We all are looking for love in our lives, and what better depiction than anime for love stories?
There has always been a preconceived notion about anime that they’re mostly violence oriented and also unnatural. But there’s so much to it that people usually credit it for. There’s a lot of relatability and so much connection with each character and the traits that are depicted, oh so beautiful and detailed!
Anime covers romance so beautifully incorporating comedies that this can fit into everyone’s genre. And as we all know a love story is as powerful of a story as any other. Tastes can differ as per age and time, but love stories in anime are classic and timeless.
Some of them are going to make you laugh with a feel-good factor and some are definitely going to make you sob. Nonetheless, we hope you enjoy the list we curated for you with the best romance anime in the romance of all time.
Top 10 Romance Anime of all times
10. Name: My Love story (2015)
- Japanese title: Ore Monogatari (俺物語)
- Studio: Madhouse
- Director: Hayato Kawai
- Writer: Kazune Kawahara
- Cast: Ryohei Suzuki, Mei Nagano, Kentaro Sakaguchi, Kentaro Ito
- IMDB: 6.7/10
- Where to watch: MyAnimeList, Crunchyroll, IMDB
My Love Story is a Japanese manga series, in the Romantic-Comedy genre. The story revolves around a boy, Takeo Goda, distinctively large for a school kid, that influenced boys around but didn’t leave a great impression on girls at the same time. Very selflessly, the boy was out there looking for love in his life.
More often than not, the girls that he was attracted to, ended up crashing on his own best friend Makoto, preferably more handsome. Things turn around for him, when he saves a high school student Rinko Yamato from some creepy guy on a train. On an unusual note in Takeo’s life, Rinko falls in love with him the moment she sees him when he assumes that she would also fall for Makoto like always. This turns out to be the beginning of a beautiful love story.
9. Name: Your lie in April (2014)
- Japanese title: Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (四月は君の嘘)
- Studio: A1 Pictures
- Director: Takehiko Shinjō
- Writer: Naoshi Arakawa
- Cast: Kento Yamazaki, Suzu Hirose, Anna Ishii
- IMDB: 6.8/10
- Where to watch: MyAnimelist
This is a love story that has romance, drama, and more than anything, tragedy. A 14-year-old boy Kosei Arima, was a piano prodigy and had won multiple accolades in music competitions. Unfortunately, he loses his mom and her demise affects Kosei in a way that he ends up quitting his piano for almost 2 years.
And there comes Kaori Miyazono who was a bright and happy go lucky violinist of Kosei’s age. She makes Kosei get back into playing his piano by making him realize how he can free himself of all the misery and get back to himself. Due to her infectious energy and constant efforts to uplift Kosei, he soon realizes that he has fallen in love with Kaori with everything he has in him.
8. Name: Kokoro Connect (2012)
- Japanese title: Kokoro Konekuto (ココロコネクト)
- Studio: Silver Link
- Director: Shin Oonuma Shinya Kawatsura
- Writer: Fumihiko Shimo
- Cast: Takahiro Mizushima, Hisako Kanemoto, Takuma Terashima, Miyuki Sawashiro
- IMDB Rating: 7.4/10
- Where to watch: MyAnimeList
Kokoro Connect is a story that revolves around 5 high school students Taichi, Iori, Himeko, Yoshifumi, and Yui, leading normal lives as members of a student cultural research club, until there enters a supernatural element in the scenario!
This strange and unnatural experience puts them all in a position where their relations with each other get exposed to tests. This situation occurs when one day Yui and Aoki swap their bodies with each other. This happens later to all the other members too, disturbing their whole lives. What they found fun and intriguing in the beginning, soon changed their lives and also their relationships with each other.
7. Name: 5 centimeteres per second (2007)
- Japanese title: Kokoro Konekuto (秒速5センチメートル)
- Studio: Silver Link
- Director: Shin Oonuma Shinya Kawatsura
- Writer: Fumihiko Shimo
- Cast: Takahiro Mizushima, Hisako Kanemoto, Takuma Terashima, Miyuki Sawashiro
- IMDB Rating: 7.4/10
- Where to watch: MyAnimeList
A young man Takaki goes through hardships in his life through harsh cold weather, technology and the responsibilities that adulthood brings to his life eventually. Takaki had a classmate Akari in elementary school and gradually after spending a lot of time around each other, they became very close.
Akari had to move to a different city than Takaki based on her parent’s jobs and requirements. The plans that they had around each other and spending their time together in high school were disrupted. Their relationship got tested by the distance apart. Struggles became harder every day to maintain a long-distance friendship. Takaki has to move further away and realizes this might be the time that he could meet Akari for one last time.
6. Name: Snow White with the Red hair (2015)
- Japanese title: Akagami no Shirayukihime (秒速5センチメートル)
- Studio: Studio Bones
- Director: Masahiro Andō
- Writer: Deko Akao
- Cast: Josh Grelle, Brina Palencia, Ian Sinclair, Austin Tindale
- IMDB: 7.7/10
- Where to watch: MyAnimeList, IMDB
Shirayuki is a happy, cheerful, red-haired girl residing in Tanbarun who works as a herbalist. Her hair color attracted a lot of attention. Always careful of showing her hair in any setting, tied up with a red ribbon. Somehow she gets under the eye of Prince Raj, who demands on Shirayuki to be his mistress. In response, she cuts her hair because it was her hair that he was attracted to, and escapes the town.
She met Prince Zen on her way out, and later found out he was poisoned by an apple that was meant for Shirayuki gifted by Prince Raj. She finds an antidote to help Zen out. Eventually, she obtains a position to train in the palace as a royal court herbalist. Prince Raj understands his own feelings for Shirayuki and tries to be a better person for her, but ironically she had already fallen in love with Zen. And this was the beginning of their beautiful bond.
5. Name: His and her circumstances (1998)
- Japanese title: Kareshi kanojo no jijou (彼氏彼女の事情)
- Studio: Gainax, J.C Staff
- Director: Hideaki Anno Hiroki Sato
- Writer: Hideaki Anno
- Cast: Veronica Taylor, Megan Hollingshead, Christopher Nicholas, Chihiro Suzuki
- IMDB Rating: 7.7/10
- Where to watch: Prime Video
Yuniko is a high school student who was the envy of every student in her class for her grades as well as her appearance. This admiration made her proud and egocentric as a person. She thrived on envy. Soichiro was the only boy who could beat her, a handsome young man possessed a threat for Yuniko. She wanted to destroy him and he had a huge crush on her.
When Soichiro confesses his love for her, Yukino takes pride in that and turns him down. Yuniko’s little sister indicates that her friction for Soichiro comes from a place of admiration, which makes her reevaluate everything.
4. Name: Clannad (2007)
- Japanese title: Kuranado (クラナド)
- Studio: Kyoto Animation
- Director: Osamu Dezaki
- Writer: Jun Maeda
- Cast: Chris Hutchison, Rob Mungle, Greg Ayres, Mai Nakahara
- IMDB: 7.8/10
- Where to watch: IMDB, MyAnimeList
Tomoya couldn’t care less about school or anybody in his life. He skipped classes and planned to waste most of his school life wandering away. He meets Nagisa on his way to school one day, she was speaking something under her breath and suddenly screams Anpan!
Tomoya gets to know about her and she exclaims things that she has a fondness for to push herself to motivation. He also discovers that she has been going through a chronic disease and had to go back a year in school. She dreamt of being in the school’s drama club. Tomoya finally befriends her and wants to help her with achieving her aspirations. Being around her and her friends gives Tomoya a better perspective on life and that it’s not all dark and depressing.
3. Name: Toradora (2008)
- Japanese title: Toradora! (とらドラ!)
- Studio: J.C Staff
- Director: Tatsuyuki Nagai
- Writer: Yuyuko Takemiya
- Cast: Rie Kugimiya, Yui Horie, Junji Majima, Eri Kitamura, Johnny Yong Bosch
- IMDB Rating: 8/10
- Where to watch: MyAnimeList, Netflix
Ryuuji Takasu, often misinterpreted to be an intimidating boy, was a gentle soul. In high school, he had a best friend Yusaku Kitamura and also a girl that he liked, Minori Kushieda. Taiga, who possessed a wooden Katana and a fierce psyche, was always known as a troublemaker in the school.
Ryuuji soon found out that Taiga has a crush on vice president Yusaku who was his best friend. This romantic comedy revolves around this duo as they are both on a journey to help each other get the love of their lives.
2. Name: Nana (2006)
- Japanese title: NANA (ナナ)
- Studio: Madhouse
- Director: Morio Asaka
- Writer: Ai Yazawa
- Cast: Romi Park, Kaori, Brian Drummond
- IMDB: 8.5/10
- Where to watch: MyAnimeList, Hulu, IMDB
Nana is a series featuring Drama, Musical, and Romance. The story consists of two main characters Nana Osaki and Nana Komatsu. Osaki seeks fame and Komatsu seeks romance. They both end up moving out of their hometown for their pursuits.
Komatsu had a very uplifting and cheerful personality, on the contrary Osaki had a loner chick persona. Komatsu went through her share of struggles before landing up with Shouji Endo, following whom she decided to work hard to earn money and come settle in Tokyo. Osaki’s love affairs were turbulent and often came to end on a sudden note like Ren Honjou which affected her and she too ended up moving to Tokyo to become a full-fledged artist. What came next was something they both did not anticipate, fate once again made their paths cross and they ended up living in the same house and ultimately becoming a part of each other’s lives and struggles.
1. Name: Kaguya Sama: Love is war (2019)
- Japanese title: Kaguya sama wa Kokurasetai – Tensai-tachi no Ren’ai Zunosen (かぐや様は告らせたい ～天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦)
- Studio: A1 Pictures
- Director: Shinichi Omata
- Writer: Aka Akasaka
- Cast: Aoi Koga, Konomi Kohara, Makoto Furukawa, Yumiri Hanamori
- IMDB Rating: 8.6/10
- Where to watch: MyAnimeList, Crunchyroll, Netflix
Miyuki Shirogane, the student council president, and Kaguya Shinomiya, vice president of the Shuchinn Academy, senior high school division were the perfect match in everyone’s eyes. Miyuki has been the top student at the school and Kaguya was the daughter of a wealthy Shinomiya family.
Their liking for each other was evident to all but they were too haughty to admit it to each other and considered it a loss for whoever would come out and confess first. The whole story of Kaguya Sama revolves around the efforts both of them put in to dig out of the other person and turned this into a battlefield of confession.
