21 December is ‘Long Distance Relationship Day’ in Japan. The Japanese write first the month and then the day, that’s why we get 12.21, so ‘1221’. The numbers on the left and right side are ‘1’, which represent two persons living away from each other. The ‘2s’ in the middle represent a couple that is together.

Anime! Anime! asked their readers to vote on their favorite ‘Long distance relationship couples in anime’. The page used Twitter to collect about 20 couples as choices for their survey. The survey includes couples who are in a long distance relationship now, who were separated in childhood, who fell in love with someone who is far away in their thoughts, and more. It was also possible to mention favorite characters that were missing from the list within the free text field.

357 people participated in the survey that took place from 19 to 20 December. About 52% male and ~48% female readers voted. 43% of the users were under 19 and about 35% over 20 years old.

In the first place, we’ve got the high school student couple from Detective Conan, Ran Mori and Shinichi Kudo. 32% of the readers chose this couple, which is double the score of No.2. If we only look at the female voters then the approval rating would be 45%, quite a stunningly popular couple. Shinichi Kudo was forced to drink a toxin by the Organisation in Black and became an elementary school’s student. He is living with his childhood friend Ran Mori under the name Conan Edogawa in order not to reveal his true identity. Although Shinichi is next to her all the time, she can’t meet him.
The scenes where he calls her using the voice changer are often used in openings. There are also episodes where Shinichi re-appears in front of Ran.

Your Name.‘s couple Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu ranked in second place. They got 16% votes and ranked in first place according to male voters and in second place according to female ones. Your Name. came out in 2016 and was a hit that surpassed 25 billion yen at the box office. The movie is about Taki who is living in Tokyo and Mitsuha who lives in the Japanese countryside. They suddenly wake up in each other’s bodies and gradually become attracted to each other. Director Makoto Shinkai has got a talent for long-distance relationships as he has made movies with the same theme before: The Voices of a Distant Star ranked in 7th and 5 Centimeters Per Second placed 9th.

The couple that reached No.3 are Chiaki Mamiya and Makoto Konno from the movie The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. They got 7%. This movie was released in 2006 by director Mamoru Hosoda. The work spread widely through conversational viral marketing and became a hit movie for a long time. The movie’s main character is Makoto Konno, who runs in order to leap through time. It is a movie filled with the freshness of youth.

‘Long distance relationship couples in anime’

1. Shinichi Kudo and Ran Mori (Detective Conan)
2. Taki Tachibana and Mitsuha Miyamizu (Your Name.)
3. Chiaki Mamiya and Makoto Konno (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time)
4. Kotaro Azumi and Akane Mizuno (Tsuki ga Kirei)
5. Seiji Amasawa and Shizuku Tsukishima (Whisper of the Heart)
6. Arata Wataya and Chihaya Ayase (Chihayafuru)
7. Haruto Kirishima and Yuzuki Eba (A Town Where You Live)
7. Noboru and Mikako (The Voices of a Different Star)
9. Takaki Tono and Akari Shinohara (5 Centimeters Per Second)
10. Bateau/ Batou and Mokoto Kusanagi (Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence)
11. Ohana Matsumae and Koichi Tanemura (Hanasaku Iroha)
12. Koichiro Ohta and Kazumi Amano (Gunbusters)
12. Yuta Sakurai and Moriko Morioka (Recovery of an MMO Junkie)
14. Yukihito Tsuge Shinobu Nagumo (Patlabor 2: The Movie)
14. Üso Ewin and Katejina Loos (Mobile Suit Victory Gundam)
14. Motoharu Yano and Nanami Takahashi (We Were There)

(Survey Period: 19~20 December 2017)

source: https://animeanime.jp/article/2017/12/21/36311.html