Gia's List: Anime's 7 Most Awkward Proposals

Ah, love: sometimes it blossoms in the strangest of places. Sometimes it results in the strangest of marriage proposals. And sometimes those proposals are complete accidents. Here are some of anime's oddest and most awkward marriage proposals...regardless of whether they did or didn't result in an actual wedding.

7. Minamo-sensei/Chiyo-chan (Azumanga Daioh) Chiyo-chan is sweet, smart, kind, generous, and (as it turns out) a good cook, so it's perhaps no surprise when Minamo-sensei suddenly proposes to her after eating some of Chiyo-chan's home cooking. Unfortunately, Chiyo-chan is also only ten years old (a rare example of skipping grades in Japan), and Minamo-sensei is her P.E. teacher. So the proposal is still more than a little on the weird side, even to Chiyo-chan's not-exactly-normal classmates. It's even worse when you realize that Minamo-sensei is supposed to be the sane teacher (in comparison to greedy, gluttonous, and generally psycho Yukari-sensei).

6. Photon/Keyne (Photon: The Idiot Adventures) Young-looking and -acting (but overall awesome dude) Photon sets out from his village to save Aun, the village chief's daughter and his childhood friend who sneaked off to try and see a pop star, and the two wind up on a space adventure instead...but not before an angry Aun writes the word "baka" (idiot) on Photon's head while he sleeps. When he wakes and notices, Photon is irritated himself and writes the word on the next forehead he sees: that of sleeping space rebel Keyne. In Keyne's culture, sharing a forehead mark is a sign of marriage, and apparently it's also the entire process of getting married, so she spends the rest of the too-short OAV comedy considering them to be husband and wife.

5. Ayumu/Mael Strom (Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?) Imagine you're a high school boy turned zombie (the sentient kind, apparently), and you're stuck wearing a frilly pink magical girl outfit, fighting a bunch of weird jellyfish monsters when you're saved by a vampire ninja. You also have a crazed magical gal pal who gets annoyed because you're "ignoring" her, and she gives you a shove. You fall lip-first onto the vampire ninja, and what does she think? That the two of you are now married. Such is the woeful tale of zombie Ayumu and vampire Mael (as in maelstrom), who proceeds to tell your entire high school class about your wedded bliss. It's an awesomely awkward and classic anime marriage-by-accident..fused with zombie action comedy.

4.France/England (Hetalia) Long-time rival/pals France and England have simply loved to fight over the centuries. So when France, with an aura of doom and gloom hanging about him, unenthusiastically asks England to marry him, it's a little odd. England tries to laugh it off as a poorly-timed April Fools joke, but France begs England to save him (he's having political problems with the Suez Canal). England is stymied as France attempts to force him to sign a marriage certificate, but eventually the future United Kingdom fights back. In the end of the scene France forcibly drags England off for unknown purposes...although in the historical end, France joins the Commonwealth rather than united with England.

3. Ranma/Shampoo (Ranma 1/2) Ranma Saotome deserves a special award for all his weird fiancée relationships, but where his engagements to Ukyo and Akane were his dad's machinations, Ranma himself caused his engagement to Chinese villager/martial artist Shampoo. First, Ranma defeated her in female form— Shampoo's village has a tradition that when their fighters are defeated by outsider females, they must kill those outsiders. When Shampoo tracks Ranma down at Akane's family household, he defeats her again in male form, and this lands him not another death wish but another fiancée. The most awkward part comes later, though, when Shampoo is the victim of a curse that turns her into a cat with a splash of cold water...Ranma's one and only severe phobia.

2. Nagasumi/Sun Seto (My Bride is a Mermaid) If a beautiful mermaid saved your life, would you marry her to save hers? Nagasumi is faced with this choice when he learns that merpeoples' existence is a major secret, and by revealing herself to Nagasumi to save him, beautiful Sun Seto has sentenced herself to death. Unless, of course, the family either executes Nagasumi, or he joins the family by marriage. An awkward scenario to begin with (what's he gonna do, say no?), the situation is made even more ridiculous by Sun's dad, a mermaid mob boss who dotes on his daughter and hates Nagasumi for supposedly trying to take her away from him. If it wasn't for Sun's mischievous but well-meaning mother, this couple would be doomed.

1. Yuuri/Wolfram (Kyou Kara Maou!) After being sucked down a toilet and into a magical world of which he is proclaimed king, Yuuri has a nice meal with a family of nobles, one of whom— young, attractive Wolfram —is opposed to Yuuri's rule. When Wolfram insults Yuuri's mom, Yuuri slaps him, and it turns out that in his new nation that serves as a proposal of marriage. Still unaware of this fact, Yuuri refuses to take it back. Embarrassed, Wolfram throws a knife into the ground, and Yuuri picks it up...which turns out to mean he's just accepted a duel. Yuuri wins the duel and Wolfram becomes his first reluctant but later possessive fiancé, although Yuuri becomes steadfastly oblivious to his pending marriage.

The new poll: By and large, the idea of filler episodes (or arcs) inspires groans from fans, and with good reason: you might wind up with reused plots, horrible clichés, out-of-character actions, or worse. But not every filler is created equally; some are even known for having pretty decent filler. So this week we want to know what show you think has the best (or least bad) filler. Answer here, add any additional nominations into the comments, and check back next time for the results!

The previous poll: Last time we asked you which anime-based drug you thought sounded like the worst trip, and the decided majority of you thought Cowboy Bebop's Red Eye, which is a combination steroid and stimulant that boosts the user's awareness and abilities, sounded the worst. Next up came Code Geass's Refrain, used by the former Japanese to recall their glory days, and Serial Experiments Lain's Accela, a brain stimulant. Here are the full results:

• Red Eye (Cowboy Bebop) - 32.2%
• Refrain (Code Geass) - 28%
• Accela (Serial Experiments Lain) - 22.8%
• Line (togainu no chi) - 11.8%
• Adam (Battle Angel Alita) - 5.1%