Not every romance show should be dramatic!
Sometimes we need simple, straightforward, and wholesome love stories to keep us warm and happy during cold evenings. Something that would fill us with coziness from the inside, will make us root for the character and swoon over their little day-to-day interactions — the small touches, the soft breaths, the tiny verbal confessions, the stars in their eyes.
So, for those of you who also want a dose of something sappy, we've made a list of heartwarming romance shows.
Skip and Loafer (Skip To Loafer)
Mitsumi Iwakura wants to make the world a better place, and to do that she moves from the countryside to Tokyo. City life is exhilarating, and her perfect plan fails when she runs late on her first day of school and gets lost. Thankfully, she's not the only person who was failed by the topography: the other one is her fellow student Sousuke Shima, and this chance meeting is a starting point of a beautiful friendship between two opposites that will grow into something more. The show focuses mostly on the new beginnings as the characters grow through their interactions with each other, and it makes the development feel real and natural.
Insomniacs After School (Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia)
Ganta Nakami suffers from insomnia and one night he stumbles upon Isaki Magari in the Astronomy Club's abandoned observatory. Magari, however, is asleep, and panics after being woken up by Nakami, only to end up trapped in the room together with him. And that's how they form a friendship, how they find a safe place where they can be themselves, how they help each other deal with insomnia and be a haven to each other. The slice-of-life slowly transforms into a romance, and does it extremely organically.
Sasaki And Miyano (Sasaki To Miyano)
You think you can't find love in an all-boys school? All it takes is a chance encounter and a bit of open-mindedness. Sasaki is one year older than Miyano, and he's cool: he's a bit of a delinquent but he has a huge and kind heart. They somehow bond over BL manga that Miyano is a huge fan of, and throughout the story Sasaki tries to hold his feelings for Miyano on a leash while Miyano struggles with the fact that real life, although it doesn't repeat the stories he reads, can be filled with romance and it doesn't make him weird. Their interactions are super cute, and the way their feelings grow over time feels organic and properly paced.
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku (Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii)
This series follows two pairs of adults working in the same place. One consists of separated childhood friends who reunited at this job and got attached to each other through their mutual love for otaku-related things: there's nothing stronger than the bond between a fujoshi and a gamer. The other is a pair of high school sweethearts who have been together for a decade and know each other better than themselves, while one of them is a casual manga reader and the other is a famous cosplayer. The story follows their lives, filled with cons and trips to Animate, how they get closer to each other, how they show their affection, and how they just learn to be together without sacrificing their hobbies.
Momokuri
Those of you who want to consume fluff in small doses should look at this show — it has 26 episodes 12 minutes long each. It starts in a bit of a stalkerish way: Yuki Kurihara has been secretly taking photos of her crush, Shinya Momotsuki, before finally asking him out. And Momo accepted her confession! But Yuki didn't abandon her stalkerish tendencies, and although Momo is blissfully unaware of them, her thorough understanding of Momo's life creates some awkward and funny moments in their daily interactions.
Tsuki ga Kirei
In Japan, the phrase "The moon is beautiful tonight" is quite often used as a confession, and knowing that it's the title of the show, we can expect something wholesome and romantic. And that's exactly how it is: it's a love story between two classmates, writer Kotarou Azumi and track team member Akane Mizuno who navigate this weird feelings through anxiety and uncertainty. But the moon helps them find the right way and the right words, so it's all good in the end.
Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie (Kawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san)
This story starts with a couple who's already been together for quite some time — Yuu Izumi and Micchon Shikimori have been dating for a year before the events of the show start. Izumi, however, has been dealing with bad luck, and his only wish is to spend as much time as he can with Shikimori. He loves her so much, she's cute and sporty and smart, but also she's incredibly cool, especially when she finds a solution on how to help Izumi deal with his bad luck streak. The show is just a pure fluff with a speckle of comedy, Izumi is fawning over Shikimori all the time, and he does it so organically that it's hard to doubt him.
The Ice Guy and the Cool Girl (Koori Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Douryou Joshi)
It's a pretty recent show that follows the story of Himuro, who has supernatural powers that manifest in a weird way: when he's too concentrated on his task, he creates a little Antarctica around himself. Despite his icy powers, however, he's a very kind person. His powers also manifest when he interacts with his colleague, Fuyutsuki, who's cool-headed, calm and often gives him great advice on dealing with his powers. While Fuyutsuki is not aware of the storm she raises in Himuro, he's adamant in helping her understand that and explain his feelings. It's a cute story about two working adults who try to navigate this weird world of romance with the aid of supernatural phenomena that makes the feelings a bit too obvious.