You reminded me of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I recently finished the original anime series and your comment pretty much described the relationship between

You reminded me of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I recently finished the original anime series and your comment pretty much described the relationship between the two protagonists (as I understand it at least). If you haven't seen it and can stomach old and kinda worn out visuals there's a really good and inspiring story there, I can't recommend it enough.