Daisuki vs Aishiteru (大好き vs 愛してる)


Daisuki is supposed to mean like/love

Aishiteru is used for husband/wife

However, I've encountered several cases in many anime where best friends
(girls) say aishiteru to each other. They are straight, just date boys and
eventually marry one. Why say aishiteru to their best friend?




The types of "like"/"love" I know in japanese are the following:

> 好き [suki] - To like (Just like in english).
>
> 大好き [daisuki] - To like a lot.
>
> 愛 [ai]: sacrificial, unconditional, love for the other person's sake (often
> parallels the Greek agape, but can extend into philos as sawa mentions)
>
> 恋 [koi]: selfish, conditional, love for one's own sake (often parallels the
> Greek eros).

For the last two I used this answer as source: [Love in the air: 愛ｘ恋 {あい vs
こい}](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/2246/love-in-the-
air-%E6%84%9B%EF%BD%98%E6%81%8B-%E3%81%82%E3%81%84-vs-%E3%81%93%E3%81%84) you
shoudl check it out for a deeper insight on the matter.

Edit: For the case you mentioned, in my opnion it would mean that they love
each other as friends in a true and ever lasting way, they way I see 愛してる
(aishiteru) would be something you'd say to your wife after years together, so
you know that's "true" love, that's how I feel. But if you feel you can say it
to a friend, that's personal I guess.




**Short Answer** : It's probably a joke. Or, it's ["fan
service"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_service).

**Long Answer** : It's very tough to answer without actually seeing the
scenes, but from what I understand, it would be natural for a female character
in an anime to say 愛してる to her female friend only when she's joking or when
they're actually in a romantic
([yuri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_\(genre\))) relationship.

In general, you can use 愛している on anything if you truly love it. For example,
ハンバーガーを愛している, アニメを愛している and so on are fine. But it's a very strong expression
and it may sound even funny, perhaps almost like "I have fallen in love with
hamburgers." As you know, ハンバーガーは大好き is the safer way to say "I love
hamburgers."

An upbeat and carefree female character in anime might well casually say
something like 「おおお、ありがとう○○ちゃん、愛してるよ～！」 to her female classmate. And that
sounds like an innocent joke. To me, 愛している is not something a fictional girl
would seriously say to her friend.

Some core anime fans enjoy imaginary romantic relationships between two
characters (aka
[カップリング](http://dic.pixiv.net/a/%E3%82%AB%E3%83%83%E3%83%97%E3%83%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0)/[shipping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_\(fandom\))).
So creators may intentionally insert such suggestive words to please some
fans. I found a [typical example
here](http://dic.pixiv.net/a/%E3%83%9E%E3%83%8A%E3%82%8A%E3%81%A4#h3_7), where
two close female friends suddenly said 愛してる to each other and it surprised the
audience.

