Blood isn’t always thicker than water; just ask all the anime characters who have found true families outside of their blood relations. The powers of friendship and camaraderie are prevalent in many shows — cases in point: any sports anime — but this is a step above those relationships. These are the strongest and most meaningful of ride-or-die bonds, formed among those who don’t quite fit in elsewhere.
These groups don’t have to be — and usually aren’t — strictly categorized by the titles of Team Mom, Team Dad, and siblings. More often, their affection for and loyalty to each other transcends names. Put simply, they find the height of love and belonging with each other, and they can only reach the heights of their individual potential with the help of others.
10 Team Bucciarati - JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (2012 - 2022)
In every season of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, strong friendships and loyalties are forged on the battlefield. However, the ones that best fit the definition of found family are the ones Giorno Giovanna, one of the show’s best JoJos, meets in Italy in Part 5. He had intended to take over the country’s underworld alone, but over the course of mere days, becomes fully part of this small, rebellious group that turns on its most powerful boss.
Bruno, Abbacchio, Narancia, Mista, Fugo, and finally Trish join together for strength and protection against a world that has never been on their side. Like Giorno, they were failed by those who were supposed to protect and support them as children, and forced to fend for themselves until they found one another. Though they lose some of their own along the way, they push past their grief and fight on: it’s what their friends would want, after all.
9 The Main Four - Hunter X Hunter (2011 - 2014)
All four main characters of Hunter x Hunter are oddities in their own ways. Between the sweet but somewhat unhinged kid looking for his father, the reforming child assassin, the last survivor of a massacred clan, and the medical student who learns to punch out illness, they’re quite the group. It’s no wonder that when they meet while taking the Hunter Exam, they near-instantly take a liking to each other.
While they aren’t always together — Gon and Killua are for the longest time inseparable, but Kurapika and Leorio are usually off on their own quests — they are at their best when they are. Leorio is reminded by Gon and Killua of why he’s working so hard to become a Hunter in the first place, and Kurapika is visibly mentally and emotionally happier when he’s with them versus when he’s alone. As for Gon and Killua, who have been lonely all their lives, they find true friendship for the first time after meeting each other.
8 The Main Trio - Noragami (2014 - 2015)
Yato, Yukine, and Hiyori never expected that their paths would cross, but they did and became forever intertwined. While the show’s goofier, more comedic aspects are top-tier, Noragami is also the story of abuse victims supporting each other, finding real family, and reclaiming their own lives. Without all three together, none of them would have made the progress and changes they have as people.
Hiyori believes in her loved ones without fail, and despite being only human, is willing to stand up to gods and demons to protect Yato and Yukine. As a child, Yato was conditioned by his abusive father to never speak to anyone outside the family and to kill on command, but he’s encouraged to break free, open up, and fully pursue the path of a God of Fortune alongside his friends. In life, Yukine was murdered by his own father, but as a shinki he is able to find protection and happiness with new parent figures like Yato and Hiyori.
7 The Forgers - Spy X Family (2022)
Loid’s insistence that he hasn’t developed feelings for his new wife Yor and adopted daughter Anya, and that they’re only a fake family for the sake of his mission, ring hollower every time he says it. He is determined to stay professional and detached, but at his core, he is a deeply loving person. As such, he can’t help but be as supportive of Yor and Anya as the best husband and father would be, leading to some of Spy X Family’s most adorable moments.
Everyone around them sees and very often comments on the strength of their bonds. Yor enters into the marriage to avoid public suspicion, but truly adores Loid and is fiercely protective of Anya, proudly calling herself Anya’s mother. Anya, as a telepath, knows everything her parents are thinking, and as a four-year-old, understands about half of it, but loves her family and is determined to do everything she can to help them.
6 Somali And Golem - Somali And The Forest Spirit (2015)
This fantasy adventure is one of the best anime about parenting for a good reason. When the golem guarding a forest finds an abandoned human child in his realm, he chooses to take responsibility for her until he can find her a human family. The problem is, humans have been hunted to near extinction, and Somali much prefers her golem father to anyone else.
Golem’s time as Somali’s father is limited: by his nature, he will die in less than a year. However, in that short time, he learns more than he ever expected from raising Somali, taking advice from other parents, and gaining experience as they travel together. Somali, for her part, has no clue about her father’s fate or his plans for her, but for the first time in her life, feels absolutely loved and safe with him.
5 Ryuuchi And Kotaro’s Friends - Gakuen Babysitters (2018)
When teenage Ryuuichi and toddler Kotaro lose their parents in a plane crash, they believe they are now entirely on their own. But when they are adopted by the headmistress of Morinomiya Academy, they find much more than a new place to live. Between the other toddlers cared for by the Babysitting Club, the other students Ryuuichi meets, and all of their parents, they are not only kept busy but surrounded by love and friendship.
For the first time, both Kotaro and Ryuuichi have friends their own age, rather than just being alone. Ryuuichi is given the support he always needed, and Kotaro gets the encouragement he needs to become more independent. The size and significance of their newfound family is made clearest in the Christmas special, when everyone the brothers befriended comes to celebrate the holiday with them.
4 The Host Club - Ouran High School Host Club
The Host Club that Haruhi Fujioka meets in the first episode seems like a perfect, put-together unit — a unit of complete oddballs, but still. However, they weren’t always so close, or so happy. As Haruhi discovers, all of them were lonely and lost without Tamaki there to bring them together and show them that real happiness is possible.
While each of the members gets their own episode showing how unseen and unhappy they were in their previous lives, Tamaki’s effect on them is best shown in Kyouya’s episode, “And So Kyouya Met Him!”: when previously Kyouya’s life was a clinical, emotionless white void, joining the Host Club fills it with vivid, endless color. Haruhi herself finds not only her first real friends with the Host Club, but true love with Tamaki.
3 Subaru And Haru’s Friends - My Roommate is a Cat (2019)
Sometimes, when one is lonely, adopting a pet can be a life-changing event for both animals and humans. Despite his success as an author, Subaru suffers from debilitating social anxiety that keeps him sequestered alone at home and has only gotten worse since his parents’ deaths. Haru, one of anime’s best cat companions, has spent her entire short life on the street, struggling to survive and provide for her litter of siblings.
When Subaru takes Haru in, they don’t just find comfort and improvement in one another. The requirements of pet ownership force Subaru to step outside of his comfort zone to give Haru the care she needs, from buying supplies to visiting the vet. By the end of the twelve-episode series, Haru and Subaru have not only found family with each other, but with the many other people they can rely on, best shown in the final episode when Haru gets lost and everyone she and Subaru know rushes out in a storm to rescue her.
2 Team 7 - Naruto (2002 - 2017)
At the very beginning of their partnership, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura never expected to be able to get along at all. However, that quickly changes as they train and fight together, becoming closer to each other than they’ve ever been with anyone else. Even after Sasuke defects from the village, Naruto and Sakura refuse to give up on him and devote their lives to saving their friend no matter what.
Naruto telling Sasuke that he’s the closest thing he’s ever had to a brother may be the most blatant indication of what they are to each other, but it’s far from the only one. The team’s bond continues even into the sequel series Boruto, in which Sasuke and Sakura are married with a daughter, who is on the new Team 7 alongside Naruto’s son.
1 The Happy Hungry Bunch - Yona Of The Dawn (2014 - 2015)
Yona and her loyal bodyguard Hak have been inseparable since childhood. However, Yona has a higher destiny than staying sheltered in the palace her whole life, and the murder of her father the king by her once-beloved cousin forces her to run and face it. Unbeknownst to her or her soon-to-be friends, she is the reincarnation of King Hiryuu, connected spiritually to the reincarnations of Hiryuu’s four dragon retainers.
Because of their powers, the current four dragons have faced varying degrees of isolation their whole lives, from Kija being an object of veneration in his village to Shin-ah being a pariah in his. When Yona comes to find each of them, they feel a connection with her and the other dragons that they were missing their entire lives. All five of them (plus Hak and Yun) are devoted to each other and will support the others in every way, from battle to their personal growth.
All of these characters prove that family isn’t limited to one’s biological relations. Love and belonging can be found anywhere, and as these and many more anime show, they are incredibly powerful. Spending time with the family you choose can bring out the absolute best in you and your loved ones.
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