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Childhood Friends
aka: Childhood Friend

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"I've known Barbie since we were in matching cribs!"
Midge, Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse, "Let's Make A Doll"

There are many kinds of friendship: work friends, school friends, drinking buddies and more. Yet one of the very closest types of friendship is that of Childhood Friends. Before you have to worry about the shock of betrayal or the possibility of romance, this is the friend that will always have your back. No one knows you better than them. And it shows when childhood friends are treated more intimately or are trusted more than other friends.

Since many friends have known each other since childhood, they're very likely to be Best Friends. Regardless what form it takes, the experiences they've shared since childhood is what forms and strengthens their bond.

Supertrope of Childhood Friend Romance, Patient Childhood Love Interest, Beleaguered Childhood Friend, Forgotten First Meeting and Forgotten Friend, New Foe.

Contrast Old Flame Fizzle.


Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • 86 EIGHTY-SIX: In Episode 8, during an argument between Lena and Annette, it's revealed that Annette's childhood friend, who was her neighbor, was deported to the 86th Sector of the Republic by the government. In episode 9, Lena, in an attempt to get Annette to follow her plan, reveals that she knows that Shin was Annette's childhood friend who was sent to the 86 district due to Annette's actions.
  • Pictured above: The entire premise of Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day revolves around a group of six childhood friends who drifted apart after one of them (Meiko aka Menma) dies and years later, Menma appears as a ghost asking Jintan to have a wish granted, but she doesn't know that wish, so he gathers around his old friends to help solve his problem.
  • In Aruosumente, Legna and Emperor Artian. Since Legna's father served Artian's father as an Oracle and Legna was meant to be raised as secluded as possible, Artian was the only other child he had any contact with and they became friends. By the time of the present story, however, the two have grown apart due to Artian's carefree nature and Legna's tendency towards Anger Born of Worry.
  • Asteroid in Love:
    • While they'd only spent time together briefly as children, Mira and Ao struck up a fast friendship that left a lasting impression on both.
    • Moe and Mira have also known each other since childhood, to the point where Moe is fiercely protective of Mira.
  • Bleach:
    • Ichigo and Tatsuki are childhood friends. They grew up together, trained at the same dojo, and Tatsuki recalls how much his mother's death affected his family. Ichigo, most of all. Though she eventually laments how much they've grown apart over the yearsnote , due to Ichigo gradually shutting her out.
    • Rukia and Renji ran with a gang during their childhood years in the Rukongai 78th District. Once their three friends died, they travelled together to Seireitei to train to become Shinigami whereupon events separated them for over forty years before their friendship was able to be renewed at the end of the Soul Society arc. Renji was inspired by Ichigo's strength to turn traitor to Soul Society and help Ichigo save Rukia from the executioner's block as a result of his childhood friendship with Rukia. The epilogue reveals that they eventually get together and have a daughter.
    • Hitsugaya and Hinamori are childhood friends of the brother/sister type. Since blood families are almost unheard of in the Rukongai, families of adopted strangers spring up instead. One old woman in the 1st District became a grandmother to both Hitsugaya and Hinamori and raised them together. Hitsugaya's conflict with Aizen becomes more personal than the conflict between Aizen and other captains because of Aizen's exploitation of Hinamori and Hitsugaya's desire to protect her. This gets much, much worse before it gets better.
    • Gin and Rangiku were childhood friends in the Rukongai. Gin found Rangiku collapsed and offered her food. From that day, they travelled together until they became Shinigami. Gin joined Aizen on a century long quest for vengeance because of a past attack by Aizen on Rangiku which was what led to her collapsed state when she and Gin first met.
    • Ryuuken Ishida and Kanae Katagiri were introduced to each other as very young children. Kanae was supposed to be Ryuuken's personal servant and bodyguard, but they were so close that, by the time they'd reached their late teens, she was also his battle partner and confidante. They eventually marry and have Uryuu. Her tragic death is one of the biggest reasons for why Ryuuken hates Quincies and doesn't want Uryuu to be one.
  • Veronica and Carlo of Bokura no Kiseki were raised in the same monastery together.
  • In Brave10, Anastasia and Saizo are childhood friends from their Ninja training days who are reunited as Braves at the start of the series. There's also an important Forgotten Fallen Friend from childhood in Saizo's backstory that sets the stage for his fear of serving a master and opening himself up to others, after seeing his friend who was The Ace go off to serve someone only to be easily thrown away in the end.
  • Captain Tsubasa:
    • Tsubasa arrived to Shizuoka when he was 11-12, so he considers the members of the Nankatsu soccer team (Ishizaki, Misaki, Wakabayashi, etc.) plus Manabu and Sanae as his childhood friends. In the specific case of Sanae, it goes into Childhood Friend Romance. Tsubasa's mom lampshades it in the original anime, when she says that up until Tsubasa joined the team, he had very few friends.
    • Tsubasa also was childhood friends with Yayoi, and he actually was her First Love. Her almost-boyfriend, Misugi, also counts in the end.
    • When Genzo moved to Germany with Mikami at age 12 and was bullied by the younger members of the Hamburg Team, Schneider treated him as a Worthy Opponent instead. He also soon befriended Kaltz, and according to Road to 2002 he considers the two as childhood friends too.
  • In Classi9, Liszt and Chopin have known each other for most of their lives and are now Heterosexual Life-Partners. Liszt became very good at dealing with illnesses because he has been taking care of Chopin for so long, and Chopin has seen his friend's "possessions" increase with time, which makes him one of the rare people able to bring Liszt back without getting hurt.
  • Lelouch and Suzaku in Code Geass. Basically the only reason why Lelouch didn't brainwash or kill him early on. At some point, Lelouch says, "You're the only one I didn't want to use the geass on," referring to Suzaku, and the reason he did it was to force Suzaku to save himself (when he's planning to sacrifice himself to take down Zero), other than that one time Lelouch doesn't care who he brainwashes.
  • Cross Ange has Ange and Momoka who were raised together ever since the latter met the former and already knew she was a Norma.
  • Mello and Matt from Death Note grew up together at the same orphanage, and still appear to be each other's Only Friend when they're hitting their twenties.
  • Delicious in Dungeon has Falin and Marcille. They met at magic school.
  • Dungeon Friends Forever The premise of the series is that the Childhood Friends of the title are an adventurer and a dungeon's final boss. Van regularly crashes through Ryuuka's dungeon for the sole purpose of hanging out with her. Chapter 2 shows that they met when they were seven years old. Van's family took care of Ryuuka after she got separated from her family, and Van helped her reunite with her parents.
  • In Endride, Alicia is Emilio's childhood friend (and possibly only his friend before the series starts), but while she's the very model of a childhood friend toward him, at some point she and the others acknowledge that he hasn't been the best friend back, which causes her to hesitate over whether she wants to turn it into a Childhood Friend Romance or not.
  • Veronica and Marlya from Fairy Gone were childhood friends until their village was burned to the ground and they ended up separated from each other for many years.
  • Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa and Rin from Free! were friends in elementary school until they went their separate ways when Rin went overseas to Australia to go study. When they are reunited years later, the three remaining guys saw Rin's personality changed and he declares Haruka as his rival. In the first season's final episode, Rin makes up with his old friends, which culminated in them shared a big hug at the end.
  • Future GPX Cyber Formula:
    • Hiroyuki and Kojiro were Best Friends since childhood and in their teens, they worked together with another friend Kurumada to create their dream car.
    • Hayato and Asuka (the children of Hiroyuki and Kojiro respectively) have grown up together with their families, in which they have an almost sibling-like relationship and she lampshades their closeness with him once. They eventually became a couple at the end of the TV series.
  • Haikyuu!! has three canon sets of childhood friends:
    • Tsukishima Kei and Yamaguchi Tadashi. Tsukishima stopped a few kids from bullying Yamaguchi when they were little; as a result, Yamaguchi followed Tsukishima in joining the volleyball team. Yamaguchi is also the only one is allowed to call Tsukishima 'Tsukki' without the latter getting angry.
    • Kuroo Tetsurou and Kozume Kenma. They are neighbors and attend Nekoma High School together, and are both on the volleyball team. Kuroo makes sure Kenma is included in everything he does, and Kenma plays volleyball because he knows that Kuroo likes playing with him.
    • Oikawa Tooru and Iwaizumi Hajime. They also started out as neighbors when they were small children and have grown into a strong duo on the court. Iwaizumi almost aggressively cares about Oikawa, making sure he doesn't stay up too late or put to much stress on his bad knee.
  • Nagi, Sakuya, Wataru, and Isumi are all childhood friends in Hayate the Combat Butler. While Wataru does like Isumi, for the most part it's entirely platonic. A large portion of the cast dynamics revolves around their relationships together. And surrounding them is their families and how they interact. In fact, they seem to be Generation Xeroxes to an extent, though their parents are very minor characters.
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers: Switzerland and Austria were this, though Switzerland was disappointed with Austria's lack of fighting ability. They had a falling out, and neither likes to be reminded of how close they were when they were children. Norway and Denmark were this as well, but unlike the former, they remain close in the present, to the point that Denmark refers to Norway as "best buddy" and "brother," and Norway refers to Denmark as anko, a term analogous to onii-channote , which is usually rendered as "brother" or "bro."
  • Hori and Sengoku from Horimiya have known each other their entire lives (their parents went to school together), with Hori having almost constantly bullied Sengoku until they entered high school. Their relationship is completely devoid of romantic subtext, with both having their own love interests.
  • In I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into a Girl, Mido Kenshiro and Hiura Mihate have known each other since they were kids. Hiura wants it to become a Childhood Friend Romance.
  • Chiya and Sharo in Is the Order a Rabbit?, since they both live right next to each other.
  • This is a fairly common occurrence in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, given that it takes place in an Elevator School:
    • Kaguya and her personal maid Hayasaka. The two have basically been inseparable since they were seven and Word of God states that they view each other more as sisters than mistress and servant.
    • Maki and Kashiwagi have been best friends since elementary school. This causes a big problem for Maki, since she has a massive crush on Kashiwagi's boyfriend. It's also implied to be romantic on Kashiwagi's end, though it's very ambiguous (much like her sexuality).
    • Iino and Osaragi have been friends since elementary school. Osaragi even appears to have been Iino's Only Friend up until she joined the student council. However, their friendship becomes more strained as the series goes on and temporarily falls apart in Chapter 231, with Osaragi stating that they only became friends in the first place because they were both outcasts.
    • Karen and Erika spent a lot of time together as children due to their parents being friends. The two of them have also been close with Maki and Kashiwagi since the four of them were in middle school.
  • Ryu, Shota and Chizu of Kimi ni Todoke were friends when they were a lot younger; Ryu and Chizu have been friends pretty much their entire lives.
  • Everyone in Komi Can't Communicate has some kind of oddball quirk. Najimi Osana's is being literally everybody's childhood friend. Every member of the cast has met and known Najimi at some point in their elementary or middle school lives since they transferred a lot. When put in Japanese, surname-first order, the name "Osana Najimi" literally means "childhood friend".
  • In K-On!, Yui and Nodoka. Also, Mio and Ritsu. This becomes a bonding point between Mio and Nodoka in the second year (when they're not in the same class as Ritsu, Yui, or Tsumugi) as they compare notes on what it's like being the more responsible member of a pair of childhood friends.
  • Hiyori and Manabe in Kotoura-san. Hiyori is interested in Manabe, but Manabe sees her as just a friend. And quite a bit less than that after he found out that she was responsible for four grown men sending him to the hospital with serious injuries.
  • Link, the son of the Hyrule Knights captain, and Princess Zelda in the The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2004) manga have been good friends since they were young.
  • Life with an Ordinary Guy who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout: Tachibana and Jinguuji have been friends since they were little kids. By the way Jinguuji talks, it's suggested Tachibana is his only friend. This is confirmed when flashbacks show he was raised by an Education Mama and he actively admires Tachibana's ability to befriend almost anyone.
  • The Love and Creed of Sae Maki: Kokai and Ena were friends when they were younger, pre-elementary school, until she moved away. She returns in junior high and becomes Sae's first slave, outwardly very happy with her best friend. Because of their previous relationship, Kokai is the only one who can tell that she's not happy around Sae, and she ultimately entrusts him with her journal revealing the truth about Sae's abuse. Kokai's primary motivation for taking down Sae is to get justice for Ena's death after she's supposedly Driven to Suicide.
  • Love Live!: Honoka, Umi, Kotori, and (manga-only) Eli. Umi claims to be super childhood friends with Honoka because their mothers were childhood friends too.
  • Love Live! Sunshine!!: Chika is this with Kanan. The anime reveals that she has this sort of relationship with You Watanabe as well. The anime also reveals that Kanan, Dia, and Mari were friends since elementary school before a case of Poor Communication Kills cause them to break apart.
  • Lupin III: Dragon of Doom: Goemon and Kikyo, though he is a few years older at least. Sadly, she turns out to be Evil All Along.
  • Lyrical Nanoha:
    • Nanoha, Fate, Yuuno, and Hayate met when they were nine, so by the time of StrikerS they're referred to as childhood friends. Although, Nanoha and Fate's relationship technically falls into a different category.
    • Nanoha had also been friends with Arisa and Suzuka for several years before she met Fate.
    • Shario and Griffith grew up in the same neighborhood.
    • Fuka and Rinne from ViVid Strike! grew up in an orphanage together, and Fuka often defended Rinne from bullies. Sadly, their friendship fell apart about a year before the season began due to Rinne's change in personality after being adopted into the Berlinetta family. The season even revolves around Fuka trying to reconnect with Rinne in the traditional Nanoha fashion.
    • Kyrie and Iris from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Reflection have been friends ever since Kyrie was six. At least, that's what appeared to be the case. In reality, Iris has never cared about Kyrie and has merely been using her since the day they met in her quest for revenge against Yuri.
  • Maken-ki!: Takeru has known both Haruko and Inaho since childhood; albeit at different times:
    • Takeru knows Haruko from the time they spent together at his father's dojo, where they used to spar. Haruko developed a crush on him during that time, but she refuses to admit it.
    • In Inaho's case, Takeru was her only friend as a kid, because her father was strict with her out of fear that she'd leave him. So the time they spent together is an important memory for her.
  • My Hero Academia:
    • Midoriya met Bakugou due to being the popular kid in the neighborhood, and some others as well. Midoriya admired Bakugou's confidence, yet Bakugou always underestimated Midoriya, or Deku as he called him. But after Bakugou manifested his powerful Quirk, Explosion, Bakugou began to think highly of himself, and started to humiliate Midoriya, who didn’t get his Quirk. Bakugo did fortunately get some development and apologize later.
    • Present Mic and Eraserhead met as U-A students and became close and stayed that way. It’s likely they’d still be close with Shirakumo too if he hadn’t died.
  • Takeo and Suna from My Love Story!! live next to each other and their mothers are friends. They've been best friends since elementary.
  • Naruto:
    • Flashbacks show that Kiba, Chouji, Shikamaru, and Naruto used to hang out together in their Ninja Academy days, however they're not presented as close at the start of the manga and Naruto is treated as having a Friendless Background. By the Sasuke Retrieval arc they're all friends again.
    • Shikamaru and Choji are childhood friends, as is the norm for their clans.
    • Sakura and Ino are childhood friends, but at the start of the series their relationship has been torn apart due to their shared crush on Sasuke. In the second arc they mend their friendship.
    • It's implied in Boruto that Boruto and Sarada were friends when they were younger (as Boruto's dad and Sarada's parents are friends), however by the start of the series they've grown apart. They're brought back together when they become teammates.
    • Sarada and Chocho are this way, as are Boruto, Inojin (though not with Boruto), and Shikadai.
  • There are three sets of childhood friends in Negima! Magister Negi Magi, two of them fall under Childhood Friend Romance, but there's one that (mostly) lacks any romantic subtext: When Ayaka first met her in preschool, Asuna was an Emotionless Girl since she had her memory wiped after spending at least 150 years as a living weapon. So Ayaka attacked her and it defined their relationship ever since. Near the end of the manga, Asuna says that meeting Ayaka was "the best luck she ever had" and Ayaka lived to 115 out of sheer willpower when Asuna had to go away for 100 years. Too bad Asuna had to oversleep and wake up long after Ayaka passed away.
  • In One Piece, Trafalgar Law and his crewmates Bepo, Shachi, and Penguin have been friends since the day they met each other and founded the Heart Pirates. This is especially notable in Law's case, who is very fond and loyal to his three friends, whereas he declared Baby 5 and Buffalo as his enemies despite the time the three of them spent together.
  • PandoraHearts has two very different examples:
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • Ash and Gary were friends in their childhood but grew into bitter rivals as a result of a petty rivalry over an old Pokéball they found as kids and wanted each for themselves which led to them splitting it in a tug-of-war and subsequently growing resentful of each other over it. They fully mend their friendship by the end of Johto.
    • In X/Y, Ash finds himself meeting up again with Serena, a girl he met when he was younger. A downplayed version though, since they only met at summer camp and Ash didn't even remember Serena until she returned the handkerchief he lent her. Serena nurses feelings for Ash as a result of said meeting, but Ash is unaware of them. That is, until Serena plants a goodbye kiss on him as they part ways at the end of the series.
    • Dawn, Leona, and Kenny have known each other since kindergarten. Kenny is an expy of The Rival from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, who is also a childhood friend. Barry eventually appeared in the anime himself but isn't friends with Dawn.
    • Mewtwo in Pokémon: The First Movie had childhood friends in Ambertwo and three other Pokémon clones: Bulbasaurtwo, Charmandertwo, and Squirtletwo. Unfortunately, his friends died and his memories were erased...
    • In Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon Episode 59, it's revealed that Lana and Mallow met and became friends when they were small, before they enrolled in the school.
    • In Pokémon Journeys: The Series, Goh and Chloe are childhood friends. When the two were younger, Chloe stepped forward to try to befriend Goh, who was alone and had difficulty making friends, and invited him to Professor Oak's Summer Camp.
  • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Madoka Kaname met Sayaka Miki (and to a lesser degree, Kyousuke Kamijou) in kindergarten. In primary school, Hitomi Shizuki joined them.
  • Romantic Killer supposedly has Junta Hayami, who is brought in to be the Patient Childhood Love Interest by Riri in their attempts to make Anzu fall in love. Anzu is horrified that the wizard brainwashed a random guy from her school into not only thinking they've been friends since they were kids, but also making him think he's in love with her, but Riri continually insists that this isn't the case. It later turns out that they are childhood friends. A combination of her only remembering her best friend from elementary school by their nickname of Tonta, him becoming an athlete making him far more physically fit than he was as a kid, and them just plain not having any time to interact in the years since are why she failed to recognize him. According to Riri, he would have eventually gained the courage to approach her again on his own and rekindle their friendship by their final year of high school, but they sped things up out of frustration.
  • In Saki, Satomi Kanbara, president of the mahjong club of Tsuruga, is childhood friends with Kaori Senoo, and knows that Kaori will join on her request that the Tsuruga team will have enough members to enter the tournament. While Kaori has no experience playing mahjong, she has incredible Beginner's Luck, and does fairly well in her round.
  • Scum's Wish has two sets of childhood friends — Hanabi and Narumi, and Noriko and Mugi. In both cases the former has feelings for the latter.
  • Seraph of the End: Yuichiro and Mikaela first met when the former was brought to the Hyakuya Orphanage, with both being eight years old at the time. After most of the human population died in an apocalyptic event, the orphans were taken as prisoners by vampires and brought to an Underground City, where Yuichiro and Mikaela lived together for four years. Mikaela came up with a plan to escape, but it backfired and most of the orphans were killed by the vampire noble Ferid, with only Yuichiro managing to escape. Four years later, Yuichiro discovers Mikaela is still alive, but has been turned into a vampire. Yuichiro swears to rescue Mikaela from the vampires and turn him back into human so they can be a family again.
  • Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō: Shimajiro, Mimirin, Torippii, and Ramurin. Ramurin eventually moved away and was replaced by Nyakkii. However, Ramurin makes a brief cameo in the 2018 Shimajiro the Movie: Adventures on Magic Island during the intermission you can see her in the tree before she disappears.
  • Akina and Chigusa of Shinozaki-san Ki wo Ota Shika ni! are shown to have been friends since preschool and are still close even though they now go to different high schools.
  • Grizzly Bear and Polar Bear of Shirokuma Cafe have known each other since they were cubs. Polar Bear's laid-back personality and fondness for trolling his friends plays off beautifully against Grizzly's more tempestuous and grumpy personality.
  • Tomoe and Shutaro of Silver Nina have known each other since childhood, having grown up together in the same small town. Much of the tension between them stems from Shutaro's failed attempt to make it big in The Big City and having to come back to their small town.
  • Kyouko and Sho in Skip Beat! were friends in childhood, and know each other just as one would expect with all those years of experience... although calling them "friends" currently would be something of a mistake.
  • In Squid Girl, Eiko says she and Goro and childhood friends, and, well, that's pretty much all there is to that. She doesn't have eyes for him, and he has eyes for her older sister.
  • Played with in Sound! Euphonium. Kumiko and Shuuichi have known each other for years and are treated as childhood friends, however it's noted that Shuuichi ignored Kumiko in middle school. The two have a very strained "friendship". Shuuichi has a crush on Kumiko but it's unrequited and she's completely ignorant of it. In the original books, they ended a couple.
  • Tamako Market:
    • Not only is Mochizou a childhood friend of Tamako, he is also the son of the owner of Rice Cake Oh! Zee and thus works for the competition. No, they aren't really in a romance yet, although Mochizou has some interest in Tamako. They get Relationship Upgrade in The Movie Tamako Love Story.
    • Tamako's childhood friend, Midori, has been friends with her since grade school. She has feelings for Tamako as well. She never confesses and it never goes anywhere.
  • Echizen and Ohta in Tanaka-kun is Always Listless. Though their past isn't yet elaborated on, they were apparently pretty close as kids and hung around each other's homes all the time before eventually drifting apart. It's claimed that the two were once part of a gang together (at least, according to the former).
  • Two pairs in Tonari no Kashiwagi-san, Kotone and Sayaka, and Yuuto and Kazuki have known each other since they were small.
  • Variable Geo: The OVA depicts Yuka and Satomi as having grown up together as sparring partners at her grandfather's dojo. They've drifted apart over the years, but their bond remains as strong as ever.
  • Kanako and Takatsuki from Wandering Son have been friends since kindergarten, though they don't actually seem too close compared to the others. In a noticeable case of Characterization Marches On, the first volume has Kanako as a nameless extra. Takatsuki didn't initially know about her scatterbrained personality, but by volume two shows they've been friends for years.
  • Kaname Tsukahara, Shun Matsuoka, and Yuki & Yuta Asaba from You and Me have known each other since kindergarten. Even the New Transfer Student met the twins when he was younger, but they only briefly played together.
  • Your Lie in April features a few examples:
    • Watari, Kousei, and Tsubaki, who have known each other since they were kids.
    • Emi and Takeshi who've known each other ever since they started competing in piano competitions as children.
  • Main character Yuri Katsuki from Yuri!!! on Ice is this with Yuko and Takeshi; they've all known each other since childhood, having met when they were learning how to skate at the same rink. Takeshi was initially a bully towards Yuri, but their relationship improved over time. Yuko would later have a Childhood Friend Romance with Takeshi, eventually marrying him and having triplet daughters.

    Asian Animation 
  • In Flower Angel, Xia An'an and Qianhan have had a close bond since their earlier parts of their childhoods. A flashback shows that Qianhan made a special floral bracelet with beads bearing the text "ANN" and "HAN" - short for their names - as a sign of their friendship.
  • The Lamput episode "Origins" reveals Fat Doc and Slim Doc have been friends since they were young students at lab school. Even then, though, Slim Doc was originally quite mean to Fat Doc and it took a little while for them to make friends with each other.

    Audio Plays 
  • You and Mark in Choose Me: Mark or Doug. The two of you have known each other since you were kids and are now coworkers as well as friends.

    Comic Books 
  • Archie and Jughead from Archie Comics have been best friends for years. Betty is usually also Archie's childhood friend, but of the Childhood Friend Romance sort.
  • Batman: Black and White: "A Matter of Trust" features a one-off character named Robbin Carnahan, who was a friend of Bruce Wayne's when they were in school together. When he grew up and started distancing himself from his old friends so he could do his loner vigilante thing, she resolutely refused to be distanced because she knew Bruce was a good friend and worth holding onto. He values her friendship accordingly, and even agreed to be the godfather of her firstborn, which is where the plot starts.
  • In the main continuity this is Averted, but typically Spider-Man will cast Peter in this dynamic with Harry Osborn, Mary Jane Watson, and/or Gwen Stacy in adaptations and alternate continuities, in order to give them an Adaptational Early Appearance, often with Peter getting a Childhood Friend Romance with either Gwen or MJ, depending on which one is his True Love in this version. Depending on the version, quite often one is Peter's Only Friend, either Harry Osborn while they both mutually crush on MJ/Gwen, or either one of the girls with Harry being a new friend or absent, or merely just a popular kid who just doesn't treat Peter like shit.
  • Superman: In most continuities, Clark Kent, Lana Lang, Peter Ross (and sometimes Lex Luthor) all grew up together in Smallville.
  • The Elseworld Superman & Batman: Generations depicts the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight as close friends who have known each other since they were boys, having first met when Superboy rescued a kidnapped Bruce Wayne, who helped Superboy fight his kidnappers by becoming the Flying Fox.
  • The original Teen TitansDick Grayson, Wally West, Roy Harper, Garth, and Donna Troy — are treated this way. They met in their teens and have been inseparable since.
  • Wonder Woman Vol 1: Diana and Mala grew up together on Paradise Island and their bond of friendship, trust and friendly rivalry has remained unshakable into adulthood.
  • Similarly, the original X-MenCyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, and Angel. They were between 14-16 when they were all first recruited and have known each other for roughly two decades since, with Cyclops and Jean developing a Childhood Friend Romance before they graduated. The others are often depicted as having an Unlucky Childhood Friend dynamic, with the exception of Iceman (who saw her as a big sister and, in the 2010s, would be revealed as gay).
  • In 2007, Zatanna and Batman were retconned into childhood friends. Their dads were friends.

    Fan Works 
  • 25m Distance Between Us depicts Mario, Luigi, Pauline, Wario, and Waluigi as having grown up together in New Donk City. This is because they all come from poor Italian immigrant families whose kids banded together.
  • In Back to Zero, Jessie and James met at age twelve when they went to Pokémon Tech together. As adults, they became teammates at Team Rocket.
  • Weiss, Tsubaki, and Jin all grew up together in Atlas in BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant, with Weiss and Tsubaki fondly greeting each other after reuniting at Beacon and remembering their childhoods with each other fondly.
  • The Bridge Both series covered have notable examples.
    • On the Terran side, Io Shinoda as a playmate and friend of Godzilla Junior when he was a youngster at Kyoto Institute where her father worked and she was enrolled at the psychic-research school. The spin-off "First Friend" covers their times together.
    • Due to his father being the guard that saved her and her sister from the dragon attack that took her parents, Starlight Glimmer grew up knowing Flash Sentry alongside Sunburst in their early childhood. Flash still remembers her fondly despite her dark magic incident and has been worrying for her since she went missing to start Our Town.
  • The Devil Fruit Hero: Izuku and Mipha are this. Having met in their youth when Izuku was training under Rayleigh.
  • The Differentverse: Twilight and Moondancer met and became roommates when they were eleven, though it took Twilight a year to admit they were actually friends.
  • In the Oliver & Company fanfic Dodger And Company, Dodger was friends with two dogs called Charlie and Nancy, before joining Fagin's dogs and forging a friendship with them; he later reconnects with Nancy and falls in love with her.
  • In Entrancing Wendy, Wendy has a long-time childhood friend named Elizabeth "Lizzie" Forbes. She's a few years younger than Wendy but they've been friends since their parents had known each other for years.
  • Bolin and Asami in Forced to Be a Family. They meet when Hiroshi stops by the police department to identify a suspect in his wife's murder and brings Asami along with him, and Bolin (living at the station as Lin's charge) invites her to play a few games of "Avatar".
  • Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: Since Holy Rome and Italy were childhood friends and Holy Rome is Germany, Germany, and Italy were childhood friends by default. Japan was not pleased upon learning this.
  • Here by Accident, Staying on Purpose: Downplayed with Trixie and Chloe. They weren't close as kids but they used to hang out. As adults, they reunite and become closer.
  • In The Matrix/Supernatural crossover Hunting Series there's Dean, Sam, and Tom after John Winchester saved Tom from vampires. It really starts after the three boys play tag around the Impala setting them to be friends for life.
  • In Jackalope, Izuku and Jiro met during preschool and continued to see each other as they grew older, eventually becoming best friends. Uraraka and Himiko did the same, though Uraraka had to help Himiko not grow into her crazy canon self first.
  • Having been raised by Psychonauts, Rasha in Martyshka becomes this with Lili. He ends up developing a crush on her, but he doesn't act on it because he doesn't want to ruin what they have.
  • Of Crystal Shards and Dust: There's Ruby and Yang with Noctis, Prompto and Luna; the sisters accompanied their uncle Qrow on a trip to Lucis and met the latter three there after losing their pet Chocobo. All of them sans Luna reunite after 6 years when they begin attending Beacon Academy together. That first meeting of theirs saw Yang develop a crush on Noctis, and while she claims to be over it after learning of his affection towards Luna, she still has unresolved feelings towards him.
  • In The Portal, Alex has been friends with Thomas Smith since Grade 7. When they were about 10 years old, they went to a summer camp together.
  • In Rebuild of Pocket Monsters: The Animation, Ash, Gary, and Sayako have been friends since they were little kids.
  • Reverse RWBY: Neo and Roman are two friends who grew up on Brunswick Farm together.
  • The Rigel Black Chronicles: Harry has grown up with Sirius' son; they call each other cousins, and are apparently some variety of cousins by blood if you go back far enough, but treat each other more like brother and sister. (As evidenced by their willingness to trade lives for seven years, putting not only their reputations but their safety in each other's hands, in order for them to achieve their educational goals.) They've been flying brooms together since they were four, stirring up trouble together (usually with Archie as the face of it and Harry standing quietly next to him as the mastermind), and they even agree to an engagement of convenience in order to protect Harry — although they don't plan to actually get married.
  • Seijun Tombo depicts Red, Blue, and Green as friends from a young age. In Red and Blue's cases, they've also had an intense rivalry for years.
  • Skyhold Academy Yearbook has original characters Evvy and Mahanon, who have been friends since they were very small children. They overlap this trope with Like Brother and Sister; Evvy's parents refer to Mahanon as their extra son.
  • Son of the Sannin: Naruto befriends the Sand Siblings when he and Jiraiya visit Suna to fix Gaara's seal. He's very happy when they meet again during the Chunin exams.
  • In Spectator, Effie reveals that, when she was a child, her parents hired Cecilia — a Victor from District Eight who won the Sixty-First Hunger Games — as her companion (essentially a non-sexual version of Finnick's canon contact with other Capitol residents). Despite the circumstances, Effie muses that it worked well for them both, as Effie always knew why Cecilia was there and Cecilia knew that Effie wouldn’t make a pass at her or anything like that, giving them both a certain sense of "stability".
  • In bluebellwren's Three Strikes, Blaze and Hans Grimm were stated to be friends since childhood before it bacame a Childhood Friend Romance. This friendship is shown more in the prequal The Demon's Song.
  • Tokimeki PokéLive! and TwinBee has some examples that carry over from canonical/official media of the franchises involved:
  • In Dream SMP fanfiction Unlikely, Tommy and Purpled are best friends who have known each other since they were twelve and grew up together.
  • In the Naruto fanfic, Wind Monk Banishment, Fuu and Shibuki have known each other since childhood and remain close. He's probably the only person Fuu respects and considers a dear person next to Naruto.
  • In Wine Red no Kokoro, Ann and Karen have been best friends for years.
  • The premise of the Winx Club fanfic You Were My Best Friend revolves around this. As it turns out, Layla's canonical First Friend Anne was actually Bloom, so the two of them have been friends since they were eight years old even if they had to terminate their friendship rather abruptly — Bloom was forbidden to attend her dancing classes after an unfortunate accident. For context, she magically traveled to Andros if she went to her Happy Place while dancing.
  • In The Young Six, Sandbar gets a visit from his foal hood friend, Comet Trail. Unfortunately, the fact that Sandbar has Ocellus, a changeling as his girlfriend doesn't sit well with Comet Trail.
  • In Torque (Jak and Daxter), given that they have friends since they were kids it isn't hard for Daxter to work with Keira now that he is unable to team up with Jak.

    Films — Animation 
  • Bambi has Thumper, Flower, and Bambi meeting as children and then being reunited as adults. Bambi also briefly befriended his future mate Faline; however, they don't get much screen time in the original film. Bambi II expands on Bambi and Faline's relationship as fawns.
  • In The Book of Life, Manolo, Maria and Joaquin have been close friends since childhood.
  • Charlotte and Tiana from The Princess and the Frog have been best friends for years.

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • In All Our Yesterdays, Marina and James met as children. As teenagers it blossoms from friendship into romance.
  • The Asterisk War:
    • Amigiri Ayato and Sasamiya Saya knew each other since they were kids but lost contact with each other when Saya's family moved 6 years prior. They reunite the day after Ayato transferred to Seidoukan Academy (they would have reunited much sooner but Saya slept in that day and missed school).
    • In the 6th volume, we learn that Julis-Alexia van Riessfeld and Orphelia Landlufen were this as well.
  • In A Boy Made of Blocks, Jody and her friend Clare grew up together like sisters. They both moved to Bristol and had kids at about the same time, so they're still close friends.
  • The Burning Kingdoms: Malini and her two companions, Alori and Narina. All three were together since girlhood, and she still calls them her "heart sisters" while thinking about both. It makes their deaths all the harder on her.
  • Captain Underpants: George and Harold first became the best of friends in Kindergarten. The movie expanded on this very fact.
  • Polly Plummer and Diggory Kirke in The Chronicles of Narnia. They meet in the first book The Magicians Nephew and the final book, The Last Battle reveals they kept in contact their whole lives.
  • Derek and Laura of the web-novel Domina. She moved away years ago for reasons he doesn't understand — all she'll say is that its his fault.
  • The Dreamside Road: Kol Maros and Duncan have known each other their entire lives and were a team long before they joined the growing militarized Liberty Corps.
  • In Girls Kingdom, part of the reason given for why the Kokonoe twins are such Haughty Help is that their mistress is a childhood friend of theirs, having known them for years before taking them on as her maids, to the point where they know exactly what happened to her constantly covered left eye when she was seven. The other part of it is their attitude.
  • Go to Sleep (A Jeff the Killer Rewrite): Jeff and Ben were best friends since childhood, so Ben's death hurts Jeff the most. The two are reunited years later, with the latter returning as a ghost they team up to get revenge on Randy.
  • Haganai: When Kodaka was a kid, he became friends with another kid he called "Sora", but they were separated when Kodaka had to move away. In high school, Kodaka meets a girl named Yozora, who drags him into forming a club to make friends with her. After an incident with fireworks forces Yozora to cut most of her hair, Kodaka realizes she's "Sora". He took long to realize it because he thought his childhood friend was a boy.
  • Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating: Hani and Aisling have been friends since kindergarten. This is part of why Hani is reluctant to realize Aisling's being a very bad friend to her, and end the friendship.
  • Though the two actually met as first-year midshipmen at Saganami Island and not as children, Michelle Henke otherwise fills this role for Honor Harrington; when Henke is introduced in The Short Victorious War, she is quickly established as Honor's oldest and closest friend. Though the two spend months and even years apart — and endure reciprocal cases of Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated — their friendship is a running thread throughout all subsequent novels; Honor is always at her easiest and most uninhibited with Michelle, no matter how many other close friends she makes throughout her life.
  • In How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, Tomoya and Eriri bonded through their shared otaku interests in their elementary school years. While events caused a rift in their relationship for some time, they still help each other out when they're in high school.
  • In The Hunger Games, Delly Carwright and Peeta are of the Like Brother and Sister variety.
  • In Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Reinhard von Lohengramm and Siegfried Kircheis had a bromance as epic as the title of the show. Their shared childhood memories were commonly shown in flashbacks.
  • Magical Girl Raising Project:
    • Snow White and La Pucelle were friends who bonded over their shared love of Magical Girls in elementary school. They separated in middle school, but happily reunited when both of them became Magical Girls and quickly partnered up.
    • Shadow Gale and Pfle have known each other since they were young children. Shadow Gale is Pfle's servant, but the two are very close, and Pfle cherishes Shadow Gale dearly. Shadow Gale has issues with Pfle's pranks and willingness to do dark deeds, but she still cares for her and wishes she'll become a better person.
    • Captain Grace and Funny Trick have been glued at the hip since elementary school, with Grace always eager to protect Funny Trick and bring her along with her adventures. Funny Trick is less enthused about their relationship, not wanting to be friends with a person as scary as Grace even as she reluctantly goes along with her.
  • The Maze Runner: It's revealed that Thomas, Teresa, and Arid were raised under WICKED as children.
  • My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!: In her efforts to avoid the destruction flags of the game Fortune Lover for her role, Katarina has cultivated early friendships with most of the game's cast, resulting in them becoming her intimate friends by the time the game's events happen in-universe (all of them also have a crush on her, though she is completely oblivious to their feelings). This is in stark contrast to the game's original Katarina, whose relationship with the other characters was distant and frosty at best.
  • The Neapolitan Novels: The two protagonists Elena and Lila are friends since elementary school. The four novels revolve around their growing into womanhood.
  • Oksa Pollock: Oksa and Gus are this. They grew up together before they moved from Paris to London and before they heard about that Edefia thing.
  • A Shadow Bright and Burning: Henrietta and Rook have been friends from the tender age of six.
  • One of Larry's regrets in The Stand was how he ruined a childhood friendship by quibbling over a small amount of money when he knew perfectly well he was wrong. It's one of the memories he holds to convince himself that he 'ain't no nice guy.' We never see his friend in the present (he probably died in the superflu pandemic), but it clearly bothers Larry at how pointlessly selfish he was and how he lost a really good friend over it.
  • The Sunne in Splendour: Richard of Gloucester is fostered with the Earl of Warwick, along with a number of aristocratic boys, including his own brother George and Francis Lovell. All the boys becomes close to Warwick's daughters Anne and Isabel, and Richard and Anne and George and Isabell have Childhood Friend Romances with them. George is mostly disliked, being a bully but Richard wins the boys over and they grow up to be some of his most loyal supporters.
  • Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle:
    • Lux and Philuffy are a romantic example of this. The latter acted as a Morality Chain for the former after his mother's death.
    • Sharis, Tillfur and Noct are a platonic example. They first met due to connections between their parents, and grew so close that in the present they're collectively known as the Triad and can always be found together.
  • Warrior Cats: Firestar, Graystripe, and Ravenpaw met when they were barely of apprentice age but stayed close friends for the rest of their lives.
  • Jurai and Hatoko of When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace have known each other since elementary school and supported each other the whole time up to high school. Hatoko very much wants it to become a Childhood Friend Romance.
  • In Wicked, Boq claims to be this with Elphaba when they reunite in university, but Elphaba barely remembers him and isn't fond of remembering him. They eventually become friends of-a-sort.
  • The Witchlands:
    • Safi and Prince Leopold used to be great friends as kids, but were forced to stop meeting when his status and her family's situation put them apart. Nevertheless, when they meet for the first time in years, they're immediately friends again.
    • Vivia and Merik used to be best friends with Serrit Linday, but as they grew up, Serrit's political ambitions and allegiance to the Big Bad put them at odds.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Clarke Griffin and Wells Jaha from The 100 have been friends since they were little.
  • Arrow: Oliver Queen, Tommy Merlyn, and the Lance sisters, Laurel and Sara, all grew up together. Oliver and Tommy both had relationships with Laurel at different points, and Oliver even cheated on Laurel with Sara (during the inevitable boat trip that would change all their lives forever). Tommy and Sara had no romantic inclinations with each other as far as what is shown, though considering the incident with the Queen's Gambit pretty much stalled that opportunity until it was gone, one has to wonder if it would've only been a matter of time otherwise.
  • Avocado Toast: Molly and Elle have been friends since they were girls.
  • In Brooklyn Nine-Nine Detective Jake Peralta and Gina Linetti, the precinct civilian administrator, grew up together as kids. This doubles as an Actor Allusion, as Andy Samberg (Jake) and Chelsea Peretti (Gina) also were childhood friends.
  • Doctor Who:
    • The Doctor and the Master were grew up together on Gallifrey and were close friends. It ended badly, but occasionally they are still on Friendly Enemy terms.
    • Amusingly deconstructed with Runcible in "The Deadly Assassin" — he and the Doctor were apparently schoolfriends and are still reflexively fond of each other, but when they try talking together their conversation is comically awkward and they have little in common, in a very school reunion-type manner. They mostly make awkward small talk about how many times the Doctor has regenerated and try to avoid meeting each other's eyes.
  • The five friends on Disney Channel's I Didn't Do It know each other ever since when they were on third grade.
  • Interview with the Vampire (2022): Louis de Pointe du Lac and Jonah Macon met as kids and were best friends while they were growing up. Even though Jonah later left New Orleans to find employment, when they cross paths again years later, the warmth of their rapport is still evident.
  • Into the Badlands: Veil and Jade are informed to have been this. However it's treated in a rather contrived way since their reunion (ushered by Jade's plea for Veil to save her secret lover Ryder's life) was used as a plot device to get Veil involved in the political drama of the regents and to snowball Quinn's Villainous Crush on her. After they share a very brief moment on-screen together, they are never seen talking or even speaking of one another again.
  • In It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mac and Charlie have been friends since childhood.
  • The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House: Kiyo and Sumire have been sisterlike friends since they were very young, and Kiyo despairs at the possibility of being separated from Sumire when she is expelled. They also have another childhood friend, Kenta, who goes to school in Aomori and worries after them.
  • The reason Mike stuck around his poisonous best friend Trevor for so long on Suits, even after Trevor ruins his dream of becoming a lawyer, is because Trevor and Mike are each other's oldest friends.
  • Teen Wolf: Heterosexual Life-Partners Scott and Stiles have been friends their entire lives. According to the actors they met in the sandpit in kindergarten, Stiles peed on Scott's sandcastle (the context is never explained) and they've been inseparable — and each other's Only Friend — ever since.
    Dylan O'Brien (Stiles): And there's really nothing beyond that, it's just we met in the sandbox when we were four and we've been best friends ever since and we felt 'eh, no need to make any other friends, it doesn't matter.'
  • The White Queen: Anne Neville and Richard of Gloucester have known each other since they were kids, and she lampshades this when she tells a servant girl, "He's my friend since childhood." Although Anne used to be much closer to her sister Isabel, Richard proves to be more reliable because he's the sole individual who is willing to help Anne after she becomes George of Clarence's captive.

    Radio 
  • Subverted in New Dynamic English, where the mysterious "brother" who unintentionally harassed Max on the phone is actually Bobby King, Max's childhood friend. Max and Bobby were close friends to the point where they called themselves brothers until Max was about five years old, when Bobby moved away (most likely to New York).
  • Pokémon: The Birth of Mewtwo: We have Mewtwo, Ambertwo, Bulbasaurtwo, Charmandertwo, and Squirtletwo. Too bad the last four all died before they even woke up...

    Roleplay 
  • Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues:
    • Ivy and Luna were incredibly close as children, until Luna became embroiled with Nadine's gang and drifted away from Ivy out of a fear of being seen as uncool. Both of them receiving powers has pushed them back together, and encouraged them to reconcile their old relationship.
    • Jenna and Destiny were also good friends when they were younger — and, like Luna above, Destiny started to drift away once she became involved with Daigo's gang. Still, her friendship with Jenna is what allows her to calm the other girl down when she experiences a Heroic BSoD about her Blessed with Suck superpower.
    • Zia has two; Mirielle, who she grew close to as a result of their mothers being friends, and Ciro, who she protected from bullies when they were both in elementary school. This helps explain why she gravitated towards them despite their diametrically opposed personalities.
    • In a surprising twist, it's revealed that Finn was often paired with Vivian when they were both children, leading him to consider her something like a childhood friend.

    Toys 

    Video Games 
  • Advanced V.G.: As in their OVA portrayal, Yuka Takeuchi and her best friend, Satomi Yajima, have known each other since childhood. They grew up together as sparring partners at her grandfather's dojo and have been competing against each other for just as long.
  • BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!:
    • All Afterglow members has known each other for years.
    • Chisato has known Kaoru since they were very young (and she has the Embarrassing Nickname to prove it). She hasn't known Kanon quite as long, but they still consider each other childhood friends.
    • Hagumi and Kasumi were friends as children but lost touch until they reunited in high school. The event Sundays At A Distant Park explains that it happened because the park they were playing in was bulldozed to make room for a community centre and they had no other place to meet up.
    • Lisa and Yukina. Part of the reason why Lisa joins Yukina's band is so that Yukina will one day smile again. After the band finds out that Yukina considered ditching them to play at the Future World Fes alone, Lisa is the most understanding towards and forgiving of Yukina.
  • Yuuki and Heita in Big Bang Age. Yuuki is apparently one of Heita's only real friends and the two are rather close. He's rather... surprised to learn the truth about Yuuki, too. Both are rather minor characters, though, so the relationship isn't as fleshed out as it could be.
  • Garlot, Siskier, and Jenon in Blaze Union. Both Siskier and Jenon have got some sticky feelings that complicate things, but for most of the game the three are nigh inseparable and their almost-familial friendship is an important source of emotional support for Garlot.
  • In the mage starter area in Dragon Age: Origins, the player character and Jowan are quickly established as having been close friends since the age of five or six — this is probably a deliberate attempt to make the player more inclined to go along with Jowan's (illegal, and questionably moral) plans and/or care about his fate later in the game. There even seems to be a possible dialogue option to defend why you placed your trust in him that is something to the effect of, "but we've been friends since we were kids".
  • The Doll Shop: The plot is kicked off by the doll maker meeting with someone he knew back in school. She's only referred to as his childhood friend, although how close friends they actually were is debatable.
  • Dragon Quest XI: The Luminary and his Implied Love Interest Gemma have known each other since they were children, and even went through the coming-of-age ceremony together at the start of the game. They care a lot for each other, to the point that Gemma's good luck charm (which she gives to the Luminary before the start of his journey) can give the Luminary's stats a nice boost in battle.
  • Ensemble Stars! has a few:
    • Mao and Ritsu live nearby, and as a result Mao has been looking after Ritsu since they were kids.
    • Kuro and Shu used to be childhood friends, but separated when they went to different middle schools, and then in high school, their relationship broke down completely when Kuro sided with Keito and against him during the war.
    • Keito and Eichi have been friends since childhood, explaining Keito's Undying Loyalty to him, to the extent that he abandoned his personal passion to follow Eichi in becoming an idol to keep protecting him.
    • Makoto used to look up to Izumi as a big brother, but ended up stopping. Izumi has never forgotten and is borderline obsessed with making Makoto call him 'oniichan' again, to Makoto's great distress.
    • Hajime and Tomoya are a Downplayed Example as they met early in middle school and have been friends ever since.
    • Chiaki and Eichi met in the hospital together as kids and became friends, but forgot about it after they were separated and aren't really friends in the present day. However, Eichi's use of First-Name Basis for Chiaki indicates he held on to some subconscious affection.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy XV:
      • Noctis and his gang. Ignis was raised alongside Noctis since early childhood in preparation for his job as advisor to the heir apparent when they're older, and Gladiolus comes from a family that traditionally has always been bodyguards to the kings of Lucis, and began when Noctis was still young. Despite the two technically being in Noctis' service, their bond is shown to be more brotherly than typical of a prince and his advisor and bodyguard. Noctis and Prompto only start hanging out in their teenage years, but the two met a long time ago Prompto admired him from afar for years before they formally became friends.
      • Noctis and Luna qualify as childhood friends as well, although possibly not as close, as they have been hinted to be estranged due to Niflheim's invasion of Tenebrae (Luna's hometown). However, Word of God has stated that the bond between Noctis and Luna is a basic plot element that's just as important as the bond between Noctis and his gang.
    • Ceodore and Ursula from Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. Despite they reveal they are childhood friends, they seems only share only one scene together in the whole game. You do get to use their powerful combination attack, though.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening:
    • The pairs of Lissa/Maribelle and Sumia/Cordelia have been tight since they were young. This actually leads to Maribelle and Cordelia getting into a heated argument during the Summer Scramble DLC over which woman has the better BFF.
    • Chrom and Sully were good friends and frequent sparring partners growing up. Sully respects Chrom, not only for his royal title and status as the leader of the Shepherds, but because Chrom was among a select few who could look past her gender and value Sully's skills unconditionally. As one of Chrom's scant number of potential marriage partners, the player can choose to wed Sully to him if they so desire.
    • Chrom's Supports with Maribelle establish that they've also known each other since childhood, but this aspect of their relationship doesn't become prominent until their S Support. Given Maribelle's intimacy with Lissa, Chrom's sister, this sets up a different dynamic between the three, especially if the player opts to hold off on a Chrom/Maribelle S Support in favor of the post-Chapter 11 confession scene.
    • As the children of the Shepherds, all of the second generation units were raised together and thus are generally close, though not everyone shares the same level of affinity for another and some pairs are unable to interact outside of the Harvest and Hot-Spring Scrambles. However, a handful of the children (namely Kjelle, Severa, and Gerome) became increasingly more aloof as they aged, not helped by living in a ruined future and witnessing the deaths of their parents, some of whom they were not on the best of terms with, and now keep their distance from certain individuals or the group as a whole until they eventually patch things up.
  • Fire Emblem Fates:
    • Silas and the Avatar grew up together, but were separated when Silas was banished from the fortress where the Avatar was sequestered. Afterwards, Silas decided to become a knight, believing that the two would eventually be reunited someday. If the Avatar is female, the two of them can fall in love and get married. However, Silas cares incredibly deeply for the male Avatar as well, causing some speculation that Silas may have been intended as a same-sex romance (which later was disproved since there's no Dummied Out data regarding this in the game itself).
    • Princess Sakura's retainers, Hana and Subaki, are childhood friends with Sakura's older siblings Takumi and Hinoka, respectively. The player can hook up Hana with Takumi and Subaki with Hinoka if they wish.
    • Laslow, Odin and Selena, who work for the Nohrian royal family, are three travelers who have been together ever since childhood. Again, the player can hook up Selena to either Laslow or Odin. It's completely justified: they're actually Inigo, Severa and Owain from Fire Emblem: Awakening, who were raised together alongside Lucina and the other Future Children before surviving a hellish Bad Future.
    • Prince Ryoma's retainer Saizo and Queen Mikoto's subordinate Orochi met as young teens according to their supports, so if they don't get married they will be this.
    • Downplayed slightly with Elise and her retainer Effie. They met in their youth when Elise snuck out of Castle Krakenburg to explore the city and quickly became good friends, but as Elise was forbidden from leaving the castle grounds without a chaperone following this incident, they didn't re-encounter one another for several more years, after Effie joined the royal knights and entered Elise's service. They still consider the other to be their best friend, and Effie is incredibly devoted to Elise.
  • Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia:
    • Alm and Celica has a Childhood Friend Romance going on, but this trope took place between the two and the Ram villagers Gray, Tobin and Kliff. Echoes not only adds Faye as Alm's Unlucky Childhood Friends, but gives more focus to the bonds between Alm and the three village boys. Plus, if the player leaves Kliff and Faye at Ram, Celica can recruit them later and have them follow the trope with her instead.
    • The Canon Foreigner Fernand was friends with Clive, the Supporting Leader on Alm's side, from before Clive's sister Clair was born. The three have these dynamics, adding to the drama when Fernand loses his family horribly and ultimately has a Face–Heel Turn. In the end, Fernand ends up fatally injured and passes away in Clive's arms.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses:
    • Ingrid, Dimitri, Sylvain, and Felix were all friends when they were children, likely due to all being born of high nobility. By the time of the game, however, they aren't exactly very close- especially Felix and Dimitri, as the former sees the latter as a bloodthirsty monster following the Tragedy of Duscur.
    • Constance was close friends with Mercedes and her half-brother Emile/Jeritza when they were young. She was also friends with Ferdinand, but this relationship strained when Ferdinand's father did nothing during the destruction of House Nuvelle, Constance's family.
  • Growing Up:
    • Generally, your elementary and middle school classmates will stick with you all the way to high school graduation if you maintain your friendships with them.
    • Besides Jake first meeting you in elementary, his classmates Buddy and Mort stick with him all the way to high school.
  • Hiveswap: While still young, Xefros and Dammek have been friends since they were babies.
  • In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, Rex and Nomi-Nomi grew up on the Heliopause together since they were kids and are still best friends in the present. This becomes a Childhood Friend Romance if Sol bonds with Nomi well enough for the latter to realize their crush on Rex and supports their budding relationship.
  • Inazuma Eleven:
    • Endou and Kazemaru are stated to have been friends for a long time. Word of God reveals they went to the same elementary school. Technically a number of the members of Aliea and Little Gigant count as well because they grew up together.
    • In GO, Tenma and Aoi. According to the latter's seiyuu Aoi has a crush on Tenma, but it has yet to be seen or hinted at.
    • From GO as well, Amagi with Mahoro and Yukie. That is, before they fell apart when Mahoro started actively avoiding Amagi. Naturally in this kind of series, they make amends.
  • Kingdom Hearts has Sora, Riku and Kairi. The first two have known each other their whole lives, while the latter arrives in their hometown when she's a kid and joins them.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
  • Max and Chloe from Life Is Strange were best friends as kids. They lost touch when Max moved away when they were 13, but are reunited at the beginning of the game when Max comes back to town after five years.
  • In Love & Pies, Amelia and Yuka have been friends since they were kids, and Yuka gives her a new dog as an apology for suspecting that Amelia's mother Freya set her own café on fire.
  • Ayumu Uehara and the protagonist in Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS.
  • In Otter Island, Zachary states he and Connor have been friends since childhood; their years' long friendship is a big reason Zach does what he can help Connor when he goes missing and makes it all the more tragic if he chooses to leave Connor behind to save himself and Jeremy.
  • Persona:
    • Persona 3: Shinjiro and Akihiko have been friends since they children, and they've both known Mitsuru since middle school - pointedly, they're the only people Mitsuru refers to by their given name for much of the game.
    • Persona 4: Chie and Yukiko have known each other since they were kids.
    • Persona 5: Ryuji and Ann have known each other since middle school, but drifted apart as they grew older before reuniting as Phantom Thieves.
  • Pokémon:
  • Randal's Monday: Randal and Matt have known each other a long while.
  • Roots of Pacha:
    • Acre and Jizu have been best friends since they were kids and are happy to be part of the Pacha clan.
    • According to Illoe, she and Frer "did everything together" as children. Vuak says that they have "twin spirits" while Tetih suspects that they're more than just friends.
  • Aden and Sonja, the protagonists of Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny, have been friends since birth.
  • Skies of Arcadia: Aika was taken in by Vyse's father when she was orphaned a child. She and Vyse have known each other at least since then, and have an unshakable bond, though they avert the Westermarck Effect, as it's implied that Aika may have a crush on him.
  • Story of Seasons:
  • In Sumire, Sumire and Chie were good friends in early childhood, but they have grown apart, and Chie now treats Sumire coldly because of Chie's higher social status.
  • Several Super Mario Bros. games, such as Yoshi's Island DS and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, show that Mario, Luigi, and Peach knew each others as toddlers. It's unclear whether they stayed friends throughout their lives or the twins moved away and the trio was reunited as adults.
  • Tales Series:
    • In Tales of Graces, Asbel, Hubert, Cheria, Richard, and Sophie are all this (with Asbel and Hubert also being brothers). A good chunk of the early drama comes from the fall out of Sophie's Heroic Sacrifice in the past that lead to them drifting apart.
    • Yuri Lowell and Flynn Scifo in Tales of Vesperia are this, having grown up in the Lower Quarter together and originally pursued the same dream in the knights before Yuri realized he couldn't do it. They are quite close even now despite their differing viewpoints and at times clashes.
  • In the Touhou Project series, main characters Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame are this — the two have known each other since they were kids, and while it's not as prevalent in the games, in the print works, it's extremely rare to see one without the other. The two are best friends — to the point of being considered Heterosexual Life-Partners. It's to the point where Marisa is seen more at the Hakurei Shrine than she is at her own house.
  • Luke and Nick from The Walking Dead have been close friends for at least 20 years.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles:

    Visual Novels 
  • Kouin, Yuuto, Kaori and Kyouko of Aselia the Eternal - The Spirit of Eternity Sword fall into this. Kaori doesn't have much of the dynamic, and Kyouko is more of a romance, but Kouin and Yuuto definitely fall into this. The third chapter focuses around Kouin and Kyouko equally with the main plot of the entire world blowing up.
  • Hiroki and Yanagi in Canvas 2. A later event in the story is about an attempt to repair said friendship due to some complications involving the third childhood friend that they both liked.
  • Yoshiyuki, Wataru and Koko are all childhood friends in Da Capo II. Koko's relationship with the other two gets much more complicated, but Wataru and Yoshiyuki fall straight into this instead. It's one of the factors that makes Koko's route that much more dramatic.
  • Sonono Nene and Ootori Reina from ClockUp's Team Anise's Eroge! Sex and Games Make Sexy Games. At first glance, you would think that the former is the latter's daughter (Tomoya even mentions it at one point)... but they're actually both in their thirties. Yipes.
  • In Euphoria, by the same developers of the above-mentioned, Keisuke has known Kanae ever since they were kids, which is the reason why he doesn't want to lay a finger on her even as he's perfectly willing to victimize everyone else. In actuality, he was this with Nemu, not Kanae.
  • Ryouta and Hiyoko, in Hatoful Boyfriend. Ryouta even gets anxious and possessive when considering the idea that Hiyoko may grow apart from him in time.
  • Yuuchi from Kanon has childhood friendship relationships with all female main characters, except Shiori.
  • The original eponymous Little Busters! were made up of five childhood friends, four guys and one girl.
  • In Majikoi! Love Me Seriously! we have both the Kazama Family including seven people, and the 2-S trio of Touma, Jun, and Koyuki.
  • The girls in My Harem Heaven is Yandere Hell are this to Yuuya. Since this is a Yandere Romance Game, things will go downhill.
  • Junpei and Akane from Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors went to elementary school together and haven't seen each other since then. Now they have to survive the Nonary Game with seven more people, nine years later.
  • In Our Life: Beginnings & Always, as long as Jamie is not indifferent to him, they will always be noted as being particularly close to Cove, from the day he moved in across the street when the two were eight.
  • Natsuhiko, Mashiro, and Yuuri are an important instance of this in Root Double: Before Crime * After Days.
    • Mashiro and Yuuri are both variations on the Patient Childhood Love Interest, ending up as eternal love rivals but prioritising their friendship above anything else. Natsuhiko's desire to protect them both motivates him through prettty much all of the plot.
    • A young and lonely Jun formed a close friendship with Kazami's younger sister Nagisa and eventually Kazami herself, although this had a more tragic outcome.
  • In Shall We Date?: Ninja Shadow, it turns out that Eduard has been living in Ukyo's village ever since he was a child, so he and a guy named Natsume (from a game named Shall We Date?: Ninja Assassin) have been close ever since childhood.
  • In Spirit Hunter: NG, Akira and Seiji have been friends since elementary school. Akira was an outcast due to his abrasive personality and poor upbringing, but caught Seiji's attention when he picked a fight with him. The two have been close ever since.
  • This is Mayuri's and Okabe's relationship in Steins;Gate. While they care deeply for each other (to the point that Okabe nearly kills himself by repeatedly time jumping trying to avert her death), there's practically no sexual tension between them, and they never speak of each other in romantic terms. If asked, they will refer to Mayuri as Okabe's "hostage", a sort of in-joke reference to one of his Mad Scientist rants when they were younger.
  • Tokimeki Memorial 2 Substories: Leaping School Festival:
    • An Event in Homura Akai's route reveals that her grandfather Ringo and Hibikino High's headmaster Bakuretsuzan are childhood friends, and still are the best friends in the world despite the years and the fact they were (friendly) rivals for the heart of the girl who would become Homura's grandmother, in their High School time.
    • And then there's Homura herself with Akane Ichimonji. The two are best friends since childhood, although Akane feels from time to time the need to take a break from Homura and avoids her, as shown in an Event in Childhood Mode. Speaking of Akane, in the 10th Drama CD, she and the protagonist, Kouichi, discuss about childhood friends:
      Kouichi: Say... Ichimonji-san, do you have someone you can call a childhood friend?
      Akane: Me? Mmm... Well, someone I could call as such... I'd say Homura.
      Kouichi: Aah, Akai-san, huh?
      Akane: Well, rather than a childhood friend, she's more like a kusare-en (a destined friend, a fatal bond) to me.
      Kouichi: I see.
      Akane: But, it's nice to have childhood friends.
      Kouichi: Is that so?
      Akane: They know each other very well, and can say everything to each other! They're like best friends, or even family!
  • Tsukihime:
    • Arihiko and Shiki. Arihiko is one of the few people who really knows all about Shiki and understands him and the two are mostly inseparable.
    • Shiki is also this with the maids Hisui and Kohaku. Also, Akiha except she is his sister even though she's not really his sister.
  • Subaru and Saki in Yandere I Love You So I Want To Kill You. Subaru takes advantage of her already established feelings and gets her to have sex with him.

    Webcomics 
  • Georgia, Rita, Ean, Siggi and Jen in Fine Sometimes Rain grew up together and have been close friends since childhood.
  • In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, Floyd Fitznewski may be kind of a jerk, which Bob acknowledges, but they've been friends since childhood so Bob forgives him a lot. He apparently also knew Herb Gardner and Heywood J. Lookathat back then, too.
  • Sylas and Seiji in Never Satisfied have known each other basically forever. Seiji's been crushing on Sylas nearly as long.
  • Penny, Sara and Michelle of Penny and Aggie have been friends since their preteen years, Penny and Sara for at least two years longer. Word of God also has it that Fred and Daphne have been best friends since childhood.
  • Prince of Cats: Lee and Frank met in second grade and have been inseparable ever since.
  • Rain and Gavin in Rain, although there were several years between their initial friendship and subsequent reunion, during which Rain quietly socially transitioned. Gavin remembers Rain as a boy named Ryan.
  • Tower of God:
    • Beniamino Cassano and Beniamino Ilmar (now known as Kang Horyang), two boys who grew up together as scientific experiments.
    • Also, Bam and Rachel, but their relationship was always kinda complicated.
  • Vampire Cheerleaders features a crossover childhood friendship between Stephanie Kane (the protagonist of Paranormal Mystery Squad) and Layla Delacroix (from Eerie Cuties). Which came about as a result of Ascended Fanon, since both have emotive skull hairpins. As it turns out, it was coincidental, but Adam Arnold (the author of PMS) collaborated with Giselle Legace and David Lumsdon (the co-writers of Eerie Cuties and Magick Chicks) and made it so Layla had a matching set of hairpins as a child and had given one to Stephanie as a parting gift.

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 
  • In 6teen, the main cast (minus Caitlin) have been friends since kindergarten.
  • The main cast in All Grown Up!, for it is a sequel series to Rugrats.
    • In the original series, it's also occasionally mentioned that Stu and Drew were friends with Chas when they were kids.
  • The Amazing World of Gumball: Gumball is in seventh grade, and in "The Cringe", a picture of a younger him shows that he studied with his current classmates Banana Joe, Molly, Tobias, Leslie, and Hot Dog Guy since kindergarten.
  • Amphibia: In the Third Temple, its reveal that Anne has been friends with Marcy since they were little girls before they knew Sasha.
  • The majority of the third-grade cast of Arthur have known each other since preschool.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender:
    • Flashbacks show that Azula, Mai and Ty Lee were friends since they were children and Mai had a crush on Zuko since then. Later in the series, not only do the latter two become an Official Couple, but also Mai betrays Azula along with Ty Lee after Zuko pulls a Heel–Face Turn, admitting that she loves Zuko more than she fears Azula.
    • Flashbacks in another episode show that Avatar Roku and Fire Lord Sozin used to be very good friends when they were children, but their friendship fell apart in their adulthood when Sozin started the war.
  • Flashbacks show that Beavis and Butt-Head have always been the same since they were kids.
  • In Danny Phantom, it is mentioned that Danny and his best friends Tucker Foley and Sam Manson have known each other since at least the second grade. Danny and Sam in particular have an obvious attraction to each other that everyone except them can see.
  • By the final season of Futurama, Fry has forgotten that he and Bender aren't this.
    Fry: Whoa! Remember that mural on my cousin's van? It's like it came to life!
    Bender: (frustrated) I keep telling you, we didn't grow up together!
  • Wendy and Tambry from Gravity Falls have been friends since they were five.
  • It's revealed in Grojband that Trina and Mina have known each other since kindergarten.
  • The majority of Harvey and his friends in Harvey Beaks have all known each other since they were babies in "Technoscare" episode.
  • Kaeloo: Kaeloo, Stumpy, Quack Quack, and Mr. Cat have apparently known each other at least since they were toddlers, as a flashback shows them in the same class in kindergarten.
  • Kim Possible: While it's mentioned early on that Kim and her best friend/sidekick Ron Stoppable have known each other since early childhood, the movie A Sitch in Time actually shows their first meeting, on the first day of kindergarten. They're Platonic Life-Partners right up to So the Drama, where they undergo a Relationship Upgrade to Childhood Friend Romance.
  • Molly of Denali: Molly and Tooey have been friends for as long as they can remember. It is proven that they knew each other longer than they knew their other friends in "Culture Clash". In the episode, Tooey recalls how he and Molly tried to make friends with Oscar and Vera when they were new.
  • Motorcity. According to the Motorcity bible, Julie and Claire (who appear to be this their mid-to-late teens) have been best friends since kindergarten.
  • In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, this is the main reason Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are so close. They both went to flight camp together, and Dash was happy to defend Fluttershy from the bullies who would pick on her. Exactly how well they knew each other as kids depends on the writer. The first two seasons had episodes that implied Rainbow knew next to nothing about her and Fluttershy failing to recognize one of Rainbow's old friends. Meanwhile, later seasons make it clear that they were close enough as kids to know the odd quirks of the other's families.
  • The Patrick Star Show: According to "The Lil' Patscals", GrandPat, Mr. Krabs, Mrs. Puff, Granny Tentacles, and Old Man Walker were True Companions as kids who went on adventures. The ending shows that even though they're now much older, they still try to have fun together.
  • Candace and Stacy in Phineas and Ferb have shared an enduring friend relationship. It is unknown when they met or how they became friends. What is known is that their relationship can be traced as far back as the third grade, when they were trying to impress a boy named Billy Clarke.
  • The Ridonculous Race:
    • Racing partners, Carrie and Devin have stated that they first met at a sandbox when they were kids and have been friends ever since. Their relationship soon turned romantic over the course of the race.
    • Ice Dancers Jacques and Josee state in the Brazil leg of the race that they have been making great costumes since they were kids and that they have known each other for fourteen years. Taking into account, the Word of God statement that Jacques is 22 and Josee is 20, its made clear that they have first met when Jacques was 8-years-old and when Josee was 6 years old.
  • Unlike most versions, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has the turtles and April know each other from the start. The novelization confirmed that they've all been friends since childhood.
  • The four boys of South Park have known each other since preschool... and even back then, Kyle and Cartman were Vitriolic Best Buds.
  • Steven Universe: "Three Gems and a Baby" shows that Buck and Jenny have known each other since they were kids.
  • Super Noobs:
    • This show has a group of them as main characters, consisting of Tyler, Kevin, Roach, and Shope, who are better off known as the "Noobs" and have obviously been hanging out with each other since they did not have any other friends until they became virus warriors
    • Memnock and Zenblock, the Noobs' alien tutors, heavily imply in "Zooper Noobs" that they have known each other ever since they were children as they both mentioned that they loved riding the monorail at the space zoo when they were kids, making it very likely that they either went there together or first met at the space zoo.
  • Total Drama: First season contestants Katie and Sadie not only stated that they knew each other since they were kids, but were next door neighbors for their entire lives and that they got the chickenpox together. Their bond is shown to be very strong and inseparable because of this and could survive a lot of bickering bouts.

    Real Life 
  • There's a very good reason that Greg Grunberg shows up in everything J. J. Abrams makes, even if it's just a cameo or voiceover. Not only are they best friends, they've been best friends since Fourth Grade.
  • In the ice dancing world:
    • Meryl Davis & Charlie White have been partners (and friends) since they were eight.
    • Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir even "dated" when they were 7 & 9.
  • Graham Stark and Paul Saunders of LoadingReadyRun met in their grade 3 and 4 split class.
  • Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of N*E*R*D met when they were 12, according to The Other Wiki..
  • Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith of Tears for Fears were introduced to each other as 13-year-olds through a mutual friend named Paul. Music has been an integral part of their friendship since Day 1 because during their first meeting, Roland heard Curt singing to Blue Öyster Cult's "Then Came the Last Days of May", and the former was impressed enough that he immediately asked the latter if he wanted to be the lead singer of his band. Curt replied yes, and the duo became best friends and musical partners from that point forward.
  • Mathias Nygård and Jussi Wickström, the vocalist and guitar player for Finnish metal band Turisas, met as young teenagers.

Alternative Title(s): Childhood Friend

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