History ObliviousToLove / AnimeAndManga

** Asuka Jr. is so terrible at understanding girls or romance that the manga captions mock him almost every chapter for it, and he gets in hot water several times because of how badly he misinterprets things. He ''is'' capable of understanding shallow flirting and can get embarrassed by it, and he does learn that Takamiya's a ClingyJealousGirl over him when she makes a bet with him that has "dating her" as her side of the wager, but he fails to notice Takamiya making everything into a plot to make him her boyfriend and ''definitely'' fails to notice Meimi/Saint Tail's pining over him (to the point he spends more than half the series wondering if Meimi actually hates him). On top of that, his fixation with Saint Tail (which is ironically ''because'' he thinks she might be Meimi) manifests in ways that are [[MasterOfTheMixedMessage too easy to interpret as a serious romantic pursuit]]. To his credit, a lot of this comes from him being [[SingleTargetSexuality uninterested in anything to do with romance unless it's about Meimi]], and Meimi is [[MasterOfTheMixedMessage very diligent about hiding her feelings]], but [[spoiler:he doesn't learn that Meimi really did return his feelings until ''after'' she becomes his girlfriend, even believing she could have been [[WasItAllALie toying with him for amusement]] until TheDragon accidentally gets him to realize [[LoveLetterLunacy the meaning of the calling cards she'd been sending since the start of the series]]]].

** Asuka Jr. is so terrible at understanding girls or romance that the manga captions mock him almost every chapter for it, and he gets in hot water several times because of how badly he misinterprets things. He ''is'' capable of understanding shallow flirting and can get embarrassed by it, and he does learn that Takamiya's a ClingyJealousGirl over him when she makes a bet with him that has "dating her" as her side of the wager, but he fails to notice Takamiya making everything into a plot to make him her boyfriend and ''definitely'' fails to notice Meimi/Saint Tail's pining over him to the point he spends more than half the series wondering if Meimi actually hates him. On top of that, his fixation with Saint Tail (which is ironically ''because'' he thinks she might be Meimi) manifests in ways that are [[MasterOfTheMixedMessage too easy to interpret as a serious romantic pursuit]]. To his credit, a lot of this comes from him being [[SingleTargetSexuality uninterested in anything to do with romance unless it's about Meimi]], and Meimi is [[MasterOfTheMixedMessage very diligent about hiding her feelings]], but [[spoiler:he doesn't learn that Meimi really did return his feelings until ''after'' she becomes his girlfriend, believing she could have been [[WasItAllALie toying with him for amusement]] until TheDragon accidentally gets him to realize [[LoveLetterLunacy the meaning of the calling cards she'd been sending since the start of the series]]]].

* ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'':
** Asuka Jr. is one of the biggest examples in anime history. While his failure to notice Meimi's feelings can be explained by her shyness and {{Tsundere}} tendencies, Rina is much more open, and [[SecretIdentityIdentity Meimi as Saint Tail]] constantly [[LoveLetterLunacy sends him warnings of what she'll steal next that are quite obviously very creative love letters]] (including making him a bento, ''twice'')... And then there's the fact he loves Meimi back but failed to notice his own feelings for ''over a year'', and would have continued had he not blurted out that Saint Tail looks like the girl he likes after noticing that [[ClarkKenting she looks like Meimi with a different hairstyle]], making wonder what he meant by that, and then, a few days later, stumbling upon Meimi at the end of a rainbow shortly after being told of the legend at the end of the rainbow.
** Seira Mimori give him a fair run for his money: she can see feelings ''for others'' just fine, but when Sawatari fell in love with her and started courting her she just chalked it up to him being a CloudCuckooLander and Meimi (his previous love interest) finally being with Asuka jr., at least until he made her a barely veiled love declaration. [[RunningGag She's also oblivious to her possibly loving him back]], but, given she's a nun, it's just as likely she's actively suppressing them.

* ''Manga/DGrayMan'': [[ChickMagnet Allen]] has [[ActionGirl Lenalee]], [[{{Tsundere}} For]], [[LoveAtFirstSight Rohfa]], Road and [[HoYay several guys]] all out to get in his pants, yet he seems completely oblivious to any of it. In a recent chapter he did [[LoveYouAndEverybody half-heartedly confess]] to Lenalee before taking the Ark and leaving the Order.

** Hikaru in the manga. Not only does Hikaru totally miss the fact that Fuu and Ferio like each other (even after seeing Ferio kiss Fuu's hand, causing Fuu to blush furiously), her reaction to [[spoiler:Lantis asking her to marry him]] is to say that she wants to spend the rest of her life with the ones she loves -- and defines 'the ones she loves' as [[LoveYouAndEverybody just about every named character in Cephiro that is still alive]].

** Ash, Ash, Ash: numerous characters of the day, multiple traveling companions, and [[OhMyGods Arceus-knows-how-many]] '''''[[InterspeciesRomance Pokémon]]''''' [[ChickMagnet have had obvious feelings for him]], and he's remained the ChasteHero since you could count the number of episodes on one hand. Heck, even his newly-hatched Scraggy knew more about love than him. Keep in mind that he is 10-years-old, and also the IdiotHero. Ash often also has the issue of being oblivious to the concept of romantic love itself, even when he is not the recipient ([[CharacterizationMarchesOn though this actually wasn't the case in the first season]], he even engaged in SheIsNotMyGirlfriend moments to show that he actively denied being in love with someone as opposed to being oblivious like in later seasons); [[LoveYouAndEverybody his mind always defaults to friendship when he hears the word "love"]], and even when Serena shows some of the most blatant signs of attraction towards him in the series, he still remains blissfully unaware.

** ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Played with in regards to Judai and Asuka. The dub drops such strong hints about her feelings that he ''has'' to be a complete dunce not to pick up on them, such as her reacting very strongly with jealousy when she thinks another girl might be his type. The original, however, implies a few times that he ''does'' get it, he just isn't interested in a RelationshipUpgrade. They have a bit of BookEnds in the fourth season where, after a bout of CanNotSpitItOut on her part, he simply tells her that he had a fun game.
*** In the [[Manga/YuGiOhGX manga]], Asuka is entirely unaware about Misawa's crush on her. Ryo falls into this in as well, although in fairness, it's regarding love for another person. After he consoles Asuka after her loss to David, Misawa gets somewhat jealous, vowing to face him "as a duelist and as a man". Later on, after Asuka and Misawa's team battle, when Fubuki declares that [[MySisterIsOffLimits his sister is off limits]] to Misawa, Ryo doesn't understand what he means, and Fubuki is irritated that he is unaware of Misawa's obvious crush.
** Yuma Tsukumo from ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'' has Kotori, Cathy, and Anna all in love with him, but he somehow doesn't notice. [[spoiler:In the final episode, Kotori confesses to him. He's incredibly shocked, but doesn't seem to mind.]]

** ''Anime/YuGiOhArcV'' has [[ChickMagnet Yuya]] being generally oblivious to [[ClingyJealousGirl Yuzu's]], [[SelfProclaimedLoveInterest Mieru's]] and [[HeelFaceTurn Grace's]] interest, only noticing Mieru's advances because she's so unsubtle about them.
** A minor example in ''Anime/YuGiOhVRAINS''. Akira is completely oblivious to his subordinate Hayami's crush on him, having no idea why she would watch footage of his heroism multiple times. He also doesn't respond to Emma's flirtatious behaviour, but it's possible that this is due to familiarity with her [[TheGadfly gadfly]] tendencies. Ultimately, he's just far too focused on [[BigBrotherInstinct Aoi]] to have time for romance.

** ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': Played with in regards to Judai and Asuka. The dub drops such strong hints about her feelings that he ''has'' to be a complete dunce not to pick up on them, such as her reacting very strongly with jealousy when she thinks another girl might be his type. The original, however, implies a few times that he ''does'' get it, he just isn't interested in a RelationshipUpgrade. They have a bit of BookEnds in the fourth season where, after a bout of CanNotSpitItOut on her part, he simply tells her that he had a fun game. Considering that he was (sort of) married at that point, it's possible this was his way of letting her down gently.

* ''Literature/ArifuretaFromCommonplaceToWorldsStrongest'':
** Kaori is completely unaware of her male classmate's crushes on her due to her own crush on Hajime, while Kouki is unaware that Eri is in love with him and Aiko seems unaware of the feelings of the templar knights for her.
** Hajime averts this -- he's fully aware that Kaori is in love with him, but kept his distance since her affections meant getting bullied more. He's also aware that Yue loves him, and the only reason he's keeping his distance is due to her young appearance and the dangers of the abyss.

* Wilhelm Schultz in ''LightNovel/AllisonAndLillia'' manages to remain completely unaware of his childhood friend Allison's feelings for him, in spite of his HyperAwareness and PhotographicMemory. [[spoiler:Until she pins him down and forces him to kiss/marry her, anyway.]] In the second half, [[spoiler:his daughter]] Lillia can also be like this, though it's exacerbated by the fact that the people around her [[LockedOutOfTheLoop help to keep it that way]]

* Ennis from ''LightNovel/{{Baccano}}''. Firo reports that she didn't quite catch on for ''fifty years''.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Kamijou Touma towards his gigantic harem, which he doesn't really notice, most blatantly with his roommate Index and his UnknownRival Misaka Mikoto. Either that, or he does know and tries to get by by pretending not to know, which is understandable considering the [[BattleHarem repercussions there may be if he were to reciprocate any feelings to any single one of them]].

* Maou from ''LightNovel/TheDevilIsAPartTimer'' is fully aware that [[SmittenTeenageGirl Chiho]] is in love with him. He cares for her, just not in a romantic way, [[InvokedTrope so he feigns ignorance to avoid hurting her feelings]].

* ''LightNovel/FateZero'': Aoi Tohsaka was completely oblivious that her childhood friend Kariya Matou was in love with her. [[spoiler:Near the end, when she mistakenly believes he's murdered her husband Tokiomi and declares he's never loved anybody, Kariya snaps and strangles her.]]

* ''LightNovel/{{Haganai}}'' has Kodaka, who manages to ignore the very blatant crushes of least six girls. Despite several of them outright telling him that they're into him, he just doesn't get it. [[spoiler: Except that he does, and plays dumb to save their feelings. There's no way for him to pick one girl without ruining the friendships he has with the others, so he plays off their advances as best he can.]]

* Kyon from ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'', despite being told several times by Koizumi (who openly and exasperatedly states that he can't believe Kyon still doesn't get it) about his importance to Haruhi, despite her hitting him with clues as subtle as a brick, despite [[spoiler:him kissing her in closed space being the only thing that makes her want to return to the real world]], still insists he has ''absolutely no idea'' why Haruhi gets so upset every time he acts too familiar with other girls. Partly on account that Kyon is an UnreliableNarrator, and partly because he's ''very'' good at putting walls up in his mind around things he doesn't want to think about.

* For someone who’s [[HaremSeeker aspiring to become a harem king]], [[ChivalrousPervert Issei]] of ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDxD'' is fairly clueless to the fact that [[CluelessChickMagnet he’s already got one]]. Additionally, it takes several volumes for him to figure out that his [[MistressAndServantBoy mistress]], [[ClubPresident Rias Gremory]], is head over heels in love with him. Despite her sleeping in his bed [[MsFanservice (naked, by the way)]] the makeout sessions, [[ClingyJealousGirl getting jealous when other girls show interest in him]] and other obvious flags, he's still rather dense, but not without reason. [[spoiler:With guidance from the aforementioned harem, he gets over his whole [[TheFirstCutIsTheDeepest 'killed by his first girlfriend']] hang-up and [[OfficialCouple confesses to Rias, who accepts.]]]]

* ''LightNovel/ImInLoveWithTheVillainess'': Somewhere around the early mid-point of the story, Claire clearly grows attached to Rei, most likely at least partially in a romantic sense. However, Rei herself still thinks that Claire is into Sein, when by all appearances she gave up on him quite early in the story.

* Bell in ''LightNovel/IsItWrongToTryToPickUpGirlsInADungeon'' is entirely unaware that Hestia, Syr and Lili are in love with him, and they aren't exactly subtle with their feelings (Hestia even confessed to him in Episode 3). Although this has more to do with him being fixated on Aiz than being dense.

* ''LightNovel/KazeNoStigma'' neatly subverts this. Kazuma almost certainly knows Ayano likes him and is willing to go on [[NotADate missions]] with her if paid by her father, who is trying to invoke BodyguardCrush on him.

* ''LightNovel/MushokuTenseiJoblessReincarnation'':

** Shikamaru doesn't notice Shiho's massive crush on him at all. He also doesn't [[EveryoneCanSeeIt acknowledge there is anything between him and Temari.]] In the [[LightNovel/NarutoHiden light novels]], even after [[spoiler: Shikamaru asks Temari out]] he ''still'' manages to be completely oblivious about several things, including [[LoveMakesYouDumb thinking Temari is blushing because she's got a fever]]. Even ''Naruto'' is able to notice the chemistry between him and Temari, despite the prior explanation (though Naruto is pretty good at observing people and getting them.)

* Yuuji from ''LightNovel/ShakuganNoShana'' is the resident ChickMagnet. He's also incredibly good at convincing himself that no girl could possibly find him ''that'' interesting and every time he gets suspicious about Shana and/or Kazumi being in love with him, he just shrugs it off as his imagination.

* Subverted refreshingly with Kirito in ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline''. Unlike the stereotypical harem protagonist, Kirito is well aware of the girls' affections toward him. It's just that he has already given his heart to Asuna and deliberately plays SelectiveObliviousness so as not to hurt their feelings.

* The main character in ''LightNovel/TokyoRavens'' (like ''Manga/NuraRiseOfTheYokaiClan'' but with a good omyoji family vs. evil spirits) is ''[[TriangRelations doubly oblivious]]''. He doesn't know why his best female friend is so concerned about him and his future and when his seemingly cold and snobby cousin visits him with a LuminescentBlush he asks if she has a fever. When both these girls get angry that a DarkMagicalGirl has been flirting with him he gets very confused. At least his friend tearfully made a love confession while his cousin, furious that he said the DMG was cute in the middle of warning her to leave for her own safety, ''[[TooDumbToLive decides to stay at the one place the DMG said she was going to attack]]''.

* Ami in ''LightNovel/{{Toradora}}'' is very very transparent with how she feels about Ryuji, dropping incredibly obvious hints ("I would be your equal in a relationship") but since she never actually [[CannotSpitItOut says anything outright,]] Ryuji is oblivious. So is the rest of the cast... To be fair, Ryuji is just oblivious in general, and he never gets that anyone is in love with him until they directly say it to his face. He's a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter in general, so he's equally bad at figuring out what people are like outside of romance, too.
* ''LightNovel/TrappedInADatingSimTheWorldOfOtomeGamesIsToughForMobs'': Leon won't realize that a girl likes him unless someone spells it out for him like [[spoiler: Olivia and Angie]] did.

* ''LightNovel/TheVillainousDaughtersButlerIllCrushTheDestructionFlags'': Averted. Cyril knows that Sophia and Alicia have fallen for him after the prince’s birthday party. He shows some evidence of being in denial, but not obliviousness.

* In ''LightNovel/{{Kampfer}}'', Natsuru is probably one of THE most oblivious people when it comes to love. Only loves a SatelliteLoveInterest and he still has three people going crazy for him. He STILL doesn't even know about it. An example: One of said three haremettes asks him on a date. [[UndercoverAsLovers He asks if its a cover]] [[GenreSavvy so they can try and draw out their enemies.]] [[WrongGenreSavvy She assures him that no,]] [[SubvertedTrope it really is a date.]] They proceed to have said date, complete with holding hands, homemade lunch, etc. [[RunningGag He still thinks its not a date throughout all this, and attaches reasons relating to the whole "undercover" thing to all the things she gets him to do.]] When another of his haremettes shows up and [[{{Tsundere}} gets mad]] that he went on a date with the first girl and not her, he protests that it wasn't a date... to which said girl responds (again) with "No, it really was a date". [[TheDitz He still thinks]] [[WhatAnIdiot it wasn't a date.]]

* The main character in ''LightNovel/TokyoRavens'' (like ''Manga/NuraRiseOfTheYokaiClan'' but with a good omyoji family vs. evil spirits) is ''[[TriangRelations doubly oblivious]]''. He doesn't know why his best female friend is so concerned about him and his future and when his seemingly cold and snobby cousin visits him with a LuminescentBlush he asks if she has a fever. When both these girls get angry that a DarkMagicalGirl has been flirting with him he gets very confused. At least his friend tearfully made a love confession while his cousin, furious that he said the DMG was cute in the middle of warning her to leave for her own safety, ''[[WhatAnIdiot decides to stay at the one place the DMG said she was going to attack]]''.

* ''LightNovel/ArifuretaFromCommonplaceToWorldsStrongest'':

* ''LightNovel/AccelWorld'':

** Asuka Jr. is one of the biggest examples in anime history. While his failure to notice Meimi's feelings can be explained by her shyness and TsunDere tendencies, Rina is much more open, and [[SecretIdentityIdentity Meimi as Saint Tail]] constantly [[LoveLetterLunacy sends him warnings of what she'll steal next that are quite obviously very creative love letters]] (including making him a bento, ''twice'')... And then there's the fact he loves Meimi back but failed to notice his own feelings for ''over a year'', and would have continued had he not blurted out that Saint Tail looks like the girl he likes after noticing that [[ClarkKenting she looks like Meimi with a different hairstyle]], making wonder what he meant by that, and then, a few days later, stumbling upon Meimi at the end of a rainbow shortly after being told of the legend at the end of the rainbow.

** Asuka Jr. is one of the biggest examples in anime history. While his failure to notice Meimi's feelings can be explained by her shyness and TsunDere tendencies, Rina is much more open, and [[SecretIdentityIdentity Meimi as Saint Tail]] constantly [[LoveLetterLunacy sends him warnings of what she'll steal next that are quite obviously very creative love letters]] (including making him a bento, ''twice'')... And then there's the fact he loves Meimi back but failed to notice his own feelings for ''over a year'', and would have continued had he not been told of the legend of the treasure at the end of the rainbow and stumbled on Meimi at the end of a rainbow just a few hours later.

* ''Manga/DGrayMan'': [[ChickMagnet Allen]] has [[ActionGirl Lenalee]], [[{{Tsundere}} For]], [[LoveAtFirstSight Rohfa]], [[FoeYay Road]] and [[HoYay several guys]] all out to get in his pants, yet he seems completely oblivious to any of it. In a recent chapter he did [[LoveYouAndEverybody half-heartedly confess]] to Lenalee before taking the Ark and leaving the Order.

* In the YuriGenre {{Manga}}, ''Manga/GirlFriends'', Akko is completely oblivious to Mari's affections despite twice being kissed by her, and hearing what should have been a love declaration. Mari is likewise oblivious to Akko's affections although Mari hasn't seen as much evidence of those feelings. In Mari's defense, Akko being TropeCodifier (and ImageSource) for IDidntMeanToTurnYouOn doesn't help, nor do Akko's views of kissing as 'a way to say hello', or 'just playing around'.

* ''Manga/DearS'': Justified. It takes Takeya quite a bit of time to realize that Neneko has feelings for him, but considering she's frequently quite violent towards him, it's no surprise that he fails to immediately pick up on it. He also has trouble recognizing Ren's and Miu's feelings, though in their case, they don't understand their feelings either, and they are aliens

* ''Manga/CatsEye'' has Mitsuko Asatani. She can recognize people being in love ''with other people'' just fine, but when it comes to people flirting or proposing ''to her''… Well, when Kamiya proposed to her, she first had no idea of what he was trying to say, then it took her ''one week and dreaming the moment'' to realize what had happened… By which time Kamiya, being TheCasanova, had already moved on. Fittingly, when they ''do'' get together due him proposing, he had not really proposed: [[ItMakesSenseInContext he had ran through the whole city, acquiring a few tails in the process, barged on her meeting with a prospective fiancee, and punched him out, because Hitomi had put an explosive watch on his wrist and Mitsuko had the matchbox with the deactivation code]], and only after deactivating the bomb he realized what he had just done.

* In ''LightNovel/InfiniteStratos'', Ichika Orimura himself can give almost everyone here a run for their money. Just ask his UnwantedHarem… He does get to even higher levels of denseness in Season 2, earning him the ''FanNickname'' "Neutron Star Ichika". Hard to blame him, though, when all of your suitors are {{Clingy Jealous Girl}}s wielding {{Powered Armor}}s that could cause all-out war in the blink of an eye.

* ''Manga/HidamariSketch'' has an expanded version, in that ''everyone'' tiptoes around Sae's quite obvious [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship crush on Hiro]] -- even when Sae goes into a barely concealed fit of jealousy when Hiro [[LoveLetterLunacy gets a love letter from a boy]].

* Togo from ''Anime/YukiYunaIsAHero'' has a crush on her best friend Yuna and they share a RomanticTwoGirlFriendship. Yuna is utterly ignorant of the fact, even when Togo seems a bit ''too'' into practicing a kissing scene with her in the visual novel.

* ''LightNovel/ReijouWaMattariWoGoshomou'': Ronia doesn't seem to realise how many of the men she is close to are seeking her affection.

* Miku of ''Anime/SenkiZesshouSymphogear'' is very obviously and utterly in love with her best friend, Hibiki. Unfortunately for her, Hibiki is dense as a block of solid lead and Miku [[CannotSpitItOut can't work up the nerve to actually confess to her.]] Leaving Hibiki utterly oblivious to her romantic intentions. [[spoiler:Though the final episode of the finale season implies Hibiki has ''finally'' caught on, and may just reciprocate. Though the show leaves it ambiguous.]]

*** Konoka ''seems'' to be clueless about [[SchoolgirlLesbians Setsuna's]] feelings for her, but for about the entire series there seemed to be [[IDidntMeanToTurnYouOn some]] [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation dispute]] over whether Konoka is truly completely oblivious, a downright sadistic tease, or making subtle overtures 'Set-chan' is too dense to realise are intentional, although it's more likely the third suggestion.

* ''LightNovel/MushokuTensei'':

** Yuuri, Hiroki's younger brother, [[{{asexuality}} doesn't understand the concept of romantic love]]. As a result, he appears to have no clue as to [[ChickMagnet why girls always want to approach him]]. An example is in a flashback in Chapter 37, when a fourth-grade Yuuri has no clue that (1) a female classmate likes him, (2) he rejected her LoveConfession, and that (3) another male classmate of his had a crush on said girl, and thought they didn't get along. At the same age, Hiroki already had obvious crushes on other boys.