Baseball is a game of passion, and that passion can be felt both inside and outside the field. For Ryo, it has led her to become the pitcher of the very first all-girls baseball team for Kisaragi High that is aiming for the Koshien, wishing to prove themselves as being more than capable of playing against the boys’ teams. For her, it’s not just a matter of personal pride, but also a matter of family honor. She’s the daughter of Hidehiko Hayakawa, a professional baseball player who was banned from the sport after a terrible scandal and then died in obscurity. She can strike out all batters, except for Hiroki Takasugi, one of the star pitchers in the boys’ team at her school.

After 26 episodes of unresolved sexual tension between Hiroki and Ryo, both teams reach the semi-final game: Kisaragi boys versus Kisaragi girls. And it was in the last inning when Hiroki decided to declare his love for Ryo as he stepped on the plate while she was pitching and asked her not to walk him but to show him that she loved him too by using her lighting ball, which would probably cost the girls the victory. And to everyone’s surprise, she does; and while she loses the game, she wins his heart.

Romance is always a bit hard because you never know how things are going to work out. But when you are in the middle of a three-way war, trying to save the world, leading a kingdom, and making sure magic is never used against those who need protection, it's normal to think that knowing who loves who is not a priority. This is what happens to Theo Cornaro, a wandering knight in the land of Atlatan who is trying to save his village from a tyrant lord and ends up joining with the wizard Siluca Meletes to save the whole world from the threat of Chaos and its demons.

But while Theo and Siluca always have their eyes on the bigger goal, they can’t deny their feelings for each other. After being in constant danger due to the Chaos’ demons, Lord Vicount Phederico’s forces, and other Crest users who don’t want to end the Chaos era, Theo realizes that life is very short and he can’t just wait for the battle to end to let Siluca know how he feels for her. It’s a very surprising moment, for both the viewers and Siluca as beforehand it seemed as if Theo was unaware of her feelings, but not only does he confess first, he also kisses her with a promise to take her back to his village as his wife.

Getting thrown into another world is quite stressful on its own, so adding a constant cycle of death and rebirth makes romance quite hard. That’s the situation in which Subaru finds himself when he ends up in a fantasy realm where eventually he also finds his heart conflicted between his feelings for Emilia, a half-elf who was the first person he met in the new world, and Rem, a humble maid who loves him with all her heart.

This makes the actual confession of love very complicated and, some would say, cruel. After being literally killed one too many times, Subaru wants nothing but to run away with Rem to stay away from everything that could harm him. He's convinced at that point that nothing he does is good for anyone, but Rem doesn’t just refuse to go with him but also reminds him of all the brave things he's done as the reasons why she loves him. And once he gets back his resolve, he tells her the truth: he fights with the goal of seeing Emilia smile again, because he loves her. Even Rem says this was quite cruel to her, even if she tries to pass it as a joke.

When someone declares that they’ve not only never fallen in love, but also have no real need to love someone, they’re tempting fate. That’s what happens with Mitsuyoshi Tada, a young high school student who wants nothing except to follow his father’s footsteps as a photographer since he was very young when he lost both his parents. Because of this, he's never very open about his feelings and has never felt a need for a romantic partner. When he meets Teresa Wagner, an exchange student from Larsenburg, they become good friends, but he never seems to realize that his feelings for her may be different from what he feels for his other friends.

That is until the day when it’s revealed that Teresa is the heir of the Larsenburg’s crown and she has to go back to her country and to her fiancée, Charles. It seems as if Tada’s heart will be broken because Teresa has royal duties to her country and even if he travels to Larsenburg, he has to return to Japan alone. It's not until the last episode that we get a happy twist: it's not him who confesses, but Teresa, having come back to Japan after declaring she'd follow her heart and never leave Tada alone again.

One wouldn’t expect a love story in the middle of the horror and gore-fest that is Devilman: Cry Baby. The fact that one of the protagonists of said love story is Satan himself is even more unbelievable. But that's the true plot hidden behind the fight between humans, demons, and devilmen. It's not clear at the beginning when Satan is just a name whispered by the demons who are eating and destroying humanity, but once Satan’s true identity is revealed as Ryou, Akira’s best friend, things become clearer.

However, the love Satan feels for Amon, the demon inside Akira, is not actually acknowledged by the Prince of Lies until the very last moment. All demons and devilmen have been killed in battle and we find Satan cradling Akira and Amon’s body. It’s only at that moment when Satan confesses the truth. Unfortunately, it falls on deaf ears: Amon died in the battle, half his body lost in the carnage. And Satan himself has little time to live, as God will reset the universe and the tragic story will play out the same once again.

After Kousei Arima’s mother died, he stopped feeling happiness when playing the piano. Despite being a child prodigy, without his mother's support, it seemed to him that practice and performing had no point. That is until his friends introduced him to Kaori Miyazono, a talented violin player who only wants to play with him on stage. Kaori has an amazing talent, but she is too much of a free spirit. She hates following the score and is incredibly energetic while Kousei used to be very technical and cold due to his training, but together, they seem to mesh very well as Kaori brings Kousei out of his shell little by little.

Throughout the story, we’re treated to a very complicated love triangle. Kousei realizes early on that he has feelings for Kaori, but she seems to be completely in love with their mutual friend Wataru. It’s not until after we discover that Kaori was deathly ill and she passes away during surgery that everyone finds out the truth: In a posthumous letter she wrote for Kousei, she reveals that she had always been in love with him and wanted him to find happiness in the piano again, but because she knew she’d die soon and that Tsubaki, another mutual friend, was completely in love with Kousei, she pretended to love Wataru for both their sakes.

With the world completely devoid of natural resources and humanity under attack from giant creatures known as klaxosaurs, the future of mankind seems dire. Children are bred specifically to pilot Franxx, machines that protect the mobile cities that house the surviving humans. For them, piloting a Franxx is the only goal for their existence, so Hiro, Code:016, is one of those children but he can’t ride a Franxx, so he feels that he has no right to keep living. That is until he meets the strange Zero Two, a horned girl who is also known a the “Partner Killer”, and she asks him to pilot her Franxx with him.

Because one of the prerequisites to pilot a Franxx together is a good synchronization, it’s no surprise that, with time, both Zero Two and Hiro develop feelings for each other. And this brings not one, but three wonderful confessions of feelings, each topping the one before. The first one comes when Hiro realizes that it’s not just piloting the Franxx that gives his life meaning but piloting it with Zero Two. The second, when both realize they had met before and promised to marry each other, and the third and strongest, when they go to the last battle swearing that not even death can separate them.

Figure Ice Skating is a really competitive sport that can demand a lot of effort from the skaters both physically and emotionally. That is why Yuri Katsuki starts thinking about quitting after losing the Grand Prix Final and, in his mind, embarrassing himself in front of his idol, Russian skater Victor Nikiforov. So, of course, it's a big surprise when the next year, Victor himself shows up at his family's hot spring and declares loudly to everyone that will listen that he will be Yuri's coach and will get him ready to win the next Grand Prix.

What Yuri doesn't realize is that Victor is hitting on him from day one. At first, Yuri thinks it's just a way for Victor to try to keep him on his feet and surprise him, but little by little he realizes that Victor's actions are much deeper than just natural Russian affection. It’s not until Victor tells him about a party the year before where Yuri got drunk and was quite enthusiastic about his admiration for him. It’s then when Victor reveals that it’s thanks to Yuri’s actions that he realized that he was lacking life and love by focusing only on skating, and Yuri finally gets what Victor was telling him from the beginning: He is very loved by his coach.

When you are not conventionally attractive, it’s easy to believe that no one will love you no matter what you do. That is Takeo Gouda’s life. He is a very big, very manly high school student who looks a lot older due to his size. He’s also quite feared in school because people look at him and automatically assume he’s a thug. To make things worse, he knows that his best friend Makoto Sunakawa is quite attractive and thus, most girls try to get close to Takeo just to have a chance with Makoto. And he assumes that Rinko Yamato, a girl he saved in the subway, is the same so he ignores her attempts at telling him her feelings.

Fortunately for both Rinko and Takeo, Makoto is an amazing friend. So when he realizes what’s going on, he invites Takeo to his house and makes him hide under his bed. Then he invites Rinko, and point blank asks her how she feels about Takeo. And when she reveals that she loves Takeo how he is, completely unaware that Takeo was under the bed, Makoto asks Takeo to come out and tell her the truth.

One can’t deny that Alchemy is Edward Elric’s whole life. His father, Van Hohenheim, was one of the best alchemists in the world and both Edward and his brother would have been considered prodigies from a young age if they had been growing in the city rather than in a small town. His childhood friend, Winry, tries her best to understand this, even if at times she wants to throw a wrench at his head for being obsessed with the equivalent exchange.

Which is why it’s impossible not to agree with Winry when, after a long battle to earn peace, she complains about Ed’s attempt to propose to her, as he offers her “half of his life” in exchange for half of hers. Once she gets what he’s saying, she replies with one of the best lines in the whole series: “No. I don’t want half your life… I’ll give you my whole life.” Now that’s how you say “I love you”.