Selective Obliviousness / Anime & Manga

• Another:
  • The students of Class 3 manage to force and subvert this trope, in an effort to stop the calamity that kills off members of the class and their family members. Due to the calamity being caused by one person in the class actually being dead, it can be averted if the class ignores one person in the class and pretends they don't exist... which only works sometimes, and it's hinted to only work if they pick the right one, which is pure chance. They originally choose Mei Misaki, until the protagonist ends up talking to her, having not been briefed by the class on how to behave. This appears to start the calamity all over again, and the students even resort to ignoring the protagonist himself, with no success. Irony, because the calamity had actually started before — with someone related to Mei, so she couldn't tell them because they were ignoring her.
  • Also present in that the one dead person in the class is impossible to detect, since everyone in the class and town and even the dead person themselves have no recollection of their death — at least, that is, unless someone kills them, in which case everything goes back to normal and everyone, except for the person who returned them to death, remembers them for how they really died, and has no recollection of their ever being in the class.
• It's possible that Angela/Ash is this in Black Butler. She/he commits horrible and very sinful actions and yet, she/he believes that it is for the work of the Lord. See Well-Intentioned Extremist to understand this.
• In Case Closed:
  • Ran has had suspicions about "Conan"'s identity, but not nearly as often as she should have, all things considered. (In one instance, Conan was terribly ill; he reverted to his normal appearance while nobody was watching him thanks to a drink he had been given by Heiji, then solved the mystery. He had a conversation with Ran, while obviously still very sick, then fell down the stairs and vanished in a puff of smoke. She heard Shinichi scream from nearby, and when she investigated, she found Conan instead. And somehow, she didn't figure it out.
  • Satou's very much aware of Takagi's affection for her at least relatively early on, and she definitely reciprocates it. What she isn't aware of is how much nearly every other male detective in her department is crushing on her (well, except for Shiratori, but that was only because she got stuck in an omiai with him), to the point where she never seems really aware why the Absolute Defense Line keeps making things difficult for the hapless Takagi. She doesn't even realize that any ring on her left ring finger will typically symbolize engagement! On the other hand, considering that the last officer she was attracted to died at a mad bomber's hands...er, explosives...she may just be subconsciously tuning out anything that could lead her into that sort of devastation again. Takagi's genuine love for her is the only thing capable of getting through that membrane.
• A Certain Magical Index: One constant across the series is that Touma Kamijou never realizes that at least half the female cast either have a crush on him or love him. Later novels imply he knows this, but chooses to ignore it because (a) picking one girl would hurt the others and (b) his life is already complicated enough without the girlfriend part.
• CLANNAD: Upon learning that his daughter, Nagisa is pregnant, Akio is torn between denial ("A stork brought it, right?"), joy at becoming a grandfather and wanting to strangle Tomoya for getting her pregnant. He does eventually (grudgingly) accept it. This is a rather extreme case, as Nagisa and Tomoya have been married for several months at that point and to make matters worse, he himself had been ribbing Tomoya about the possibility mere seconds before.
• In Cromartie High School, no one (except Kamiyama, Hayashida, and the Doctor that performed the school physicals) seems to notice that Mechazawa is, in fact, a robot. The same for the student gorilla.
• A Cruel God Reigns:
  • Ian Mind Rapes Jeremy. Which only helps to fuel Jeremy's Broken Bird, Sanity Slippage, and Trauma Conga Line syndromes.
  • Sandra also falls into this trope. She refuses to believe that Greg has been raping Jeremy.
• Death Note:
  • Misa is fairly intelligent, and professes to be talented when it comes to romance (and might well be), but refuses to see that her beloved Light actually hates her. She's perfectly capable of realizing when Light is fake-dating other girls just to use and manipulate them, but somehow never figures out he's doing the same with her. Admittedly, even if she did know, she still wouldn't care.
  • Light Yagami is utterly incapable of seeing that his actions make him just as bad as the criminals he kills, if not worse. When Ryuk point-blank tells him that once he kills all the evil people in the world, he'll be the only evil person left, Light brushes him off, remarking, "I don't know what you're talking about.
• In Dragon Ball Super, Goku is completely oblivious to the fact that Monaka is not actually a strong fighter, to the point of mistaking Beerus in a badly-made costume (which gets torn up during the fight) for him, and thinking that he can split himself into copies when he sees the real Monaka alongside the fake one.
• Played for Drama in Dr. Ramune: Mysterious Disease Specialist's "Gyoza Ears" arc, where the patient's ears transform into gyoza to absorb any sound that she doesn't want to hear, namely any mention or suggestion that her older son, Yuu—whom she is hallucinating—is actually Dead All Along.
• As a Running Gag in Eyeshield 21, Mamori continuously misses the signs that Sena is Eyeshield 21, despite Sena practically Clark Kenting. She knows Sena has the same build as Eyeshield 21, that Sena joined the football club, never saw Eyeshield 21 without his mask and Sena always seems to disappear when Eyeshield 21 shows up. She thinks "Every time Eyeshield 21 shows up... Sena never seems to be around. Maybe they... don't get along well?" The justification is that since she still sees Sena as a little kid who cannot stand up for himself, she simply cannot think of him as a successful football player. It's even lampshaded by Hiruma: "Preconceptions are harsh..."
• Sousuke from Full Metal Panic!. In the beginning, it looked more like he sincerely never notices when characters are in love with him. However, as the series goes on, it starts becoming more and more obvious (as his suitors become more and more direct) that he's actively turning up his obliviousness. This is no doubt due to his atypical upbringing, he probably has no idea HOW to react to such affection. His relationship with Tessa comes to mind, in particular. Numerous times, she makes incredibly aggressive advances on him, which he actually notices enough to feel nervous and scared. However, when people are later referring to her feelings for him, he's shown to react in a very oblivious manner, many times completely dismissing it. She's his commanding officer so he would have a good reason to do this.
• Kyon of Haruhi Suzumiya very deliberately ignores any hinting that the Chessgame of Life may have a King (who decides the game) as well as a Queen (who has the power in the game); he refuses to acknowledge Tachibana flat out telling him that he has the power to transfer Haruhi's power as well as Tsuruya's telling him that he and his friends really need to work on their Masquerade better. And then there's just his ignoring Haruhi's feelings for him; over which she's willing to rewrite the whole of reality over. Even Itsuki is starting to get annoyed.
• Nearly the entire cast of Hayate the Combat Butler has this about one subject or another (Sakuya, for example, believes her destiny is to become Japan's greatest comedienne, with Nagi as her partner).
• In Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • England doesn't seem to comprehend what colonial America meant by "Go to hell, England". Even in the present, he thinks of how cute of a kid America was. Since it was a very early strip it seems to have been retconned since then, and all later strips show the relationship between England and little America as genuinely warm and fluffy, with little America pretending to enjoy England's cooking even though it's horrible, being happy to receive presents from England, and crying when England goes home.
  • Spain has this, especially in the strip where he proposes to Romano. He merely asked for three meals a day without the slightest hinting to either option, but Spain automatically takes it as rejection.
  • America also fits in this, as Word of God states that he "refuses to read the atmosphere". In other words, he can literally choose whether to remain oblivious to an event or finally pay attention to it.
  • Russia seems to think that other nations actually want to live with him. When one of them rebels and he does have to face the fact that they all hate him except for Belarus, he doesn't seem to have a clue why.
  • More recently, Denmark has been hinted to do this as well, ignoring aggressive social behaviour and maintaining a cheery demeanour. He never gets it whenever Norway insults him, and during the 2011 Halloween event, when Belarus throws a hanger at him and declares that Russia's team will win, he simply wished her luck.
  • Then there's Japan's reaction after he and Greece had sex: "IT WAS ALL JUST A DREAM! I'M SO GLAD IT WAS JUST A DREAM!"
• Is It My Fault That I Got Bullied?
  • Everybody in Shiori's class chooses to completely ignore the bullying she receives by Nagumo, even when it's right in front of them.
  • Once Shiori slaps Nagumo over the drawing of her mother’s attempted suicide with her watching, the bullies make it look like she’s a bitch and chant at her to apologize, with the rest of the class joining in.
  • After the Gang of Bullies gets Convicted by Public Opinion, the class turns on the bullies and try to apologize to Shiori, but she rightfully calls them out on this.
• Poor Asuka Jr. in Kaitou Saint Tail has to cling onto this to get by after the Mid-Season Twist: he's starting to fall in love with his classmate Meimi, but a certain incident has also gotten him to suspect that she's actually the Phantom Thief Saint Tail (whom he's been chasing as the detective assigned to her cases). The questions that would naturally come out of this are so uncomfortable to think about that he latches onto every bit of Plausible Deniability and tries not to think about it too hard, instead channeling his energy into catching Saint Tail in the hopes of confirming her identity that way. After a while, even that runs dry when he starts sensing that she gives off the same aura, making him unable to not think about the issue and forcing him to confront his feelings on the subject for real. Ultimately, he decides that his love for Meimi comes first and starts a relationship with her, hoping that he can get his answers one way or another and mentally categorizing them as separate people for the time being; unfortunately, the Arc Villain forcibly reveals her identity to him and drags him away from her, leaving him with all of the uncomfortable questions and none of the answers he wanted until she comes to get him four days later.
• Yurika in Martian Successor Nadesico tends to do this, insisting that Akito is head-over-heels in love with her, even though he's never shown any signs of it and tends to get pretty annoyed when she tries to get close to him. But it's possible that her obliviousness is all part of a master plan to make Akito fall in love with her. if so, it works.
• In Monster, Eva manages to overlook the fact that she had mistreated Tenma in the worst way - and when he tells her, nine years after she had broken off their engagement, that he is flattered but uninterested in reconciling, she chooses to turn a deaf ear and threaten him with telling the police that he had killed her father should he really decide to continue his life without her.
• In Moyashimon, Aoi Mutou used to work hard at part-time jobs so she and her boyfriend could afford a place together. But one day, she arrived at his apartment only to find he had moved out, taken the money they had saved and left a note saying he had found someone else. Mutou preferred to believe that he had been abducted by aliens, which is how she fell in with the agricultural university's UFO Club. Any attempts to bring up the obvious truth simply drive her to drink.
• Ikuto in Nagasarete Airantou is this to anything supernatural, dismissing it as his imagination or putting it into logical reason, despite living on a daily basis with talking animals and a kappa. When Ikuto's sister is introduced it's revealed that she is actually a youkai and that he has been cursed to prevent him from realising.
• Naruto:
  • Naruto didn't realize Hinata had strong feelings for him, something many of the other ninjas were easily able to figure out. He also doesn't realize that Sasuke really doesn't want to come back to the village, even after Sasuke impales him and almost kills Sakura and Kakashi.
  • Naruto's not the only one with a tendency towards this trope when it comes to Sasuke - Sakura's just as bad, always believing that eventually Sasuke will come back to them no matter how many times she is proven wrong - she still keeps her love for Sasuke even when he actively tried to kill her. Eventually he does pull a Heel–Face Turn for good and they have a daughter together, but even then Sasuke chooses to Walk the Earth to atone for his previous deeds.
• Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion does it as part of her Belligerent Sexual Tension with Shinji: while she never misses an opportunity to berate his perceived weaknesses and constantly calls him an idiot, pervert, etc., whenever he demonstrates evidence to the contrary, she makes a pointed effort to ignore it due to her severe intimacy issues. This becomes even stronger as the series goes on, eventually contributing to her mental breakdown when she realizes it's not working anymore.
• Ouran High School Host Club: Tamaki persistently interprets his attraction to Haruhi as paternal affection; hilarity, naturally, frequently ensues out of the dissonance. Aside from Haruhi herself, no one else is fooled, and in later volumes the other members of the Host Club speculate that Tamaki subconsciously refuses to acknowledge his feelings for Haruhi because he doesn't want anything to break up the surrogate family he's created in the Host Club the way his parents' love caused his own family to be broken up. The funny thing is, Tamaki's "paternal love" obsession goes a bit far when he realizes he's romantically in love with Haruhi. He thinks of himself as a "perverted lech" preying upon his "daughter" and feels horrified about committing "incest".
• Penguin Revolution: It takes Ayaori six manga volumes of rooming together and, finally, actually seeing Yukari naked (with his contacts in, for a change) before he realizes that Yukari is a girl pretending to be a boy instead of a boy pretending to be a girl. Sure, he's Blind Without 'Em, but Yukari pretty much stops trying to keep the act up around him before the first volume is over.
• In Ranma ½:
  • The bombastic Tatewaki "Blue Thunder" Kuno refuses to believe that the hated Ranma Saotome and his beloved "Pigtailed Girl" are one and the same, even when Ranma changes right in his arms. After a while, one wonders if he isn't fully aware and just forcing himself not to think about it. His sister has a similar ailment, but she isn't confronted with the evidence quite as often (and in the anime, never) and actually tried to figure out what happened before getting sidetracked. Kuno might also be purposely ignoring all of the blatant evidence that neither of his "love interests" actually even likes him, let alone lusts after him... although this may be less Selective Obliviousness and more a cocktail of Casanova Wannabe grade lechery (Kuno is debatably a Handsome Lech) and whopping ego.
  • Akane Tendo is often accused of this regarding the fact that her pet pig is actually the cursed form of one of Ranma's rivals for her affections. It's got to be the biggest problem she brings to the relationship, even worse than her insecurity. That's not to say that Ranma doesn't contribute his own flaws, faults, and problems, but when she's been shown to consciously ignore Ranma's attempts to explain how a situation wasn't what it looked like, to the extent that the manga version of Akane ignored Ranma's outright telling her why he was trying to grope Hinako, coupled with showing her the pressure point chart he was using, in order to support her own belief that it's because Ranma is an uncontrollable lecher. In the anime canon, this flaw is actually the explicit reason why Akane is a Lethal Chef; she refuses to follow the recipe and adds extra ingredients that she believes will make it even better (and then adds the wrong wrong ingredients, due to not looking at what she's grabbing), and refuses to admit her cooking habits are why nobody will ever eat her cooking unless forced. In one episode, she spends the entire night trying to make edible cookies and continues to repeat the same mistakes over and over even though each and every batch turns out terrible. When Ranma finally allows himself to be guilted into eating her latest batch, and promptly takes to his room with severe stomach pains, Akane idly declares that the recipe must have been faulty.
  • Kasumi Tendo calls people who are actively trying to murder Ranma his "friends". Often flanderized in Fan Fic into one of her defining traits.
  • Mousse could be called Selectively Oblivious in regards to Shampoo. He refuses to admit that the girl he's been chasing since they were three has never shown any sign of reciprocated interest, at best ignoring him and more commonly hitting him whenever he made one of his "romantic" gestures/speeches. By the late manga, she's perfectly willing to let him die just to be rid of him. Instead, Mousse blames her lack of interest on her (willingly given and clearly backed by genuine emotion, at least in the anime) engagement to Ranma and frequently assaults the Japanese boy, accusing him of seducing Shampoo or otherwise keeping her away from Mousse.
• Reborn! (2004): Yamamoto Takeshi is the poster boy for this trope. He has seen talking infants wield guns, come very close to dying at least three times, traveled forward in time to stop an Omnicidal Maniac from destroying the world, and, depending on your interpretation of his character, still thinks the mafia is a role-playing game that Tsuna and Gokudera cooked up. After being specifically told this isn't a game multiple times.
  • Lambo at least has basic awareness that he's in the mafia, but being a five-year-old, he is unable to grasp that the major events in the series are serious mafia business, instead believing that he is being taken along to play. This results in at least two occasions of a rude awakening after he ends up injured.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena was interesting in that it didn't portray the girl (Shiori) practicing Selective Obliviousness in a positive light. One can also argue that Utena starts indulging in this after episode 31.
• In Skip Beat!, Kyouko is completely oblivious to the fact that Ren is in love with her, even after his assistant blatantly told her.
• In Snow White with the Red Hair it is implied over time the Mitsuhide's apparent unawareness of Kiki's feelings for him is more something he's playing up as he would rather not address it. To a different degree it is eventually confirmed that his apparent obliviousness to the crushes and flirtations of most of the female staff in the castle is just his way of dealing with unwanted potential romantic attachments until such things get to the point where he needs to actually say that he has no interest.
• Souichi of the Boy's Love manga The Tyrant Falls in Love doesn't seem to realize that he's making an awful lot of exceptions to his homophobia in regards to his gay companion Morinaga, not even after he says outright that he doesn't want Morinaga to leave him and that he can have sex with Morinaga only. That must be one hell of a balancing act between "I hate hate homos!" and "I can't let Morinaga leave my side, even if he likes me that way!" in Souichi's mind.

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