TITLE: Not quite adjoint functors
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: What are standard and/or natural examples of pairs of functors $F:C\leftrightarrows D:G$ and unnatural bijections $\hom_D(Fx,y)\to\hom_C(x,Gy)$ for all $x$ and $y$? Can one do this so that the bijections are natural in $x$ and not in $y$?

REPLY [12 votes]: Let $C$ and $D$ both be the category of finite-dimensional (say real) vector spaces and invertible linear maps between them, let $F$ be the identity, and let $G$ take a vector space to its dual.  ($G$ is not functorial on all linear maps, but it is on the invertible ones.)  Then $G y \cong y$ unnaturally, so $\hom(F x, y) = \hom(x, y) \cong \hom(x, G y)$ naturally in $x$ but unnaturally in $y$.