Top 10 Anime Kokuhaku (Confessions)

It’s February and we all know what is synonymous with February. That’s right, Valentine’s Day. With romance being one of the main themes of this month, it only makes sense that we try and watch shows that reflect that. And, who wouldn’t mind a little romance on their screens to get their hearts beating a few ticks faster? As such, we at Honey’s Anime have drawn up a list of an appropriate aspect in romance anime: the confession. As our favourite characters’ feelings reach a point where they’re about to overflow and break the dam wall, they have no choice but to confront the source of their emotions, put everything on the line and even say “I love you”. These moments can be incredible, and as such, we have ten of them waiting for you. In the spirit of Valentine’s; however, we must confess that there will be spoilers, read at your own risk!


10. Naruse Takeru, Takamiya Naho – Orange

  • Episodes: 13
  • Aired: July 2016 – September 2016

Takamiya Naho, a high school first-year receives a letter from herself ten years in the future. Therein writ, are the exact events of the day, including those regarding the then transfer student, Naruse Kakeru. In the letter, Future Naho readily reveals that she bears many regrets in her life and wishes to fix those by having the Naho of the current time rectify her mistakes – especially those regarding Kakeru, who, as the letter reveals, will no longer be around ten years from now and, according to Future Naho, it is imperative that Naho closely watches over Kakeru.

Valentine’s Day. Due to the argument they had on New Year’s Eve, things are awkward between Kakeru and Naho and Naho has found it incredibly difficult to hand over the chocolate she prepared for him. Adamant that she has to give it to him, Naho forces an audience with the seemingly aloof Kakeru, who admits he avoided her because he felt bad about their argument on New Year’s Eve; that honestly, he really wanted to get chocolate from her; that he wants to be with her. Naho musters up the courage to say to him, “I want to go out with you.” With the barriers slowly being removed from Kakeru’s heart, Naho’s mission to save Kakeru draws to what could be success.


9. Otosaka Yuu, Tomori Nao – Charlotte

  • Episodes: 13
  • Aired: July 2015 – September 2015

Otosaka Yuu appears to be a regular charming teenager; however, he has the ability to enter people’s minds and possess their bodies for five seconds at a time. He uses this ability to achieve top grades and enter a prestigious school, but when a girl named Tomori Nao catches him using the ability, she blackmails him into transferring to Hoshinoumi Academy, a high school for students who have supernatural powers. Yuu is forced to join the student council, which is secretly tasked with the mission of finding other teens who abuse their powers.

Tomori Nao can be described as the embodiment of a “don’t-care-attitude”, and as such, it becomes fairly easy to imagine just how anyone who falls in love with her will have a hard time getting her to reciprocate those feelings, let alone accept them. However, Otosaka Yuu, in a fairly confident display, explains that he has fallen for Tomori, who, in a different timeline, saved him from a depression-fuelled, unhealthy lifestyle of violence and depravity. Tomori, unabashedly surprised, interjects with a sceptical and somewhat disgusted “HUH? What’s this? Romance?” Fortunately for Yuu, she felt the same way, despite appearing taken aback by the idea of dating him after he returns from an insanely impossible mission to save all the adolescent wielders of supernatural powers on Earth.


8. Kudou Shinichi, Mouri Ran – Case Closed (Detective Conan)

  • Episodes: TBC
  • Aired: January 1996 – ongoing

Kudou Shinichi, at the tender age of 17, is a well-known mystery expert and detective who has solved several cases. One night, Shinichi sees two suspicious men and decides to tail them, subsequently becoming witness to disturbing illegal activity. The men spot him and give him a dose of their organisation’s experimental drug, leaving him there to die. Amazingly, Shinichi does not die, and instead, his body reverts to that of a seven-year-old, preserving his original intellect. He hides his identity from everyone he knows, including his childhood friend, Mouri Ran, and takes on the alias of Edogawa Conan, secretly solving the cases of Ran’s father, detective Mouri Kogorou, while investigating the organisation responsible for turning him into a child, hoping that one day he’ll be able to reverse the drug’s effects.

During the Holmes’ Revelation arc, Shinichi, Ran, Detective Mouri and the rest of the gang are in London, funded by a rich British woman seeking to express her gratitude and share stories of Detective Mouri’s cases after they found her cat. While in London, Ran runs into a woman who tells her “Love is 0, no matter how many zeros you add, you’ll just lose miserably,” a thought which causes her to think about her seemingly stagnant relationship with Shinichi. Upset, Ran confronts Shinichi and laments on how it seems that she had been getting ahead of herself; that nothing will come from her feelings, and runs off. After chasing her down, Shinichi grabs Ran’s arm and tells her that even if he were Sherlock Holmes himself, it would be impossible for him to deduce the feelings of the woman he loves. Elementary.


7. Sajou Rihito, Kusakabe Hikaru – Doukyuusei (Classmates)

  • Episodes: 1 (film)
  • Aired: February 2016

What happens when a talented and popular guitarist offers to help an honour student prepare for their school’s upcoming chorus festival? Such is the question when the guitarist and band member Kusakabe Hikaru offers to help the honour student, Sajou Rihito, known for getting perfect scores in every subject on the high school entrance exam. As the two interact and become more comfortable around each other their feelings for one another grow and in an instant they realise that they’re in love. With Hikaru being frivolous and direct with his emotions, Rihito is taken aback at first, but gradually opens his heart. The two come to learn about themselves as they learn about and support each other.

On the day of the festival, Hikaru sheds a tear during their class’s performance after noting that Rihito is singing just fine. Concerned, their teacher temporarily stops conducting and their choir goes silent. Hikaru runs out, embarrassed, with Rihito following him to figure out what’s wrong. Hikaru adamantly tries to convince Rihito to head back to the choir, saying that their teacher isn’t going to be too happy with their absence. When Rihito asks why their teacher is even coming up in discussion, a tearful Hikaru confesses that he might’ve fallen in love with Rihito.


6. Mamiya Chiaki, Konno Makoto – Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time)

  • Episodes: 1 (film)
  • Aired: July 2006

High school senior Konno Makoto is having a hard time deciding on what to do with her future and while living through the somewhat difficult but mundane days enduring pressure from her teachers and hanging out with friends, Makoto discovers that she has a talent no aptitude test could ever bring to light: she is capable of time-travel. At first, she frivolously enjoys the benefits of being able to leap through time but she later learns that every choice has a consequence, and that time waits for no one.

Our protagonist, Konno Makoto is a normal teenage girl who, despite seeming somewhat disinterested in romance and the like, harbours romantic feelings for one of her best friends, Mamiya Chiaki, who, coincidentally, likes her too. On their way home from school, Chiaki offers Makoto a ride on the back of his bicycle. They talk about how their friend Kousuke having a girlfriend might change the dynamics of their friendship. After a long pause, a clearly flustered Chiaki asks Makoto to date him, as a response to the conversation they’d just had. Or so he says. Surprised, Makoto time-leaps to change the eventuality, but in fairly humorous fashion, each leap ends the same way, with Chiaki asking her to go out with him.



5. Ren Hakuryuu, Morgiana – Magi

  • Episodes: 25
  • Aired: October 2012 – March 2013

Around the world, mysterious labyrinths containing incredible treasures have appeared. These labyrinths, or “dungeons” are brought
about by Magi, rare magicians that are capable of building empires. It is said that one who conquers a dungeon can be chosen by a Magi to become a potential king candidate, someone with the potential to rule the world. Bursting forth from a life in isolation, the young magician, Aladdin, eagerly begins his exploration of the world after leaving home, soon becoming friends with a young man named Alibaba Saluja. When Aladdin accidentally destroys a local merchant’s supply cart, Alibaba suggests that they conquer the nearest dungeon in order to be able to pay for the damages. And so begins one of the epic journeys that could decide the fate of the world itself.

After conquering the dungeon, Alibaba gains control of the dungeon’s “Djinn”, a supernatural being that rules over a dungeon, and upon travelling further with Aladdin, meets a plethora of amazing characters, such as the powerful former slave known as Morgiana and one of the many potential heirs to the throne of the Kou Empire, Ren Hakuryuu. The empire is in disarray and Hakuryuu seeks to end his adventures alongside Alibaba and the rest in order to attend to his home kingdom, but Morgiana does not enjoy saying goodbye to him like that. Hakuryuu then offers to take her with him to Kou… because he is in love with her. He then kneels and proclaims that Morgiana is a splendid woman, one who is strong, kind and wonderful. As such, he would like to marry her. Then he steals a surprise kiss. Bold.


4. Gouda Takeo, Yamato Rinko – Ore Monogatari!! (My Love Story!!)

  • Episodes: 24
  • Aired: April 2015 – September 2015

High school freshman, Gouda Takeo, is an imposing, muscular skyscraper of a teenager; however, despite his intimidating appearance, Takeo is one of the nicest people one could ever hope to meet and he is constantly hailed by his male classmates for his courage and chivalry. Unfortunately, Takeo’s love life is non-existent and to make things worse, his best friend and constant companion, Sunakawa Makoto, is the embodiment of “cool and handsome”, and constantly steals the hearts of the female students and sadly, this includes every girl Takeo has ever liked. When Takeo saves the cute and dainty Yamato Rinko from a molester one day, he instantly falls in love with her, but assumes that she is interested in Sunakawa. Being the good guy that he is, Takeo immediately plots to assume the role of Cupid, even if it results in pairing up the girl he’s interested in with his best friend.

In a manner that is uncharacteristic of anime, the characters who bore romantic feelings for each other made that known to each other early on in the series. After trying really hard to pair up Sunakawa and Rinko, Takeo’s efforts were not very well received and Rinko cried, believing that Takeo wasn’t interested in her at all. Sunakawa, realising her feelings for Takeo, decides to formulate a plan: he invites the distressed Rinko over and hides Takeo under his bed. Rinko pours her heart out to Sunakawa, exclaiming her feelings for Takeo over and over to Sunakawa’s command, drilling it into the stubborn head of the man under his bed. Sunakawa then calls him out, and upon seeing Takeo up close and personal, Rinko confesses her feelings for him, saying she has been in love with him since they first met. Takeo admits, it is exactly the same for him too.


3. Okazaki Tomoya, Furukawa Nagisa – Clannad

  • Episodes: 23
  • Aired: October 2007 – March 2008

Okazaki Tomoya is a high school delinquent who bears no real interest in life and sees it as a dull undertaking, believing that he’ll never amount to anything. While walking to school one day, Tomoya meets Furukawa Nagisa, an eccentric girl who attends the same school he does, who likes to motivate herself by exclaiming things she likes. After seeing Nagisa more and more frequently at school, Tomoya eventually befriends Nagisa and finds out that her dream is to revive the school’s drama club. With nothing better

to do, Tomoya, with the help of four other girls, commits to helping Nagisa achieve her goal, realising, as he spends more time with them and learns more about them, that his life isn’t as dull as he once thought.

After successfully reviving the drama club, Nagisa’s dream comes true. Tomoya invites Nagisa up to a classroom late after school, where he asks her, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if we woke up tomorrow morning as lovers?” He then rephrases and tells the puzzled Nagisa that he loves her and would like to date her. She tears up a bit before flashing one of her cute smiles, nodding her acceptance of his feelings. The somewhat listless, unconcerned delinquent was all red-faced as he got himself a girlfriend!


2. Senjougahara Hitagi, Araragi Koyomi – Bakemonogatari

  • Episodes: 15
  • Aired: July 2009 – June 2010

After surviving a vampire attack with the help of a strange man named Oshino Meme, third-year high school student Araragi Koyomi tries to live a normal life despite living with lingering side effects such as superhuman healing and enhanced vision. When Araragi catches fellow classmate Senjougahara Hitagi, who fell down the stairs, he realises that she is weightless. Concerned, he decides to enlist the help of Oshino, a transaction which sets in motion the story of Araragi Koyomi as he helps those suffering from supernatural problems.

One starry night, Senjougahara and Araragi go on a date, to a place only she knows. Outdoors, under the veil of the speckled backdrop that was the night sky, the two lay side by side on a picnic blanket as Senjougahara named all the stars and constellations she knew. She then tells him that that’s all she has. “Being able to help you study, a cute junior and a brusque father… and this starry sky. That’s all I can give you, Araragi-kun. Right now, I’m afraid of losing you. Although my life hasn’t been too fortunate up until now, it is that misfortune that has allowed me to meet you. And because of that, I was able to fall for you.” They hold hands. She later asks Araragi if he loves her; and he says he does. She tells him that she loves him too.


1. Rem, Natsuki Subaru – Re:Zero

  • Episodes: 25
  • Aired: April 2016 – September 2016

When a routine trip to the convenience store turns out to be a trip to another world, Natsuki Subaru barely has any time to breathe before he is attacked by thugs. With only his now-useless cell phone and a bag of groceries, he does not fare well against his assailants. Luckily, he is saved by a silver-haired beauty known as Satella, who is looking for her insignia which was stolen from her. Thankful for her kind gesture, Subaru opts to help Satella find her insignia, and later that night, they find just who they were looking for. But, lurking in the darkness, lies an enemy that neither of them could’ve expected and, not long after Satella was reunited with her insignia, she and Subaru are brutally murdered. Strangely enough, with the memories of his death still fresh in his mind, Subaru finds himself in familiar circumstances: being attacked by the same thugs and meeting Satella yet again, as if none of it had ever happened.

After falling into depression after several failures to help Emilia in her ascension to the throne, as well as the constant images of his friends dying as a result of his failures, Subaru decides to give up. Realising this, Rem tries to motivate him by telling him everything she loves about him. From his voice, his touch, his sleeping face, everything. Subaru cannot fathom this and tries to rubbish everything she says, violently rejecting her words. He then asks her why, to which she exclaims, “Because you are my hero!” Her unabashed belief in Subaru and his abilities is exactly what he needed to start believing in himself again.


Conclusion

Like most of us, anime characters find it really difficult to express how they feel sometimes. It feels as if so much more effort goes into crafting confession scenes and that is why they can be so powerful, evoke emotion and even inspire some viewers to do the same with their crushes. Be that as it may, there are hundreds of confessions out there that we couldn’t begin mention, such as that of Makise Kurisu in Steins;Gate when she confesses to Okabe. However, we do know that these will have your heart beating a bit faster, faces feeling a bit hotter and for some, tear ducts a little bit busy. Did we miss your favourite confession? Why not mention it in the confessions, er, comments section below?

Charlotte-dvd-374x500 Top 10 Anime Kokuhaku (Confessions)

Writer

Author: Hoshi-kun

I’m South African, harbouring an obsession for anything remotely related to Japan, mostly anime, of course. I draw sometimes. Some people call me Naledi, it’s my real name, or something like that. People think I’m stoic because I don’t smile often (I do sometimes). I like languages. Hoshi-kun and Naledi are the same side of the same coin.

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