Mistaken For Gay / Anime & Manga

People being Mistaken for Gay in anime and manga.

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• Ah! My Goddess:
  • In one early chapter of the manga, Love Goddess Peorth mistakenly believes Keiichi (who she's trying to woo, a little too well) and Tamiya are lovers, due to her steady diet of Shoujo manga. She responds by trying to woo Tamiya, and things get interesting when Tamiya actually becomes infatuated with Peorth.
  • In the anime, Harmless Villain Mara gets not just mistaken for gay, but Mistaken For Gay Rapist, not once but twice (by Sayoko and Megumi).
• Ai Ore! Love Me!:
  • Akira looks like a girl at first glance however he uses "ore", so people think he and his girlfriend Mizuki are gay lovers.
  • This happened to Ran when he was advancing on Mizuki. All of a sudden some Yaoi Fangirls started squealing and having a fit.
• A brief gag in Akame ga Kill!. Lubbock is jealous of Tatsumi because all the girls fall for him and tease him with their bodies while they won't give Lubbock the time of day. Tatsumi is really shy and averts his eyes whenever they do this. At one point, Lubbock snaps and yells, "What is wrong with you!? Are you gay!?" Tatsumi denies it.
• Amatsuki: In the manga Heihachi comes to the conclusion that Toki is hitting on him, and sadly recommends that Toki should be with Kon instead, as Kon is more good-looking.
• Happens about once in every two episodes for Angel Beats!: Hinata will say something (such as "I quite like you" or "I need you!") that makes him sound like he has a crush on Otonashi. Cue Otonashi asking "Are you..." with a troubled look and an Aside Glance, and Hinata hurriedly cutting him off. "It's not like that!". It's pretty much a Running Gag by now. The hand gesture that Otonashi does when he asks this actually means/indicates "gay" — sort of the Japanese equivalent of doing the limp-wrist thing.
• In the thirty-fourth chapter of Asteroid in Love, Ao tells Yuu and Chikage she and Mira can work on their Shining Star Challenge applications because they are living together. Yuu goes Blank White Eyes and...
  Yuu: W-W-W-W-What sort of relationship are you two in!?
• Ayakashi Triangle: Given the Gender Bender Matsuri was subject to, he arguably is "gay" for still being attracted to Suzu. Regardless, most of his classmates at first thought "she" was straight, until Matsuri “pretended” to be a lesbian, which somehow ended up making them think Matsuri was bisexual.
• In a chapter of BECK, Sayaka's friends egg her to make a pass on Koyuki without even knowing about his relationship with Maho. When Sayaka finally musters her courage to at least hold his hand, he starts remembering Maho and runs off, apologizing. Then, her (Sayaka's) friends start thinking he's gay (and, to make things worse - in a sense - Sayaka never appears again in the manga from that point on).
• Bleach:
  • Many characters have been mistaken for gay, including the infamous episode where Renji and Ichigo end up in an awkward position on the floor with Ichigo yelling "Take it off already!".
  • This happens to Renji again later in the series during his fight with Szayel Aporro, who is quick to turn him down saying either "I don't lean that way" or "You're not my type" depending on the translation. The humor here is Szayel Aporro, an effeminate pink haired man, being alarmed about being hit on by another man.
  • Also happens to Ikkaku, depending on translation. When stationed in the human world, he was living with Keigo and his sister who laid out incredibly cute clothing for him to wear. When Matsumoto spots his clothing, she asks him if he's switched teams. Ikkaku is not amused.
• Blood Alone: A rare example that doubles as Mistaken For Straight. In one chapter, Misaki gets to meet Kaoru Souma, a famous Idol Singer she admires. It turns out that Kaoru is a lesbian, and she ends up developing a crush on Misaki. However, Misaki misreads the situation and thinks that Kaoru is crushing on her mentor, Kuroe, and begins asking her questions to see if it's true. So poor Kaoru thinks that Misaki is flirting with her, while Misaki thinks Kaoru is trying to get with Kuroe.
• Marika from Bokura no Hentai frequently got called homophobic slurs in elementary due to her feminine nature. She does like boys but she's transgender, not gay.
• In the manga Boku Wa Ohimesama Ni Narenai, Ouji mistakes himself for gay after falling in love with his crossdressing best friend.
• Call of the Night:
  • Yamori tells Nazuna during their first meeting that he doesn't like girls. She misinterprets him as liking boys instead and expresses her approval, much to Yamori's chagrin.
  • Azami was mistaken by his former boss and by Kiku, who was the mistress of his boss at the time, to have been gay when he was still human. Turns out he was just awkward: when Kiku tried to suck Azami's blood as he lay dying from gunshot wounds (as a way of showing her respects for trying to shield her with his body), she accidentally turned him into a vampire because he had developed a crush on her, a fact that surprised them both.
• In the first episode of Captain Harlock Gun Frontier, Harlock and Tochiro encounter a sheriff who notes their close camaraderie, gives them an odd look, and the line "It's a free country. Guess that applies to love too." Neither man is amused.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: Syaoran thought he had a crush on Yukito, but it later turned out he was just attracted to the high amount of moon energy inside him.
  • You could interpret him as bi, though. And just to nitpick: the reason why he can't be gay is that he falls in love with Sakura, not that he wasn't really in love with Yukito (since he could have turned out to be gay anyway).
• Case Closed has a variation where Eisuke walked into the wrong karaoke room and witnessed a couple kissing. He has a Freak Out because he thought they were a gay couple, only for one of them to angrily reveal that she's a woman, meaning that they're a het couple after all.
• An interesting version in A Certain Magical Index. Due to the Angel Fall spell, Touma's father Toya sees Kaori Kanzaki as Stiyl Magnus. Kaori is irritated by this but plays along, but when Touma and Toya accidentally walk in on her bathing, she angrily attacks them with her sword and they barely manage to escape. Toya is confused about why "he" would be so embarrassed about being seen naked by another man and concludes that "he" is gay, adding Not That There's Anything Wrong with That. Toya never learns the truth, which means things would get interesting if he ever met the real Stiyl in the future.
• In Chou Kuse ni Narisou, Idol Singer Nagisa disguises herself as a boy in order to attend an ordinary school, and falls in love with a boy named Nosaka. Inevitably, this happens.
• CLANNAD:
  • Tomoya starts telling people that Kyou knocked him over while riding her scooter ("bike") to school, but Kyou, knowing it's against the rules, keeps cutting him off at the first syllable of (the English word) "bike." When people start asking what he was about to say, his answer is...another English loanword that starts with "bi." Considering Kyou's later glomping of Kotomi, though...
  • Ryou mistakes Nagisa's asking for help with the theatre club to be a confession of love. She even accepts before realizing it's not.
  • Tomoya made Nagisa think Sunohara is gay. She pretends Tomoya is her boyfriend to drive Sunohara away.
• In the first episode of Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman, Akira tells Miki that he's sleeping over at Ryo's house. In response, Miki grins and says "How suspicious...," which actually makes Akira blush in embarrassment.
• Daily Lives of High School Boys:
  • High School Boys and Horoscopes: Motoharu saw Hidenori "kissing" Yoshitake. The former was only trying to squish a hornet perched on his nose. When they run into Karasawa, he whips out a can of pesticide and sprays it onto their faces.
  • High School Boys and Drop-Kicks: The sudden physical closeness between Hidenori (on a visit to his maternal grandparents' hometown) and Kiyohiko was seen by Emi as "Boy Meets Boy".
• In Death Note, Misa asks if L is gay when she realizes that being chained to Light means that they will spend every waking and sleeping moment together. L answers that he doesn't enjoy it either but it's necessary.
• Happens in-universe in an episode of Dirty Pair Flash. Man crazy Yuri receives a letter in the beginning of the episode from a secret admirer asking to meet her at a special location. At the same time, the Pair is tasked with protecting a rich girl from danger. After wondering who the admirer is, Yuri finds out that its actually the rich girl who confesses her love, much to Kei's amusement. Interestingly, Yuri does go on the date.
• D.N.Angel: Daisuke and Satoshi have a lot of Ho Yay together and Satoshi is suspected by fans whether correctly or not that he is gay for Daisuke. In episode 17 Daisuke and Satoshi are at the beach on a school trip and Satoshi helps dig Daisuke out of the sand. Some girls watching end up mistaking them for being gay for each other.
• Dazzle: Jelice is an extremely campy priest. Everyone just assumes he's gay. Alzeid was understandably shocked when Jelice told him about the girl he loved.
• Full Metal Panic!: In the novel's side story, Tsubaki accidentally confesses to Sousuke instead of Kaname (due to his glasses being off), while he was trying to reveal to Mizuki that he won't reciprocate her feelings because of this person he loves. Sousuke is shown to become very disgusted and nervous after receiving this confession, and afterwards, the entire school thinks he has a gay crush on Sousuke.
• In Gate, Youji Itami over-enthusiastically hugs Takeo Kurata after learning Takeo is an otaku like him. Takeo freaks out, screaming that he likes girls, confusing Youji.
• In Girl Got Game, Chiharu being Sweet on Polly Oliver leads to Hayama making this assumption . . . and being a very ardent shipper, going so far as to offer Chiharu a gay sex guide and wishing him happiness. (Chiharu does not appreciate it.)
• Great Teacher Onizuka:
  • Uchiyamada worries that Onizuka grabbing and embracing him will make people think they're gay. Of course, Onizuka was just getting a good grip so he could suplex Uchiyamada into the floor.
  • Invoked by one of the students by putting a convincing poster of Onizuka and Vice Principal Uchiyamada on the school bulletin board. It took another photo that was suspicious on closer inspection to have this jossed.
• GTO: The Early Years: In Chapter 182, Shinomi is given a love letter by someone named Akira (also her previous boyfriend's name). When she shows up to the place in the letter, it turns out to be a girl from her school. Her friends warn her that there are rumors that Akira is a lesbian who "turns straight girls to the other side", and all her behavior seems to indicate they're right... until she asks Shinomi to deliver her love letter to Onizuka.
• ½ Prince (pay attention, this gets complicated). The female main character is the only female who plays as a male in a hugely popular online game. The gay guy in her party, who's her university lecturer IRL, is infatuated with her Bishōnen character, but doesn't know he's a she. Her male childhood friend does, and then angrily confesses his long-hidden love for her to the gay guy, saying that he's known her for 8 years. She overhears this, but because Chinese uses gender-neutral pronouns, both she and the uni lecturer think he's talking about a boy. Later on as she's racking her brains for the identity of the mystery crush, her twin brother walks in. Both he and the childhood friend are teammates in the game who both play Bishōnen. Cue the wrong penny dropping. The brother, however, knows that the childhood friend is in love with the sister, and wants to support their relationship. When his sister asks, "Do... you... like... him?" he replies [thinking she wanted his approval before she starts a relationship with the friend] "Of course! Dad and Mom have even given their approval!". The rest of the inadvertent Ho Yay just falls into place, and Gui has stated that he would like Prince no matter the gender or age. He's not homosexual, he's Prince-sexual. For bonus points, the reason Gui even started teasing/flirting with Prince in the first place is because he saw a male in-game drooling over him and, not knowing that the character was controlled by a female played, decided to have some fun messing with what he assumed was a gay guy.
• A Running Gag in Hatsukoi Zombie, after the protagonist Tarou confesses his love to Ibusuki, the "girl" he liked as a child, hoping that it will make Cute Ghost Girl Eve (who is supposed to represent Ibusuki) disappear. It doesn't work, as Tarou doesn't have any real feelings for the male Ibusuki, but as a result the whole school ends up thinking he's gay. Funny thing is, after a while he doesn't even try to deny it and just goes with it.
• When Hayate the Combat Butler's title character is questioned about 'why' he rejects Nishizawa's confession, the fact that he possibly likes guys is brought up before he mentions his childhood teaching from Athena. He's just that clueless, girls.
• In Hetalia: Axis Powers (Episode 32), Ancient Rome assumes that Germany "plays for the other team" when he says that he doesn't have women all over him like Rome used to. Germany responds with a very violent: "I WILL PUNCH YOU IN THE THROAT!"
• One of the running gags for The High School Life of a Fudanshi is that people, including his own friend, think that Sakaguchi is gay because he loves BL manga.
• His and Her Circumstances: Episode 25 is an anime-exclusive Day in the Limelight story about Kano, Yukino's little sister. After accidentally bumping into a New Transfer Student one too many times and seeing her outside her window, Kano begins to suspect that the girl is a lesbian Stalker. When Kano finally confronts the student, she learns that the girl actually lives in the same neighborhood, explaining why they see each other so often. However, in a slight subversion, it's implied that Kano may actually have feelings for the girl.
• Played with in Interspecies Reviewers: When Crim willingly sleeps with a hyena woman, as the bottom, everyone thinks he's bi. Crim is a Hermaphrodite, but male presenting, so his actual sexual orientation is difficult to define.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: At one point in Part 3, Avdol and Joseph become stuck together after Mariah magnetizes their bodies. Avdol tries to slowly slide off of Joseph, which eventually leads to his face ending up on Joseph's crotch, causing it to look like Avdol is giving him a blowjob, much to the amusement of some local kids. They temporarily separate, only for the magnetic force to stick them back together, this time with Avdol's crotch rubbing against Joseph's butt, thus making it look like they're having anal sex. An old woman who had mistakenly thought Joseph was crushing on her happens by at the wrong moment, and angrily accuses him of cheating on her with Avdol.
  • In Part 5, Mista is full of bullet holes sustained from his fight with Ghiacco (whose stand ability allows him to reflect bullets). Giorno's stand Gold Experience can heal him, with the side effect of being extremely painful. Narancia finds the pair only to see Giorno's head hovering over Mista's crotch, while Mista tells Giorno to be more gentle and not to take his clothes off (which he needs to do access the other bullet wounds).
• Kagerou Project: Briefly parodied by Ene (most likely to cause trouble for Shintaro) when she asks Momo and Mary if they are the "rumored Yuri". The latter two react with anger and embarrassment, respectively.
• Kaguya Hime: Yui and Midori are not, in fact, doing it. Despite what everyone thinks.
• Due to a hilarious confluence of events, Fujiwara in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War is under the impression that Shirogane has a crush on Kaguya's butler Hayasaka. What makes this even funnier is that Hayasaka isn't even a man, she just dresses up as one when Fujiwara comes over to hide her identity. And then Fujiwara ends up thinking that Hayasaka's school persona is a lesbian after she tried to kiss her in the heat of the moment over winter break.
• Episode nine of Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens revolves entirely around this. After an incident in episode eight involving Daitetsu staying at Jin's house and what happened to part of Nagi's sacred tree, everyone is thinking Daitetsu is gay for Jin and Nagi's furious about it. Zange and Tsugumi attempt to orchestrate a situation that would make Jin out to be a playboy to clear up the rumors, but it's to no avail.
• The oneshot Kanojo Ni Naritai involves a boy falling for a stereotypical Yuri Genre "prince" character. He begins dressing as a girl to get her to like him but she reveals she's straight. He then proceeds to pop open his shirt and reveals he's a boy. They hit it off afterwards.
• Karakuridouji Ultimo
  • This happens to Yamato here when Sayama walks in while he's trying to fix Ultimo. Sayama doesn't say it outright, but clearly implies what she means.
  • Later, Matsumoto makes an understandable assumption about Yamato and his best friend Rune, considering that they are together almost all the time. Later it's revealed that Rune is, in fact, the reincarnation of Yamato's Love Interest from the 14th century. Matsumoto was seen blushing during the reveal.
• K-On!:
  • Tsumugi is mistaken as a lesbian in an episode, and when confronted directly, she explains that she only innocently enjoys the sight of "girls bonding." But was it really a mistake?
  • In The Movie, Azusa mistakes Yui for gay after coming across some suspicious looking notes with words like "Azu-nyan LOVE" scrawled about the page.
• Manabe of Kotoura-san often has lesbian fantasies when his girlfriend Haruka is a bit too close with another girl in the cast; once between Haruka and Yuriko is episode 2 and once between Haruka and Hiyori in episode 5.
• Kyo Kara Maoh!:
  • Yuuri is mistaken for gay by his whole kingdom.
  • There is also the episode where Yuri and Gwendal are mistaken as an eloping couple (they were chained together)
• Eitaro from Love Junkies is mistaken for being in a relationship with Obi by his coworkers.
• Love Lucky: When Kirari visits Fuuta's family, her manager rushes inside first and hugs him, making Fuuta's family think he married the manager. Kirari clears the misunderstanding soon after.
• Implied to occur in a dream sequence of the OVA to Lucky Star. Dream-Konata tells Kagami that the only way to wake up is to yell out a specific phrase. Kagami says the phrase "I want to *** with Konata!" as she's waking up, in front of her sister Tsukasa. Tsukasa gets the wrong idea and, despite her sister trying to explain, just says she won't tell anyone as she awkwardly leaves the room.
• In the very first episode of Lupin III (Blue Jacket), Zenigata crashes Lupin's wedding to Rebecca in order to arrest him. Rebecca is initially confused and asks if Zenigata is Lupin's jealous ex-boyfriend.
  • It comes up again in Lupin III: Part 5, when Emmy mistakes Zenigata's constant pursuit of Lupin as romantic interest and some followers of the Lupin Game online think Jigen is Lupin's lover. While Zenigata is clearly disturbed and flustered by the idea and Jigen is annoyed, Lupin himself finds it all amusing and even playfully flirts with Zenigata, much to his annoyance.
• In Marmalade Boy, when perpetual loner Yuu suddenly starts hanging out with exceedingly popular school president Satoshi Miwa, their female classmates and the school newscasters immediately conclude they're getting it on. Hilariously enough, Yuu himself thinks Satoshi is gay for him when he suddenly starts trying to hang around him for no discernible reason. The real reason is because Satoshi believed Yuu was his half-brother, as his father was something of a philanderer and he was interested in Yuu's mother, Chiyako. Yuu reached the same conclusion independently, and was shocked when he learned Satoshi's surname. Of course, we don't find that out before hilarity ensued, including Miki overhearing them having a conversation that sounded like Satoshi pressuring Yuu to have sex with him out of context.
• In Massugu ni Ikou, Sora mistakes Sebastian for being in love with Mametarou when he mentions that he loves a male dearly. Sebastian is actually referring to his owner.
• In Mayo Chiki!, practically all of the school suspects this of the main character, Jiro, after he's seen hanging out with Kanade's butler Subaru a little too much.
• Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun:
  • Mikoshiba when he introduces the Bifauxnen Kashima as the "School Prince". Sakura naturally assumes the "School Prince" is a boy before she actually sees Kashima and she immediately jumps to the conclusion that Mikoshiba is dating him. A variant since Sakura is much more concerned about his "faithfulness" to Suzuki (who's a fictional character) than him being gay itself.
  • At one point Sakura thinks Wakamatsu is gay because Nozaki told her he's in love with someone resembling a guy character from his manga (said guy character is based on Seo).
  • A flashback of Nozaki using Valentine's Day as research for his manga shows Wakamatsu helping him buy chocolates. Nozaki gives him some as thanks and Wakamatsu shows them to his friends - and said friends wonder if they're expensive ones and filled with Nozaki's "love".
  • Chapter 76 has Mikoshiba, fearful of being mostly alone around girls, drag Mayu to a mixer since his friends won't let him bring Kashima and Sakura won't let him bring Nozaki. In the mixer Mayu ends up hounding girls for their boyfriends' numbers^note When he finds out they're also into judo and wants to challenge them. and "protects" shy Mikoshiba from being pulled away by two girls by declaring that "You can't take him. He's mine."^note Following his older brother's shoujo-based advice, where the cliche has the guy do that to protect a girl from would-be harassers.
  • In Chapter 91 Ryousuke mistakes the work relationships in Miyako's manga circle for a Love Dodecahedron, leading him to believe Nozaki is not only Miyako's boyfriend but also Miyamae's boyfriend and Maeno's ex-boyfriend.
  • Seo being gone on a trip makes Wakamatsu such a bundle of love and energy that he helps everyone he can which quickly leads to many girls getting attracted to him, with one even taking advantage of this to trick him by claiming she literally needs a boyfriend or she'll die. Hori decides to solve this by telling Wakamatsu to stop treating girls nicely. This creates new rumors about some guy who treats all the guys incredibly nicely for reasons that are speculated on...
• My Bride is a Mermaid:
  • Nagasumi is mistaken for gay after he hastily confesses his love for Masa in order to keep Masa's past a secret. It Makes Sense in Context.
  • The Class Rep mistakenly confesses to Sun Seto when she was trying to confess to Nagasumi. She becomes so annoyed that everyone now thinks that she's a lesbian that she decides to roll with it.
• When Katarina sees her brother Keith staring at a smiling Nicol in My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, she becomes convinced that her brother is falling for Nicol's charms. While Nicol does have a lot of male fans, Keith is actually just exasperated to see yet another rival for his sister appear.
  Keith: How many more does she need before she's satisfied?!
• Naruto:
  • At the end of the third Shippuuden movie Kakashi is mistaken as being hitting on Naruto, who just freaks out at the implication. The other rookies are quick to begin the teasing.
  • When Naruto is going through some Training from Hell and Kakashi means to compliment Naruto on how much he is improving, he says, "I think I'm starting to really like you". Naruto takes this the wrong way.
  • Kotetsu and Izumo are mistaken for gay by Tsunade in one omake. To be fair, there's no evidence they aren't.
  • Sai in one filler arc tries to comfort Naruto but looks like he's trying to kiss him - Naruto freaks out and shoves him away.
  • Neji in Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth tries to train Naruto in becoming a more suitable romantic partner for Hinata by taking him on a fake date. Hinata naturally comes to the conclusion that Neji is also in love with Naruto and vows that she won't lose to her cousin.
• Nichijou:
  • When Ms. Nakamura is finally alone with Nano, she says she wants to know what Nano is actually like. She was referring to how she was constructed, but Nano took her own interpretation.
  • Chapter 187 has Yuuko slip a fake love letter in Mio's shoe locker, so she can take a funny picture of her reaction. When Annaka notices the letter sticking out, she mistakenly believes it's genuine, and meant from Yuuko to Mio. Yuuko's over-the-top attemps to take a funny picture of Mio don't help matters.
• In Nicoichi, the relationship between Makoto and Natsumi is often mistaken as such, because Makoto is simply too good in cross-dressing and thus will appear as a lesbian couple to those who does not know his secret.
• In chapter 23 of Omamori Himari, Himari switches back to human form right on top of Rinko. Rinko's mother walks in a moment later to find a nude Himari straddling Rinko on top of her bed. Beat.
  Mother: J-J-Just now, I witnessed my cute little girl's hidden passion!! This is the final drop for a mother!!!
  Rinko: M-Mom!! Don't break down on me now!!
  [...]
  Himari: I'll only ask this once: has anything unusual happened?
  Rinko: Yeah, because of you my relationship with my family has just become unusual...
• In One Piece, Nami and Franky switch bodies, and Nami, in Franky's body, gets taken away by Rock and Scotch. Nami, forgetting she is in Franky's body, starts screaming about how sexy "she" is and that guys may want to take "her" for "herself". Rock asks Scotch if he has any idea what their hostage is talking about, to which Scotch assumes Franky must be gay.
• One-Punch Man provides a reversed example: Armored Gorilla tells Saitama that his master is interested in his body, which the latter replies that he's not into dudes, prompting Genos to clarify that what he meant was his master was interested in the strength he held, despite being a normal human.
• Ouran High School Host Club:
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold Kasanoda develops a crush on Bifauxnen Haruhi. When he visits her at the club, the Yaoi Fangirl clientèle is burning with flames of moe. Also, the news of the two raises a few eyebrows among Kasanoda's Yakuza underlings.
  • In the first episode, when Haruhi first enters the music room hoping to find a place to study she encounters the host club who believe she's a guy thanks to her messy hair, unflattering outfit, and glasses. Tamaki also believes she's gay, until he finds out her real gender at the end of the episode.
  • In a variation of this, Haruhi's father Ryoji, who is actually bisexual, gave by Haruhi's mother Kotoko the impression that he was gay when they first met because he would often talk about guys he found attractive. She didn't realize that his inviting her to dinner all the time was an attempt to pursue a relationship with her.
  • In the last chapter of the manga Tamaki and Haruhi are mistaken for gay when they're having a close moment and dancing together (with her in a dress, even). It isn't until later that the girls figure out Haruhi is really a girl—they originally just thought she was a boy who liked to crossdress as a girl.
• Oswald, the older brother of Lacie in chapter 67 of PandoraHearts. "I didn't know you swung that way." "I'm not sure what you mean."
• The ninth episode of the PaRappa the Rapper anime has Gaster and Groober attempt to steal everyone's valuables at the dance party. They are denied admittance due to being mistaken for a gay couple, but are later able to make it through with Groober Disguised in Drag.
• The Prince of Tennis:
  • A big part of the Comedy Tennis developed by Yuuji Hitouji and Koharu Konjiki relays on them being very touchy-feely with each other and Koharu openly fanboying his rivals and teammates and even groping them at some point. All of this is done to disrupt the rivals' concentration and makes the duo's style of play harder to predict... though some wonder if Yuuji actually takes it a bit too seriously, what with him openly saying Koharu is cheating on him when he mock-flirts with others.
  • In an anime filler, Inui calls Kaido to tell him that he's sure An and Momo are on a date (they ain't), but his cell signal runs out mid-message. Kaido believes that Inui is asking him out. Hilarity Ensues.
• Please Twins!: Because Maiku hasn't been ogling them, Karen and Miina worry he is gay. So they crank up the Fanservice level to try and get a reaction out of him.
• Pokémon: The Series: Happens to James in the episode where he decides to dress up as "The Flaming Moltres". It happens in the form of a joke from Jessie when she and Meowth get embarrassed after James starts acting flamboyantly in his Moltres outfit. When Meowth asks where James got the outfit, Jessie responds "I think that costume came right out of his closet" which is basically a coming out of the closet joke.
• Princess Jellyfish has this for Tsukimi and Wholesome Crossdresser Kuranosuke. A couple of school kids actually call them lesbians when they see them together, unaware of Kuranosuke's cross-dressing tendencies. It doesn't really help that Kuranosuke was developing feelings for Tsukimi.
• Often the case with Tooru and Yuujirou from Princess Princess with Tooru saying "there's nothing between me and Yuujirou!" and Yuujirou... not exactly denying it. Granted, he had the idea to help drive Tooru's Yandere stepsister away, but...
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Hitomi assumes that the reason Madoka and Sayaka don't hang out with her after school any more is because they've undergone a Relationship Upgrade, when in reality they've been tagging along with a Magical Girl. Though it doesn't help their case that Sayaka was acting quite flirtatious. She also might have (even subconsciously) wanted to believe that the two were a gay couple, since she was chasing the same boy Sayaka did. It also doesn't help that Madoka has a Cast Full of Ambiguously Gay / Bi schoolgirls, of which Hitomi is the only ostensibly straight member. And Sayaka was coming on pretty strong. Lampshaded by Dub!Sayaka: "[while Hitomi freaks out] I can't believe she's going there..."
• In Pump Up! the protagonist mistakes her crush for being gay, due to his intense admiration for a fellow classmate. It turns out he likes her.
• Ranma ½:
  • Ranma and Akane assume that Tsubasa Kurenai is a lesbian.
  • Ranma and Akane have had a lot of romantic moments when he's in his girl form. At times, this makes Akane worry that people will think they're lesbians. Mariko thought they were lesbians. Still does.
  • In the manga, Ranma unknowingly eats some pork buns that make him hug anyone who sneezes. Kuno challenges him to a fight and Ranma accepts, expecting it to be a simple battle. Unfortunately for Ranma, Kuno keeps sneezing the entire time. His constant glomping makes the entire school think he's got the hots for Kuno. And so, hilarity ensues.
  • And then there's the "Fishing Rod of Love", which will make anyone who get snagged with it fall head-over-heels for whoever fished them. Ryoga ends up buying it to get a shot with Akane. He casts the line blindly and... ends up fishing Ranma instead. The worst part of it is that it's Akane who ends up making the assumption about Ryoga, even after the whole mess is undone. As for Ranma, well, he got off relatively clean.
• In an early chapter of Reborn! (2004), poor Tsuna gets mistaken at school for "becoming Gokudera's bitch," after Gokudera became his Stalker with a Crush came to worship and admire him as the Tenth boss. Now whether Gokudera was mistaken for gay is another debatable story... Well, he has his own girl fanbase at school, but isn't really pleased with them (he finds them just that annoying). But his devotion to the juu-dai-me does tend to fall into this.
• In one of the Revolutionary Girl Utena fillers, Touga mistakenly believes Nanami to be a lesbian.
• Rosario + Vampire: Other characters mistake Fang-Fang Huang's obsessive attempts to get Tsukune to join his mafia family as him being gay for Tsukune. It doesn't help that he's rather androgynous and his initial recruitment speech includes such lines as "job for life by my side", "become part of my family", and "passionate bonds between men".
  Tsukune: I think I'm in the wrong manga...
• Sailor Moon:
  • In an episode, Makoto becomes very interested in Haruka (an extremely boyish girl) and the other characters speculate about her preferences. It turns out that she merely looks up to Haruka as a role model, although fans have debated about what this assertion actually means. This may be one of The Artifacts from the original manga, where Haruka isn't an exclusively 'butch'-looking crossdresser; Makoto outright explains she admires Haruka's confidence in embracing her boyish tendencies, something Makoto hasn't been able to.
  • Note Rei is technically mistaken for gay, if only because most later adaptations drop the more convoluted version of her Does Not Like Men status and will make at least one joke about it.
  • In one episode Michiru tells Rei that she and Usagi are close, just like her and her girlfriend Haruka.
• (fandom aside) Saiyuki has a few. Genjo Sanzo gets it quite a lot from random strangers to the extent he's nicknamed Mr. Gay by someone in a bar in the first OVA, and was even hit on once by a drunk Depraved Bisexual in another bar. He's not particularly happy about this fact, considering that he was bullied as a child partly because it was rumored he was his adopted father/mentor's catamite. The other characters naturally find it hilarious, though. Ironically, in Gaiden, his previous incarnation was rumored to be in the same situation with Goku's younger self. Tenpou and Kenren in Gaiden also have rumours flying about all over the place which is Truth in Television for two people who are close friends. Mentioning it is likely to get you beaten into the ground though. Also played completely straight when Gojyo and Goku are fighting on a bed and a girl walks into the hotel room, jumps to the wrong conclusion and quickly hurries out.
• In Samurai Flamenco, Mari tries to seduce Goto, but he will have none of it, saying he already has someone (meaning his girlfriend in a Long-Distance Relationship). She immediately assumes he is referring to Masayoshi. At the end of the same episode, she finds Goto headlocking Masayoshi. You can't really blame her.
• School Rumble:
  • Tani-sensei keeps getting into gay situations with Harima.
  • One episode has Harima try to turn in a resignation letter to the teacher and a love letter to Tenma, asking her out on a date. The letters, of course, get switched and Harima and the teacher go to the movies together at the end of the episode.
• Servant × Service:
  • In Episode 3, Chihaya outright declared Yutaka as her rival. Yutaka at first wondered if "she's the type who likes other women." He was soon disabused of the belief, though, when she started talking cosplay.
  • The Childhood Friends-turned-Unknown Rival relationship between Yutaka and Jyoji was often mistaken to be gay—Cosplay Otaku Girl Chihaya once used BL to describe their relationship, and it is implied Yutaka's cananova tendencies was in fact a way to clarify his sexual orientations, and both of them do have girlfriends in the end of the anime adaptation.
• Shomin Sample: Kimito is mistaken for this from day one no thanks to his friend who wanted to screw with him. He's forced to go along with it though on threat of castration.
• Haruko and Natsuko, the main characters of Swap<->Swap, can invoke a "Freaky Friday" Flip whenever they kiss. In the second chapter, Natsuko's friends catch them at it and come to the obvious conclusion. Haruko rolls with it, going so far as to kiss Natsuko and declare she's the dominant one. Though, because of the body swap, from the friends' perspective it looks like Haruko initiating the kiss and Natsuko proclaiming dominance. When Natusko's friends leave, they kiss again to swap back only for one of the other girls to come right back and see them again.
• Urusei Yatsura:
  • In Chapter 15, Ataru is invited to the undersea kingdom of the kappa after he saves a member of their race. The kappa women perform a dance number in his honor, but he's visibly disgusted by their freaky, inhuman appearance. The kappa princess notices this and assumes that he's repulsed because he's gay, so she tries to cheer him up by sending a group of kappa men to entertain him. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
  • When Kurama's father is mentoring Ataru, he tells the boy (in reference to combat) to come at him if he ever spots an opening. Ataru misunderstands, and responds by saying "I'm sorry, but you're not my type."
  • During Parents' Day, Mendou's mother tosses a glove at Lum's mother in order to challenge her to a duel. Since Lum's mother cannot speak Japanese and has no knowledge of Earth customs, she assumes that Mrs. Mendou is asking for her hand in marriage.
• Violinist of Hameln: The other characters flat out accuse Hamel and Raiel of being gay a few times.
• Wagnaria!! has two cases: the highly androphobic Inami (how she turned out straight we'll never know) and Popura due to her obsession with Kotori-chan (reaching the levels Takanashi has with everything cute), which she insists is just admiration because the latter's everything she wants to be (though really all we have to go on is her assertion).
• Women At Work has an example that mixes with Sweet on Polly Oliver, when the protagonist walks in on a fellow construction worker coming out of the shower, she assumes that he’s discovered that she’s not actually a man and gives him a blow job to buy his silence, however the protagonist didn’t actually see anything and has already grown accustomed to the frequent casual sex of the construction crew so he just assumes that his coworker is gay and that he was feeling randy.
• In The World God Only Knows, post-capture Yui publicly confesses to Keima, while wearing a boy's uniform. It also didn't help that she was acting like the Seme while Keima uncharacteristically acted like the Uke. Later on, she intended to fix this trope by trying to get Keima to wear a dress. And succeeded.

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