Friendly Enemy/Anime and Manga

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Friendly Enemies in Anime and Manga include:

  • Dominion Tank Police and the sequel series New Dominion Tank Police feature the Puma Twins, a lovable, troublemaking pair of catgirls who have several run-ins with the title squad. Even though they are criminals, their relationship with the Tank Police is more one of friendly mischief than anything.
  • The Fukuyama siblings from Girls Bravo. Though, they tend to get a little "too friendly" at times.
  • Death Note's Light and L. There is room for debate on how genuine the relationship was, but this is not the place for it.
  • Saiyuki has this sort of relationship between the heroes and the opposing side.
    • Mostly because the Quirky Miniboss Squad is headed by a literal Noble Demon who's probably a better person than the leads. Except maybe Goku.
    • Also, one of the members of the opposing side is Gojyo's brother
  • Krillin in the early part of Dragon Ball, and Piccolo and, later, Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z. Most of Goku's friends went through this stage at some point, though often not for long before the next Big Bad pushed them into a full Heel Face Turn.
    • One interesting case was the android trio of 16, 17, and 18. After 17 and 18 killed Dr. Gero, which actually went hand in hand with Future Trunks's prophecy about their terror, they only went after Goku because it was in 16's programming to do so and the twins needed some entertainment. When 17 and 18 curbstomped the Z Fighters on a mountain road somewhere, they didn't kill them, but instead actually left Krillin standing (as he was too scared to jump in), told him to use the holy beans to heal the others, and offered to fight them again anytime they wanted. 16 actually didn't take part in this fight at all, as he would rather embrace his newfound love for nature rather than fight anyone not named Goku…until Cell showed up to absorb the twins. Then, they each had a gradual Heel Face Turn, 16's being the most pronounced.
  • In Suzumiya Haruhi, Nagato and Asakura. Nagato kills Asakura in the series, but in the Disappearance Movie, Asakura takes care of Nagato and cooks for her. While Nagato was reborn without her memories, Asakura does remember everything, as seen in the 7th novel. This might fall in both Foe Yay and LesYay.
  • Andrew Waltfeld in Gundam Seed. Initially presented by the local Desert Dawn rebels as an oppressive and ruthless dictator, the Desert Tiger turns out to be a likeable and friendly guy with a penchant for coffee. By the penultimate episode of the desert arc, he's already become friends with Kira, despite knowing he pilots the Strike, and openly regrets having to fight him to the death in the next episode.
  • Interestingly, most of the Rivalries in Eyeshield 21 seem to be of this nature. While always competing very aggressively with one another, the rival characters typically hold good feelings for each other. Sena had this kind of relationship played up with Shin, Riku, Yamato, and Panther.
    • The moment that Gaoh seriously considered Kurita his rival, he had nothing but respect for him. In fact, AFTER being defeated by said rival, he openly declared Kurita to be a friend on the basis of his strength and honor.
    • Hiruma and Kid were even seen at a bar playing darts (getting a perfect bulls-eyes every time...both of them), discussing what to do with Hakushuu.
  • In the Lupin III canon, the titular character treats Inspector Zenigata more as an affectionate rival than a threat. More often than not, they end up teaming up to take down a more serious threat, and Zenigata typically goes into a fit of grief whenever Lupin fakes his own death.
    • Also, any time he's taken off the Lupin case or when Lupin appears TRULY dead, one of his first reactions is usually to go dick around with the rest of Lupin's gang.
  • Extreme case: in the Spiral manga, Ayumu and Hizumi immediately hit it off, despite (or perhaps because of) everyone constantly assuring them that Kiyotaka set it up so that one of them will have to kill the other. They go from strangers to Heterosexual Life Partners almost instantly; literally living, going to school, and hanging out together. They even share the housework.
  • Despite the fact that, historically speaking, Musashi will kill Kojiro in their final duel, in Vagabond, the two have nothing but admiration for one another. Musashi even thinks of Kojiro whilst dueling with another (inferior) opponent, and Kojiro, whilst practicing calligraphy, constantly draws the character for Musashi.
  • Thorkell likes to think that he and Thorfinn have this relationship in Vinland Saga. Thorfinn thinks otherwise.
  • Desty Nova and Alita in Gunnm are just as often on the same side of a conflict as they are at odds with each other, from destroying the berserk Zapan in their first meeting to trying to reach Ladder in Gunnm: Last Order. This partially has to do with Nova's Mad Scientist nature, as he considers Alita a valuable experimental subject and/or variable in his continuing study of Karmatron Dynamics, and tends to consider her much more valuable alive than dead. This doesn't, of course, stop him from antagonizing her allies or dropping the occasional mind screw on her to see her reactions. Alita's on-and-off alliance with Nova is purely out of necessity, but they did share a critical moment of empathy when Nova trapped her in the Ouroboros program and he let his emotional guard down. Unfortunately, the next back-up was right before that moment of empathy.
    • Similarly, Sechs, one of the rogue Tuned replicas of Alita, attempted to destroy Alita to prove her superiority when they first met. They soon became allies in the Z.O.E. tournament, but Sechs' desire for a final "proving" battle remains obvious.
  • Despite being the classic archetypes of masked hero and monstrous evil general, Sunred and Vamp in Tentai Senshi Sunred are the best of pals in everyday life, even if Sunred is a bit too uptight to admit it sometimes. Vamp's even helped Sunred move into his new house.
  • Through most of Peacemaker Kurogane's prequel, Suzu and Tetsunosuke have this sort of relationship. Until Suzu goes insane and becomes obsessed with Tetsunosuke...
  • In Code Geass, Lelouch and Suzaku: it is only thanks to their antagonizing that the Eleven's situation and self-esteem improved progressively over the course of the series, culminating twice in a Japan Administration Zone. Too bad that the first time was Diabolus Ex Machinized, which left the second time without credibility. At one point, they realize this and work together.
    • More impressive still, over the course of two seasons, they each Jump Off the Slippery Slope, betraying each other and swearing to kill each other, then somehow met up at the bottom of said slippery slope. They join up again and dig their way back to the top.
  • The Team Rocket trio in the Pokémon anime partake in this occasionally, particularly in one episode where everyone enters an orienteering contest, including Team Rocket in disguise. James wins.
    • Gary seems to be this as of the D/P arc. Whenever he makes a rare appearance, it's usually to help Ash and the gang out with the problem of the week.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: while he kidnapped Yugi's grandpa in the first episode of the anime (and flat out tried to kill Yugi and his friends in the manga), Seto Kaiba generally ended up helping Yugi and his Scoobies quite frequently.
    • In the movie, Pegasus saved everyone with a helicopter. In fanon, they frequently achieve this with Bakura, despite his proven credentials as a dyed-in-the-wool sadist, and the fact that it would be totally unfair to Ryou.
  • One Piece,
    • Gold Roger and Vice Admiral Garp are shown to have become good friends after all of their encounters and fights, resulting in Roger asking Garp to look after his child for him and hide him from the government after he dies, and Garp accepting.
    • The same goes for Whitebeard and Roger, to the point where they were seen drinking together in a Flash Back shortly before Roger's death when Roger told Whitebeard the truth about the Will of D.
    • Mihawk towards the Straw Hat crew in general. Specifically, he keeps tabs on Luffy and Zoro's growth as pirates, gives a mental apology to Shanks before attacking Luffy at Marineford and agrees to train Zoro during the time skip so the latter can protect his crewmates.
    • Trafalgar Law has shades of this toward Luffy and the Straw Hats as well (his recent switching around of some of their hearts and personalities notwithstanding). For one thing, he's directed Luffy and company as to where they need to go on the Punk Hazard island, even as Luffy acknowledges that they'll be enemies as long as they're both searching for One Piece. Law also acknowledges his role in saving Luffy's life during the Marineford arc, though he claims that that was something he did on a whim.
    • During Thriller Bark, Perona’s attitude towards most of the Straw Hats never went beyond typical “good-guy-bad-guy” conflict, but she developed an especial hatred towards Usopp, as he was the first foe to resist her Negative Hollows and defeated her in a rather humiliating manner. She became dead set on revenge, vowing to develop her powers until she becomes strong enough to use them to crush him. While she still insists this is her goal, her motive has changed, as she sees him as a depressed cynic and pessimist who needs cheering up. (This is, by the way, why her Negative Hollows didn’t work on him - Perona can’t drain a person’s morale and self-esteem if he doesn’t have any.) She also has some mutual respect for Zoro (due to Zoro’s aforementioned relationship to Mihawk) and has helped him on occasion when they share a mutual goal.
  • Ranma ½ and Ryoga are this trope to a tee. When Ryoga is first introduced, he tried to kill Ranma in his sleep. By the end of the series, they've saved each other's lives repeatedly, helped each other unlock more true potential, and defeated near-demigods together. And then there was the whole koi fishing rod story, in which Takahashi herself spoofed the "Friendly" part of the equation by having Ryoga accidentally cause Ranma to fall madly in love with him.
  • In Dorohedoro, Shin and Noi are quite friendly to Cayman's crew (they're not to Cayman himself, however, at least so far). With the Grey and Grey Morality, however, the issue is a bit shady.
  • In one episode of Sands of Destruction, the World Destruction Committee and World Salvation Committee work together to escape from a sand submersible. The otherwise adversarial Lia goes dere dere over Kyrie. When the ordeal is over, Naja opts to part ways with a gentleman's agreement rather than attempt to arrest the Destruction Committee, and Kyrie and Toppi suggest in a joking yet not-so-joking manner that it would be nice if they weren't at odds with one another.
  • Hand Maid May has Kotaro Nanbara, who proclaims himself Kazuya Saotome's "best friend and worst enemy".
  • Most of the cast of Black Lagoon. Eda and Revy have a Mexican Standoff one day, and share drinks in a bar the next. Shenhua is an ally in a mission against terrorists, an enemy in a Carnival of Killers, and a hired muscle for a later mission. This trope reached its ultimate in absurdity when Sawyer shows up to "clean" a hotel room for Greenback Jane. Everyone else, having met her off the clock, just greets her and lets her do her business. Jane freaks out, since the last time she saw Sawyer, she was part of the aforementioned Carnival of Killers, and Jane was the target!
  • In Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Yamamoto acts like a very friendly enemy towards Squalo, who can't stand him.
  • If they weren't swinging swords at each other all the time, it'd be pretty hard to tell that the characters of Sengoku Basara were enemies. Yukimura and Masamune have a friendly rivalry that borders on Ho Yay, Shingen and Kenshin never seem to have an ill word to speak about the other, Sasuke and Kasuga have some definite Foe Yay, and Keiji...well, he wants to be friends with pretty much everyone.
  • Seth, of the manga ARAGO. He's made it absolutely clear that he's just helping Arago so he can wait for the right time to take Arago's power for himself.
  • Utena and Touga, in Revolutionary Girl Utena, strongly give off this vibe in their final duel - Utena wonders how often they've dueled, and comments that it feels like it's been dozens of times more than it has, while Touga swears to protect her. More evident in the manga, where he isn't as manipulative and later makes a complete Heel Face Turn away from Akio's influence.
    • A straighter example is Utena and Miki, the only member of the student council (and probably among any of the duelists in general, other than Mitsuru) who doesn't actively antagonize Utena and Anthy, and doesn't harbor any ill will toward her, even during their duels.
  • Naruto and Sasuke from Naruto (of course), though they're more rivals than enemies. They constantly bicker and fight and attempt to outdo one another, but do have times when they get along fairly well.
    • Though, of course, for a long time now, they've been the opposite—functional enemies who Naruto won't acknowledge aren't still friends.
    • A better example would be people summoned back from the dead by Edo Tensei. It reaches extreme levels during the Fourth Shinobi World War when summoned "enemies" happily warn the good guys of what moves they're about to be forced to perform and generally doing their dead level best to lose to former students and family despite their lack of free will.
  • Alucard and Father Anderson in Hellsing. It's clear that they enjoy fighting each other far more than anyone else, they take any excuse to go into open combat (even when ordered not to by their superiors, to whom they are ordinarily absolutely obedient), they often pass up opportunities to finish one another off for contrived reasons (though it's unclear at first whether either of them is actually capable of killing the other), etc. This is probably because they both enjoy combat, but are so powerful that almost anyone else is just a boring Curb Stomp Battle.
    • Alucard is absolutely crushed when Anderson uses an ancient "holy" artifact that destroys his mind and turns him into a monster in order to become more powerful in the final battle.
  • Kaitou Kid, like Lupin III above, has shades of this relationship with his favorite pursuers. Especially Conan/Shinichi, in his Detective Conan appearances, because he just has more meta-motive and opportunity, given that only 28 chapters of Magic Kaito actually exist.
  • Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple:
    • Agaard Jum Sai, the resident Muay Tai master of the YAMI group's One Shadow Nine Fists. Although his disciple, Tirawat Koukin, is a mostly cold bastard, Agaard himself is quite friendly, has great respect for his rival Apachai even before and after the two fight each other, and freely and openly acknowledge's Kenichi's growth as a martial artist under Apachai's tutelage. He also gives Kenichi pointers for defending himself against a YAMI weapons master even while he himself is unable to assist directly due to temporary paralysis from his fight with Apachai.
    • Fellow Nine Fists member Akira Hongo could also count as an example, coming in second place to Agaard in spite of his cool and aloof nature. While he and his rival Sakaki Shio aren't exactly on friendly terms due to their shared past, Hongo does acknowledge Kenichi as a worthy disciple of Sakaki, appreciates the bond that should exist between a martial arts master and his disciples and encourages Sakaki to stay close to Kenichi and offer the boy support while Hongo himself takes the burden of fighting Silcardo Junazard.
    • Miu's father Furinji Saiga the leader of the Nine Fists, is pretty friendly to Kenichi after revealing "John" was him in disguise all along. He thanks him for helping Miu, and pretty much gives his parental approval for their developing relationship.
    • It would probably be easier to list the enemies that aren't friendly, given how rare Complete Monsters are in this series. And if they aren't friendly at the start, they usually become friendly after a fight or two.
  • While he may be locked in a seven-sided battle royale to the death against them, Alexander the Great from Fate/Zero has absolutely no problem with inviting King Arthur and Gilgamesh to go get some drinks with him.
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