Romantic anime can surprise you: there are exciting stories about parallel worlds, mysticism and dynamic action.
We have collected the best anime about love – you will find touching stories about self-acceptance, comedies about gods, and titles about second chances.
1. Horimiya, 2021
At school, Kyouko Hori doesn't tell anyone that all the household chores and caring for her younger brother fall entirely on her shoulders. She is constantly preoccupied with adult problems, and the happy life of a teenager passes her by.
Izumi Miyamura doesn't show his true face to his classmates either. In fact, he is not a quiet person, but a rebel with piercings and tattoos all over his body.
Fate decrees that these two learn about each other's extracurricular lives. Kyouko and Izumi share a secret, and they grow closer every day.
2. The Tatami Galaxy, 2010
A nameless student thinks that all hopes for a fun university life have been dashed. He blames it all on Ozu, a strange and even creepy scoundrel and lazy person he met at a tennis club.
Ozu destroyed all of the boy's dreams, made him public enemy number one in the sports department, and even stole the only girl with whom he could have had a relationship.
Everything seems hopeless until he meets a man in a ramen shop who calls himself a god. The stranger gives him a chance to start his freshman year over, choose a different club, and try to correct the mistakes of the past.
3. Maid Sama!, 2010-2011
Seika High School used to be an all-male school, and its students were the terror of the entire district. It recently became co-ed, and Misaki Ayuzawa, the first girl to become president of the student council, has taken on the task of fixing the boys' school. She is an excellent student and an athlete, although she has no luck in life.
Her father abandoned her, her mother and her sister, so to earn some extra money, Misaki gets a job as a maid in a cosplay cafe.
There she is noticed by Usui Takumi, the main heartthrob of the school. Misaki expects him to start blackmailing her, but Usui unexpectedly keeps a secret and becomes a regular at the cafe.
4. Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It, 2020-2022
Shinya Yukimura and Ayame Himuro are graduate students together. Both are used to proving everything in life with scientific methods: their lives consist of numbers, data and statistics.
When Himuro confesses her love to her partner, he wonders how to test it. Then they decide to conduct experiments on themselves, trying to understand what love is and how to express it in numbers.
There are not many good romances about adults or students, so this anime is a real find. It dissects the genre of anime romance, just as the main characters try to dissect love.
5. Kamisama Kiss, 2012-2016
Because her father is deeply in debt, Nanami is left homeless. With only a suitcase, she wanders the dark streets, not knowing what to do, and suddenly meets a stranger in a hat. This man offers the girl to take care of his house.
At the address she is given, Nanami finds neither a house nor an apartment, but an old abandoned temple full of ghosts. And it turns out that she is now a goddess, which the main guardian, the fox demon Tomoe, is not happy about at all. But Nanami diligently takes on her new divine duties.