Catarina Claes wasn’t always her name, once she was a normal girl who loved otome games, especially Fortune Lover. After her untimely death, the young girl was reincarnated in the world of Fortune Lover and now she’s the seemingly lucky Catarina. This sounds like the perfect life for an otome fan but Catarina remembers that there are some bad elements to the world of Fortune Lover, a dark ending that happens based on her choices in this game world. Using her memories of each route, Catarina will need to fight fate and somehow make this game world bend to her will!

Wow…wouldn’t it really stink to be reincarnated into your favorite game to only remember that it has a multitude of bad endings? It should be pretty easy to see why our first choice for an anime similar to Trapped in a Dating Sim would be My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom. While both stories feature the opposite ends of the dating sim scene—one being an otome game after all—you can’t deny their stories are quite similar! We really enjoyed the silly and dramatic romance—with a lot of comedy—that came out of My Next Life as a Villainess and we know you readers will too!

Most RPG fans know that one of the best early enemies to farm in a game are slimes. These cute—but still monster—enemies are great for early leveling and gaining some experience in any game. Corporate man—which isn’t as great as it sounds—Azusa Aizawa died due to her demanding job and finds herself passing away suddenly. A goddess then intervenes before Azusa goes to the afterlife and gives her a new life as a girl who must tend to a farm and protect the nearby village from a simple enemy, slimes. Despite their small exp gain, after killing 25 slimes a day for 300 years, Azusa is now maxed level and is a truly powerful being! This maxed level comes with a price sadly as Azusa’s quiet days are going to become a bit noisier…

300 years of killing slimes…does this sound like an appealing way to live? In our minds, no, but we’re sure some people would jump at the opportunity. I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level is a silly fantasy/slice of life anime that isn’t as dramatic as Trapped in a Dating Sim but definitely has some comparable elements. Each anime explores the repetition that being trapped in a video game world could feel like and how it can be a double-edged sword when you amass too much skill in said world. I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level didn’t get a lot of love review-wise in the anime world but we think it was a solid isekai with some cute girls to fall for and a pretty fun premise that doesn’t take itself too seriously!

Hiroshi Yuuki just wanted a game to escape his mundane and annoying life. Luckily, he has just enough money to nab a new VRMMO game. Unluckily, Hiroshi meets a beautiful girl named Reona Kisaragi who cons him into buying the once super popular—but considered too realistic—VRMMO Kiwame Quest. At first, Hiroshi thinks that maybe this new game could be the perfect escape despite him really not wanting it at first. Then reality hits and Hiroshi discovers this Kiwame Quest might be worse than the already annoying life he deals with on a daily basis!

We want a VRMMO game so bad here at Honey’s Anime. The idea of diving into a virtual world sounds a bit scary—especially when we’ve seen the horrors of season one of Sword Art Online—but we still are curious how we could enjoy a VR experience that mirrors reality. Then we saw Full Dive: The Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG is Even Shittier than Real Life and realized…maybe a VRMMO wouldn’t be all that great. Just like how we see the dark reality of being Trapped in a Dating Sim, Full Dive reminds us that VRMMOs might be a challenge if they are filled with beautiful girls who want to mess with you—and not in a good way—as well as beings that want to torture you just for play…

Unheroically, Kazuma Satou died thinking he saved another’s life when he really just sped up his own demise. Despite his pitiful death, Kazuma meets a Goddess named Aqua who gives him an opportunity to either be reincarnated in a new life with new memories—but with the possibility it could be worse than his former life—or be summoned as a hero into a fantasy world. Angry at how Aqua makes light of his situation, Kazuma wishes for her to accompany him into this new world and the two are summoned to now attempt to stop the so-called Demon King. What future awaits the two in this fantasy world? Find out in KonoSuba!

KonoSuba: God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World is a rib-splitting fantasy comedy that truly took the usual themes of isekai anime and twisted them all around. We absolutely love all things KonoSuba and when we started Trapped in a Dating Sim, our minds knew KonoSuba was the perfect series to re-watch! We doubt most otaku out there won’t find a reason to start laughing from the first few moments of KonoSuba, so try and prove us wrong. Go binge KonoSuba right now…or after you read our article!

Hero…that’s what Keyaru thought he was once he discovered his ability to heal virtually all injuries. Unfortunately, what awaited Keyaru wasn’t a hero's future but a nightmarish reality. Subjugated to multiple tortures and abuse due to his healing talents, Keyaru’s heart began to twist and turn the longer he had to endure. Slowly though, Keyaru began to gain more and more power from his healing skill’s secondary ability and eventually was able to “heal” the world by reversing time all the way back to the days just before he was put in the hell he had to endure. Now with the knowledge of who must be targeted to avoid his fate, Keyaru is about to unleash revenge on those who took his heroic future away from his grasp.

Redo of Healer isn’t an anime unknown to many in the anime community. Dubbed graphic and quite twisted, Redo of Healer was met with mixed reviews and even some interesting press when it aired last year in 2021. Nevertheless, we feel Redo of Healer is a perfect companion to Trapped in a Dating Sim as they both explore the painful reality of being thrust into a world you really do not want to be part of. Both anime use different methods of exploring the darker side of fantasy worlds but even with its unorthodox approach to the narrative, we still think Redo of Healer is an interesting anime that might appeal to those who like more “mature” fantasy anime.

Despite only being a teenager, Keima Katsuragi is a master at winning over the hearts of any girl he sets his eyes on. Well, at least in the world of dating sims. Online, Keima is called the God of Conquest as his skills at dating sims are second to none! One day, Keima’s talents are put into question by a stranger and wishing to show he’s a master at wooing women, Keima takes the challenge. Unfortunately, he quickly discovers that, unlike a fictional game, he’s now about to win the hearts of real women that have had their hearts overtaken by evil spirits. Tasked by the strange Elucia, Keima must now break free from his 3D walls and enter the real world of dating…can he show his master dating sim abilities can be used on real breathing ladies?!

The World God Only Knows was released more than a decade ago but we here at Honey’s Anime still find so many reasons to re-enter this comedy/romance series. Like Trapped in a Dating Sim, The World God Only Knows throws both protagonists in some truly awkward—but laugh-out-loud—scenarios that show being a master of any game genre doesn’t mean it can be always used effectively in a real-life situation. The World God Only Knows might be an older anime on our list but we think fans of unique romance stories will no doubt want to give this series a go if they somehow missed it when it originally aired.