How to write a friends to enemies to lovers in shounen: Pro Jerza/ Anti SasuSaku
I’ve been meaning to write this one for awhile since I’ve watched both of these series and notice that despite all the fan service Fairy Tail has if there is one thing Hiro Mashima excels at it’s writing love stories for the couples he intends to become canon. Let’s start with what makes Jerza so compelling?
Jerza
Right off the bat we are introduced to Jellal’s character in the TOH arc and it being revealed that him and Erza knew each other as children. We are introduced to the subtle love triangle between Simon, Erza, and Jellal where we kind of get an understanding on what made Erza develop a crush on Jellal. He simply compliments her hair and says her last name should be Scarlet which gives us as viewers the origin of how she took on that last name.
When Erza, Jellal, Sho, Miliana, Wally, and Simon were planning on escaping the TOH they were evantually caught by the guards who immediately believed Erza was the one to create the plan and therefore should be punished (despite Jellal opening wanting to save Erza and be taken away himself). We see also appearing to be such small detail that the two clearly care for one another especially with the desperation in Jellal’s voice as the guard are taking Erza away signifying that the basis for writing their potential relationship makes a lot of sense.
Thought this same flashback origin we are shown that Jellal during his time as a captive ends up being taken over by what he claims at the time to be the spirit of Zeref (which ends up being revealed as Ultear later on) and he becomes a much changed person; more darker more cruel and turned into someone Erza does not recognize which leaves her distraught. We are shown that he kicks Erza out of the TOH and leads to how she found her way to Fairy Tail and became the strong wizard she was presented as during the shows debut
While they were enemies during the TOH arc; Erza actually gets the chance to fight Jellal one on one. The main takeaway from their fight is that Jellal who underestimated her because he thought of her as “the weak girl who needed to be protected” similar to how Simon say her ended up injuring him during their right and showing off how strong she has become. However we are also shown that she does harbor feelings for him and deep down she wants to see Jellal come back to his sense and choose the path of light. Their relationship perfectly depicts how a character is written when they can stand as their own person while also battling their own romantic feelings
When Jellal comes back during the OS arc appearing to have “forgotten all the harm he has inflicted on Erza and her friends.” Erza does not let this slide and tells Jellal that he needs to atone for his sins (telling him to live and not kill himself). She is shown to not let everything that happened between them before and the harm inflicted on her friends slide just because of her own feelings for him. Which makes me appreciate Hiro Mashima for not making the female character just automatically forgive the man she loves and have that backbone to be upfront and honest about her struggles.
Lastly should add that within this trope we get to see both Erza and Jellal get to stand out as their own characters having memorable battles of their own without any of them simply being reduced to shipping development only which is quite rare in shounen (let alone for this specific trope)
Wanna add that with the love triangle between Simon, Erza and Jellal there is not to much teasing going around here and Hiro Mashima makes it crystal clear that he intends to fully develop the pairing he wants to make canon and showing us how one sided Simon’s feelings are and also incompatible him and Erza would be in a relationship (will make a meta on this subject soon)
Throughout there love story Erza and Jellal are shown going at their own paces. Erza never pushes Jellal to be with her andJellal wants to fully accept the person he is before entering a relationship with Erza which is something we get to see on screen and not some off screen mention by the mangaka.
In going about the friends to enemies to lovers trope the issues with Sasuke and Sakura’s build up to their canonization are
SasuSaku
As a positive here I do like the realism with showing how superficial Sakura’s feelings for Sasuke were first shown to us since she is a preteen girl who mainly likes Sasuke (just like the other academy girls) because he was the cool guy in their class.
The main issue with the love triangle (Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke) is that Kishimoto overly teases this dynamic to the point where the main dynamics that feel more fulfilled or make both characters feel like they are good individually and as a pairing are the ones with Naruto himself being there since his bonds are the most developed.
Sasuke and Sakura’s initial dynamic off the bat of the series is Sakura fawning over how great Sasuke is and him frequently he dismisses her or acts like he does not care about her what’s so ever which is fine for a starting point however the main issue with this is that this set up is played off for far longer then it needs to be.
Kishimoto sets a love rivalry between Ino and Sakura. During this flashback of how the rivalry occurred Sakura was shown feeling like he was always in the shadow of Ino and wanted to break free from that. The issue here is that the second they both figure out that they have feelings for the same guy Sakura uses that chance as the catalyst to make Ino her rival and the interactions that they had through the original series mainly focused on their love rivalry rather then them being set up as proper rivals (this issue does get fixed in Shippuden tho)
With the original series (before Sasuke leaves the village) we are rarely given scenes that consist of just the two of them that can help us understand what makes Sakura fall for Sasuke especially when we are going from a simple crush to her falling in love with him. Kishimoto instead gives a lot of these much needed scenes to Naruto and Sasuke to build off their dynamic and have the viewer understand Naruto’s attachment to wanting Sasuke to stay since they have both suffered with loss growing up. We are also given those one on one scenes with Naruto and Sakura as well when they bond over Sasuke just not being apart of their team anymore but nothing is given much to the intended canon couple
The main moments for Sasuke and Sakura were during the forest of death when Sakura reaches out to Sasuke in a desperate plea to stop him from killing anyone (which this does not get followed up after that moment) and then his famous “thank you for everything” while he knocked her out which the main issue with that segment is that we never get at least a few scenes of just Sasuke and Sakura bonding to ever feel like that moment between them feels special. Any other moment during the original series you could easily chalk it up to Sasuke just simply carrying in his own way for his teammate (but never any indication that this potential romance was going to feel natural in its development to being a mutual relationship that is being built)
For Sakura as an individual character she pleads and begs Sasuke to stay with her saying she would help him get his revenge and that she would basically leave everyone behind (including all her friends and family) which strips her of her own worth and character since she is viewing Sasuke as her everting instead of just a man she loves while also maintaining her self worth. Unfortunately this is a big issue when it comes to their relationship because she does this pleading for Sasuke during the 5 kage summit arc well into the series.
In Shippuden Sakura continuously in a state where she is just distraught and sad over Sasuke and Kishimoto again rarely shows much one on one moments for this ship which would help at least with the perception of how people would take it as a canon couple. During the 5 kage summit arc Sakura vows to try and take down Sasuke on her own since she does not want to see Sasuke fall even further into darkness. The issue here is that when Sakura finally confronts him she just kind of fumbles and instead tells Sasuke that she would “help him destroy the hidden leaf” which is her own home and this wasn’t something she strategically used as a method of tricking him or anything. Almost gets herself killed twice by him during that confrontation and when she tries to kill Sasuke (who was attacking Kakashi) she does the one thing a ninja should never do which is completely hesitate and leave herself vulnerable
Sasuke is never given the chance to see how Sakura has grown from the girl he use to know from his old team and instead Kishimoto just subjects Sakura to some of the most frustrating writing decision. Their dynamic never shows both of these characters inspiring each other to be better and Sakura gets completely stripped of her individuality as a character whenever she’s around Sasuke while Sasuke himself simply can say a measly “I’m sorry” after even as far as the last arc of the series knocking her out as she pleads once more (because it’s a common misogynistic writing trope of Kishimoto’s) and does not give Sakura that moment to hold Sasuke accountable for everything that he has done
When Sasuke and Sakura finally do get to have wholesome moments as a pair it happens to little to late and mainly with them as a married couple instead of properly setting up the build up in the main series to that point which Jerza as a ship actually does a good job with.
