Anime Anime Global

Jan.21. is known as the day when rivals team-up.

It is derived from the Satcho Alliance in 1866 when Sakamoto Ryoma united both Choshu and Satsuma domains.

Anime plots where rivals characters unite forces are also very popular. There’s a huge excitement factor in seeing two enemies fighting together.
Among these rivals , whose pairs of rivals are supported by the fans the most?

In Anime! Anime! was held a reader survey titled “Who are the best rivals that became comrades?”. From Jan. 8 to 15, 137 answered the survey.
The Male/Female ratio was 35% and 65%, slightly having more women than men readers. Ages ranged from 50% under 19, and about 30% in their 20s.

■The top place goes to Conan and Kid on “The Fist of the Blue Sapphire”
The pair that grabbed the 1st place was Edogawa Conan and Kaito Kid from the “Detective Conan” series. They held 10% of the votes and rose to the top from the 4th last year.

Some of the fans commented: “I find them really cool solving mysteries together, despite their natural rivalry between a detective and a thief.”, and “Nobody can stop the two when they teamup.”
Following the success of the movie “Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire” that released last year, where Kid and Conan cooperated to solve a case, which is impressive and led to the top position.
From the same series, the pair of Amuro Toru and Akai Shuichi ranked on 10th. Many of the comments from fans mentioned them in the 2016 movie “Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare”.

In 2nd place, winning 8% of the votes is the pairs of Midoriya Izuku and Bakugo Katsuki from “My Hero Academia”, which went up from the 13th rank in the last year’s survey..
Some of the fans commented: “Although they’re usually rivals in their endeavors to become heroes, I really like when they fight together against strong villains.” and, “I think that the fact that they grew up together and know each other since they were kids is a big factor in the story of the series. I’m really looking forward to see how their relationship will evolve from now on.”
The others commented how exciting was seeing both of them on the latest movie “My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising”.

In 3rd were Ray Amuro and Quattro Vageena from “Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam”staying the same rank as last year’s rank.

Some of the fans commented: “Watching the series as a kid always surprised me with the impressive plot. However, after growing up and looking back at the story, I realized how much their relationship is reflected on real-world international affairs. It’s interesting how given circumstanceswhere parties who were enemies yesterday can unite and become comrades on the next day.”
“Even though they united forces once, they’re still destined to fight each other in the end, but I love that”
The representative rival pair from Gundam series marked their place on the top-3.

■Other comments from readers:
Dazai Osamu and Nakahara Chuya from “Bungo Stray Dogs” received comments such as: “They can cooperate each other perfectly despite being rivals.” and “I like how they don’t get along very well, but when team up, nobody can stop them.”.
Hinata Shoyo and Kageyama Tobio from “Haikyuu!!” got the following comment: “I was so impressed with how both of them couldn’t stand each other at first but were able to work together as a team somehow through volleyball.”.

Nanoha and Fate from “Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha” received comments : “I watched and cried to the scene where they exchange ribbons after becoming friends.”
Lelouch and Suzaku from “Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion” received comments : “I was so impressed with the completion of the Zero Requiem.” and “The story about trying to create a peaceful world lets me tear up.”

The top pairs this year were all from long-running series. It’s impressive to see characters that were rivals for so many years teaming up.

■Ranking Top 20
“Who are the best rivals that turned into comrades? 2020 edition”
1st Edogawa Conan (Kudo Shinichi) / Kaito Kid (Kuroba Kaito) from “Detective Conan”
2nd Midoriya Izuku/Bakugo Katsuki from “My Hero Academia”
3rd Amuro Ray/（Quattro Vageena (Char Aznable) from “Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam”
4th Son Goku/Vegetta from “Dragon Ball Z”
4th Dazai Osamu/Nakahara Chuya from “Bungou Stray Dogs”
6th Uzumaki Naruto/Uchiha Sasuke from “NARUTO”
6th Sakata Gintoki/Hijikata Toshirou from “Gintama”
6th Nakajima Atsushi/Akutagawa Ryunosuke from “Bungou Stray Dogs”
9th Hinata Shoyo/Kageyama Tobio from “Haikyuu!!”
10th Amuto Toru/Akai Shuichi from “Detective Conan”
11th Sakata Gintoki／Takasugi Shinsuke from “Gintama”
11th Monkey D. Luffy/Trafalgar D. Water Law from “One Piece”
13th Takamachi Nanoha/Fate Testarossa from “Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha”
13th Lelouch Lamperouge/Kururugi Suzaku from “Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion”
13th Lion/Moose from “Kemono Friends”
16th Simon/Viral from “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan”
1th Gridman/Anti from “SSSS.GRIDMAN”
16th Matsuno Osomatsu/Iyami from “Osomatsu-san”
16th Lupin third/Zenigata Kouichi from “Lupin third”

(Survey duration: Jan. 8 ~ 15, 2020)