Welcome to XOXO, Popverse! Our Valentines gift to you this year is a week-long celebration of all things love and romance in pop culture, from our favorite couples to which superheroes would make the worst dates. (It's the X-Men.) Find our love notes to you right here. 

Something that Dragon Ball has never done particularly well is romance. Sure, there are some iconic couples in there, but it is never the central focus of the show. Which is why I always find it so remarkable that Akira Toriyama, the man who famously had Goku marry Chi-Chi as a way to spite himself, gave us one of the most wholesome and enduring romantic relationships in anime in the form of Krillin and Android 18.

Krillin probably isn’t most people’s first choice for romantic partner, but that is kind of what makes this pairing so perfect. For all of Dragon Ball, Krillin is after two things: getting stronger and getting a girlfriend. He eventually becomes the most powerful human on Earth… which still puts him outside the Top 5 strongest fighters on the planet. The man is the iconic anime second fiddle, so you’d think the least Toriyama could do is throw the boy a bone and let him get a girlfriend, but we end up well into the Cell Saga before that happens. 

No, I’m not counting him getting a girlfriend in the Garlic Jr. Saga because that was filler and therefore didn’t happen.

Android 18 and Krillin are Dragon Ball couple goals

After years of being overlooked (and not just cause he’s short), Krillin managed to impress the beautiful but deadly Android 18. By the time the Buu Saga rolls around, the pair are coupled up and experiencing the only really healthy relationship in Dragon Ball. Vegeta, Goku, and Gohan all end up married with kids, but their dynamic with their partners is incredibly one-sided. Goku’s hyperfixation with training means that the emotional and physical labor of raising their two sons falls to Chi-Chi, who is often none too happy about it. Vegeta is a bum living off his rich wife and being moody about it. Meanwhile, Gohan is also a bum living off his rich wife. He’s just less moody about it.

Before we go any further, I will mention the elephant in the room, which is that Krillin does manage to bag himself the hottest woman in Dragon Ball (sorry Bulma), but that isn't thing that I want to focus on here. Even though she is, indeed, very hot and could break me in half with her bare hands and that combination appeals to me in a way that only my wife and my therapist can know about, that isn't actually what I love about these two. Well, it isn't all I love about them as a couple. No, I love them because they have a shockingly healthy relationship considering their world is under threat from aliens every other week.

Krillin and Android 18 approach their relationship as equals, which is remarkable for a series that tends to shuffle women off stage the moment they have a kid. We see a lot of their development in Dragon Ball Super, where they have some lovely, tender moments. Krillin even goes so far as to do something no one else in the series has ever done – he gets a normal job to pay his bills and keep his family fed. Sure, he ends up being a cop, which isn’t ideal, but he’s trying to be a productive member of society, something unheard of for Dragon Ball characters. The closest these people have had to a job is when Yamcha used his superpowers to play baseball, and even that was more of an extortion ring on his end.

Here is the scene that cements these two as an iconic couple in my mind: Krillin is debating giving up being a fighter since everyone is surpassing him. His dream of being the strongest seems lost, and, after a brief encounter with Goku’s fist (Krillin was literally asking for it), Krillin turns to his wife for healing and support. And Android 18 doesn’t judge him for giving up or encourage him one way or another. She is just there for him to talk to, with the implication being that she’ll support him either way. 

Communication really is key, especially when the fate of the world hangs in the balance

What I love here is that it would be incredibly easy for Android 18 to push Krillin to change his way of life. It is what every other woman in Dragon Ball does once they settle down and get married, other than Videl, who just lets Gohan study bugs in her father’s house like the big nerd he is. And Android 18 has the perfect way to do that since she is far stronger than Krillin is at this point. Anything he can do, she can do better, and she knows it. But Android 18’s whole thing is trying to live the normal life that was taken from her when Dr. Gero abducted her. Instead of taunting him or trying to coax him into one path or another, Andoid 18 listens to her husband, smiles at him, and helps him start a new chapter in their lives.

And let’s talk about communication. When Frieza gets resurrected and shows up on Earth looking for some payback, Krillin and Android 18 have an adult discussion about which one of them should head off to face possible death at the hands of the universe’s most deadly real estate developer. You can disagree with whether they were right to send Krillin to fight Frieza rather than his wife, but the point is that they had the discussion and came to an agreement. 

So, props to Krillin and Android 18 for doing something that no one else in Dragon Ball has ever managed – have a normal, functional relationship. They’re kind to each other. They talk through major decisions like who is going to go potentially die at the hands of an Intergalactic Donald Trump and who is going to stay at home watching Bluey with their daughter. Most of all, they love each other and take life’s changes in a positive, healthy way.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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