Ferris Wheel Date Moment

Love is in the air...

"You'll never know how great a kiss can feel,
'til we stop at the top of a Ferris Wheel..."

— Palisades Park, Freddy Cannon

No date at the Amusement Park, whether planned or unplanned, "Just the two of us" or "Let's all go together", is complete without a ride on the Ferris Wheel. In most Shoujo animes with such a date, the Ferris Wheel is the replacement for the often cliché Tunnel of Love: the cars only seat two people at a time, are perfectly private with no chance for interruptions, provide a romantic view of the city and amusement park lights, and encourage that now or never moment for the couple to share their feelings for each other.

The scenes are easily predictable, based upon the viewers' current knowledge of the characters and plot from previous episodes/chapters. Some recurring examples:

• Often times, the less-forward of the two will say something to the effect of "Actually, there's one more I wanted to ride, if that's okay with you." Cue the Luminescent Blush, Shy Finger-Twiddling, and the shy loss of eye contact.
• One can expect, since the situation calls for it, that the Ferris Wheel is the last ride for the couple in the episode.
• Stereotypically, the female in the car has acrophobia.
• Following the previous or not, a sudden jerk by the wind or a technical glitch in the system causes her to cling to him in a rather adorable way.
• May even lead to the couple's First Kiss, unless of course the aforementioned sudden jerk says otherwise.
• If anyone is trying to spy on one or both of them, inevitably he/she drags someone else with them, and any of the aforementioned points above may occur to this pair as well.

See also Tunnel of Love for another iconic carnival date moment.

Not to be confused with the Ferris Wheel of Doom, or eating a date while on a ferris wheel.

Be advised! This trope generally occurs at the end of an episode/chapter/series and may spoil a Relationship Upgrade or Happily Ever After for you!

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: All of Rentarou's amusement park dates have included one of these.
  • His first date with Nano in Chapter 7, where she first shows her fear of heights.
  • On his date with Yaku and Kishika in Chapter 105, which makes the latter thinks of rocking back and forth in a cradle.
  • The adult theme park he and Chiyo visit in Chapter 126 has a Ferris wheel, which include pink mood lighting.
• In chapter 3 of Ah... and Mm... Are All She Says, manga artist Toda and her editor Tanaka go to an amusement park to take reference photos of the inside of the Ferris wheel car, where her characters have sex. Toda goes so far as to re-enact the scene with Tanaka, partially stripping and climbing on top of her for a photo.
• Akikan!!: Najimi takes Kakeru up on the Ferris Wheel at the water park in episode 8. Her affection is clearly one-sided, however, and a lot of the moment is made possible, and then ruined, by Kakeru's sleepiness. Also, Played for Laughs, Kochikaze and Amaji ride it to spy on the former pair.
• Ganta Igarashi promises to take Shiro on one of these in Deadman Wonderland at the end of the Scar Chain arc. He keeps this promise, but what happens probably wasn't what he had in mind.
• Dengeki Daisy: Kurosaki and Teru attempt to have one in Chapter 33 but that goes horribly wrong. Then in Chapter 68 they finally have a real date on the Ferris Wheel and Kurosaki confesses his love for Teru
• Future Diary has one of these. It's when Yukiteru Amano begins to genuinely return Yuno Gasai's feelings for him. Too bad that same night doesn't end nearly as well as the day itself went...
• Great Teacher Onizuka: Urumi drags Onizuka out on a date and tries to kiss Onizuka, but he's too honorable to go through with it, wherein he knocks himself unconscious.
• GTO: The Early Years: Ryuji and Nagisa go on a date to an amusement park, and he tries to get handsy in the Ferris wheel, to her annoyance. Later he hides under the seat when she goes on a date to the same place with someone else, but overhears her gently reject him and say she's happy with Ryuji. Afterwards, Ryuji shows up outside the ride and offers to go on it with her one more time.
• Hajiotsu plays with this. Kai and Himari are at the amusement park for a date and do pick the ferris wheel at the end of the day. But Himari is too nervous and slow to get into the carriage in time, she ends up getting into the next one.
• Haruka Nogizaka's Secret: Purezza: Classic example in episode 9 on the Ferris Wheel shown above, with the interruption being a phone call from Haruka's annoying little sister.
• Hitomi-chan Is Shy with Strangers: Invoked by Kaoru and Angelica at the amusement park. They put Yuu and Hitomi in a car together and send them up, but Yuu is afraid of heights. Hitomi manages to calm him down, and it looks like they're about to kiss...then the wheel starts moving again, and Angelica and Kaoru appear in the next car.
• Played with in I Am Here!. Hikage goes on a date with Hinata at an amusement park, but it's Teru who she shares a ferris wheel moment with to cheer him up.
• Several chapters of Inside Mari revolve around Yori and Mari going to an amusement park to trigger memories of Mari's. Most of it comes off as cute and romantic however the actual ferris wheel ride does invoke memories. Mari ends up becoming catatonic due to remembering the memories.
• Kamisama Kiss features one between Tomoe and Nanami, though considering the nature of their relationship, it is a little more conflict driven than other examples.
• In the first episode of Koi Kaze, Koshiro and Nanoka go to an amusement park together. They ride the ferris wheel, and have a conversation that leads to them feeling a very strong connection. This was before they knew that they were siblings.
• Liar and the Ferris Wheel is an oneshot about two girls that go on a date to the amusement park. It mainly takes place on the ferris wheel, obviously. The "liar" part comes from the fact one of them is pretending to be a boy.
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: In the anime, Kaito and Lucia have a moment like this that ends in jumping out of the ferris wheel car.
• My Lovely Ghost Kana: In Chapter 9 Daikichi and Kana go on a date to the amusement park, now that she can leave the apartment building. They save the Ferris wheel for the very end, and share a beautiful view of the ocean from the car.
• In My Monster Secret, Asahi and Youko end up riding the Ferris wheel the second time they visit the local amusement park^note The first time they went, Youko attempted to set Asahi up with a friend of theirs but the friend never showed, so they just had fun at the park as friends. She's nervous the whole time, and ends up kissing him right as they're getting off the ride. It's later revealed that Youko's own parents had their First Kiss on that Ferris wheel too, and she's deliberately following the steps of their relationship because she wants to have the same kind of high school experience they did.
• Nononono: Shiriya convinces Nono to ride the Ferris Wheel with him and Kishitani. Once up high, Shiriya throws Kishitani out of the cab and into the lake so he can put the moves on Nono. She panics, naturally, and kicks him out too, though he was less fortunate to already have a broken leg from before.
• Phantom Thief Jeanne has Marron and Chiaki end up in the ferris wheel together and a sudden blackout stops them mid-air. Since it's dark, Marron manages to sneak out and do her Kaitou Jeanne duty and returns in time, before the ride keeps going. Chiaki mentions later that he was fully aware that she left.
• Ryo Urawa invites Ami Mizuno to go on the Ferris wheel with him at the end of an episode of Sailor Moon.
• Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove it: As part of the story's What Is This Thing You Call "Love"? plot, the two characters trying to prove they are in love with each other take cues from their colleague's Dating Sim and try having an amusement park date that ends with just the two of them in a Ferris Wheel cabin.
• SHUFFLE!!: Rin nearly shares a cookie with Asa on the Ferris Wheel towards the end of Episode 18, but the ride's abrupt end spoiled it for them.
• In chapter 10 of Swap<->Swap Natsuko and Haruko go on the ferris wheel together, a sign that their relationship is getting more intimate. The ferris wheel operator opens the door to let them out at the end of the ride just as they're getting ready to kiss. In this case, though, the kiss is to facilitate their ability to switch bodies.
• Subverted in episode 129 of Tamagotchi, where Prince Tamahiko and an amnesiac Himespetchi are about to board a ferris wheel. Himespetchi remembers her true love is actually Mametchi at the last second, realizes what's happening, and freaks out.
• Tsukihime:
  • Subverted in the amusement park episode (perhaps the only part of the adaptation that didn't have anything to do with the original game). Unable to decide who rides with whom, the characters draw lots, and Arcueid ends up in one car with her rival Ciel; Shiki, with his own sister Akiha; and his best buddy Arihiko, with their classmate Satsuki (which is less obvious, but Arihiko tried hitting on Akiha, while Satsuki has a crush on Shiki). The ride is pretty awkward for all of them.
  • Played straight in the manga adaptation - Arcueid and Shiki are the only ones who went to the park, and the Ferris Wheel provides a quiet moment for Arcueid to reflect on how all the knowledge she absorbed about human society never prepared her for the fun of actually experiencing it for herself.
• In The Voynich Hotel, Taizou and Helena's first date concludes with a ride on the ferris wheel in the town's amusement park. It's there that their love first begins to really bloom, especially after Taizou gifts Helena with a new Glass Eye.

Comic Books

• In the All-Star Squadron sequel series The Young All-Stars, Flying Fox has a date on a Ferris wheel with a girl who is a friend of the one "Iron" Munro is dating, which then gets ruined with the appearance of Axis Amerika.
• Jerrica and Rio go on the ferris wheel at least twice in Jem and the Holograms (IDW). The second time it ends up badly as Rio starts complaining about Jem, who unknown to him is Jerrica's alter ego.
• The Life Story of the Flash: Barry proposes to Iris on a Ferris Wheel.
• Briefly happens during Big Mac's Day in the Limelight in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (IDW). Princess Luna manages to plant a kiss on him, to his bewilderment.
• On the fifth day of Roadqueen: Eternal Roadtrip to Love Leo and Vega go to an amusement park together, which eventually results on them riding the ferris wheel. Notably, the scene marks the shift from Leo simply trying to be a gold-star girlfriend "for Bethany" to noticing Vega's quiet mood and reaching out to her.
• Scream: Curse of Carnage: Gwenivere lures Andi out to Cony Island — albeit after hours when the rides are shut down — and they sit and talk in the ferris wheel in a manner evocative of this. While Andi feels drawn to Gwen for reasons she doesn't fully understand, Gwen accidentally touches a nerve and Andi leaves, with the series' cancellation derailing any further development of their relationship.
• In an Super Duck story, Dapper, Supe's rival for Uwanna's affections, is the third wheel on their amusement park date. Dapper suggests Supe ride the ferris wheel, then bribes the operator to stop it once Supe's at the top. His scheme backfires when Uwanna decides to join Supe on the ride at the last moment, and the operator refuses to go back on the prank. The last panel shows Supe and Uwanna in silhouette after dark, enjoying a romantic moment atop the wheel.

Fan Works

• As Fate Would Have It has the second, twelfth, twentieth, and thrirty-fifth chapters, where Nate and Yancy each have a date at the Ferris Wheel in Nimbasa City. Thanks to Adaptation Expansion however, they go on dates at places besides the Ferris Wheel.
• In the Code Lyoko Fanfiction Lyoko Chamionship: The Sequel, Mary tells her friends she wants to invoke this trope when she finally has her First Kiss with her extremely shy boyfriend Jamie (they have been dating for three years at this point). Though she is completely surprised when they are on the Ferris Wheel and he is the one that asks if he could kiss her.
• Jack and Celia's First Kiss in Frostbitten Flower was on a ferris wheel during nighttime.
• Pokémon Reset Bloodlines has a sidestory starring Yancy, who has one at the beginning and one at the end with Nate who is actually Blake under a different name, and in the second one she even kisses him.
• In The Road to be a Pokemon Master, while not a couple at that point yet, Ash and Serena do have one in Cinnabar Island's Theme Park.
• In the second chapter of Sparkling Shimmer, Sunset insists on riding the Ferris wheel before taking Twilight home. This is where Twilight gives in to her feelings and tries to kiss her. It ends tragically when the kiss is denied and she runs off crying.
• Spellbound (Lilafly): Adrien has reached his teenage years without ever riding a Ferris wheel, thanks to his overly sheltering father, so when he and Marinette visit a fairground, he takes the chance to slip away from their friends with her and try it out. Since they have a few minutes all by themselves, he also takes the opportunity to ask her why Nino and Félix have been poking them and throwing things at them all day, and she has to embarrasedly admit that she made a bet with Nino. She was insistent that she and Adrien are just good friends, so Nino is allowed to do that whenever she and Adrien are acting like a couple.

Film

• Easy Money: Mrs. Capuletti says this was when she fell in love with Rodney Dangerfield's character, adding that he paid the operator a dollar to stop the ride with them at the top.
• The Edge of Seventeen: Erwin tries to kiss Nadine on the ferris wheel. He references this trope by saying that he thought it would be romantic because they're on a ferris wheel.
• Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie Wars Megamax has one between Gentaro and Nadeshiko.
• The Living Daylights: James Bond bribes the operator to stall the Ferris Wheel, in order to give him and Kara added time alone.
• Love, Simon: Simon and who is revealed to be Blue, share a kiss on a Ferris Wheel. The whole school watches on and cheers them.
• Never Been Kissed: Drew Barrymore and the teacher/love interest have a very romantic Ferris wheel ride.
• The Notebook: Noah climbs onto a moving Ferris Wheel to ask Allie out, right in front of her current date. He even blackmails her by threatening to let himself fall.
• Roustabout: Charlie rides the ferris wheel with Cathy and serenades her. Then her Boyfriend-Blocking Dad Joe approaches and Cody, who's in charge of the wheel, stops it to keep the couple up high so Joe won't see them, but Charlie gives it away by yelling at Cody to bring them down.
• The Third Man: Invokes this trope for emotional dissonance. Instead of romantic seclusion, the setting allows an open discussion of crime and murder. Also, this is the last ride of the protagonist's childhood, signaling his delayed Coming of Age Story from a thirtysomething Manchild into an adult, forcing him to admit the end of his bromance with his childhood friend who now is the Big Bad Friend, and to top it all, the Ferris Wheel will be used to invoke a Disney Death into the protagonist life.

Literature

• Charlotte's Web: When this happens to Fern and Henry, Wilbur realizes he is no longer the most important thing in her life.
• Used multiple times in Charly. The titular character takes Sam on a Ferris wheel ride, where she flirts with him and he convinces her to meet with the Mormon missionaries. The book features Sam and Charly's last Ferris wheel ride before she goes to the hospital for cancer treatment.
• A slight variation crops up in Divergent. During the game of capture the flag in the first book, Tris and her then-instructor Four (who she she has unknowingly begun crushing on by this point) climb a defunct Ferris wheel together in order to get a better look at the playing field. She's quite distracted by him in between looking for the flag. She later reminisces about it in Allegiant (while on a proper date with Four, no less) as one of the first things they did together.

Live-Action TV

• In Bottom, Richie thinks this when the light in the ferris wheel go out (believing that two girls he thought were following them would be getting on). Turns out that they have been deliberately left there by the attendants. Not to create an awkward atmosphere, but to blow them up at dawn because Richie molested one of the attendants, mistaking him for a girl.
• Chuck: Season 2 Episode 8 "Chuck Versus the Gravitron" shows Chuck and his then-girlfriend Jill on one, leading to their First Kiss. It then gets a Dark Reprise when the same thing happens years later, and Jill is a Fulcrum agent who then holds Chuck at gunpoint.
• A platonic example exists in Criminal Minds. The unsub, a man named Vincent, befriends the son of one of his victims; a boy named Stanley. Vincent killed Stanley's mother in front of him only to realize that the boy was blind. Filled with remorse (But unable to stop compulsively killing) Vincent constantly tries to make amends and even arranges a ride on the Ferris Wheel for Stanley's Birthday making certain that they stop at the top. When the FBI arrives to apprehend Vincent, they stop the Ferris Wheel and find that he has died after begging Stanley's forgiveness.
• In an episode of Jane the Virgin, Jane and Michael go on a date at the same amusement park they went to for their first date. Both dates end with them kissing on the ferris wheel.
• On The O.C., Ryan and Marissa share their very first kiss on top of a ferris wheel. Marissa kisses Ryan in attempts of calming Ryan down from his fear of heights.
• Scrubs: Played for Laughs. The Ferris Wheel stops, leaving Dr Cox, Jordan, JD, and Danni trapped at the top. Rather than this leading to Danni clinging to JD in an adorable way, it leads to JD throwing up.
• In Smallville Lana gets one of these with a random guy in Magnetic. Shame he is a psycho.
• The Vampire Diaries: In Season 2 Episode 2 "Brave New World", Stefan leaps up with Elena (using his vampire ability of super leap or jump) onto the ferris wheel and the two share a kiss and a romantic tender moment after a day of chaos.

Manhwa

• Totally Captivated: Played for Laughs when Ewon gets forced into a Ferris Wheel ride with Mookyul and Killer Bear (a former mafioso), the latter of whom thinks Ewon is Mookyul's lover. All kinds of awkwardness ensues.

Music

• Palisades Park by Freddy Cannon: See the lyrics at the top of this trope.

Pinball

• Seen on the ferris wheel playfield toys for Cyclone and Hurricane, as part of a First Kiss sequence.

Video Games

• Deltarune: In chapter 2, Susie ends up rescuing Noelle from the Queen's castle, and they end up having to ride a giant Ferris wheel with heart-shaped cars from one end of the castle to the other. The two have a somewhat awkward heart-to-heart where it finally starts to dawn on Susie that Noelle has a crush on her.
• Final Fantasy VII: At the Gold Saucer; whomever ends up sharing the cab with Cloud depends on certain conversation choices you've made up to that point. Play it wrong right, and you have a date with Barret.
  • Final Fantasy VII Rebirth expands on its date mechanics and Cloud can have both a regular conversation or a more intimate date with Aerith, Tifa, Yuffie, Barret and even Red XIII. In New Game Plus you can choose to have a far more awkward date with Cait Sith, Cid, and Vincent, most of whom spend the skywheel section awkwardly avoiding small talk while Cait tries and fails to liven the mood.
• Galaxy Angel: The second game, Moonlit Lovers, has a moment at the Ferris Wheel between Tact and Milfeulle at the beginning of the latter's route, with the two sharing some snacks during their date. Sadly, it gets interrupted by an attack on the park.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV has the Ferris Wheel ride where Rean can take another character with him to spend some time during the Overture chapter.
• Persona:
  • In Persona 5, you can take any girl you're dating to the Ferris wheel in the Seaside Park, after you've unlocked the location. If you're romancing Ann, her Rank 10 Confidant event, which takes place in the Seaside Park, will involve you two riding the Ferris wheel at the end of the event.
  • In Persona 5 Strikers, after you clear the Sapporo Jail, you can ride the Ferris wheel with someone. It's unclear how romantic it's supposed to be, since Joker has no canon Love Interest, but there's a bit of Ship Tease involved.
• Pokémon Black and White: In Nimbasa City, a total of five different trainers can be battled outside of the Ferris Wheel over the course of the game, one of them being Team Plasma's N. Upon winning, you get a cutscene of both characters riding the wheel. The conversations are coupled with double entendres. Toned down/censored in the English versions.
  • In Pokémon Adventures, the aforementioned date with N (which has White on it instead of Black, the real protagonist of that storyline, is sapped of all possible shipping moments and replaced with trauma instead.
  • The Ferris wheel returns in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 with a new set of rotating "dates" for both player characters as well as a handful of special encounters with various NPCs. Both Nate and Rosa get at least one seasonal date who also showed up in the previous games.
• At the beginning of The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary, the player is at a carnival and can get different comments from clicking on the crowd, the ticket booth, the fortune-teller's booth, and the Ferris Wheel. One of the Ferris Wheel comments is "Harder! Harder!"
• The Simpsons: Tapped Out: Parodied in the "Fantastic Ferric Wheel" quest. Mr. Burns wants to ride the Ferris wheel, but is concerned his lack of body weight will cause him to fly off, so he asks Mr. Smithers to ride with him and hold him. Smithers reacts accordingly.

Visual Novels

• In Tokimeki Memorial during a date to the amusement park in the winter season after Shiori is in "enraptured" state, choose to ride the ferris wheel (Shiori's favorite ride). During the ride the Ferris wheel stalls, leaving the pair trapped up high. Shiori becomes frightened, but the protagonist takes her mind off it by showing her what a great view it is from up there.
  • Happens again in the first Girl's Side game: during a date with Kei on the ferris wheel, it stops and he calms the protagonist down by telling her a story from his past.

Western Animation

• Bob's Burgers: At the end of the episode "Human Flesh", Bob and Linda make out on the Ferris wheel, while the kids are in the cart just behind them, largely unamused.
  Gene: You're a couple of sluts!
  Tina: I think it's nice.
  Louise: [to the operator] Can you get this thing moving?! I'm getting mentally scarred up here!
• Invoked in Danny Phantom episode "Flirting With Disaster" by Technus during the montage of dates between Danny and Valerie, using his powers to make the ferris wheel they're on stall. Sam, who's watching from afar, isn't amused.
  Sam: Oh, yeah, of course that's where the ferris wheel stops! Heh, why wouldn't it?
• Doug had an episode that involved Doug trying to have one of these with Patti. He manages to get a seat with Patti on the Ferris wheel, but the fact that they're riding "the fastest Ferris wheel on Earth" dampens the romantic mood somewhat.
• Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts has this with Kipo and Benson. Subverted as soon as Kipo admits to having a crush on Benson, only for him to reveal that he didn't intend for their outing to be a romantic date and that he couldn't return her feelings even if he wanted to. They remain friends, though.
• Phineas and Ferb: Candace manages to have one of these with Jeremy in "Bowl-R-Rama Drama".
• Played for laughs in a Robot Chicken sketch, where the boyfriend convinced the operator to stop the Ferris wheel so he could propose to his girl friend. She bluntly rejects him, and they are left awkwardly stuck on the Ferris wheel until it can be started back up. It even continues into another sketch later in the episode, where they are still stuck and the boyfriend asks again, just to be sure.
• South Park: In "Put it Down", Craig tries to invoke this to distract his boyfriend Tweek from his worries about North Korea coming to get him, complete with a painfully stilted line about the nice view, after the latter says the ferris wheel is his favorite ride. It fails.
• Teen Titans: Multiple instances between Starfire and Robin, as well as Beastboy and Terra.
• X-Men: Evolution: Nightcrawler and Boom-Boom's date had this, although Boom-Boom being Boom-Boom, it didn't really follow the "shy, scared female" stereotype.

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