History FanPreferredCouple / AnimeAndManga

** Another big pick for who should be Tatsumi's LI is [[TheDragon the villainous General Esdeath]], the secondary antagonist of the series, as people believed that Tatsumi could invoke a HeelFaceTurn. However, Esdeath is an [[BeyondRedemption irredeemable]] {{sadist}} [[SocialDarwinist who believes that the weak deserve to be put out of their misery while the strong rule]]. This didn't actually stop the Tatsumi/Esdeath shippers, since [[RootingForTheEmpire many of them expressed a desire for her to successfully corrupt Tatsumi instead]]. [[ShipSinking This ship was sunk when Akame killed Esdeath in the final battle of the series.]]

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'': Post-series, the creators did their best to [[ShipSinking dismiss]] the Lelouch/C.C. ship. Fans of Lulu/CC persist because the pair, a [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] ByronicHero and a MysteriousWaif BrokenBird, complemented each other very well - so well that a vast majority of the show's art, both fan- and official, puts Lelouch with C.C. rather than [[ActionGirl Kallen]] or [[DisposableWoman Shirley]]. ''Anime/CodeGeassLelouchOfTheResurrection'' resulted in much rejoicing because it created an alternate timeline where Lulu/CC is canon.

* Fans of ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'' had been rather subtle with choosing their favorite pairing since the plot kinda resets the status quo every after conquest arc, though Keima/[[{{Tsundere}} Haqua]] and Keima/[[CuteBookworm Shiori]] tended to be the fan favorite ships. Then came the [[ShipSinking bunker-buster]] that was [[WhamLine FLAG 267]] where Keima confesses to [[spoiler:Chihiro]]. Needless to say, a number of people were unhappy.

** [[HoYay Naruto/Sasuke]] has been going strong ever since their AccidentalKiss in Chapter 3. Naruto/Sasuke is the most popular pairing on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. It helps that the anime showcases a lot of rather... romantic moments between them, either in {{Filler}} or the openings and endings. You can see the [[{{HoYay/Naruto}} Naruto Ho Yay page]] for more details, where they have an entire ''folder''.

* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'':
** Seiya/Shaina has quite more fans than Seiya/Saori. Also, Aioria/Marin.
** On the Yaoi side of things, there is Hyoga/Shun and Camus/Milo as two of the most popular couples.

** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' and ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'': In a rather infamous example of DependingOnTheWriter, Taichi and Sora became a vastly more popular couple than the canonically-intended couple of Yamato and Sora. Show director Hiroyuki Kakudou had always planned for Sora and Yamato to end up together, with Sora and Taichi simply being JustFriends. Sora and Yamato being married with kids was even a part of the original finale to ''Adventure'' but he scrapped this as he thought the characters were too young. Even the production staff appeared to ship Sora with Taichi instead as they admitted they were used to the main boy ending up with main girl (which was a cliche that Kakudou himself was specifically trying to avoid) and some of the voice actors expressed a preference for Taichi/Sora (including Mayumi Yamaguchi, the VA for Yamato's Digimon partner Gabumon). Mamoru Hosoda, who directed ''Our War Game'' seemed to imply that Sora had a crush on Taichi, although this "crush" was never a thing in the original ''Adventure'' and ''02''. Naturally, the fans were all thrown for a loop when Kakudou [[StrangledByTheRedString forced the issue]] by having Sora and Yamato become a couple during the ''02'' ChristmasEpisode despite [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight their relative lack of relationship development prior]], whereas Taichi had lines like "I want some of Sora's love, too," and referring to "something very precious to me on the other side of this wall" when he's on his way to rescue her. Hwoever, the Yamato/Sora relationship went over with Japanese audiences much easier than it did with Western ones and also enjoys a much warmer reception in other countries such as in South Korea. Later sequels and video games such as ''[[Anime/DigimonAdventureTri tri.]]'' and the PSP video game attempted to spin the Yamato-Sora-Taichi relationship off as a LoveTriangle because of how inconsistent the writing had become.

** While Ken and Miyako wound up married in the finale of ''02'', most fans shipped Ken with Daisuke instead, since they have very little in-show support other than her having a massive crush on him that he never seemed aware of. The relationship between Ken and Daisuke is much more developed and more intense, being chock full of HoYay even when Ken was the Digimon Kaiser. In fact, on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn, the pairing outranks all others from the whole franchise.

** [[BestFriend Goten/Trunks]] remains the most popular ship for either of them. Both would get female love interests later on, but Goten's girlfriend Valese in ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' isn't very popular for being a one-dimensional BrainlessBeauty. Meanwhile, Trunks' ShipTease with Mai in ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'' and ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' is seen as downright {{squick}}y since Trunks is a child while Mai is a woman older than Trunks' mom de-aged to a child and tried to kill Trunks' mom many years before he was born.

** [[HoYay Naruto/Sasuke]] has been going strong ever since their AccidentalKiss in Chapter 3. Naruto/Sasuke is the most popular pairing on Website/FanFictionDotNet and Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn. It helps that the anime showcases a lot of rather... romantic moments between them, either in {{Filler}} or the openings and endings. You can see the [[{{HoYay/Naruto}} Naruto Ho Yay page]] for more details, where they have an entire ''folder''.

** [[BestFriend Goten/Trunks]] remains the most popular ship for either of them. Both would get female love interests later on, but Goten's girlfriend Valese in ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' isn't very popular for being a one-dimensional BrainlessBeauty. Meanwhile, Trunks' ShipTease with Mai in ''Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods'' and ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' is seen as downright {{squick}}y since Trunks is a child while Mai is a woman older than Trunks' mom de-aged to a child and tried to kill his mom many years before Trunks' was born.

** A lot of fans of ''Anime/DragonBallGT'' thought Goten and Bra, as well as Trunks and Pan should eventually hook as way of uniting Goku and Vegeta’s families and ensuring the survival of the Saiyan-line on Earth.

** As the two primary main cast characters, Ichigo/Rukia is extremely popular among fans even though WordOfGod has stated that their relationship is [[PlatonicLifePartners "close, but not romantic"]]. The anime also supports this ship and inserts a lot of filler material to give them ShipTease that doesn't exist in the canon material. The DistantFinale revealed that [[spoiler: Ichigo and Rukia respectively married Orihime and Renji, much to many a fan's consternation.]]

** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'' and ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'':
*** In a rather infamous example of DependingOnTheWriter, Taichi and Sora became a vastly more popular couple than the canonically-intended couple of Yamato and Sora. Show director Hiroyuki Kakudou had always planned for Sora and Yamato to end up together, with Sora and Taichi simply being JustFriends. Sora and Yamato being married with kids was even a part of the original finale to ''Adventure'' but he scrapped this as he thought the characters were too young. Even the production staff appeared to ship Sora with Taichi instead as they admitted they were used to the main boy ending up with main girl (which was a cliche that Kakudou himself was specifically trying to avoid) and some of the voice actors expressed a preference for Taichi/Sora (including Mayumi Yamaguchi, the VA for Yamato's Digimon partner Gabumon). Mamoru Hosoda, who directed ''Our War Game'' seemed to imply that Sora had a crush on Taichi, although this "crush" was never a thing in the original ''Adventure'' and ''02''. Naturally, the fans were all thrown for a loop when Kakudou [[StrangledByTheRedString forced the issue]] by having Sora and Yamato become a couple during the ''02'' ChristmasEpisode despite [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight their relative lack of relationship development prior]], whereas Taichi had lines like "I want some of Sora's love, too," and referring to "something very precious to me on the other side of this wall" when he's on his way to rescue her. Hwoever, the Yamato/Sora relationship went over with Japanese audiences much easier than it did with Western ones and also enjoys a much warmer reception in other countries such as in South Korea. Later sequels and video games such as ''[[Anime/DigimonAdventureTri tri.]]'' and the PSP video game attempted to spin the Yamato-Sora-Taichi relationship off as a LoveTriangle because of how inconsistent the writing had become.
** While Ken and Miyako wound up married in the finale, most fans shipped Ken with Daisuke instead, since they have very little in-show support other than her having a massive crush on him that he never seemed aware of. The relationship between Ken and Daisuke is much more developed and more intense, being chock full of HoYay even when Ken was the Digimon Kaiser. In fact, on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn, the pairing outranks all others from the whole franchise.

*** In a rather infamous example of DependingOnTheWriter, Taichi and Sora became a vastly more popular couple than the canonically-intended couple of Yamato and Sora. Show director Hiroyuki Kakudou had always planned for Sora and Yamato to end up together, with Sora and Taichi simply being JustFriends. Sora and Yamato being married with kids was even a part of the original finale to ''Adventure'' but he scrapped this as he thought the characters were too young. Even the production staff appeared to ship Sora with Taichi instead as they admitted they were used to the main boy ending up with main girl (which was a cliche that Kakudou himself was specifically trying to avoid) and some of the voice actors expressed a preference for Taichi/Sora (including Mayumi Yamaguchi, the VA for Yamato's Digimon partner Gabumon). Mamoru Hosoda, who directed ''Our War Game'' seemed to imply that Sora had a crush on Taichi, although this "crush" was never a thing in the original ''Adventure'' and ''02''. Naturally, the fans were all thrown for a loop when Kakudou [[StrangledByTheRedString forced the issue]] by having Sora and Yamato become a couple during the ''02'' ChristmasEpisode despite [[ShipsThatPassInTheNight their relative lack of relationship development prior]]. This is much worse in the English dub, which put in a lot of ShipTease for Tai and Sora which was never there in the Japanese versions and Jeff Nimoy (the man in charge of the dub) has even apologized for changing up the script so much. The lack of romance in ''Adventure'' meant it was possible for Sora to have ended up with anyone and the Yamato/Sora relationship went over with Japanese audiences much easier than it did with Western ones as a result (it also enjoys a much warmer reception in other countries with dubs more faithful to the original Japanese version, such as in South Korea). Later sequels and video games such as ''[[Anime/DigimonAdventureTri tri.]]'' and the PSP video game attempted to spin the Yamato-Sora-Taichi relationship off as a LoveTriangle because of how inconsistent the writing has become.
*** While Ken and Miyako wound up married in the finale, most fans shipped Ken with Daisuke instead, since they have very little in-show support other than her having a massive crush on him that he generally didn't notice much. The relationship between Ken and Daisuke is much more developed and more intense, being chock full of HoYay even when Ken was the Digimon Kaiser. In fact, on Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn the pairing outranks all others from the whole franchise.