Cannot Spit It Out / Anime & Manga

• The lynchpin of the Ah! My Goddess manga is Keiichi and Belldandy's ironclad relationship, and Keiichi's inability to blatantly express his love without help from a third party, even though Belldandy has no trouble at all with it. He was much closer to Bell in the early manga, though, and seems to be getting better at it in recent chapters. It should also be noted that the trope is averted in the 1994 OVA, and in the 2005 animé's first season (...but ignored in the second), and both seem to be more popular and well-known among fans than the manga. The manga's finale reveals the reason for the backsliding is mortals and gods are not allowed to enter an intimate relationship. Because Keiichi's wish for Belldandy to remain at his side could not be voided, the Ultimate Force suppressed his urges to the point that even holding hands was embarassing.
• Ai Yori Aoshi:
  • The whole series would have been much simpler if Aoi and Kaoru could just tell Kaoru's Unwanted Harem that he was taken. Also much shorter. On the upside, it paves the way for Tina's crowning moment.
  • Tina is another example. Her inability to confess her love to Kaoru before the series begins leads to her going on a year-long trip around the world, mainly to try and get over it.
• In the backstory of Aizawa-san Multiplies, the title character spent two years crushing on her classmate Souta Mizutani. She even named a cat after him because of it.
• In Aoi Kiseki the female lead Ageha is unable to interact with her beau without going full Tsundere and confessing her feelings out of sheer shyness. When she finally works the courage to do so, a nasty fall damages her brain, robbing her of her ability to speak. Ouch.
• Moe in Asteroid in Love had a crush on Misa for several years as of Present Day, but she didn't have the confidence to confess to the latter until Mikage encouraged her to.
• Mikasa from Attack on Titan, has been in love with Eren since they were kids, but he remained completely oblivious to it and she resigned herself to loving him from afar. Come Chapter 123, Eren asks her out of nowhere what exactly he means to her and Mikasa, completely blindsided, stammered out that he was her family. She would later come to see this moment as one of her greatest regrets, especially considering the path that Eren went down shortly after this encounter...
• Kaorin of Azumanga Daioh can't do anything about her crush on the resident Huge Schoolgirl, as she becomes so flustered around Sakaki that it's amazing that she can talk at all.
• Bakemonogatari brings this to the logical conclusion. Hanekawa never confessed her feelings towards Araragi despite knowing him for years, so he gets taken away by Senjougahara who confessed to him not long after realizing her own feelings. Araragi never realized this until the cat possessing Hanekawa spit it out to him.
• In Bakuman。, Moritaka Mashiro's uncle Nobuhiro was in a correspondence with his classmate Miyuki Haruno (Miho's mother) for years, but was unable to confess his feelings to her until he was able to make a living off of manga, wanting to date her with the intent of marrying her and feeling unable to do so considering her rising to become the secretary to her company's president. Miyuki eventually fell in love with another man and had children, as while she felt the same about Nobuhiro, she was unable to wait any longer. Kaya's father notes that Moritaka and Miho admitting their feelings to each other is the crucial reason why their relationship will have a different outcome.
• A particularly heartbreaking example occurs in Berserk during the Eclipse. Judeau wants to confess his love for Casca after being seriously wounded by one of the Apostles. When the time finally comes, all he can say to her is "I'm glad to see you cry." He dies painfully in her arms immediately after.
• B Gata H Kei:
  • Takashi Kosuda has moments of this when trying to express his feelings for the series protagonist, Yamada. When he finally works up the courage to confess his love to her, his message is garbled by train doors closing on his neck before he is whisked away.
  • Yamada is worse. She and Kosuda start dating at about Chapter 20. Kosuda finds this out about 200 chapters and almost two in-universe years later.
• The fact that the two sisters Asu and Kyou from Binbou Shimai Monogatari love each other a lot can't prevent them from communicating poorly on a regular basis, making them run in panicky circles where a few choice words would have helped immensely. But the making-up hugs are cute indeed◊. Awww...
• Charlotte Roselei from Black Clover. She has a very bad experience of this when it comes to the one she is in love with. When Yami only wants to ask her about the curse she suffered from, not only does she interrupt him but also runs away screaming when she thinks he is about to make her confess. Eventually, she admits her love for Yami to her squad and they are supportive about it, much to her surprise. But she's still completely unable to admit it it to Yami. For added hilarity, he shows up to talk to her almost immediately afterwards.
• Blade of the Immortal:
  • Rin quite obviously loves Manji a lot... So much so, in fact, that the only thing in the series that caused more violence than the Roaring Rampage of Revenge Rin set out on after the plot-instigating murder of her entire family was the Roaring Rampage of Rescue she set out on after Manji got himself kidnapped about halfway through the plot... Unfortunately for Rin, there are two issues at play here: First of all, she happens to look remarkably similar to Manji's dead little sister, and he regards her more-so as an opportunity to atone for being unable to save his sister's life than a potential love interest. And secondly, she feels that, once her revenge quest is over — provided she survives it — she's going to need to atone for all the bloodshed she's responsible for, a quest that Manji has no interest in tagging along with her for. At the end of the series, Manji leaves Japan on a ship while Rin sets out to beg forgiveness of every family that suffered loss because of her quest for revenge. When Hyakurin suddenly snaps at her that she threw away her chance to Spit It Out and go with Manji just because she wanted to act like a responsible adult, Rin breaks down and starts crying.
  • So, Giichi, you really like that Hyakurin girl, huh? Awesome. Don't forget to watch over her while she sleeps like a creep and be frustratingly overprotective, that always works. Save her life in a Roaring Rampage of Rescue and nurse her back to health? Sure thing. Don't forget to brush it off as nothing and act awkward when she tries to thank you for it. Make a deal with the devil for her freedom? Don't forget to keep it anonymous. Heck, disappear completely from her life so she'll never find out! She found you? Damn, better mope and insist you're not worth her time. She finally tells you outright that she loves you? Don’t say a thing in response... Because, let’s face it: you haven't got the foggiest clue how to verbally respond to that, do you?
• Blood+: Haji. Poor Haji loved Saya for the entire series but he remains the stoic quiet guy. For centuries, ever since a young Haji saw Saya in 1870, he pined away but he never tells her until the very last episode at the very last moment when Saya is trying to kill Diva's babies and wants to die herself — and even then he only coughs it up when Kai forces him to. Of course, a few minutes later Amshel shows up and wrecks their moment, leaving Haji buried in rubble. Just think how much better Saya's life would be if he had said it sooner.
• Hagino in Blue Drop for the largest part doesn't tell Mari that she is the commander of the space ship that caused the disaster in which Mari's parents died.
• In Chrono Crusade, it's hard to say that the plot would have changed had he told Rosette, but Chrono constantly dodges around telling Rosette about his past — to the point that "one of these days, I'll have to tell you a story" practically becomes his Catchphrase. The few times he does seem to be about to explain it, he's interrupted. In the manga, Rosette has to go into his soul and dig around in his memories to find out the truth.
• City Hunter: Ryo. The one time he tried to declare his love for Kaori, he couldn't finish the phrase. Then Kaori accidentally blew up the building, preventing him from succeeding in his attempts at finishing the phrase.
• Used famously in CLAMP works, especially Cardcaptor Sakura, Wish and the newer series Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- and ×××HOLiC. They also tend to use a unique variations of this trope especially with the dreamseers. Who can see the possible futures both good and bad. They'll tell the rest of the cast whenever the future is good, however when the future is generally bad they won't say anything. The reason behind this is because as long as they don't tell the key players that future then they can change it, but telling others of that future can set it in stone. And the only dreamseer who actually DID say the future was still unchanged... said so after her death.
• In Classi9, Bach has troubles dealing with discovering Ren's gender, so much he can't bring himself to tell her he knows.
• Code Geass:
  • Shirley Fenette is not able to give a Love Confession to Lelouch that he actually pays attention to until a little over halfway through R2, and then she dies.
  • This also applies to Lelouch himself. Manipulative Bastard he might be, but he's also a Bad Liar and keeps his mouth shut when he really shouldn't. This results in a good chunk of tragedy in the show, especially his inability to be honest about the exact circumstances surrounding Euphemia's death.
• Jeremy from A Cruel God Reigns encounters this a lot. He can't tell his step-brother Ian about Greg's abuse after Ian tells him that he vows to make their new family a happy one. He can't tell his mother Sandra about it out of fear that she will be Driven to Suicide. He tries to tell his boarding school roommate William about it by saying that he got the whip marks on his back from an evil spirit (Greg) that beat him in his house's torture room (his bedroom), but William doesn't get it. All in all, Poor Communication Kills. Literally.
• The Dangers in My Heart: Conflicts in the series tend to wrap up with characters actually talking things through in the end, but nonetheless both of the leads have shades of this.
  • By his own admission, Ichikawa is a lot more resistant about admitting to what he wants or saying something positive than he is to saying something negative. When the time comes, however, he will say what needs to be said (Though he'll still stutter and probably curse himself...).
  • It's more than evident through everything but her words that Yamada is in love with Ichikawa. She has no problem being physically playful with him and actively makes efforts to spend time with him. But even implying to specifically coming to him just for a talk is a tall order (No pun intended on her part). At one point she went along with his assumption that she was waiting at their school gate for someone. This was right after she stopped him to loan him her shoujo manga. She becomes more upfront about some things as their relationship develops, and at the same time she tends to play with her words in regards to her feelings for him. The first time she indirectly confesses to liking Ichikawa, she bursts into tears.
• Death Parade has a couple instances of this taken up to eleven, as these moments often lead to the character’s deaths. Notably:
  • The guests featured in the first episode are a married couple with a strained relationship. The husband, an incredibly scrutinous man, has long suspected his wife of being unfaithful, but never brought it up with her. While driving together, he gets mad when she won’t tell him why she’s on her phone, and when he tries to take it from her he drives themselves of a cliff, killing the both of them as well as their unborn baby.
  • One of the guests in episode 4 is a Hikikomori with an abusive mother who left him when he was young. His Good Stepmother did her best to get through to him, hoping he would call her “mom” one day, but he constantly brushed her off. After committing suicide, he questions why he never said that to her and berates himself for it.
  • Starting in episode 7, the dark-haired woman realizes she’s a dead human, but every time it seems like she’s going to talk to Decim about it, she stops herself. Telling him early on likely would have changed the course of the series and stopped her from enduring some of the Darker and Edgier moments that occurred after. There are multiple other instances of her clearly wanting to discuss something with Decim but being unable to, leading to him taking drastic measures to be able to understand her better. Her inability to communicate her feelings in general turns out to be her Fatal Flaw: she committed suicide after shutting herself off from everyone, believing there was no way people could ever understand one another, and that even hoping for it was pointless.
• In Destiny of the Shrine Maiden the plot would have been almost completely different if Chikane had told Himeko about what happened in their past lives.
• All Daisuke needs to do in D.N.Angel to stop transforming into Dark is to get the girl he loves to love him in return — but that includes loving Dark, since Dark is a part of him. Daisuke is unable to bring himself to tell her the truth, partially because he's scared of rejection and partially because part of him isn't sure if he wants Dark to leave.
• Eureka Seven:
  • Three of the characters, a seasoned rebel named Holland, his girlfriend/second in command Talho, and a young boy named Renton get into an argument over an injured teammate. Holland pretends he doesn't care, and goes on a mission to save a head priest "for a lot of money." Renton is furious that he doesn't care. Talho understands that Holland is saving this priest because he can save their teammate. Holland beats Renton up for his suggesting they try to save their teammate, Talho slaps Holland for not telling Renton that he wants to save their teammate, she also slaps Renton for not realizing that Holland wants to save their teammate (but she doesn't tell him this). This leads to Renton leaving the crew, and falling into the company of a rival mercenary. Just because everybody Cannot Spit It Out.
  • In another example, Renton, who's looking for relationship advice because he wants to tell Eureka he loves her, winds up looking at a porno rag, and of course, he gets caught. The men think he wants to do it with Eureka, so they convert his room into some sort of love nest, and Holland of course finds out and beats the shit out of Renton.
• A non-romantic example from Fairy Tail is Cana, who is Gildarts' daughter. However, she was originally raised by her mother who apparently never told Gildarts about her, and after her mother died, Cana sought out Gildarts but couldn't work up the nerve to tell him she was his daughter. It was more than a decade before Gildarts found out.
• Played straight by Saito and Louise in the first season of the The Familiar of Zero anime, averted early in the second. Particularly surprising considering who these characters are expies of.
• In the Fullmetal Alchemist manga and second anime, Winry and Ed have this in SPADES. To the point where he'd rather recite the periodic table of elements than admit his feelings.
• Full Metal Panic!:
  • Through the entire anime, Kaname was unable to bring herself to come out and confess to Sôsuke. Granted, anyone should have been capable of noticing her feelings without a direct confession, but... Sôsuke being Sôsuke, normal methods don't work with him.
  • He probably had a clue and, by the look of the Second Raid finale, he reciprocated even though he wanted to keep it a secret from Mithril for obvious reasons.
  • In ''The Second Raid", Tessa angrily denounces Sôsuke's inability to just say that he loves Kaname over her.
    Tessa: Do you understand my feelings, even a little bit? You're the worst! You pretend to be kind and friendly, but you're just an egotist! You're always pretending... Why don't you just admit it? "I want to be with her! Don't stand in my way!"
  • Wraith comes to Mao with important news. But after watching Mao rally the forces by commanding them to embarrass their annoyingly overconfident fallen comrade, Kurz, by completing the mission without him, Wraith immediately clams up and insists the news actually wasn't that important and would probably just ruin the mood. Said news is that Kurz actually survived and had just finished rehabilitation.
• In Girls Beyond the Wasteland, Yuuka starts to realize that she likes Buntarou, but can never bring herself to tell him directly, either due to fear of rejection, or because she doesn't want to screw up the group dynamic in the event they started dating.
• Toward the end of The Girl I Want is So Handsome!, Hinami "Hina" Ayukawa casually mentions to her girlfriend Shiki Hiiragi that she likes her romantically, and is shocked when Shiki replies that Hina has never said that to her before. Hina then goes through her memories of her most emotional moments with Shiki and realizes that no, she has never explicitly told Shiki that she loves her.
• In Girls und Panzer, the three members of the Oarai student council are the only ones who know that if the school does not win the tournament, it will be shut down. Naturally, while this motivates many of their decisions, they don't reveal it, with Anzu making a vaguely worded threat that Miho won't be attending school at Oarai for long if she doesn't join the tankery club, silencing Yuzu when she is about to tell Miho and Yukari the truth, and even being unable to tell Miho when she invites her to dinner for that exact purpose (leaving Miho suspicious). This proves counterproductive to the student council's plans when those Locked Out of the Loop are less concerned about winning, and they are ultimately forced to tell the truth when Miho considers forfeiting the match against Pravda rather than risk people getting hurt.
• Gunslinger Girl. Triela is called on this (regarding her feelings for her handler Hilshire) by Mimi Machiavelli. Triela isn't sure whether her feelings are real or just Brainwash Residue from her conditioning, and as a fratello is supposed to be Like Brother and Sister it's not something they would talk about anyway. Even when Triela has her Love Epiphany she still doesn't discuss it with Hilshire, knowing perfectly well he's not interested in a romantic relationship with a cyborg who looks like a fourteen-year-old girl.
• Although GUN×SWORD begins with Wendy offering to marry Van as a reward for saving her hometown, Wendy never confesses her deepening feelings for him, despite some good opportunities. Instead, her feelings for him are displayed mostly through Green-Eyed Monster moments. Her decision not to say anything when they part in the finale looks a lot like an Aborted Declaration of Love, but since they end up being reunited in the Distant Finale — at a time when she's actually old enough to be in a relationship with him — things work out in the end.
• In Hana-Kimi, Mizuki loves Sano, and Sano loves Mizuki pretty much from Chapter 3 onwards. Also, that's about when Sano also finds out that Mizuki really is a girl. And neither knows about what the other knows until chapter 133.
• In HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!, a lot of Hime's problems, especially around Iona and her Jerkass attitude around her, is due to the fact that she just can't spit out her Dark Secret, that she accidentally opened the Axia Box, releasing the Phantom Empire.
• Shallot◊ from Sayuri Tatsuyama's Happy Happy Clover, has a secret crush on Clover's best friend Mallow◊. In one story from the first volume, Shallot asks Clover to deliver a secret letter to Mallow and tells her it's a secret between him and her. But Kale's baby brothers hears what Shallot and Clover we're talking about and later when Clover loses the letter. She decides to look for it, but the entire forest animals hears about the letter which was a result that Kale's brothers said to one of them and started asking each animal. When things start getting out of hand, Clover then see's Mallow asking for the letter that Shallot secretly gave Clover. By the end, the entire forest knows about this while Mallow is confused and Shallot is embarrassed. In the second volume, where a the main characters would answer questions to readers/fans. Shallot reveals that he wants to tell Mallow that he likes her, but its impossible to him since she's mostly spending time with Clover. However in the final volume, when Shallot get's hurt. Mallow recently in that volume wanted to be a doctor and decides to visit Shallot. Near the end of the story, Shallot accidentally admits to Mallow that he likes her. When he realized that he said that, he tries to say that it wasn't supposed to sound like that. But Mallow's response? He gives him a big hug! After Mallow hugged him, Shallot get's so excited that he passes out as a response. Mallow responds by trying to wake him up, she also monologues about her heart feeling "fuzzy and warm" after he said that to her. Ever since that day, Clover mentions that Mallow's been giving alot of hugs to him lately. Near the end of the final volume, he and Mallow get married during the epilogue of the series.
• Haruhi Suzumiya:
  • Kyon seems to be the only cast member who is oblivious to Haruhi's attraction to him (even though she would likely die before admitting as much, perhaps even to herself).
  • Conversely, Kyon has admitted on multiple occasions (in the novels, at least) that he is attracted to both Asahina Mikuru and Nagato Yuki (but never confesses as much to either girl). In a subversion of the latter, Asahina warns Kyon that he mustn't allow himself to become too close to her.
  • This trope mostly applies to Haruhi, who would simplify things a lot if she actually said something, and unlike Kyon, doesn't have a reason to keep quiet.
• Although most of the girls of Hayate the Combat Butler Unwanted Harem have the ability to use this trope, the only one who really gets it enforced on her is Hinagiku, though she did manage to confess once, it was timed so that he couldn't hear it, and otherwise it gets mixed with interuptions or her simply, as she explains to Ayumu, wanting him to start the confessions.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • A great deal of time involving England and America involves both of their inabilities to share their feelings, mixed dangerously with England's tsundere tendencies and America's Jerk with a Heart of Gold habits targeted right back. This Ship Tease has affected the fandom as well as the canon universe immensely.
  • Sweden — every time he tries to talk to Finland, he becomes flustered and can't finish what he was about to say. It doesn't help that Finland seems to be Oblivious to Love, either.
• Hidamari Sketch:
  • Sae has trouble telling her little sister Chika how much she really cares for her.
  • Likewise, Natsume is sending Sae mostly confusing messages, although it's admittedly quite hard to get through Sae's obliviousness.
• High School D×D:
  • The girls usually have NO problem telling Issei of their feelings, often at the same time... in his bed... as he's trying to go to sleep. The only one that does is Rias, because she's worried he doesn't see her as anything but the Occult Club's president. Issei has trouble telling Rias how he feels, too. He's still emotionally scarred from being rejected and literally murdered by the first girl confessed to, a fallen angel named Raynare, who'd been masquerading as a normal girl and stringing Issei along before killing him.
  • Akeno has trouble confessing at first, knowing Issei's hatred of Fallen Angels and fearing he would hate her, too, due to her half-blood heritage as one. Once he assures her he couldn't hate her if he tried, she gets a lot more clingy, in a good way.
• The girls in How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend can't bring themselves to telling Tomoya how they feel, either because of competition from the other girls or because he seems to be Oblivious to Love.
• Including it in the Anime & Manga section even though it's technically an Original English Language manga. In Dramacon by Svetlana Chmakova, despite three years of blatant flirtation and although, like Kagome and Inuyasha, each has more of less come to an understanding with regards to the other's feelings, neither Christie or Matt openly confess their feelings before the story's final act.
• I Can't Believe I Slept with You: Both women seem to have trouble spelling out their feelings. The Landlady almost makes an Anguished Declaration of Love, but is interrupted by Chiyo's cell phone ringing in their ears.
• Played mostly straight with the members of Ichika's Balanced Harem in Infinite Stratos, but wonderfully averted with Laura, after being defrosted. Half an hour after she knows she's in love with Ichika, so does everyone else—Including Ichika, which is pretty damn impressive.
• Itazura Na Kiss: A lot of grief would've been avoided had Naoki simply voiced his growing feelings for Kotoko earlier. It took a Green-Eyed Epiphany to finally declare to her.
• In Junjou Romantica, Misaki has enormous difficulty on two counts: he can't bring himself to tell Usami he loves him, and he's so concerned with never being a burden to anyone that he's pretty much incapable of saying what he wants from other people, even when they flat-out ask him and are obviously willing to do whatever he wants. Naturally, this leads to complications, as he tends to go along with what other people want — even when the reason why they want it is because they think it'll make him happy...
• A variation in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. Instead of it being "cannot spit it out", it's "will not spit it out" since the plot revolves around Kaguya and Shirogane trying to force each other into confessing without confessing themselves. While played for jokes at first, it's later established to be the result of both feeling deeply insecure and desiring the validation of the other confessing first. Although they actually do confess and get together long before the series ends.
• In Kaleido Star, Ken Robbins tries often to tell Sora Naegino that he greatly loves and admires her, but never gets the chance. In a more adult version, Kalos Eido loves his best friend Sarah Dupont, but feels guilty for their common past and doesn't want to let her know. And last, Jerry the policeman can't tell his best friend Kate that he loves her since they've been friends for decades and he fears to lose that friendship When he does tell her, he graduates to Victorious Childhood Friend.
• Tomoe from Kamisama Kiss has some real problems admitting his feelings to Nanami. Part of it comes from the fact he's her servant and bodyguard and he was forced into that position against his will. Part of it stems from his disapproval of Interspecies Romance (he's a Kitsune and she's a human). And part of it is simply that he is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• In Kanon, Yuichi's aunt Akiko never thinks to mention to him that the girl whose death traumatized him 7 years ago was still alive in the hospital until the memory resurfaces.
• The title character of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple is totally unable to take initiative in starting a romantic relationship with Miu, even though she obviously likes him. All of the masters are constantly guessing (and probably betting on) when he'll finally say something.
• Many love triangles, such as the one in Kimagure Orange Road,F have a third wheel who thinks that the main character returns their feelings. In the case of KOR, he doesn't, but feels it's far better to lead her on for the entire series instead of sitting her down and explaining the situation, as he does care for the girl as a sister and can't bring himself to hurt her feelings. It certainly doesn't help that the girl whom he does have feelings for is the best friend of the third wheel and an Action Girl who already promised to help the wheel girl, as well as willing to beat the shit out of him if he causes said girl harm.
• Kimi ni Todoke: Sawako keeps stopping short of saying what she really feels time and time again because of her overly selfless and humble personality, an endless source of frustration and misunderstandings for those who care about her.
• Kotaro and Mayumi in Kotaro Makaritoru! absolutely love each other but feel too embarrassed to confess it to the other. When one of them is about to muster enough courage to confess, expect someone else to show up and ruin the moment.
• In the animated adaptation of Kotoura-san, there is Haruka and Hiyori to Manabe. Interestingly, Manabe and Haruka's romance progresses fine regardless, and Haruka confessed in the end regardless. Averted in the manga, where Haruka confessed in the third chapter.
• A consistent problem in Last Game. Although, it may be Justified in Yanagi's case because Kujou is just so Oblivious to Love that she might misinterpret his potential confession as a declaration of friendship instead.
• In Love Hina it took the vast majority of the fourteen volumes of the published manga for the male protagonist to even get past "I L...". The entire rest of the manga consists of the same happening to the female lead. It's fun to follow, but incredibly excruciating at the same time. It's eventually referred to this in the Kanako arc OVAs.
• In the first two seasons of Lyrical Nanoha, the villains have their own reasons for doing what they're doing, but refuse to tell why despite Nanoha wanting to talk to them. Nanoha (whose main characteristic is her honesty and straightforwardness) decides that the only way to get them to explain their actions is to beat them in combat and demand an explanation. It works.
  • The Wolkenritter are concerned about Hayate being uncovered as master of the Book of Darkness and being labeled a criminal as a result, which could be one reason why they don't tell Nanoha and her friends their story.
  • Also, all of the TSAB's experience with them at that point was as emotionless, deadly constructs who would stop at nothing to protect the Book of Darkness — not exactly people with a trustworthy reputation. Even if Nanoha and Fate are willing to think otherwise, it's clear they're not the ones calling the shots on the case.
• After episode 9 of Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, Sasshi finds himself unable to bring himself to tell Arumi that Masa-jii is dead.
• In Magic Knight Rayearth, Clef can't bring himself to reveal that the Magic Knights are summoned to kill the Pillar of Cephiro as a failsafe if that person becomes evil and threatens the land. He deeply apologizes for this later.
• Mahoraba takes the romantic variety to insane levels, leaving you to wonder if either of the mains have tongues at all until the last episode.
• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED:
  • A large amount of problems in the series and its sequel could have been avoided had Athrun actually spoke his mind to various people, instead of moping around silently and constantly going "it's nothing" when people asked him what he thought.
  • Deconstructed concerning Kira and Flay. Before his fated duel with Athrun, Kira tells Flay there's something he wants to tell her, despite all the time she's been manipulating him. When Kira disappears after the fight, Flay realizes that she did like him. Fate ends up conspiring to keep the two apart until the very end where Rau Le Crueset ends up shooting down her escape craft as one last Kick the Dog moment.
• In Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, Sakura probably wouldn't even be Nozaki's assistant at all if she'd just told him she liked him instead of chickening out and saying she's his fan. Nozaki being Nozaki, of course, he took it the wrong way. She makes the same mistake the second time. Later, she states that she wants to make Nozaki fall for her and confess first because she's afraid that if she confesses again Nozaki will just use it to mine ideas for his manga.
• My Love Story!! plays this straight between Takeo and Rinko for about three episodes before Makoto gets annoyed and forces them both to tell the truth, resulting in the two going steady almost immediately. Makoto basically spares the audience about 20 episodes worth of angst and romantic tension.
• My Monster Secret plays with this trope in just about every way possible. In the first chapter it's averted, with protagonist Asahi going to confess to his classmate Youko...only to get thrown off his stride when he walks into the classroom and sees her with fangs and giant bat wings. When she says she'll have to leave the school now that her secret is exposed, he promises not to tell anyone and asks her to be...his friend. He hides his true feelings for a while, but in hindsight he decides it's better this way since if he'd said "Be my girlfriend" right then, it would have looked like he was blackmailing her. A couple of friends who have known him for years also think it's a good thing, since Asahi has a tendency to admire girls and mistake that admiration for love^note Which is exactly what happened with Youko — she projected the image of a cool beauty, but is actually cheerful, friendly, and kind of an airhead, but by being friends first he gets to know the real Youko and develop actual feelings for her. He does end up confessing for real about halfway through the series, and the two become a couple, though the confession letter he wrote in the first chapter doesn't get opened until the very last.
  • There's also other characters who have feelings for Asahi, and can't spit it out for various reasons. Class Representative Nagisa is an alien who got most of her knowledge on Earth by reading manga, and is also incredibly insecure about her feelings. Shiho tries to deny her feelings for Asahi because she and Youko have known each other since they were kids and she'd never do anything as scummy as stealing her best friend's boyfriend. And of course, both of them are major Shippers on Deck for the couple (while Youko ships Nagisa with Asahi before realizing her own feelings). Both of them actually do confess, but entirely so that Asahi can let them down gently and they can move on with their lives.
  • And then there's the non-romantic version with the main plot, which is most prominent with Rin, Asahi's Granddaughter from the Future. She could very easily clear up a lot of the mysteries and confusion about the plot (in particular whom Asahi ends up marrying), but she's expressly forbidden from revealing future knowledge, with her punishment for doing so being barred from returning to the future for some time. Near the end of the series, as the cast starts to put things together, she says "To hell with the rules" and owns up to everything because she wants to prevent the Bad Future she comes from where practically the entire cast are alone and sad due to their friendships and lives breaking down.
• My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!:
  • Catarina has a large mixed gender harem, all of whom were supposed to be interested in each other in various ways. Since she thinks that they still must be into each other like they are in the game they were based on, she doesn't factor herself into the group's romantic interactions. All of them are trying to get her to figure it out by being indirect and get frustrated when she completely blows them off. Only Maria and Mary get close to actually spitting it out. For Maria in particular there is no excuse: The lines she gives are ones that Catarina knows would be a confession if they were said to anyone else.
  • Catarina's parents, the Duke and Duchess, had one in the backstory. They both fell in love with each other at first sight, but never told each other. Catarina's father basically proposed to her mother by going to her father instead, which he feels guilty about. In the original timeline, this eventually led to Poor Communication Kills; the Duke adopted a boy with strong magic, who the Duchess assumed was his illegitimate child. She hated the boy and shunned her husband, becoming a bitter old shrew and contributing both to Catarina's villainy (as she was left to be spoiled by her father) and Keith's womanizing (because he was starved for affection). In the new timeline, Catarina's attempts to be nice to Keith result in the Duchess confronting the Duke about it. When she realizes Keith is not her husband's bastard, she becomes much nicer to him, and the Duke and Duchess enter into a honeymoon phase. They grow up as a happy, close family.
• The title character of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water is obviously attracted to Jean, even though she otherwise claims he's merely a friend. Unfortunately she is unable to admit her love for him or what she actually wants from him because she simply doesn't know how to act appropriately except through rage (she gradually changes that behavior). Jean, by contrast, is much more open, honest, and demonstrative.
• Naruto:
  • Hinata regarding her feelings for Naruto until she did spit it out... and almost got killed by Pain immediately afterward. She survived, but Naruto did not directly respond to her feelings until The Last (see below).
  • Naruto. He had extreme admiration and fondness for his teammate Sasuke, viewing him as his best friend and the person he could relate to more than anyone else, wanting his acknowledgment. However, he was too stubborn, prideful and jealous of Sasuke's skills and reputation to ever admit it, and acted like he hated him most of the time. Until Sasuke stabbed a chidori through his chest and nearly killed him... yeah, it took that much. Of course, their relationship was complicated, even in the best of times.
  • Naruto was also this with his other teammate Sakura; he couldn't confess that he had a crush on her due to his promise to bring back Sasuke. Subverted when Sakura used this promise to kill Sasuke and spare Naruto further emotional pain by giving him her infamous fake love confession so he'd stop chasing him. Naruto easily saw right through her, called her out on her dishonesty, rejected her outright, and stated that the promise was no longer the reason why he wanted to save Sasuke; he has his own reasons now.
  • As stated above, Naruto has this again in The Last: Naruto the Movie, this time concerning his genuine true love for Hinata. Sakura herself disputes the above example and helps Naruto realize that his crush on her was more a product of his rivalry with Sasuke and how he wanted to beat out Sasuke at something for once than any actual romantic feelings—which was implied back in Chapter 3—while his love for Hinata is sincere and real. Naruto does spit it out to Hinata in the movie, twice (compared to the years it took Hinata to spit it out two years ago). The first time he spat it out, it didn't go so well thanks to Toneri. However, after the Final Battle, he proposes to her and she happily accepts, the two enter a relationship, get Happily Married, and have two children.
  • In Shikamaru Hiden, Shikamaru gets tongue-tied when he's trying to ask Temari out to dinner.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Effectively invoked when Negi tries to ask his father's allies who his mother is. Unfortunately, Rakan swore them to silence until he "acknowledges Negi as a man", seemingly so that Negi would have even more incentive to beat him in their upcoming fight.
  • Naturally, it's then revealed with no build up at all, by a newly introduced character. It's later confirmed by Jack Rakan, in the same offhand manner:
    Jack: Oh, by the way, Arika really is your mother. See you later. (heads off to bathroom).
  • But can you really stop there? The entirety of Negima is comprised of characters who can't spit it out. Nodoka, Yue, Chachamaru, Evangeline, Asuna, Negi, Kotarou, and a slew of side characters have relationships they refuse to act on, for reasons ranging from denial, feelings of unworthiness, fear of hurting others feelings, or amnesia.
  • Lampshaded:
    Kotarō: What's with her? All she's saying is, "L-L-L-L" over and over again.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: Scarcely a character in the entire series is capable of admitting his or her deeper feelings toward those he or she loves most (with Kaworu being the main exception). Often even the exceptions turn out not to be exceptions. For example, Asuka's flamboyant confessions of love for Kaji are to mask her growing attraction to Shinji. Of course, it doesn't work. Unfortunately, the consequence of that situation was the End of the World as We Know It, and it could have been averted if the characters (mainly Shinji and Asuka) had been more open and sincere with each other.
• Every time Haru from Ojojojo makes an effort to say something genuinely nice or sincere to Tsurezure (or anyone else of a lower social status), she reflexively twists her words into something condescending. She gets a little better about it over time, and eventually does give Tsurezure a proper Love Confession (after they've already been dating for a few months).
• How anime fans (and indeed anyone with half a brain) react to One Stormy Night. They keep saying the word "friend" but you keep thinking one of them should just blurt out the obvious.
• In Princess Tutu, Ahiru can't tell Mytho that she loves him — not because of nervousness, but because she will cease to exist once she does. This becomes very troublesome in the first season finale when Princess Kraehe offers to return Mytho's emotion of love, but only if she says that she loves him.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica:
  • Deconstructed: Sayaka Miki does have her chance to get together with Kamijou as her friend Hitomi Shizuki does ask her if she loves him. Sayaka's inability to just spit it out already makes her friend consider the answer is no. She has her reasons, yes, but still...
  • Another example is Homura. She knows she loves Madoka, and is highly motivated by those feelings...but she can't express them without breaking down and sobbing incoherently (as seen in Episodes 8 and 12). This results in much confusion for Madoka, as Homura's actions indicate love but her words don't.
• The Quintessential Quintuplets: Much of the later drama happens because Fuutarou discovers that, five years ago, he met one of the Nakano sisters in Kyoto, and they made a promise to become top students. Said quintuplet (later revealed to be Yotsuba) starts doing everything in her power to keep Fuutarou from learning the truth and even tries to get him to forget about her. As it turns out, this is all because she instantly recognized Fuutarou when they meet again at the start of the series, but she feels ashamed that unlike him, she couldn't fulfill their promise. This is also the reason why she doesn't confess her feelings for him, thinking that she has no right to pursue him, and after noticing that her sisters are falling in love with him, she decides to step aside to give them a fair chance too.
• Reborn! (2004) stars Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada, an Unlucky Everydude with a crush on his classmate Kyoko who Cannot Spit It Out. One of Reborn's first tasks in making Tsuna a suitable heir to the Vongola Mafia family is using his "Dying Wish Bullet" to make Tsuna confess his love to Kyoko. But in the end, she still thinks he was joking, and he has yet to convince himself to confess a second time.
• Rosario + Vampire has Inner Moka, who refuses to admit her increasingly obvious affection for Tsukune.
• In Sailor Moon, the entire cast tends to silently worry over important plot points or conflicted emotions rather than discussing it with the rest of the ensemble. Usagi sits and stews in wistful silence over her emotionally-charged interactions with the brainwashed Mamoru in the Dark Kingdom arc. Rei and Mamoru brood over their visions and psychic dreams without mentioning it to the others. In the Dark Moon arc, Mamoru doesn't tell Usagi or the others that he has been having chest pains and coughing up blood because he doesn't want to be a burden to them. Minako has been dealing with serious emotional and self-esteem issues in the Dark Moon arc too, especially since she was the only one who didn't recover her powers yet but she didn't tell the others until Minako finally shouted at them for constantly mentioning the Outers and forgetting everything Minako had did prior to.
• In Saki, Nodoka desperately tries to cover up her feelings for Saki whom she keeps referring to as nothing but a friend—not to much avail, though.
• The foundation of pretty much all the tension and drama of Whispered Words is based on Sumika's inability to tell Kazama that she loves her. Kazama likes girls too, and very openly... But Sumika isn't her type, and is petrified that a confession of love would destroy their friendship. As of chapter 20, the tension is even more balanced on this, from both sides: Kazama is in love with Sumika as well, but doesn't know that Sumika likes girls (or even just her), so she is also terrified that confessing her love would tear them apart.
• The inability of various characters in School Rumble to confess their love, Harima's feelings for Tenma being the principle example.

• Sgt. Frog spent an entire episode milking the trope, as Momoka's attempts to refer to Fuyuki on a first-name basis lead to increasingly absurd changes in the conversation.
• Shana from Shakugan no Shana doesn't have a bloody clue how to talk about her feelings, particularly about why she's falling for Yuji. This, of course, drives her tsundere behavior towards him; since she can't spit it out, beating him up works too.
• She's My Knight: It takes Ichinose an entire chapter just to ask Mogami for one of the muffins she baked, let alone tell her he likes her.
• Akina of Don't Become an Otaku, Shinozaki-san! cannot spit anything out. She can't tell Kaede and Micchy she is more into fashion then otaku stuff, and she really can't say that she is in love with Kaede, especially to herself. This latter also causes her to have difficulty referring to Kaede by her first name.
• In Smile Pretty Cure!, Yayoi decides to pull an April Fools prank, saying that she's going to get transferred to another school. It's all fine and dandy, except for one hitch — the person she told it to was Miyuki, who panics and begins spreading the news, spiraling into Reiko holding a farewell party with the rest of the class and Yayoi unable to say anything because the other girls keep putting words in her mouth. It isn't until Akaoni reveals the truth through a manga Yayoi drew and lost that the girls realize that it was a lie. They're pretty disappointed at her... until they realize it was Miyuki's fault for believing it in the first place!
• It took until the very last episode of Super Dimension Fortress Macross — more than 2 years after it became painfully obvious to everyone — for Misa (Lisa) to finally drop the L bomb on Hikaru (Rick).
• It's very obvious from early on in Symphogear that Miku is harboring romantic feelings for her best friend, Hibiki. Unfortunately, Miku can't bring herself to confess and Hibiki is far too dense to figure it out. The final scene in the series has Miku finally work up the courage to presumably confess her love, with Hibiki replying that she also has something to tell Miku and hopes it's the same thing, but the series ends without any explicit confirmation.
• This is more or less Rumiko Takahashi's S.O.P.: At least one member of the pairing must not be able to confess their feelings:
  • Ranma ½.
    • After spending most of the series calling Akane an "uncute tomboy", Ranma finally musters up the courage to tell her that actually, he thinks she's really cute — and then she doesn't believe him because she thinks he's trying to trick her.
    • In one of the songs from the albums, "November Rain", the lyrics imply that Ranma is incapable of letting anyone, even himself, know what his true feelings for Akane are.
      Ranma: I'm not being true with myself. Yes, I know, but I can't say those words.
    • Ryōga spends the entire manga obsessing over how much he loves Akane, but never actually tells her without being interrupted by something. to make things worse for him, the one time he spits it out, it turns out to be a Mistaken Declaration of Love.
    • Akane is also guilty of this. In the arc where Ranma becomes Nabiki's fiance instead, Akane is jealous of Nabiki's ability to tell Ranma how she feels because she can't tell him so easily.
  • Urusei Yatsura:
    • Ataru can't admit he really loves Lum because if he did, he'd have to give up his dreams of a harem. (It should be noted that this makes sense to no-one other than Ataru, given his horrible luck with women.)
    • Also during the second tag duel in the fifth movie, Ataru refuses to say that he loves Lum despite the stakes — because under those circumstances the words wouldn't be meaningful.
  • Maison Ikkoku: Godai is openly in love with Kyoko, but is too wishy-washy to 'fess up. Kyoko is aware of this, but is conflicted both by a rich rival suitor and her inability to let go of her dead husband.
  • Inuyasha:
    • Although Inu-Yasha and Kagome seem to have "reached an understanding" as to how they feel about each other, neither has been able to actually say the words, even to themselves.
    • Even worse, and more obvious is the Sango/Miroku quagmire, where one side can occasionally get their feelings out, but the other either locks up or spoils the moment, though they did eventually get on the same page.
  • One Pound Gospel: Thoroughly averted with Kosaku Hatanaka, who's quite vocal about his wish to live with Sister Angela and have her as his girlfriend. Subverted with Angela herself; she likely could spit it out, if this didn't conflict with her wish to become a full nun.
  • RIN-NE: Rinne seems to figure it out fairly early on that he feels something for the main heroine Sakura, even if he isn't sure just what. However Sakura's straight face and calm attitude leaves him unsure as to how she feels and prevents him from saying anything even he worked up the courage to.
• Tales of Wedding Rings: Sato and Krystal have been in love for ten years, but just can't tell each other. The series starts with Krystal leaving for her "home town," only for Sato to follow her through a portal to another world where she's about to enter into a magical Arranged Marriage to some guy she's never met. She dodges this by marrying Sato instead. While initially Krystal insists that it's just a political marriage and they don't have to do anything, they quickly realize that's stupid, admit they're in love with each other, and treat their marriage as real. Word of God is that the manga was originally going to be a long case of Will They or Won't They?, but plans changed very early on. Of course, because Sato and Krystal have terrible luck, they keep getting interrupted before they can actually consummate their marriage.
• Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee
  • Connor, a Letter Bee who escorts Lag to the Letter Bee exam, is unable to bring himself to tell Lag that Gauche, whom Lag befriended while being delivered to Cambel Litmus, was fired from his Letter Bee position after going missing. Lag only finds out the truth when, after he passes the exam, Zazie casually mentions that Lag's time is as good as Gauche's, and since Gauche is no longer a Letter Bee, Lag is at the top.
  • In a one-shot story, a woman's maid is unable to reveal herself as the person who had sent her the picture postcards, because she had been forced to sell the gift she had received from her future employer when the two were younger. One of Lag's Heart Bullets reveals the secret, which the woman takes well.
• In Tekkaman Blade, an early episode has D-Boy's transformation crystal being broken, forcing him to use a modified Pegas robot to transform into Blade. Late in the series, when he's losing his memory due to a Deadly Upgrade, he forgets that his crystal broke and starts trying to transform on his own. Despite that he is searching the ground frantically and asking, over and over again, where his crystal is, Pegas refuses to say even something as simple is "I have your crystal, give me the command," instead uninformatively urging D-Boy to transform. Later, he dryly explains, "D-Boy refuses to access my Tek-Set function."
• Those Who Hunt Elves. All it would take to save the group tons and tons of trouble every episode is for somebody to approach an Elf and say "Hello, there. This might seem like an odd request but my friends and I are looking for fragments of a very important spell that's been imprinted on the bodies of five random Elf women. You don't happen to have recently found yourself with a strange marking on your body, have you? You HAVE? Great! Would you mind if we went to a quiet, private location to check if it's one of the fragments and remove that for you if it is?" Instead of, y'know, randomly assaulting and ripping the clothes off every one they come across.
• Kotetsu from Tiger & Bunny has this tendency to the point of it being a Fatal Flaw. He doesn't like hurting people or worrying them with his own problems, and so prefers to keep unpleasant information to himself. This is a frequent cause of misunderstandings and leads to quarrels with both his daughter and his partner.
• Time of Eve has robots who appear emotionless, but are revealed to secretly be Ridiculously Human Robots. Both they and their human masters are not comfortable with this. Sammy in particular is a good example: she hides her concern and growing affection for her master Rikuo, and is afraid to be seen at the cafe even after he finds out she's a regular.
• Played with in To Love Ru. In the first chapter, Rito plays it straight and then subverts it when he does finally confess to Haruna. Only for Lala to get in the way. It then plays the trope fairly straight for a time. However the reason changes from shyness to indecisiveness as he is no longer sure of his feelings. As soon as he is sure of his feelings for Lala, he confesses to her immediately, then goes to confess to Haruna who he still loves, making it a subversion.
• In Tomica Hyper Rescue Drive Head Kidou Kyuukyuu Keisatsu, despite his usual egomania, Karigari becomes so flustered around Sasagawa that he is unable to confess his feelings to her. That or circumstances will interrupt him, like a spacecraft suddenly about to plunge down onto the city. Of course she has no clue.
• In Tona-Gura!, would-be couple Kazuki Arisaka and Yuuji Kagura sometimes get so flustered by their obvious feelings that they cannot speak to each other at all, not out of anger, but out of trepidation. In one instance, where he has fallen on top of her (legit in this case, despite his immature tendency to grab at her), they are at this point so tongue-tied that a primal Accidental Pervert/Tsundere moment passes with only a few "Excuse Me"s — and that's all.
• Completely averted in Tonari no Kashiwagi-san. Yuuto confesses his feelings to Kotone the same day as his Love Epiphany (though it was technically by accident).
• Tatsuya and Minami in Touch (1981). He likes her and she likes him, and she even kisses and confesses to him before the 20th episode. It still took over 100 episodes...
• In Tsukigasa, Kuroe and Azuma have this in regards to their feelings but also on the larger scale of failing to communicate exactly what happened in the incident where Azuma cuts off Kuroe's arm and all the fallout from that.
• In Umi Monogatari, Kanon doesn't confess that she likes Kojima because she's afraid he'll reject her.
• This is suspected to be the case with Rudolf in Umineko: When They Cry.
• Welcome Back, Alice: Yo gets into a lot of trouble because of his inability to communicate whenever he has an interpersonal conflict with someone.
• In Yuria 100 Shiki, Yuria can't tell Shunsuke how she feels about him, because she's Sex Bot and has no idea if her feelings are real or just part of her programming. Also because she doesn't really know how — everything outside of "how to be a sexbot" she's had to learn on her own and is still very naive about most things.
• Subverted in YuYu Hakusho. Just before Yusuke leaves to face his demon heritage, he has one last meal at the Yukimura diner. Cue Yusuke's marriage proposal, which Keiko reacts to rather nonchalantly. The subversion comes when Keiko returns to her room — Yusuke drops "Oh, come on, Keiko... you know I love you." without nary a second thought. Keiko's response? An even more nonchalant "Yeah, yeah."

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