Lovely Angels

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"Well, it's kind of like James Bond. But instead of Bond, there are these two women..."

For some reason, female buddy-shows are rather widespread, especially in Anime. This trope refers to adventure series starring two rather competent women with contrasting personalities—compare with Betty and Veronica, Red Oni, Blue Oni, Tomboy and Girly Girl, and Bifauxnen and Ladette. They're not usually romantically involved with each other and generally Just Friends. In recent years, however, it has become difficult to avoid this implication, and a few shows keep enough Subtext to placate such fans or outright encourage it.

In contrast, female buddy movies are extremely rare, possibly because Most Writers Are Male.

More than two Lovely Angels eventually become known as an Amazon Brigade. Everything else of the above stays the same.

Examples of Lovely Angels include:

Anime and Manga

• The category is named after the official codename of Kei and Yuri, the Dirty Pair.
• Kiddy Grade, a Spiritual Successor of sorts to Dirty Pair.
  • And, consequently, Kiddy Girl-AND.
• Gunsmith Cats
• Read or Die, the original OVA version.
  • They also had a third, male team member - he was just completely irrelevant to everything.
• You're Under Arrest
• Noir and its second Spiritual Successor by the same studio, El Cazador de la Bruja. The first successor, Madlax, avoids this by large margin despite having a similar setup (unless you ignore the monstrous gap in Madlax and Vanessa's skills and put them in the same league).
• Tsukikage Ran.
• The Slayers had OVAs and movies where Lina is adventuring teamed up with a Vain Sorceress Naga, in Red Oni, Blue Oni contrast.
• A Code Geass radio drama taking place between the two seasons has Kallen and C.C. in this type of relationship. And then there's this piece of artwork.
• Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger had Sayaka and Jun (even if it was for a short while). UFO Robo Grendizer has Hikaru and Maria.
• Hyperdoll.
• Futari wa Pretty Cure features Lovely Angel Magical Girls, as does Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash Star.
  • For at least half a season each, Heartcatch Precure and Suite Pretty Cure fit this trope, too.
• Excel Saga initially starred two ladies, Excel and Hyatt, but they were two incompetent henchwomen, not two smart heroes. The anime kept this dynamic, while the manga added a third character, Elgala.
• Sugar Sugar Rune
• Anak and Androssi Zahard from Tower of God. Paired with Vitriolic Best Buddies.
• Najica Blitz Tactics Yay for intentional Les Yay!
• Michiko to Hatchin has some of this, despite the age difference between the leads.
• Noriko and Kazumi in Gunbuster.
  • Nono and Lal'C in Die Buster.
• Mnemosyne - romantically involved or not, the Moe Les Yay is pretty brazen.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's, with Nanoha and the newly-befriended Fate. Others are solo fares (1st season) or feature The Squad Amazon Brigades (StrikerS, ViVid, Force).
• Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt takes this to the logical extreme with Panty and Stocking being literal angels... except they're not too angelic personality-wise.
• Bleach: Momo Hinamori and Rangiku Matsumoto sometimes get to play the role, specially in Filler

Comic Books

• Page image features Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, from the second volume of Heroes For Hire. The two of them happen to be so badass, even the Rhino is afraid of them.
  • They are good friends and normally appear together, but the epitome of their Lovely Angels dynamic can be seen in Daughter Of The Dragon.
• Birds of Prey started with a team of Black Canary and Oracle. Later, Huntress joined the team as well. Recently, it has become a full Amazon Brigade.
• DC has had Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn team up on occasion during the brief periods when the latter has gotten sick of the Joker. Les Yay abounds (Generally played as close to being involved as possible while still just about maintaining plausible deniability. On at least one occasion they were actually shown sharing a bed). Currently they are starring, along with Catwoman, in Gotham City Sirens as a trio of attractive, deadly women on the town in Gotham.
  • And then there was that exchange where Harley informed Batgirl that Ivy had given her some kind of treatment so they could "play" together. More than one fan has taken this as outright confirmation of a canon relationship.
    • Paul Dini says it was.
    • And it ain't Shipping Goggles before he said it. The quote is "She gave me a special shot once so we can play and I won't get sick at all." It is... highly unlikely that they meant playing checkers or badminton.
• Whiteout, before the changes made to the movie, starred US Marshal Carrie Stetko and pal solving murders down in Antarctica. Unfortunately, The Movie (For various ridiculous reasons) felt that two female leads was a bad choice for a film, and made one of them a man (And not even one of the already existing men from the comics, but a completely new creation).
• The Manhwa Yureka (translated as i D Entity) features a pair of Idol Singer minor characters actually called The Lovely Angels.
• The Italian comic series Legs Weaver has such a team of the titular character and her sidekick May. The lesbian relationship is overt this time.
• Patsy and Hedy eventually had Patsy and Hedy in a relationship of this sort when they dropped the mutual romantic interest.

Film

• Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous features a Tomboy and Girly Girl version.
• Machine Girl
• Averted in the film adaptation of Whiteout, as Executive Meddling decreed that people wouldn't go to see a movie with two female leads. Which means Yuri Fanboys are going to miss out on some Les Yay.
• Outrageous Fortune is this once the two protagonists become Fire-Forged Friends.
• Sara and Maria from Bandidas
• The film Feds. Two women: one a Badass ex-Marine, the other a booksmart wimp, team up to defy their chauvinist classmates and instructors and become Special Agents of the FBI.

Literature

• Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books have Tarma and Kethry, a swordswoman and a mage, traveling the country as a team of mercenaries. (Tarma is a celibate priestess and Kethry eventually marries, but their relationship outlasts her marriage when Kethry's husband eventually passes on).
• Despite their differences, Angua and Sally of the City Watch appear to be on their way to this trope in the Discworld books.
• Nancy Drew, Bess Marvin and George Fayne.
• In the Vlad Taltos books, Norathar and Cawti, aka The Sword and Dagger of the Jhereg, were a two-woman assassin team, and for a long time they only had each other to rely on. After their lives changed radically, they continue to be the best of friends. In Tiassa, the two briefly resume their old partnership, to the enjoyment of both.
• The light and dark sisters in Jane Yolen's Great Alta Saga. Every light sister calls up a dark sister to be her lifelong companion in battle.

Live Action TV

• Xena: Warrior Princess, although the subtext eventually surfaced, sorta.
• Cagney and Lacey
• Charlie's Angels upped the ante by including a third girl.
  • So did She Spies, which some consider to be a Charlie's Angels knock-off.
    • Ditto for the Animated Series Totally Spies!.
• Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger's "Twin Cam Angels," Jasmine and Umeko, become this in some episodes (complete with their own special end title.)
• Ichiko and Ritsuko in Madan Senki Ryukendo. They mostly served as comic relief, but got a few Day in The Limelight moments - including one episode that involved one of the pair falling in love with a member of the show's Quirky Miniboss Squad.
• Nikki & Nora, which despite only having an unaired pilot, has garnered a fanbase. The show was going to be about police partners in New Orleans who were also a closeted lesbian couple.
• Rizzoli and Isles, which has garnered Nikki And Nora comparisons despite being a lot less text-y, has this trope in spades.

Video Games

• Touhou Imperishable Night has the option of playing as four teams of Lovely Angels: Reimu and Yukari, Marisa and Alice, Sakuya and Remilia, and Youmu and Yuyuko.
• Fear Effect with Hana Tsu-Vachel and Rain Qin, who are the Tomboy and Girly Girl, respectively. There is a strong implication that they are lovers, and others sources indicate that both of them are attracted to men as well.
• Crystal and Madison in the Sega Genesis game Trouble Shooter.
• Chun-Li and Cammy White have a scene like this in the intro for Super Street Fighter IV, then fully embrace the trope in Street Fighter X Tekken.
  • They're preceeded by Juni and Juli in Street Fighter Alpha.

Web Comics

• Last Res0rt has Jigsaw and Daisy as the only girl-girl team on the show so far. There are plenty of other characters they share the spotlight with though.

Web Original

• This trope is spoofed in the webseries 3Way, with Ladycops, an homage to creator Nancylee Myatt's unaired show Nikki & Nora. The characters in Ladycops are played by the same actresses from the Nikki & Nora pilot.

Western Animation

• Pre-teen version with the Codename: Kids Next Door episode "Operation: M.U.N.C.H.I.E.S.", the only story to focus solely on Numbuhs Three and Five.