< Ship Tease

Ship Tease/Anime and Manga

  • From Soul Eater we have any weapon/meister team. All weapons live with their meisters, the teams are usually male/female, and due to the way soul resonance works, are soulmates. However, the main characters Maka and Soul are especially notable, due to the sheer amount of protectiveness they have towards each other. Though Word of God is that most of these relationships will remain platonic.
  • There is reason a large percentage of Lyrical Nanoha fans consider Nanoha and Fate to be the Official Couple of the series, despite nothing definite ever being stated. The first season is almost entirely about the two of them, Nanoha swiftly making it her mission to befriend "the girl with the sad eyes", eventually forging a bond strong enough to weaken the control Fate's Evil Matriarch has over her, the series ending with the single most romantic scene in the series. The second and third seasons dropped the frequency of the teasing considerably, but the latter managed to compensate admirably by showing them sharing a bed and ending with them adopting a child together.
    • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Vi Vid starts four years after the third season... with Fate still being Vivio's 'other mommy' outright. Vivio's description of her life has Yuuno nowhere to be seen, though to be fair, there are a lot of others nowhere to be seen as well. Also, Vivid takes place during one of the times Fate is actually there with time off, rather than on deep space missions. The Ship Tease now lay in "how domestic can we make Nanoha and Fate; without saying anything definite?
    • Side N of the Sound Stage released by Seven Arcs as part of the promotion for Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie First reinforce the Happy Yuri Family with a large amount of its tracks dedicated to Nanoha, Fate and Vivio's family life together as the "Takamachi Family" (also see in the name of one of the tracks, "Takamachi Family Gathering", where Nanoha take care of Fate and Vivio, and share some happy family time together). In the prologue of this same Soundstage, Vivio say she is Nanoha and Fate's child.
    • While no Word of Gay has emerged from the writers, that hasn't stopped Yukari Tamura (Nanoha's voice actor) and Nana Mizuki (Fate's voice actor) from showing support for the couple. Then there's the famous 'Fate-chan's a prince!' picture.
    • For Nanoha and Yuuno ship-teasing: In the first season, Yuuno was very jealous of how friendly Nanoha was towards Chrono when they first started working with him (especially whenever Nanoha got Chrono to blush). The two of them also bond over discussing their lonely early childhoods, and they promise to have more talks like that in the future, when there's nothing going on to worry about. During the final battle against Precia, when Nanoha and Yuuno work together to take out the power plant and its robotic defenders, Nanoha comments on how much she relies on Yuuno's warm support, punctuating her words with a positively sultry, half-lidded look that, coming from an older girl, could only have meant "You don't know it yet, but you're MINE." In the time-skipped epilogue of the second anime season, Amy asks Yuuno if he's "made progress" with Nanoha. Even Fate notes that Nanoha and Yuuno "share a special relationship we can't understand" in a Sound stage.
      • In the supplementary manga issue that recaps and expands the second season's epilogue, Yuuno's answer to Amy's question about romantic progress is dramatically revised. Instead of responding with an embarrassed negative, Yuuno cheerfully says he and Nanoha are nothing more than childhood friends. Even then, the manga throws some support in for Yuunoha when Amy sadly classifies this as a symptom of their mutual workaholicism; she resolves to "have a talk" with them about it.
    • ViVid also gives Vivio her own Ship Tease with Einhart, which is both a Reincarnation Romance and a Generation Xerox of Nanoha and Fate's relationship.
    • Subaru and Teana are teased almost as much as Nanoha and Fate, with Subaru being very affectionate both physically and verbally, to the point of outright stating she loves Teana (which could be a case of Love You and Everybody) and groping Teana's breasts while she's sleeping, and Teana being a classic Tsundere model, complete with red hair and twin tails (though she removed the latter after the second Time Skip).
    • Buried amongst all of the yuri Ship Tease is the straight Puppy Love Tease of Erio and Caro. The Sound Stage cranks it Up to Eleven with Caro actually following Erio into the men's side of a public bath to do some bonding -- even suggesting that they take more baths together in the future -- much to Erio's sputtered embarrassment.
  • The Hellsing OVA managed some Alucard and Seras teasing (Alucard sitting on her bed when she woke up, Seras commenting on how awesome his large guns are), and though its manga equivalent had less, it was still there.
    • Alucard and Integra have scores of Belligerent Sexual Tension, complete with his weird flirting, her tsuntsun rages, and the whole Count/Countess thing. And the Distant Finale chapter.
    • The anime contains far more teasing than the manga. The 1st episode is set up as a gothic romance style girl meets vampire and they fall in love type of story, but it gets subverted hard when we Integra at the end of the episode and there is clearly something going on between them, based on the bitter and jealous expression she has and the smug smile on his face, while Seras gets ignored. Gonzo, the producers, even said that Alucard/Integra were an Official Couple.
  • Rumiko Takahashi does some Ship Teasing for some popular alternate pairings in Ranma ½ on several occasions:
    • In one storyline, Nabiki becomes Ranma's fiance because of one of Akane's bouts of jealousy. Nabiki spends the storyline exploiting Ranma mercilessly, teasing him to keep him in line, while trying to persuade Akane to take Ranma back -- for a token fee.
    • The infamous "Koi Fishing Rod/Fishing Rod of Love story parodies the pairing of Ryoga and Ranma (either boy or girl type). Ryoga accidentally causes Ranma to fall into obsessive love with him by hitting him with a magic fishing rod. Hilarity Ensues.
    • Then there's the "Umbrella of Love" chapter with Nabiki and Kuno. A similar pairing happened in the anime, but with a mistaken fortune telling.
      • Some people consider the OAV opening theme "Where Do We Go From Here (You and Me)" to also Ship Tease Nabiki and Kuno, as Kuno appears in almost every scene that Nabiki does.
    • During one of the OVAs, the characters have to pair up to enter a cave (the goal of every character involved is to break up Ranma and Akane, naturally). However the storyline hints at Ryoga/Ukyo to make it through the Cave of Lost Love. The end has EVERYONE believing Ukyo and Ryoga are a pair at the end. (Possibly including the anime scriptwriters.)
      • This story line is actually in the Manga, so it was once again Takahashi who was poking fun at people in her classical style.
      • The anime version also has some Kuno/Nabiki Ship Tease...if you consider Nabiki dragging the unconscious Kuno through the cave and at one point using him as a human shield against a lantern ghost to be a sign of affection.
    • The 2nd movie does this for Shampoo/Mousse, what with Mousse nearly making a Heroic Sacrifice to save Shampoo, and Shampoo actually seeming moved by it.
      • Takahashi punctures this one all the time, but perhaps most so in the final storyline wherein Mousse frees Shampoo from enslavement and sacrifices his chances to get her devoted to him, and she immediately glomps Ranma and doesn't even care that he's there the following panel.
      • The 2nd movie is also the biggest source of Ship Tease in the anime for Ukyo/Ryoga and Nabiki/Kuno. One of the reasons it's so generally disliked even amidst the fans of the anime (besides the fact it more or less recycles the plot of the first and the presence of Gainaxing) is because of this.
    • The anime has a number of subtle Ship Tease moments for Kasumi and Dr. Tofu...namely in the form of Akane and, on occasion, Ranma, being supportive of the idea. The main Ship Tease is the second OAV ending theme, "Red Shoe Sunday", which has lyrics from Kasumi's voice actor and accompanying animation that hint that she actually does feel something for Dr. Tofu and she just wishes he'd get over that stupid habit of his. Official word from Rumiko Takahashi is that Kasumi is not aware of Dr. Tofu's crush and doesn't reciprocate it, she merely treats him the way she does because...well...she's Kasumi.
  • Anything CLAMP. 20 series, hundreds of characters, dozens upon dozens of plausible pairings...and like, 5 canon
  • ~You're Under Arrest!~ has always been infamous in having "official" posters depicting their main lead Heterosexual Life Partners in various states of undress, hugging, caressing, etc. The new series ED really amps this up, causing shippers' heads to explode. They know nothing will amount to it, but it's so very pretty...
  • Lucky Star mines a similarly rich seam with Konata and Kagami: the official artwork appearing in Japanese bishoujo-centric publication Megami depicts them as being very close friends. Come to think, a good portion of yuri ship fuel debuted in the same magazine.
  • Toei Animation is smart about the Pretty Cure franchise's Multiple Demographic Appeal to yuri fanboys. While Nagisa and Saki had a definite interest in boys, they were never given resolution and had enough screentime for their relationships with Honoka and Mai to be interpreted as Romantic Two-Girl Friendship (and, in Saki's case, there was also some Foe Yay with Michiru). When Yes! Precure 5 came along, the first Official Couples came with it, leaving Karen and Komachi, a pairing supported by a lot of the yuri fanboys, broken up by canon - so, as soon as that was cemented, in came cute shots of the usually standoffish Karen glomping Kurumi in the ending theme. And if Kurumi turns out to be Milk, there's plenty more where that came from.
    • Also, from what was seen during episodes 4, 18 and 40 of YPC5 GoGo, Syrup and Urara deserve to be mentioned. Their little moments together in those three episodes caused the couple to have a fairly big fanbase, inside and outside of Japan.
  • Nara Shikamaru and Temari from Naruto. Particularly ship-tease worthy are their scenes in Shippuden, where the only member of the Rookie Nine besides Sakura that Naruto sees before leaving to help Gaara is Shikamaru... and all his appearances are partnered up with Temari, and that's not even getting into the actual interactions the two have in those scenes. Naruto even asked them if they were on a date which they both denied.
    • Both the Bug Arc and the Land of Vegetables Arc in the Fillers had a fair share of Naruto and Hinata tease. In the Bug Arc we had Naruto watching the silhouette of a naked dancing Hinata and calling her beautiful, though he didn't know it was her. A lot of the Naruto/Hinata ship tease in the anime is definitely because a lot in the Naruto animation staff are Hinata fans. They even state this outright in the Shippuden episode 165 omake.
      • The manga has one memorable occurence in chapters 558-559, where Naruto saves her from the Zetsu clones. There are also other subtle cues, such as Hinata being the only one to instantly realize that he really is Naruto and not a Zetsu clone, and Naruto noticing her desire to protect him by looking into her eyes and cheering her up for it.
      • And in chapter 573: Hinata says that she will stop chasing Naruto... because when the war is over she will be next to him holding his hand and walking with him. And to wait for her.
      • And how Naruto went into Kyuubi mode after he saw Hinata seemingly get stabbed and killed in front of him.
    • There also is quite a bit between Naruto and Sakura. Like Sakura going on a date with him in Part 1, blushing around Naruto when he arrived at the village after 2 and a half years, trying to calm him down when he was out of control by the Nine-Tailed Fox and the one time where Sakura and Yamato were talking about Naruto and Yamato said: "Yeah, I can tell you really lo—" but then got cut off.
    • Then we have Jiraiya and Tsunade. Their last scene together makes it even more evident.
    • Sasuke and Naruto have a fair bit of Ho Yay Ship Tease together.
  • Perhaps in apology for the impending Ship Sinking, a late episode of Clannad features Kyou getting locked in a gym storage room with Tomoya, instantly turning deredere to the max, and misinterpreting her conversation with Tomoya into thinking she's about to have her First Time. Fan Service~
    • Exactly why we ended up with Tomoyo After.
    • And, inevitably, Kyou's OVA.
  • A slight tease was present in IGPX concerning Liz and Amy. At one point, just before a race where Amy was getting a little jumpy, Liz calms Amy down by hugging her and pressing her forehead to Amy's in a surprisingly intimate gesture, causing both girls to blush. An earlier clip had Liz hugging Amy from behind, while reassuring her that she wasn't alone, again with both girls blushing. This may have been mostly because of Amy's lack of friends prior to the series and thus an enhanced sense of the newness of it all, but it could have been easily taken as the two growing a bit closer even than that. There are even seen photoshopped cels suggesting that the forehead-press was immediately after a kiss. 'Course, by the end of the second season, Liz had confessed her feelings for Takeshi, and Amy unreservedly cheered them on, but one can't help but wonder if Amy might have had a slight crush on Liz after those clips.
  • Suzumiya Haruhi series: Haruhi's feelings for Kyon are rather obvious, to everyone but Kyon (who can't stop ranting and snarking about her), and Kyon's crush on Mikuru is hilariously explicit. The crush actually is returned by Mikuru, with occasional flirting between the two, but you know how the time travel-rules are...The teasing comes in with Yuki (to the point of blatancy in the fourth novel/theatrical film where she temporarily becomes a "real" girl...for Kyon) and Itsuki, who may just be doing it to mess with Kyon, aka Mr. Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?. If the 5th novel is anything to go by, Mikuru's feelings for Haruhi and Koizumi's statements on how charming Haruhi is and that he "envies" Kyon. And let's include the return of Ryoko Asakura in Disappearance. One has to ask himself why she, despite being a normal human, stabbed Kyon to protect Yuki.
    • Kyon implies in one of the novels that he has dreams about alternate Yuki on a regular basis.
    • Perhaps appropriately enough, official parody series The Melancholy of Haruhi Chan has its own teases, but only for Kyon/Yuki and Kyon/Itsuki, with some Yuki/Achakura on the side.
    • Minori Chihara, Yuki's voice actor, apparently also likes to tease for Kyon/Yuki, if this is any indication; notice that she replaced the last word of the lyrics from "believe me(shinjite)" to "i love you(daisuki)".
  • Digimon Adventure 02 has several instances pointing to a pairing between Takeru and Hikari. Both being "veteran" digidestined from the previous series, both having angel digimon, both rediscovering their crests at the same time, both showing outwardly pleasant exteriors to mask past darkness, an episode and a movie centered on the duo, and a Digimon "god" telling them that both their crests were special in comparison to the rest. Despite this, it was shown that both did not end up together in the Distant Finale (which is rendered Fanon Discontinuity by most fans anyway, so it doesn't make much of a difference).
    • "Focus", one of Takeru's image songs, wherein he sings about someone that he's known since he was small and who he wants to protect -- even mentioning that "you used to cry all the time, but now you're standing in the light". Yeah, real subtle. He even wonders if he is the focus of that person's heart.
      • Conversely however, Hikari has an Image Song on the Girl's Festival album about a childhood friend she has fond memories of and perhaps a crush until one line near the end - "It's a little too cute to call it love", suggesting that any supposed romantic implications from her were just old feelings about a childhood friend. Ouch. Then again, even that fact won't make the above any less teasing to shippers.
      • That might be a quirk of translation. The line is 'Koi to yobu ni wa kawaii sugi da yo ne?', which does essentially translate the way the link says, but 'koi' can stand for selfish love, as opposed to a purer, 'cuter' love closer to what Takeru displays. Thinking of it that that way, their ship didn't quite sink as much as it just mysteriously fell to the won't side of Will They or Won't They?.
    • Tai/Sora was probably the largest straight 'ship in the fandom thanks to their teasing, until it got blown to pieces by a Gainax Ending.
      • Interestingly, they still tease Tai/Sora after she starts dating Matt. Something that comes up a lot is Sora dodging behind Taichi when startled (when Matt is the same exact distance away) in Diaboromon Strikes Back. Also, something worth pointing out is that the finale deliberately avoids declaring Matt and Sora to be married; clearly each is the parent of the other's child, but still; she's remains closer to Joe.
    • Daisuke and Ken have moments of both Foe Yay and Ho Yay in 02. Including the Kaiser getting a little too excited by having Daisuke crawling like a worm for him, as well as that their hearts beat together when their Digimon first Jogressed. Yes, they even have a Sleep Cute moment.
    • Guilmon and Renamon have some teasing in Digimon Tamers, starting with their Goku/Vegeta-like relationship in the beginning, the infamous hiding scene where Renamon pulled Guilmon away behind the house, and in the dub where Terriermon sing-songs "Renamon and Guilmon sittin' in a tree!"
      • Renamon and Impmon get teased as well, starting from their very first meeting, when he called her a "Digibabe" and "toots". Then you have their whole love-hate relationship, Renamon recognizing him as Beelzemon when no one else could, and her being the one who wanted to go back for him while the Tamers were preparing to leave the Digital World. And then there's the whole "bond" thing they have...
    • In the original Digimon Adventure, there's a smidgeon of Ship Tease between Nancy and Hiroaki, TK's and Matt's divorced parents. They're awfully friendly, at the very least.
    • Rukato fans will swear by Runaway Digimon Express, for the phone conversation in the intro (awkward embarassment on Takato's end, only half-hearted annoyance on Ruki's), Takato risking his life to save Ruki's and telling her off for demanding he let go and let her fall off the speeding train, and the final scene when Takato attempts to approach Ruki only to yield to Renamon's insistance to let her think. Ruki being emotionally vulnerable and Takato being hero certainly help, though the Canon Discontinuity doesn't. A CD Drama was released that placed the Digimon back in the digital world and re-emphasized the relationships between Takato and Juri and Ruki and Ryo, though Chiaki Konaka was very appreciative of the exploration of Ruki's psyche.
    • Digimon Xros Wars did this for three episodes with Beelzebumon (not the Tamers one) and Mervamon. After he protects her from an attack, she starts hanging around him, helping him, and getting worried when she can't find him (although she pretends she doesn't care). He even makes her blush at one point. The third episode has them occasionally holding hands and flying around together with him carrying her. Then it all screeches to a halt when he sacrifices himself to defeat Lilithmon. In the final episode when he got better, Mervamon sees Beelzebumon and tackles him, crying and repeating "Thank god". Later after the Big Bad was taken out she can be seen clinging to his arm, almost cementing the pairing.
  • In Saiyuki, there's quite a bunch of teases about the Hakkai/Yaone pairing. Whenever the group fights, they get pitted together, they're counterparts to each other, and most importantly, Yaone herself looked like Hakkai's deceased lover Kanan. Lots of shipping generate from these, but eventually it gets featured less and less for the sake of Ho Yay, probably the ship has sunk already...
  • In the vein of ~You're Under Arrest!~ above, official art depicts Ban and Ginji of GetBackers in several suggestive poses, one including bondage.
  • It may be a No Hugging, No Kissing series, but that doesn't stop the writers of the Pokemon Anime from writing in... "moments" between Ash Ketchum and his female companion de jour.
    • The anime writers loaded Diamond/Pearl from beginning to end with Ship Tease for Ash and Dawn, and later put in some Ash/Iris Ship Tease right in the third episode. These latter day pairings don't seem to catch on as much as earlier ones for some reason...
    • And then they just have to complicate matters by giving the party members ship teases with others. To wit: Tracey for Misty, Zoey and Kenny for Dawn, and Cilan for Iris (and Ash himself). To say nothing of Drew for May. In turn, Tracey, Drew, and Cilan get alternate teases of their own.
    • On the other side, Jessie and James are a total shiptease. Especially in the Pokémon Chronicles episode Training Daze where James falls awkwardly on top of Jessie and makes her blush.
    • For the longest time, the Pokemon themselves seemed to be mainly immune from this trope, with most exceptions being with Ash as previously mentioned. Then, Dawn caught a Buneary which happened to fancy Ash's Pikachu. This was followed with her Piplup getting his own set of crushes[1], before going on the Best Wishes, where there have been more "Crushes of the Week" for the Pokemon than for Ash or Iris.
    • There's some inter-continuity Ship Tease between Ash/Red and Misty. Various continuities mark them as love interests: The first 4koma had Red drooling over Misty a few times, Red in the games has at least one official art with her being buddy-buddy, (to say nothing of her comments in Yellow,) Satoshi in Pokémon Zensho is implied to be attracted to her (even using a heart when he talks to her once), and they have their fair share of tease in PokéSpe as well (Misty is even out-right in love with Red in Special).
      • The Gaiden Game, Pokémon Colosseum, might also reference this inter-continuity teasing via Eagun, an Old Master who started off with a Pikachu, and his granddaughter Rui, who bears a rather striking resemblence to Misty.
      • For comparision to the other Anime leads, Red only met Sapphire briefly at the end of the Emerald arc and has not, [2], met Platnium or Iris. Isamu has met Sapphire (and Misty) in that universe, but little info is forthcomming, for some strange reason...
    • Last but not least, the games themselves have been showing an increasing amount of Ship Tease material ever since Generation III, although most of it is very small and subtle compared to the examples from the anime and manga due to the more limited characterisation. For more information, read its entry in the Video Games subsection.
  • Hidamari Sketch of all series has Sae x Hiro heavily implied in both intros, though none of it is ever seen during the actual episodes. The manga, on the other hand...
  • Tezuka and Fuji got this in both the manga and anime of Prince of Tennis. Most notable were a couple of flashback episodes of the anime in which they held hands, walked under an umbrella together (usually reserved for lovers in anime/manga) and had Cherry Blossoms rain down onto them.
  • Science Ninja Team Gatchaman liked to do this with Ken and Jun once every blue moon, but when it came to America as Battle of the Planets, the writers did all they could to suggest a romantic connection between Mark and Princess without actually making them an Official Couple.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima there's so much ship tease that the series needed its own example page. Seriously, every time Negi is alone with one of the girls, there is ship tease, except with Ayaka, where it is usually just Played for Laughs with a strong dose of Shotacon.
  • Axis Powers Hetalia has lots of Ho Yay Ship Tease going on between various characters, and a few for heterosexual pairings as well. See the very abundant examples here.
  • The infamous "cigarette kiss" at the end of the 7th episode of Black Lagoon.
    • The Tokyo arc also plays out like one massive Revy/Rock ship tease, with Revy bringing our the dere-dere (what counts as that for her, anyway), jealousy, intense protectiveness, and caring about someone else's mental (or physical) health for what amounts to the first time in the series. Really, any time these two are on screen/in the same panel together counts. Their UST is just that high.
  • Every freaking scene in Venus Versus Virus between Lucia and Sumire. Especially in the first few volumes.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist has Roy Mustang/Riza Hawkeye teasing out the wazoo. Arakawa manages to get to epic lengths without the tiniest Relationship Upgrade.
    • Her grandfather asks Roy what he is waiting for to marry Riza, and he nearly answers "everything in due time."
    • He learned flame alchemy by seeing her topless.
    • She joined the army for him and "lost her will to live" when she thought he was dead.
    • Later, Roy and his mother have a little conversation about a certain "Elizabeth-chan", who apparently is good at cheering him up.
    • And then, chapter 94: "Just kidding."
    • In the last arc of the series, their respective injuries (Roy is blind, Riza is weak from blood loss) necessitated them being in close contact at all times.
    • One of their codes is them flirting over the phone.
    • And Ed/Winry, Lan-Fan/Ling, and Al/Mei. Let's face it, Hiromu Arakawa loves this trope, the manga brimming with official/near-official couples.
    • The people in charge of the Brotherhood anime love those semi-official couples too, and sometimes throw in extra little shipping scenes in the series or in the openings and endings. Let's just say the fifth opening takes the cake if you're a fan of Edward/Winry. At least they're made official at the end of the series.
    • The ending picture of the manga/Brotherhood is the biggest ship tease in the series. (Did Al and May hook up at the end?) Looks like the world may truly never know the truth.
    • The third art book does at least contain the official answer for one of the almost couples. Roy and Riza are not a pairing at the end of the series... well, not out loud. Arakawa confirms in her comments on one art piece that the only reason they aren't married is because the military has an anti-fraternization law, and to get married they would have to stop working together. Since Riza is fairly crucial to Roy's plans to become Fuhrer, they can't give up the working relationship; but the implication is pretty clear that once he reaches the top (which Arakawa has confirmed elsewhere he will), they'll be together.
    • The first anime has this occasionally. It's most apparent with Roy and Riza. From Riza's Erotic Dream to the ending where Riza is clearly shown being quite close to an injured Roy, but in the end we never get a Word of God on whether they're in a relationship or not. In The Movie they don't interact much either.
  • Bleach endings sometimes hint at Ichigo/Rukia (2, 16, 19), or Ichigo/Orihime (15, 18), but otherwise the anime is heavily biased towards the former. Word of God saying that the relationship between Ichigo and Rukia is more than friendship but not romantic hasn't stopped the creators of the anime from blatantly Ship Teasing them.
    • Several scenes from the manga that make Orihime's feelings for Ichigo significantly more obvious than it is in the anime are never adapted or are changed significantly (for example, a Not So Different moment in Chapter 24 is replaced with Orihime saying her epigraph poem from Volume 3, a scene with Orihime's brother complaining about Orihime always talking about Ichigo is changed to her always talking about her friend Tatsuki, and a scene showing the strength of her resolve to go with Ichigo to Soul Society to protect him is cut entirely and the anime has her hesitating whether or not to go); some of Ichigo's lines, such as "If you want to kill Inoue, you'll have to kill me first!" are also cut; moreover, Orihime and her feelings for Ichigo are all but ignored in the filler stories and movies.
    • On the other hand, despite shortening a small subplot in which people at school are spreading rumors about Ichigo being in a relationship with Rukia, there are additional Ship Tease scenes between the two, along with scenes in which characters can be jealous of Rukia for being close to Ichigo (Ririn, Nel). In the anime's version of the Grand Fisher mini-arc an original character whose job would have been taking Rukia back to Soul Society leaves her in the human world because "I don't want to break up such a serious twosome" and "I guess Rukia has come of age..." Episode 342, in particular, is one long Ichigo/Rukia tease.
    • There's some decent baiting of Shunsui with both Lisa and Nanao. Sure, there's the excuse that Shunsui is a laid back dude that just likes the ladies, and Lisa is sort of perverted so she can be hand waved a bit, but Nanao shows signs of Tsundere on her Captain.
    • HitsuMatsu. The anime seems to favor Rangiku and Toshiro a great deal (and now with Gin out of the way...), judging from the facts that they're always together, trust each other the most, the movie The Diamond Dust Rebellion has so much chemistry between them you can cut it with a knife, they shared a few touching Friendship Moment and in the 9th- 10th season openings when the Captain/Lieutenant combos are introduced the camera seems to linger more on them than any other.
    • The animators and Tite really pushed UlquiHime after the Arrancar said Orihime looked good in the Arrancar wear. In-character or not, it was out of the blue for Ulquiorra to state such a thing.
  • Like the above example, if you ship anything in One Piece, there's a reasonable chance a good chunk of your evidence comes from filler, specials, or movies. No, seriously, who they're ship teasing with who changes like the phases of the moon.
    • Played up for laughs, but Sanji and Zoro get a lot of Ship Tease scenes in the fillers, from sleeping with their faces right next to each other to nearly kissing twice.
    • During the manga's month-long hiatus, Oda drew a few doodles containing information about himself. To celebrate the birth of his new daughter, he drew a scene of Luffy holding up a baby...with Nami's hairdo and with Nami herself standing right next to him, looking pleased as punch. Uh oh.
    • Here's the page where you can find the image.
    • A good deal of ship-tease fuel is canon. Franky/Robin, Zoro/Robin, Sanji/Nami, and Luffy/Nami get their more potent fuel from canon materials, though a lot of it is probably misinterpretation of The Power of Friendship
      • Before the full crew was assembled, Nami/Zoro was somewhat prevalent, due to Nami and Zoro being the two most mature members of the crew and had the Belligerent Sexual Tension (Nami was a Tsundere and Zoro was a bit of a Jerkass).
      • Franky/Robin shiptease has peaked up in recent anime episodes. The new Opening Narration shows Robin helping Franky with his inventions, when the helper’s role is usually given to the crew’s another inventor, Usopp. Additionally, when Franky and Robin meet after two years, their conversation is filled with ship tease starting with Franky openly and loudly complimenting Robin’s appearance. Then there’s Franky’s reaction (or lack of) to Boa Hancock when the crew sees her. The anime is quite loyal to the manga, but here and there the anime adds and extends (hilarious) exchanges between the two of them. It seems that the creators of the anime have really taken Franky and Robin’s roles as official Team Dad and Team Mom seriously.
        • The manga recently had a bit of shiptease with Robin and Jinbe.
    • There's also the worst case of ship tease is Hancock with Luffy, who constantly takes what Luffy's saying to mean something else after his ridiculous display of MANLY and falling in love with him. A love so strong she thought it was a lethal fever at first. Luffy is Luffy, he's ridiculously oblivious about it, despite the fact she acts like a doting housewife to him because her sexiness won't woo him, despite her being the hottest woman in the world of One Piece's world according to in series men and women alike.
      • Somewhat subverted when Luffy blatantly tells Hancock that he won't marry her.
    • The She Is Not My Girlfriend moment with Hachi and Camie.
  • Cardcaptor Sakura is essentially built on this trope, the manga even moreso than the anime. Sakura and Syaoran and Touya and Yukito have at least one teasing moment every chapter/almost every episode before they become Official Couples, with plenty of remaining teasing scattered about between Sakura and Yukito, Syaoran and Meiling, Syaoran and Yukito, Sakura and Tomoyo, and most probably others (CLAMP seems to do this in a lot of their shows).
  • The scene late in the second season of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 where Feldt gives Setsuna a flower in a very shy/embarrassed manner is pretty blatantly tease-y, especially when she wonders if it will make Marina mad and he assures her that they don't have that kind of relationship.
  • In Gundam Wing, Relena and Heero technically still count as this, although it's a given by now that they will be together in a romantic way at some point in their lives.
    • Trowa and Quatre are a more traditional version of this trope. It began in the original series, starting with their first meeting, including pointed use of the theme song as they 'surrender' to each other, and a spontaneous flute-and-violin duet an episode later as Trowa's Gundam is repaired. It continues with matching "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight 's that bookend at least five episodes worth of pining on Quatre's side, and ending with a suspicious sort of mind-link between the two culminating in Trowa semi-rescuing Quatre after he was stabbed by Dorothy. The manga Battlefield of Pacifists only lays the hints on even more thick, and in Frozen Teardrop, they are still very close, do not have any children, and their expy's Quatrine and Trowa Phobos are also being Ship Teased.
  • Death Note, Death Note, Death Note. Specifically, the anime.
    • In both the anime and the manga, L is ship teased with Misa. L touches her butt, claims to be a big fan of Misa, declares that he could fall in love with Misa, and tells Light he is jealous of him for having such a fine girlfriend. Plus, he puts her in incredibly perverted-looking bondage restraints. On Misa's side, she calls L "cute" and "funny" and seems to enjoy him when they first meet, and later she kisses him and declares him a friend. Then when she discovers "Ryuzaki" is actually L and reads Light's letter ordering L's death, she plans to kill him without a single guilty thought, and gives up half her lifespan for that chance to kill.
  • Filia and Xellos from The Slayers would have classic Belligerent Sexual Tension...if weren't for the fact that's he's a Mazoku who feeds on negative emotions and shouldn't have the ability to love. That's not going to stop the shippers, especially considering Slayers Try is filled with moments that were obviously intended to look shippy, even if that is canonically impossible. The two most obvious moments would have to be when Xellos rescues Filia by picking her up in his arms (and then...drops her on top of the bad guy) and later when he's injured and she helps him, which results in them spending almost an episode practically cuddling.
    • The hints between Amelia and Zelgadis are played straighter; this generally fleshes out during more dangerous situations. The second season, Slayers NEXT, solidified this when Gaav, one of the two Disc One Final Bosses severely wounds Zelgadis when he protects Amelia from his blade; and later on, Hellmaster Phibrizzo outright kills Amelia to anger Lina, and Zelgadis nearly loses it. Unlike Lina and Gourry, though, the teasing kept going through the anime's run.
  • Fairy Tail: Erza used to shower with Gray and Natsu and cares a lot for them, but is made out to have romantic feelings for Jellal that might be returned. In fact the two get the only kiss of the series before Jellal decides to try (and fail) to sink their ship for the sake of their happiness. Juvia had a stalker crush on Gray which eventually evolved to the point where something may or may not be going on between them, and views Lucy as her rival in love. Speaking of Lucy, in addition to her little one sided bit with Juvia, she collects pinnups of Mirajane, has admitted to having a girl crush on Erza, and has developed a crush on Natsu in an omake when she thought he may have liked him. Natsu should probably move on, since the girl it's heavily implied he had a thing for died two years ago, or not, now that she's back. There's also Loke, who loves to tell Lucy that the power of his love for her is what gives him the ability to protect her. There's also the little bit with Sherry and Lyon, which was about as subtle as Juvia's crush on Gray-or the equally hilarious crush Lyon develops for Juvia-before Sherry developed another relationship with Ren. Sherry's crushes are no where near as cute on the one Levy harbors for Gajeel, though it's up to the fans whether he protects her to fit in to the guild better or out of actual feelings. Although the feelings Bisca and Alzack have for each other are actually confirmed, they Cannot Spit It Out in order to confess to one another (until the time skip, that is) and something is definitely going on between Cana and Macao. The Fairy Tail manga contains a lot of Ship Tease, in every possible direction. The anime adaptation takes all of that, and then adds EVEN MORE.
  • Putting Keiichi/Mion, and Mion/Shion Rika/Satoko aside, there's Keiichi/Rena from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Probably the biggest ship tease was in the last episode of Rei, where Rena confesses to Keiichi under the influence of two magatama that work like a love potion.
    • As for Keiichi/Mion, there's a whole bunch of it, most noticeably in the Watanagashi-hen arc and in Minagoroshi-hen when Keiichi finally gives that doll to her, complete with her blushing and Keiichi telling her about how he thinks she really is girl like despite being a tomboy. And then there's Miotsukushi-hen which is just packed with Mion/Keiichi ship tease...
    • Higurashi Kira has a whole episode devoted to ship teasing Keiichi/Mion, Keiichi/Shion, and Keiichi/Rena. The fact that the ending didn't have a romanic resolution and heavily implied Keiichi/Mion didn't help, either.
  • The Code Geass picture books/dramas are full of Ship Tease for Lulunana fans.
    • Or Lelouch and Nunnally both saying "aishiteru" to each other on two separate occasions.
    • Face it, the picture and sound dramas Ship Tease everything. There's even a crack sound drama with a Suzaku/Lelouch kiss out there. The CLAMP art is also fond of playing up that pairing.
  • Hayate and Wataru, the two Chick Magnets in the Hayate the Combat Butler manga, get some level of teasing with the main girls who are interested in them. Up to a chapter or so per girl.
    • Hinagiku seems to be the only girl who Hayate hasn't seen partly nude (excepting the OAV). She's probably the one who's given the most fanservice though. Hayate is commonly the reason.
    • Recently, a lot of teasing for the previously one-sided Nagi/Hayate has been going on. Multiple comparisons of her similarities to Hayate's first love, Athena; the extremely spoiled and pampered Nagi throwing away her entire inheritance so as to free Hayate of a Sadistic Choice; Athena admitting how happy Hayate seems with her and ultimately pulling an I Want My Beloved to Be Happy so he stays with Nagi; and the end of Chapter 265 with Hayate wondering if a day will come where he can say "I truly love you" to someone once more while both his and Nagi's smiling faces are framed. Although, she follows him to Japan anyways.. It seems that, like Ken Akamatsu, Kenjirou Hata is absolutely relentless with the Ship Tease.
  • In Samurai Champloo, either Fuu and Jin, or Fuu and Mugen, or both, depending on your point of view, neither of which actually materialize, to the utter disappointment of fans.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's: Episode 75. Period.
    • A guy (namely Crow) bringing a girl (namely Aki) a cup of coffee in an episode is innocuous. A guy bringing a girl a cup of coffee during the trailer for the episode is Ship Tease, especially when followed by a Roaring Rampage of Revenge on the villains who put her in a coma. However things plays out in the future, the reactions will be as interesting to watch as the show.
    • There just IS something between Yusei and Sherry, with her obviously flirting with him right at their first encounter, him dreaming of her right afterwards, then there was that dramatic scene when they traveled to another dimension and accidentally, Sherry was sucked outside of their space-traveling machine thing, Yusei jumped after her death-defyingly, grabbedher hand and desperately tried to not let go of her until she slipped away and he screamed after her in a pretty distressed fashion. Apart from that an equally dramatic shot in the recent ending is featuring them, probably based on mentioned scene, with them reaching out for each other, and the vision of them flying through the World Of Speed together...nakedly...
  • Kaleido Star, to rather painful levels:
    • Sora/Ken: poor Ken has obviously been in love with Sora since episode one and is almost always the one who supports her when things get rough...and her inability to notice his affections becomes a Running Gag.
    • Sora/Layla: Sora is the only partner worthy of Layla.
    • Yuri/Sora: Yuri has, on at least two occasions, dashed in and saved Sora from serious injury and once gave her mouth-to-mouth (off screen) after she almost drowned (which Sora had a pretty...interesting dream sequence about), and Sora had a rather obvious crush on Yuri early on; etc.
    • Sora/Leon: Well, let's start with the time he tackled her in a way that at the very least resembled an attempt to rape her...
    • Sora/May: Sprinkled here and there, more like Foe Yay tho.
    • Sora/Rosetta: Well, they're very, very close friends, to say the least.
    • Sora/...Well, I think you get the idea.
  • Keroro Gunsou AKA Sgt. Frog has Giroro and Natsumi. If you ship it, you will be tortured.
  • In Element Hunters, not only is there ship teasing between two pairs of characters, one of the pairs is continually commented on by another of the characters.
    • While that pair is firmly within She Is Not My Girlfriend, the other practically shouts about it while she's standing in front of him.
  • Madarame and Saki get some pretty blatant Ship Tease in the Genshiken novel Genshiken: Return of the Otaku. Saki stays in Madarame's apartment for a night after she sees another woman leaving Kousaka's apartment, leading her to believe that Kousaka is cheating on her. It almost turns into a Hurt Comfort scene before that with Madarame trying to cheer Saki up a bit, AND one of the sections of the book is titled Madarame X Kasukabe.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion has teasing sprinkled about between both Shinji and Asuka and Shinji and Rei. Being Evangelion they range between the slightly unsettling (Shinji and Asuka's Almost Kiss, the infamous scene in Rei's apartment) to the thoroughly unsettling (the even more infamous scene in The End of Evangelion).
    • The Rebuild of Evangelion films, being a somewhat Lighter and Softer remake, dramatically increase the frequency of the teasing and lower the disturbing factor; for example the Almost Kiss scene is changed into a lively chat where they agree on a First-Name Basis. Then there's the scene where Asuka is cooking for Shinji; earlier on, him doing the same for Rei made Asuka visibly jealous (finding out that Rei has feelings for Shinji, though unsure weather to be romantic or platonic, upset Asuka even more).
    • Shinji and Kaworu have an absurd amount of this considering the latter's brief appearance. CPR, standing naked right in front of the other in the shower, declarations of love, sleeping in the same bed, handholding while taking a bath together, the sleep over, the blushing...
  • In the fishing anime Grander Musashi RV, most of the Ship Tease revolved around Musashi's childhood friend Mio. She seemed to get jealous when another girl showed interest in Musashi, and she sings the ending theme with only Musashi being the other character featured during the song. One of the antagonists, who later pulls a Heel Face Turn, also develops a crush on her and Mio gets some Ship Tease moments with him too when she becomes his friend. Musashi's male childhood friend, Suguru, also develops a crush on a girl named BB. She's initially dismissive, but later episodes hinted at the beginnings of romantic reciprocation from her. No relationship in the series gets beyond teasing, though.
  • Black Butler SebastianCiel are teased every 5 minutes and Alois has a habit of generally hitting on anybody in sight, making it possible to pair him with anyone.
  • Noein easily fits this, with Yuu and Haruka doing such things as holding hands and promising to run away to Tokyo together. Ai and Isami fit this also, with the former having an obvious crush.
  • Persona 4: The Animation has plenty:
    • Episode 2 has Chie and Yosuke share a hug. She then knees him in the groin.
    • Episode 8 has Yukiko and Narukami hiding in a sleeping bag together. Chie and Yosuke do the same.
    • Episodes 9 and 10 have a lot of moments that would make Narukami/Rise fans Squee with joy.
    • Episode 15 features some between Yu and Chie.
    • Episode 17 gives a healthy boost to the Naoto/Kanji ship by showing that he's still attracted to her. He even gets some floating hearts when talking to the group at Junes.
      • Episode 19 teases this one a lot. Kanji begs Naoto to 'make him a man'. He also gets a nosebleed at the thought of seeing Naoto in a bathing suit, even with Naoto's refusal to come out from behind the curtain (complete with Kanji getting so excited they show the animation usually reserved for summoning Personae). Earlier in the episode, during the group date, he describes his ideal partner as mysterious, with a strong facade. Now who might that be?
      • Episode 20 also has Kanji blushing and acting awkward and Kanji-ish when Naoto mentions the pageant. Later when Kanji hops into bed with whom he assumes is Chie, Yosuke wonders out loud why he didn't seek Naoto out.
    • In the Ho Yay front, there's Yousuke and Yu. Episode 12 has Yousuke being the one who directly takes Yu out of Shadow Mitsuo's trap while switching to calling him by first name. Then we have Episode 19 in which Yousuke gets a BIG Stupid Sexy Flanders moment with Yu during the School Festival.
  • While Narita states that he never has and probably never will consider a romantic relationship between Shizuo and Izaya in Durarara!!, he does have a habit of teasing the ship with hints that range from possibly unintentional (Shizuo and Izaya share the same birthdates as each other's voice actors) to suspect (Izaya says in a Drama CD that he saw Shizuo sleeping once and thought he was kinda cute) to deliberate (Erika ships them together), to just plain screwing with the fangirls (he wrote Shizuo/Izaya porn in an April Fools story. It was actually a fight from the perspective of Erika's Shipping Goggles.)
  • Heat Guy J did this in episode 15 with Clair and Kyoko. Kyoko rescues Daisuke, and Clair comments "You had to have a woman rescue you? That's so pathetic." But, the way it's played out, it's obviously a statement of sour grapes, not something to be taken literally. The anime makes it clear (albeit in a very subtle, backhanded way) that Clair is jealous of Daisuke and admires Kyoko, but at the same time, isn't going to get in the way of Daisuke x Kyoko. And that Daisuke understands all of that.
    • Also, in that same episode, after Daisuke destroys or subdues a common enemy, Daisuke and Clair gaze at each other for awhile. And that's it for this pairing. Later on Ship Sinking ensues as Daisuke not only winds up with Kyoko as the hero usually does, but goes off on an adventure in some distant land...alone.
  • Katekyo Hitman Reborn has a lot of Ship Tease of both the heterosexual variety (mostly between Tsuna and Kyoko, Chrome and Tsuna, and Chrome and Mukuro) and the Ho Yay variety (mostly between Tsuna and his male guardians/friends ).
  • Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro features quite a bit of Ship Tease between Neuro and Yako, especially in chapter 201.
  • Much Ho Yay Ship Tease can be had in 07-Ghost.
  • In Pandora Hearts Oz gets shippy moments with everyone.
    • For that matter, most characters who have ever met, excluding some older chars such as Oscar and Rufus Barma, get ship-teased at least a tiny bit. (Even the latter of those gets ship-teased incredibly with Cheryl Rainsworth.. at least for a while.) In the event they don't get much chance to, it's even sometimes just a case of Throw It In, such as Lotti's anime-only kissing Ada or Elliot's admiration of Break as stated in the character guide. The series is more or less made of Ship Tease.
  • D.N.Angel loves doing this with Satoshi and Daisuke.
  • Sailor Moon had much heterosexual and Les Yay Ship Tease. And Ho Yay Ship Tease.
  • Macross Frontier is laced with ship tease for Alto x Ranka, Alto x Sheryl, or Alto x his plane/the sky. There's some mild ship teasing between some members of the rest of the cast as well, and someone probably used a couple shots to suggest Sheryl x Ranka.
  • Given that Fan Service is the fuel Saint Beast runs on, there's abundant ship tease in all its media. While Judas/Shin [dead link] and Luca/Rey and the one-sided Shiva/Judas [dead link] can reasonably be called canon, fans can easily find evidence for Ho Yay between Judas/Luca, Kira/Maya [dead link] , Gai/Maya [dead link] , Goh/Gai [dead link] , Goh/Saki, Goh/Judas [dead link] , Goh/Shin, Shin/Shiva, Shin/Rey, Kira/Rey, Pandora/Shiva, Zeus/Pandora (give or take Cassandra), Zeus/Lucifer, Zeus/Judas, Lucifer/Judas, Judas/Kamui and...let's stop there.
  • Wandering Son had one for the Fan-Preferred Couple in a recent chapter, when they enter high school. Chiba and Takatsuki are mistaken for a couple by two kids, who like them respectively but are stated to get married to each other in several years.
  • Shoma Takakura and Ringo Oginome from Mawaru Penguindrum, despite Ringo's huge crush on Shoma's teacher Tabuki. She wears his clothes surprisingly often, he unintentionally takes her Sacred First Kiss while giving her CPR, and later she practically humps him while delirious due to a fever.
    • In episode 10, Ringo apologizes to Shouma since he got injured for her sake, and she's later willing to give up her half of her Destiny Diary if it means it can be used to save a kidnapped Shouma's life. And ultimately does so.
    • It goes off the ceiling in episode 11. Both Shoma and Ringo have get people asking them if they're attracted to each other (Himari, in Shoma's case; Yuri, in Ringo's), and Ringo's reactions to Shoma in that episode are textbook Tsundere ones. Shoma tells Ringo that she is not Momoka but herself, which she recalls after yet another incident wit hTabuki and ultimately wrecks the whole deal. Among other factors.
    • Kanba/Himari has certainly gathered some following ever since the infamous kiss in episode 1. For an incestuous match-up, that's not bad.
      • Eposide 12 makes canon the pairing between Kanba and...it's hard to tell. Both Himari and the Princess Of The Crystal (her possessor) might be his target. In any case, Kanba and the Princess-in-Himari's-body share a very sexually charged goodbye scene in the Dream World, before the Princess fades away and Himari dies again (seemingly for real this time)...with possessed!Himari being naked except for the Penguin Hat and her boots...and Kanba's chest being exposed due to Clothing Damage...
    • And now we have Masako -> Kanba, in the form of her Forceful Kiss on him. And reflected on how her penguin kisses Kanba's own too, leaving lipstick marks all over it. Episode 11 gives more fuel when Masako and Kanba do talk about it, and she refes to herself as a "hunter for love" whose prey is Kanba.
  • Togainu no Chi: The anime in particular seems to be hinting at the potential love interests of Akira. The anime seems to slide toward Keisuke/Akira though especially in Episode 9. Happens again in episode 11 but the pairing has officially sunk.
  • No. 6 gives us the Ho Yay-riffic relationship between Sion and Nezumi. Holding hands, protecting the other, cuddling, good night kisses, taking care of the other when sick, dancing with each other, caressing the others face and hair, wanting to stay by the others side, meaningful conversations, and Nezumi kisses Sion on the lips in episode 11 before leaving him.
  • The creators of Tiger and Bunny have been teasing Kotetsu and Barnaby as being more than Heterosexual Life Partners with increasing frequency and intensity [3]
  • Marchen Awakens Romance: Phantom and Alviss, Alviss has his moments with Ginta especially in the anime and Ginta has his moments with Snow and Dorothy. The anime seems to aim for both Dorothy and Alviss though. Luckily at the end, he seems to revolve some things with Dorothy, Snow becomes Koyuki but unfortunately, he doesn’t solve anything with Alviss. Also, Dorothy and Nanashi. And Snow and Jack. And Chaton and Alan.
  • Yuuri and Wolfram of Kyo Kara Maoh. Actually Yuuri and everyone.
  • Ouran High School Host Club has much heterosexual and Ho Yay Ship Tease.
  • Van and Fiona had quite a lot of teasing moments in Zoids: Chaotic Century; too bad nothing really came out of it.
  • Eyeshield 21 teases Mamori & Hiruma, Sena & Suzuna, Rui & Megu, and Marco & Maria.
  • THE iDOLM@STER - A good portion of the second half of the anime has this with several of the girls, particularly when the girl is the focus of the episode.
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena has a lot. Some of the Ship Tease gets resolved, and some doesn't.
  1. ↑ including one on Dawn herself, and having not even Brock's success rate with them
  2. ↑ As of September 2011
  3. ↑ including one statement that, had they been a man and a woman, they would have fallen in love within the first episode
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