Young love is a weird thing. Kids infamously and hilariously giggle, pull hair, or even throw stuff at someone that they like. That's where cartoons have a special opportunity to represent romance.
Much of their core audience is strange to the ways of roses and chocolate, meaning that most kid cartoons just can't have a regular kind of a date. They need to capture those feelings in a manner that is universal and expressive so that not only kids can understand them but adults can get a pretty good kick, too. This list will be honoring young love, as it runs down some of the best evidences of young romance within childhood cartoons.
10 Numbuh 4 & Numbuh 3 (Codename: Kids Next Door)
Codename: Kids Next Door was so many things to a little kid. It was a fantastical adventure like no other that gave backyard fun and young rebellion a cool name. However, if there was something that this series doesn't get enough credit for, it was for its casual and nostalgic display of elementary school love.
And while the oddly mature romance between Numbuh 1 and Lizzie could land on this list, this list is giving its spot to the Aussie Tsundere that was Numbuh 4 and the adorable Numbuh 3. Everyone would tease Numbah 4 for seeming like he likes her. Numbah 4 would deny it. Incredibly funny and tense situations would try to force a confession out of him. If there was ever a romance to remind people how childish romances can be, it would be this one.
9 The Eds & The Kanker Sisters (Ed, Edd, N Eddy)
While Numbah 4 and Numbah 3 was strong evidence of how adorable the childish fight against cooties can be, let the battle for survival that was between the Eds and the Kanker Sisters be a sobering experience. The Kanker Sisters use their brash nature and monstrous strength to terrorize the cul-de-sac and take whatever they wanted which, most of the time, meant the Eds. While the Kankers reveled in the playfulness of playing house and smooching, the Eds were outright terrified of it.
Whether that just meant their childhood aversion to kissing or some well deserved fear from the Kankers part, the brutal dynamic between the groups was a hilarious one, and it was oddly nostalgic of the great extremes that either embracing or avoiding lovey dovey stuff could've been for a kid.
8 Finn & Flame Princess (Adventure Time)
Adventure Time was a masterclass of displaying adolescent anxiety and raw emotion in a surreal yet universally seen light. It would make sense then that they'd also be responsible for one of the most adorable, honest, and uniquely mature romances in all of television, a la the Human and the Flame Princess.
These were two young kids battered by different childhood traumas that somehow found solace and familiarity within another. For Finn in particular, this was a relationship that really helped him get in tune with some of the more confusing and painful elements of growing up, whether that's acknowledging love, being a respectful partner, not sweating the small stuff, and, sadly, going through a break up.
7 Rigby & Eileen (Regular Show)
While Regular Show's Mordecai certainly has quite a resume of entertaining and beloved romances, Regular Show's entry on this list goes to his loudmouthed, zany roommate. Though Rigby and Eileen's relationship started off incredibly one-sided from Eileen's side, it would grow as Rigby got to know the girl a little more, surprising everyone when he'd just drop the bomb that the two were going out.
From there, the relationship becomes something really special, as it wasn't just two people being in love but actively trying to improve themselves and each other, featuring Rigby actually going back to school for Eileen. If that isn't love, then what is it?
6 Kim Possible & Ron Stoppable (Kim Possible)
The dynamic between Kim Possible, high school cheerleader and international super spy, and Ron Stoppable, Mexican food lover and sidekick, was a complicated one. It always seemed like Ron was just there for comic relief, as Kim actually took on some of the more serious stuff.
That all changed when Kim Possible: So the Drama would have an international dilemma and a high school dance actually bring the two together, in an ending that was surprising, touching, and immensely cathartic.
5 Helga & Arnold (Hey, Arnold!)
Reluctant, immature childhood love has been something touched on a couple of times on this list. However, one cartoon character out there has been infamous for making their romantic situation significantly and hilariously more complicated than it needed to be. That character would be the mean, brutal, and lovelorn Helga Pataki, as she struggled to hide her deep seeded love for Arnold Shortman for five seasons.
And while a lesser writer would've just reveled in sitcom like situations, Hey, Arnold! would actively create tense and melancholic circumstances for the two that would actually be as gently romantic as they were genuinely painful experiences for one girl trying to find the words to confess her love and one boy slowly finding out that this girl isn't as mean as she tries to be.
4 Robin & Starfire (Teen Titans)
Comic book romances are some of the most heart wrenching and famous among many adults who would still watch childhood cartoons. They are given an odd depth and maturity rarely seen in Saturday Mornings and offer plenty of tense and dangerous situations to really tease people's imaginations for who characters really cared for.
Such a dynamic was in full display within Teen Titans, as Robin and Starfire would exemplify deep chemistry on screen that constantly played at the fans' will-they-won't-they mentality for a young adult, fantasy series. It would also be one of the rare series to actually put the romance into fruition, when Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo would pose as a wonderful, cathartic conclusion for the series in more ways than one.
3 Ruby & Sapphire (Steven Universe)
Cartoon Network has done a historically good job at capturing romance from a variety of relatable and fantastical angles. However, many of them fail to compare in spectacle and pure conversation to the literal fusion of Ruby and Sapphire. Steven Universe has done a great job of preserving "fusion" as this special and sacred thing that is even more powerful between two people who really connect.
Garnet is the ultimate culmination of that, not only acting as one of the coolest, strongest members of the Crystal Gem but also as one of the most understanding and emotionally mature of the group. She's an entire being of experiences and struggle that, while abstract and complex, only translates into something special for kids, as they see a romance that displays love in a manner that is truly meaningful.
2 Bugs Bunny & Lola Bunny
While not necessarily the most time tested romances on this list, the relationship between Bugs and Lola Bunny was as obvious of a cartoon pairing for fans as it was a delightful and long awaited shipping moment for an animation icon. In Space Jam, Looney Tunes would try to replicate the sexual tension and mystique of Jessica Rabbit but with a much more urban and modern flare.
This would allow the two some heated banter that was at one end playful to the historic rabbit and at another a genuine, refreshing challenge. Such a romance would be reignited in The Looney Tunes Show, as the two would experience a new relationship with a much more lively and vapid Lola Bunny that was still pretty cute and funny to watch.
1 Mickey Mouse & Minnie Mouse
Last but not least, this list reaches one of the most time honored and homely relationships in cartoon history. Mickey Mouse, for all intents and purposes, is the first mouse of animation, standing with Minnie as his first mouse-ette.
As mascots for an entire industry, the two would also be standard bearers for what romance would look and feel like across cartoons for generations, using that special brand of Disney emotion to create a coy, playful, and ever adorable relationship to really make Disney cartoons seem all the more like an actual family to the fans.