Interest
Street Survey Shows Childhood Friends Are Winning Love in the End
posted on by Carlos Cadorniga
It's happened plenty of times in anime. Kōsei was oblivious to his old friend Tsubaki's feelings when Kaori came along (see Your Lie in April). Tomoyo was willing to let Sakura fall in love with Syaoran despite how Tomoyo felt for her for years (Cardcaptor Sakura). In anime and manga, childhood friends seem to get the short end of the stick as love rivals. Real life, however, paints a rather different story.
According to a recently-conducted street survey, relationships between childhood friends are on the rise. When younger couples between 20-30 years of age were asked about their relationship, seven in 50 couples reported having childhood relationships with their significant other. Couples with 40-50 years of age saw only one in 50 couples that had childhood friendship.
Social media may be to thank for this. With platforms like Twitter and Facebook making it easy to reconnect or remain in touch with friends at practically all times, it's no wonder that childhood friends establish tighter bonds that could eventually blossom into romance.
Twitter users have responded to these statistics. Some have expressed that a nice change is coming to romantics, while others comment that the world is turning into a Japanese dating sim in which one can use their status as a childhood friend to woo over a virtual love interest. Some junior high students have even lamented that not having a childhood friend might make the prospect of love more difficult.
So if you like someone you've been close to for ages, it certainly wouldn't hurt to give it a shot. Even Tsubaki had a chance with Kōsei in the end. Chances are that taking a risk on your childhood friend could work out in your favor.
[Via Yara-on!]
