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aka: Confession Executive Committee Love Series

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Confession Executive Committee (Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai in Japanese) is a multi-platform franchise that began life as series of music videos produced by HoneyWorks, depicting a series of events happening to a few groups of teenagers.

As of 2019, the series has been split into two storylines within the same continuity:

  • The Confession Executive Committee ~Love Series~ (Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai: Ren'ai Series in Japanese, and officially known as the Confess Your Love Committee ~Romance Series~ in English), the main body of work which is a romantic story of the various students of Sakuragaoka High School and their love dilemmas.
  • The Confession Executive Committee ~Idol Series~ (Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai ~Idol Series~), which follows several Idol Singers and features in universe music videos made by them. Most prominent of this series is LIP×LIP, who have the majority of the videos and were the first of the series to get massively popular. There isn't a lot of romance coming from the actual characters...yet.

In the beginning, the series was primarily Vocaloid-based—mostly featuring GUMI and, to a lesser extent, Hatsune Miku, Len, V flower, and IA. However, as time went on, the series began using collaboration artists (CHiCO, sana, various musicians and seiyuu) instead, with a Vocaloid or other synthesizer cover as an alternate version.

Most of the songs are shared between HoneyWorks' Niconico and Youtube accounts, though there are some songs that are exclusive to the Niconico accounts and the albums. The Vocaloid songs can be found on the Youtube accounts, while the human versions are featured on their Niconico playlists. The songs without PVs and the drama segments, however, are usually found on doujin CDs or compilation albums.

The series has also produced several novels and comics (called "Short Stories"), which explore some of the songs' narratives and character backgrounds in greater detail. An anime film series for the franchise expands upon these materials, which ran two movies in Spring and Fall 2016, animated by Qualia Animation. The first, I've Always Liked You, adapts the events of "Confession Rehearsal" and part of "A Solution for Jealousy", while the second installment (The Moment You Fall in Love) adapts the "Right Now, I'm in Love" and "Triangle Jealousy" songs. A television anime, Our Love Has Always Been 10 Centimeters Apart., came out in the Fall 2017 Anime season, which centers around "First Love Picture Book" and "Our Minute and One Second". All three animated media were distributed by Aniplex, subtitled and streamed on Crunchyroll. The latter was also featured with exclusive rights on the Prime Video streaming service, but also was shown on FUNimation's streaming services. A second proper series, Heroines Run the Show: The Unpopular Girl and the Secret Task, premiered in Winter 2022.

The characters and a handful of the songs were later featured in the Rhythm Game HoneyWorks Premium Live, which while nominally a game celebrating all of HoneyWorks' discography primarily is concerned with the Confession Executive Committee franchise. The game lasted for a little over two years before it closed in March 2023.

    open/close all folders 

    List of song titles 

The songs not done with Vocaloid/don't have Vocaloid versions are italicized
Love Series

Idol Series

No PV

  • First Love Picture Book -another story- (Hatsukoi no Ehon -another story-)
  • Embarrassment-Hiding Anniversary (Terekakushi Kinenbi)
  • Future Chart (Mirai Zu)
    • Triangle Jealousy -Another Story- (Sankaku Jealousy -Another Story-)
  • Propose
  • Friday's Good Morning -Love Story-
  • Destiny note 
  • Little Regret
  • Suki to Suki no Houteshikinote 
  • Judge☆
  • Princess of the Moon (Tsuki no Hime)
  • White Day Kiss
  • Love/Hate Majority
  • Sharing Refusal (Doutan Kyohi)
  • Forgive Me, Santa (Yurushite Santa-san)
  • TASTE
  • BLUE
  • Alive
  • Whipped Cream's Expiration Date
  • I Wanna Cosplay! (Cosplay Shitai no!)
  • ONE NIGHT
  • Last Stage

    Official CDs 

Character Albums

  • Character Song Collections
    • Am I Not Good Enough? (Boku ja Dame Desu Ka?)
    • Nandodatte, Suki.
    • Suki Sugite, Yabai.
    • Nee, Suki tte Itai yo.
  • Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai FLYING SONGS
    • Aishiteru
    • Koishiteru

Idol Albums

  • Docchi no kiss ka, Erabe yo.
  • #Namae Dake demo Oboetette Kudasai
  • FT4

Singles

  • Diagnosis: Love Sickness
  • Embarrassment-Hiding Adolescence
  • Confession Rival Declaration
  • Kawaiiku Naritai/Terekakushi Kinenbi
  • Boku ga Namae wo Yobu Hi/Watashi ga Koi wo Shiru Hi
  • Blooming into the Color of Love
  • Our Minute and a Second
  • Senpai.
  • Judge☆/Tsuki no Hime
  • Nonfantasy/Irreplaceable
  • Tokyo Winter Session
  • Choco-Kano/White Day Kiss
  • Saucy Honey/Fulfillment Love
  • Yume Fanfare
  • Chiisana Lion
  • Heroine Ikusei Keikaku / Koibitotachi no Happy Birthday
  • Heroine Taru Mono! / 1% no Koibito
  • Sis×love / Suiyoubi no Yakusoku -another story-
  • Konyaku Sensou / Samishigari Ya
  • Julieta
  • Tokyo Sunny Party

     Animation 
Major
  • Confess Your Love Committee movies:
    • I've Always Liked You. (Yuu/Natsuki arc, parts of the Souta/Akari arc)
    • The Moment You Fall in Love. (Hina/Koyuki/Kotaro arc)
  • Television Anime:
    • Our Love Has Always Been 10 Centimeters Apart. (Haruki/Miou arc)
    • Heroines Run the Show: The Unpopular Girl and the Secret Task (Hiyori arc)
  • How to Enjoy This World / LIP×LIP FILM×LIVE (Kono Sekai no Tanoshimikata) (LIP×LIP prequel)

Minor

  • Friday's Good Mornings (Kinyoubi no Ohayou) (Bonus animation)
  • Romeo—MUSIC VIDEO MAKING
  • Hiyori Suzumi's LIP×LIP Observation Report!

     Other Media 

Comics (Prologue and Short Story vomic)

Novels

  • Confession Rehearsal series:
    • Confession Rehearsal
    • A Solution for Jealousy
    • First Love's Picture Book
    • Right Now, I'm in Love.
    • Friday's "Good Morning"
    • Blooming into the Color of Love
    • Assertion of the Heart
    • Mean Encounter
    • The Day When I Called Your Name
    • I Was Supposed to Hate You.
    • Nonfantasy
    • Heroine Development Plan
    • Tokyo Summer Session
    • Tokyo Summer Session 2021
    • O Maidens.
    • Idol Series:
      • Romeo
    • Fantasia:
      • LOVE&KISS

  • Anime Novelizations:
    • I've Always Liked You.
    • The Moment You Fall in Love.
    • Our Love Has Always Been 10cm Apart.
    • How to Enjoy This World
  • Other:
    • Watashi, Idol Sengennote 
    • Mister Darlingnote 
    • Oath of Heartsnote 

Miscellaneous

  • LIP×LIP Radionote 
  • 70 Okubun no 1 no Koi note 
  • HoneyWorks Premium Livenote 


Tropes Shared by Both Series:

  • Acme Products: As with all of HoneyWorks' later songs, HoneyWorks (or Haniwa, occasionally) is not simply a band. It has brand and merchandise everywhere in the setting, from food to makeup to even radio.
  • Animation Bump: The series' music videos were somewhat sketchy and monochromatic in the beginning. As time went on, the art got more detailed and streamlined, and most music videos were in full color though they still retained some monochromatic scenes. Compare one of Hatsukoi no Ehon's scenes to its novelization's art, for example.
  • Art Shift: Every so often, one of the PVs is done by a HoneyWorks member that's not Yamako. Sometimes it will look rough, semi-realistic, and colored with muddy tones and values (Rocoru), and other times it will look pastel with minimal shading (Mogelatte). The changes also usually have to do with the tone of the story being told.
  • Character Blog: Yuu, Natsuki, Souta, and Haruki from the Love Series and LIP×LIP, Sena, Minami, Nakuru, and Mona from the Idol Series each have in-character social media accounts. They very rarely update beyond when a song involving the character comes out.
  • Crossover: The series scores one with Sanrio Puroland, specifically with My Melody and Kuromi. LIP×LIP was the poster duo for or it, though; Yujiro repped Melody, while Aizo did the same for Kuromi. Merchandise for the main six of the Love Series did show up, thankfully.
  • Early-Bird Cameo:
    • Before Hina shows up in "Embarrassment-hiding Adolescence", she gets her own profile along with the original six in Confession Rehearsal ZERO.
    • Koyuki shows up in "Diagnosis: Lovesickness" and "Embarrassment-Hiding Adolescence" before his song proper.
    • Mona, at least in the PV series, gets a photo in "I Want to Become Cute" before her first character song "My Idol Declaration".
    • LIP×LIP has plenty of moments before they're properly introduced. Hiyori and Yujiro appear at the tail end of "Blooming into the Color of Love" before their feature in "Romeo" and its corresponding vomic. Yujiro also appears (with Aizo this time) during one of Sena's photo shoots in "Sunday's Secret", and "Romeo" blares through a fast food joint (with corresponding advertisements) during the second movie.
    • Chizuru first appears as a nameless girl wary of Hiyori and the LIP×LIP boys in the "Romeo" vomic. She is later revealed to be a girl Hiyori befriends later, as seen in "Heroine Taru Mono!".
  • Fake Band: LIP×LIP is treated as such. They exist as a group in real life, providing songs for other projects and series, but they are always referred to as Yujiro and Aizo instead of their seiyuu. The same is true of Mona and Minami.
  • The Four Loves: Yes, this series covers eros, but the other Loves are covered too:
    • Storge: "Embarrassment-Hiding Adolescence", "Lonely Boy", and the entire Narumi and Serizawa sibling character arcs focus on the love between siblings. "Happiness." focuses on familial love in general.
    • Agape: "Happiness" again, from parent to child where the Narumi parents are concerned. One can also make the case for "Fansa" showing Mona's unconditional love for her fans, and theirs to her.
    • Philia: The friend groups in general are very close-knit and would do anything for each other. Yujiro and Aizo in particular have their character arcs also address how their presence in each other's lives helped them get out of their familial funks. ASCANA's Asuka and Kanata also rely on each other a lot, especially with Asuka losing loved ones in the past. The same could be said for Chiaki and Akechi in their younger years.
  • Let's Duet: Ignoring LIP×LIP who has it built into the duo's gimmick, there have been a few notable duets in the Love series. Most will be between couples ("Sunday's Secret", "Thank You For Choosing Me/I Was Supposed to Hate You."), but some will be platonic ("Sis×Love").
  • One-Word Title:
    • Love Series: "Senpai.", "YELLOW", "Seika"
    • Idol Series: "Romeo", "Nonfantasy", "Fansa", "BLUE", "TASTE"
    • Albums: LOVE
  • Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Pink is one of the most recurring motif colors, and every time it's used, it's always on girls. Akari, Sena, Mona, and eventually Hiyori are all associated with a different shade, and all of them are extremely feminine—or in Hiyori's case, trying to present more femininely. Conversely, every time blue is introduced, it gets associated with a guy (Yu, Koyuki, Kotaro, Yujiro). Yu/Natsuki is the closest to this dynamic.
  • Red String of Fate:
    • One version of the stills from "Ima Suki ni Naru." shows Hina and Kotaro connected by one; Hina has it wrapped around her waist, while it squeezes and binds Kotarou's heart.
    • The song "The Red Thread on Flowers" evokes the motif.
    • Hiyori, Yujiro, and Aizo are connected through this in "Nonfantasy". Hiyori holds both their strings in her grasp.
  • School of No Studying: Sakuragaoka High School has plenty of extracurriculars to offer (some of which even result in subplots), but as for outright studying or doing schoolwork, it hardly gets a passing mention. Most of the time we see the cast in school, they're hanging out, passing by time in Club, or simply leaving the premises.
  • Series Mascot: Being the flagship franchise of HoneyWorks, many things related to CEC instead represent HoneyWorks as a whole, and in particular the first generation of students see use as this frequently.
  • Shoujo: And how! The series is very clearly shoujo inspired, and even has the art style to match.
  • Standalone Song: It's a long series, so some of the songs apply here:
    • "Detained Teacher" largely serves as this, since the PV series doesn't go in-depth about the relationship between Haruki, Saku, and Chiaki as the rest of the franchise does, and wraps up their drama relatively neatly in one go.
    • The Youbi series (Midori/Sena's arc) can be divorced from the rest of the videos without much problem, given that their problems don't intersect with the rest of 3-2 or 1-1's problems. To drive the point home, they're not even in the same class as their first gen peers (excluding Haruki).
    • "I Want to Become Cute" is purely a song about Sena's thoughts and feelings concerning her desire to be pretty and seen, and only tangentially references the other characters.
    • Likewise, "Little Lion" can easily be seen as another one of LIP×LIP's in-universe music videos, as the story is mostly a Magic Realism tale about a cat with the idols playing second fiddle.
    • "Mister Darling" is primarily about the Narumis' parents, and even out of context can be taken as a song about a girl wants to keep the spark in her relationship as she gets older.
    • With "Kessen Spirit" added to the Love Series roster in late 2020, it stands out from the rest of the franchise in that it doesn't focus on anyone related to the main cast at all. The PV for this one is a hot blooded Sports Story about kids from a completely different school, and only a handful of characters make irrelevant cameos.

Individual Tropes:

     Love Series 
  • Aborted Declaration of Love:
    • Confession Rehearsal opens with Natsuki confessing her feelings for Yuu. Suddenly embarrassed, she immediately passes it off as a joke, saying that the Love Confession was just a rehearsal for someone else.
    • Double Subverted in "Right Now, I'll Fall in Love"; Hina writes a love letter and is about to confess to Koyuki, but as this happens during "Confession Rehearsal" and "Confession Rival Declaration", she hides it behind her back since she sees Koyuki's not in any mood to listen to a love confession. But when she sees how upset Koyuki is, she accidentally blurts out a confession anyway, which Koyuki misinterprets as comforting him. Hina never lets him think otherwise.
    • At the end of "The Day When I Called Your Name", Souta falls asleep before he can confess to Akari again over the phone, with his message still ready and typed up on the screen. It's not clear if he stopped himself or he actually just drifted off, though.
  • Album Title Drop:
    • Boku ja Dame Desu Ka? is the very last line of "A Solution for Jealousy", and as it's featured as the first song on the CD, it's even more poignant.
    • Likewise, Arisa's Love Confession in "Saucy Honey" (suki sugite, yabai!) is the title of the third album, where both it and its "-another story-" are featured.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: Goes in a line, practically. We have Kotaro, who has a crush on Hina, who likes Koyuki, who's in love with Natsuki, who's going out with Yuu. In Misuzu High, Karen's best friend has a one-sided crush on her.
  • Almost Kiss: Kotaro and Hina have one in "Thank You For Choosing Me." when they have alone time in one of their rooms, but they get interrupted by Yu and Natsuki before they can go any further.
  • Alone Among the Couples:
    • "Blooming into the Colour of Love" cements this trope with Yamamoto, as near the end he's taking a picture of all of the major couples in the story yet has no pairing of his own. And even among his friends group, Kotaro still has Hina (albeit in a love triangle) and Shibaken has his story with Arisa. Even the end of the video gets in on this by introducing a new couple's love storynote  near the end.
    • In the main group, it's Koyuki who ends up as this, since the object of his affections is already in a relationship. "Blooming into the Color of Love" emphasizes it, as in the photo of all the main couples he's just standing awkwardly next to Souta, and in "Senpai." he graduates without forming a romantic relationship with his only other prospective love interest, Hina. The way he looks at the three main couples in "Understand This Youth" implies that he's actually upset about his circumstances, at least a little bit.
  • Always in Class One: Hina's cast of characters are in class 1-1, as we know from both the PVs and the novel.
  • Am I Just a Toy to You?: "Mean Encounter" has Arisa constantly asking this to Shibaken, to see if he's serious about his feelings for her. The PV ends with Shibaken being confronted by some of his exes, and having to sweet talk his way out of trouble. Arisa at that point happens to be nearby, and even though she's starting to like him back, witnessing the scene causes her to wonder if the nice words he's said to her were all a lie.
  • Amusement Park: Sena and Midori go on their first date at one in "Sunday's Secret". It's not until several dates afterwards that they start officially going out.
  • Anachronic Order: The songs generally do not follow a strict chronology. For instance, "First Love Picture Book"(the first song in the series) reveals that Miou and Haruki do not get together in high school, while several later songs explore their Cannot Spit It Out dynamic.
    • There are also a couple of later songs which revisit Natsuki's confession to Yu at the end of "Confession Rehearsal" from other characters' perspectives (specifically Koyuki's in "Confession Rival Declaration" and Hina's in "Right Now, I'll Fall in Love").
    • Also, "Assertion of the Heart" ends where the previous song, "Mean Encounter", starts, with Arisa giving Ken a hard time for his Casanova behavior.
  • Animal Motifs: The Shibasaki brothers appear to have cats as their patron animal. "Lonely Boy" focuses on stray cats as metaphors for them, and they own a couple of cats at home. Aizo ends up befriending Minami, a boy introduced with a feline motif, and Ken ends up dating the cat-like Arisa. In previous images by Yamako, however, Ken was commonly drawn with imaginary dog ears, referencing his loyal and playfully affectionate feelings for Arisa.
  • An Aesop: The overarching one is "going for your goals, even if you don't know the outcome, is better than staying still and not doing it at all".
    • Miou (and as we later see, Haruki) regretted everyday that she wasn't able to overcome her mental blocks so that she could be with the one she loves. Sure it might have worked out in the end since Haruki came back for a brief time so they could talk things out, but she had no idea that would even happen; she could have gone the rest of her life pining for a love that would never be realized.
    • Akechi tells Souta as much before he goes on to confess to Akari in "A Solution for Jealousy".
    • Koyuki decides he wants to change himself to go after Natsuki, the girl he loves; and although he knows that he has no chance with her, his physical overhaul did wonders, and he's not looked on with pity or as a weakling anymore.
  • Anguished Declaration of Love: Natsuki cries while giving her proper confession to Yu at the end of the "I've Always Liked You" movie. It's downplayed in the equivalent scene in "Confession Rehearsal", where she yells it out when Yu turns to leave.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling:
    • Natsuki's younger brother Kotaro has a Hair-Trigger Temper and frequently bickers with Natsuki by calling her names. He gets so loud that the neighbors (Yu and Hina) could hear them fight.
    • Yuu's younger sister Hina is very spoiled, and frequently uses her brother's stuff without permission, occasionally breaking them. In the vomic, she remarked how Kotaro is such a brat, and Yuu's response was pretty much, "You're one to talk."
    • Souta's younger sister is this. In addition, he has a meddlesome older sister, and both girls love to pick on him.
    • Averted entirely with the Narumi sisters. Sena is revealed to have Mona in "I Want to Become Cute", and only sometimes gets into fights with her. However, they're the most openly supportive sibling pair in the series, and both really admire each other.
  • Arc Symbol: The stairway on Haruki and Miou's route home seem to be this for the pair, as it's present in every video they're in and something of an iconic scene portraying their "so close, but yet so far" relationship.
  • Arc Words:
    • "10 centimeters" for Miou and Haruki's arc. It references the fact that they're always so close from telling each other how they feel but are too shy to actually say it, and also because their hands are literally centimeters away from touching each other's when they sit next to each other. Even the anime that adapts their arc references the phrase.
    • Sota's is "Am I not good enough?" (boku ja dame desu ka). All of his image songs feature the phrase, referring to his insecurities over liking Akari. Even in "Engagement War", one of his character's lines has him ask a King (played by Yu) if he was marriage material for his daughter (played by, unsurprisingly, Akari).
  • Armor-Piercing Question: The first time Shibasaki tries to talk to Arisa, he tries to flirt with her and chat her up. Arisa simply asks Shibasaki if he finds any of this boring, and from then on he pursues her.
  • Babies Ever After: "Tokyo Spring Session" shows that Natsuki and Yu are the first of their friend group to have a child. Haruki and Miou name him, and he attends their wedding with his parents. An illustration made by Yamako released after the song and PV came out shows that Sota/Akari and Haruki/Miou will eventually have a son and daughter respectvely, while Yu and Natsuki have another kid.
  • Bland-Name Product: Midori has a very large stash of "Nyump" manga in his room.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Hina and Kotaro's relationship in a nutshell. One moment they're arguing like longtime acquaintances, the next you see that they on some level care for each other.
  • Beta Couple: Yu and Natsuki hook up very early in the series, and their relationship, while it has occasional ups and downs, doesn't involve as much drama and UST as the other couples do.
  • Betty and Veronica: For Hina's Archie, we have the ever present, Patient Childhood Love Interest Kotaro as her Betty, and the Bishounen, popular yet shy, and unobtainable Koyuki as her Veronica. The store advertisements for HoneyWorks's third album even tease this, given that this series' pairings become mascots for HoneyWorks albums after release: Animate's has Hina and Koyuki stand together, while for Tower Records Kotaro and Hina are the mascots instead.
  • Bittersweet Ending:
    • "Right Now, I'm in Love." ends with Hina's confession falling on deaf ears and her running away to cry. Despite this, Kotaro comes up to check up on her and Yu takes her out to cheer her up, showing that she indeed has people to rely on even after she had her heart broken.
    • "Ugly Creatures" ends on Karen and her friend making up, but the friend decides not to tell Karen about her romantic feelings for her.
  • Bowdlerize: "Mean Encounter" gets a bit of a coverup when it's seen in HoneyWorks Premium Live. While it is still implied that Ken was fooling around with a girl in the nurse's office in one particular scene, the original PV has them partially undressed while the Premium Live version keeps their clothes on.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Among the three main guys, there's Haruki (blond), Souta (brunette) and Yu (redhead - sort of). Averted with their girls though.
  • Book Ends:
    • The series' first release was "First Love Picture Book", which introduced us to this world through Miou and Haruki's awkward love story. Chronologically, they're also the last of the main group to try and finish theirs, as they meet again 6 years later to pick up where they left off.
    • The story of Haruki and Miou's relationship closes with a shot of Miou's book in "Our Minute and a Second", where it began with a shot of it in "First Love's Picture Book".
    • "Blooming into the Color of Love's" PV begins and ends with a different set of schoolmates getting ready for the first day of school.
    • "Lonely Boy" begins with Ken congratulating Aizo on getting into Sakuragaoka, only for Aizo to snap "What for?". The song ends with Ken again congratulating his little brother and Aizo again asking what for, only this time Aizo is more embarrassed.
  • Call-Back:
    • The picture from "Blooming into the Color of Love" reappears in "Our Minute and a Second" as a keepsake Miou has of her highschool years.
    • The "10 centimeters" line from "First Love Picture Book" reappears in "Our Minute and a Second" and in "Re: First Love's Picture Book", in reference to how Miou and Haruki never could close the distance between each other until they meet up again 6 years later.
    • Natsuki excuses her hasty preparation for Valentine's day with "we can just practice for it!" (yokou renshuu) in "Tokyo Winter Session". Miou and Haruki also do their back-to-back pose from "First Love's Picture Book", but Miou holds a red menu instead of her red yearbook.
    • In "We're Coming Out As Lovers!", Koudai and Juri have an intimate confession in a classroom very similar to how Yu and Natsuki did it a year prior. Appropriate, since Koudai sees a lot of Natsuki's personality in Juri.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Both Miou and Haruki, towards each other. They spend a lot of time together, talking about pointless stuff, but can't bring themselves to deal with direct confessions.
    • In "First Love Picture Book", Miou sings about how she's too cowardly to confess to her crush, Haruki, and now that they've both graduated high school and parted ways, she wonders what could have happened if she did confess.
    • "Goodbye, Our Mutual Unrequited Love" reveals that Haruki actually likes Miou back, but was likewise too scared to confess to her. After graduation, he moved away to another country, and one of his biggest regrets was being unable to say "I love you" to Miou. Still, he hopes that they'll meet again someday, and then he'll confess.
    • There have been occasions where they half-confess, but they don't make any real progress. One day, the two were walking home together, and Miou asked Haruki if he has someone he likes, to which he answered yes. He asked her the same thing, and she also answered yes. Then they both parted ways thinking the other is in love with someone else, even though they're clearly talking about each other.
    • In "Tokyo Summer Session", the two went to watch fireworks together, and was looking to hold each other's hands. But since they're too shy to do so, Haruki instead hides his hands in his pockets, while Miou hides hers behind her back. They eventually settled with Miou tugging at Haruki's sleeves though.
  • Call-Forward: While Sena giving Midori her umbrella is something she already did in the original "Friday's Good Morning", the framing of the shot is given a nod. The end of "Happiness." shows Sena's hand reaching out to Midori, just as the end of "Friday's Good Morning" places emphasis on Midori's hand reaching out to Sena as he gives her back her umbrella.
  • Cast Herd: Generally, most interactions and groupings follow what year the characters are in. The third years all have their small arcs going on and are involved in each other's, while the first years do the same with very minimal interference from their upperclassmen.
  • Cat Fight: "Heroine Tarumono!" has Hiyori and Chizuru duke it out as the climax of the video, due to the latter hating the former for getting close to her favorite idols. The fight is for the most part played for laughs, but it gets a bit more aggressive when they start making actual punches and almost complete a Cross Counter.
  • Cathartic Scream: After Koyuki witnesses Natsuki's confession to Yu, we see that he goes to the school rooftop to yell some time afterwards.
  • Changing Yourself for Love: "Confession Rival Declaration" features Koyuki, who was previously shy and put-upon by bullies, suddenly forcing himself to exercise and get a more masculine haircut in the middle of his third year of high school. He admits that he only does so to grab Natsuki's affection.
  • Chick Magnet: Koyuki after his haircut, and the LIP×LIP boys by virtue of being handsome, popular idols.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: Every generation of characters has at least one character who falls in love with their childhood friend of the opposite sex:
    • Yu and Natsuki have been close friends since childhood, and their relationship eventually develops into romance. Likewise, their younger siblings have grown up together as well, although Kotaro's crush on Hina is one-sided... at least until "I Was Supposed to Hate You." reveals that Hina now has some budding feelings for Kotaro too.
    • In the third generation, this trope eventually gets applied to Hiyori, as Nagisa Shiranami is revealed to be a friend and schoolmate from Hiyori's hometown and his crush on her is retroactively added in from the anime.
    • Discussed by Chizuru in Heroines Run the Show, where she chastises Hiyori for rejecting Nagisa's confession to her and makes a passionate speech about how girls love the fantasy of a good-looking childhood friend falling in love with them.
  • Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends:
    • Koyuki is this incarnate. In his love triangle with Hina, he mistakes her confession for pity and pushes Kotaro towards the girl, ultimately leading to the latter two falling in love. With Natsuki and Yu he leaves them be, happy yet heartbroken. So where does that leave him by the end of the story? Tokyo Winter Session solves this by introducing his third love interest.
    • Karen's POV sequel ends with her adjusting more to school life, as well as reciprocating the affection of a baseball player who had a crush on her.
  • Clip Show:
    • The PV for "Blooming Into the Color of Love" is pretty much this, going back and forth with scenes already shown up to that point and previewing scenes from later PVs, before giving up new material in introducing Hiyori and Yujiro.
    • "Do You Hear Me's" PV is just an AMV made up of all the relevant clips from Our Love Has Always Been 10 Centimeters Apart.
    • Similar to the above, the videos for "YELLOW" and "Blue Flowers" are made up of the relevant clips from How to Enjoy This World.
  • Cool Teacher: Akechi Saku, who is apparently liked by all his students, and occasionally gives personal advice for his troubled students.
  • Creator Cameo: CHiCO, who sings many of the series' songs, appears as a chibi version of her avatar in "Understand This Youth".
  • A Day in the Limelight:
    • "Detained Teacher" serves as one for Akechi-sensei, as we get a look into his and Haruki's friendship before he became a teacher and his personal feelings about certain subjects.
    • Koyuki is given "Confession Rival Declaration", a character song that explains his side of Natsuki's love dilemmas and his hopeless crush on the girl.
    • "O Maidens" serves as this for Karen, showing her in high school dealing with her maturity as a young woman.
  • Dedication: Midori's musical performance in "Sunday's Secret" appears to be one to Sena, given that the image displayed on screen while he's performing is of her.
  • Demoted to Extra: Koyuki ends up being this to some extent. In most merchandise he's seen with the six core characters since he's friends with them, but he really has minimal bearing on the plot besides his already resolved feelings for Natsuki and his being crushed on by Hina. Especially in the latter's case, as he's supposed to be part of the series Love Triangle yet has little to no say in it (because he doesn't even know he's in one).
  • Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: As Souta absentmindedly looks at Akari, his "in love" train of thought spills out into the open and he tells her that he's going to "fall in love all over again" just looking at her.
  • Did Not Get the Girl: Or guy, it depends. Not everyone gets with their first love:
    • Koyuki's character song, "Confession Rival Declaration", ends with his crush never noticing his feelings and coupling with somebody else.
    • Hina is played with; her character songs also end with her feelings for her first love going unrecognized, but she eventually moves on to Kotaro the following year.
    • Minami's "1% Lover" has his confession rejected by Nakuru, but her wanting to remain friends with him. Subverted again in "Boyfriend Qualifications", which sees Nakuru changing her mind.
    • Hiyori spends "Heroine Development Plan" pining after Asuka, but her feelings also go unreciprocated because he wants to focus on his career. This changes in the anime and later music continuity, which has Nagisa initially get rejected by Hiyori so she can focus on her manager job, but she became more aware of him as a guy and is implied to come around to him in the future.
  • Distant Finale: "Goodbye, Our Mutual, Unrequited Love" ends with Haruki coming back from America after 6 years. The end of "Ippun Ichibyou Kimi to Boku no" and parts of "First Love Picture Book" show what had happened to some of the cast at that point in time.
  • Double Date: "Tokyo Summer Session" features a triple date, as the three main couples go to watch a fireworks festival. The song shows how Natsuki and Yuu's relationship is still going strong despite many minor squabbles, how Akari is beginning to reciprocate Souta's feelings for her, and how Miou and Haruki still can't move forward with their relationship because of their UST.
  • Double Meaning: The conversation Kotaro and Koyuki have while they're watering plants in "Understand This Youth" is also implicitly a conversation about their love lives, with Koyuki unknowingly giving Kotaro some advice both on nurturing his plants and his budding love.
  • Downer Ending:
    • "Confession Rival Declaration" ends with all of Koyuki's efforts to win Natsuki over rendered useless, and his screaming in frustration after he accepts his defeat. It's hard to hear the song like this though, considering the bouncy melody.
    • "1% Lover" is more or less the same as the above, but with Minami being explicitly rejected by Nakuru and ending with Minami's first real heartbreak.
  • Dude Looks Like a Lady: A lot of Koyuki's classmates often tease him for looking so girly, especially before he had a makeover.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • In the first couple of videos for "First Love Picture Book", Miou is drawn to resemble Gumi a lot more, and even had green hair in a colored picture. This is before the universe and song list got expanded, so this is understandable.
    • In addition, "First Love's Picture Book" and "Confession Rehearsal" didn't have any of the main six interact with each other and kept the videos self-contained, which is especially strange considering how important their friendship was. This is Retconned in later installments of the franchise, which have the characters interact more during their respective arcs (especially in Haruki and Mio's case, since their arc takes place throughout all of high school).
  • Ensemble Cast: The meat of the story is about a group of students and their relationships with each other. All together, the main focus centers around 14 students, with each character getting at least one song explaining their sides of the story.
  • Everyone Can See It:
    • Because of their closeness, pretty much everyone not in the focus group of 14 thinks that Haruki and Miou are already dating, or at least preparing to.
    • Kotaro's crush on Hina is well known to everyone in his friendship circle, and when Hina starts developing feelings for him, everyone notices that just as easily.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Arisa puts her hair into twintails after finding some inspiration in Sena, and keeps it that way throughout high school.
  • Everyone Must Be Paired: Aside from the idols, who collectively decide not to date anyone, most named characters will eventually couple off. If they haven't done so in their debut generation, such as Koyuki, Akechi, or Kodai, then they'll get a partner and accompanying song years later. In Hiyori's case, since most of her generation was off limits and her initial love interest rejected her (at least in one continuity), she eventually gets coupled off with Nagisa. The only character with a romance arc that truly stays single is Chisa.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Midori and Sena have been very, very careful about their relationship, to the point where after graduation, they only hang out in person on Wednesday while Sena's disguised. They could have never guessed that their small, innocuous heart-to-heart in "Wednesday's Promises" (happening at night, near her house) would lead to a scandal, since they never considered the paparazzi would try to keep tabs on Sena even as close and as late as they did that night.
  • First Love: Haruki and Miou are each other's, Natsuki is Yuu's and Koyuki's, and Koyuki is Hina's. Even after Koyuki leaves after graduation, Hina remarks that Koyuki still has (and always will have) a place in her heart.
  • Flipping the Bird: Briefly seen in the "O Maidens" PV where Karen does this to her younger self, emphasizing how much she despised her own cowardice and passiveness. This is also one of the only times in the song series where you get to see an explitive.
  • Flower Motifs:
    • Hina is often associated with tulips. In "Senpai.", she has a white tulip during the end, which signifies a new love. The motif gets repeated in "The Red Thread on Flowers" at that video's end, but she's seen in a red tulip first. Red tulips often signify a "perfect love", but this one wilts in favor of the white, signifying Hina and Koyuki not getting together, and her growing feelings for Kotaro after Koyuki leaves.
    • Kotaro is seen next to some poppies in "Understand This Youth". Poppies can also symbolize an "idle love", which is a perfect fit for his relationship with Hina, and an even bigger fit with Hina's ultimate relationship with Koyuki, as it lingers on a set of poppies in the opening of the second movie.
  • Foregone Conclusion: We already know from "First Love Picture Book" (the very first song in the series) that Miou and Haruki aren't getting together during high school, so all we can do is watch them try and fail at reaching the other's heart.
    • Yu and Natsuki get together in "Confession Rehearsal", well before "Confession Rival Declaration", so we know in the latter song that Koyuki's feelings for Natsuki are destined to remain unrequited.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • The last chorus of "Diagnosis: Lovesickness" shows Natsuki as a bride chasing Yu as a groom around. In the novels, the Distant Finale takes place around the time of their actual wedding.
    • "Embarrassment-Hiding Adolescence" quickly goes over a couple of frames explaining why Hina's crying at the end of the video that would eventually be used for "Ima Suki ni Naru", showing that she fell in love with Koyuki.
    • "Blooming into the Color of love" makes reference to the "The Day When" songs, as it shows a brief scene of Souta running in the city with a gift during Christmastime, but doesn't explain why. They also show Akari's cheek being touched by Souta and her reaction to it. The MV also shows scenes from "Senpai." that wouldn't be used in a proper video until months later.
    • There's a sign in "I Was Supposed to Hate You." that announces LIP×LIP performing at Sakuragaoka's school festival, foreshadowing the fact that they're students in Hina's second year.
    • Ken is seen looking at a music video featuring LIP×LIP in it with a strange expression. Take note that the video as it's shown only has Aizo in it while Ken's passing by, establishing a connection between the two boys. The series later reveals Aizo to be a Shibasaki.
  • Freudian Trio: "The Three Idiots" consisting of Kotaro, Shibaken and Yamamoto Koudai. Yamamoto is the quiet and serious bookworm (Superego), Shibaken is the attention-seeking playboy (Id), while Kotaro is the somewhat insecure idiot who tries to be both (Ego).
  • Funny Background Event:
    • As mentioned in Shout-Out below, Makishima can be seen wildly biking up a hill while Koyuki goes to the barber's in "Confession Rival Declaration".
    • During the third round of "Do You Like Your Teacher?" in "Detained Teacher", Akechi mouths to the students to say yes.
    • While Midori is practicing his "good morning" for Sena in the boys' bathroom, one can spot Koyuki coming out of a stall freaked out by Midori's repetitions.
  • Generation Xerox:
    • The Setoguchi/Enomoto pairings are scarily similar; both of the girls in the relationship are in a Childhood Friend Romance situation with their older, brunet love interest, but are also stuck dealing with an unrequited love concerning Koyuki (however, one is loved by him while one is in love with him). In the end, both boys end up confronting Koyuki about the situation, and then both girls end up dating their childhood friend.
    • Chiaki and Akechi's school days are a mirror of Haruki and Yu's. Chiaki played the energetic, passionate and more positive friend like Haruki would later do, and Akechi was the coolheaded best friend Yu is. "Secret Romance's" Yamato Ogino serves as their analogue to Souta, as he's a clumsy young man trying to win the heart of a long haired seemingly unattainable girl.
  • Girls Stare at Scenery, Boys Stare at Girls: Akari and Souta respectively in "Tokyo Summer Session", when they watch the fireworks display. Akari looks up and calls the display pretty (kirei da ne), while Souta says the exact same thing while looking at an oblivious Akari.
  • GIS Syndrome: The backgrounds featured in the photo montage in "Sunday's Secret's" PV are very obviously shopped in compared to the characters.
  • The Glasses Gotta Go: Koyuki becomes popular with girls after removing his glasses and getting a new hairdo.
  • Grief Song: "Can You Hear Me" is one expressed from Haruki to his dead older brother Chiaki. It's clear he felt lost without him growing up, and asks him if he's watching over him throughout the song.
  • Hair Color Dissonance:
    • Yu supposedly has brown hair, but many illustrations adds some red/purple highlights, presumably to keep it from looking too similar to Natsuki and Souta's hair colours.
    • Akari's hair has purple tones, although in-universe it's probably supposed to represent dark brown/black hair.
  • He Is All Grown Up: Kotaro hits a major growth spurt in his second year of high school and grows out his hair, and throughout the year Hina has been finding herself staring at him more often.
  • History Repeats: Yuusuke and Ayako Narumi first truly interacted when the former lent his umbrella to the latter as she was crying in the rain. Their daughter, Sena, finally begins interacting with her crush Midori when she lends him her umbrella on a rainy day.
  • Holding Hands: Akari and Souta hold hands in "Tokyo Summer Session" to signify their Relationship Upgrade.
  • Hot Springs Episode: "I Was Supposed to Hate You." has Hina and Kotaro go to one. He calls her out alone asks if there's someone she likes. She's still not over Koyuki at that point, and says yes.Except she's starting to like Kotaro now too.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
    • Sena and Midori's relationship retroactively receives the name of the "Youbi" (Days of the Week) series, since each song gets a different day (Friday's Good Mornings, Sunday's Secret, Wednesday's Promise, Thursday's Scandal). Oddly enough, Mona also gets a weekday (Monday).
    • Hiyori's character arc in the song series always includes "Heroine" in the title (Heroine Development Plan, Role of a Heroine, My Heroine Power is Waning).
  • I Love You Because I Can't Control You: In "Mean Encounter", Shibaken falls for Arisa because she's not swayed by his charms.
  • In-Series Nickname: Most of Natsuki's friends call her Nacchan, while Souta's friends usually call him Mochita. Shibasaki is usually called Shibaken by his pals.
  • Irony: The point of Akechi sitting Haruki down in detention was to have him reflect on what he's done. In "Detained Teacher", this instead happens to himself, as he's now reflecting on what might have put a rift in between their friendship, with Haruki asking all the tough questions. Reminder, this all in Haruki's detention session.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Koyuki likes Natsuki, and was willing to change himself to appeal to her more. But when he saw her get together with Yuu, he decided to cheer for them anyway.
  • "Just Joking" Justification:
    • The first time Natsuki confesses to Yuu, she chickens out at the last minute, saying that she was just trying to make his heart race.
    • "Propose" has Haruki ask Miou to stay by his side forever, but the song then goes on to say that he was only joking at that moment in time. It also shows that they're in their high school uniforms in the image for the song, so we all know how that one turned out.
  • Leitmotif: The first four bars of "Friday's Good Mornings" are a constant in songs featuring Sena and Midori together.
  • Lonely Piano Piece: "Right Now, I'm in Love -triangle story-" stands out as one, especially the instrumental version. It's also the only Perspective Flip song that even gets this treatment.
  • Longing Look: Everyone gives everyone else one of these. It is a romance story, after all.
  • Love Chart: Like any good romance story, this one comes with one on the series' main webpage.
  • Love Confession: It's the name of the series, after all. So far, there have been six of them, with a 50/50 success rate— Sota gives one to Akari in "A Solution for Jealousy" but was turned down; Ken gives one to Arisa in "Mean Encounter", but she brushes him off initially and may have worked if not for overhearing the wrong statements at the wrong time; and Hina blurts out one to Koyuki during "Right Now, I'll Fall in Love" but was mistaken. Only the Enomoto -> Setoguchi and Arisa's confessions so far come out unscathed; Natsuki gives hers to Yu in "Confession Rehearsal", he reciprocates because he's been crushing on her for a while as well, and they begin dating immediately, while Kotaro finally gives his to Hina while he comforts her in "I Was Supposed to Hate You", which was the trigger for Hina to truly fall for him. Turning the tables on Ken, Arisa eventually realizes her own feelings and confesses to Ken at her shrine, which he happily accepts.
  • Love Epiphany:
    • Diagnosis: Lovesickness is all about Natsuki coming to realize that she's in love with her good friend Yuu.
    • Hina realizes she's in love with Koyuki after he comes over to check on her in the hallway, coupled with herself piecing together why she's feeling the way she feels inside. She has another one in "I Was Supposed to Hate You" when she finds herself furiously blushing at Kotaro's confession.
    • The Day When I Knew Love has it right in the title for Akari, realizing that she'd fallen for Souta after their get-together on Christmas Eve.
    • Ken has his when he sees Arisa smile after offering his textbook in a totally unplanned, uncool, and genuine moment.
  • Love Letter:
    • Gathering up all of her courage, Hina decides to write a long, heartfelt confession letter for Koyuki before he graduates from high school. She never manages to give it to him, and the day she tries she's interrupted by his heartbreak over Yu and Natsuki finally getting together.
    • In "Former Student", Akechi recalls that one of his student admirers gave him a love letter and intended to confess to him, but he just thought she was playing with him at the time.
  • Love Triangle: Three of them, involving one of the same people even:
    • Natsuki falls in love with Yuu, but Koyuki is in love with her as well. Finally settles itself out when Natsuki rejects Koyuki's feelings and confesses to Yuu, who reciprocates. It gets expanded upon in the first novel, where Koyuki plays a more aggressive role in winning over Natsuki and butts heads with Yuu.
    • Hina is in love with Koyuki, but her childhood friend Kotaro is in love with her as well. "Senpai." reveals that even after she (sort of) confesses to him in "Right Now, I'll Fall in Love", she keeps her feelings to herself and does not get with Koyuki. Instead, "I Was Supposed to Hate You." sets up Kotaro and Hina together, as she starts to feel less than friendly feelings for the boy the year after Koyuki graduates.
    • "Romeo" sets up one with Yujiro and Aizo as the two competitors for the third's heart. The comic and arc make it so that Hiyori's set up to be the third angle, and the song proper has a fictional one between two princes of opposing kingdoms and a princess (played by Sena) as part of their music video's plot.
  • Meaningful Echo:
    • "Goodbye, Our Mutual Unrequited Love" has Haruki and Miou part ways by finally holding hands and letting them drift apart. The first thing Haruki does when he runs into Miou again in "Ippun Ichibyou Kimi to Boku no" is hold out his hand for them to join again.
    • In the beginning of the music video for "Senpai.", Hina is shown in an Imagine Spot confessing to Koyuki by whispering in his ear. Kotaro does the same thing in the real world to Hina when he finally gives his confession in "I Was Supposed to Hate You."
  • Meet Cute: The first time Koyuki meets Hina, he trips and spills all of his trash during Cleaning Day, all over the area where Hina was tidying up. She gets angry at him, he sees her panda panties, and she chases him all over the building.
  • Meet the In-Laws: "Wednesday's Promises" features a scene where Sena formally introduces Midori to her family. Surprisingly, the parents are instantly accepting; the one who isn't is Mona. We do get to see the scene from both sisters' perspectives in the -another story- and in "Sis Love".
  • Mood Whiplash:
    • "Senpai." starts out as a cute story about Hina and her crush on Koyuki throughout his high school years and her hopes for when they become a couple. Midway, it then turns into a bittersweet story about how she couldn't tell him how she truly felt before he graduated, how she loved him all the way through the day he left, and how she wished that they could have spent more time together. You can tell that they were going for this since they only play the first verse in The Moment You Fall in Love.
    • The Heroine Taru Mono! / 1% Lover single is a proper whiplash. Hiyori's image song is comical, optimistic, and ends on a good note when she eventually reconciles with her girl friends. "1% Lover", on the other hand, is a slow ballad about unrequited love with the song's heroine heavily implied to be a victim of domestic abuse.
  • More Experienced Chases the Innocent: Ken Shibasaki is a teen playboy, a noted skirt chaser, and a very social guy. Arisa Takamizawa, while outspoken and upbeat, has no dating experience, very few friends, and is reluctant to make more because of a past incident. She doesn't like Ken's carefree attitude and tells him off for it, which makes Ken pursue her. Eventually this leads to him being more patient and affectionate while she opens up to his advances slowly.
  • Mutual Pining: This is Miou and Haruki's relationship in a nutshell, with Haruki's answer to "First Love Picture Book" even being named "Goodbye, Our Mutual Unrequited Love".
  • No Loves Intersect: All of the third years have their own designated pairing (with one exception for a while, at least), and the songs make sure to keep them that way with minimal interference. The first years have a little more trouble given Kotaro and Hina's situation, but even there the pairings are pretty definite. Generally averted in the rest of the series, as the expanded plots complicate their romances.
  • Oblivious to Love:
    • The official character profile states that Akari is clueless about matters of romance, to the frustration of Souta, who has a crush on her.
    • Koyuki seems to be this to some extent, seeing that in "Right Now, I'll Fall in Love" he hears Hina's "I Like You" and misinterprets it as her comforting him after he'd just been rejected by Natsuki. Likewise, Natsuki is completely unaware that Koyuki's in love with her.
  • Ode to Family: "My Angel" is one from Sena to Mona, about how much she loves her sister and wants to support her throughout her trials as an idol.
  • Official Couple: After the events of "Confession Rehearsal", Yu and Natsuki officially hooked up with each other. After "Sunday's Secret", Sena and Midori join in the ranks of coupling.
  • Patchwork Kids: The first generation's kids are pretty much their parents give or take a few minor differences. Both of Yu and Natsuki's sons look like Yu and share his eye color, but their oldest son has Natsuki's hair color. Sota and Akari's daughter is a dead ringer for Akari but has Sota's eyes. Haruki and Miou's son looks like Haruki and Chiaki before him, but his eyes lean towards Miou's.
  • Perspective Flip: Several songs in the series have -another story- versions, which retell the events of those particular songs from another character's point-of-view. Usually, the response singer is the main singer's love interest, which makes "Right Now, I'll Fall in Love" a sort of Foregone Conclusion for Hina's endgame since it's not Koyuki, but Kotarou who gets the response song.
  • Production Throwback: Elements from HoneyWorks' other creations often make their way to this series' videos.
    • At one point, the song "Rockbell" was used as a BGM in the vomic.
    • Amaterasu from "The Currently Slightly-Rumored God" briefly appears in "Confession Rival Declaration" to reject Koyuki's prayer for success in his pursuit of love, while her acquaintances in Heaven cheer Koyuki on in his pursuit.
    • Related to the above, Ameterasu's Love Interest, Joe from "Yoshino, Running Away From Home" was included as one of the prop students in "Detained Teacher".
    • Miou sketches a picture of the main cast of "Dawn Moonlit Night's" PV in "Goodbye, Our Mutual Unrequited Love".
    • In "Right Now, I'll Fall in Love", The trio from "The World is Falling in Love" and "Love Chord" appear in the background while Hina's running in the hallway.
    • The couple from "Ai no Scenario" and the two friends from "A Promise That Doesn't Need Words" show up on the train in "The Day When I Called Your Name". The short haired girl from "The World is Falling in Love"/"Love Chord" sits next to Souta on his commute.
  • Questioning Title?: Boku ja Dame Desu Ka?
  • Recursive Fiction:
    • In I've Always Liked You, Natsuki goes out to a Honey Works concert, where the band is performing "Diagnosis: Love Sickness" to the crowd in the snippet we see. You know, the song that shows how Natsuki herself realizes that she'd fallen in love with Yuu?
    • Koyuki is seen reading the Confession Rehearsal light novel (the one that shows the girl he likes loves someone else) in both "Confession Rival Declaration" and "Understand This Youth".
  • Relationship Upgrade:
    • After rejecting Sota's confession in the "Solution for Jealousy" vomic, Akari finally reciprocates his feelings in "Tokyo Summer Session".
    • In "Tokyo Winter Session", Miou and Haruki finally managed to close he gap between each other and properly join hands.
    • Sena and Midori upgrade to "Secret Lovers" in "Sunday's Secret".
    • "I Was Supposed to Hate You." and its sequel "Thank You For Choosing Me" are all about how Koutarou and Hina become closer over the next stage of their lives.
    • "Saucy Honey" finally gets Ken and Arisa together.
    • "Tokyo Spring Session" finally, finally shows Haruki and Miou properly dating, as well as get married.
  • Remember the New Guy?: Ogino shows up in "Tokyo Winter Session" in a big romantic scene, where she finds Koyuki and tearfully embraces him. Anybody who hadn't been following the novels, and only accessed the PVs or anime, wouldn't know why she would have such emphasis, given that in the 29 videos beforehand she's never once shown up.
  • invokedRomance on the Set:Minami worked with the e-celebrity and influencer Nakuru (who played his love interest) on the "Bae Love" music video, and very quickly developed a crush on her while filming was going on. While he confessed to her properly, she rejected him on the grounds that she only saw him as a friend. They begin dating much later.
  • Romantic False Lead: Even though most media stressed the importance of Hina's crush on Koyuki, and even though they were often found side by side when they were first introduced, it quickly becomes apparent that Hina's endgame is Kotarou. He's the one that gets the response song to "Right Now, I'll Fall in Love" and has the most emotional development concerning his feelings for Hina, while Koyuki never seems to notice Hina's crush and didn't have a song of his own to describe how their relationship was. In the end, though Hina still has a place for Koyuki in her heart, she slowly starts developing feelings for Kotaro after Koyuki leaves.
  • Rotating Arcs: For the most part, all of the third years' songs get precedence, then the first years get focus, and it takes a bit of time before they focus on the first years again. After adding Hiyori and LIP×LIP, that's one more group to cycle through.
  • Secret Relationship: What started out with Midori and Sena hanging out in secret ends up with them dating in secret as well, by the time "Sunday's Secret" rolls around. They're found out in "Tuesday is Kiss Day"/"Thursday's Scandal".
  • Senior Year Struggles: Class 3-2 spends their first arcs fretting about various topics going into graduation. The Film Research Club is struggling to finish their final project, some characters are trying their hardest to confess their feelings before school lets out, and Haruki in particular is left thinking about whether or not he wants to study abroad and confess his feelings for Miou even though he won't be with her after this year.
  • Sequel Hook: "Confession Rival Declaration" ends with Koyuki learning that Natsuki loves someone else, and once he's alone, he screams up into the sky in frustration. Just as the video's about to end, we see Hina with a letter waiting for someone, hinting at the events of "Right Now, I'm in Love." The scene is repeated in I've Always Liked You.
  • Sequel Song: The series is long enough to warrant this:
    • "A Solution for Jealousy" -> "The Day When I Call Your Name"/ "The Day When I Knew Love"
    • "Assertion of the Heart", "Mean Encounter" -> "Saucy Honey"
    • "Friday's Good Morning" -> "Sunday's Secret" -> "Wednesday's Promises"
    • "I Was Supposed to Hate You." -> "Thank You for Choosing Me."
    • "Tokyo Summer Session" -> "Tokyo Winter Session" -> "Tokyo Autumn Session"
  • Shipper on Deck: Arisa immediately recognizes that Kotaro has a crush on Hina, and in the vomic tries to put some distance between Hina and Koyuki in order to have her talk to Kotaro more. When it looks like Hina is falling for Kotaro, she's equally as supportive. It seems that Natsuki, Shibaken and Yamamoto have recognized his crush on Hina as well.
  • Ship Sinking: After years of buildup, Hina/Koyuki goes down in "Senpai." once it reveals that Koyuki graduates without ever learning of Hina's crush on him.
  • Shout-Out: Characters from other Manga/Anime occasionally show up in the videos as background characters. These cameos were eventually altered or outright excised when the videos came to HoneyWorks Premium Live.
    • "Confession Rival Declaration" features Makishima and Onoda from Yowamushi Pedal and some characters from Free!.
    • Attack on Titan's Eren Yaeger and Levi Ackerman appear in "Right Now, I'll Fall in Love".
    • One can spot Mako Mankanshoku sleeping in the corner of the classroom in "Detained Teacher".
  • Solo Duet: "Detained Teacher" serves as one, since in both the Vocaloid and human version one singer is doing the parts of both Haruki and Akechi (V Flower and Hikaru Midorikawa, respectively).
  • Stock Shoujo Bullying Tactics: Arisa first meets a girl in middle school when she was being bullied by the girls in her class, and she had to deal with them saying things behind her back and writing nasty insults on her desk. After Arisa stood up for the girl and told her that things shouldn't go on like that, the girl was spared, but Arisa was subjected to the same treatment instead.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: "Tokyo Autumn Session" sees the main couples go through challenges beyond the typical shoujo romance drama. All six leads are now working adults, and struggle to make time for each other amidst their busy schedules. Even though the song ends in a happy note, it deals with the disappointment and anxiety of having to maintain a relationship that's becoming more difficult to hold together.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Right when asked, Koyuki denies accidentally peeping at Hina's panties, and then adding that he didn't see any panda panties either.
  • Translated Cover Version: HoneyWorks also put out an official English version of "Our Minute and One Second" sung by Kaneïra, which resides on their Youtube account. While somewhat hard to hear, is still grammatically correct.
  • Tears of Joy:
    • Miou cries these after encountering Haruki for the first time in years in "Our Minute and One Second".
    • When Ogino reunites with and embraces Koyuki in "Tokyo Winter Session", she's tearing up in happiness and relief.
  • Torch Song:
    • "First Love's Picture Book", both versions, concerns the singer regretting never telling their love interest how they felt while they were still in high school and still carrying a torch for them after years had passed.
    • Kotaro's first two major songs fall into this umbrella. "Right Now, I'm in Love. -triangle story-" is from his perspective growing up with Hina and is all about him acknowledging she's seemingly never going to look his way, while "Triangle Jealousy" is him being jealous of the attention Koyuki gets from her and worrying that their relationship will drift.
    • Koudai's "The View from a Lens" is about him wistfully recounting his first unrequited love.
  • Town Girls:
    • The original group has the assertive and boyish Natsuki, the motherly and feminine Akari, and the more homely Miou.
    • Hiyori's girl posse has herself (the sporty country girl), her Gyaru Girl friend Juri (who in a twist is pretty aggressive and confrontational), and her quiet and nerdy megane friend Chizuru (who in a twist is actually the very girly Chuu-tan).
  • Tsundere:
    • Hina with Kotaro. At first, she actually did hate how straightforward he was with her and was often stubborn with him, but over time, and especially during their second year of high school, she starts to admire those traits instead and masks it under indifference and more stubbornness.
    • Arisa with Ken as well. She acts aloof with him whenever he tries to flirt with her, but whenever he acts genuine or when he's being kind, she likes him but keeps it to herself. When she thinks Ken is trying to flirt again, she's genuinely heartbroken.
  • Twice Shy: Hanamaka Midori and Narumi Sena are strangers who meet each other on the train car on their way to school everyday. They both fancy each other, but neither could work up the courage to say "good morning" to one another, despite spending much of their free time practicing their greeting. By "Sunday's Secret" though, they've made more than enough process with it— Sena at least asks to sit next to Midori on the commute to school and they exchange phone numbers, and then over the passage of time escalates to secretly dating.
  • Two-Teacher School: The only form of faculty we get to see consistently in the series is Saku, while the rest of the teachers are mentioned but never seen. HoneyWorks' "Nostalgic Rainfall", while not officially a part of the series, does show off two more teachers at Sakuragaoka (Hiro Ogino and the female teacher).
  • Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: On Haruki and Mio's parts, they certainly believe this trope is the case since they never confess to each other before Haruki moves to America, and they keep their crushes going strong for 6 years before Haruki returns. In both of their cases they never mention dating or falling in love with anyone else while the time passed.
  • Uptown Girl:
    • Sena is a beautiful teen model falling in love with pseudo-tough normal boy Midori. In "Wednesday's Promises", he describes them as being worlds apart and they can only meet in disguise, but he still tries to make it work despite the scandal it would cause if they were ever seen together. Even with the risk and the troubles that come with it, both of them are still excited to chat with one another late at night every Wednesday.
    • Gender-inverted with the second real Love Triangle: Hiyori is a country bumpkin who moved to Tokyo, while her love interests Yujiro and Aizo are city boys and Teen Idols.
  • UST: Even though they're so close that almost everyone else assumes they're already going out together, both Haruki and Miou think their love for each other is unrequited. In all versions, they asked each other if they have someone they like, and both answered yes, resulting in a misunderstanding where both think the other likes someone else.
  • Wedding Episode: "Tokyo Spring Session", for Miou and Haruki.

    Idol Series 
  • 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The gazebo in "Romeo's" PV is quite obviously a 3D asset, although it's not easy to see on a first viewing.
  • All Just a Dream: The majority of the PV for "Nonfantasy" takes place inside Hiyori's dreams, as she sleeps in front of the TV. The music video the dream was based on was real, however—she just imagined herself in the role of the in-universe music video's heroine.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Everything leading up to the PV for "Romeo". Both the comic and the promotional material for "Romeo" portray it as a love triangle between Hiyori, Yujiro, and Aizo with Hiyori in the center. Come the actual video for "Romeo", and Hiyori's nowhere to be seen save for a cameo; in fact the three don't interact at all as a trio, and the PV only serves as an introduction to some plotlines and character interactions. The novel versions have them hinted at liking her; however, she ends up falling in love with ASCANA's Asuka Kaido (or Nagisa Shiranami after Retcons) while she serves as LIP×LIP's beleaguered manager.
  • Better Partner Assertion: LIP×LIP's song "Judge" has both singers do this. Using a very thinly veiled metaphor of a judge and a court, the two singers each bring up their strengths and assert that they'll be the partner that will make their love interest happy. The "judge" is apparently not convinced enough, and the song ends with the singers still making their cases to higher and higher courts.
  • Bittersweet 17: mona's aptly named "Age Seventeen" covers this topic. Of particular note is a hypothetical argument between her parents concerning her getting a (in-video) boyfriend; her father says she's too young for one at seventeen, while her mother says that she should have had one by seventeen and they can't hold her back forever.
  • The Cameo: Dolce's Fuuma Shirayuki, s×c's Full Throttle 4, Virtual Johnny's Project's Asuka Kaido and Kanata Nichigoya, and Mona show up during the concert in "Yappa Saikyou!".
  • Cock Fight: "Romeo" has the Princes of the West and East duel each other and try to one up each other to have the hand of the beautiful Princess.
  • Continuity Cavalcade: "How to Enjoy This World" is pretty much a montage of all of Yujiro and Aizo's biggest songs and projects over the course of the three out-of-universe years they've been a part of.
  • invokedFan Community Nicknames: All of the main idols have a fan group name, retained out of universe as well:
    • Fans of LIP×LIP are referred to as Julietas, in reference to "Romeo" (them being the Romeo)
    • Fans of mona are called monacas.
    • Fans of Full Throttle4 are SICKS, presumably because they have five members and include the audience as their "sixth" one.
  • Gay Groom in a White Tux: The last minute twist of "Nonfantasy" has this as a bisexual variant; while Hiyori does get married to both Yujiro and Aizo's characters, the "kiss the bride" kiss goes first and foremost to the boys for each other, and both are wearing white tuxedoes. Subverted in the Heroines Run the Show version of this dream, where the boys are very clearly kissing her cheek instead.
  • Give Geeks a Chance: "Choco Kano"'s PV features a shy, Ultraman loving megane (played by both of them) as the male lead, pining for his crush from afar. Apparently the girl liked him too, and gives him her reciprocal chocolate to boot.
  • God Save Us from the Queen!: The antagonist of "LOVE&KISS" is a Brainwashed and Crazy queen terrorizing her citizens with the help of a mighty dragon and its minions. Yujiro and Aizo's characters are tasked with stopping her from destroying everything, and eventually break the jewel that's keeping her crazy.
  • Guy on Guy Is Hot: In Romeo: MUSIC VIDEO MAKING, the female crew for the "Romeo" music video are shown squealing when they see Yujiro drink Aizo's water bottle, since technically it was an Indirect Kiss. All the female fans at their big concert make a big stink of the boys kissing each other's neck marks onstage, too.
  • Heroes of Another Story: ASCANA, one of the idol groups seen in "Yappa Saikyou!" and in various other cameos in this series, have interesting stories in their own right to tell (one of which we even see later in the ASCANA video "The Weaklings' World Conquest", with the last part even taking place during "Yappa Saikyou!"). For Fuuma Shirayuki's cameo, we know that his journey as an idol is just beginning after that concert.
  • Idol Singer: This portion of the series mostly focuses on teen performers. Canonically, LIP×LIP, Mona, Minami, and Full Throttle 4 are the focus, but other idol groups such as the Virtual Johnny's idols from ASCANA show up too.
  • Lower-Deck Episode: "Monday's Melancholy" serves as one for Mona's fanbase, particularly one member named Kobayashi.
  • Love at First Sight: "Bae Love" has Minami fall head over heels for Nakuru the moment they cross paths at school.
  • Monochrome to Color: "LOVE&KISS" is, for the most part, in color, but during Yujiro and Aizo's quest to stop the queen everything but the red of the Queen's eyes and the gem of her dragon is monochrome. This only stops when the dragon is defeated, and the queen is returned to her sister safely.
  • No Hugging, No Kissing: The Idol Series makes it absolutely clear that none of the idols will get into romantical entanglements here. Mona, Yujiro, Aizo, and even guest idols like Asuka explicitly devote all their time and energy to pleasing their fans and eschew relationships altogether. If one does fall in love, like Minami does, the song/event will be attributed to the Love Series instead.
  • Only One Name: Of all the idols featured in this branch of the franchise, only the ASCANA duo ever performs under their full names and all songs here only credit them under one. In practice, however, Full Throttle4 and Minami play the trope straight; everyone else has a full given and surname.
  • Outlaw: In "Rodeo", the duo portray themselves as characters who drive around the desert beating up baddies, saving damsels, and making off with mountains of money. They even have their own "Wanted!" Poster.
  • Prince Charming: Aizo and Yujiro have the aesthetic in "Romeo" and "Nonfantasy", acting as the prince to Sena's princess and Hiyori/the actual PV heroine's Lady.
  • Self-Titled Album: Full Throttle4 is the first, and so far only idol brand to do this so far, with the name of their first album being their officially abbvreviated name.
  • Show Within a Show: It appears that most of the video for "Romeo" was just a music video that LIP×LIP did with Sena, seeing that Shibaken is watching it on a trip to the store. Likewise, "LOVE&KISS" turns out to be a stage play.
  • Threesome Subtext: Littered all over the place with Hiyori and the LIP×LIP boys. She has a subtle nod to it in eating both boys' pocky flavors instead of choosing just one, and she dreams of being the girl in their "Nonfantasy" video, where they both pursue her and even marry her together. And the kiss at the end of the video looks like they're about to kiss each other as much as it looks like they're going to kiss Hiyori.
    • The "Nonfantasy" PV has quite a few moments. The two princes woo the girl in their sights individually, but they can't seem to go anywhere without each other, either. The three share some of the romantic moments all together, and decide that they want to get married as a three pair.
  • True Love's Kiss: Apparently, "Nonfantasy's" heroine falls into a deep slumber during the bridge, which Yujiro and Aizo's characters wake her up from together with a confession.
  • Virtual Celebrity: All of the relevant idols have a 3D model, and sometimes perform in live concerts. They're also treated as individual idols rather than characters, scoring in-character interviews and biographies as well.

    Adaptations 
  • Adaptation Expansion: While the main body of work and content that comes out first is the songs, all other media try to explain what goes on to give comprehension to the videos.
    • I've Always Liked You/Confession Rehearsal has the Koyuki subplot brought out more into the open, with Koyuki's advances on Natsuki causing more drama for the lead couple before her ultimate confession. The plot also takes place over a few months of school, as opposed to the vomic which goes over the time frame in a few days.
    • The Moment You Fall in Love./Right Now, I'll Fall in Love. shows how Kotaro's group, Hina, and Arisa came together, and draws out the triangle drama between the three protagonists.
  • Adapted Out: The other half of "A Solution for Jealousy", namely, the plot about Souta and Akari overhearing Haruki's practice confession, is left out of the first movie.
  • Bait-and-Switch: When Natsuki practices confessing to Yu with Haruki, Akari is shown watching and getting extremely upset about it, making Souta believe that she had a crush on Haruki. As it turns out, she doesn't— she only got upset because it felt like Haruki was betraying Mio, and she very much wants the two of them to get together.
  • Bathtub Scene: And hoo boy, we get all six of the main characters in the "Confession Rehearsal" vomic, with variations. The girls get standard bathtubs, Haruki gets a Shower Scene from the waist up, Yu gets a Furo Scene with his hair wet and slicked back (with an extra shower scene in the animation), and Souta is submerged to his nose.
  • Book Ends: The first movie begins with the core six taking a photo together in the opening sequence. We see in the credits that they all took another one with their friends as they were about to graduate.
  • Broad Strokes: The adaptations have a basic outline that doesn't change much, but no two versions are completely alike. Restructuring the events of the music videos or light novels is common.
  • Broken Aesop: The second part of Hiyori's character arc has her experience firsthand how aggressive idol fans can be, and while she was negatively impacted by them she (and the idols) ultimately put them first since their passion is their own way of expressing their love. The message falls a little flat, however, since this love manifests in hounding Hiyori in petty jealousy when they think she's dating one of the LIP×LIP boys—and one of these jealous girls is her own best friend, who obsessively stalks her and exposes her manager job because she thinks that Hiyori is threatening her oshi's reputation. Chizuru having her moment of clarity and learning to be a healthier fan contrasts strangely with Hiyori rewarding that behavior by giving her tickets to a LIP×LIP concert and her feeling responsible for simply being friends with Yujiro and Aizo; and although those two boys aren't happy about the situation either and help her fight back, they still have to play into their fanbase's idealized versions of themselves in order to make them stop bullying her.
  • Call-Forward: The novel has Natsuki confess to Yu early because "she'd seen in shoujo manga that a potential couple would miss their chance if they waited around too long". That's more or less what happens to Haruki and Miou, since they kept beating around the bush.
  • Career Versus Man:
    • Haruki poses the question to Akari in the second light novel, asking if she would be willing to put aside her passion for art in exchange for getting with the person she loves. Akari at first says drawing is more important, but as she begins to get a more nuanced opinion on what love is, she settles on wanting a balance; drawing is a part of her already, so wanting love isn't out of the question either. Haruki, while agreeing with her, ultimately puts his passion for directing over coming together with Miou...for a while at least.
    • Hiyori, while surprised by Nagisa's confession, rejects him to continue pursuing her management job and track and field running. Nagisa is willing to wait because he wants to further improve his culinary expertise. In the light novel series, it's Asuka who rejects Hiyori in order to pursue the chaste public persona of an idol.
  • Childhood Friends: According to the novels, Yuu, Natsuki, their younger siblings, Mochita and Haruki have all known each other since around elementary school.
  • Cock Fight: Koyuki's been trying to instigate a fight for Natsuki on even ground, and they do get into a shouting match about who's more fit for her after the pseudo-date. Yu doesn't want anything to do with it though.
  • Creator Cameo: Fellow collaborative singer and utaite sana appears as the lead singer for HoneyWorks in the first movie.
  • Cry into Chest: Miou runs straight into Akari's arms when she hears from Haruki that he likes someone. Little did she know that the person he was talking about was her.
  • "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune:
    • Two of the vomics open up with a cover version of the topic song sung by the voice actor of that particular protagonist (Natsuki for "Confession Rehearsal", Souta for "A Solution for Jealousy"). The ending songs are either sung by the opening singer, by the person who gives the -another story- version of the song, or by the person who sings their image songnote . The "Right Now, I'll Fall in Love." vomic is the exception, as sana sings the cover version of the opening and the endingnote  of that installment.
    • "Our Minute and A Second" is sung by Sphere, of which two of the members consist of Haruka Tomatsu (Natsuki), and Aki Toyosaki (Miou).
    • Two of TrySail's members, Momo Asakura (Hina) and Sora Amamiya (Sena), play relevant characters in the movie seriesnote . TrySail provides the opening song "Senpai." for the second film.
    • For Our Love Has Always Been 10 Centimeters Apart., LIP×LIP performs the OP "Nonfantasy", and the six third year leads perform the ED "Tokyo Winter Session".
    • Heroines Run the Show had Inori Minase (Hiyori), Ayane Sakura (Juri), and Saori Hayami (Chizuru) sing the main ending theme "Tokyo Sunny Party", while the rest of the main cast sang covers of related CEC songs for special endings. LIP×LIP, of course, sings the opening "Julieta".
  • Establishing Character Moment:
    • The opening sequence set to "Blooming Into the Color of Love" does this for the three main couples and Koyuki.
    • Yujiro and Aizo show their true colors immediately after they have their first proper scene in the "Romeo" vomic. In the PV, they show that they're not at all fond of each other behind the curtains, but the vomic shows that Yujiro gets into trouble, can put on a more friendly face when talking to women, but still gets touchy and rude when someone tries to figure out what's wrong with him; while Aizo tries to pick a fight with Yujiro under his breath after his friendlier introduction and immediately switches to coarse language.
  • The Foreign Subtitle: Inverted for all three animated adaptations; their English subtitles are omitted from the English translated titles. Gets into You Are the Translated Foreign Word, given that these titles basically say the same thing as their Japanese versions.
    • Zutto Mae Kara Suki Deshita.: I've Liked You for a Long Time. turns into I've Always Liked You.
    • Suki ni Naru Sono Shunkan wo.: I'll Wait Until the Moment That You Love Me. turns into The Moment You Fall in Love.
    • Itsu Datte Bokura no Koi wa 10 Centi Datta.: We Have Always Been 10 Centimeters Apart. turns into Our Love Has Always Been 10 Centimeters Apart.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Akechi's little speech about spending your youth in regret to Souta makes a lot of sense considering that he watched his best friend die young and distanced himself from Haruki because of it. In the digital comic, they play a piano version of "Detained Teacher" over the scene, the very same song that briefly overviews that plot point.
    • Chizuru's passionate rant on the appeal of a Childhood Friend Romance and how spoiled Hiyori must be if she could experience it but not accept it (not at the moment, anyway) acts as subtle foreshadowing to her secret otaku hobbies and her increasing jealousy of Hiyori's seeming oblivious attraction of guys (including Yujiro and Aizo).
  • Framing Device: The events of the light novels are framed as the main cast looking back on their high school years in the time space before Yu and Natsuki's wedding.
  • Freudian Slip: While Koyuki is reassuring Natsuki and giving her advice on how to patch things up with Yuu, he almost lets it slip that he loves her before verbally backspacing and correcting it to mere support.
  • Gag Dub: The confession scene in the "Confession Rehearsal" vomic was intentionally made for this; they posted the sequence on their Niconico in the hopes that the internet would dub over it any way they like (and they did). As an example, there's one done by Gom, who plays both Natsuki and Yuu, and gives the former a chipmunk's squeaky voice and the latter a creepy vibe.
  • Have You Told Anyone Else?: As Hiyori was the only one besides his manager to see Yujiro at the police station, Yujiro angrily warns the girl not to say a word about the scene lest there be consequences. For him, mostly, though he doesn't say that out loud.
  • High-School Sweethearts: By the Time Skip, Yu and Natsuki are engaged to be married, and host their wedding around the time Haruki finally returns.
  • I Have This Friend:
    • When trying to give advice to Hina about telling her crush how she feels, Miou relates a story about how her "friend" liked a boy for a long time but put a hold on telling him so because of her own cowardice.
    • In the Premium Live version of the Confession Rehearsal arc, Natsuki asks Koyuki for some advice on what to do with a friend she seriously wants to confess to. She then asks Koyuki if there's a type of person he likes, and he responds that the "person he likes" was like a summer sun to him, cheerful, and supportive.
  • Imaginary Love Triangle:
    • Among the original cast, there are three: Yu/Natsuki/Haruki, Akari/Haruki/Sota, and Miou/Haruki/Akari. See Mistaken for Romance for more.
    • In middle school, Hina was under the impression that she was competing with Arisa for Koyuki's heart, because the latter girl intentionally tried to keep Hina and Koyuki apart by interacting with him. Arisa turns out to have no such feelings for Koyuki; she's instead wingmanning for Kotaro, in the hopes that her meddling will have Hina hang out with the boy more.
  • Informed Ability: Some of the cast's aspirations, such as Natsuki's interest in creating manga or Yu's interest in becoming a producer, are left by the wayside depending on the adaptation. This improves slightly as they get older, but most of it is background to their romantic progression. Miou and Haruki's dream careers are the exceptions, since they both inform a huge part of their character development.
  • Insert Song: Before "Sunday's Secret" appeared with its full PV, it started as an insert song in the movie series. "Destiny" also appears as an insert, taking "Diagnosis: Lovesickness's" role as the Love Epiphany sequence for Natsuki.
  • Leitmotif: Generally, when a character appears in the vomics or in the animated adaptations, their Image Song will be playing in the background, either as a vanilla instrumental track or as a different arrangement.
  • Like an Old Married Couple: There isn't a day that goes by without Kotaro and Hina bickering with each other. Their closeness and childhood friends and neighbors, as well as the former's long-held crush on the latter, only adds to the trope.
  • Mini Series: Our Love Has Always Been 10 cm Apart, which was a 6-episode televised anime.
  • Mistaken for Romance: Causes problems in three different volumes of the light novel. Haruki and Natsuki generally act pretty close since they're childhood friends, but because she's practicing for her real confession to Yu and simply never told the latter boy who it was for, Yu starts to believe that Haruki was the one she liked. Their closeness also causes a Third-Act Misunderstanding in A Solution for Jealousy and First Love's Picture Book, given that Haruki does his own practice confession with Natsuki and Akari and Souta come in at just the wrong time to hear it. Now Akari becomes upset because she thinks Haruki doesn't like Miou, and Miou's upset because she thinks her crush doesn't like her back.
    • This relationship faux pas and Akari's general ability to get along with Haruki also causes Souta to believe that Akari has a crush on Haruki as well, given her upset reaction at seeing him "confess" to Natsuki.
  • Musical Nod: The BGM for all of the voiced adaptations uses snippets from other HoneyWorks songs, not just the Image Songs from this series. In particular, one can hear "Rockbell" or "Raspberry Monster" in a couple of scenes.
  • Not a Date: Koyuki invites Natsuki to hang out with him to enjoy their common interests in the summertime (novels have it be a book signing, movie has a HoneyWorks concert instead), which Natsuki gladly agrees to. Almost everyone she tells about it think she's going on a date with him, but she doesn't take it as such. Well, Koyuki did plan on telling the girl how he felt about her, so he planned on giving her a date in all but actual name.
  • Novelization: Each Confession Rehearsal book covers a major song in the franchise, and elaborates on how the events happened in the core six's third year of high school. The movies have their own book adaptations as well.
  • Once More, with Clarity: In Watashi, Idol Sengen, Mona's frustration with her skills and debut performance is partially fueled by a disgusted face Yujiro gave her after her set. When we later see the incident from their perspective, Yujiro turns out to not be as vindictive as previously thought—that disgusted face was actually a tired face, and he was sleep deprived at the time he was looking at her.
  • Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: While walking through school, Akari and Souta overhear Natsuki confessing to Haruki, making the former run off in shock. At this point we already know that the two don't have feelings for one another, but the full scene shows that Natsuki was just using Haruki as a practice confession for her real confession to Yuu.
  • Passive Aggressive Combat: While attempting to compete with Yu for Natsuki, Koyuki includes some subtle verbal attacks in order to come out on top.
  • Poor Communication Kills: The subject of many of the kids' romantic woes, as told in Mistaken for Romance.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: The whole point of all the extended media is to re-contextualize everything into the same year, and the animated versions move the events of the music videos around a lot, placing certain videos along different moments in the timeline and trying to combine them into a coherent narrative.note 
  • Product Placement:
    • I've Always Liked You's animation has Natsuki and Hina play LittleBigPlanet 3 together. The PS3 is also shown without problems.
    • This goes double for the PVs, but lots of real life HoneyWorks merchandise appears throughout the series. One scene even has a "CHiCO with HoneyWorks" CD placed in the foreground.
    • The second movie has the Setoguchi and Enomoto siblings go see The Anthem of the Heart together.
  • Title Drop: The names given to certain arcs when adapting them to other formats besides song (i.e "I've Always Liked You", "Am I Not Good Enough?") are based off of something that one of the characters actually said during the arc.
  • Retcon: Both of the "Confession Rehearsal" comics (the vomic and Volume Zero) set the events of that song during the core six's second year of school, going by their class label being 2-3 in one scene. Everything released afterwards rescinds that and places most of the events of the stories in their third year of school, going by Koyuki's Important Haircut, Hina and Kotaro being upgraded to first year high schoolers, and the "A Solution for Jealousy" vomic having Natsuki admit she hasn't told Yu her feelings by that point.
  • Running Away to Cry: Hina curses her own weakness for not being honest with herself about Koyuki, and after encountering him post-haircut, she runs off to cry.
  • Sequel Hook: The "Confession Rehearsal" comic ends with Souta and Akari peeping in on Haruki confessing to Natsuki, unbeknownst to their respective love interests. The events of this confession would be covered later in the second vomic, the one for "A Solution for Jealousy".
  • Social Circle Filler: During the "The Moment You Fall in Love" arc, Hina's given a girl friend to talk to named Kako Kogane. We don't see her in the music videos, so it's likely she was crafted whole cloth to prevent Hina from interacting solely with the rest of the main cast. She has more of a speaking role in the light novels, but in the second movie she barely speaks at all.
  • The Stinger:
    • The epilogue of the Confession Rehearsal arc has Natsuki wake up Yu for school and try to coax an "I love you" out of him, given that she was the only one that fully admitted her feelings the whole story. Yu sneaks one out when she doesn't expect it.
    • The second movie closes out on a Double Date between Yuu/Natsuki and Kotaro/Hina, and Hina admitting to Kotaro that she knows he loves her, congratulating him on his soccer position. This is more or less where their more romantic interactions begin.
  • Symbolic Distance: This is a huge motif in the romance arc of Confession Executive Committee's Miou Aida and Haruki Serizawa. Both are dear friends and have crushes on one another, but they don't know about the other's feelings for a very long time and lack the courage to take the next romantic step themselves. This is symbolically represented by their hands never quite managing to interlock, always barely touching at a distance of "10 centimeters". They eventually get better, but it takes years for them to really acknowledge their feelings for each other and finally close the gap.
  • Time-Passes Montage: I've Always Liked You adds in a sequence of practice confessions between Yu and Natsuki over time, while everyone else is trying to sort out their various feelings. The second movie does this with Hina and Kotaro studying for high school exams.
  • Wall Pin of Love: Natsuki accidentally gets Souta and Akari into a situation like this as she whizzes by them in a hurry. Souta loses his balance and traps Akari, the girl he likes and would want to kabedon at one point, to the wall. Both parties are confused and embarrassed.
  • Will They or Won't They?: Haruki and Miou for the entire series. They obviously love each other a lot, but their insecurities keep them from confessing to each other. In "Ippun Ichibyou Kimi to Boku no", Haruki comes back from America and encounters Miou again as grownups. He says that he'll be able to stay in Japan over the summer, leaving them wiggle room to finally confess their feelings to one another, but their relationship from the encounter on is left up in the open. "Re:First Love's Picture Book" reveals that yes, they get together eventually, while "Tokyo Spring Session" depicts them during their wedding.

Alternative Title(s): Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai, Confession Executive Committee Love Series

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