I'm embarassed to say this, but I've learned the most about mutual romantic relationships from video games.

It all started with games such as Chrono Trigger. I fell in love with an infamous, beautiful girl named Marle. And for most of my early childhood, I couldn't stop thinking about her. Well, that was until I found out what sex was.

So even for much of my teenage life, I always imagined my wife as Marle from Chrono Trigger. After my first breakup, I then learned that no girl would ever meet the impossibly ideal body type of Marle.

By the way, I also learned that no girl would ever lay their life on the line, like Aeris from Final Fantasy VII. No girl would spend their entire life fighting against evil monsters so that they could rescue her boyfriend, like the girl in Secret of Mana. And, heaven forbid, no one would go anorexic so that they could look like Misty from Pokemon.

So after another awful relationship that went out of control, I felt lost. Aside from all the girls in Charlie Kaufman films, I didn't know of any girls that really acted like the person I was looking for. All my perceptions gradually changed when I started watching anime movies and television shows.

I met a whole range female characters, perky and sweet. Some of them were fearsome warriors. Others were kindly women who protect their children like mothers. After watching an excellent series called Eureka Seven, I always wondered if I would ever see any realistic anime girls in video games.