Last year, the internet introduced me to White Day. What we do for Valentine’s Day in the US is split into two holidays in Japan; whereas Valentine’s Day is the day where women express affection for men in the form of chocolate, White Day (celebrated March 14th ) is the day where the men reciprocate, also in the form of chocolate, but the white variety, hence the holiday’s name.

So in celebration of White Day, I have compiled a list of anime moments where ladies get their candy. So to speak.

In the interest of balance, my co-conspirator Steven Hubbard, who wrote the Valentine’s counterpart to this article, has a contribution to this discussion, so he’ll weigh in at the tail end of this.

I Love You Warts and All—Durarara

One of Durarara’s strengths is its incredible dialogue. All of the characters are downright philosophers, with unique and carefully thought out ways of seeing the world. When a Durarara character busts out with a monologue, you know it’s going to shake your shit, and Shinra’s bizarrely beautiful love confession to Celty is no exception. Celty is a Dullahan, a type of fairy whose head is not attached to its body. Rather the Dullahans carry their heads and ride through the night on black steeds (think the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow). Celty is immortal, but lost her head long ago, a fact that gives her great anxiety. She discovers that Shinra, a human doctor and her best friend of many years, has hidden information from her that may have helped her find her head, and she is furious. Shinra explains, then, that he does not want her to find her head. He says that he is in love with her, and that, if she finds her head, it may change who she is fundamentally, and he will lose her. While Shinra is being selfish (and admits this freely) what he’s basically said in this scene is that he loves her for exactly who she is. It doesn’t bother him in the slightest that she doesn’t have a head. He is only interested in what is in Celty’s heart (and, okay, probably what’s in the leather cat suit). While most people see Celty as monstrous or “not whole,” Shinra sees her as perfect, and boy, I’m a sucker for that sentiment.

First Kiss—Sword Art Online

I will probably never get over Kirito kissing Asuna in Sword Art Online. Never.

For one thing, I didn’t expect it. Though girls in shonen make plenty of sweet, supportive gestures to their boys, the boys usually dead-end those gestures by being oblivious, dismissive, or freaking out any time the girl gives them an opening or makes an advance (to be fair, most of these boys are 15, so we give them a pass). But this is not the case with Hero Kirito! Nope. In this scene, Kirito is being stabbed to death with a sword by a villain, and Asuna runs in like a bad bitch , fights off the foe, heals Kirito, and continues to fight the bad guy until he tricks her into letting down her guard (of course Kirito has to save her back). After this, Asuna, believing herself responsible for Kirito being in the position he was in (the getting-stabbed-to-death position), starts crying and apologizing. And Kirito leans in and kisses her, and you think to yourself “have I ever seen anything so precious or pure in my life?” And the answer is no, you have not.

The show takes a turn at this point that I never expected. I assumed these two would do that thing where they’re totally into each other, and it goes absolutely nowhere for 200 episodes, and the creator bleeds your ship for all it’s worth. Instead, these children are in-game married halfway through season one, and celebrating their honeymoon wearing sweaters in the woods like they’re in a Banana Republic ad, and to that I say, GOOD JOB. Way to know what you want and go after it, little beans.

Falling For You—Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Everyone knows this show is pure sweetness, and of all the sweet moments to choose from, I think my favorite is the episode where Tohru leaves the human world temporarily, and Kobayashi thinks that she may have left for good. I love the quiet scenes where Kobayashi is clearly missing Tohru; her otaku co-worker can’t cheer her up with dinner and drinks. She regrets out loud sending her out to get omurice ingredients, the errand she was on when she disappeared.  When Kobayashi hears a noise at her door and thinks it might be Tohru, she breaks the silence of the preceding scenes, scrambling to the door, so anxious for it to be Tohru that she trips over her own feet.

And after that, Kobayashi makes some pretty romantic gestures. Tohru’s been drawn back into the dragon world by her father, who is overbearing and thinks Tohru is foolish for being in love with a creature who is only going to live a measly hundred years at best. Kobayashi stands up to Tohru’s father (brave because he’s a dragon who could swallow her like an aspirin at any given moment). But really, the moment that tugs at my heartstrings is that previous scene, where she is so desperate to see Tohru that she literally falls all over herself.

Love Hurts—Akame ga Kill

Akame ga Kill is probably not the first anime that springs to mind when someone says “romance,” but I have a long history of shipping characters that march on opposing sides of a battlefield, and Esdeath and Tatsumi are pretty much the apex of that relationship-type.

So here’s Esdeath, the most powerful general in the Imperial Army, a blood thirsty war-mongering sadist. She’s awful. She’s unapologetically evil. We should hate her. And yet…there is something beguiling about her power, the way she manipulates her allies as well as her foes, and how unapologetic she is in her wickedness. Oh. And there’s one more thing that makes Esdeath sympathetic–she’s stupidly, girlishly in love with the main protagonist, Tatsumi.

The first time Tatsumi and Esdeath meet, Tatsumi has entered a martial arts tournament that Esdeath is hosting. She’s looking for worthy warriors at the tournament, but in a previous scene, she’s also submitted a request to the king for a suitor.  To this end, she’s given him a comically specific list of characteristics she’d like in a mate. She wants someone untested but strong, someone slightly younger than she, someone with “an innocent smile.” When it’s Tatsumi’s turn to fight in the competition, he easily wastes his opponent, and Esdeath, who was previously bored to death, seems impressed by his skill. The crowd cheers for Tatsumi!  Proud of himself and warmed by their encouragement, he grins from ear to ear. At this, ice-queen Esdeath full-on blushes and walks into the ring. She introduces herself, puts a collar around Tatsumi’s neck, and yanks him out of the arena on a chain. When he resists, she karate-chops him on the back of the neck and knocks him unconscious. It takes about twenty seconds for it all to unfold, and the first time I saw it, my mouth was hanging open for every beat of it. The moment is certainly  no sweet Kirito-Asuna kiss, no Kobabayashi-running-to-her-soulmate, but it’s the moment that Esdeath feels love for another person, for the first and only time, and it’s sick and funny and hot as hell.

And now, to balance out my perverse perspective is Steve. Hi, Steve. Give us your cinnamon roll perspective.

Okay! Here goes:

Realization of love—Your Lie in April

If I was writing this section for my Valentine’s Day article, I would easily choose to write about Kaori’s head-butt of Kousei. That moment forces his eyes open (literally) to see a glimmer of what Kaori wants from him. But because my focus needs to be on the man-to-woman relationship, and since Kousei remains silent too long, I have to choose a moment of silent realization. Kousei was dragged along as an unwilling participant on a double date but there is a galaxy’s worth of understanding in the stare he shares with Kaori. I know it is a stretch. His moment isn’t a declaration or exclamation or gesture of any kind. It is a realization that a lifetime wouldn’t be long enough to say everything that needs to be said.