Oblivious to Love



"Arnold: Wait I'm confused, did you just say you loved me? Helga: WHAT?! ARE YOU DEAF!?"

- Hey Arnold!: The Movie

Love Hurts; it's messy and a mathematical nightmare where only a few can come out happy, never mind unscathed. One of its worst injuries is perhaps the plainest one... pining away at someone because All Love Is Unrequited, and in the end never even holding them because I Want My Beloved to Be Happy.

Then, there's times a deep-frozen love life is not because of Star-Crossed Lovers, the pursued Love Interest being the Master of the Mixed Message or any such thing. It's because the rules of plot and characterization dictate that they not notice the protagonist's overtures and Longing Looks. Bob likes Alice, and he makes several increasingly obvious hints that he's interested, he'd like to ask her out, and wants to be her boyfriend. Alice (though gender reversals are common) will usually be oblivious enough that his stuttering overtures aren't heard or followed up on, and on top is usually blind to Bob as a love interest because she either sees him as a brother, believes she is unworthy of love and assumes she's misunderstanding his intentions, can not recognize love when it's not edged with danger, or he never blips her romantic radar to begin with. Deep, deep denial also is a possibility.

Expect Alice to say things like "I wish there were someone out there for me" and Bob to respond with "He might be closer than you think." Of course, she'll think he's being vaguely hopeful rather than literal. In the worst cases, Alice may be actively looking for someone (in general or particular) and just be completely blind to other people's feelings for her, or even already seeing someone (let's call him Charlie), Charlie may or may not be the right guy for her, but that's secondary to her being oblivious to Bob trying very hard to get her attention.

If Charlie is the wrong guy, Bob will win Alice's heart in the end. This is a common consequence of Old Flame Fizzle. If he's the right guy, then expect Bob to either hook up with whoever he was ignoring or suddenly be revealed as a psycho slimeball.

If Alice really is attracted and doesn't realize it, Tsundere behavior may result, or she may treat Bob as her Protectorate, or ensure that he's fed, prior to the Love Epiphany. Green-Eyed Epiphany is common.

This is commonplace in the Love Dodecahedron, and is a type 5 in Triang Relations. It also overlaps with Everyone Can See It. It is also prevalent in Boys Love and (especially) Girls Love works, where it is often mixed with confusion about one's feelings for someone of the same gender. Compare It Meant Something to Me, where Bob overtly says he loves Alice, but she denies having any feelings. See also Did You Think I Can't Feel?

If the problem escalates, then this can lead to a case of Clueless Chick Magnet. Compare to Chaste Hero, where the character in question is completely clueless to the concept of romance.

Anime and Manga
"Asahina: I just took a picture of you waking up. And I took a couple of you sleeping. You were sound asleep, weren't you? Kyon: (thinking) Really? Why would Miss Asahina want to take pictures of me sleeping? (starts smiling) Maybe she wants to put a picture of me in a cute frame, keep it next to her bed and every night, just before she drifts off to sleep... (Haruhi brusquely takes away the camera from Asahina, who's been reviewing the photos, and puts it in her own pocket.) Haruhi: (interrupting Kyon's thoughts) What's with the goofy face? You might wanna stop 'cus you look like a moron! Haruhi: I've temporarily given Mikuru the responsibility of being the SOS Brigade's photographer! It's important to maintain a record of the Brigade's activities for future generations. But I decide what pictures to take! Kyon: (out loud) Why would anyone care what I look like when I'm sleeping or when I'm waking up?"
 * Haruhi from Ouran High School Host Club, whose obliviousness to other people's feelings towards her has led to many accidental "Just Friends" speeches, usually when the person with a crush on her was about to give a love confession. Made doubly amusing by the fact that these appear to be about the ONLY feelings the normally perceptive Haruhi is oblivious to.
 * Tamaki from the same anime takes this trope to its logical extreme. Although capable of being even more perceptive regarding the feelings of others than Haruhi is, he is oblivious to his own feelings towards Haruhi and thinks that his constant fawning over her can only mean that he thinks of her as a daughter.
 * Which leads to a Crowning Moment of Funny in the manga when he does figure it out, as he has a temporary Heroic BSOD due to now thinking he's an incestuous pervert for liking his "daughter". He sorts it out eventually, but not before everyone else has already caught on.
 * Kouji Kabuto from Mazinger Z has absolutely no idea of when a girl is interested in him. Tetsuya Tsurugi from Great Mazinger is even worse, frustrating completely his Battle Couple Jun Hono, who keeps sending him signals as he keeps misunderstanding them.
 * Sakura of Cardcaptor Sakura, who somehow missed the very obvious affections of her lesbian best friend and constantly blushing rival until one of them explicitly said that they love her in that way at the end of the series.
 * Towards the beginning, her lesbian best friend also explicitly told her that she loved her; Sakura interpreted it as "I love you as a friend". Recognizing the rival's confession as romantic love was actually Character Development in that area.
 * It could also mean that Sakura is not aware of homosexuality at all.
 * Sakura guessed that when  said that he had sombody that he loves best.
 * Maybe she's just oblivious when the love's directed at her?
 * Neon Genesis Evangelion includes a traditional take on this trope with Shinji and Asuka. Asuka is in love with Shinji (according Word of God) and often she flirts with him (showing him her cleavage before asking him if he believes her breasts would grow if someone applied heat, looking for excuses to kiss him...). But since she constantly pushes everyone away because she is afraid of getting close to someone and getting hurt, and Shinji is a shy, oblivious kid and she pushes him away constantly, he doesn't get it because he can not believe she is interested in him. Unfortunately his obliviousness causes she thinks HE is not interested in her, so she gets angry and she keeps on pushing him away. The last scene of End of Evangelion hints maybe they may break the vicious cycle at last.
 * Rebuild of Evangelion: The two first films spend a good amount of time developing Rei's feelings towars Shinji, eventually getting to the point where she is in love with him. Only it's Rei who doesn't know she's in love. On the other side, Shinji is equally oblivious to the fact both Asuka and Rei are in love with him (although in the case of Rei it is more understandable, given Rei really doesn't show much by way of emotion).
 * The Megami Sound Stages of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha portray Nanoha as this in regards to Yuuno. For example, she misinterprets his worries and wishes to protect her for inferior battle tactics.
 * Kasumi seems totally unaware that Dr. Tofu is totally infatuated with her in Ranma ½. Although given that Dr. Tofu basically flips out when he so much as hears Kasumi's voice, has been doing this at least since she hit puberty, and neither Ranma nor Akane want to tell her why the good doctor does so, it's quite plausible that she sincerely doesn't know what the deal is.
 * And her sister Akane is even worse in relation to Ryoga.
 * The titular character of Naruto was somehow unable to comprehend the idea that Hyuuga Hinata's constant blushing, stammering, and fainting around him 'might' hint at her having a massive crush on him; rather, he simply chalked it up to her being "dark and weird".
 * Sakura looked pretty surprised when had to tell her that Naruto is in love with her. How she missed all the hints of Naruto loving her is also a huge mystery...
 * This is probably more of her not realizing that Naruto's feelings were that deep, and simply dismissing them as the childish, shallow crush it was at first.
 * Sasuke himself has always seemed oblivious to any girl's attention. The worst case was probably Karin, who all but threw herself at him.
 * With Sasuke, it's more that he's aware of said girls being attracted to him, but doesn't care.
 * Shikamaru seems totally oblivious that Shiho has a massive Hinata-level crush on him. Nor has he ever picked up on any of Temari's hints that she might want more than a friendship (though he's more of the denying type- he's actually too intimidated by her to speak out). I guess an over 200 I.Q. doesn't help you much with love.
 * Train from Black Cat, being the Chaste Hero he is, is very oblivious of a lot of character's feelings for him. Though he's especially this way with Creed, who is unbelievably outright about his scary obsessive love for him. In the manga, after all these years, Train is shown to still be incapable of understanding what possible reason Creed would have for killing Saya. There's even a scene where Creed tells Train that he would at least want to have Train by his side even as a dead body rather than have Saya have him. When other characters are creeped out by this, Train dismisses it by telling them to ignore him, and that Creed is simply being selfish and weird. Missing the point, no?
 * The titular Hayate the Combat Butler is very oblivious to pretty much all the characters' love for him, with the exception of Ayumu, who he seems to be treating normally and Kotetsu, because he doesn't swing that way. Isumi is completely oblivious to Wataru's crush on her, while Wataru is oblivious on Saki's crush on him, but is slightly aware of Sonia's crush on him
 * Unfortunately, Wataru has confessed that he loves Isumi, and then told her he was just joking. She's aware of it, but apparently not acting on it because she doesn't know he was serious. And the fact that she thinks he loves Nagi doesn't help. Later, after a Not What It Looks Like moment, Isumi now thinks that Sakuya likes him (very possible) and that he jumped Sakuya.
 * He's also unaware of Aika hinting that she likes him over an Indirect Kiss implication.
 * Negi Springfield of Mahou Sensei Negima is utterly oblivious that a number of his students are in love with him, only picking up on it when they just tell him to his face. Somewhat justified by the fact that he's too young to know what's going on, and several of his students (especially Chisame) point out just how blind he is to anything involving romance and note that this is going to lead to a lot of trouble in the future.
 * This directly leads to a rather nasty predicament involving Negi (magically aged up, pretending to be his own cousin) inadvertently leading on one of his students. Understandably, he freaks out when he finds out what's going on.
 * Later, someone pulls him aside, and explains just how many girls he's been inadvertently seducing, and it pushes him into a full-blown Heroic BSOD. And that was leaving several girls out.
 * There seems to be some dispute over whether Konoka is completely clueless over Setsuna's feelings for her, a downright sadistic tease, or making subtle overtures 'Set-chan' is too dense to realise are intentional.
 * By this point, the relationship has more or less inverted; Konoka obviously likes Setsuna in that way, but Setsuna is still stuck in "I'm just her bodyguard!" mode.
 * Also worth noting is that Negi isn't oblivious to Kono-Setsuna love; in fact it seems to be the only relationship he's noticed. As such, he may only be oblivious to love directed at him.
 * Subverted in Magic Knight Rayearth where it seems that Umi is unaware of Ascot the Summoner's feelings for her. It becomes apparent that she knows, she'd just rather stay friends and not talk about it.
 * Only in the anime. In the manga, she totally fails to get the implication of Ascot's asking if she has a boyfriend on her own world (She acts like she thinks he's trying to set her up on a date with somebody).
 * And Umi isn't nearly as oblivious as manga Hikaru. Not only does Hikaru totally miss the fact that Fuu and Ferio like each other (Even after seeing Ferio kiss Fuu's hand, causing Fuu to blush furiously), her reaction to is to say that she wants to spend the rest of her life with the ones she loves - and defines 'the ones she loves' as just about every named character in Cephiro that is still alive.
 * Otani from Lovely Complex. Not only is he initially completely oblivious to Koizumi being head over heels in love with him, even writing off an outright declaration of love from her as a joke, but he also doesn't realize that his childhood friend Mimi is also madly in love with him, which makes Koizumi express sympathy for her own romantic rival for having to deal with Otani's denseness ever since childhood.
 * What's even worse is that before Koizumi tells Otani she loves him, everyone else can see it before she says anything and then after she tells him how she feels repeatedly, all of their friends tell him point blank that she is in love with him and he still. Doesn't. Get it.
 * Himawari from xxxHolic appears very oblivious to Watanuki's obvious affection for her, turning it up when he gets more direct. This turns out to most likely be a Subversion: she chooses to pretend obliviousness in the hopes of.
 * Watanuki, meanwhile, utterly fails to catch on to the fact that Doumeki keeps on hanging around because of him, assuming instead that Doumeki is his rival for Himawari's affection and/or just generally trying to annoy him.
 * Kyoko of Katekyo Hitman Reborn is painfully oblivious of Tsuna's crush on her, despite everyone else in the series knowing about it.
 * Kyon from Suzumiya Haruhi, despite being told several times by Koizumi (who openly and exasperatedly states that he can't believe Kyon still doesn't get it) about his importance to Haruhi, despite her hitting him with clues as subtle as a brick, despite, still insists he has absolutely no idea why Haruhi gets so upset every time he acts too familiar with other girls. Partly on account that Kyon is an Unreliable Narrator, and partly because he's very good at putting walls up in his mind around things he doesn't want to think about.
 * An example is during the seventh volume when he wonders if the reason Haruhi is a bit downcast is problems in her love life. Immediately he kills this train of thought and spends several paragraphs convincing himself that's ridiculous/trying to laugh it off. Denial? Doesn't want to think about it? Oh yes.
 * In one scene Haruhi becomes overly emotional and nearly beats him up when she thinks he wrote Yuki a love letter. How much clearer can it get?
 * One thumpingly obvious example from the anime is when Haruhi disappears at lunchtime after being thanked by the band for helping them. Kyon wolfs down his lunch and then tells us he went for a walk to help digest it and definitely no other reason whatsoever, no way, not at all and certainly not to see if she's all right.
 * In one of the Melancholy episodes, Kyon suggests to Haruhi that she should take a nice guy to search the town for mysterious things, and that way she could call it a date and kill two birds with one stone. Which seems to be exactly what Haruhi was hoping to do with Kyon in the SOS Brigade's first mystery search...
 * This actually happens later on, since everyone else from the group was "preoccupied," leaving Haruhi and Kyon alone to search for mysteries.
 * In the first part of "Remote Island Syndrome," Kyon is awoken by Asahina taking photos of him sleeping:
 * In the first part of "Remote Island Syndrome," Kyon is awoken by Asahina taking photos of him sleeping:

"Kotetsu: ... What's up with her?"
 * Wilhelm Schultz in Allison and Lillia manages to remain completely unaware of his childhood friend Allison's feelings for him, in spite of his Hyper Awareness and Photographic Memory. In the second half,  Lillia can also be like this, though it's exacerbated by the fact that the people around her help to keep it that way.
 * Hikari from Special A is utterly unable to separate "rival" and "lover" in her mind, and despite the most obvious hints from Kei (even a kiss and Kei attempting to get a date with her), she continues to be blindly ignorant of this. Yet everyone else around them seems to have caught on.
 * Hidamari Sketch has an expanded version, in that everyone tiptoes around Sae's quite obvious crush on Hiro—even when Sae goes into a barely concealed fit of jealousy when Hiro gets a love letter from a boy.
 * Let's say, Sae doesn't even understand what's being popular with boys...
 * Natsume's feelings for Sae also fit this trope. C'mon, does she have to jump her object of affection before anyone notices it?
 * Kaze no Stigma neatly subverts this. Kazuma almost certainly knows Ayano likes him and is willing to go on missions with her if paid by her father, who is trying to invoke Bodyguard Crush on him.
 * In the Girls Love Manga, Girl Friends, Akko is completely oblivious to Mari's affections despite twice being kissed by her, and hearing what should have been a love declaration. Mari is likewise oblivious to Akko's affections although Mari hasn't seen as much evidence of those feelings.
 * Akko's actions could often be seen as flirtatious though (sexy bathing pics, anyone?), but Akko downplays them by claiming that "it is what girls do". Uh-huh...
 * In the Hen manga, popular Chizuru couldn't have been more obvious with her crush on Yamada, what with her blushing, sweating, stammering and even outright telling Yamada that she loves her. Yamada keeps treating Chizuru as a friend (albeit a weird one), even after Chizuru's very transparent attempt to steal a kiss from her—that is, until Chizuru practically explodes in a dramatic public love confession.
 * Sousuke is this for the majority of Full Metal Panic!. He's shown to be completely oblivious to Kaname's affections and jealousy over him, and only starts returning her feelings later (and even then, possibly because he was never in love before, he didn't even realize he was in love). And Tessa, who was incredibly aggressive in her pursuit of him? Pretty much all of her advances went right over his head (including an instance where he misunderstood an incredibly direct love confession as her telling him she loves alcohol). In the novels, he's also shown to be oblivious to Nami's feelings for him, despite the rest of Nami's crew constantly trying to get it into his head that she's in love with him and pair them up.
 * In the case of Tessa, Sousuke's obliviousness is turned Up to Eleven, to the point that he somehow manages to misconstrue Tessa's Anguished Declaration of Love in the OAV as her saying she loves alcohol. Considering that Tessa is his commanding officer and a romance between them would be inappropriate in the context of military regulations, it's entirely likely that Sousuke is either in deep, deep denial or is actively Obfuscating Obliviousness To Love.
 * In the novels, he discuss his feelings for Kaname with Kurz. Kurz tells him it's love, but Sousuke doesn't believe him as love is supposed to be happy and he is miserable.
 * In the World War Two Girls Love manga Kurogane Pukapuka Tai, Commander Kuki acts wholly obliviously to the wholly obvious attraction of her XO, Mamiya; even when she's told about it, she responds, "Don't be ridiculous! It is not possible between women!" She gets really flustered when women make advances on her, though, suggesting that the obliviousness may be denial rather than cluelessness...at least sometimes.
 * Pokémon: Ash, Ash, Ash: numerous characters of the day, multiple traveling companions, and who-knows-how-many Pokémon have had obvious feelings for him, and he's remained the Chaste Hero since you could count the number of episodes on your hands.
 * Fun part: this was a progressive "development". He actually showed feelings for a girl once (in episode nine). He also knew full-well that Butterfree wanted to court a mate in "Bye-Bye Butterfree", yet in the most recent season he's now clueless that a Cottonee wanted to do the same, thinking that "it just wants a best buddy."
 * Like Red is any better. Even by the end of the Emerald arc he remains blissfully unaware that Yellow and Misty see him as more than a "friend" at times (though the end of the GSC arc indicates that this is intentional obliviousness on his part, as dealing with romance makes him very uncomfortable). Ruby, on the other hand, is aware of Sapphire's feelings for him (and vice versa) but chooses to "forget" them... and it drives her up a wall.
 * Brock also falls into this trope at times, given most of the girls who DO fall for him are younger than him, aside from Pike Queen Lucy, who has a thing for Eyes Always Shut. Poor guy just can't win.
 * Naru in Love Hina falls into this with regards to her feelings for Keitaro. Later on, it is more a case of willful denial.
 * Yurika Misamaru in Martian Successor Nadesico not only refuses to accept that Akito Tenkawa is not head-over-heels in love with her, but does it so convincingly that Akito eventually does fall in love with her. Yurika, being a tactical genius, probably had it planned out that way from the very beginning.
 * Note her own oblivousness to Jun's feelings for her.
 * Kyohei and Sunako from The Wallflower absolutely refuse to even entertain the thought that they're in love with each other- Sunako going as far as to say 'Love is an illusion' and Kyohei using the excuse that he 'loves her food'- and this is after they've kissed twice, saved each other countless times and had the entire cast calling them out on their UST and feelings - so much that at this point of the manga everyone is convinced they are in love/together. EVERYONE. EXCEPT. THEIR STUPID SELVES.
 * Suetake from Doki Doki School Hours absolutely fails to recognize that his (male) classmate Kudo has a major crush on him. Of course, Suetake is quite dumb, but Kudo doesn't really keep it a secret, so everybody else knows.
 * Ami in Toradora! is very very transparent with how she feels about Ryuji, dropping incredibly obvious hints ("I would be your equal in a relationship") but since she never actually says anything outright, Ryuji is oblivious. So is the rest of the cast...
 * In Saki, Nodoka forms quite a crush on Saki, to the point that it has a negative influence on her Mahjong-playing abilities. Most everyone in the mahjong club seems to realize this—except for Saki herself.
 * Shunsuke from Yuria 100 Shiki has no clue that Yuria likes him despite how hard she tries to take care of him, not to mention her constant attempts to have sex with him.
 * Boa Hancock from One Piece is (extremely obviously) in love with main protagonist Monkey D. Luffy, yet is too shy to say it outright. He has no idea whatsoever.
 * And no, we're not supposed to feel sorry for her; it's a funny scene cause she keeps trying with the same vigor.
 * We also have Camie who furiously blushed and stammered when Shakky asked if she was Hatchan's lover. Hatchan himself barely reacts to the question. Or perhaps he does know but doesn't want to embarass/encourage her.
 * Bijou from Hamtaro has a crush on the title character, who thinks of her as being just another member of his family of friends, while not noticing Boss's crush on her; she attributes the attention he pays her to simple generosity.
 * In Ayashi no Ceres, Aya becomes flustered when Tooya kisses her, she falls asleep in his arms, and STILL his stoicism prevails. He does realize his feelings for her a couple of episodes later, but it takes longer—and is played straighter—in the manga.
 * In Kämpfer, Natsuru is probably one of THE most oblivious people when it comes to love. Only loves a Shallow Love Interest and he still has three people going crazy for him. He STILL doesn't even know about it.
 * As of the last episode, he doesn't seem entirely oblivious, enough to choose them over getting them killed. But he still lusts after the girl who explicitly tried to kill them and mind controlled him for good measure.
 * Or maybe it's all part of his master plan...
 * In Simoun, Aer (Aaeru?) falls under this. At the start, she has no idea why anyone would want to kiss someone else if they weren't about to pilot a Simoun.
 * Nanako Yamamoto, a teacher at Hanamaru Kindergarten is described as having a world-record level ability for not noticing when men are interested in her. This actually seems to be a family trait, as her younger sister Mayumi exhibits the same trait when a man shows interest in her. Oddly enough, the Yamamoto sisters can each spot the other's respective suitors, but not their own.
 * Goku in Dragon Ball probably takes the cake. Chi-Chi develops a crush on him right after meeting him, and he fails to pick up on it, and when she asks if he'll marry her he thinks that marriage is food. As of Dragonball Z, however, it's clear he loves his wife, although he still has a funny way of showing it.
 * Subverted by his son Gohan. For a while, it looks like he's oblivious to Videl's crush on him, but it soon becames apparent that he also has feelings for her and is just scared to acknowledge them. This changes once his mystic training is through.
 * Played straight with Vegeta and Bulma who can both be oblivious. But usually at different times.
 * Jaden in the dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX with Alexis, because there are some added hints of her feelings for him in the dub that make him a complete dunce for not picking up on them, most notably when she tells him what a marriage is (because he didn't know), she says "it means friendship, at least for now big guy." Note in the original she just called him an idiot.
 * Italy from Axis Powers Hetalia doesn't understand why Germany objects so strongly to him flirting with girls. Even after Germany proposes to him with a ring. Granted, Germany was taking his cues from an advice book that turned out to have been tampered with by Prussia to give him bad instructions and Italy is The Ditz in general, but still...
 * Spain probably counts too, seeing how he doesn't seem to realize the full extent/implications of Romano's Tsundereness toward him or that Romano didn't give a wholly negative answer to his marriage proposal.
 * If Japan isn't portrayed as Happily Married to Greece in fanworks that more-or-less pair them together, he'll be shown to be so deep in denial about their relationship or painfully oblivious to Greece's feelings for him that it's a wonder he can even breathe under the weight of his denial/obliviousness. Might actually have canon backing, seeing that not only does Japan promptly scream "It was All Just a Dream!" after he and Greece do the horizontal tango but he seems to get puzzled at some of Greece's actions toward him as if he can't comprehend why Greece would go out of his way to be so nice to him. Why, indeed...
 * One of the main foundations School Rumble is built upon. Tenma is too busy mooning over Karasuma to notice that Harima is mooning over her, and Harima is too busy mooning over Tenma to notice that Eri and Yakumo are mooning over him. (Not to mention that Karasuma is too busy mooning over curry to notice Tenma..... not that he cares anyway.) Hilarity and misunderstandings ensue, of course.
 * Kyoko from Skip Beat, especially toward Ren. Justified because after Sho dumped her she gave up love and killed that area of her brain, vowing revenge.
 * Seiji in Midori Days. Dear God, Seiji. He ends up with three (four if you count his neighbor's daughter) women and a guy lusting after him, and is only aware of one because she says so all the time. Another goes through a painfully transparent I Have This Friend confession to him and he still doesn't get who she's talking about until she's halfway through. And the justification for this? Because at 17, he's never had a girlfriend, and so is incapable of picking up the incredibly obvious signals.
 * In Aoi Hana, Akira doesn't realize that her infinite kindness toward her childhood friend Fumi causes the latter's feelings for her to resurface..
 * Edward Elric towards Winry in Fullmetal Alchemist, at least in the manga. Though it's possible this is Selective Obliviousness on his part to protect her from the increasingly dangerous events that he constantly gets involved in.
 * Kousaka spends most of the first volume of Genshiken completely oblivious to the fact that Kasukabe has a big crush on him, even though Sasahara (and really, the reader until Kousaka mentions this) assumed she was his girlfriend just because of how she acted around him. It's especially humorous in that Kousaka actually likes her himself, but the idea that she felt the same way simply did not occur to him.
 * Gankutsuou: Albert was completely oblivious of Franz's feelings for him. It helped that Franz kept his feelings a secret from everyone.
 * Yuuji from Shakugan no Shana is the resident Chick Magnet. He's also incredibly good at convincing himself that no girl could possibly find him that interesting and every time he gets suspicious about Shana and/or Kazumi being in love with him, he just shrugs it off as his imagination.
 * Moritaka of Bakuman｡ initially assumes his feelings for Miho are unrequited, and only realizes that this is not the case after he confesses to her and promises to marry her once they achieve their dreams. It's later revealed that she has been in love with him since the fourth grade, and this comes as a surprise to him.
 * Ken Washio of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, sometimes. His feelings towards Jun vary from episode to episode Depending on the Writer. Arguably he gets a little better about this in the sequels.
 * Detective Conan: Sometimes it seems like half the characters have this. Heiji is apparently utterly incapable of realizing his feelings for Kazuha or vice versa; even going so far as to believe  Ran is even worse, despite unknowingly returning Shinichi's feelings. But Satou has them all beat; she has never once twigged to the fact that Takagi, Shiratori, and every other single man in her department find (or used to find) her attractive, often leading to humorous misunderstandings. (Especially when a mischievous Yumi shamelessly takes advantage of that cluelessness to prank the rest of the department.)
 * Sonoko's boyfriend Makoto also seems to have a hard time picking up on her "subtle" hints—in the Valentine's Day episode where she went to a resort with Kogoro's family to make a chocolate heart for (she told Makoto) "the person she cared for most," Makoto showed up to see who this person was and if he was a suitable companion for her. When he asked who it was and Sonoko pointed at him, he turned around to look behind him. Granted, Makoto is trully NOT good with people.
 * Miu from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple has a bad case of this. Kenichi has it worse. He's so used to that idea that he's a loser that he can't even comprehend that girls will so much as LOOK at him, let alone have feelings for him. So when anyone besides Miu acts fondly towards him, he seems to shrug it off as them just being nice to him.
 * Bleach: Orihime is in love with Ichigo. He doesn't know. However, instead of played straight this trope is subverted. She doesn't do anything to try and get him to notice her romantically. The author occasionally shows us how she views Ichigo (a well-mannered host or prince charming, basically) but only for comedy. Even her one, single soliloquay on the subject (to an unconscious Ichigo) was simply to express gratitude and say goodbye. Even that showed no expectation of having anything in return from him on a romantic level. It probably has something to do with Word of God revealing he wasn't interested in writing a romance story. As a result, even the only character confirmed to have romantic feelings for someone appears to have no interest in actually getting said object of affection to notice and do something about it.
 * Ennis from Baccano!. Firo reports that she didn't quite catch on for fifty years.
 * Kumiko from Gokusen is incredibly clueless about Shin's feelings for her, even as his extremely unsubtle friends try to help him out. Even the teachers were aware of Shin's crush on her before she did.
 * In the Live Action Adaptation, Kumiko is completely oblivious to the male gym teachers crush on her through all three series. Too distracted by the guy of the season to notice.
 * Fuyuki Hinata of Keroro Gunso is totally oblivious to the crush Momoka Nishizawa has on him. Much to her endless frustration.
 * Kamijou fucking Touma towards his gigantic harem, which he doesn't really notice, most blatantly with his roommate Index and his unknown rival Misaka Mikoto. Either that, or he does know and tries to get by by pretending not to know, which is undertandable considering the repercussions there may be if he were to reciprocate any feelings to any single one of them.
 * Ichika Orimura himself can give almost everyone here a run for their money.
 * Hilshire from Gunslinger Girl is this, starting with Maria Machiavelli's hints that they should work out their relationship and going all the way up to obliviously ruining the atmosphere Triela made with a candlelit dinner. Considering her cyborg nature, and how much of that affection may be conditioning, which she admits she has difficulty telling apart (until a more recent chapter, she gets a Love Epiphany and indeed realises that her feelings for Hilshire are genuine), it's understandable. However, Hilshire still remains oblivious even to the increased affection she shows him after said epiphany, although the fact he was asleep (due to the painkiller from hastily administered field medicine) when it came to her and when she kissed him, it's also somewhat understandable.
 * Not to mention the fact that Triela is underage. One suspects that Hilshire ignoring her overtures is deliberate.
 * Madoka Magica: Kamijou Kyousuke's failure to notice that Sayaka even likes him is impressive, given how much she dotes on him. Maybe it runs in the family?
 * Not to mention how screwed up this trope gets.
 * Guts from Berserk never really bothered to realize that Casca wanted him to stay with the Hawks - not solely because Griffith was so dependent on Guts as chief member of the Hawks - because she was falling in love with him. And the fact that he was so convinced that she was in love with Griffith  and wished the both of them happiness after he was gone didn't help.
 * To be fair, Casca was a little oblivious to her own feelings toward Guts until she finally reached her Love Epiphany when he left.
 * Jiyu from Jubei-Chan: Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch.
 * Kou Seiya of Sailor Moon constantly flirts with the protagonist from the moment they first meet. At first she's just playing, but she becomes more serious after Usagi confesses that her boyfriend in America hasn't been responding to any of her letters . Seiya concludes that Usagi's boyfriend has dumped her; Usagi convinces herself that he's just working hard, and thus remains oblivious to Seiya's intentions.
 * Van of Gun X Sword is blithely unaware of the romantic feelings at least two of the three women in his harem have for him. (He MIGHT have some idea about the third, but it's hard to tell.)
 * In Magical X Miracle, while Merleawe has at least some inkling of the crushes Vaith and Fern have on her, others are a bit more blind. For example, Yue doesn't get it. He didn't get it with the flirting. He didn't get it with the subtle attempt at a love confession, forcing  to lay it out for him, word by word, very explicitly, in front of all his peers and higher-ups. And then he turned seventeen shades of pink and was temporarily unable to form a coherent sentence. Of course, being a Kuudere probably doesn't help with the ability to recognize love.
 * The main character in Tokyo Ravens (like Nurarihyon no Mago but with a good omyoji family vs. evil spirits) is doubly oblivious. He doesn't know why his best female friend is so concerned about him and his future and when his seemingly cold and snobby cousin visits him with a Luminescent Blush he asks if she has a fever. When both these girls get angry that a Dark Magical Girl has been flirting with him he gets very confused. At least his friend tearfully made a love confession while his cousin, furious that he said the DMG was cute in the middle of warning her to leave for her own safety, decides to stay at the one place the DMG said she was going to attack.
 * In Tiger and Bunny, Kotetsu is completely oblivious to Karina's increasingly obvious crush on him. Not even Karina's giddy declaration that she'll cherish a towel he gave her forever seems to have clued him in. Word of God says he's always this oblivious when it comes to women's advances.
 * In Tiger and Bunny, Kotetsu is completely oblivious to Karina's increasingly obvious crush on him. Not even Karina's giddy declaration that she'll cherish a towel he gave her forever seems to have clued him in. Word of God says he's always this oblivious when it comes to women's advances.


 * There are notably a few in Nagasarete Airantou, but Ikuto stands above the rest
 * Come on, why would anyone kiss or want to kiss you.
 * Saya from Blood C is a rare female example, and one of the most extreme; at least two guys (Itsuki and Tokizane) are blatantly interested in her, but she manages to remain completely clueless.
 * Subverted in Mawaru Penguindrum, since  wasn't that oblivious in the end.
 * Karakuridouji Ultimo: Yamato to Rune up to chapter 10.
 * of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni was completely unaware of 's true personality, let alone huge crush on .  ignorance is revealed to be the trigger.
 * In Iris Zero, Toru is oblivious to Sasamori's growing feelings for him.
 * Debatable example with Lelouch in Code Geass. Everyone can see Shirley's got a massive crush on him, but it is unclear whether he ignores it out of genuine ignorance or if he has other reasons.
 * He didn't seem shocked when she (eventually) plucked up the courage to ask him on a date, nor by the fact that she kissed him, and when C.C directly brought up the subject of their relationship he was unsure of how he felt, but didn't react with the surprise or denial one might expect for this trope. Add to this the fact that he's normally very good at understanding and predicting other people, and it seems likely that he was aware of how Shirley felt, and chose to stay Just Friends due to his own ambiguous love for his sister, and later because he was preoccupied with running a terrorist/freedom fighter network.

Comic Books
""...So what happened to the mandibles of death, you sissy furball?!?" "I was beguiled by her feminine charms. Yow. Go soak your head.""
 * Peanuts: Charlie Brown and Marcie. He's understandably intimidated by Peppermint Patty's overtures, but has yet to notice Marcie.
 * Let's not forget Charlie and the Little Red-Headed Girl, who probably doesn't even know he exists.
 * Charlie Brown does figure out that Marcie likes him, but not until she (very bluntly) tells him so. His self-esteem is so low, he can't really believe that any girl can be interested in him, even Peppermint Patty.
 * Rampant throughout the post-Zero Hour Legion of Super-Heroes comics, and probably at least some of the other versions as well. XS in particular is known for developing intense crushes on characters like M'Onel and Cosmic Boy, both of whom are entirely oblivious; meanwhile, XS herself spends a while being completely ignorant of the fact that Dyrk Magz has a crush on her. Eventually she catches on, but they get just about enough time for one date before Dyrk gets Demoted to Extra and then wiped from continuity completely.
 * Calvin and Susie Derkins from Calvin and Hobbes. Word of God says that Calvin and Susie have a mutual crush on each other. Calvin, apparently, either doesn't know about it or doesn't know how to deal with it, so he does his best to gross out and anger Susie, who then always gets mad at him.
 * Strangely enough, in the strip it's Hobbes (Calvin's alter ego?) who is attracted to Susie and is always convincing Calvin to go play with her.


 * Most likely Calvin just projects his feelings onto his imaginary friend as a way of dealing with them.
 * Though Hobbes also sometimes teases Calvin by suggesting he and Susie like each other; assuming he is real, it's possible he's just acting infatuated to get under Calvin's skin.
 * Spider-Girl: May Parker was for very long time completely unaware that one of her friends (or more likely, one of her friend's friends), Wes Collins has a crush on her. She was the only person in the entire school who didn't know about this. She got better, but it took a very long time.
 * Despite being able to sense the emotions of others, Teen Titans' Raven seems quite oblivious to Beast Boy's feelings for her.
 * The Soviet version of Superman is quite oblivious to Wonder Woman's feelings for him in Superman: Red Son, and it comes back to haunt him later on.
 * It is an all female island of rape victims with a "no boys allowed" policy. It could be he doesn't think her kind would ever have affection for a man.
 * In the newspaper comic strip Curtis, the titular character is too busy crushing on Michelle (who most definitely does not reciprocate) to realize that his good friend Chutney is head-over-heels in love with him. Once or twice he does wonder "Could it be that Michelle doesn't like me and that Chutney does?" but always writes the possibility off in the end.
 * In spite - or maybe because - the fact that he's a complete Chick Magnet, Nightwing is at times utterly unaware that the girl he's having friendly banter with would like their relationship to go past the Just Friends Will They or Won't They? stage.

Fanfiction
"Sam coming too. Good thing, as will enable me to have more of those platonic, brotherly foot massages he's so good at."
 * Turned Up to Eleven in Kyon: Big Damn Hero, with Kyon completely unaware of the affections of  He's also incapable of spotting the polyamorous relationship that several other characters share. Even Mikuru worked that one out.
 * Frodo in The Very Secret Diaries is oblivious to the fact that every single member of the Fellowship wants in his pants, and tries to flee to Mordor when he figures it out.

"Twilight: Dash, has anypony ever had a crush on you? Dash: I don't know. Maybe? Twilight: Well, one does now... Dash: Who is it? Twilight: [ Face Palm ]"
 * Take any franchise where there are multiple love interests bet that there will be at least one character who is oblivious to the affections of another notable character. This is also applicable to original author made characters as well but this is harder to develop so it is rarely done well.
 * In Hunting the Unicorn, Blaine's trust in people and his inability to gauge when people are interested combines this into Fridge Horror: If Blaine didn't get the picture when Kurt was all but throwing himself at him, nor when his old high school friend tried to invoke a Dance of Romance, it's only logical that he has no clue when  .
 * Rainbow Dash in the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Shipping fanfic "In the Rain". Twilight Sparkle's "hints" grow progressively more elephantine, from rhapsodising about storms using terms that also apply to Dash, to straight-out telling her about lesbianism and how it's not too uncommon in Canterlot. In the ending with the Relationship Upgrade, we get this gem:

"Kissing Lily was being touched with purpose but even that was sort of a joke, and now he's thinking about kissing, and is that why Sirius has licked his lips twelve times in the past thirty seconds? "Oh," Remus says suddenly. "I get it. I'm rocks.""
 * Twilight is more often on the receiving end of this trope; for instance, in the fic "Twilight Learns a Secret", she got several months into her relationship with Dash before she even realised she was in one. And that was only because RD kissed her, and then spent several pages explaining the situation. Possibly with diagrams.
 * In The Shoebox project Sirius believes that Remus is oblivious to love.

Film

 * Ted ,the gym manager in Burn After Reading, is in love with Linda, who looks everywhere for a man and wants several rounds of cosmetic surgery to improve her odds. In the end, he does something heroically stupid to try and help her.
 * This is of course the basic plot of any number of romantic comedies out there.
 * Joe Dirt is pretty good at picking up trashy redneck women, but when it comes to sweet girls, he thinks they're just being nice.
 * Will Stronghold is oblivious to Layla's crush on him, although he does have the excuse that Gwen Grayson

Literature
"Thomas: Moron. Thank God Nicodemus is a man."
 * Edgar Rice Burroughs generally had oblivious heroes. Special mention must be made of Tan Hadron, the hero of A Fighting Man of Mars, who actually managed to not realize he was in love with Tavia instead of Sonoma after 1) he had seen beautiful women and the first comparison that had popped to mind was to Tavia, 2) he had been betrayed, and when he realized it was Sonoma and not Tavia, his first words were that he was glad it was not Tavia, and 3) he had taunted Sonoma for her cowardice by saying he had fallen in love with someone else, a slave girl, and someone else had pointed out he had obviously been talking about Tavia. Indeed, he denies it then—although admitting a few days later.
 * In Sandy Mitchell's Warhammer 40000 novel Scourge the Heretic, Mordechai is oblivious to the attraction that Keira, another character in the Inquisitor's retinue, feels for him. Partly because it is expressed in a rather truculent manner (until another woman points out to him that it could be attraction), partly because Keira, who was raised in a Sex Is Evil cult, does not realize it herself until she accuses Danuld of wanting to sin with her, and he tells her that he can tell that he doesn't have a chance because of Mordecai.
 * In Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night, when Lord Peter Wimsey is being criticized for how he spends his life, Harriet Vane snaps back: perhaps he catches murderers for fun, but he does it, and he could be killed, and many innocent people have reason to thank him for it. She reflects afterward about what her reaction shows about her own attraction.
 * In Graham McNeill's Warhammer 40000 Horus Heresy novel Fulgrim, Serena d'Angelus realizes that her Bad Dreams stem from . She seeks out Ostian, thinking he could save her. She finds him murdered, weeps that he loved her and she hadn't seen it, and that she loved him. Then she commits suicide.
 * The Star Wars Expanded Universe reveals that Typho, Padme's eyepatched bodyguard, was in love with her. Naturally, she had no idea.
 * In Warriors, Firestar somehow never notices Cinderpelt's obvious crush on him.
 * He wouldn't have noticed that Sandstorm was in love with him either if Cinderpelt hadn't pointed it out to him.
 * Firestar is in fact so oblivious concerning the opposite sex that the Warriors fandom has their own name for this trope: "Firestar Syndrome"
 * To quote the author: "Stooopid man-cat!"
 * Bluefur in Bluestar's Prophecy also evokes Firestar Syndrome throughout the book. It takes three different cats to get her to admit that Thrushpelt has feelings for her, despite the fact that he was frequently staring at her, inviting her on patrols, and cracking jokes that only seem to irk her.
 * Not to mention the fact that she didn't even realize her own not-so-subtle attraction to Oakheart until he confessed his love to her.
 * One story in Mack Reynolds' Section G Spy Fiction In Space had Li Chang Chu abandon subtlety, pointing out to top agent Ronny Bronston that they were alone together in a stateroom with the door locked and no other demands on their time. Particularly funny in that he'd been hot for her about as long as she'd been for him, but didn't think he had a chance—despite being well aware that women found him very attractive. He just didn't realize this woman did, too.
 * Robert A. Heinlein's Juvenile books often had young male protagonists that were oblivious to girls. They were otherwise intelligent, so either they were just blind to people or just not interested in females. However, one of his stories (The Menace From Earth) had a male only oblivious to the protagonist. She was rather upset when he noticed another woman.
 * This was a case of Executive Meddling—Alice Dalgleish, children's book editor for Charles Scribners & Sons, had very firm opinions on how much "suggestive" content was "proper" for juvenile novels (absolute zero), and ruthlessly quashed anything Heinlein wrote that even remotely hinted that teenaged males might possibly have a sex drive. Heinlein didn't even try to write romance into his stories until after he changed publishers and stopped writing juveniles. (The Menace From Earth was not first published by Scribners, note.) Also, even though Dalgliesh was an extreme case, virtually no editors in the 40s and 50s would approve anything but the most ultimately chaste romance material for young adult novels.
 * It may have been Executive Meddling, but the girls in the stories were practically ripping their clothes off and the guy was just utterly clueless. "Gee, why did she take my side against her own uncle and risk everything for me and spends time with me and is always ready to help me with anything I need?" "I guess she just wants to be my very good friend". HELLO?!
 * Heinlein's historical reaction to Executive Meddling was to push the limits as far as he could get away with, so that's intentional.
 * In Harry Potter, Ron is totally oblivious to Hermione's feelings for him until the sixth book or so. This is especially apparent in the Fourth Book, when Ron is desperately trying to find a girl to go to the ball with and suddenly remembers that Hermione "is a girl too". Hermione is upset that Ron didn't think about her immediately and she goes with Victor Krum from the Bulgarian school instead. Ron is angered by this but doesn't realize the * real* reason for his anger, even though Harry does.
 * Also, in their childhood, Lily to
 * And of course, Ginny Weasley fancies Harry since the very first book (it's more obvious in the second one, though) but Potter doesn't even acknowledge her before way later.
 * Well, in book 2 he seems to realize she likes him, but by book 5
 * It's also that for the first four books Ginny was too shy to speak to Harry at all, so he had no chance to find out anything she might be feeling or thinking.
 * In the Ravenloft novel Vampire of the Mists, young priest Sasha is oblivious to the huge crush the thief Liesl has on him. Partly because he was so in love with Katya ....
 * In Child of the Hive Drew is oblivious to Rachel's crush on him for most of the first part of the book. This is mainly due to Rachel's nerves meaning she struggles to approach him.
 * The whole point of Swedish youth novel "Det är så logiskt, alla fattar utom du." (Rough translation: "It's so logical, everyone gets it except you.") Nerdy boy and cute girl are best friends since always. The boy is in love with the girl, also since always, but the girl only dates sullen musicians and has no idea her best friend is in love with her.
 * Despite the numerous things he does for her, Gone with the Wind's Scarlett is completely oblivious to Rhett's love and devotion, and she is similarly unaware and unappreciative of Melanie's friendly affection for her.
 * One of the main points of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is that Elizabeth thinks Mr. Darcy dislikes her (and she is angry at him, mostly due to misunderstanding) until he bluntly confesses that he is in love with her.
 * Similarly, in Sense and Sensibility, Marianne Dashwood has no idea that Colonel Brandon has been quietly and deeply in love with her since almost the instant they met.
 * In Josepha Sherman's The Shining Falcon, Ljuba intends to use Finist for her ambitions. She insists on this to herself whenever unpleasant thoughts such as it hurts not to be trusted by him.
 * In L. Jagi Lamplighter's Prospero's Daughter trilogy, Miranda. Although the one in love with her did explicitly tell her that love between her, a human, and him, an elf, is as impossible as love between a falcon and a dove.
 * Anne of L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series initially spends quite a bit of time hating Gilbert Blythe for his extraordinarily bad first impression, but even after they finally become friends, she remains completely oblivious to the feelings he's been holding for her from day one. When he asks her to marry him, it blindsides her completely. Never mind the fact that the entire town of Avonlea knew of Gilbert's feelings and were waiting with bated breath for them to get married.
 * Anne actually takes it one step further. Not only is she oblivious to Gilbert's feelings for her, she's also oblivious to her feelings for him. Not denial. She simply has no idea that she's fallen in love with him, thanks to the highly unrealistic ideas she has about what being in love is supposed to be like.
 * from The Mortal Instruments is a rather... odd example. Despite the fact that he and were dating, he is caught completely by surprise by . In his defense,
 * Mutual obliviousness in Mort. Mort himself spends most of the book under the impression he's in love with Princess Keli, what with the Rescue Romance and everything. He's wrong. Ysabell spends most of it under the impression she wouldn't marry Mort if he was the last man on the Disc. She's wrong as well.
 * In Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody mysteries, Amelia spends a whole book completely oblivious to the fact that the 'master criminal' she is tracking down is in love with her. Her husband Emerson, however, is not so clueless and gets increasingly annoyed at both the criminal and his oblivious wife. Hilarity ensues.
 * It runs in the family, too. Their son, Ramses, spends a not inconsiderable amount of time pining after their adopted daughter, Nefret, who thinks they are Like Brother and Sister.
 * As a perpetual child, Peter Pan is literally unable to understand the concept of romantic love, and regards all female characters either with indifference or as potential mother figures. This wouldn't be much of a problem...except that every female character, be it fairy, mermaid, girl or mother, is attracted to him in some way.
 * In PG Wodehouse's Hot Water, Packy sees Jane after his engagement is broken and realizes he's been in love with her all along.
 * In the tenth book of The Dresden Files, Harry fails to realize that Lucio is flirting with him when she bathes herself topless in front of him, which leads to this immortal line:

Live Action TV
"Amy: "I nearly died! I was alone, in the dark, and I nearly died. And it made me think." Doctor: "Ah, yes... Natural. I think sometimes. Well... lots of times." Amy: "About what I want. About who I want. You know what I mean?" Doctor: "Yeah. ...... No." Amy: "About who... I want." Doctor: "Oh right, yeah. ...... No. Still not getting it.""
 * Mr. Boynton is either shy or downright oblivious throughout the radio/television series Our Miss Brooks.
 * Sonia and Astrov in Uncle Vanya.
 * My So-Called Life: Angela is less oblivious to Brian as Brian never really tells her.
 * Unless you count the time
 * On the other hand, In other words, he was just as oblivious to Delia's crush as she was to his. Maybe even more so.
 * Seems to be the set up for Barney and Robin in How I Met Your Mother --
 * In season seven, it's Barney's turn to be the oblivious one.
 * Clark regarding Chloe's feelings for him in Smallville. But under the influence of Red Kryptonite or other forms of Phlebotinum, Kal-El repeatedly taunts her with the truth that Clark just doesn't feel that way for her.
 * Niles and Daphne started out this way on Frasier.
 * Ross and Rachel during the first season of Friends.
 * And the roles are reversed in the second season.
 * There are two examples of this in Season One of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Xander develops a huge crush on Buffy, who is oblivious to his advances, while he himself is unaware of Willow's feelings.
 * There are hints that Buffy is aware, just uninterested. Xander, on the other hand, is oblivious to Willow's feelings feelings for him.
 * In Season 5 Buffy is unaware of Spike falling for her despite their past Foe Yay and his recent Stalker with a Crush behaviour—it's her little sister Dawn who points out the obvious. Even then Buffy can't quite believe it until Spike's Anguished Declaration of Love.
 * In the Season 5 Angel episode "Smile Time," Wesley is the one who informs Angel that Nina obviously has feelings for him, all while ignoring the hints that Fred loves him. It takes a direct kiss from Fred for Wesley to notice, but he reciprocates quickly.
 * ...which makes sense, since a few seasons before he had been crushing on her. Oblivious Love Switcheroo?
 * Indeed. Wesley had made his try for Fred previously, got shot down in flames, and then had her hook up with one of his best friends. So he did the gentlemanly thing and stayed as far away from that as he could. Even after Fred and Gunn broke up Wesley would still be consciously disregarding any signals coming from her direction, as he'd believe they were just his own wishful thinking and not actually present. Fred finally has to just flat-out grab him and kiss him before he finally believes its real.
 * In Pushing Daisies, it was a while before Ned twigged that Olive had romantic feelings for him, despite some really blatant flirting on her part in the first episode.
 * A psychiatrist on Bones tells Dr. Sweets that only one of the Booth/Brennan pairing is aware of their mutual feelings. Since Booth is normally the best with emotions and has shown more signs of being possessive and jealous, we're left to assume that Brennan is the oblivious one. Entirely in keeping with her nature, though.
 * It is implied that this may partially be the cause of Mal and Inara's UST in Firefly, at least on Mal's side. The episode "Heart of Gold" very strongly indicates that while Mal is attracted to Inara, he is unaware she is attracted to him.
 * It's a fair enough assumption on his part. I mean, let's face it, is there anyone here who wouldn't be attracted to Inara? So it's natural for Mal to assume he's just one of many and she's basically as uninterested in him as she is in Jayne. Well, maybe not quite as uninterested as she is with Jayne, but - you get the idea!
 * It's very possible Mal is a rare male version of the Broken Bird variant of this trope, and despite his insults and Hypocritical Heartwarming doesn't think he's worthy of her. It's why her calling him a petty thief hurts his feelings so much.
 * Maxwell is completely oblivious to CC's crush on The Nanny.
 * Star Trek: Voyager. Commander Chakotay has subtly hinted a number of times to Captain Janeway that he's attracted to her; she's either oblivious, prefers loneliness to the problems of becoming involved with a subordinate, or may just be remaining faithful to her fiance.
 * And Kira is oblivious to Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
 * Word of God revealed that Bashir is oblivious to Garak.
 * It takes awhile for Worf to realize Jadzia is into him.
 * Picard is in industrial strength denial about his feelings for Lwaxana. Either that, or he genuinely isn't into her due to her sexual harassment levels of forwardness and her position as a powerful diplomat prevents him from telling her to go find someone else (in less diplomatic terms).
 * Forget Lwaxana, what about Beverly? It took an alien mind-linking device for her to realize how he felt. Not that it helped much.
 * Stargate Universe: Chloe at least acts like this for most of the first season, until the finale episode, where it's made clear she isn't quite oblivious as she appears.
 * The Doctor to Martha in Doctor Who. He describes to her a device that keeps them hidden from the hypnotised public to her as "It's like when you fancy someone, but they don't even know you exist." He rushes off, and Captain Jack reads her expression: "You too, huh?"
 * Taken Up to Eleven with the Eleventh Doctor at the end of Flesh and Stone.
 * Taken Up to Eleven with the Eleventh Doctor at the end of Flesh and Stone.

"Lola: Ginny, could you come here a minute? Ginny: What's up? Lola: 'Blank' is in love with Zoey. Fill in the blank. Ginny: (as though it were the most obvious answer in the world) Chase. Lola: Thanks for playing."
 * It goes the other way in "The Lodger", when the Doctor is able to immediately recognise the UST between two other characters who are both afraid to admit it out loud. This and other cues in the series suggest that he is aware of his companions' feelings, but ignores them to avoid relationship issues (or possibly just because he has issues).
 * Or perhaps he is only oblivious when it directly involves him.
 * He may deliberately suppress romantic attraction, since any human he gets involved with will age and eventually die, in what would appear to him to be no time at all. Avoiding being reminded of this might even be why most of his companions are young. (Which the Dream Lord enjoyed pointing out to him.)
 * Amy was oblivious to Rory for years, assuming he was gay when he never showed interest in any (other) girls.
 * And Rory was oblivious to the fact that Amy really loved him; originally, he assumed she was in love with the Doctor.
 * The X-Files. At the end of "Triangle" Mulder flat-out says "I love you" to Scully. Her only response is to mutter an exasperated "Oh brother" and walk off. Admittedly Mulder had just been raving about how he and Scully had just saved the world from the Nazis back in 1939, so Scully clearly felt Mulder had hit his head too hard, not realising it was actually a matter of her hitting Mulder too hard.
 * And it's not like he was really keeping it a secret before that. Several characters had mentioned it or assumed they were together.
 * Conversely, Doggett tends to be oblivious to Agent Reye's feelings for him.
 * Robin was more or less oblivious to Kate up until the time they got together - and then for most of the time after that as well.
 * On Parks and Recreation Andy is oblivious to April's crush on him.
 * As of Season 3,, but now it's Leslie who doesn't seem to notice Ben's growing crush on her.
 * Though by Season 3's "Soulmates", Leslie is the one who
 * On Zoey 101, Zoey is oblivious to Chase's feelings for her. This gets painful when it drags on for three years, despite multiple attempts by Chase to tell her his feelings. She's oblivious even after she is told flat-out by her friends that Chase is in love with her, and had been since he met her. Lola even goes so far as to pull a random student from the hallway. And Zoey still doesn't believe it!

"Castle: *Concerned* Beckett: *Angrily* Castle: *Angry*"
 * On iCarly, one of Zoey 101's spiritual successors, it's inverted, with Carly completely aware of Freddie's love for her. It's mentioned in their first scene together with Carly asking Freddie to get over the crush he has, but it fails to fade away, and as they grow up, his crush blooms into a serious case of Just Friends love for Carly.
 * Lizzie is completely oblivious to Gordo's feelings for her, despite him dropping quite a few hints throughout the show's run. Lizzie didn't get it until the final season when Kate got fed up with this trope and flat out told Lizzie that everyone else in the school knew Gordo liked her.
 * On Glee, Blaine had no clue that Kurt saw him as anything more than a friend. And Kurt's not exactly subtle when it comes to his crushes. It got to the point where (after helping Blaine serenade another guy on Valentine's Day), Kurt flat out told Blaine that he thought he was the one about to be swept off his feet. Blaine seemed plenty sympathetic... until the next episode, when he expected Kurt to be perfectly fine with him dating Rachel, and the one after that, where he tried to give Kurt sex advice and told him that his seductive faces looked like he had gas. Face Palm.
 * By "Original Song", he finally realized he had feelings for Kurt and snogged the hell out of him.
 * In season 3 Blaine is at it again, this time unaware that he has a Stalker with a Crush in the form of Sebastian.
 * On Castle, Beckett is guilty of this in the first season finale. Castle himself is guilty of this in the second season finale and again in the third season opener, when he can't understand why Beckett is so upset with him for not calling immediately when he got back into town. By season three's finale, neither one is oblivious anymore. It goes something like this:


 * In the last scenes of the third season finale
 * Leave it to a show like Castle to make the drama even cheesier.
 * Sergeant Bruce Hornsby is completely oblivious to Corporal Angie Ogden's interest in Red Cap.

Music

 * "Everybody Knows (Except You)" - The Divine Comedy
 * "Shiver" - Coldplay ("it's you / I see / but you don't see me")
 * "3 Libras" by A Perfect Circle implies this trope.
 * "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift

Theatre
"Le Bret: Your courage and your wit! — The little maid Who offered you refreshment even now, Her eyes did not abhor you—you saw well! Cyrano (impressed): True!"
 * Anne in A Little Night Music is not only oblivious to her awkward stepson's feelings for her, but also to her own feelings about him, which
 * In Les Misérables, depending on the actor, Marius can sometimes come off as quite a bit thick in the head about this with Eponine.
 * In The Sound of Music, Maria has absolutely no clue the Captain is in love with her until the Baroness (for her own ends, of course) points it out. This is possibly because Maria has spent too much time in a convent. A moral crisis immediately ensues, which the Reverend Mother very nicely clears up.
 * Cyrano De Bergerac:
 * Cyrano uses Selective Obliviousness to refuse to comprehend that he can be loved even with his enormous nose. At Act I Scene V, Le Bret has to remind him of the Smitten Teenage Girl Cyrano meet some moments ago. At Act IV Scene IX, Christian stubbornly tries to convince him that Roxane loves his “soul” – Cyrano – instead of his face. Cyrano will not believe it. Justified because Cyrano has serious Mommy Issues and his upbringing makes him more confortable being the Love Martyr.


 * Through Act II to Act V, Roxane uses Selective Obliviousness to refuse to comprehend that Cyrano, his Unlucky Childhood Friend who always do everything she asks him and whom has been to his side every Saturday without fault for the last fifteen years could want to be more than be Just Friends. Justified again because she is the Insane Avatar of a Romance Novel Heroine, who longs to be the Mad Bride of a guy who was fair and witty.
 * In Seussical, Horton is unaware of Gertrude's crush on him, even when she sings a song about it straight at him (he's too busy talking to Whos)..

Video Games
"Meilin: You know, Ark...I have stories to tell, too. Ark: Look! This is Elle's house!"
 * In MARDEK RPG, Chapter 3, Elwyen is obviously head-over-heels for Mardek, but Mardek doesn't notice because he's a moron. See quote above.
 * In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Big Boss is very oblivious to Ocelot's infatuation with him. EVA, being a Yaoi Fangirl, teases him about how dense he is about it. Even Gene from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops remarks on how Big Boss "caught Ocelot's eye," prompting Big Boss to ask confusedly what Ocelot has to do with anything. Of course, Big Boss (and others who share his genes) isn't known for being the brightest when it comes to romance...
 * Milanor from Yggdra Union has no idea that Kylier has feelings for him.
 * Depending on your choices in Neverwinter Nights, Aribeth may lament at the end that she never noticed how the player character felt about her until it was too late.
 * Fire Emblem loves this trope with its lords. Both Roy from Fuuin no Tsurugi and Ephraim from The Sacred Stones are fairly oblivious to the affection of their various possible love interests. Ike from Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, however, takes this obliviousness to entirely new levels and never quite gets it despite all the women who have expressed interest in him. There are, of course, other explanations.
 * Marth from Shadow Dragon is a prime example, as shown by this Awkward Zombie comic
 * Played as a game mechanic in Pokémon; some Mons have the trait Oblivious, which prevents the "infatuated" status condition. It's mostly held by dim-witted Pokémon, like Slowpoke and Whiscash.
 * Link in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is completely unaware of the fact that Princess Ruto believes them to be engaged. Of course, he's completely unaware of the interest of just about every other female character in the game too.
 * We don't really know that because Link is a silent protagonist.
 * He's not much more observant in Twilight Princess, either, where both childhood pal Ilia and pint-sized Deadpan Snarker Midna have a thing for him. The closest he gets to catching on with anyone is when he shares a brief hand-holding scene with Princess Zelda...and she doesn't seem to have any real romantic feelings for him in this game.
 * What.
 * But then, that doesn't necessitate romance. TP Link is probably less oblivious than his Oo T incarnation, however (But considering he was mentally a 10 year old, this is not surprising).
 * Wind Waker Link seems to be a bit less of an idiot, which may make sense, as he's the first Link (in that timeline) to have actually seen normal, functioning couples, and returns Tetra/'s affection about as well as a Heroic Mime can. And one could argue that Link not only knows about Ilia (and/or Midna's) feelings, but even reciprocates them. After all, the guy lets a royally important trip get interrupted (and gives the plot time to start) because the girl is mad at him for scratching the horse's leg. Sounds pretty whipped to me. On the Midna end of the spectrum, he.
 * In the Backyard Sports series, Marky Dubois is in love with Billy Jean Blackwood. Billy Jean is oblivious to Marky because she believes he has cooties.
 * Terranigma has Meilin, who eventually decides that she's in love with Ark. She then proceeds to make overtures to him, only to get (albeit amusingly) shot down because Ark is too busy worrying about Elle.

"Smuggler: (to Risha): Oh, I've got a Jedi and a Sith fighting over me, but I only have eyes for you. Jedi: Nothing you say makes any sense. Sith woman: Poor girl, she's never been kissed."
 * Fairly common in the Tales (series) with the main protagonist. In Tales of Symphonia, Sheena practically confesses her feelings to Lloyd in one possible scene, and he doesn't realize it. In Tales of the Abyss, Tear falls in love with Luke, and he's the only character in the party that doesn't pick up on it (which is saying something since one of the characters, Anise, actually appears to be dumber then Luke for the most part). A similar thing occurs in Tales of Legendia, with Chloe having a crush on Senel (which even the game's big idiot Norma notices). Senel at least picks up on Shirly's crush for him. In Tales of Phantasia, this is largely averted; none of the characters have too much difficulty recognizing each other's affections, but just about all of them refuse to assert themselves romantically before the last act of the game, probably because most of them are teenagers.
 * While Senel from Tales of Legendia is pretty dense, it's implied that he doesn't want to to recognize those kinds of feelings due to his rather troubled past.
 * Continued in Tales of Vesperia with Karol, towards Nan. Hammered home when she's his final foe in the 100-Man Melee - Nan explicitly says that she can't have the man she marries be weak. Karol, being too young and too stupid to know better, then asks why she's attacking him, then. Cue standard Tsundere reaction.
 * Karol actually does like Nan; thats why hey was so eager to get her attention at the begining of the game.
 * Pascal of Tales of Graces might be the Most Triumphant Example in the whole series. When Hubert flat-out tells her that he likes her, she misinterprets it as him telling her that he's getting married. She solemnly promises him that she'll be at the wedding, and will take a bath with soap as well. He slinks off, defeated.
 * If Shepard woos Tali in Mass Effect 2, she'll confess that she's been in love with him since the first game. Since she ultimately wasn't intended to be a love interest, she obviously didn't drop any hints of her feelings during the first game. Then again, Shepard is the point of view character.
 * Also, Friend Zone Turian is pretty obviously into the quarian on Ilium, but she has so far failed to notice.
 * Until the end of that conversation, anyway... there had to be a reason for her mentioning her "nerve stimulation package" - aside from Fan Service, anyway.
 * In Tales of Monkey Island, Guybrush is oblivious to Morgan's feelings for him, especially noticeable in Chapter Three when they talk about how to calm the female manatee. Of course, this is due in large part to his unbreakable devotion to Elaine. (Even though he was more of a flirt in Escape From Monkey Island)
 * Miles Edgeworth in the Ace Attorney series seems to be entirely unaware of the frothing masses of fangirls he has, let alone when females develop obvious crushes on him.
 * Although he is all too aware of Oldbag's affection to him. Needless to say, it squicked him out.
 * Lampshaded in Trials and Tribulations, when Gumshoe suggests that maybe the suspect (who Edgey vaguely recognised) was an ex who he forgot. His reaction? Genuine surprise, along with the genius line: "D-Do I really inspire this sort of frothing desire from the female masses?" Yes, Edgeworth, yes you do.
 * Cloud in Final Fantasy VII is officially unaware either Aerith or Tifa have feelings for him while both are alive.
 * Add in the fact that Cloud himself was unaware he had feelings for Tifa until the Lifestream event.
 * Until the Lifestream event, he's To say that Cloud's mind was not ready to even recognize romantic feelings is an understatement.
 * Chrodechild from Suikoden Tierkreis remains oblivious to Asad's affection to her. Poor guy.
 * In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Hammer makes hints about having feelings for Yoko, but she never picks up on them, mistakenly thinking that he's "glaring" at her when he looks her way.
 * Akihiko Sanada of Persona 3 "seems to be completely incapable of recognizing female emotion," as the PSP version of the game states. He honestly has no idea why all those girls follow him around, and is similarly oblivious to the advances of the female protagonist if she pursues a relationship with him. He's not that great at understanding his own feelings, either; at the culmination of his Romance Sidequest, the protagonist herself must flat-out tell him that the feelings he just described having mean he's in love with her. This despite the fact that, if he is in the party during the July Full Moon event, he comes close to actually having sex with her under the Shadow's influence.
 * Hilariously, it seems like Akihiko is just the Cool Loner type, until the inevitable Beach Episode, where you discover that he is completely and totally useless in romantic situations.
 * Although really that's a component, albeit a large one, of the fact that he has the social skills of a brick; a result of having a grand total of one friend, himself a Cool Loner, for the first fifteen years of his life and having no time for anyone less dedicated than him.
 * Mitsuru provides a female example, as while she is slightly more in tune to emotions than Akihiko she still seems rather oblivious to the sheer amount of people of both genders who have crushes on her. For an extra bonus, her and Akihiko definetly have some sort of romantic tension but are too oblivious to actually act on it.
 * Hiroki in Canvas 2. Seven love interests and multiple students gunning for him and he's unaware of all of them.
 * Aveline in Dragon Age II is completely oblivious to Hawke's advances during her romance quest chain, even though he/she flat out says it at one point.
 * Merrill of the same game is incapable of picking up on the advances of Hawke's brother, Carver.
 * As the player, you can also chose to have Hawke be oblivious to Merrill's obvious infatuation with Hawke, you know, if you're a heartless bastard.
 * Kyoko in Kara no Shoujo is completely unaware of Uozumi's affections for her. It seems at first like Reiji is similarly oblivious to Kyoko, but it turns out to be a subversion.
 * In the Tokimeki Memorial series, the main protagonist suffering a terminal case of this trope is a tradition. Every single one of them (be they a boy or a girl) is affected by this, but the severity of it depends from game to game. One of the worst is the protagonist of Tokimeki Memorial 2: every single main heroine, and both of his male best friends Lampshade his total obliviousness at one point or another in the saga, and even several minor characters do it as well.
 * Raz during the first half of Psychonauts is a bit like this.
 * Heck, after, he spends the rest of the cutscene trying to comprehend what she was saying.
 * Played for laughs in the Smuggler questline on Tatooine in Star Wars: The Old Republic with a female jedi who is completely oblivious to any flirting done by the smuggler, leading to this possible gem in the storyline climax:

Visual Novels

 * This really doesn't help Tsukihime's Shiki out when you combine it with the Tohno Gland and penchant for attracting only people with superpowers or are dangerously crazy. By Kagetsu Tohya he seems to be at least a little aware, going out of his way to keep people like Ciel in his wanted harem focused on him. But still clueless to a baffling extent when you consider the six people in love with him in that story that he doesn't recognize at all.

Some of those are justified, though. Akiha is his sister, Hisui has a crippling fear of men and acts quite cold, and he doesn't think Arcueid, being a vampire, is even capable of love like a human is. And to his credit, he does clear these up faster than most characters.
 * Shirou in Fate/stay night remains comically (or tragically, depending on your point of view) oblivious to Sakura's advances and obvious interest in him for many years. While he does find her attractive, all he wonders is whether or not this makes him a failure as a sempai, combined with the fact that she is the sister of one of his friends.
 * In Kanon, Yuuichi has been doing this regarding Nayuki's feelings for seven years straight.
 * Masayuki looks this way in Miku's route in A Profile. To be fair, Miku gives off really strange signals, including denying it point blank when asked.
 * In Lux-Pain, Akira is oblivious to romance in general and just doesn't seem to catch on to who has a crush on who. Unless you tell him straight out that this person likes someone else, he's not going to catch it. The best example is the guy Inugaku who has a huge, obvious crush on his dad. has to tell him outright that he's gay in order for Akira to understand...and that sends him into a humorous state of shock that doesn't last long.
 * A more serious example is when  calls him out on this trope technically and calls him a Jerk Jock that enjoys the women flocking to him and breaking their hearts. Naturally, Akira snaps only because Atsuki was standing right there when   said that.
 * And of course, there's Akira's other friend Ryo who is also oblivious of affection from both the girls that constantly visit his store just to see him (and not buy books, which pisses him off) and his best friend Hibiki and like Akira above, it has to be spelled out to him in order for him to understand. Only difference is that the person who asks him if Hibiki and him are going out is a Yaoi Fangirl and Hibiki isn't going to say anything.
 * In One: Kagayaku Kisetsu e Kouhei can't understand why Nanase is disappointed when he takes her to cheap Ramen restaurant to try this new ramen, even though she is wearing an expensive dress and its Christmas Eve, in Japan, a Holiday for Couples.

Webcomics

 * The entirely one-way drama plays out in A Moment of Peace. Crux, god of In-Between Places, is completely oblivious to the fact that the goddess of Stories has been crushing on him ever since they started talking at the base of Dawn Mountain.
 * Justin in El Goonish Shive has had a deep crush on Elliot for years, which at least one other character knows and several others may suspect, but Elliot himself has never picked up on it. Elliot himself pretended to be oblivious to Sarah's flirtations so she wouldn't feel 'rejected' when finding out he already had a girlfriend. Yeah ... It Makes Sense in Context ... or at least in his own mind. (His girlfriend dumped him, came out as a lesbian, and started dating his twin sister / Opposite Sex Clone, Ellen. He and Sarah are now dating.)
 * Mr. Verres, knowing there's a lot of Human-Uryuom offspring, managed to miss why his Uryuom secretary constantly wears a very female human form and likes to sit on his table. Though he is pretty smart (otherwise Lavender wouldn't be attracted, for one).
 * On the other hand, it's not yet known what's going on with his last wife - Verres may be deliberately ignoring her. It's very heavily implied that she neither loves him nor their son any more (at least by Tedd's viewpoint), and it's also implied that she may be an immortal (magical being from another plane of existence) or at least an elf (human-immortal hybrid that shares the distinctive pointed ears of immortals). It's confusing in that, aside from androgyny, Tedd doesn't seem to share any traits immortals do... though this troper can't remember ever seeing his ears, at least not in his standard form.
 * Jossed on the elf theory, this comic confirms that half-immortals can't have children.
 * In Schlock Mercenary, Lt. Elf had a major crush on Captain Tagon, a crush that was obvious to every member of the crew except Tagon. (Pretty much every attempt by Elf to broach the subject was interpreted by the one-track minded - and occasionally stunningly dense - Tagon as referring to their current mercenary job). She eventually gives up on Tagon and hooks up with Second-In-Command and company Mad Scientist, Kevyn.
 * In Corner Alley 13, Noelle fails to realize that Tsac has feelings for her.
 * Elan, who is a Genre Savvy mix of The Ditz, Spoony Bard and Cloudcuckoolander from The Order of the Stick, takes hundreds of strips, and dozens of hints, to finally reciprocate Haley's feelings.
 * Although oddly, in the prequel book, he guesses/teases her with the idea shortly after they meet, clearly flustering her. Then he sees something shiny or something...
 * Andrew Smith of Gunnerkrigg Court is an interesting case. He puts up with Parley because she's "hotter than hell", but manages to mistake her constant Tsundere-style signs of affection for mockery. Then two strangers told him straight. Then she reacted on giving her a flower (a teacher set him up) by . And starts to spontaneously teleport close to him several times per week. And he still was in the deep stunned surprise when she confessed.
 * Hank in Catena is absolutely clueless about the fact that Treiss has a crush on him. Bear also seems to be rather oblivious to Ivy's attraction to him, although to be fair, Ivy herself didn't seem to be aware of it until she noticed him paying attention to other females.
 * Out There: Sherry is so very much oblivious to Ari's attraction to her, she thinks that since Ari looks at her differently than she looks at Miriam, it means Ari's attracted to… Miriam. Meanwhile, Miriam, who has decided she's attracted to Ari, can't get Ari to realize it; Ari thinks she has embarrassed Miriam by offering her menial work.
 * Megatokyo: The whole school has known about it for years.
 * Vriska Serket from Homestuck had no honest idea that her Moirail, Kanaya, was in love with her. In fact, she thought that Kanaya had a crush on Tavros, the object of Vriska's (hate-filled) affection. There's also another moment where Karkat opens a memo, invites John and Dave into it, and starts ripping into them about 'flirting' with Vriska and Terezi. Cue John being thoroughly confused.
 * John is amazingly dense when it comes to this.
 * ZigZagged with Jake.
 * Squid Row Mouse.
 * Bobwhite. Ben is the last person to figure out that Cleo has a major crush on him.
 * In Shinigami Death Punch, Purple remains completely oblivious to White's feelings despite increasingly obvious signs. He's also oblivious to Blue's blatant come-ons, a source of eternal frustration for White.
 * In Candi, the only member of the cast not aware of Jon's feelings towards Candi (up to and including his (now ex-)girlfriend) is Candi. Complicating things is the fact that Candi gets weirdly skittish when being romantically, so Jon fears that if he confesses his feelings, it will wreck their friendship just as surely as a romance gone sour.

Web Original

 * Harry to Ginny in A Very Potter Musical to the point that he tests out a love song for another girl by singing it to Ginny; the result is a Crowning Moment of Funny.
 * The relationship between Marik and Yami Bakura/Florence in Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series could be seen as this, in an entirely non-serious way (of course). Marik is implied to be gay but oblivious to it throughout the series, and completely fails to understand when Bakura hits on him, leading to many sarcastic comments on Bakura's end. Then, out of nowhere in a bonus video, when Marik is trying to get Bakura to sing Come Sail Away by Styx by offering him things like killing Yugi and giving him his Millenium Rod, he suddenly says "What if I told you I loved you?" Cue shock from Bakura. Then they sing together to the end of the episode. It's actually kind of adorable.

Western Animation
"Abe: ...I see."
 * Happened to an absurd amount in Clone High, with Abe completely oblivious to Joan's feelings

"Colleen: "Not exactly what I had in mind.""
 * In Thundarr the Barbarian, Ariel is clearly in love with the titular barbarian and he has no idea whatsoever. His reactions to her are strictly due to friendship (and chauvinism).
 * This is how Peter and Gwen's relationship started out in The Spectacular Spider-Man. They've wandered into Cannot Spit It Out territory now, though.
 * Helga on Hey Arnold! was deeply in love with Arnold but could only express it through insults until The Movie.
 * In the final episode of Braceface, Sharon is oblivious to Alden's feelings for her to the point where it's ridiculous.
 * Road Rovers: Hunter, it is hinted at throughout the series, but in the last episode it is made quite obvious that Colleen has a crush on Hunter. She asks him if he would like to go for walk on beach to which he responds with an enthusiastic "You bet!" Cut to Hunter as a regular dog with Colleen holding his leash.

"Danny: This is Clueless 1. Why am I Clueless 1? Tucker: (To Sam) Tell him. Sam: (To Tucker) Shut up."
 * On Phineas and Ferb, Phineas manages to remain completely oblivious to Isabella's feelings for him. It's a particularly bad case, since Isabella is not particularly subtle about her crush.
 * For example, she once does [[media:Phinbella Moment 5.jpg|this]]. He still doesn't get it.
 * Turned Up to Eleven in the "Summer Belongs to You" double-length episode, where Phineas can notice the obvious attraction of all the OTHER couples around him, but the notion of him going on a romantic date with Isabella, in Paris, shortly after she finishes singing an adorable song about her affections (In a show known for leaning on the fourth wall) is completely alien to him, causing Isabella to grow increasingly aggravated.
 * And causes her head to explode. In her mind, thank goodness.
 * However, the movie showed he might not be so oblivious when.
 * Gadget Hackwrench of Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers manages to be amazingly oblivious to the advances of not one, but two characters; both Chip and Dale.
 * Danny Phantom remained completely oblivious to the affection of his best friend Sam until the final episode. This was to the point where everyone else, including Danny's Rogues Gallery, knew about it.

"Kid Green Lantern: (to an oblivious Kid Superman) Man, for somebody with, like, fifty different kinds of vision, you are so blind. Kid Superman: ... what?"
 * On Jimmy Two-Shoes, the main character doesn't realize that Heloise harbors a huge crush on him. And she's not exactly subtle about it either.
 * AT one point, she wonders why she likes him.
 * The Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack Skellington, thy name is clueless—though to be fair, the only overt gesture Sally makes is explained by the fact that they're friends. And he catches on eventually.
 * Tommy on Robotboy, to Lola. Like most examples, Lola's not subtle about it...
 * Scooby Doo: In keeping with Freddy's usual personality traits (that is, when he's given personality traits at all), he's shown in Scooby Doo Mystery Inc to be just as dumb and naive about romance as he is about most everything else (except for traps). Daphne practically throws herself at him, and he's completely clueless.
 * Perhaps subverted in episode 24. They finally kiss and Fred apparently proposes to Daphne, although his phrasing is either a metaphor for marriage or a certification for van seating arrangements (Daphne and/or Velma are always riding shotgun).
 * In Mystery Inc, Shaggy is equally clueless about Velma's feelings.
 * Kappa Mikey had this from Mikey to Suki.
 * In The Boondocks, it is hinted that Jazmine has a crush on Huey. However, Huey seems to be oblivious to her feelings due to him focusing on social and political issues.
 * In Kim Possible, Ron apparently never realized that Tara or Yori liked him.
 * In Swat Kats, Jake/Razor doesn't seem to realize Callie's feelings towards him.
 * Lampshaded in Justice League Unlimited, in the episode "Kid's Stuff" where Green Lantern, Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman are changed into kids. During the episode Wonder Woman is clearly showing her attraction to Batman, who seems to be too embarrassed to acknowledge it, where as Superman is completely oblivious to this

"Homer: Oh, that's hot. There isn't a man alive who wouldn't get turned on by that. (stands up) Well, goodbye!"
 * In the Earthworm Jim TV series, it's uncertain if Princess Whats-Her-Name is this due to her childhood as a self-taught rebel against her evil tyrant of a sister, or if she reacts with a confusion (and a hint of irritation) whenever Jim goes on about their relationship because she isn't into him in that way, never gave him any sign that she was interested, and he basically keeps on insisting they are boyfriend and girlfriend because he's basically a Cloudcuckoolander.
 * The titular character of Yam Roll is oblivious to any gestures that aren't from Minamiko, who happens to only be oblivious to romantic gestures from him.
 * In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, it's possible that Rarity knows Spike has a crush on her, considering he's not very subtle about it. If she does know, she's being nice about it and hasn't outright rejected him, even when she was pursuing a different guy entirely. If she doesn't know... well, let's just say at one point he wore an "I <3 Rarity" shirt.
 * At the end of "Secret of My Excess", when.
 * In The Simpsons episode "Colonel Homer", Homer becomes the manager of an upcoming country singer, Lurleen Lumpkin. He fails to notice that Lurleen is in love with him, even when she invites him to her trailer, and sings the highly suggestive song "Bunk with me Tonight" for him: