Romance is among the most beloved genres ever. Love stories are always heart-filling and give an incredible sense of satisfaction when the couple finally has their first kiss.
Some anime fans dislike drama or the stupid tribulations we need to tolerate to reach true romance. Life is already complex and you just want to enjoy some pure and chill romance.
If you are like us, you’ll love these recommendations for the best romance anime with little to no drama.
Wholesome fun and love stories in a comic and light-hearted key are the keywords of this listicle, based on our opinions.
Table of Contents
15. Working!!
Working!!! is a slice-of-life anime featuring romance and comedy.
The main character is Takanashi Souta, an ordinary 16-year-old student with a kink for cute little things and people.
He ends up taking a part-time job as a waiter at the Wagnaria restaurant from Taneshima Popura, a girl who is precisely small in stature. There he will meet many peculiar people, experience comical situations, and fall in love.
Working!!! is a light and easygoing love comedy, perfect to watch without having to worry about dramas.
The only problem is that the situations and characters are quite clichéd, but little harm in an anime meant to be funny.
14. Ouran High School Host Club
Ouran High School Host Club is a series based on a popular shojo manga featuring comedy and sentimental elements in one of the best reverse harem anime you can find.
Haruhi Fujioka is a girl who after much effort has managed to enroll in Ouran Academy, one of the most prestigious academies in Japan.
After finishing classes, to find a quiet place, Haruhi enters a seemingly empty room, only to stumble upon the headquarters of the renowned Host Club.
Haruhi however surprise drops a valuable vase, and to repay the debt she is forced to start working as an employee at the host club by disguising herself as a boy.
As is usual in these anime all the guys will try to conquer Haruhi, going on to form a big reverse harem, and this is how the anime will develop, between comedy and romance.
If you like the genre and have not seen it yet, it’s a pretty enjoyable anime even without being groundbreaking.
13. Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It
Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It is a 2020 anime based on a seinen manga, and it’s a fantastic romcom.
Yukimura Shinya and Himuro Ayame are two scientists who want to find out if love can be explained scientifically. Despite their feelings for each other, they want to understand the reasoning behind their emotions.
This anime is not as heavy as it may seem, and it is filled with comical and awkward situations as the two scientists’ feelings for each other continue to grow.
It’s one of the best romance anime that blends science and romance in a unique way, and it’s suitable for both male and female audiences as it doesn’t focus solely on romance.
12. Say I Love You
Say I Love You is a scholastic romantic comedy that would melt the hearts of the toughest fans with its twists and tender moments.
Mei Tachibana has spent her 16 years without ever having a boyfriend or even friends. One day she ends up getting into a fight with Yamato Kurosawa, a popular boy, who begins at that moment to take a liking to the girl.
Their romance soon begins in a kinda unexpected way, when one night Yamato, to save Mei from a stalker, kisses her to pretend to be his boyfriend.
Say I Love You, unlike the anime mentioned so far, h slight drama elements.
Although the leitmotif is a fun and light romance, there will occasionally be room for mature and psychological themes, such as eating disorders.
And this won’t make the love story more dramatic, but just deeper so you get to enjoy the best of both worlds.
11. Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun
Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is a popular school romcom released in 2014.
Sakura is secretly in love with her classmate Nozaki, and one day she finally decides to come forward and confess her love.
What she doesn’t know is that the boy is a famous mangaka, and she mistakes the girl’s confession for a letter from a fan. He will then decide to hire her as his assistant, resulting in many comical and absurd situations.
Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is as it sounds, a light comedy created by different situations as the love subplot goes on. However, the fun is assured, as is the lack of drama.
10. Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Heart Throb
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Heart Throb is one of the most popular light sentimental comedies in recent years, released in 2014.
The anime is inspired by a series of light novels and stars Yuuta and Rikka, who are forced to live together due to a series of events.
This cohabitation will contribute to the slow development of their love, or at least until the arrival of Satone, an old acquaintance of Yuuta’s who will interfere in the young couple’s relationship by initiating a love triangle.
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Heart Throb is an anime that balances romance, comedy, and a dash of drama always contextualized to the romance.
We aren’t talking about psychological or sad aspects, but mainly the 2 girls competing for Yuuta and their machinations to steal him from the other.
9. Nisekoi – False Love
Nisekoi tells the story of Raku Ichijou, the heir to a powerful Yakuza family. He’s a typical teenager that many years ago made a promise to a girl that gave him a pendant, saying that they will marry once adults.
Raku tries desperately to find the girl with a key that will open his pendant and he also has a huge crush on his old friend Kosaki Onodera.
However, Raku is dragged back to reality by the appearance of a rival gang of his family, the American Bee Hive Gang. The 2 clans decide to settle by pairing Raku with the daughter of the enemy’s leader, Chitoge Kirisaki, a girl popular for her beauty.
But even if it’s a false love, who knows if this act can produce real feelings as the story goes on.
Nisekoi is undoubtedly one of the best romance harems ever and an excellent pick if you’re looking for a romance anime where enemies become lovers too.
Its characters are heavily stereotyped, but they still end up being enjoyable, probably because of their excellent character design.
You won’t be able to decide which one is the best girl for you as you die laughing at the absurd situations in the story.
8. Lovely Complex
Lovely Complex is a 24-episode anime based on the shojo manga of the same name by Aya Nakahara and animated by Toei Animation.
The main characters in the story are Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Otani, two students who live in Osaka and attend the same high school. They however have quite a peculiarity.
Risa is a 170 centimeters tall, a lot for a Japanese girl, and on the other hand, Otani is a basketball player, but he is only 156 centimeters tall, below average for the sport he plays.
At school, the two are nicknamed All Hanshin Kyojin, after a popular Japanese comedy duo consisting of a short man and a tall man.
We will see the two enter for this reason more and more confidence, and develop an increasingly solid love.
Lovely Complex is a romance series created to be comical and light-hearted. However, the real hearts of laughter will be the 2 main characters with their self-deprecation and absurd moments.
7. Maid Sama
This anime is set in Seika High School, a predominantly male high school where Misaki Ayuzawa achieved the position of first-ever female student council president, becoming extremely popular.
And her primary purpose, given the majority of males, is to protect girls from boys.
Misaki encounters Takumi Usui as he rejects a love confession by a classmate who starts crying. Misaki tries to intervene, but Usui shows total indifference, and so the relationship between the two begins in the worst possible way.
But Misaki is hiding a secret, namely that outside of school hours she works at a maid cafe, and guess who will find out about her on that same day? Usui will have to keep the secret so as not to ruin the girl’s school career.
Maid Sama is an incredibly solid romance, combining almost perfect laughter, awkward moments, and a constantly growing romance, all in a cute moe key.
It’s also one of best romance anime you can find on Hulu, in case you are already subscribed to the platform.
6. Teasing Master Takagi-san
Teasing Master Takagi-san is one of the most popular romance in recent years. It features the trope of the girl teasing the boy, in a love scenario where the 2 have mutual feelings.
This trope is super in vogue lately, with examples like Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro and My Dress-Up Darling.
These premises are reflected in Nishikata and her deskmate Takagi. Teasing Master Takagi-san is an extremely cute and innocent romance that will make you enjoy a quiet and light anime with quality comic moments.
This purity and tenderness make this anime a true gem for those looking for wholesome and pure love stories with a bit of nostalgia from the good old times.
5. Tamako Love Story
Tamako Love Story is an awesome sentimental slice of life and comedy movie released in 2014.
Mochizu and Tamako have been friends since they were born. Since childhood they have always played and had fun together, Mochizu ended up falling in love with the girl.
Reaching their senior year of high school, the 2 must decide on their future, and Mochizu decides to enroll in a university far away from their home.
In order not to have any regrets, the young man decides to declare himself to Tamako before leaving, but the girl will reject him in panick.
But second thoughts won’t take long to come and a race against time will begin to set things right.
Tamako Love Story on the surface may seem rich and drama-heavy, but it’s not. There is little drama but nothing that makes this show boring or too much of a burden.
Also it’s worth mentioning that Tamako is one of the best dominant female leads in a romance anime in our opinion.
4. Wotakoi
Wotakoi is an 11-episode anime series based on a manga of the same name written and drawn by Fujita.
The series stars Narumi Momose, a serious and impeccable employee who hides from friends and colleagues the fact that she is an otaku and a nerd, who loves to play videogames.
But she will not be alone, because in the office where she works Hirotaka Nifuji, a charming old friend of hers lives his otakuhood head-on too.
In addition, Hanako Koyanagi, Narumi’s senpai, and her boyfriend Taro Kabakura, are also otaku.
Wotakoi as you may have guessed highlights these 4 charismatic characters with their absurd interactions as the love between Narumi and Hirotaka blossoms.
If you want to combine nerdy elements with a lot of videogame references into light and satisfying love story with some of the best otaku MCs in romance, this is a solid choice.
3. Ore Monogatari!!
The story follows the adventures of Takeo Goda, a 2-meter-tall, muscular student who doesn’t have much luck with girls. Every girl he likes ends up falling in love with his far more attractive best friend Makoto Sunakawa.
One day Takeo rescues a girl named Rinko Yamato from an attacker on a train, and so the 2 unexpectedly fall in love at the first sight.
The original manga had good success in the East, even placing as the best manga for girls for multiple years.
And that’s certainly because of its super wholesome romance, its cute moments and the presence of an unusual couple to say the least.
Takeo and Rinko are all but the average dream couple you get to see in Japanese animation with 2 handsome guys, but that’s exactly why it works so damn well.
This is truly a hidden gem, and undoubtely one of the best underrated romance anime that deserves more popularity.
2. From Me to You
From Me to You is a manga written by author Karuho Shiina winner of the prestigious Kodansha Award in 2008, a title of no small importance in the Japanese anime and manga scene.
The anime adaptation was released in 2010 with 25 episodes.
The main character, named Sawako, is derisively called Sadako by her classmates because she resembles the character of the same name in Ring, the Japanese version of the famous Western horror film The Ring.
One day she will make the acquaintance of Shota, a popular boy in the school, who will treat her with consideration. This unusual relationship will blossom love and give birth to one of the best romance anime.
You read it for yourself in the plot, a hint of drama is there, and it is the theme of the initial bullying of Sadako.
But fear not, it’s merely the pretext to get the plot started. After this, there will only be room for one of the most wholesome couples ever.
1. Kaguya-Sama: Love is War
Kaguya-Sama: Love is War deals with small self-contained stories about the eternal psychological and love struggle between Miyuki Shirogane, distinguished student council president, and his deputy, Kaguya Shinomiya.
The only difference between the 2 is that Shirogane comes from a modest family, while Kaguya is extremely wealthy and popular.
Both are determined to get the other to confess their love first because you know, the one who gives in first loses, and they can’t afford it.
This anime is an incredibly solid and complete show that even those who don’t appreciate romance should watch. The two protagonists are some of the coolest MCs you can find in romance, and they will lead the show marvelously.
You will find everything: a comedy that will break you up with laughter, cute moments and romance, and a dash of drama but always in a comedic vein and not heavy at all.¨
Kaguya-Sama: Love is War is the ultimate comedy romance anime that we can recommend to pretty much every person.
Related Posts:
