There are few souls in this world lucky enough to have experienced a perfect friendship, if such a thing exists. Part of understanding another person means seeing them at their worst and working through that together. Like any other relationship, friendship takes work and empathy and there are no guarantees. What's easy as children is fundamentally harder for adults.
But even those who've experienced the worst aspects of a broken friendship may take some comfort knowing that in fiction, things could get so much worse. In anime, the stakes are inevitably higher than a slow falling out, and there are dozens of characters who start off holding hands and end up holding knives instead. The most memorable of these collapsed anime friendships are simultaneously relatable and completely alien, but always entertaining.
10 Light Yagami & L Were Always Enemies, Alas
The tragedy of Light and L is that given entirely different circumstances, these two may have been forever friends. Of course, this aspect of Death Note has been explored by the fandom for almost two decades now. The respect that forms between this criminal and this investigator is among the most compelling elements of the show.
L is the only one that can catch Light, and L is the only one Light is remotely afraid of, his only tie to humanity. This mutual regard results in a fascinating set of interactions and questions of what could have been, had their friendship been allowed to develop without deception. Of course, this delicate balance is bound to result in tragedy once one of these two submits to the other and the truth of who Light really is emerges.
9 Naruto & Sasuke Are A Cliché For A Reason
An obvious contender for anime's most toxic friendship, the rivalry between Sasuke and Naruto eventually becomes the core conflict in the entire franchise. Initially, classmates and later begrudging (on Sasuke's part) friends, Sasuke's journey to the ninja equivalent of the dark side and Naruto's subsequent determination to save him are the basis of a thousand anime memes and parodies.
In part, what makes all this melodrama successful is that the audience is forced to feel the same way Naruto does. Fans witnessed these characters growing up and apart, and wanting to salvage their friendship is as natural as wanting to salvage childhood.
8 Madoka Loses Sayaka To Witchery
Fans of Madoka realized by episode three that no punches would be pulled. Even so, Sayaka's fall from grace is so immediate and brutal that it left fans reeling. Sayaka, Madoka's childhood best friend, idolizes Mami and decides to become a magical girl after Mami meets a terrible end.
But Sayaka is a person prone to despair, like so many people are, and no matter what timeline she makes a contract with Kyubey in, she's bound to become corrupted, become a witch, and meet a horrific end. The tragedy of Sayaka is that there's no saving her from herself, and no amount of Madoka's kindness can change who she is. After all, then she wouldn't be Sayaka. In some regards, her arc feels all too real of an interpretation of debilitating mental illness.
7 It's Hard To Maintain A Friendship With A Vampire
Sometimes your best friend becomes a vampire, and then you become a vampire killer, and then drama ensues. At least, this is the case in Seraph of the End, where orphans Yui and Mikaela find themselves stuck on opposite sides of a battle for the future. After a terrible virus devastates mankind and kills all adults, vampires emerge from the darkness and take over, subjugating humanity and forcing survivors to donate blood to their cause.
After scaping an underground orphanage together, Mikaela sacrifices himself to the vampires in order for Yui to survive. While Yui believes Mikaela has died and joins a group determined to fight vampires in the name of vengeance, Mikaela is himself transformed into a monster. Talk about an awkward reunion.
6 Miaka & Yui Didn't Mean To Become Rivals
While Miaki and Yui were friends long before either of them journeyed to the Universe of the Four Gods, Yui's personality was always a bit weak to perceived attacks. When she and Miaki both find themselves in this alternate world, Yui goes through a degree of torment that is much worse than Miaki could know.
Fooled into believing Yui has betrayed her, Miaki becomes Yui's rival and seeks revenge and to separate Miaki from Tamahome, whom she has also fallen in love with. Like Fushigi Yuugi itself, the relationship between the girls is problematic at best and hasn't aged well. Even so, few friendships go this far south in anime.
5 Ryo Never Had Good Intentions For Akira
It's apparent that director Masaaki Yuasa enjoys dramatic irony. While his shows are often zany and his characters sometimes clueless, the audience is almost always let in on more information than the cast. And so while fans of Devilman Crybaby know from episode one that Ryo is the reason Akira becomes a monster, Akira doesn't realize it.
The bulk of their relationship is based on Ryo being duplicitous and Akira trusting him regardless. Things are bound to come to a violent head, but it's no less rewarding and perhaps even more suspenseful because the audience can see the dark clouds looming.
4 Vicious & Spike Had A Very Volatile Friendship
Credit where credit is due: Spike Spiegel tried really hard to leave behind this destructive friendship. He tried, but of course, Bebop is a show about the past catching up with everyone, and it's inevitable that Vicious and Spike would come to blows by the end.
Spike and Vicious go way back, back before the start of the series. Spike was a member of the same crime syndicate as Vicious long before Vicious instigated a coup and took over. In those years, they were partners in actual crime and friends, too, both taken in by an elder member of the syndicate and in love with the same woman, Julia. Of course, that's where the conflict began: Spike attempted to leave with Julia, causing a rift that could not be undone.
3 The Dissolution of the Survey Corps Is Long In The Making
Duplicity is a huge part of the Attack on Titan universe. The government misleads its people, the church misleads its government, and the entire world misleads the audience, too. There's something especially gutwrenching, however, about friends within the Survey Corps misleading each other.
That Bertholdt, Reiner, and Annie are Titans in disguise is one thing. But that their determination to keep their secret results in the brutal death of Marco is a more defining betrayal. By now the show has come so far along that the actions of Bertholdt and Reiner may be forgotten or better understood. But that moment when Eren, Armin, and company realize how long and cruelly they've been deceived remains a series' revelation that foreshadows the madness to come.
2 Guts & Griffith Are Bound To End Each OTher
Griffith and Guts have been destined enemies for so long that it's hard to remember that in the beginning, they were friends. More interestingly, they were and are amazing foils of one another. Guts is blunt and direct and perhaps not the brightest, while Griffith is cunning and devious and too clever for his own good.
When Guts joins Griffith's band at the start of the series, the two are an unlikely but curiously balanced pair. Guts tempers Griffith's worst ambitions while Griffith harnesses Guts' best attributes. Eventually, this balance is lost and they end up bitter opponents.
1 Shinji & Kaworu Are Doomed From The Start
It can be argued that Kaworu is never truly Shinji's friend, but that seems reductive. After all, neither Shinji nor Kaworu can help what they are, and helplessness is a theme that runs deeply in Evangelion. Shinji is forced to be an EVA pilot, and Kaworu was created to be an angel intent on destroying humanity.
The saddest part isn't that they are enemies, but that they are given a brief window in which to become something more. When SEELE sends Kaworu to replace Asuka, Shinji is more desperate and alone than ever before. Kaworu is something of his savior, a different kind of angel, and realizing that it's all only getting worse makes their brief camaraderie, or even romance, more painful to watch.