The Glorious War Of Sisterly Rivalry / Anime & Manga

• Urd and Skuld of Ah! My Goddess play with this Trope six ways 'til Sunday. While Urd is the Popular Sister and Skuld is the Smart Sister, Urd is no intellectual slouch herself (and quite the Deadpan Snarker), and Skuld can be either a Bratty Half-Pint or a Yandere. Still, they have their sweet moments. To add to the hilarity, they're also Love-Obstructing Parents; they have a middle "child", Belldandy (who is a happy medium between the two, incidentally, and a real sweetheart), and live under the roof of Keiichi Morisato — while Urd makes attempts to bring the two together, Skuld sees Keiichi as a rival for Belldandy's attention and tries to keep the two apart.
• In the second season of Aldnoah.Zero, Princess Lemrina Vers Envers is the Smart Sister and she heavily resents her Pretty Sister Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia since she is Delicate and Sickly and an illegitimate child while Asseylum is the "official" Martian Princess, and seeks to replace her as she works with Saazbaum and Slaine as Asseylum's Body Double.
• In Battle Angel Alita Alita's TUNED clones had a literal War (or, more precisely, Hunt) Of Sisterly Rivalry, where GR-6 sought to destroy every other clone and then the original to prove herself. The only survivors of which, GR-6 and the twins GR-11 and GR-12 later started to call themselves Sechs, Elf and Zwoelf respectively, and retroactively kinda became her siblings, pushing the trope further. Though Sechs actually dropped out of it, due to now him switching to the Dumbass Teenage Son role.
• Hilda and Yolda from Beelzebub absolutely despise each other, so much so that they would gladly kill if needed, as demons are encouraged to dispose of their rivals. While both are beautiful and powerful, the former was always favoured — however, both have also shown willingness to help the other when she needs it.
  • It even gets lampshaded after an arc where both go through a lot to save one another, that if it wasn't for the fact that they serve demon lord rivals, they would probably be completely loving sisters. After the arc, they act a bit nicer to one another.
• Slightly subverted in Black Butler as beautiful Rachel Durless apparently never feels threatened by smart Angelina, while Angelina feels deeply envious of Rachel but still loves her dearly and the main reason she wants to be a doctor is to help her older sister who is asthmatic. Not helped by how Earl Vincent Phantomhive, the love of Angelina's life, marries Rachel, has Ciel with her... and they're both murdered a few years later.
• Parodied in Bleach. In the early chapters, there is a running gag where Rukia is often seen reading a shojo manga, which, according to supplemental materials from the tankoban, is about two sisters having a private war over a box left to them by their dead mother.
  • In-series, this is averted by the Kotetsu sisters. Older sister Isane is the "Beautiful" one since she's a kind and softspoken healer, while younger sister Kiyone is the "smart" one thanks to being a Fiery Redhead, but they get along pretty well as we can see.
• Blood+: Saya is the "Smart" Sister, though she's not so much snarky or intelligent so much as she embraces her humanity and excludes herself from the world because of her deathwish. Diva is the Beautiful Sister, and is well aware of her sex appeal and how to use it, and wants to create a world where she can live openly and as she sees fit. ^note As a side note, they are literally at war with each other.
• Semi-averted by Momiji Fujimiya (Beautiful) and Kaede Kunikida (Smart), the fraternal twin Cain and Abel sisters of Blue Seed. Since they were Separated at Birth Momiji didn't even know she had a twin older sister until they came into conflict as Kaede has grown massively disillusioned of her Barrier Maiden deal, though in the end, Momiji is able to use her pure-hearted belief in their sisterhood to her advantage so she can bring Kaede back from her Face–Heel Turn. (Which turns out to be a Fake Defector plan in the end).
• Case Closed:
  • Mina (beautiful) and Masayo (smart) Aoshima. Taken to horrible levels when Masayo kills Mina over a huge misunderstanding.
  • Also, in Detective Conan Special, the Matsumoto sisters. Kiwako (beautiful) and Chieko (smart), complete with very harsh rivalry. Subverted when it's revealed that all of the rivalry was an act in order to kill the victim who stole the music school and forced their father to commit suicide. In truth, they really love each other.
  • Again with the Kataoka sisters, Sayuri (beautiful) and Saki (smart). Saki has always been jealous that her sister was the favorite child since the old days, became a famous idol and married (later divorced) her boyfriend Keiichi, but her last straw broke when Sayuri came to star in Saki's plays and performed even BETTER than her. It got worse, and Saki ended up beating Sayuri to death'.
• In Date A Live the Yamai twins first appear locked in a struggle with one another, with the winner absorbing the loser to become the true Yamai. They are very close in appearance but with wildly different personalities. The two love each other deeply and have secretly been throwing their fights to avoid killing one another; when they discover this their trash talk changes to convincing the other sister they should be the winner until Shidou seals their powers.
• Agon and Unsui of Eyeshield 21 are probably the closest example of a male version of this trope. Agon is popular (especially with women), arrogant, shallow, lazy and condescending. Unsui is reserved, analytical, serious, hard-working, and eternally overshadowed by his brother in every way. They don't necessarily argue, but Unsui often scolds Agon for being a jerkass and Agon loves to tease his brother.
• Erina and Alice Nakiri in Food Wars! are a cousin variation of this, although they zigzag a bit on the "smart" and "beautiful" roles. Erina was mean to Alice when they were growing up and still looks down on her, preferring to stand as the superior chef. In exchange, Alice teases Erina where she knows her cousin is less experienced — social life and behaving like a normal teenager. Despite this, as the story advances it's revealed that the two love each other very much.
• Hinagiku and Yukiji Katsura of Hayate the Combat Butler could qualify. Popularity isn't quite as significant though. Hinagiku is the school idol and Yukiji is a teacher but noticeably less popular. Yukiji likes to drink and is constantly wasting money, while Hina is the student council president, president of the kendo club and seems to be good with money, at least to the effect of lending large amounts to her sister.
  • The two also apparently have the rivalry of their foster parents' affections. Yukiji is favored by their father while Hinagiku is for their mother.
  • It seems while it isn't a point of contention to cause the two to argue, Yukiji does have a grudge over her sister's popularity. And Hinagiku doesn't seem to have any reluctance to harm her sister, particularly when Yukiji barges in on her changing. OTOH, though, Hina is shown to have quite a bit of respect for her older sister, using 'onee-san' even while berating.
• Subverted in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, when Ginga Nakajima, Subaru's beautiful and more accomplished older sister is first introduced. While we are first led to believe by Subaru's subdued reaction to Ginga's transfer that there is some unresolved tension between the two, it is soon revealed to be just Subaru struggling to express her joy properly — for her relationship with Ginga is actually very close and trusting and is rooted in a lot of trauma they've endured together.
• In Magi: Labyrinth of Magic, we have Princess Hakuei and her cousin Princess Kougyoku, who become step-sisters after Hakuei's mother marries Kougyoku's father. Both girls are very beautiful as well as powerful fighters, but Hakuei is a Proper Lady of War loved by pretty much everyone, while Kougyoku is low-born and VERY socially awkward with next to no friends...so Kougyoku envies Hakuei a LOT, both for having a good relationship with Prince Kouen (whom Kougyoku might admire...a bit too much) and for her popularity and skill.
• Minami-ke spreads the trope over three sisters instead of two, though it's largely borne by Kana (the Popular Sister, minus the actual popularity) and Chiaki (mostly the Smart Sister). Eldest Haruka picks up the "popularity" aspect of Popular Sister and "responsibility" fragments of the Smart Sister role. The warring is entirely between Kana and Chiaki as well and is mostly over Kana wanting Chiaki to participate in her shenanigans, and Chiaki calling Kana an idiot and preferring her own shenanigans.
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt has the Anarchy sisters, with Panty being the Beautiful One and Stocking being the Smart One. When they're not fighting Ghosts, they are often quarreling with each other, especially in "Transwhoremers".
• Poor Misty from Pokémon: The Series has to deal with Popular Triplet Sisters! It doesn't help that while not bad people, Daisy, Violet, and Lily are completely irresponsible Gym Leaders as well, causing Misty to leave Ash and Brock at the end of Johto to run the family's Gym properly.
• Narumi (beautiful) and Kurumi (smart) in The Prince of Tennis. They adore each other, yes, but Kurumi also feels very awkward as she feels Narumi is overshadowing her.
• Ranma ½ plays around with this trope. Nabiki is not so much "smart" as she is "cunning" and enormously popular with the guys even when everyone knows she only dates them in order to fleece them for all they're worth. Also, it's "Beautiful" Akane who criticizes Nabiki for her shallowness and materialistic attitude.
• Subverted with Hilda (Beautiful) and Freya (Smart) in Saint Seiya, since normally the smart sister adores the beautiful one and is loved back by her, and are on opposing sides only when Hilda is Brainwashed and Crazy and Freya is the the only one who realizes this so she runs away to get help on how to save her. Once Hilda is released, she returns to her gentler self and the sisters are tearfully reunited.
• Karala (the popular younger sister) and Harulu (the smart older one) from Space Runaway Ideon go for the Cain and Abel route.
• Downplayed in Spirited Away with the witch sisters Yubaba and Zeniba. The two lead vastly different lives — Yubaba is a wealthy businesswoman who runs a famous bathhouse for tired spirits, which technically makes her the Smart One (as she has a head for numbers and industry), while Zeniba lives alone in a small cottage in the woods; the heroes of the film come to like her more than Yubaba, so she could be considered the Popular One. The two sisters aren't fond of each other, but they don't seem all that interested in pursuing their rivalry; it's more a case of leaving one another alone unless provoked.
• Momo and Nana Deviluke from To Love Ru, even more so in the sequel Darkness. Momo, the younger one, is more extroverted, devious, scheming, sexually active, comfortable herself and quite popular, while Nana, far from bookish or unpopular, is far more straightforward, cynical, sheltered and a Tsundere.
• Lady Jaguara and her younger twin sister Hamona from Wolf's Rain. In this case, there was also a man involved.
• Miku and Nino from The Quintessential Quintuplets spend much of the story constantly squabbling dure to their differing personalities (Miku is meek and nerdy, Nino a flamboyant socialite) and differing opinions on Fuutaro (Miku is love with him and Nino hates his guts). They eventually work things out and even end up opening a cafe together.

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