Confessions are something any and all anime fans long for. Rather it is post getting hit by a truck, starting one of the more adorable romances I’ve ever seen. Or in the middle of the rant, seemingly glossed over. And don’t even get me started on the rush of serotonin that comes after a long harem binge. When push comes to shove romance tropes vastly affect this medium and have chalked it full of confessions that have left me giddy, uncomfortable, or literally changing the outcome of the series. I decided to reflect on the anime I’ve seen, think back to the confessions I’ve experienced, fanboyed over, leaving with some sense of fulfillment. So here are my top five confessions, there will be spoilers but none the less I hope you enjoy them!
Number 5: Pulling from the most recent of pools. Winters 2021 Horimiya quickly became the buzz in the scene. A new take on a rom-com that uses odd pacing techniques. A mixture of interesting characters archetypes and ultimately, one of the most casual loves ever. This confession stood out to me because of not only how lax it was, but how it fitted the series overall. Hori-san had a cold and missed school, leading for (at the time) friend Miyamura to go and comfort her. But within his rant of how she needs to rest, how the food was already made, meds need to be taken, he mentioned, subtlety, that he loves her. A confession that is not only heard but gets a proper response in time.
Number 4: So this list has three of the 9 series I have on my 9×9 and this is the first. Kiznaiver is a fantastic tale of a guy trying to finding the literal sense of what it means to feel. But how this show climaxes made it all hit that much more. Katsuhira is a person that cannot feel pain, or well, anything. But being through a gauntlet of tasks that brings not only him but his best of friends down he is confronted with a harsh truth. A truth that takes him back to a time where he did feel, back to a time where, he being teased, confessed to a beautiful girl Noriko Sonozaki. And at that moment, the girl across the yard slowly turned to them, simply beaming, answering the calls with a simple “I love you too” Being flooded with emotions of his past and present Katsuhira returns to his teenage Nori and the two accept each other’s feelings in one of the best originals in recent memory.
Number 3: Something about a guy mindlessly yelling in the middle of a sidewalk on Christmas eve about his love from someone else just fits. Add simultaneously a loudspeaker plays over the already screaming man with his voice, the recording was from a different time but the message is the same. I am of course talking about the over-the-top, fairly uncomfortable confession from Kyousuke to Kirino via Oreimo. There was a lot of yelling, a lot of name-calling, but in the end, Kirino’s acceptance was something that’s imprinted on my mind and carried a lot of weight on my overall thoughts of the show. Side note while this series has one of my top 5 confessions it easily has one of the top 5 rejections as well, just an episode before.
Number 2: Spice And Wolf is one of the greatest anime of all time. It is cute, complicated, interesting, and just generally good. However, even with all the positives of the series, there was one event that stood out the most to me. Lawernce literally losing it all to be with Holo. Confronted by him she immediately starts telling him how dumb he is, how they are fundamentally different, he 25, she over 700. But even in the face of that, he confesses to her, that the riches and glory without her were meaningless. What follows is an adorable agreement, and as time goes on a promise from the deity that she will always care for Lawernce as long as he is there with her.
Number 1: Harems have a formula. A set of rules that most of them play by, rather it is arc types, the long game, or the multi childhood friend angel. Quintuplets is no different, a run-of-the-mill harem that follows five sisters trying to learn. One of the sisters in particular however was rather, distasteful. Nino Nakano, very early on she is harsh, rude, violent not only to Fuutarou but her other sisters. She was everything that makes a bad tsundere rolled into one. But suddenly there was a shift, cutting her hair and finally becoming honest with herself she confesses to Fuutarou, but he never responds, claiming her never heard what she said while they were on the bike. Typical harem shit, until it wasn’t. Turning around she walks right back up to him stating flatly that she is in love with him, and that she once said there was someone out there that would fall for him, turns out he is looking at her. The reason I put this as number one is because of the shift Nino takes as a character. It is a complete 180, she is suddenly caring, interesting, flirtatious, honestly she goes from D tier to S tier in one chapter and never lets her foot off the gas, making me look at the series overall completely differently.
There is no ultimate list when it comes to these things. Honestly, while I was looking up some other’s takes on their top 5 I was surprised to see a lot of the choices that were chosen. But I can confidently say that over the years of watching anime these 5 made me feel something at that moment I will never forget, and that alone speaks volumes. Let me know what you think? Have your own top 5? Link them! I’d love to see it.
As always thanks for the read!
Otaku Post 