7,848
edits
Oblivious to Love/Anime and Manga: Difference between revisions
Oblivious to Love/Anime and Manga (view source)
Revision as of 09:46, 12 November 2023
, 6 months agono edit summary
Goo Monster (talk | contribs) mNo edit summary |
HLIAA14YOG (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
| (7 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}[[File:159496-37 large 5714.jpg|link=Dragon Ball|frame|This guy right here thought [[Childhood Marriage Promise|marriage]] was [[Is It Something You Eat?|something to eat.]]]]Examples of [[{{
* The ''[[How clumsy you are, Miss Ueno.]]'' character Tanaka is so blind to obvious clues it's almost supernatural. In fact calling some of the stuff he misses "clues" is a little charitable to Tanaka. Oddly enough, Ueno find's Tanaka's obliviousness not only frustrating, but attractive.
Line 9:
** 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 {{spoiler|([[Yaoi Guys|Yukito Loves Tohya]])}} when {{spoiler|Yukito}} said that he had
***** 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.
* The [[Fourth Wall Mail Slot|Megami Sound Stages]] of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (anime)|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, [[May–December Romance|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 [[Shrinking Violet|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
*** 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. {{spoiler|However, now she isn't interested anymore after [[The Unfettered|he attempted to kill her.]]}}
*** With Sasuke, it's more that he's aware of said girls being attracted to him, but [[Celibate Hero|doesn't care]].
Line 32:
*** By this point, the relationship has more or less inverted; Konoka obviously likes Setsuna in ''[[Schoolgirl Lesbians|that way]]'', but Setsuna is still stuck in "[[Bodyguard Crush|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.
** {{spoiler|And
* 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 Friends|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).
Line 38:
* 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 [[Unlucky Childhood Friend|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 Can See It|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 [[Too Dumb to Live|he still. Doesn't. Get it.]]
* Himawari from ''[[
** 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 [[Locked Out of the Loop|everyone else in the series knowing about it]].
Line 44:
** 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 [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|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.
Line 51:
'''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! 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? }}
* ''[[Allison and Lillia]]'':
** Wilhelm Schultz
** In the second half, Allison's daughter Lillia can also be like this, though it's exacerbated by the fact that the people around her [[Locked Out of the Loop|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 [[Romantic Two-Girl Friendship|crush on Hiro]]—even when Sae goes into a barely concealed fit of jealousy when Hiro [[Love Letter Lunacy|gets a love letter from a boy]].
Line 60 ⟶ 61:
** 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 [[Not a Date|missions]] with her if paid by her father, who is trying to invoke [[Bodyguard Crush]] on him.
* In the [[Girls Love]] [[Manga]]
** 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.
Line 73 ⟶ 74:
* 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
* 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 ''[[Everyone Can See It|entire cast]]'' calling them out on their [[
* 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 [[Cannot Spit It Out|says anything outright,]] Ryuji is oblivious. So is the rest of the cast...
Line 80 ⟶ 81:
* 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 [[Idiot Hero|Monkey D. Luffy]], yet is too shy to say it outright. He has no idea whatsoever.
**
**
** 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. [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Or perhaps he does know]] but doesn't want to embarass/encourage her.
* [[The Ojou|Bijou]] from ''[[Hamtaro]]'' has a crush on [[Idiot Hero|the title character]], who thinks of her as being just another member of his [[True Companions|family of friends]], while not noticing [[No Social Skills|Boss's]] [[Cannot Spit It Out|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 [[The Stoic|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
** 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 [[Kämpfer/WMG|master plan...]]
Line 96 ⟶ 97:
* [[Moe Anthropomorphism|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 [[Tsundere]]ness 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
* 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 Ensues|Hilarity]] and [[Poor Communication Kills|misunderstandings ensue]], of course.
* Kyoko from ''[[Skip Beat!]]'', especially toward [[Dogged Nice Guy|Ren]]. Justified because after Sho dumped her she gave up love and killed that area of her brain, vowing [[Woman Scorned|revenge]].
* Seiji in ''[[Midori Days]]''. Dear God, Seiji. He ends up with three (four if you count his [[Precocious Crush|neighbor's daughter]]) women and
* 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. {{spoiler|That is, until Fumi finally confesses to her}}.
* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|Edward Elric]] towards [[Wrench Wench|Winry]] in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|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. {{spoiler|He finally gets over it at the end of the manga, complete with a [[Wacky Marriage Proposal]] to Winry.}}
* 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. {{spoiler|Madarme's sarcastic suggestion that Kousaka just kiss her and get the whole [[Will They or Won't They?]] subplot over with was genuinely the first time he had any idea she'd actually go along with such a proposal.}}
* ''[[Gankutsuou]]'': Albert was completely oblivious of [[Ho Yay|Franz's feelings for him]]. It helped that Franz kept his feelings a secret from everyone.
Line 109 ⟶ 110:
* ''[[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 {{spoiler|the jealousy he felt when she flirted with a magician was just a leader's ''concern'' for his follower.}} 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. {{spoiler|This turned out to be a good thing, as he arrived just in time to help KO two murderers who got the drop on everyone else.}} When he asked who it was and Sonoko pointed at him, he turned around to look behind him. Granted, Makoto [[Not Good with People|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
* ''[[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 [[Played for Laughs|comedy]]. Even her one, single
* 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 [[Moe Moe|Momoka]] [[Split Personality|Nishizawa]] has on him. Much to her endless frustration.
* [[
* [[Infinite Stratos|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 (trope)|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. [[
** Not to mention how [[Deconstructed|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 {{spoiler|even though he himself had a growing attraction to Casca at the time but refused to acknowledge their relationship as anything other than "[[Just Friends|friends]]"}} and wished the both of them happiness after he was gone [[
** 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|Jubei-Chan: Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch'']].
* [[Gender Bender|Kou]] [[Hopeless Suitor|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 [[Bus Crash|hasn't been responding to any of her letters]] {{spoiler|since he was dead, but she doesn't know it}}. Seiya concludes that Usagi's boyfriend has [[The Unfair Sex|dumped her]]; Usagi [[Stepford Smiler|convinces herself]] that he's just working hard, and thus remains [[Selective Obliviousness|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 {{spoiler|Lenolora}} 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 [[Heroic BSOD|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 ''[[Triang Relations|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, ''[[What an Idiot!|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.
Line 137 ⟶ 138:
* {{spoiler|Keiichi}} of Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni was completely unaware of {{spoiler|Mion}}'s true personality, ''let alone'' {{spoiler|her}} huge crush on {{spoiler|him}}. {{spoiler|His}} ignorance is revealed to be the trigger {{spoiler|(he gives a doll he won to Rena, instead of Mion) for the bloodiest murders in the series}}.
* In ''[[Iris Zero]]'', Toru is oblivious to Sasamori's growing feelings for him. {{spoiler|Though in chapter 27, Asahi calls Toru out on pretending to not notice Sasamori's feelings. Toru is only pretending to be oblivious because he is afraid of upsetting the uneasy balance in his newfound circle of friends.}}
* Debatable example with Lelouch in ''[[Code Geass]]''. [[Everyone Can See It|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 [[Magnificent Bastard|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 [[Big Brother Instinct|ambiguous]] [[Incest Subtext|love]] for his sister, and later because he was preoccupied with running a terrorist/freedom fighter network.
* Zigzagged by Kanie Seiya in ''Amagi Brilliant Park'', when Sento Isuzu is trying to conceal her [[Love Epiphany|recent realization that she has feelings for him]] ... and she's been dosed with a magical "[[Truth Serums|Heartsleeve Fruit]]" that makes her inclined to babble detailed truthful remarks. Seiya '''does''' grasp what she's [[Head Desk|fighting]] '''not''' to say, and he notes privately that the thought makes '''his''' heart beat faster. Reciprocating would cause other problems, though, so he does his best to [[Obfuscating Stupidity|pretend]] that he hasn't realized.
{{tropesubpagefooter}}
| |||