There’s like 3 people who actually ship them, and I feel like I’m the crazy one for being one of the shippers, but, like, they’re also extremely soulmate-coded.
Every boy Anita could potentially be paired with has an alternate love interest/fulfilling future that doesn’t require her presence
Joel doesn’t. His first choice is always and will always be Anita, even if he can be selfish at times, he’s always looking out for her.
Every future, even the initial tl, Joel is there, coming back into her life (tl 2: he moves above her apartment in the penthouse, tl 3: when everyone hates her and she has an eviction notice on her door, Joel is offering a place for her on her couch and is her closest ally, Tl 4: the pet ultimate tl, she agrees to a date with Joel). He is always there no matter what her life looks like.
Season 2 their fates are literally intertwined as he begins to time travel WITH her
Throughout the series she’s unable to interact or fall in love with the younger versions of her love interests because she’s a 30 year old woman in a 15 year olds body and then, Joel comes along
On top of that, Joel has access to a version of Anita that no one else has access to, AND before he became a part of the time travel phenomenon, he was already starting to figure her secret out
Joel gives Anita advice that allows her to live in the present and live her life
What makes their relationships so great isn’t a quality that Fabricio or Henrique hold. They’re partners through and through, no matter where either of them end up.
Joel promises to be there for her and help her face her father’s death
I haven’t finished the series but I’ve seen people say they develop to be great friends. I don’t think they can be friends. Anita has shown that she does possess some feelings for Joel. She constantly refers to him as her hot neighbor, and she almost kisses him in the tl they are together until she backs away to change things again. Every time Joel talks about his feelings for her, she smiles a little. Even before Joel knew her secret, she was sucked into conversation with him because he sought her out after realizing he didn’t have any real friends (despite her not wanting to interact with him out of fear her future would change). The fact that she kisses him in that gay club…the list goes on. She is attracted to him, but she doesn’t pursue a future with him because it’s not the life she’s idealized. Her whole arc is about accepting the outcomes of her life rather than trying to change it to fit into the world where she THINKS she’ll find happiness (at the core of this is her trying to bring her dad back to life). She’s wanted Henrique for so long, so of course, it feels like she’s fulfilling some kind of prophecy/ the completion of her dreams at 15 when she’s with him, emphasized when we see Henrique and Anita transition between their past selves and present selves when they’re together. Her love for Henrique is rooted in her love for the past, a place where she knew comfort and happiness, a place where her dad was alive. It’s not that she doesn’t want to be with Joel. It’s just what it means if she is with him is something she’s not prepared to face.
Now Fabrizio, idk. I think he has a fighting chance. He also represents a veering from the path that Anita wants for herself, but in the tl where they’re engaged, it’s good to remember that EVERYONE’s life is fucked up. I’m not even sure she’s a photographer in that tl. Camila gives up on being a writer. Carol gets married to Henrique instead of going to the Olympics, and Henrique pursues music but he doesn’t make the kind that he actually likes. And Joel lives in his car. Obviously, Anita and Fabrizio’s coming together won’t represent the destruction of her life, but it’s not a coincidence that the paths least traveled for all these characters also occurs in the tl they’re together.
