Turns out that even the friendzone can be defeated! Join Ashley as we count down our picks for the anime characters that succeeded in turning friendship into true love
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00:00 Hey guys, it's Ash here with WatchMojo and these are the top 10 anime characters who
00:10 escaped the friend zone.
00:12 For this list, we're looking at the lads and lasses who did the impossible.
00:16 They battled their way out of the friendship circle and locked themselves into their dream
00:20 romance.
00:26 Number 10, Kenji Koiso - "Summer Wars"
00:35 This is what happens when you combine the driving force of hormones with the power of
00:40 math.
00:44 In order to stop a crazed AI from dropping a space probe onto a power plant, Kenji uses
00:50 his innate talent with equations to outwit Love Machine and save the day.
00:56 Just need to remind you, he did all this because he was roped into trying to impress his crush's
01:01 family as a pretend boyfriend.
01:04 After literally saving the world and proving how hardcore calculus is, it's nice to see
01:09 the anxious nerd earn his chance to prove that he was the genuine article.
01:23 Number 9, David Martinez - "Cyberpunk Edgerunners"
01:28 In Night City, you can find practically every vice around every corner, but true love is
01:34 a little hard to come by.
01:44 Originally just a mock used by Lucy in order to get her hands on a rare piece of chrome,
01:50 David quickly proved that he wasn't just the average choom.
02:02 Not only did he become a valued member of Mane's crew, willing to throw himself in
02:07 the firing line, but vowed he would make Lucy's dream of going to the moon a reality.
02:13 In the face of such charming optimism, Lucy couldn't help but fall, and fall hard.
02:27 Number 8, Jun Sato - "Working"
02:30 It's the obstacle every anime bad boy with a shy personality must face; the adorable
02:36 love interest whose obliviousness makes her totally unaware she's getting crushed on,
02:41 even though everyone else knows it.
02:46 Evidently, all that time in the restaurant business finally hardened Sato enough to confess
02:53 his feelings before hanging up his chef's hat.
03:08 Given that she accepted, it just goes to show that with diligence and perseverance, even
03:13 the most reserved of cooks can make a feast out of the friend zone.
03:17 Alright, that was terrible, but you get the idea.
03:26 Number 7, Sakura Mato - "Fate/Stay Night/Heaven's Feel"
03:31 It's the cruelest of ironies that the one timeline in which Sakura has a chance to finally
03:36 be with the boy of her dreams, she suffers immensely due to the nature of the Holy Grail
03:54 War.
03:55 Infected with the power of the shadow, Sakura's desperation leads her into the arms of Shiro,
04:01 who in this route doesn't have Saber or Rin occupying his heart.
04:10 Thus, we have Fate's most explicit love scene.
04:16 Given that she was getting Shiro's noble phantasm, we'd say Sakura definitely escaped
04:21 the friend zone.
04:30 Number 6, King - "The Seven Deadly Sins"
04:34 For a while, it seemed that the universe was against King ever having a snowball's chance
04:39 in hell with the giantess of his dreams.
04:42 Even though he had spent a great deal of his life protecting and caring for her.
04:52 Everything from Diane's crush on Meliodas, several cases of amnesia and other contrivances
04:58 ensured the Lord of the Fairies was never going to have the chance to make the Earth
05:02 move.
05:03 At least, until the memory loss plotline was finally dropped, and Diane was finally free
05:08 to return his feelings.
05:10 Patience of a saint, this guy.
05:20 Number 5, Hinata Hyuga - "Naruto Franchise"
05:24 Speaking of patience, give this shinobi a medal, because she put the effort in and got
05:29 herself a happily ever after.
05:40 Crashing on the knuckle-headed, loud-mouthed ninja from the jump, Hinata's crippling
05:45 shyness and Naruto's fixation on Sakura prevented them from getting together until
05:50 they were both on the cusp of adulthood.
06:02 And even then, it took a maniac from the moon kidnapping Hinata to hammer home the point
06:07 that Naruto had a bonafide waifu sitting next to him the entire time.
06:21 Number 4, Kaguya and Miyuki - "Kaguya-sama, Love is War"
06:26 To be fair, these two kept themselves in the friend zone because they were both too damn
06:30 stubborn to admit they adored the other.
06:40 But then again, if they confessed right away, we wouldn't have one of anime's most beloved
06:45 rom-coms.
06:46 Instead, these two tried to circumnavigate the friend zone by having the other admit
06:51 their feelings first, and thus win the game of love by default.
07:01 Naturally, this goes about as well as you'd expect, with neither giving an inch.
07:10 Until one admittedly godly show of affection finally allowed them both to put their pride
07:15 aside and take things to the next level.
07:18 Not down time.
07:30 Number 3, Edward Elric - "Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood"
07:35 The eldest of the Elric brothers has certainly made some bad decisions in his life, even
07:40 with the best of intentions.
07:42 Getting his ligaments and his brother's body lost to a ritual in an attempt to bring
07:47 back his deceased mother, pretty harrowing stuff.
07:56 One of the only anchors keeping him focused on redemption being his childhood friend,
08:01 Winry, who brought out the best in him while constantly being on hand to repair his new
08:06 mechanical physique.
08:18 He had to fight his way through a bunch of homunculi and put his fist through father,
08:23 but eventually Ed was able to recognise how incredibly Winry was, leading to this adorkable
08:29 perfect confession.
08:40 Number 2, Mai Shiranui - "Fatal Fury"
08:45 You heard that right, Mai from "Fatal Fury" was once a resident of the friend zone.
08:54 One of the sexiest and most revered ladies in the fighting game scene, and she was having
08:59 trouble finding love with her gentleman of choice, good old Andy Bogard, at least when
09:04 it comes to the collection of animated movies.
09:18 Beyond perplexing, we know, and yet, after beating down the bad guys, Andy finally wisens
09:24 up and decides that the super sweet, super kick-ass and super gorgeous Mai is the only
09:29 one for him.
09:30 Now that's a hard-fought victory.
09:46 If you like what you're hearing, be sure to check out the full song at the link below.
10:00 Number 1, Subaru - "Re-Zero - Starting Life in Another World"
10:04 By this point, we just wanted something good to come Subaru's way, anything good.
10:10 The poor guy had suffered physical and mental anguish since being thrown into a fantasy
10:15 world, not to mention his love life was in tatters.
10:24 He may have had the chance to find happiness with Rem, but he chose to stick to his guns,
10:29 as the only one for him was the beautiful Emilia.
10:38 So seeing him pull off a world-class confession, score a kiss and finally get the girl he had
10:44 literally died for multiple times, to accept and return his affections, wasn't only romantic
10:50 to the nth degree, but had many a fan doing somersaults out of sheer relief.
10:55 Never has the friend zone felt more like a mountain, and Subaru clawed his way to its
11:00 summit.
11:12 So do you agree with our picks?
11:14 Let us know in the comments.
11:16 And hey, if you're a fan of the song playing right now, be sure to check out the music
11:20 video for it, right here.
11:21 And as always, thanks for watching.