Held Gaze / Anime & Manga

• The anime adaptation of the Ai no Kusabi novel has the Star-Crossed Lovers doing this near the end.
• In The Dangers in My Heart, Yamada gets pushed against Ichikawa in an elevator when there are too many people. Fearing having to stare at her in the wrong places, Ichikawa keeps his eyes closed until the ride ends. He opens them to see Yamada gazing closely into his face for a few seconds before she snaps out of it.
• In Danganronpa 3 Side: Despair Episode 8, Chiaki and Izuru spend several long moments just gazing at each other after she recognizes him as her Love Interest Hajime, now mind-wiped into another person. Junko even tells them to stop acting like they're in some shojo manga.
• Death Parade displays a lot of silent communication, particularly between Decim and his assistant as their relationship softens. Most notably in the Grand Finale, where they hold prolonged eye contact as Chiyuki leaves him for good, but not before he is finally able to smile after all the time they have spent together. She reciprocates.
• In the Dragon Ball anime, Goku and Chi-Chi do this and an off-screen kiss after he recovers from his heart virus.
• Haruka and Makoto from Free! are pros at this. Whenever they have a moment together, which seems to happen quite often, there will be a Held Gaze.
• This happens a lot between Italy and Holy Roman Empire in the chibitalia part of the Hetalia: Axis Powers anime.
• Inuyasha: Occurs several times between different pairs, including a moment between Sesshoumaru and Kagura. As her life ebbs away, they talk, run out of words, and finally hold each other's gaze as she disintegrates into the wind.
• A very disturbing supernatural example occurs in Made in Abyss while Riko is comatose from the combined impact of Orb Piercer venom, the fourth layer's curse, and a failed field amputation. While she recovers, Mitty, a seemingly mindless creature who is eventually revealed to be a little girl who suffered the Forced Transformation of the sixth layer's curse, spends a lot of time at her bedside. After waking up, Riko recalls a recurring dream she had while unconscious - at first, she felt like she was being buried and suffocated in an endless dark void, but soon she found another little girl suffering the same fate, represented by a single unblinking eye, and found herself gazing endlessly into this eye as her only form of company. The situation turns bittersweet as, eventually, the other little girl is finally set free and leaves, followed soon thereafter by Riko herself waking up. Since this occurred concurrently with Reg finally agreeing to Mercy Kill Mitty, something that Riko was not told about by that point, it's thus implied that Riko and Mitty's souls were able to make contact for a time and find comfort in each other's gaze.
• March Comes in Like a Lion has one of animosity between Hina and Kyoko. The intimidating effect that Hina aims for during the scene falters due to her own nervousness, in large part due to the fact that she's a middle schooler trying to stare down a taller, adult woman, and they both know it.
• Mazinger Z: Kouji and Sayaka do this in the Mazinger-Z vs Great General of Darkness, right when Kouji is going to sortie with Mazinger-Z to fight a battle he knows he can not win, and thinking he'll die. Sayaka stops him to give him his little brother's birthday gift, and both stare into each other's eyes for a long while. In the movie, Kouji finally turns around and leaves. In the manga version of that moment, they DO kiss.
• Naruto
  • Naruto and Hinata had a few throughout the series—Chapter 98, Chapter 615 (which gets a Call-Back in Chapter 633), and Shippuden Episode 166 being the most notable examples—as an indication of their ongoing Unresolved Sexual Tension. It gets ramped up in The Last: Naruto the Movie, culminating in their Big Damn First Kiss that signifies the start of their relationship.
  • During an anime-only filler arc, a dark varient of this happened with Naruto and Fūka. Fūka spends most of their first fight flirting with Naruto, all in an attempt to use her Kiss of Death on him. Eventually, Fūka defeats Naruto by turning his legs to stone with a paralysis jutsu to immobalize him. Fūka continues to flirt with Naruto for a bit afterwards, and makes herself comfortable with him by cuddeling with him and gently cupping him by the face and chin to force him to look into her eyes while their faces linger only inches apart for a few minutes. She does this just to taunt Naruto over how helpless he is against her now, mockingly acting out a seemingly romantic moment with him and pretending the two of them are lovers out on a romantic date together, knowing he can't do anything to resist her. As the two stare into each other's eyes, Naruto just gives Fūka a defiant Death Glare while slowly beginning to sweat with fear, and Fūka gives him a smug victorious smirk while giggling sadistically at him. Fūka keeps her gaze locked on Naruto's eyes, even as she forcibly locks lips with him and slowly drains his chakra.
• Ayaka loves to Playing Hard to Get with Karino in Phantom Quest Corp.. But when she does this in the final episode, all side characters instantly catch on that this might finally create a Relationship Upgrade and leave to improve the odds. Sadly, Ayaka's dress breaks in that moment, Karino happens to steal a glance and she gives him a Megaton Punch for that.
• In Pokémon: The Series, Jessie and James from Team Rocket do this at the end of the episode "Holy Matrimony!". When Jessie and Meowth think James has got married and left forever, he suddenly returns in a hot air balloon, literally whisking Jessie off her feet. And then the two stare into each other's eyes while reaffirming their partnership, while Meowth runs after them, complaining that they forgot about him again. It's a very popular episode with Rocketshippers, for some reason.
• Parodied in Ranma ½. Ranma and Akane are in a School Play, playing the parts of Romeo and Juliet. At one point, they look into each other's eyes for a long time. The audience thinks that they're pausing for dramatic effect and building the romantic tension. In reality, Ranma just forgot his lines.
• Rosario + Vampire: Moka and Tsukune do this to Running Gag levels, often spending several minutes at a time just staring into each other's eyes and saying each other's names.
• In Act 1 of Sailor Moon Crystal, after sniping at each other without really meeting eyes, Usagi pulls her test paper away from her face to further chastise Mamoru for mocking her low score, only to gasp as they both stare open mouthed, the scene turns mutually Gaussian and Love Bubbles appear. Usagi breaks the gaze and makes an awkward retreat, acutely aware that she finds the nameless boy attractive.
• Mika and Yuu occasionally have this in Seraph of the End.
• In Sk8 the Infinity, there's a particularly tender moment in episode 4 between the protagonists Reki and Langa where, after Langa drops Reki off at home and the scene goes warm and quiet, panning over the hibiscus flower that's associated with Reki (meaning "new love" in hanakotoba), they hold each other's gaze, making promises to each other. It happens after they seal it with their Secret Handshake, except instead of how Langa expects it to go, Reki passes by his fist, and presses his own fist against Langa's heart, looking softly at Langa. They have several more throughout the series afterwards. By the end of the series, Reki becomes Langa's Implied Love Interest.
• Victor and Yuri from Yuri!!! on Ice do this after Victor tackles and kisses Yuri in Episode 7.
• School Zone Girls: Subverted Trope. High schooler Yokoe sneaks a peek at her best friend and secret crush, the irascible Kei, during class, only for Kei to notice and return her gaze for a long, lingering moment. Yokoe being Yokoe, rather than be earnest and confess her feelings she immediately texts Kei and mockingly asks if it was enough to make Kei fall in love with her. Kei responds by deleting Yokoe's contact info and blocking her number.

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