What is your favorite animated romance in the last ten years?

N

Nectar

New member
American Dragon/ Rose and Jake- now I don't count this is as a traditional Disney couple. For one thing, Rose is not a carbon copy Disney princess and can fare very well on her own. While Jake is often the one in need of help. Despite this, they form a strong relationship through trials and tests that start from a simple crush to an all-out romantic struggle.

And what I also like about them is that it's not the usual geek-with-a-crush kind of thing. It's really about a boy and a girl that evolve into young, respectable adults in the course of two seasons and you really feel for them. Whereas people like Timmy Turner or Danny Phantom only harbor shallow love for their girlfriends (Danny with Paulina) Jake's lust turns into true love.

And whereas someone like Aang from Avatar's love for Katara as been unrequited for quite sometime, Rose and Jake's are more openly announced. I don't know, it's just that none of the other cartoon couple romances in the last few years had really affected me as much as theirs had.
 
My favorite animated romance from the last decade would have to be Robin and Starfire from Teen Titans.

Over the course of the series, you can see that their relationship goes through different phases.

In "Date with Destiny", Starfire is angry that Robin has to go out with Kitten, even though Robin is only doing it to save the city.

In "Stranded", Starfire gets angry at Robin for a comment he made about her earlier. Things go back to normal when Robin tells Starfire the things that he likes about her.

In the Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo movie, Starfire tries to tell tell Robin how she really likes him.

As for Robin, while his emotions aren't strongly shown as Starfire's, you can still tell that he really likes Starfire.
 
I also liked Jake and Rose. I'm not a fan of shows that follow the trope of waiting until the last episode to hook anyone up; mainly because it always feel forced and underdeveloped and the only real references to it tend to be little hints and teases rather than actual development.
 
I like the Jake and Rose couple as well. It was nicely developed, especially in season two as they became closer and more open about their feelings. It was nice that Jake's initial crush on Rose actually becomes real love. I also give this couple a huge credit for being the only Disney Channel Original Animated Series that has made me cry in the Homecoming episode.

Another recent animated couple that I just love is Jack Atlas and Carly Carmine from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's. Carly develops a crush on Jack after helping him and right before she became a Dark Signer. Even though they weren't onscreen together for too long before that, I thought that it was sweet that Jack was worried about her after finding her broken glasses. Through his concern, Jack became a nicer person in my eyes and I really think that Carly helps bring out his kindness.

During their duel in the Japanese version, from what I read, they both admitted that they loved each other. I thought that was incredibly sweet. Plus, I find it really interesting and refreshing that something like that actually happened in a Yu-Gi-Oh! series.

I'm not sure how well developed their relationship is, but it's become my personal favorite romantic anime couple.
 
^ Jack and Carly! It's definitely one of my more favorite couples, and I love how their personalities are so different, yet it works. But what they feel for each other is really unclear in later episodes after the dark signers, so I don't know if they're a 'couple'. (but still...)

Another favorite of mine has to be Zak and Wadi from The Secret Saturdays. They are just too adorable. One of the reasons why I wish TSS would be picked up for more episodes... but oh well.
 
Joan and Abe on Clone High. It got a lot of laughs out of me, but at the same time you really felt for Joan as to how oblivious Abe was to her feelings. It was both sweet and funny, and I loved it.

I also liked Kim and Ron on Kim Possible and Danny and Sam on Danny Phantom.
 
I always kind of liked the relationship between Fry and Leela from Futurama. Fry would practically give an arm and a leg to win over Leela, while Leela wouldn't be interested in 95% of the stuff he has done, but during those 5% you could tell she does appreciate the gesture and might even have feelings for Fry. What I liked about it how it wasn't even the main focus of the show, but rather covered in separate episodes from time to time.

Then this one is kind of a one-shot, but I love the relationship between Flapjack and Sally Syrup from The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, even to the point that I decided to make it a splash image for Valentines Day. If only because they actually acted like how kids normally act towards relationship of that matter.
 
I've heard about those episodes since I really wanted to find out what happened to them after the Dark Signer arc. It's probably safe to say that Carly still feels the same. Jack might be hiding his feelings in order to keep Carly safe since she died. Considering what they been through, I doubt that it would just go away in a manner of months and that would be really poor writing, especially after they made it clear how worried Jack was for her prior to their duel.
 
This. Even if this guy is a TLA hater.
Manny & Frida. They always had feelings for each others, growing from friendship-only to something more. Plus, I like how in (in my view) the "series finale" Manny & Frida kiss.
I would have voted for Jack N' Sally but it said it had to be in the last decade. Curse You, Specific-ness!
 
Looking at more recent episodes, it actually looks a lot more like Carly and Jack are just good friends. Carly doesn't appear all that often anyway, and she was recently grouped with a nameless waitress girl and Mina as Jack's little personal fanclub. He interacts with her the most, but there's not really any indication of a relationship.

Honestly, post dark signers episodes haven't been the best of 5D's. There are some really great ones for sure, but there have been some really iffy spots and episodes. Some decisions made by the writers have baffled me a few times. (speed world two, ugh...)
 
I've heard about that little personal fanclub. I thought that it was more as a comedy relief kind of thing, especially with the nameless waitress girl included. I thought it was also hinted at that they have met up since the whole Dark Singer arc. Perhaps not in a relationship way, but I still think that Jack could be hiding his feelings. Even though he was worried about Carly after he found her glasses, Jack isn't the most emotional kind of character in 5D's and we didn't really know how he felt until he dueled Carly. It would be a total shame if his feelings did change, not only because the relationship is so adorable, but it would kind of mess up the character development I thought he gained during that arc.



I've heard of those kind of episodes too. It will be interesting to see how that stuff is handled in the dub. I doubt that it will be any more boring than the majority of the first season of GX was for me though.
 
I too enjoy the Robin/Starfire relationship as it spares us from the "I hate you, I hate you too. Lets date" song and dance. You know, a couple who actually show positive feelings towards one another. And if you pick up some of the later issues of Teen Titans Go, you can even see their Post-Trouble In Tokyo relationship.

Kim and Ron while following the usual friends turned to mates appeals to me simply because of the chemistry dislpayed between them.



I haven't seen the episode, but if I'm to guess, you're refering to how most animated boys tend to have a strong interest in girls as if they were teens/adults. Now to a degree, I agree that the majority of boys under the age of 12 wouldn't be interested in girls, but I see it plausible for a boy who isn't concerned with sterotypes and conformity to have an interest in dating.
 
Even if Jack is hiding his feelings, we probably won't be seeing anything about that with all the other stuff going on. Jack got some development concerning teamwork in episode 84, but later it seems he didn't really learn his lesson after all. I'm personally not counting on 100% stable character continuity all that much at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if nothing is really shown about a possible future relationship, but I agree that it would be a shame.

1st season of GX? I'm certainly glad they left out any egg-wich eating Tarzans this time around. Some of 5D's filler is boring, but it's better than GX season 1. It would be nice if 4kids cuts out the unecessary episodes for the dub, though.
 
I'm definitely not a "shipper" by nature, so romances are rarely what I focus on. But I'll second the nomination for Jake and Rose in American Dragon, even though it wasn't my favourite show by a long shot. There was good drama in the divided loyalties, etc., which made it a lot more interesting than "will they/won't they" situations.
 
Too many pairings are of kids too young to know the ways of romance. While I support some of them, it's still frustrating. However, there are two pairings I really like:

Gwen and Kevin (Ben 10: Alien Force)

Now, there are some people (for the purposes of this post, let's call them 'whiner babies') who complain along the lines of 'how did this happen?' and 'there's no real basis for this relationship!'. How it happened doesn't matter as much as the fact that it works. The two had a (nice) period where they were clearly interested in each other, but unsure of the whole 'relationship' thing. Also, in an attempt to restore his normalcy, she altered the past and enabled a dark future. Look me in my non-existent avatar and tell me that that's not love.

Gwen and Trent (Total Drama Island/Action)

Another pairing with a Gwen in it? Yep. Like the above one, this one bided its time, building slowly and making me care about them...then Heather made Gwen think that Trent was cheating on her (Or if (500) Days of Summer was hijacked by the writers of How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days.). The finale got things back on track somewhat, with Trent hoisting Gwen over his back, which I still find really romantic, for some reason. Then came 'Action'. Gwen threw challenges for her team. Trent became fixated on the number 'nine'. (Now, the writers of Overnight Delivery saw the How to Lose a Guy... draft and thought, 'Okay, that's way too cerebral.') The relationship is up in the air, but the highs keep me coming back.

I do also like Danny/Sam and Kim/Ron, but the relationships themselves (and my admiration of them) are somewhat negated by how the writers worked too hard to tell the audience, 'they're getting together and you're going to like it!'. Really, can't there be one show where a guy friend and a girl friend remain friends without romance ruining the show...er, uh, relationship?
 
American Dragon certainly did so. Neither Jake nor Spud end up dating Trixie. Heck they each have a shot at a relationship with what would usually be the unobtainable crush.
 
I admit I haven't seen all of that show, but in the case of Spud, it seemed like there was a chance of a relationship far worse than 'platonic friends in love': 'guy in love with girl who treats him like the floor around a blind man's urinal'. Honestly, there's way too much of that in animated shows (esp. from the last decade), and it's a crappy message to send to the target audience, besides:

Guys: 'If a girl is unfathomably mean to you, it really means she wants to jump your bones'.
Girls: 'Be as nasty as you want, 'cause guys are so hormonally charged, they won't care if you insult them endlessly'.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that doesn't make it any less deplorable.
 
Back
Top