Implied Love Interest / Anime & Manga

• Attack on Titan has an incredibly bleak example of this, with Levi and his subordinate Petra. However, this scene was added to the anime and does not exist in the original manga. Petra's father assumes that Petra's 'devotion to Levi' (really likely devotion to their military cause) is romantic intent and believes that she wants to marry him, and brings it up personally to Levi, unknown to the fact that Petra just died and her remains were unable to be recovered. Levi does not respond or address this in any way, and she has never been brought up again by Levi in a way that distinguishes her from his other comrades or subordinates after her death.
  • Oluo and Petra are shown to have a close relationship, though it takes the form of bickering in most scenes. Oluo has an obvious romantic interest in Petra and even refers to her as his "wife", but her feelings for him are implied rather than overt. Many fans have interpreted Oluo imitating Levi's appearance and mannerisms as confirmation that Petra has feelings for Levi (because Oluo has feelings for Petra, and Oluo imitating Levi must mean he wants to get Petra's attention, because she expresses irritation at Oluo's behavior and claims "Levi isn't like that"), but it is also easily interpreted as her being angry that Oluo is wasting his time pretending to be someone else, because Petra likes Oluo for who he really is. Oluo is also shown to greatly admire Levi, and imitating someone you admire and think is "cool" is a common behavior, especially among young people (Oluo & Petra are suggested to be around 19 years of age.) An early official guidebook for the series also referred to their interactions as a "lover's quarrel." Oluo also watches her die in front of him and dies himself trying to get revenge.
• The Big O: All but outright stated in Roger and R. Dorothy's case. It isn't long before their friends and even their enemies become aware that there's something between them. Further lampshaded by the lyrics of "And Forever", which plays during the end credits of each episode.
• Subverted in Bleach. For most of the series, it was pretty well accepted that Rukia was an Implied Love Interest for Ichigo, and most of the fandom considered it a given that they were being written as a romantic pair. These fans were surprised when the series ended and Ichigo was depicted married to Orihime, but the early arcs still show Ichigo and Rukia as very firmly this trope.
• In Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, Chisa has explicit feelings for Kyosuke, but it's never shown if they were requited. Complicating the matter is that she's one of the two people Kyosuke trusts absolutely, his character arc revolves around accepting his feelings over her murder and betrayal, both characters have several flashbacks/monologues about how important the other is to them and their future, and losing her causes—at the very least—a large part of Kyosuke's insanity. All this without a single kiss onscreen. Deepening the ambiguity is Kyosuke's comparison of her to Kyoko... another implied love interest, this time for the protagonist, Makoto.
  • Speaking of... Makoto and Kyoko are shown to care a great deal for each other, to the point she would rather die herself than kill him, have a lot of Ship Tease-y moments where they comfort or reassure the other, and a flashback shows Makoto blushing when he sees her smile. Episode 10 confirms that yes, he's in love with her, but her feelings are kept quiet.
  • Hajime/Izuru and Chiaki, although the subtext is so heavy the only reason it's "implied" is because there was never a Relationship Upgrade. She's shown to have waited a whole year for him to return, and his final thoughts, before undergoing his transformation into Izuru, were of her and how he wanted to be better for her. Episode 10 cements that his feelings for her were so strong that Izuru, who claimed he had no former feelings or memories from his past life, started crying at her death. Then went on to spend years mourning her.
• In Digimon Tamers, Riley and Yamaki seem to be more than just workmates, as evidenced by their numerous scenes together (unlike her fellow operator, Tally), though the show never explicitly states how close they are.
• Durarara!!: Vorona seems to have fairly conflicted feelings over Shizuo, at first wanting to kill him and eventually protecting him, she also hasn’t given him any reasons to beat the crap out of her since they met and Shizuo states that he likes having her around. Shizuo also goes out of his way to save Vorona from being crushed by construction equipment and Vorona likewise attempts to kill Izaya so Shizuo won't have to. Izaya pokes fun at this, as he says he thinks Shizuo helps people to get them to like him, whereas he protected Vorona because he has feelings for her.
• Eyeshield 21:
  • Suzuna and Sena have a Meet Cute introduction to each other, people often think they're a couple, and Suzuna states that she doesn't view Sena as a little brother (unlike Mamori). Sena's feelings for Suzuna are left rather ambiguous as well, other then the fact that he's rather protective of her.
  • From the same series, Mamori and Hiruma. They started butting heads a lot since Hiruma is a psychotic delinquent who toughen up the team and motivate Sena through fear and pride talk and Mamori is the class rep who protects the more vulnerable members like Sena and clean up after them. As the story goes on Mamori is one of the few that can tell when Hiruma is hiding his exhaustion and softens up to him while Hiruma, who is still confrontational but so with everyone else, relies on her a lot. Suzuna even become their Shipper on Deck.
• Fairy Tail: By the end of the manga, almost all of the couples are definitively resolved one way or another. The biggest one still up in the air is ironically Lucy and Natsu. There's a lot of Ship Tease but the series deliberately ends on a Moment Killer and avoids a definitive answer. The sequel seems to add fuel to it, especially with the revelation that their Edolas counterparts got married and had a daughter in the interlude.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Unlike in the manga/Brotherhood anime (where he is exclusively into Winry from the start), Edward does not have a clear love interest in Fullmetal Alchemist (2003). He has Ship Tease with both Winry and Rose. On Winry's side, there is clear tease in early episodes; however, by the middle their relationship is more subdued to the point where it's ambiguous if it's meant to be romantic or familial; official art loves shipping them, though. A dubiously canon OVA featuring Edward's grandchildren includes a girl who looks exactly like Winry, although that could also imply Alphonse/Winry or even either one marrying Winry's alter instead of the "actual" Winry. Rose clearly likes Edward, but whether he likes her back is ambiguous. He does blush when they dance together, though.
  • In the manga, Mei Chang is the implied love interest to Ed's brother Alphonse. During the main story they're shown to get along quite well and Mei clearly has a crush on him, but that's as far as it goes (the fact that Mei is pretty young and Al is currently a suit of armor kind of ensures that). But the epilogue says that Al left Amestris to study with Mei in Xing 2 years later, and at some date further in the future both of them are with Ed, Winry, and the latter couple's two children for the Elric family portrait, suggesting that Mei is now part of the family.
• While possibly not the case with their counterparts in GoLion, Keith and Princess Allura in Voltron are widely considered the show's Official Couple, but their feelings for each other are never stated to go beyond friendship. It's possible that they are in love with each other and just don't realize it, but aside from a ton of Ship Tease the show doesn't really portray them as a couple.
  • As mentioned before, comic adaptations and the successor Voltron Force are rather blatant that they are.
• In Great Pretender, the protagonist, Makoto "Edamame" Edamura, has romantic subtext with both of his literal partners in crime: tough muscle-woman Abigail Jones, and his conman mentor, Laurent Thierry. Makoto seems to develop a crush on Abbie as soon as he meets her, and he spends most of the second arc, "Singapore Sky," being extrememly protective of her. He undergoes Character Development, learns to care more about her as a person and not just an idea, and she ends up being the closest thing he has to a "best friend." Meanwhile, Laurent openly flirts with Makoto, even making him blush in one of their early interactions, and offhand comments from both Abbie and Sixth Ranger Cynthia suggest they think Laurent is at least physically attracted to Makoto. Finally, the theme song of Makoto's relationship with both of them, "Our Love," is an outright love song—and it plays both when Makoto takes Abbie out for a peaceful and fun day on the town and when he Watches The Sunset with Laurent. However, Makoto never openly confesses any feelings to Abbie, and Laurent never explains the true nature of his feelings for Makoto, leaving everything as subtext.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers is a confusing case. While there are undoubtedly several potential pairings who get enough Ship Tease to justify calling it this, some characters are involved in more than one of these pairings, which leaves a situation where a character can have numerous other characters where a hook-up would have received enough subtext to not come as a surprise.
• Inuyasha: Rin's observations and Kagura's thoughts imply that Kagura's in love with Sesshomaru. Moryomaru's comments and Totosai's observations imply that Sesshomaru has feelings for Kagura but Rumiko Takahashi leaves the nature of their relationship open to interpretation.
• K has three—Saruhiko and Misaki, Kuroh and Shiro, and Seri and Izumo. In something of an aversion/subversion of Hide Your Lesbians, the last one there is the only het couple and the only ones who don't have a legitimate reason why they just haven't had a chance. As of the end of Return of Kings, Saruhiko and Misaki have just gotten back to being friends after three years of fighting, and Shiro just returned to his original body after being body-swapped for the whole time he's known Kuroh—the attraction was clearly there from the start but he was in a complete stranger's body, so that would have been odd.
• Kengan Ashura has several couples who seem rather intimate, but are never really confirmed to be officially "together".
  • Dr. Hanafusa and nurse Yoshizawa are always seen together, and frequently hang out even during holidays. Karla wonders if they're a couple, although Elena thinks Yoshizawa is more like a mom than a girlfriend.
  • Rei Mikazuchi is in love with his employer, Rino, and repeatedly declares that he draws his strength from their Power of Love. However, while Rino happily accepts his lavish affections, it's unclear whether she actually loves him back, or just sees him as a particularly useful fighter.
  • Fusui and Hanzo Kure almost always get paired up in missions, and their off-the-clock activities look almost like a date. Several of their other relatives also wonder if they're dating; they're technically relatives, but are so distant that "they might as well not be", thus removing any incest taboo, should they actually get together.
  • The author's commentary on Sakura Akiyama mentions that she was originally supposed to be a secretary for Furumi Pharmaceuticals rather than Magatanien, and that she "has a relationship" with Wakatsuki. Sandro doesn't specify whether he intended for that "relationship" to be romantic, and while the pair still hang out together a lot, their interactions are mostly platonic.
• Maken-ki!: The exact nature of Takaki's relationship with Yuuka is ambiguous enough that it borders on being a case of Hide Your Lesbians.
  • There's subtle implications, such as when they arrived together for the student council's vacation to Okino Island, as if the were a couple. At other times, like the chapter 45 preface page^note which shows them blatantly engaged in foreplay, while spooning together in lingerie the manga outright teases the possibility, though the page caption asserts it has nothing to do with the story.
  • Despite this, it's still implied that Everyone Can See It, though no one ever actually confirms it. The closest instance being Takaki's concern during the time of Yuuka's capture. In chapter 81, Minori and the others each try to assure her that Yuuka would be fine. When Yuuka escapes and safely returns to Tenbi, it causes Takaki to openly shed tears as Yuuka apologizes for making her worry.
• Mazinger:
  • Mazinger Z: Kouji and Sayaka were the Trope Codifier for Belligerent Sexual Tension, spending most of the time together and were very close at each other, and after the Final Battle they traveled to America together, but they never became a couple. The anime makes Sayaka's feelings very explicit, but downplays Kouji's ones and showing him getting pervy about other women, but both manga versions (especially Go Nagai's original story) are more explicit about them wanting to pursue a relationship. They never quite reach the Official Couple status, but most fans take that status for granted. In other continuities they did become Official Couple on panel, though.
  • Great Mazinger: Tetsuya and Jun did not get together on panel, but there were tons of Ship Tease throughout the series. Jun spent the whole series chasing Tetsuya as he was Oblivious to Love, and he got jealousy when Jun got some suitor or he thought she would leave him.
  • UFO Robo Grendizer: Duke and Hikaru clearly cared for each other and loved spending time together, but it was never explicitly stated they were together.
• Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid:
  • Kanna and Saikawa. Saikawa's feelings for Kanna are incredibly obvious (to the point that the anime turned it into a Running Gag), but Kanna's feelings are more ambiguous.
  • Ilulu and Taketo are the same way, the only difference is that Ilulu is unaware of the fact that she's in love.
• Setsuna F. Seiei of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 has Bridge Bunny Feldt Grace, especially in the movie. Setsuna and Marina are more like Platonic Life-Partners.
• My Hero Academia:
  • Izuku and Uraraka. He's definitely expressed some attraction to her, and especially early on gets flustered while talking to her. He also instantly shifts from hating his childhood nickname "Deku" to adopting it as his own (eventually even using it as his hero name) because Uraraka said she likes it (Iida even Lampshades how abrupt this is), and this happens when they've only known each other for less than a day. It's now definite that she has a crush on him, but so far she's chosen not to distract herself by pursuing it.
  • Todoroki and Yaoyorozu hold a very strong mutual respect for each other and after being paired up during a training exercise, help each other work through their issues. Whether the relationship goes deeper than that is up for interpretation.
    • With these two, the author seems to be very aware of exactly what he's teasing. The spin-off series by the author's former assistant, SMASH, which consists of several scenes that are mostly canon but unrelated to events going on in the plot, features a running gag of Todoroki freezing himself and Yaoyorozu sweating machine parts when they are too close physically. They also get a lot of attention on the second drama CD, where they attend a festival together and their classmates follow them around, trying to determine whether it's a date. The audience isn't quite sure either.
  • Kaminari and Jirou, to an extent. They're often seen hanging out together and get along nicely for the most part, even bicker enough for those who like that. Jirou likes to tease him, but also reacts violently when he's hitting on other girls. On Kaminari's side when thinking about the people he wants to protect as a hero, Jirou is the first who comes to his mind, hinting that his feelings for her might be deeper than he realizes.
  • Among the Class 1-B students (when they show up in the story), Tetsutetsu and Kendo seem to have a mutual attraction, with things like Kendo musing during the Forest Training Camp arc about how she likes Tetsutetsu's straightforward personality, and Tetsutetsu's praise of her to Class 1-A during the Joint Training arc (mirroring Todoroki's own praise of Yaoyorozu during the same conversation) coming off like he's bragging about how wonderful his girlfriend is. Though in the latter case, it could simply be because everyone in 1-B loves Kendo.
• Patlabor: The Mobile Police: The exact status of Noa and Asuma's relationship is difficult determine because the writers were so ambiguous about it, that fans have continued to debate the subject over 20 years later. In-series, their squadmates are convinced that their partnership goes deeper than "just friends" and even Hana noticed it, during her brief stint with the SVU2. Several episodes even show them going out while off-duty and the last 2-3 episodes imply that the nature of their relationship may be changing, if it hasn't already.
  • It's finally subverted in The Next Generation live-action continuity, which is set 15 years after the OVA's conclusion and reveals that Noa eventually married Asuma.
• Pokémon
  • In several adaptations, Misty was this for Red's counterpart, since there were no female player characters in Pokémon Red and Blue, and as the youngest Gym Leader, she's the only significant female character close to his age. The games themselves have Red and Misty being buddy-buddy in one official art.
    • In Pokémon: The Series, this was a case of "depends on the dub". The original Japanese writers had the two as too young to recognize their feelings, and so any dialogue implying attraction was vague enough to be close friendship instead. Meanwhile, the English dub promoted her to All Love Is Unrequited — a few instances of dialogue were rewritten in an attempt to push the couple, and more notoriously, Misty's farewell sequence had the scenes depicted in the flashback completely changed to Ship Tease moments rather (the original focused on her as a trainer and as a friend).
    • The first 4koma had Red drooling over Misty a few times.
    • Satoshi in Pokémon Zensho is implied to be attracted to her, even using a heart when he talks to her a few times.
    • The Electric Tale of Pikachu rather famously heightened the UST between Ash and Misty far more than the anime ever did, giving them more blatant Ship Tease scenes. It even went as far as to give them a Maybe Ever After.
    • Pokémon Adventures gave Red two in the form of Misty and a new character named Yellow.
  • Jessie and James in the anime. There have actually been a few hints that James does have feelings for Jessie and vice versa, but the nature of their relationship is vague enough for fans to go either way and changes Depending on the Writer.^note Literally in James' case.
  • Through her time as one of Ash's travelling companions, May had her primary rival Drew as her increasingly heavily implied love interest. It started out with just some Ship Tease, with Drew giving her a red rose (romantic symbolism aside, red roses are his character's entire theme, even having Roselia/Roserade as his main Pokémon) but saying it was actually for one of her Pokémon. This continued to happen in Drew's later appearances, giving the impression of a Tsundere crush on May. But then she started teasing him about the roses being for her Beautifly, and eventually Drew dropped the pretense and just gave May a rose every time they met. While they were never actually confirmed as a couple, most people who knew them assumed they were and the writers seemed to be trying to make it as obvious as possible without actually having a Love Confession or on-screen kiss.
• The relationship between the Samurai and their Princess is this in Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru: Samurai are cyborg individuals chosen by a "Locker Ball" who transforms them into a Samurai, Locker Balls are found and guarded by "Princesses" and when someone becomes a Samurai they become bonded to the Princess as well which now they must protect and become strong for her, this is even mentioned to be a "Fated Pairing"; However it's never explicitly said that the relationship must be romantic. For their part the main characters, Hachimaru and his Fated Princess, Ann have several potentially romantic moments together, like Holding Hands.
• Team Medical Dragon has Dr. Katou and Asada. In the beginning of the series, Katou approaches Asada while he's at his rock bottom and recruits him into her Batista research team, giving him a job that allows him to regain his passion as a surgeon and effectively "saving" him from despair. They develop such a strong connection that Katou's ex-boyfriend, who has only seen them together once, believes they're in a relationship. However, it's unclear if their feelings for each other are actually romantic by nature, and Asada's Commitment Issues and Katou's determination to remain single in order to reform the corrupt medical system in Japan would probably prevent any Relationship Upgrade from happening anytime soon. Even if the one-shot post-epilogue chapter hints that Asada might return to Meishin after all.
• In Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun, Iruma is a Clueless Chick-Magnet who has both of the main female characters in love with him and multiple other girls showing varying degrees of crushes on him. But Student Council President Ameri is the one who gets the most emphasis on her romantic feelings, and the one who Iruma keeps ending up in romantic situations with. In the Dem-dol Games arc, in which both are roped into masquerading as Idol Singers to fill out Kerori's team, they seem almost flirtatious when Iruma reassures her that being an Amazonian Beauty doesn't make her any less cute.
• In nearly every Yu-Gi-Oh! series, the main group has exactly one main female character the protagonist's age, and there are occasional hints of her having a crush on the protagonist, but the show's emphasis on The Power of Friendship means her feelings will be ambiguously mutual at best. The main examples from each series are Anzu from the original (implied to be requited), Asuka from GX (unrequited, as Judai becomes an Official Couple with Yubel), Aki from 5D's (heavily implied to be requited), Kotori from ZEXAL (she confesses, but his reaction is fairly ambiguous), and Yuzu from ARC-V (some hints of reciprocation, but ultimately unconfirmed).
  • Also from the original are Jounouchi and Mai, which is more famous than Yugi and Anzu in some circles, and despite their age difference (he's 16 and she's 24 as of the Duelist Kingdom arc) it's arguably more strongly implied than Yugi/Anzu.
    • Priest Seto and Kisara. Word of God outright states that Kaiba's obsession with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon is because of his past incarnation's deep feelings for Kisara, the origin of its Ka.
  • Jack and Carly from 5D's. Carly canonically has feelings for Jack, and Jack has something for her. However, very little of their relationship after the Dark Signers arc either confirms or denies his feelings. It eventually came out that Carly's arc was changed because, as odd as it sounds, her original voice actress was fired after she was found to be a member of a cult.
  • ARC-V gives Yuya and Yuzu at least three Identical Strangers from three different dimensions, and at least two of the three pairs are this trope. Yuto with Ruri, and less ambiguous with Yugo and Rin.
  • Downplayed with Yusaku and Aoi in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS. While they do get a few Ship Tease moments, they have a lot less compared to what past protagonists and main girls in the franchise got, and overall don't seem to have much actual romantic interest in each other, or even a particularly strong friendship until the third season. The dub, however, plays this straight.
• Zombie Land Saga: Revenge introduces Kiichi Momozaki, a man form the Meiji Era and a major figure in Yugiri's backstory. Kiichi has a very unsubtle crush of Yugiri and while she never explicitly reciprocates, she still greatly values his company and ideals.of course their relationship would be doomed anyway because Yugiri dies during that time frame.

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