10 Best Romance Anime That You Should Watch
Anime has a lot to offer in diverse genres, and that includes some truly binge-worthy romance anime for the heartsick, the enamored, and the free-spirited fantasizers. Don’t worry, they’re not cliched. In fact, far from it.
This list includes some of the best romance anime with love stories you’d never expect to take place in real life. They’re wild and imaginative and, above all, unique.
10 Best Romance Anime of All Time
This list takes a lot of important factors into account such as popularity, ratings, and of course, revenue. Counting down from 10, here’s a curated list of the best romance anime ever made.
#1. Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama (1992)
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Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama is based on the Hindu epic Ramayana, written by the revered Indian sage Valmiki during the Vedic Period. It tells the legendary story of how Prince Rama fought a war against the infamous Ravana to save his beloved wife Sita.
Rama is an Ayodhan prince and the favorite among the 4 princes of not only his father King Dashrata but of the entire nation. He is the embodiment of virtue and purity. However, this makes Keykey, the mother of Prince Bharat jealous. She wishes for her son to inherit the throne.
Being King Dahsrata’s favorite, she is able to coerce him into forcing Ram and his wife into exile for 14 years while Bharat becomes the king. Reluctant and grief-struck, King Dashrata must honor her wish due to a pact they had made years ago. He sentences Ram, Laxman, and Sita to exile.
The three of them take to the forest and learn how to live in harmony in nature until one fateful day when Ravana, enchanted by Sita’s beauty, plots to kidnap her and succeeds.
#2. Your Lie in April (2014–2015)
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Your Lie In April is one of the highest-rated romance anime series of all time with an IMDb score of 8.6. It follows the story of Kosei Arima, a scruffy-haired dorky pianist who has earned numerous music competition accolades and garnered popularity among child musicians.
However, after his mother passes away, the resulting mental breakdown Arima experiences manifest as an inability to hear the piano anymore. His hearing’s just fine but he can’t process the sound of piano music anymore and decides to quit music.
Two years go by and Kosei resigns himself to a normal life with friends and school work. He hasn’t touched his piano since his mother’s death. However, one day, he runs into an uppity free-spirited violinist girl who not only brings Kosei back to music but changes his whole perspective towards it.
#3. InuYasha
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If you prefer romance as the detailed subplot and action or adventure as the surface theme, you need to experience InuYasha. The story begins in modern-day Tokyo. Kagome Higurashi is 15 years old and lives on the grounds of a shrine owned by her family.
One day while searching for her lost cat through the shrine, she falls into a well. But instead of hitting the bottom, she is transported to a parallel universe 500 years in the past, during Japan’s Sengoku era.
It is here that she meets InuYasha, a half-demon half-human boy. The centipede-like beast who has lured her into the well is a devil and he’s after the Shikon Jewel she possesses.
He shows up again to try to steal the Jewel and InuYasha tries to protect Kagome but the jewel ends up being shattered and spread across Japan in many shards. Over a series of adventures to regain the jewel shards, InuYasha and Kagome end up developing a love connection.
#4. Clannad (2007)
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Tomoya Okazaki is in his third year of high school and carries a generally resentful attitude towards both his life and himself. He believes he won’t ever amount to much. A possible cause for his lack of motivation may be the fact that his mother passed away when he was younger and his dad withdrew from the world, becoming an alcoholic gambler.
Yohei shares Tomoya’s disinterest towards school and together they plan to waste their school days away, skip class, and go off to have fun. One day, on his way to school, he notices a girl, Nagisa, muttering to herself. She’s a year older but had to repeat class because of her illness and has a habit of muttering things out loud to motivate herself.
At first, Tomoya casually strides past her, but after a couple of encounters, he finally embraces her as a friend and learns that it’s her dream to revive the school drama club. With nothing of greater importance on Tomoya’s agenda, he decides to help her out with her dream but it’s his life that takes a new direction.
#5. Fruits Basket (2001)
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Fruit Baskets is the perfect example of taking tales of tragedy and spinning them into deep romances with humorous overtones. This is the story of a young orphan girl, Tohru Honda, with a continuing tale of woe.
After her mother passes away, she decides to move in with her grandfather. But when his house is going to get renovated, she has to find another place to stay. Out of fear of being a burden to her friends or family, she resorts to living in a tent in the woods.
One day, she discovers her tent totaled by a landslide, and with nowhere to go, gets taken in by her classmate Yuki Soma’s family. However, she soon discovers how dysfunctional Yuki’s family is and that they’re all afflicted by a curse. The curse turns them into their animal zodiac whenever they are hugged by someone of the opposite gender.
#6. Steins; Gate (2011)
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Romance is best enjoyed when combined with other genres. Steins; Gate is one of the best examples of this. It’s a sci-fi suspense thriller that turns into a heart-melting and tragic love story.
Okabe Rintarou is a self-proclaimed mad scientist with a mysterious ability called the reading Steiner. On his way out of a lecture, he encounters the dead body of Makise Kurisu and sends a text message to himself about it. But for some strange reason, that message ends up traveling back in time, changing the sequence of events where Makise is still alive.
He encounters Makise to question her and investigate these odd occurrences, and the two end up working together to build a time machine that allows you to send text messages back in time. The story gets dark really quickly as they soon discover the number of shadow governments after them.
With the world’s powers against them, the two forge an unshakeable bond not only as lovers but as fellow labmates. It’s considered by most of its fandom as the best romance anime to have ever been made.
#7. Sword Art Online (2012)
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Sword Art Online is the latest RPG on the market that actually brings you inside of the game world and connects you with other players from across the world in a generated mind space.
Kirito is one of the beta-testers for this game. He gets in early and levels up to become the strongest. But he soon discovers the game was a ploy to trap the minds of all the players within the game. The only way to get out is to defeat the game itself.
Given his standing as the strongest player, Kirito chooses to play the game solo and keeps leveling himself up quickly to beat the final boss and free everyone from the game. Eventually, he meets Asuna, another powerful player, and the two manage to develop excellent camaraderie despite their differences.
But they also end up falling for each other and living comfortably within the game, taking Kirito off his main mission.
#8. Berserk (1989)
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Berserk may not strike you like a romance anime, but it actually showcases the formation of a genuine romance in several stages.
Guts is a swordsman with a grim past and in a cruel world. His strength and skill as a swordsman is unrivaled until he meets Griffith and his mercenary army, the band of the Hawk. Griffith accepts Guts’ challenge to a duel with the condition that he’ll join the army and serve under him. Guts loses.
Griffith and Guts develop a strong relationship based on mutual respect, and this makes Griffith’s second-in-command, in turn making Kafka jealous because she wants to be respected by Griffith. Her disposition towards Guts is initially full of reprehension, showing no seeds of a romance blooming.
But after a long time of fighting on the same team, the two get to know each other inside and out. They go from being able to work together to respecting each other’s skills to understanding each other despite their differences, and eventually falling in love.
#9. Nana (2006)
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Nana Komatsu is a character you might be able to relate to. She’s a post-adolescent girl with a knack for falling in love at first sight without caution. At the age of 20, after saving up, she decides to travel to Tokyo to chase her boyfriend Shouji.
On a train to the metropolis, she ends up meeting Nana. A different Nana. Nana Oosaki who has a completely contradictory personality and leads a punk rock band. Oosaki used to have a boyfriend Ren who ended up receiving an opportunity. But instead of following Ren, she decided to break up with him and pursue her own career instead.
Despite their contradictory natures, the two end up becoming great friends who respect each other. The anime is about both the characters and how they operate in their love lives given their distinct views. The idea of destiny, human relations, and limited time is also frequently discussed.
#10. A Silent Voice: The Movie (2016)
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Another movie too good to not make this list that’s been predominantly about romance anime series is A Silent Voice. Shouya Ishida is not a lovable character. He’s arrogant, insecure, and a complete jerk.
To quell his boredom, he bullied the new deaf girl who was transferred to his class so badly that she had to move away. Eventually, it is Shouya who is subject to bullying and becomes completely ostracized for the things he’s done. All of this took place in elementary school.
Flash forward to the last year of high school, Shouya’s actions from the past still haunt him. He intends to kill himself to be free of the guilt but at the last minute changes his mind and seeks a path of redemption instead.
He decides to make amends, starting with returning the notebook Shoko left behind and apologizing. In his angst, he ends up suggesting that he would like to be friends and Shoko accepts. What follows is a beautiful tale of redemption, romance, and Shouya realizing the true depth of his past mistakes.
Where Can I Watch Romance Anime?
There are several romance anime available on HD streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, CrunchyRoll, and Anime-Planet.
A Few Parting Words
Some of the honorable mentions that may have deserved a spot in this list of the best romance anime include Toradora, Kimi Ni Todoke, Snow White and the Red Hair, Kids on the Slope, Anohana, and Nodame Cantabile. Be sure to check them out too, they’re all excellent productions. The world of anime is vast.
