Lovely Angels

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

"Well, it's kind of like James Bond. But instead of Bond, there are these two women..."

For some reason, female buddy-shows are rather widespread, especially in Anime. This trope refers to adventure series starring two rather competent women with contrasting personalities—compare with Betty and Veronica, Red Oni, Blue Oni, Tomboy and Girly Girl, and Bifauxnen and Ladette. They're not usually romantically involved with each other and generally Just Friends. In recent years, however, it has become difficult to avoid this implication, and a few shows keep enough Subtext to placate such fans or outright encourage it.

In contrast, female buddy movies are extremely rare, possibly because Most Writers Are Male.

More than two Lovely Angels eventually become known as an Amazon Brigade. Everything else of the above stays the same.

Examples of Lovely Angels include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

  • Page image features Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, from the second volume of Heroes for Hire. The two of them happen to be so badass, even the Rhino is afraid of them.
    • They are good friends and normally appear together, but the epitome of their Lovely Angels dynamic can be seen in Daughter Of The Dragon.
  • Birds of Prey started with a team of Black Canary and Oracle. Later, Huntress joined the team as well. Recently, it has become a full Amazon Brigade.
  • DC has had Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn team up on occasion during the brief periods when the latter has gotten sick of the Joker. Les Yay abounds (Generally played as close to being involved as possible while still just about maintaining plausible deniability. On at least one occasion they were actually shown sharing a bed). Currently they are starring, along with Catwoman, in Gotham City Sirens as a trio of attractive, deadly women on the town in Gotham.
    • And then there was that exchange where Harley informed Batgirl that Ivy had given her some kind of treatment so they could "play" together. More than one fan has taken this as outright confirmation of a canon relationship.
      • Paul Dini says it was.
      • And it ain't Shipping Goggles before he said it. The quote is "She gave me a special shot once so we can play and I won't get sick at all." It is... highly unlikely that they meant playing checkers or badminton.
  • Whiteout, before the changes made to the movie, starred US Marshal Carrie Stetko and pal solving murders down in Antarctica. Unfortunately, The Movie (For various ridiculous reasons) felt that two female leads was a bad choice for a film, and made one of them a man (And not even one of the already existing men from the comics, but a completely new creation).
  • The Manhwa Yureka (translated as i D Entity) features a pair of Idol Singer minor characters actually called The Lovely Angels.
  • The Italian comic series Legs Weaver has such a team of the titular character and her sidekick May. The lesbian relationship is overt this time.
  • Patsy and Hedy eventually had Patsy and Hedy in a relationship of this sort when they dropped the mutual romantic interest.

Film

Literature

  • Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books have Tarma and Kethry, a swordswoman and a mage, traveling the country as a team of mercenaries. (Tarma is a celibate priestess and Kethry eventually marries, but their relationship outlasts her marriage when Kethry's husband eventually passes on).
  • Despite their differences, Angua and Sally of the City Watch appear to be on their way to this trope in the Discworld books.
  • Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin and George Fayne.
  • In the Vlad Taltos books, Norathar and Cawti, aka The Sword and Dagger of the Jhereg, were a two-woman assassin team, and for a long time they only had each other to rely on. After their lives changed radically, they continue to be the best of friends. In Tiassa, the two briefly resume their old partnership, to the enjoyment of both.
  • The light and dark sisters in Jane Yolen's Great Alta Saga. Every light sister calls up a dark sister to be her lifelong companion in battle.

Live-Action TV

Video Games

Web Comics

  • Last Res0rt has Jigsaw and Daisy as the only girl-girl team on the show so far. There are plenty of other characters they share the spotlight with though.

Web Original

  • This trope is spoofed in the webseries 3Way, with Ladycops, an homage to creator Nancylee Myatt's unaired show Nikki & Nora. The characters in Ladycops are played by the same actresses from the Nikki & Nora pilot.

Western Animation