Just a little thing that's been on my mind. I've noticed a great tendency to have characters in a work, romance or not, only become an actual couple when it's already too late to show their relationship.

I can understand if a work is building up toward the relationship and the official cementing is the final payoff, but sometimes I wouldn't mind seeing the progression of their actual relationship.

I kinda dropped off of Ah/Oh My Goddess after episode 7 of the anime, but as I recall that 20+ year old manga was all about the two dealing with their relationship, with marriage being the final event in the series.

I was gonna say Korra and Mako is a fine example of why the cementing of a relationship is better off being endgame, but that pairing shouldn't have existed in the first place.

Toradora does a much better job showing a pair officially getting together and building from there, even though it doesn't get far before the show ends. Ahhh I would love a sequel or something that's all about them officially dating.

Shows like Sailor Moon, where fighting evil by moonlight takes priority over winning love by daylight often have the relationship as a subplot, growing or breaking apart alongside the main conflict (or being a part of the main conflict, as with the infamous breakup in the R season)

In the case of shows like Code Lyoko it can really be a problem. Sometimes the angst and confusion of a relationship (KORRA) can strangle the main plot and create a lot of really bothersome tension that ends up causing what can feel like unnecessary drama in the main story.

But in a show where the relationship is the chief focus of the story I think it could be just as interesting to see where the relationship goes once its cemented.

You ship a couple and you're SO HAPPY when it becomes canon, but you don't get to see how they interact as an actual couple. That can be kind of a bummer.

ahaha Ah My Goddess... yes its about their relationship, but AMG its a small victory for Keiichi to even give her a present or eat her cooking because of all the wacky antics that pop up mixed with Keiichi's inability to say "No! STFU!" But there's always been this air that Kei & Belldandy are this couple that's been married for years without actually taking that step. I kept up with it for a lonnnnng time, but eventually the part of me that though Keiichi was a sweet sensitive guy turned into "Jeezus man D:< Belldandy wants the D, go tie the knot and take a long honeymoon for her sake and kick Urd & Skuld to the curb" and i just didn't have much interest in keeping up with the manga and sold all my copies to some guy in Wisconsin. 

but anyway, like you said, it depends on the nature of the show. I think it also depends on the audience

In manga for young & adolescent girls, love is still something that's secret and innocent about. For example, in Kimi ni Todoke it takes 11 books for the couple to start dating, and 17 books for them to kiss. not even make out. kiss. 

Meanwhile manga for grown women - if there's not sex in the 1st chapter, its somewhere in the 1st or 2nd volume. (Hataraki Man, Paradise Kiss, Butterflies Flowers, for example)

I think the same could be said for shonen & seinen manga - but Shonen-type stories the romance is such a second thought to it, that it ends up being endgame because "oh yeah, I guess Kimiko-chan should get with Shunsuke-kun now that the enemy's dead"