Companion Cube/Anime and Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Companion Cubes in Anime and Manga include:

  • Seems to be quite common in the Gundam series. Particularly, in Gundam Wing, all of the characters who pilot Gundams will talk to their machines at least once every couple of fights. In an early episode, when Quatre´s about to blow up his own Gundam, Sandrock, the cockpit opens by itself, causing Quatre to wonder: "Are you telling me to get down, Sandrock?" A few of the suits also have the ZERO system, which tends to inspire insanity in the pilots who use it. That sure doesn't help.
  • The Angels in Angelic Layer. If you hear "it's just a doll/toy/robot", you know that person needs a dose of The Power of Friendship, despite your parents probably thinking they have a valid point.
  • Mazinger Z: Several times the characters talk to or about Mazinger-Z and FemBot Aphrodite A like if they were sentient beings. Sayaka actually had a Heroic BSOD when Aphrodite A was destroyed. She even hallucinated Aphrodite was calling her. And then you have Minerva-X, an actual sentient FemBot and Humongous Mecha could act, think and feel on her own and was programmed to be Mazinger-Z's Battle Couple, and considered Mazinger was meant to be HER Companion Cube (as Sayaka protested only Aphrodite was allowed to be Mazinger's partner).
  • Rebecca's Teddy Bear in Yu-Gi-Oh!, who she called Teddy-chan, despite being American. It was actually a possessed bear in Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series.
  • The doll Emily from Soukou no Strain at first heads in this direction, being Sara's only confidante. Then you find out she's alive -- she's Powered by a Forsaken Child's still-living brain.
  • Yamada the rock in Minami-ke has gained a lot of respect for a small stone.
    • Also, Chiaki's teddy bear Fujioka (at least in the first season). She talks to it quite often and viewers can only hazard a guess as to whether its reactions are real or all in Chiaki's Ahoge.
  • The lizard Ellis picks up in episode 3 of El Cazador de la Bruja is hardly an inanimate object, but the only thing it does in the entire series, aside from belch in Nadie's face, is crawl away in the end of the said episode. Nevertheless, it immediately became target of wildest Epileptic Trees and gained an affectionate Fan Nickname "Squenchy". And there is also another matter with the Sniper Cat in the ED video, too...
  • Played for horror in Neon Genesis Evangelion, with Asuka's mother having an Asuka doll that she cradles and talks to, to the exclusion of her own daughter, because she thinks the doll is her real daughter and doesn't recognize Asuka as being her child thanks to having half of her soul torn from her body to make the second EVA. She then asks the doll to commit suicide with her, despite Asuka begging her mother to let her die with her instead of the doll. Later Asuka walks in to find both her mother and the doll dangling from the ceiling.
  • Then there's the Vulcan 300, a "toy robot" made from a pocky box, in Konjiki no Gash Bell!! Then again, only Gash considers it an actual person...
    • Or maybe not. Tio has her own pocky box toy, named "Valunlun". In some endings, Kanchome and Umagon are shown with green and orange pocky box toys as well, although God only knows how Umagon made his....
  • The houseplant in Noir (which may be a reference to Leon below).
  • Nekozawa's hand-puppet Beelzeneff, Tamaki's teddy, and Honey's stuffed pink rabbit in Ouran High School Host Club.
  • Crona of Soul Eater refers to the corner that s/he hides in as Mr. Corner.
  • Strawberry Panic's Kagome has a teddy bear named Percival that she treats like it's alive. Being very shy, she tends to channel her feelings through the bear. After a random act of kindness from Nagisa, Kagome asks Percival "Was that a friend of yours?" (Side note: You may know the bear as something like "Oshibaru", as it was a hard name for the subbers to make out.)
  • In one episode Full Metal Panic!, Sosuke was coaching the lousy school rugby team. He made them go through physical and mental training from hell. At the end of the training, he gave each of them a football and made them assign female names to them. Cut to one of the football players caressing his ball saying, "Don't worry, baby. I won't be rough. I won't hurt you" with a mentally disturbing smile and crazy eyes.
  • Berserk
    • In the earlier parts of the Golden Age Arc, we see Guts as a child being taught how to use a sword. He uses a two handed blade which is considerably oversized for a kid. We later see him hugging that sword like a teddy bear while he's going to sleep. Considering that he was raised in a mercenary band, blamed for the death of the only mother figure he ever had, and the abuse he suffered from the guy he considered a father figure, it's not too far fetched to believe that for Guts the sword was his only friend at that time. Guts is often visibly shown having trouble sleeping without a sword and claims he can't relax without it on hand. Considering the dangers he faces this concern is probably for more practical reasons, but who's to say whether the possible emotional and practical reasons can't complement each other?
    • Played for laughs with Puck and the Behelit Guts carries around. Despite being an Artifact of Doom, he affectionately calls it "Betchi."
  • For as much as she treats it like an actual guitar, Yui in K-On!! treats her guitar more like a pet dog. She gives it a name, sleeps with it, and dresses it up. The only reason she went with it was because it was "cute". Yui's never been totally right in the head to begin with.
  • In Sumomomo Momomo, Tenka has a soccer ball that he named Becky. She talks to him, and he often asks her for advice. She actually gives pretty good advice, too, considering she's a soccer ball...
  • In Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Kenishi's father owns a double-barreled rifle named Sebastian, which he treats more like a pet than an object. He also at one point has a heartfelt conversation with a jar of tomato sauce.
  • Bleach
    • Something of a subversion with the Soul Reapers' Zanpaku-to swords. Each sword is part of the Soul Reaper's being, but also has its own spirit and name. We rarely see a Zanpaku-to's spirit (Ichigo's Zangetsu usually only speaks to him in his own mindscape, and Renji's Zabimaru only appears a couple times), but all the principle Soul Reapers have learned their swords' names. While the swords are rarely treated as characters, in one episode Yumichika gets so mad at his he beats it against a rock. Rangiku's sword kind of rubs her the wrong way, too.
    • Any remaining elements of this are thoroughly thrown out the window in one the anime's filler arcs, where all the zanpakutou spirits are materialized in human forms and wreaking havoc.
    • Played straight in a newer arc in which having a companion cube causes it to have certain powers. Such as a dollhouse which lets you trap people inside of it or boots that make your kicks increasingly lethal as they get dirty.
  • Seravy from Akazukin Chacha has a ventriloquist doll named Elizabeth. They're a couple.
  • Ikaros and her watermelons in Sora no Otoshimono. She is fascinated by watermelons and tends to carry one around with her. It's gotten to the point where she is growing a watermelon patch in her backyard and taking care of it like one would take care of a litter of puppies or kittens.
  • Done very creepily in Saiyuki with Dr Nii's rabbit toy.
  • Rurouni Kenshin: Saitou, during his (manga) fight with Kenshin, evades Kenshin's attempt to break his sword, stating that his sword had kept him safe since the revolution, and that he wasn't about to let anyone break it. Later in the fight, Kenshin tries again, and lops it in half.
  • The mascot of the Pokémon anime, Ash's Pikachu, loves his...ketchup bottle. No, really. This seems to be taken to an extreme by fans, though, since Pikachu only demonstrated a love for ketchup in one episode, "Showdown at Dark City".
  • In Gravitation, there's Ryuichi's Kumagoro, a stuffed pink rabbit that he treats like a person, and even provides a voice for. There's some speculation, though, as to whether this is real or simply an act put on by Ryuichi.
  • One Piece,
    • Luffy's straw hat is a prime example.
    • The sword Wado seems to fill this role for Zoro. It used to belong to his childhood friend Kuina—she died very young, so he carries it for both of them.
    • And for Nami, her adoptive mother's orange trees. Also notable that all three objects/types of objects are important because they were left behind by loved ones.
  • In Carnival Phantasm during the Grand Prix episode, Assassin displays extreme affection for the shrine, even towards jumping out of the truck in a vain attempt to save it when Berscar knocked it over the cliff.
  • Herr Schtick in Axis Powers Hetalia
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