Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto is a shounen mecha anime by BONES that is rife with fanservices for everyone. The story revolves around the mystery that sleeps in the Southern Cross Isle, where Tsunashi Takuto had gone to spend his youthful high school age, and discovers the mysteries and legends kept in the island: the sleeping Cybodies, the four maidens whom, one of them, is his friend Agemashi Wako, and the King of Cybody’s Driver, Shindou Sugata. As an anime with tons of fan service for both male and female audience, Star Driver has various heavily BL-hinted scenes. One of the best is in episode 14, where the Night Flight drama club president Endou Sarina announced that their newest production will have a kissing scene, and Wako goes ahead to imagine a kissing scene between half-naked Takuto and Sugata! Wako’s imagination fades before Sugata and Takuto’s lips touch, but with the sparkles and roses and the almost non-existent gap between them, it’s pretty much clear how detailed Wako had imagined them kissing, leaving her flushing beet red to the roots of her hair, even more so when Jaguar sent her a thumbs up for her imagination. Good job, Wako! This scene is so popular that when a Star Driver collaboration café opened up in Japan several years ago, you could order a dessert called Wako’s Fantasy which came with a free card of this scene!

It feels almost impossible to watch anime without ever having heard, watched, or read Naruto. And of course, the relationship between Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke is one of the things heavily highlighted in the series, resulting in a no small number of fans of these two. Considering how popular these two as a ship is even after the series ended, and how this was probably a lot of people’s first BL ship, it seems fair to put their hilarious first kiss scene onto this list. Arguably also one of the most hilarious boys kissing scene ever, Sasuke and Naruto accidentally stole each other’s first kiss in episode three. When Naruto had curiously and aggressively examined Sasuke upon their meeting in the exam room, trying to make sense why Sasuke is so popular among the girls, the small distance between them was closed when Tobio, from behind Naruto, swings his hand and bumps Naruto’s back, accidentally pushing him forward and onto Sasuke’s face—or lips. It lasts about three seconds where everyone freezes, and it’s absolutely hilarious. Nonetheless, it does become some of the memories Sasuke or Naruto would remember fondly much, much later in the series, and definitely one that usually makes fans go “aaaaww”.

Loveless brings its audience into a completely normal world, except virgins have cat ears and tails, and special people can battle each other in the form of words. These people come in pairs: one that attacks, called the Fighter, and one who bears the pain, the Sacrifice. Aoyagi Ritsuka, who had lost his older brother, met with Agatsuma Soubi, who is not only a close friend of his brother, but also his Fighter, and now has become Ritsuka’s Fighter. Considering kissing and intimacy is a normal way for Fighters to draw strength to fight from their Sacrifice, we get to see Soubi and Ritsuka kissing several times even in episode one, but the most significant one is definitely the one that happens in episode five. Facing the pair named Sleepless consisting of Kinka and Ginka, who taunts Ritsuka that they’ll give him an envelope with information Ritsuka wants to know. Knowing that Soubi will not tell him anything, Ritsuka lets Soubi engage the battle system and they face Sleepless. Ritsuka fiercely states that he wants the envelope to understand why his brother was killed. In response, Soubi leans down and kisses Ritsuka. With the kiss strengthening their bond as Sacrifice and Fighter, Ritsuka orders Soubi to win—something he has not ever done before. The kissing scene is brief, but intense nonetheless, especially with Ritsuka’s dawning understanding of what he is getting into, which means a lot for his relationship with Soubi. Its significance is even more stressed when later in the same battle, Kinka manages to hurt Soubi and restrains him with a chain on his neck. Ritsuka willingly kisses the bleeding wound, and tells Soubi good luck.

Turning to the older series, our next selection came from the classic BL anime: Gravitation. Based on a manga with the same title, Gravitation tells the love story between Shindou Shuichi, the vocalist of a newly rising rock band Bad Luck, and Yuki Eiri, a famous, if cold, novelist who is popular among female readers. After their rather displeasing first encounter where Yuki told Shuichi that he has “zero talent”, Shuichi managed to break out of his slump and slowly realized that he had, indeed, fallen for Yuki. Out of several kiss scenes in the anime, for this list, it’s the one that happened in the beginning of episode four that we’ll be highlighting. The episode began with Shuichi appearing suddenly on Yuki’s doorstep with all of his things, and, in Gravitation’s typical silly humour, proceeds to move in and makes space for himself, loudly announcing that he’ll be living with Yuki from now on. Having none of it, Yuki kicks him out, but Shuichi jams himself against the door and starts arguing until Yuki lets go of the door and the two tumbles down onto the genkan. Fondly exasperated at Shuichi, Yuki lets him have his victory, and leans up to kiss Shuichi briefly. “Just for a week,” Yuki says, and we get to see him looking embarrassed a little! With this one heartwarming, yet adorable and somehow hilarious kiss scene, we get to see how Yuki is slowly letting Shuichi into his heart, and consequently into his life, which proves critical to the rest of the story.

Based on the manga by the popular duo Eiki Eiki and Zaou Taishi, Love Stage!! is a BL romantic comedy that revolves around the son of a successful, very famous actor/actress family, Sena Izumi, who dreams to be a mangaka, and the current heartthrob of an actor, Ichijou Ryouma. The two had worked together for an advertisement when they were kids, in which Izumi had crossdressed as a girl, and at the same time, stolen Ryouma’s heart. Now ten years later and reunited, Ryouma finds out that the ‘girl’ he had fallen for is a boy after all. Hilarity and adorableness ensue as these two dorks realize their feelings for each other. Most of the kissing scenes in Love Stage!! are either extremely stupid and funny. The best one, though, has to be the ones that happen in the last episode. After realizing that he only wants Ryouma’s touch, and how he’d fallen for Ryouma, Izumi makes a dash to Ryouma’s place, and flies into his arms once Ryouma opens the door. Both of them fell on the genkan, and Izumi wastes no time to pull Ryouma into a kiss. Or actually two. And casually, excitedly,Izumi invites Ryouma to go to bed with him for the first time. And while this is an exciting development between Izumi and Ryouma, it is also hilarious to note that Izumi got everything mixed up—he forgets to actually tell Ryouma that he loves him. Nonetheless, it’s a heartwarming conclusion to everything, and on top of that, the animation of the kissing scenes in this episode is really nice!

Set in the same universe as Junjou Romantica and written by the same mangaka, Sekaiichi Hatsukoi managed to get two seasons of an anime adaptation. Though it follows the story of three (not counting Yokozawa’s Cases that weren’t adapted into the anime) couples, it mainly highlights the relationship between Onodera Ritsu and Masamune Takano. In high school Takano left Ritsu brokenhearted for a reason he never told Ritsu. Years later, Ritsu entered the shoujo manga section for Marukawa Publishing as an editor, and surprise surprise, Takano is the chief! The story of Ritsu and Takano mainly revolves around Takano trying to get Ritsu to fall back in love with him, but Ritsu’s being stubborn because the scar from their high school time is still too fresh. Gradually though, he warms up, and starts being unable to keep away from Takano’s advances. The kissing scenes in episode five are particularly heartwarming—when Takano kisses him in the darkness of the stopped train, Ritsu complains only a little but lets Takano hold his hand as they walk home. It gets better; after the two stumble upon Ritsu’s fiancée, An, later, Ritsu grows worried that Takano would misunderstand. He goes to Takano after seeing An off, tries to explain that their engagement is a family arrangement, and desperately asks Takano not to go to Yokozawa. Takano answers Ritsu with a kiss instead. Ritsu, for once, accepts the kiss and lets himself be embraced afterwards. It’s a really heartwarming scene between the two of them, saying a lot in how Ritsu has begun to let Takano back into his life again. Clearly it’s only a matter of (hundreds of) days until Ritsu fall in love with Takano again!

Another one from Sekaiichi Hatsukoi—this time focusing on the other couple of the series: Kisa Shouta, the thirty year-old who is also a fellow editor in Marukawa Publishing, and Yukina Kou, the sparkling prince-like part-timer in Marimo Books who is really good-looking and really good with people. There are several episodes in both seasons of the anime that focus solely in the relationship between Yukina and Kisa, especially because they hook up quite early in the series. Out of all the kisses these two share, though, a personal favorite would be their first one. After being introduced to Kisa, and later accidentally meets him in the café, Yukina enthusiastically asks about Kisa’s work and the manga he’s in charge of. Yukina’s praises of his works leave Kisa feeling warm, and he begins busily telling himself that he is not actually in love, he can’t be falling in love with someone nine years younger, and that he’s just very happy about being praised. Noticing that Kisa isn’t paying attention and is off on his own world, Yukina asks him what’s wrong, and is answered with Kisa’s adorable red face. The whole scene has a very dazed, romantic feeling in it—from the slow animation when Yukina reaches out to Kisa, to the way he holds his sketchbook up to cover their kiss from other customers in the café. The scene feels very dreamy, very fitting to the shoujo manga parallel that Kisa and Yukina’s story sometimes refers to. It’s not their first time going out with someone, but it is definitely both Kisa’s and Yukina’s first love.

Shin Sekai Yori is a supernatural horror anime that is set in a dystopian society of Japan after the chaos that happened when 0.1% of the population discovered their psychokinetic ability, resulting in the outbreak of violence when a lot of them were unable to control it. After a long period of chaos, the psychokinetic society settles into a fragile, yet peaceful society bound with numerous rules. Shin Sekai Yori is about the coming-of-age of Watanabe Saki and her friends: Asahina Satoru, Aonuma Shun, Itou Mamoru and Akizuki Maria, how they awaken to their powers, and how they walk to the future. When they reach the age of fourteen, most, if not all, the kids begin to enter relationships with those of the same sex. That includes Satoru and Shun—who seem to look very happy with one another. In episode 8, Saki, who still holds feelings for Shun even though she’s dating Maria, catches sight of Shun looking for his dog. She refrains from approaching Shun when she sees Satoru running after Shun, jumping on top of him, and the two of them playfully rolls around in the flower field before Satoru gains the upper hand, and leans down to kiss Shun. For a moment, the two boys share a passionate kiss before Shun notices Saki looking at them from afar. He doesn’t let go of Satoru, though, and Saki is the one who turns away, and later runs away to find Maria. As the series goes on and the story turns darker, remembering this particular kissing scene makes it feel sadder upon rewatch, knowing what fate awaits Shun, and how both Satoru and Saki keeps loving him even as they grow into adults.

Originally based on a novel with the same title, No. 6 is a sci-fi anime with a dystopian setting where mankind lives in six different city-states surrounded with tall walls, which are supposed to be peaceful and perfect. No. 6 follows Shion, a resident of one of the city-states called No. 6, who once helped a fugitive called Nezumi when they were both kids, resulting in him and his mother being relocated and losing their ‘elite resident’ status. When he grew up, an incident brought Shion to meet Nezumi again, this time having his life saved by Nezumi, and through their eyes, the darker secrets and parts of No. 6 is slowly unveiled. Throughout everything they go through together, Shion and Nezumi’s relationship becomes the highlight of the show; they are not lovers, but it was acknowledged in both anime and novel that they are each other’s most important person. In the course of the anime, the two of them share kisses twice, but the most touching one happened in episode 7, when Shion greets Nezumi home with a spread of delicious dinner. They eat together, have warm and light conversation where Nezumi teases Shion lightly about his childhood friend Safu, and Shion answers with a heartfelt confession of how glad he is that he had met Nezumi. Ending that, Shion stands up and bends down to press his lips against Nezumi. Shion tells Nezumi it’s a ‘good-night kiss’ and calls it a night, but Nezumi could see through him completely and knows that it was a goodbye kiss instead, because Shion is planning to go and try to save Safu by himself. The kiss symbolizes the sort of relationship between Nezumi and Shion; brief but heartfelt and deep, and underlines how they understand one another so well despite the lies they try to hold. To the audience, it’s a kiss that is both painful and sweet at the same time, which really, that’s the best kind of ships, isn’t it?

This newest BL anime movie that was released last February is based on a popular slice-of-life BL manga with the same title by Nakamura Asumiko. Kusakabe Hikaru is a high school student who plays guitar for a band, and is helping his classmate Sajou Rihito, the quiet and shy honor student, to prepare for their class’ chorus performance. Somewhere along the way, the two fall into a quiet high school romance, and faces the typical love life problems that teenagers have together. The kiss scene that snags the first place of this list is Kusakabe and Sajou’s first kiss—at night in the park, after they finished practicing the song for the chorus, Kusakabe, who has been fascinated and ensnared by Sajou’s general existence ever since they get closer, questions Sajou if Sajou works so hard for the chorus because of their male teacher, Hara-sensei. Surprised, Sajou drops the water bottle in his hand. They both scramble to reach for the bottle, at which point Sajou touches Kusakabe’s hand on the bottle, and Kusakabe, almost dazedly, turns and kisses him square on the lips. The directing in this simply makes for a breathtaking kissing scene. The slow animation from when Kusakabe and Sajou’s hands touch one another, the seamless way Kusakabe turns around and pulls Sajou for a kiss without even realizing it, the brief three seconds where it felt like no one breathes as they kiss. The scene feels very quiet and suspended for eternity, very beautifully executed. To complete it, the next scene where we have Kusakabe sputtering nervously in shock because he had kissed Sajou without even thinking, was done in a blinking-manga-panels that preserves the lovely, quiet atmosphere Doukyuusei manga is widely known for.