When two people get together in an anime or manga, it's not always a match made in heaven. Characters will bicker, do stupid things for each other's attention, or fight and do whatever else makes for good television. As fun as these stories might be to tell and listen to, they most certainly aren't an ideal to strive toward.
To make matters worse, some of these couples are just plain hard to watch. Such couples only exist to physically abuse, emotionally manipulate or ignore their supposed "love interests." Acts like these between lovers, even in the name of storytelling, can make for pretty atrocious viewing. What's worse still is that, in most cases, the couples will be made out to be in the right for sticking it out as long as they do. Here are some of anime's most infamous couples and why they honestly shouldn't be together.
Son Goku and Chichi (Dragon Ball)
Goku and Chichi's shallow reason for getting together should have set them up for divorce long ago. Back in early Dragon Ball, when Goku and Chichi are still kids, Chichi asks Goku to make her his bride when they're older. Goku only agrees because he assumes a bride is something to eat. When the two encounter each other in their late teens, Goku gets a proper explanation about marriage and proposes to Chichi. He is immediately annoyed by how clingy she is.
The real trouble begins in Dragon Ball Z. Chichi constantly gets mad at Goku about how they should raise their son Gohan. Goku wants to train him and bring out his true potential as a martial artist. Chichi, on the other hand, would rather have Gohan focus on studying and becoming a great scholar. The Japanese refer to mothers like Chichi as a kyōiku mama, and they are not looked fondly upon even in their own culture. Besides arguments, Goku doesn't spend much time around his wife. The two of them have never even kissed as of Dragon Ball Super. The fact that they've stayed together for so many years is nothing short of a miracle.
Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno (Naruto)
Sasuke and Sakura may be an even worse match than Goku and Chichi. Unlike those two, Sasuke and Sakura actually spend a decent amount of time together as fellow Team 7 ninja. Sakura forms a one-sided crush on Sasuke, but Sasuke ignores her in favor of his quest for revenge. Meanwhile, Naruto displays genuine feelings for Sakura, who rebuffs him by getting angry and violent. Fans to this day are still upset that Sakura ended up with Sasuke despite all of Naruto's efforts to win her over.
Sasuke shows few signs of affection for his wife. He's such a workaholic that he hardly ever comes home and doesn't even recognize his own daughter. Boruto's dad may also be a workaholic, but at least he's around. Sasuke only ever comes back to the village on official business or to help out Boruto. Whatever intimacy he shares with Sakura is very rarely shown onscreen.
Kira Yamato and Flay Allster (Mobile Suit Gundam SEED)
Flay Allster is a contender for the worst girl in the whole Gundam franchise. When she loses her father to ZAFT Coordinators, she blames Kira for not trying hard enough to save him. She also develops an irrational hatred for Coordinators, including Kira. It seems like she's getting better when she forms a shallow relationship with Kira (at the cost of her then-fiancé Sai Argyle's heart), but her true reasons for doing so are horrible. She uses her "love" to motivate Kira to fight and keep fighting against the Coordinators until he dies, taking her deception as far as spending a night in bed with him. She also gets upset at him for getting friendly with other girls -- heaven forbid he form a genuine romantic relationship.
It comes as a relief when Kira finally breaks things off with Flay. Funnily enough, it's not for any of the reasons listed above. Later, when the anime tries to show all the good times between Kira and Flay, all the clips are of her either emotionally manipulating him or just being generally awful.
Arsene Lupin III and Fujiko Mine (Lupin III)
Lupin and Fujiko will not and should not ever end up together. Fujiko usually finds ways to cheat the master thief out of his loot. She usually either helps him with a heist only to make off with the treasure or simply holds him at gunpoint once he's already done all the heavy lifting. Alternatively, she just seduces him like many others and makes him hand over his prize willingly. Not only is Fujiko a terrible love interest, but she's also a bad partner in crime.
Even the writers seem to acknowledge that Fujiko isn't right for Lupin. A recent trend in the franchise is to have Lupin get close with new women for each new installment of the anime. In Lupin III Part V, it's even mentioned that Lupin and Fujiko may have once an item, but they broke it off when they realized it wouldn't work. Despite this, Lupin will always end up lusting after Fujiko again -- that's just the nature of their relationship.
Yuno Gasai and Yukiteru Amano (Future Diary)
Yuno's idea of protecting Yukki in Future Diary's death game is unhealthy. She advises Yukki against forming connections with other contestants and gets defensive when anyone tries to get close to him. This is almost rational, as the game is a matter of kill or be killed. However, her "protection" goes as far as locking him up where no one can find them, binding him to a chair and force-feeding him while he's in a catatonic state. She also keeps a diary that stays up-to-date on his condition every 10 minutes. Their relationship is about as toxic as they come, but, for some reason, it survives all of this.
