The best girl in anime isn’t always the main character. In fact, it’s the side character. Or a secondary female character.
It’s so bad when it comes to the best girl losing, you could call it best girl syndrome.
It’s like they’re almost destined to lose to the main heroine, or get written out of the story in place of the lesser character.
This even happens with MAIN characters from time to time.
Let’s talk about it.
1. They lack the self confidence
Kosaki Onodera in the image is a good example. She’s from the anime series: Nisekoi.
The word “Nisekoi” translates to fake love, making the outcome of this series even more ironic.
Onodera likes the main character called Raku. In fact they were childhood friends. She’s known him for a long time.
This is the source of Onodera’s feelings for Raku. That said, it never turns out in favor of Onodera.
Why? Because she lacks self confidence.
She might be attractive, sweet as anything, feminine and
She may even be “the best girl” and the right match. Especially in the early stages of Nisekoi.
But ultimately, she doesn’t have the confidence or courage to speak her mind and say what she wants.
She’s not brave enough to convey and share her feelings with Raku.
He might be a bit of a dense muppet who needs the truth spelling out for him, but it doesn’t matter in the end.
If you don’t have the confidence to go after what you want, someone else will TAKE it.
This is especially true in the context of relationships and the game of
The same thing happens with Hasuki Komai from Boarding School Juliet.
She’s definitely “best girl” without a doubt. And the perfect match up for Inuzuka, the main character.
Hasuki, just like Onodera in Nisekoi, is a childhood friend of the main character in Boarding School Juliet.
She knows him better than anyone. There are even people who are jealous of how “close” she is to Inuzuka.
That’s the kind of bond they share and it’s easy for everyone else to notice.
But again – confidence and courage is lacking, which is surprising in Hasuki’s case.
Hasuki is like Onodera, except in general she’s:
- Confident
- Courageous
- Has leadership skills
- Speaks her mind
And has a strong will and has standards she won’t compromise on.
But in the end, it doesn’t matter because she doesn’t have what it takes to speak her truth early on.
She’s afraid of rejection, like many people, especially women. And those insecurities and mental gymnastics is what causes this “best girl” to fail in the game of
Persia, the other MC who’s a blonde girl, snatches Inuzuka and Hasuki’s chances become zero.
Even if she handles it well and doesn’t get in the way of their relationship, it doesn’t change the fact of self confidence being one reason why best
It’s a real life lesson as well.
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2. They’re written out of the romance and replaced
In this case we have a MAIN character who happens to be best girl.
Her name is the one and only Rukia Kuchiki from
Bleach is a long enough series. 370+ episodes all together. Rukia is the first soul reaper Ichigo runs into.
That’s how the anime starts off pretty much when they come into contact with each other.
From there, the bond and relationship between Ichigo and Rukia starts to build.
They become so close and familiar with each other, that Orihime Inoue (side-ish character) becomes a little jealous.
They end up fighting alongside each other, and some of the best moments in
There’s no debating that, but that’s another story.
The long and short of this “tragedy” is Rukia is replaced with Orihime as Ichigo’s girlfriend.
This is in spite of the fact that Orihime and Ichigo didn’t have half the chemistry Rukia and Ichigo did.
And in spite of the fact the fanbase knew it made the most sense to pair them up together.
Orihime just doesn’t compare because of how poorly written she was in a lot of aspects. But that aside, Rukia was done dirty like many “best
We see similar things play out in the MUCH shorter anime: Toradora. A
Minori Kushieda is the character in the GIF and one of the anime’s “best
Ryuuji Takasua, the anime’s main male character likes Minori Kushieda. And the same is true vice versa.
This is shown very early in the anime series.
Minori is confident, jolly, easy to get along with, and a good laugh.
None of this matters though because despite her confidence or personality, she pushes Ryuuki away.
Even though she has feelings for him.
The real reason is not because she believes Ryuuji would be better off with Taiga Aisaka, but because she’s deliberately written out of the
It’s the same way Rukia was replaced in
This is even more true when you realize how much of a b*tch Taiga was initially (before character development and all that jazz).
This can all be subjective, but it’s still an objective reason why “best
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3. They were never supposed to win
Yuigahama is an important character in Oregairu. She’s one of the “trios” you consistently see.
On the surface Yuigahama is:
- Extroverted
- Gentle
- Jolly
- Cheerful
- Nice
And likes to keep company. She’s not the lone wolf type and has tons of energy to spare.
She’s the girl everyone likes or gets along with and appreciates.
Below the surface there’s more to Yuigahama than it first appears. But what ultimately matters is she was never meant to win!
I noticed this around the “nice girl speech” part of Oregairu.
Hachiman see’s Yuigahama as one of those nice
They make everything seem more wonderful than it really is.
That’s besides the point though.
Hachiman’s mindset, plus Yui’s position in relation to Yukino (who eventually wins) is where her chances start to fall apart.
I appreciate how subtle the anime is about it, but it was written in a way where you could see she was never gonna win.
Even if it made sense from a fan point of view, or from a character comparison point of view.
We see the same thing in the SAME anime with Iroha Isshiki.
She’s more of a side character compared to Yuigahama, but she’s one of those where she’s memorable enough to compete.
The fanbase enjoys Isshiki in general, and would agree she’s one of the best
While Isshiki hasn’t made any blatantly obvious moves on Hachiman to prove her interest, it is hinted in the series.
Like when she takes Hachiman out on a date.
But just like Yuigahama, she was never meant to win and the writers wouldn’t allow it.
Not that I ever agreed with Rem being best girl, but you could say it’s the same thing with her.
In Re:Zero, Subaru Natsuki chose Emilia in the first episode of the series. She’s the first person he meets in another world.
He bases his goals in life around Emilia, so the pairing is set in stone.
When Rem comes into the picture, well, she basically kills him twice. Not a good start at all.
Then later because Subaru had no choice, he’s on his best behavior to get along with Rem to prevent her killing him.
Later beyond that they build a strong bond together, and Subaru ultimately turns down Rem’s confession.
She was NEVER meant to win from the start. And that becomes clear by how she’s “used” in the story.
Those are the main reasons best girl loses
This extends to:
- Harem
- Ecchi
And other types of anime shows from different genres.
In the end though it’s all the same. Meaning it’s either they lack confidence, they’re written out of the
Even if they had all the qualities needed to come out on top!
Maybe there’s another reason I’m missing….
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