Friendship can be a strong driving force, whether it’s in anime or in the real world. Friends encourage, support, and help people cope with life, in addition to being a source of happiness and comfort. As an adult, making friends can be difficult. It’s not as simple as it was when people were younger.
Childhood friends are often the people who know you the best or have been with you as you discover the world around you. When separated, it can be heartbreaking, but when you’re reunited, it can be either amazing or painful. Even in anime, there are childhood friends who become reunited. In some cases it can be great, while other times it can be painful.
10 Two Otaku Reunite At Their Workplace And Begin An Awkward Yet Cute Relationship (Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For Otaku)
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku is a slice-of-life romantic comedy about Narumi Momose. On her first day at a new job, she sleeps through multiple alarms and ends up being late. She vows that no one will discover her secret—that she’s a fujoshi and an otaku.
However, things don’t go her way when she bumps into her middle school friend, Hirotaka Nifuji, at her new workplace and reveals her secret. When the two catch up over drinks, Narumi agrees with Hirotaka that she should date a fellow otaku and when he says that she should date him, she accepts. Which leads to the beginning of an incredibly sweet and awkward romance between them.
9 Three Childhood Friends Unite And Experience The Ups And Downs Of High School Together (KimiKiss: Pure Rouge)
KimiKiss: Pure Rouge is an anime about three childhood friends who are reunited after many years apart. One morning, Sanada Kouichi wakes up to a girl bursting into his house and acting as if she lives there. It’s only when his friend Aihara Kazuki appears that he finds out the girl is none other than their childhood friend, Mizusawa Mao, who has been abroad for two years.
Their parents agree that Mizusawa can stay at the house with them, and they attend high school together, where they experience the ups and downs of high school and love.
8 Sana Hidaka Returns To His Hometown To Discover His Friends Aren’t The Same People That He Remembers (Myself; Yourself)
Due to his parent’s business plans, Sana Hidaka had to move to Tokyo and leave behind his best friends. After five years, he returns to the town of Sakuranomori hoping that he and his groups of friends can pick up where they left off.
As he reconnects with everyone, he realizes that the group of friends he left behind has changed and they’re not the same people that he remembers. Sana begins his quest to repair the friendships he once had and uncover the secrets that threaten their bonds.
7 Nino’s Childhood Friends Return Only To Be In A Messy Love Triangle (Anonymous Noise)
Every day, Nino Arisugawa stands on the beach wearing a mask and sings out across the ocean like a beacon to reunite with her childhood friends–Momo Sakaki, her first love, and Kanade “Yuzu” Yuzuriha, a music composer.
After six years of separation, both boys return and end up at the same high school as Nino. Even though Nino attempts to fulfill her past promise, things have changed drastically between them. Nino, Momo, and Kanade set out to repair their friendship and resolve their feelings in this complicated love triangle.
6 Kazuki’s Dreams Of Confessing Her Love Are Shattered When The Boy She Remembers Isn’t Anything Like The One That Returned (Tonagura!)
In Tonagura! Kazuki and her older sister Hatsune had two best friends who lived next door–Yuuji and his little sister, Marie. However, Yuuji and Marie moved away, which hurt Kazuki as she had a crush on Yuuji.
When Kazuki learns that the two are returning, she’s ecstatic as she can finally confess her love for Yuuji. But things don’t exactly go according to her plans as Yuuji is not like the boy that she remembers. He is a typical male teenager who likes to put her in interesting situations. Kazuki has to decide if she wants to confess her feelings or to drop them while surviving her life at school.
5 A Chance Meeting With An Old Friend Reawakens Aoi’s Love For Climbing (Encouragement Of Climb)
Aoi Yukimura loved mountains when she was younger and often dreamed of climbing them. But after an accident on a playground, she grew to fear heights and forgot about her dreams of climbing mountains. Instead, she began to take on indoor hobbies.
These hobbies, however, turned Aoi into a shy and timid girl who had no friends. It’s only when she runs into her childhood friend, Hinata Kuraue, that her life starts to change. She begins to live again as she remembers her passion and love for climbing.
4 Two Friends Reunite And Must Learn To Work Together To Win And Overcome Their Past (2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Team)
After an incident with his volleyball team that forced him to leave, Kimichika Haijima returns to his hometown where he is reunited with his childhood friend, Yuni Kuroba–who happens to be on the middle school volleyball team. Kimichika notices almost immediately Yuni’s volleyball skills, and they decide to form a new volleyball team.
But after a spectacular loss during a tournament that causes a rift between the two friends, they stop playing together. After some time, the two enter high school together and find themselves on the same volleyball team. They have to learn to work together and overcome their fears and their past to win.
3 A Group Of Old Friends Come Together To Help Put Their Friend’s Soul To Rest (Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day)
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day is a heartbreaking slice-of-life anime about a young girl called Meiko “Menma” Honma who died years ago. Jinta Yadomi is a recluse who goes to school and plays video games when he’s not there. Things change, however, on one summer day when his childhood friend Menma appears before him.
In the beginning, Jinta believes that he’s hallucinating, but eventually he believes he’s seeing her ghost. He and their old group of friends come together to help fulfill their promises so that Menma’s soul may rest in peace, and hopefully, they can find peace, too.
2 Raku’s Crush Might Hold The Key To A Marriage Vow He Made In The Past (Nisekoi)
Nisekoi is an anime about a boy named Raku Ichijou, who is the sole heir to a fearsome Yakuza family. Ten years ago, he made a promise with his childhood friend that if they were ever to cross paths again, they would get married. To seal their promise, he has a locket, and she has the key to it.
However, after ten years, he has forgotten her name and her face and believes it to be a silly promise. He just wants to be a normal high school boy who has a crush on a girl in his class who just so happens to wear a familiar-looking key around her neck. However, instead of finding out if she is the one, he has to fake-date a transfer student to bring peace to their feuding families. Not to mention, more women from his past keep popping up, making it harder for him to find out who the girl is that he made that promise to.
1 Koh Is Drawn Back Into The World Of Baseball By His Friend’s Younger Sister (Cross Game)
When Koh Kitamura was younger, he never had much interest in playing baseball even though he was a talented batter. He decided to play anyway, which his friend Wakaba Tsukishima was ecstatic about. However, after a tragedy occurred, Koh’s life changed forever.
Four years later, Koh attends Seishuu Academy and is drawn back into the world of baseball because of Wakaba’s little sister, Aoba. The two share a strong bond, and together, they hope to live up to their potential and dreams in honor of Wakaba.
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