this to Saji Crossroad for love's sake.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: This is Mikazuki's attitude toward Ein. After Mikazuki killed Ein's mentor, Lt. Crank, Ein swore revenge against the kid, and goes out of his way to attack the Barbados every time they meet. Mikazuki just swats him away like any other enemy and pays him no special attention, until Ein is turned into an extremely powerful cyborg mobile suit and psychotically attacks the group on Earth. Even then, Mikazuki's response to hearing Ein's reason for hating him is "Who is this Lt. Crank?", which drives Ein even more crazy with rage, while Mikazuki seemingly has no emotional investment in the fight beyond it being an obstacle in his path.
  • In Gundam Build Divers, this is Riku's attitude towards Do-ji. During Riku and his friend Yukio's first day, they are tricked into a battle by Do-ji and Do-ji gets his comeuppance when Riku is able to overpower and destroy his Gunpla. While Do-ji frets and worries about his next encounter with Riku and how much his brother sees him as a Worthy Opponent, Riku's been more worried about the very serious Break Decal threat. This just fuels Do-ji's Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain attitude and helps in its deconstruction.
• Ryuuka, the pompous rich leader of the Jihiyou rival house in Hanaukyō Maid Team. In Episodes 7 and 11 of the first series Taro doesn't know who she is, even though he met her in Episode 4.
• Haruka Nogizaka's Secret: When Yuuto Ayase met his rival for the second time, Yuuto didn't remember the first time until Shute, his rival, reminded him.
• Natsume in Hidamari Sketch is Sae's self-proclaimed rival, but she's really doing it because she has a Tsundere crush on Sae.
• Suzuki the Supermarket Clerk wants to one-up High School Ninja Girl, Otonashi-san in their part-time clerk job, but she consistently outdoes him without even being aware of this.
• Hikaru no Go:
  • Morishita considers himself Toya Meijin's rival, and strives to create the same rivalry between his students' and Toya's. Morishita's students are somewhat startled by the realization that the Toya school is largely unaware that there's a rivalry going on.
  • Also from Hikaru No Go, Kaga's backstory involved his numerous attempts to defeat Akira. Those ended when he realized, to his shock, that Akira had never considered him a rival — their difference in skill was simply too great.
  • For that matter, after Sai's first (and even after his second) game against Akira, Hikaru did remember the occasion and the guy, but didn't take him terribly seriously and was completely flummoxed by his 'rival!' attitude, since he hadn't even played those games of go and had no idea how important it was to Akira. Of course, most of the show is then consumed with their burning rivalry that was written in the stars.
• I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School: To Tzuka, Kanade is her hated rival. To Kanade, she's just one of the many other delinquents she beats up on a daily basis. Not even the kidnapping incident was enough to change this, as the next time Fuyuhiko and Kanade run into her, they don't even recognise her.
• Takumi of Initial D, for the first season or so, doesn't seem to really care that his enemies — and his friends for that matter — are quite envious of his racing skills; this is not helped by the fact that his first race came after five years of tofu delivery runs. His first race has him not caring about the racing aspect of drifting.
• Oingo and Boingo in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, who try to kill Jotaro and company, but just end up defeating themselves without the group ever realizing they even exist. The rematch with Hol Horse and Boingo is sort of a step-up, because at least Polnareff realizes that Hol Horse (and only Hol Horse) is trying to kill them. Iggy also attacks Boingo, but only because he accidentally hit Iggy with a crate and not because he found out Boingo's a Stand user.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: When Kenichi is training to fight against YOMI, an old enemy known as Shinnosuke Tsuji (The crazy hair guy that was Kisara's henchman.) appears, claiming he'd been training hard to fight his rival again. Kenichi doesn't remember him, and neither does Kisara.
• Kirby: Right Back at Ya!: Dedede apparently considers Kirby his archrival, but Kirby is too naïve to return the rivalry. This is in contrast to the games, where Kirby is often quick to blame Dedede for evil deeds even when he's not responsible.
• Yadano Makeru from Komi Can't Communicate sees herself as a rival to Komi, and is constantly trying to beat her in "competitions". Not only does she always lose, but Komi never realizes there was a competition in the first place.
• The so-called Fundoshi Mask from Kyō Kara Ore Wa!! is this for Mitsuhashi. Before the series, Mitsuhashi completely ruined his life in self-defence, including giving him the Embarrassing Nickname, but when he shows up again Mitsuhashi can't remember of him until circumstances lead to the poor bastard getting bandaged in a way that resembles having a fundoshi as mask (how he got the nickname in first place). When he shows up again, Fundoshi Mask decides to wear his 'mask' to be recognized immediately... and Mitsuhashi still can't remember him in the slightest.
• Greta from A Little Snow Fairy Sugar constantly challenged Saga, who was usually distracted by the fairies' antics.
• Little Witch Academia:
  • Chloé considers herself of equal standing both academically and socially to Diana, and frequently says as much to anyone who will listen, hating that Diana always seems to get the spotlight. Diana never appears to know she exists.
  • Despite the massive gap between them, Akko herself considers Diana to be her rival and always attempts to compete against and outdo her. Diana on the other hand, never considered their relationship to be a rivalry and until she began to warm up to her in later episodes, saw Akko as nothing but an reckless and naive nuisance.
• Variation: Haitani and Shirai, Urashima Keitaro's best friends at the beginning of Love Hina, disappear for a while once the plot gets going. Eventually, they reappear just to "see how Keitaro's doing", that is to say, mess up his life more. A Running Gag in the manga has the other characters constantly asking who they are and how they know Keitaro.
• Lupin III: Lupin and Fujiko are uniquely mutual examples of unexpected rivalry. Although it is usually a Mandatory Twist Ending for Fujiko to betray (anyone, including) Lupin, there are cases where Lupin refuses to give her the prize at the end. More rarely, he may have planned for her to trick him, having a contingency in place, surprising her.
• In the supplementary manga of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, no sooner did Fate become a New Transfer Student did she gain a schoolgirl rival in Alisa after the latter overachiever of a student learned that the former was way too advanced for the curriculum.
• In March Comes in Like a Lion, Nikaidou treats Rei as his greatest rival since childhood. Meanwhile, Rei, while acknowledging his determination in respect, does not show any signs of taking Nikaidou's claims of being his rival all that seriously.
• In Millennium Actress, Eiko is an older, established actress who is relegated to side roles once the young Chiyoko breaks onto the scene — and it's something of a one-sided rivalry because Chiyoko doesn't seem to bear Eiko any ill will.
• Laura from Mnemosyne is considered by Rin to be nothing more than a nuisance.
• My Hero Academia:
  • Todoroki is The Ace of the class, so Bakugo declares him the one to be defeated. Todoroki does acknowledge Bakugo's skills, but thinks his rival is Midoriya. During the Sports Festival Arc, Todoroki and Midoriya become rivals, while Bakugo becomes the third wheel for their rivalry doing his best just to get the attention of either. Later, when Midoriya and Todoroki become friends, Bakugo is still trying to get Todoroki to be his rival.
  • Bakugo also, in the beginning at least, constantly sees Midoriya as some kind of rival, but Midoriya never notices and treats him as a friend. Eventually after some character development, his view of Midoriya wears down into a more friendly rivalry, and Midoriya reciprocates.
  • Endeavor holds a deep grudge over being Always Second Best to All Might, and when he found himself unable to surpass him, he turned to his children in the hopes they would surpass him and All-Might later on. Despite All Might's attempts to be friendly, Endeavor holds nothing but contempt for him, convinced that All Might looks down on him. When All Might is forced to retire due to his injuries and Endeavor gets the number one hero spot by default, Endeavor finally calms down. He even asks All Might what it means to be the Symbol of Peace, and begins helping All Might's successor train.
  • An unusual example between Mirio and Midoriya, as neither of them knew each other until much later, or that there was even a competition to begin with. Before All Might picked Midoriya, Mirio was top pick to become his successor, but Midoriya didn't find out about this until long after he had already received All Might's power, and Mirio remains completely unaware. Although after finding out, Midoriya does begin comparing himself unfavourably to Mirio, not helped by Sir Nighteye trying to convince Midoriya to give the power to Mirio.
• Haruka in My-HiME and My-Otome (all adaptations) apparently has an ongoing rivalry with Shizuru, which Shizuru never seems to acknowledge. The two ran against each other for Student Council President, and Shizuru own by an overwhelming majority. The "Natsuki's Prelude" novel implies Shizuru sought the position to help Natsuki get access to classified information. Late in the My-Hime anime, Yukino calls out Shizuru on it, saying that Haruka knew she could never hope to surpass Shizuru, but just wanted to be acknowledged.
• Naruto:
  • An interesting variation occurs with Might Guy to Kakashi. Guy is the intense one, and whenever he brings up the "rivalry" Kakashi says something to the effect of "I'm sorry; did you say something?" Kakashi knows full well that Guy wants an intense rivalry, but puts on an act of indifference because he doesn't terribly want to be Guy's rival, and really wishes they could interact normally. That's why, when Kakashi chooses their "competitions", he tends to pick something that will be over quickly and doesn't take any effort, like rock-paper-scissors.
  • Humorously, Guy has Kisame as a genuinely unknown rival of his own. Guy can vaguely remember him, but never remembers his name until Kisame kills himself. This is despite the fact that Kisame is a Shark Man with a chakra-absorbing giant sword, meaning his appearance and fighting style should both be pretty unforgettable.
  • Danzou was fiercely envious of the Third Hokage. He had a severe inferiority complex towards Sarutobi, especially during a flashback where he wasn't able to volunteer himself for a suicidal mission sacrificing his life for the rest of his teammates, but Sarutobi did. In his eyes, Danzou wasn't able to live up to his family's and his own beliefs. Not to mention the Second Hokage naming Sarutobi as his successor in front of Danzou, something he had longed for and bitterly desired for the rest of his life. At the same time, he did respect the Third and was even on a First-Name Basis with him. Which is actually kind of a big deal, because he ends up being the first person to use the Third's name — nobody else is shown to be on a first-name basis with him, not even his former squad or his own son.
  • Naruto himself was this to Sasuke at the beginning of the manga, as he was constantly trying to outdo Sasuke, but Sasuke didn't really care about him. As he got stronger, Sasuke eventually acknowledged him. Unfortunately, to Sasuke, if Naruto could challenge him, it meant his own skills were inadequate, which contributed significantly to his Face–Heel Turn.
  • Kiba has become this to Naruto (moreso in the anime, but it's there in the manga, too). Is it simply being ashamed of Can't Catch Up? Or is it just because the whole "The Fox and the Hound" bit is supposed to be funny? Or is it simply because the two are both hot-headed, impulsive and ambitious? Taking it even further, he's even expressed a desire to be Hokage just like Naruto.
• Occurs in the backstory of Negima! Magister Negi Magi. When Asuna arrived as a New Transfer Student at Mahora, Ayaka declared that they were rivals. As Asuna was an Emotionless Girl at arrival, it took her several years to notice. This, of course, means that, given her lack of authority figures, Asuna was basically raised by The Rival, to the extent that what emotions she did develop were developed in response to an annoying Ojou bothering her all the time. Explains a lot, really.
  • Also, Takane D. Goodman to Negi Springfield. In the Mahora Festival arc, she's all about "punishing" Negi for being an irresponsible teacher and is kinda boisterous about showing how much better she is. Needless to say, she's always defeated (and naked) almost every time she insists on picking a fight with him. By the end of the manga, it's mostly her being an unsufferable tsundere towards Negi and wanting to marry him.
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion Asuka often comes across as this to Rei, especially where Shinji is involved, while Rei barely ever acknowledges Asuka's existence at all. Subverted in that Rei's internal monologue indicates that she, at least on some subconscious level, actually does consider Asuka something of a rival, but since this is Rei she is somewhat confused by these feelings as she cannot fully understand them and she gives no outward acknowledgment of this.
• In Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God, the deity of chaos Apep shows up repeatedly to hinder the sun god Ra's journey, but every time he just gets ignored as Ra goes on his way.
• Oneechan ga Kita: Fujisaki and Ichika is a rare case where rivals do this to each other due to their different motivations, Fujisaki sees Ichika as a rival to her popularity, even when Ichika doesn't care about being popular, meanwhile Ichika sees Fujisaki as someone who wants to "steal" Tomoya, even when Fujisaki is not interested in him.
• One Piece:
  • Boa Hancock views Nami and Robin as rivals for Luffy's heart. Not only are they both unaware that Boa hates them for being the sole women on Luffy's crew and are thus that much closer to him, but they also have yet to even meet her in person. Not to mention that Luffy doesn't have romantic feelings for anyone.
  • Buggy perceives Shanks as a sort of Sitcom Arch-Nemesis, who he blames for making him eat a Devil Fruit and losing his ability to swim. Shanks completely ignores his animosity and treats Buggy like a dear friend. At first it seems like Shanks is either delusional or mocking Buggy, but we eventually see this is how they've acted since they were young crewmates, suggesting despite his complaining Buggy did and still does like Shanks.
• Speed-o'-Sound Sonic in One-Punch Man is essentially this to Saitama. Though Saitama gives him some acknowledgement and understands his intentions, he doesn't seem at all interested in him and forgets his name shortly after their first encounter, seeing him more as a pest than a serious opponent.
• Overlord (2012): Nazarick's assistant butler Eclair (a talking penguin) is forever declaring his intent to topple Nazarick's leadership and rule over it. While he says this to anyone who'll listen, even the Guardians play along with him despite their fanatical, kill-those-with-insufficient-loyalty mentality (although it's possible they see him as untouchable because he was made by one of the original players). If Ainz has even heard of him, he doesn't show it (though it helps that Eclair's plan once he's in charge involves keeping the place absolutely spotless).
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Team Rocket's Meowth sees himself as competing with Giovanni's pet Persian for the boss' attention, although it's clear that the Persian couldn't care less.
  • Jessie rivaled May in Pokemon contests during the Hoenn era, but she almost always failed miserably, leading May to sparsely acknowledge her (especially since she was usually in disguise). Subverted in Sinnoh, where Jessie was a more legitimate competition for Dawn, while Kalos zigzags this, since while Jessie was also competent in showcases, Serena still barely noticed her, if more because they rarely interacted, the latter preferring the friendlier competition.
  • Pretty much any other antagonist in the anime will be deemed by them as their rival and inferior. Most of them however, prove Eviler than Thou and nonchalantly smack them out of the picture. Again occasional subversions and zigzags exist (both Team Plasma and Team Flare had this attitude to the trio initially, though it turned out to be Underestimating Badassery when they ended up aiding Ash significantly in their defeat).
  • The Team Skull trio, being Mirror Character counterparts to Team Rocket, have a similar relationship with the heroes, ironically the odd times Team Rocket meet Team Skull exist as a rare mutual rivalry for either of them.
    • Tupp in particular harbours a deep hatred for Ilima, who outshone him as a Chick Magnet when they were kids. Ilima doesn't even recognise him and, being a Mellow Fellow, apologises if they had some sort of conflict in the past, exasperating Tupp even further.
• The Quintessential Quintuplets: Fuutarou has been the top student of his school for a long time, until a guy named Yuusuke Takeda finally scores higher than him (due to him being busy tutoring the Nakano quintuplets). Fuutarou doesn't even know who Takeda is, since he never bothered to check the names below his own ranking, much to the latter's chagrin. Later however he does acknowledge Takeda as a rival, and the two seemingly become friends while forming a group for a school trip to Kyoto.
• This trope is justified and deconstructed with protagonist Miki Onimaru of Ramen Fighter Miki who can never remember Kankuro Nishiyama, despite his attempting to serve her with a formal challenge to battle nearly every episode. Justified because Miki is The Bully/School Yard Bully All Grown Up who suffers Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! and But for Me, It Was Tuesday. And deconstructed because as a Fighting Series protagonist, Miki always encounters Bit Part Bad Guys/ Very Punchable Men that defy her, she promptly defeats and immediately forgets about; why should Kankuro be different than them?
• Ranma ½:
  • Ryōga Hibiki at first glance seems to be this; Ranma basically used to always get the piece of bread that Ryōga wanted at lunch when they were in school together, and then went to China after Ryōga was four days late for the duel that Ryōga had arranged over the bread. In series, though, he's actually The Rival.
  • Tatewaki Kunō gets roughly the respect from Ranma that would put him towards this trope, but he's so thoroughly irritating that Ranma is perfectly aware of who he is.
  • The closest the series comes to using this trope is the anime-only Villain of the Week the Frog Hermit, who is flabbergasted to discover Ranma had never even noticed that he and his father, while dueling at Jusenkyō, had broken the bamboo pole the Hermit was sitting on and dumped him into the Spring of Drowned Frog.
• Lambo from Reborn! (2004) has tried to kill Reborn on a few occasions, but Reborn refuses to even acknowledge his presence, even when Lambo uses a gun to temporarily age himself up.
• Rebuild World: Akira's Virtual Sidekick Alpha has this because she's Invisible to Normals. She's a Manipulative Bitch who does everything she can to isolate Akira and make him dependant on her, negging him, and giving him advice that will keep him distant from those around him, with the most blatant example of her doing this, being Alpha telling Akira to run away when Elena and Sara see him arguing with Katsuya, in the hopes of Elena and Sara one-sidedly taking Katsuya's side, which works. She's also the unknown rival to Sheryl and Carol.
• In Restaurant to Another World, the elf Fardania views herself as a rival chef to the master of the titular restaurant, since she has a low opinion of human cuisine and doubting that humans could make a meal fit for elf consumption. After the Master served her a fantastic meal, she views him as someone to surpass in terms of culinary techniques and tasty foods. But since she never actually verbalizes this to him, the Master simply sees her as another customer.
• Saki:
  • Touka: while she considers Nodoka to be her great rival, Nodoka doesn't even seem to notice that she exists, which is a testament to her ability to ignore everything except the game itself considering how much Touka grandstands.
  • There's also Mihoko for Hisa, who played Hisa in an Inter-Middle tournament during their last year of middle school, and Hisa pressured Mihoko so much she accidentally opened her right eye — which she keeps closed due to it being a different color from her left — in surprise. Hisa then told Mihoko that her right eye was pretty, and Mihoko wanted to see her again to talk with her. Unfortunately, the next day, Hisa dropped out of the tournament due to unknown circumstances, changed her last name from Ueno to Takei, and did not recognize Mihoko when they saw each other again three years later. However, in the individuals match, after Mihoko opens her eye, Hisa finally remembers her.
  • In the wake of Nodoka returning to mahjong, her old schoolmates from Nara, the main protagonists of Saki Achiga-hen plan on entering the tournament and challenging Nodoka again, but neither she nor Saki notice at first. However, toward the end of the manga, Koromo tells Saki about Shizuno, and just how dangerous Shizuno's innate talent is to Saki's playstyle.
• Happens twice to Mugen in Samurai Champloo. In the second episode, Mugen is confronted by the man whose arm he cut off in the first episode, who freaks out when Mugen says he doesn't remember him. This appears to have happened just a week or so earlier and it's hard to imagine that week being so jam-packed with excitement that Mugen would lose track of all the guys he maimed. Second is in the three part finale, where the three brothers crippled by Mugen during the raid on the sugar ship converge on him; leader Umanosuke loses his mind even more than Ryujiro did when he hears Mugen has no idea what he's talking about. Again, it's hardly unreasonable to expect him to remember this since the sugar ship raid is one of the major formative experiences of his recent life. But then again, Mugen's a self-centered blockhead.
• In Samurai Deeper Kyo, Kyo is approached by a man who had survived an encounter with him in the past. After being stunned by Kyo's swordsmanship, he trains constantly to match Kyo's level by cutting up anyone he comes across. When he meets Kyo in the plot, he proclaims that he has returned for revenge and Kyo responds with, "Who are you?"
• Naga, in Slayers, considers Lina Inverse to be her rival in sorcery, but really just ends up being her sidekick. Naga occasionally surprises Lina with her knowledge of White Magic, is pretty darned good with Black Magic too, and in general is all but stated outright to really be Lina's equal in magic (excepting Lina's knack for the Dragon Slave spell), but she gets no respect from Lina, who treats her as more a one-woman Goldfish Poop Gang than even a sidekick. A big part of this is because Naga, for all her talents, happens to be several orders of magnitude flakier than Lina, which leads to her undercutting her own effectiveness. The fact that Naga introduced herself to Lina by suddenly challenging her out of nowhere, proclaiming they were rivals when they had never even met before is another reason for Lina's lack of interest. The fact that Naga introduced herself by setting fire to the Inn where they were staying and then fell into the fire herself convinced Lina that Naga did not have both oars in the water right from the start.
• In Sgt. Frog, rival assassin Zoruru has some beef with Dororo, but Dororo doesn't remember him.
  • Not to mention Tamama towards Angol Mois. In fact, he often wishes death on her in the most gruesome and violent of ways... but she takes little to no notice and is always kind to him. What makes it even sadder is that if Tamama were more reasonable, this could be ended with a simple discussion, because it mainly has to do with Keroro.
• Sonic X: Shadow the Hedgehog goes around committing crimes. Since he looks similar to Sonic, everyone thinks Sonic has gone rogue and he becomes wanted by the police. Sonic evades the authorities and eventually confronts Shadow, angrily demanding to know why Shadow framed him. After effortlessly beating Sonic up, Shadow says he didn't even know Sonic existed until they met and he's insulted that people could mistake them for each other.
• Soul Eater: To an extent, Black Star to Kid, who only in later arcs of the series gains any conceivable chance of posing a problem for one of the actual gods in the series. It takes Black Star's efforts putting his life in danger for Kid to a) fight him seriously and b) claim that he has potential. Before this he was fairly indifferent to the assassin's sense of rivalry.
• In Space☆Dandy, the protagonist is pursued by Dr. Gel of the Gogol Empire for reasons unclear. Dandy never seems to really acknowledge them or even seems to realize that he's being pursued by an alien empire.
• Downplayed in The Summer You Were There. In the flashbacks to Shizuku's backstory, Seri despises Shizuku for bullying Seri's best friend Ruri, while Shizuku has no idea who Seri is, only that she's from another class. Years later, Shizuku recognizes Seri, but only remembers her from the time Seri slapped her.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • Kamina seems to have a remarkably poor memory; when the recap episode shows his fight with Viral, he asks Simon if that really happened. This also works for his allies; Kittan is infuriated when Kamina doesn't remember him. Yoko was also this for Nia for a few episodes, taken up to eleven when Nia kept on being better than everything than Yoko without even trying. The two of them became friends at the end of the episode after Nia puts her faith in Yoko to rescue her.
  • Meanwhile, Viral spends a fair portion of the series unaware that Simon even exists. Due largely to Simon being the Blue Oni to Kamina's Red, Viral only ever interacts with Kamina when they fight. He's even unaware that Kamina's been dead for some time, and is shocked to learn Kamina hadn't been piloting Gurren Lagann in their fights since.
• Sixshot of Transformers: Energon became incensed with destroying Optimus Prime after believing he killed his brother Shockblast. However while he had near successes, he remained hidden inside a control booth of Cybertron the whole time, usually disobeying and clashing with Galvatron in doing such. This conflict culminated in a coup against Galvatron from which he recovered and killed Sixshot, ironically before Optimus even knew of his existance. This was somewhat poetic, since it was actually Galvatron who killed Shockwave via Unicron.
• Urusei Yatsura: Tobimaro Mizunokoji is as close to this trope as you can get when your rival still actually knows your name and what you want. Tobimaro has spent the last ten-odd years obsessing with finally defeating his Childhood Friend Shutaro Mendo in a game of baseball after they both mutually flubbed one when they were little kids, subjecting himself to endless Training from Hell in hopes of finally achieving his goal. In contrast, Shutaro Mendo barely gives a damn about the rivalry; his reaction whenever Tobimaro shows up is one of exasperation and he's clearly humoring Tobimaro by agreeing to compete. He still wants to win, but as far as Shutaro is concerned, it's just a silly game, whereas Tobimaro has made it the focus of his entire life. Which just makes his utter and abject failure at it all the more tragicomic.
• Wedding Peach: Raine Devila never spoke to the angel she fell in love with from a distance or his girlfriend in the anime, making her one by default.
• ×××HOLiC has Doumeki, who more often than not is involved in Watanuki's Embarrassing Rescue. Watanuki views him as a rival (mainly due to Watanuki's convinction that Doumeki is vying for Himawari's affection, which is all in his mind) while Doumeki clearly does not take him seriously. Later, the main reason Doumeki seems to show great annoyance at Watanuki's antagonistic view of him seems to be because he wants Watanuki to trust and... like him more.
• Emi and Takeshi from Your Lie in April are both this to Kousei, at least before they reunite in the story. Surpassing Kousei, who always took first place from them as a child, seems to be their only motivation to compete in piano competitions at all — however he never noticed them back then and doesn't recognize them when they reunite.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Jonouchi/Joey to Kaiba. He wants Kaiba to see him as a true duelist and to be taken seriously but majority of the time Kaiba barely acknowledges his presence.
  • Played with in regards to Kaiba towards Yugi/Yami. While Yugi and Yami both consider Kaiba to be a very talented duelist, they don't take their "rivalry" with Kaiba as seriously as he does. They often get annoyed with Kaiba performing reckless actions that endanger the world for a sake of a rematch with them.
• Yuri!!! on Ice: Jean-Jacques Leroy is revealed to be this to Victor Nikiforov, to a point of him being outright delusional. In his monologue in Episode 9, he reveals that he thinks that Victor left ice skating because he was afraid of facing him again in the next Grand Prix Finals. Episode 10 implies that Victor actually left because he got infatuated with Yuri Katsuki on the night of the Grand Prix Final banquet, and he isn't actually sure who J.J. is or what his nickname stands for.
• In YuYu Hakusho, Kuwabara was this to Yusuke before the story began, as shown in flashbacks. Kuwabara was obsessed with defeating Yusuke, but it took a few fights before Yusuke even started to remember his name. When the series begins, Yusuke still doesn't consider Kuwabara a serious rival, since he easily wins every single fight. Eventually, Kuwabara abandons the rivalry and becomes friends with Yusuke, more focused on getting through the Dark Tournament and then the Black Chapters crisis alive.

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