◊!A romance, sexual or otherwise, between two different species. Sometimes they are Humanoid Aliens, or they can be a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire and a human, two Funny Animals, or a Beast and Beauty couple. The type of species can diverge greatly, so long as they are different.
May include a moral about the Fantastic Racism version of inter-racial romances. Also may be Starcrossed Lovers. Anyone looking for more built in angst will make one of these a Mayfly–December Romance. In less realistic settings, can easily result in Half Human Hybrids, Hybrid Monsters, Non Human Humanoid Hybrids, or even Random Species Offsprings.
Chances of it actually becoming an Official Couple (and evolving into a mixed marriage) are increased if the nonhuman has a human form. Although there is an element of Squick amongst a certain number of audience members, most people accept it in cases where there are no humans involved. If one of them is human, and the other clearly isn't, expect a much larger portion of the audience to ignore all evidence that both are people, malign the consenting romance as something else, or for it to not happen at all. For anthropomorphic animals, this can be a source of Furry Confusion, especially if they're the only couple seen to be of different species, or the only couple of radically different phenotype
.
For some this is the way to go about First Contact. Alien invaders seemingly love to tempt humans with this as part of their Masquerade, although you'd think they'd learn better.
This is somewhat vague though, as a species is defined as a group of organisms that can mate and produce fertile offspring, so many "interspecies" relationships that can result in pregnancy may be closer to a Bulldog and Great Dane pairing than a Bulldog and Cat pairing.note
See also: Extreme Omnisexual, Boldly Coming, Bestiality Is Depraved, Mars Needs Women, Divine Date, Magical Girlfriend, Deus Sex Machina, Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?, Boy Meets Ghoul, Robosexual (for when the "species" barrier is a robot, AI, or other artificial lifeform), Robosexuals Are Creeps (for when the sexual or romantic attraction is portrayed as creepy), Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action (for when you wonder how these two things could actually reproduce, or at least engage in activities that would lead to reproduction with members of their own species), Muggle–Mage Romance, Animal Sweet on Object, What Measure Is a Humanoid?, and Succubi and Incubi (who almost invariably have sexual interests that go beyond their own demonic species). Any romantic variant of Monster and the Maiden also qualifies here by default. May involve Exotic Equipment or the Male-to-Female Universal Adaptor. May lead to Half Human Hybrids or to a Non-Human Lover Reveal if one member was keeping secrets. If society does not approve of such romance, then it's also Maligned Mixed Marriage. Interspecies Friendship and Predator-Prey Friendship are the platonic versions of this trope. It may also involve Non-Standard Kissing. The offspring of the couple may be born in a Whale Egg or from a Pregnant Reptile.
Examples:
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Fan Works
- Films
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Mythology & Religion
- Tabletop Games
- Video Games
- Webcomics
- Web Original
- Western Animation
- Other Media
