Graceful, touching, sensual – all these words perfectly describe stories about first love. And when anime masters take on romantic stories, the films and series become not just fascinating fairy tales, but wise parables about the meaning of life, the search for oneself and one's place in the world.
1. Love Me, Love Me Not, 2020
This is a story about four high school students who are experiencing their first feelings, but are trying to deal with them in different ways. Yuna says goodbye to her beloved friend at the train station, who is leaving to live in another city. She insists that the girl write to her more often, especially when Yuna finally meets a young man.
Yuna has pretty high standards: the guy she decides to confess her love to must be like the prince from the fairy tale she read as a child.
On her way home, she meets her new neighbor and future classmate Akari. The girl has a boyfriend, is easy to get along with and does not believe in love at first sight. She has reasons to avoid anything to do with thoughtless romance, because Akari has a secret that she has sworn not to tell anyone.
Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Otani are the perfect couple. They study in the same class, like the same music, laugh at the same jokes, and even like the same rides at the amusement park.
There's just one catch – Risa is much taller than her boyfriend. This is a constant source of ridicule for their classmates, and makes their lives much more difficult. Will they be able to ignore society's prejudices and prove to everyone that a difference in height is no obstacle to true love?
3. The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, 2012-2013
Sorata Kanda, an art student, is kicked out of his dormitory for bringing a stray cat into his room. As punishment, he is transferred to a separate campus, Sakurasou, where outsider students who have also done something wrong live.
Here Sorata meets the talented artist Misaki, the programmer Ryunosuke and the scriptwriter Jin. At first, the young man feels uncomfortable in this creative crowd, but then he finds true friends and love.
4. Kokoro Connect, 2012
Five teenagers – the cheerful Iori, the serious and reasonable Himeko, the cheerful and easy-going Yui, the handsome local Yoshifumi and the sympathetic Taichi – met in high school and organized the Student Cultural Research Club.
This is their personal community, where they do not let outsiders in, and where at some point they start to go crazy from mutual and non-reciprocal feelings for each other. To their help (or perhaps, on the contrary, to their misfortune) comes teacher Goto, who actually turns out to be a magician.
After a coup in the kingdom of Kouka, 16-year-old Princess Yona is forced to flee. She fears that her older cousin Su-won, who killed her father, will come for her.
Yona is helped by her childhood friend and bodyguard Hak, who teaches the girl how to shoot a bow, fight, and defend herself, while secretly suffering from unrequited love for her. As Yona gains strength, she is ready to go into battle and reclaim her rightful throne.
No Your Name or 5 Centimeters per Second.
Graceful, touching, sensual – all these words perfectly describe stories about first love. And when anime masters take on romantic stories, the films and series become not just fascinating fairy tales, but wise parables about the meaning of life, the search for oneself and one's place in the world.
1. Love Me, Love Me Not, 2020
This is a story about four high school students who are experiencing their first feelings, but are trying to deal with them in different ways. Yuna says goodbye to her beloved friend at the train station, who is leaving to live in another city. She insists that the girl write to her more often, especially when Yuna finally meets a young man.
Yuna has pretty high standards: the guy she decides to confess her love to must be like the prince from the fairy tale she read as a child.
On her way home, she meets her new neighbor and future classmate Akari. The girl has a boyfriend, is easy to get along with and does not believe in love at first sight. She has reasons to avoid anything to do with thoughtless romance, because Akari has a secret that she has sworn not to tell anyone.
Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Otani are the perfect couple. They study in the same class, like the same music, laugh at the same jokes, and even like the same rides at the amusement park.
There's just one catch – Risa is much taller than her boyfriend. This is a constant source of ridicule for their classmates, and makes their lives much more difficult. Will they be able to ignore society's prejudices and prove to everyone that a difference in height is no obstacle to true love?
3. The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, 2012-2013
Sorata Kanda, an art student, is kicked out of his dormitory for bringing a stray cat into his room. As punishment, he is transferred to a separate campus, Sakurasou, where outsider students who have also done something wrong live.
Here Sorata meets the talented artist Misaki, the programmer Ryunosuke and the scriptwriter Jin. At first, the young man feels uncomfortable in this creative crowd, but then he finds true friends and love.
4. Kokoro Connect, 2012
Five teenagers – the cheerful Iori, the serious and reasonable Himeko, the cheerful and easy-going Yui, the handsome local Yoshifumi and the sympathetic Taichi – met in high school and organized the Student Cultural Research Club.
This is their personal community, where they do not let outsiders in, and where at some point they start to go crazy from mutual and non-reciprocal feelings for each other. To their help (or perhaps, on the contrary, to their misfortune) comes teacher Goto, who actually turns out to be a magician.
After a coup in the kingdom of Kouka, 16-year-old Princess Yona is forced to flee. She fears that her older cousin Su-won, who killed her father, will come for her.
Yona is helped by her childhood friend and bodyguard Hak, who teaches the girl how to shoot a bow, fight, and defend herself, while secretly suffering from unrequited love for her. As Yona gains strength, she is ready to go into battle and reclaim her rightful throne.
