Childhood friend romance (with no separation)

[BWTraveller]

I'm looking for romances between childhood friends who'd always been close with no separation since preschool. An odd thing I noticed after a while about childhood friend loves/crushes is that, at least in the stories I've seen, the likelihood of love being requited and successful shows a sort of direct relation to the amount of separation between the pair. A long-lost or forgotten childhood friend who suddenly reenters a person's life is very likely to be the victor even in a sizeable harem. Same goes for a childhood rival who'd generally shown little to no "friendship" and instead were always fighting. On the other hand most stories I can think of with a childhood friend who'd been by the other's side every step of the way, neither one ever moving or disappearing, always warm and friendly and close without any extreme or long-term enmity, pretty much only succeed if the only rivals are removed or rendered completely unsympathetic. It can happen, like in Ginen Shounen where the two main characters had been together much of their lives and had always treasured each other. And it's a little easier to pull off with young-audience series like Rockman.exe in which the main characters are still kids and the story is more focused on the action than the relationships. I'm a serious sucker for childhood friends (not as much as certain individuals but pretty close), so I was hoping I could get a good list of series I hadn't seen that fit this bill, difficult though it may be.

[LonelyPoet]

Tomako Market or Cross Game might be what your looking for.

[Guardian Enzo]

I don't think True Tears is too many miles off the mark.

[SeijiSensei]

3-gatsu no Lion has a touching subplot involving the main girl and a guy who is not the lead. They part ways though.

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by LonelyPoet

Tomako Market or Cross Game might be what your looking for.

My gosh how could I have forgotten Tamako!! Don't really know Cross Game very well, heard a lot about it but never really watched it. I heard that the girl who survives hates the guy for a significant period...

And as for my beloved Lion, while I consider that to be one of my absolute favorite series ever, especially now that

Spoiler for manga:

Rei has finally confessed his love to Hina and the way it's presented she clearly is not unhappy to receive his love. No absolute confirmation but hard to believe that they're not going out after the end of chapters 154 and 155.

, what I'm looking for here is childhood friends who'd always been close friends and become legitimate couples, true OTPs. As you noted Hina did not end up with Takahashi.

Age target doesn't matter one bit. I adore puppy love, it's kind of a guilty pleasure for me. I made it all the way through Pokémon XY and XYZ on Serena alone, as well as Rockman.exe and others. Heck, I even took a look at Brave Beats (though that one was much more for laughs; I mean for crying out loud it has a macho Santa teach a group of eleven-year-olds how to pole dance).

[Pocari_Sweat]

Someone tag dragoonkain in here. Im sure he has heaps of recs.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by BWTraveller

Don't really know Cross Game very well, heard a lot about it but never really watched it. I heard that the girl who survives hates the guy for a significant period...

Aoba is a tsundere, in fact my favorite tsundere in all of anime (with Chiaki Shinichi close behind). It helps a lot that Tomatsu Haruka nails the role. Aoba's feelings for Kou are very complicated and difficult to cope with as a young girl. Watching her grow is an important part of the story.

I'll just mention that Cross Game is one of the half-dozen shows I give a ten score to at MAL. It also won the Choice Award here for Best Show of 2010 over Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. You really should watch it. My 27-yo daughter who isn't all that enamored with baseball has watched it three times.

[Guardian Enzo]

It's probably in my all-time top five.

[dniv]

I would actually love to see good recs here as well. Because I agree with BWTraveller. Separation is the only way childhood friends ever win... it's really annoying. Is it really necessary to just randomly make them lose because they don't insert inherent turbulence into the plot. Consistent sweetness works too, just look at stuff like karakai jouzu no takagi-san. That doesn't need tension to be a very enjoyable and addicting read. It's a bit disappointing. I'd really love some good childhood friend manga, anime, VN (main heroine/true route), jrpg recs.

[Lex79]

Nobody mentioned Maga Tsuki?