Unrequited Love Switcheroos in Anime and Manga.
- In Ah! My Goddess, Keiichi gets turned down by Sayoko, the most popular girl at the college they attend. Once Belldandy shows up in his life, Sayoko starts to get jealous of him and tries to break them up in various ways, with no such luck. In Season 2 she starts to realize her own feelings for him.
- Played for Drama in Attack on Titan. Mikasa loved Eren ever since they were children while he seemed to regard her as more like a sibling. He ends up manipulating her into killing him as part of his Thanatos Gambit, but the final chapter has him lamenting to Armin that at some point he did end up loving her back, but his Zero-Approval Gambit made it impossible for him to reciprocate.
- In Boku Girl, Mizuki starts out with an unrequited crush on Fujiwara, which was compounded by Mizuki being turned female. Combined with his growing affection towards Takeru during the series, it caused him to seriously reconsider his feelings for the pair. By the end, Fujiwara confesses that she'll love him no matter what gender he is, but he's already Jumped the Gender Barrier and decided to go with Takeru. Plus, as he realizes, he was confusing love for her with friendship and admiration of femininity.
- Shinomi and Eikichi's relationship in GTO: The Early Years, and the source of their Belligerent Sexual Tension. She liked him for years, but he only saw her as Like Brother and Sister. Then he was desperate to finally lose his virginity and tried to do it with her, but incurred a case of Pervert Revenge Mode and she lost respect for him. Then she had a Green-Eyed Epiphany when he went out with another girl, and he did the same when she went out with another guy. And so on...
- The title character of Hell Teacher Nube first falls in love with Hot Teacher Ritsuko, who switches between appreciating him for being a good person and despise how his side-job is dealing with the ghosts she hates so much. When she finally starts to return his feelings, he had already moved on to Yukime.
- Hidoku Shinaide:
- Maya is a Loving Bully who has a crush on Nemugasa and, unable to express his feelings adequately, blackmails Nemugasa into a sexual relationship with him. Naturally, Nemugasa hates this, though over time the friendless Nemugasa comes to appreciate Maya's company and attention and grows to consider Maya just his friend, much to Maya's annoyance. After an argument causes Nemugasa to tell Maya to leave him alone, Maya does just that and tells Nemugasa that he doesn't want to even be friends with him anymore. Hearing this breaks Nemugasa who has had a Belated Love Epiphany now that Maya no longer seems to want to be with him. It all works out, though, because when Nemugasa gets the courage to make his Love Confession, Maya accepts.
- After saving Okino from a would be rapist, Kutani asks Okino to go out with him. In Love with Love Okino turns him down because Opaque Nerd Glasses wearing Kutani doesn't fulfill his idealized image of a lover, however he agrees to be Just Friends. Then Kutani takes off his glasses to reveal he's been Beautiful All Along and actually does check off all of Okino's boxes. Okino musters up the courage to make a Love Confession, only for Kutani to reject him this time, saying they should get to know each other more as friends before dating. Like Nemu and Maya, they eventually get together as an official couple.
- I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School has an odd example where the characters in question have mutual feelings for each other, but thanks to a series of miscommunications, one of them assumes the other doesn't reciprocate. At the start of the series Toramaru starts dating Unoki, but because of the former's terrible attempts at flirting and the latter's past trauma, he assumes she only wants him around as her personal errand boy. Come chapter 45, the shoe's on the other foot: Toramaru realises that Unoki never saw her as his girlfriend and resolves to find a way to win his love... oblivious to the fact that Unoki has had feelings for her for a long time now, but is too shy to give her a proper Love Confession.
- Kaguya-sama: Love Is War has a very mild, Played for Laughs example. Normally Karen and Erika are completely dismissive or oblivious in regards to Toyosaki and Kazamatsuri's advances, but when the guys decide to spend time with a different duo of girls during the class trip Karen is immediately pissed off.
- In Magician's Academy, happens to George and Metallis. George at first is turned off by Metallis' attempts at confessing his love, then the latter falls in love with a girl, Suzuka, and begins aggressively pursuing her. George immediately starts to get jealous and tries to win Metallis' affections, or at least his attention, but ultimately fails at the end.
- This trope is played almost completely straight in Marmalade Boy, especially in the backstory: Ginta had a crush on Miki, who slipped a love letter in his school book. Ginta just happened to find it when he's with some male friends who begin to tease him about it. Under pressure, he says that he doesn't love Miki that way... only to see that Miki and Meiko are right there. Miki, understandably, is very hurt - even after Ginta shaves his head to show how sorry he is. And some time later, it turns out Ginta still loves Miki even when her feelings are more friendly than romantic and is beginning to fall for her stepbrother Yuu...
- A downplayed example occurs in My Hero Academia, at the start of the series, Midoriya quickly gains a crush on Uraraka, though she remains unaware, however this is dropped as the series progresses, and Uraraka gets less attention in the story. When romantic elements are brought back into play a few arcs later, Uraraka has now developed a massive crush on Midoriya, who no longer seems to feel the same way, or at least doesn't show it.
- In My Little Monster, Haru confesses his love to Shizuku but is rejected. Shizuku later begins to regret this and confesses her love to Haru however this time Haru rejects Shizuku.
- My Monster Secret: Before the series began, Asahi Kuromine had a crush on Class Representative Nagisa Aizawa, only to get shot down pre-emptively. Over the course of the series they become friends, she plays Shipper on Deck to help him win the love of Youko Shiragami...and she ends up falling for Asahi herself, after getting to witness all his good qualities. She tries to get over her feelingsnote for the sake of her mutual friends, but of course that's easier said than done.
- Naruto:
- Chapter 469 has Naruto's long-time crush Sakura "confess" to him that she loves him now instead of Sasuke. She does this after Sai told her that both she and Sasuke cause Naruto a lot of pain in Chapter 458. After she spends the entire second half of the chapter trying to convince Naruto that she really does love him now, he calls her out for lying and rejects her outright by telling her that he hates people who lie to themselves. This is Deconstructed because he rejects her after she claimed to love him now for the hero he's become upon defeating Pain, rather than "the mischievous, prankster loser" he always was and always will be, as well as him remembering all the times she openly displayed her love for Sasuke. It shows Naruto's Character Development in that he has moved past the Green-Eyed Monster state that he was in back in Part I, where he constantly felt inferior to Sasuke, especially since he has finally achieved his lifelong dream of being acknowledged by all of Konoha upon defeating Pain.
- In the Canon movie The Last, Naruto has a Love Epiphany towards Hinata and, after two days, confesses to her. Hinata has been in love with him for nearly her whole life, so this makes her incredibly happy...for a moment. In reality, she has already made up her mind to save her younger sister Hanabi, so she chooses to "reject" him and leave with Toneri, the Big Bad who's also in love with her. Naruto does not take it well, has an Angst Coma for three days, spends a whole day and night in a Troubled Fetal Position, and crosses the Despair Event Horizon so badly that he comes very close to giving up on everything. Thankfully, Sakura helps him realize that Hinata didn't actually reject him because Hinata has only ever loved him, similar to how she herself has only ever loved Sasuke, and that will never change.
- In Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, a Mawile falls in love with Brock's Lombre, who repeatedly spurns her advances. When Lombre evolves into a Ludicolo, he's ready to reciprocate Mawile's feelings, but Mawile has now fallen in love with a passing Psyduck.
- In Ranma ½, the one time Ranma is interested in Shampoo is during the "Reversal Jewel" Arc, when Shampoo showed disgust at the mere sight of him. It's a deconstruction though, because Ranma doesn't actually want Shampoo, his ego just won't let him accept the rejection.
- At the start of Rent-A-Girlfriend, Kazuya's first girlfriend Mami suddenly dumps him after only dating him for a month, having used him for her own purposes. Later on in the series, she starts trying to get between him and Chizuru, his apparent girlfriend, whether out of pettiness or because she has feelings for him. By this point, Kazuya has mostly moved on and fallen in love with Chizuru.
- This happens in Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi. In high school, Ritsu was chasing his Sempai, Saga Masamune. After reuniting a decade later, it's his Sempai turned boss, now named Takano Masamune, that is determined to win him back.
- In Suzuka, Yamato falls in love with Suzuka and confesses to her, but is rejected. Later, after his Childhood Friend Honoka makes her feelings known by way of Forceful Kiss, he falls for her and they begin a relationship. After Yamato and Honoka start going out, Suzuka develops feelings for Yamato.
- Toradora! has a whole mess of these: Ryuuji and Taiga have unrequited crushes on Minori and Yuusaku, respectively, and team up to help each other. Yuusaku actually started the previous year by confessing to Taiga, but she rejected him without a second glance - now he seems Oblivious to Love. Minori seems the same way (or to simply be The Ditz), but occasionally shows flashes of being anything but. Yuusaku actually moved on to develop his own unrequited crush on his senpai in Student Council, and is too kind to hurt Taiga with an overt rejection. Minori actually shares Ryuuji's crush (sort of) but wants her best friend to be happy. By the end, it turns out that it was really Ryuuji and Taiga who were Oblivious to Love all along.
- A Town Where You Live: Haruto has been infatuated with Nanami all through middle school, and continues despite misconceptions that he's dating Yuzuki, a family friend who moved into his family's home to go to the same high school. He confesses, and Nanami rejects him, because she sees that he's become hung up on Yuzuki. He eventually moves on to Yuzuki, and Nanami soon starts acting rather jealous...
- In Urusei Yatsura, Ataru was actually attracted to Lum the first time he meets her, while Lum was indifferent to Ataru's shameless flirting. Lum falls for Ataru only after he defeats her in the game and, due to a misunderstanding, assumes he wants to marry her. From that point on, Lum is madly in love with him, while Ataru finds her annoying and only wants to avoid her.
- Played with in Yona of the Dawn. Hak doesn't move on from his feelings toward Yona per se, but he seems to have thoroughly abandoned all hope of her ever returning them. Now Yona is the one who's hopelessly crushing on him, while he's become Oblivious to Love. Eventually, they both confess to each other, but they hold off on any romantic relationship until everything has been settled with both Soo-won and the invading Kai Empire.
- Happens in Your Name, somewhat non-linearly. Taki initially has a crush on Okudera, an older woman he works with at a restaurant. When he starts swapping bodies with Mitsuha, the latter picks up on this and helps him get a date with Okudera. By the end of the date, she figures out that he used to like her, but has fallen for someone else (Mitsuha, obviously). Okudera never tells Taki directly, but she later mentions that she recently became attracted to him... specifically, the version with Mitsuha's mind in Taki's body, though Okudera never learns about the body-swapping, she just thinks he had a personality shift.
- In elementary, Nitori from Wandering Son believes she has a crush on her best friend and confesses to him. Takatsuki rejects Nitori but their friendship doesn't falter, Nitori moves on, and she begins dating Anna instead. Cut to high school and after years of not seeing each other Takatsuki s attracted to Nitori. Nitori rejects Takatsuki and stay with Anna.
