Tsukasa Taira is just your average college student trying to find her way in life. Recently, there has been a series of mysterious attacks that have been called the vampire murders. Despite Tsukasa believing that something like that could never happen to her, she finds herself face to face with a vampire. Before the vampire is able to attack her, she is saved by a half human half vampire named Yuuki Anzai. Yuuki begins to watch over Tsukasa in order to keep her safe from any other vampires and the two being to grow closer and closer together. With their feelings for each other only growing stronger, will Yuuki be able to stick to his rule of never sucking the blood of a human?

Devils Line is much darker than your usual romance anime. There is a whole lot of action and gore involved with the vampires, and the relationship between Tsukasa and Yuuki is very complicated. The romance works thanks to Tsukasa and Yuuki and the way their characters are designed. The two are polar opposites and seeing how they interact and overcome their differences is fun to watch. While Devils Line may not provide as many solid elements of some of the other entries on the list, there is a nice romantic story here that earns it its spot on the list.

Mitsuyoshi Tada is a high schooler whose only real passion is photography. Without a care in the world, Tada filled with hanging out with his friends and taking pictures. One day, Tada meets a strange foreign girl named Teresa Wagner, who has just arrived in Japan. Tada agrees to help her take a picture by the cherry blossom trees and then they go their separate ways. Despite thinking he had seen the last of her, Tada runs into Teresa and helps her out two more times, with the last time resulting in Tada inviting Teresa into his families coffee shop. The next day, Tada is surprised to see Teresa and her friend as transfer students at his school. Teresa decides she had so much fun together with Tada that she wants to join the photography club with him, and learn all about Tada's PAssion

There is a lot to love about Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai, with plenty of comedy and romance to keep you entertained. The series also uses cameras in a unique way, giving the whole series and really adds another layer to the characters. While Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai does have quite a few romantic elements in its story, most of them come in towards the end of the series. Despite the lack of any real romance at the beginning, Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai is still one of the best romance anime of 2018.

Hikari Tsutsui is a socially awkward high schooler that spends most of his time playing video games and watching anime. With only one friend, Tsutsui is used to getting made fun of and looked down upon by his classmates. One day Tsutsui is forced to clean the school pool with Iroha Igarashi. The pool cleaning turns eventually leads to Iroha asking Tsutsui if he wanted to go out with her. Tsutsui agrees to go out with her but there is an issue, Iroha is moving and switching schools in six months thanks to her father's work.

Here we have an anime centered entirely around its romance. 3D Kanojo: Real Girl does a nice job at bringing us a nice romantic story with a decent amount of comedy. It is fun to watch the inexperienced Tsutsui and the blunt Iroha stumble through their relationship. The anime does have a bad habit of using the same setup for many of the episodes with Tsutsui doing something unintentionally insensitive that upsets Iroha, who then proceeds to ignore for him for a portion of the episode. Even though the setup can get boring and a lot of the drama feels really forced there is still a heart-warming story that is easy to enjoy.

Akkun is an extremely tsundere boy who is in a relationship with Non Katagiri. Non and Akkun are childhood friends both with Akkun is typically very harsh toward Non, calling her names and refusing to act like a regular boyfriend. Despite his rough behavior, Akkun loves Non very much and even gets to the point where some of his actions are borderline stalking. Even though she is constantly put down, Non loves everything about Akkun and thinks everything he does is cute.

Akkun to Kanojo flips the tsundere trope upside and gives us the uncommon male tsundere. The characters have an interesting dynamic each other that may not be for everyone but is still enjoyable for a short anime. Akkun to Kanojo is loaded with tons of jokes and the occasional romantic scene. Although we don't get a lot of romance, the few scenes we do get are quite good and makes all of the comedy worth sitting through.

Growing up in a family of witches hasn't been easy for Hitomi Tsukishiro. As a child, Hitomi lost her ability to see color and experience real emotion. After becoming color blind, Hitomi stopped trying to make friends and has lived a life withdrawn from society. Hitomi's grandmother, Kohaku, decides to do something to help out Hitomi and uses her magic to send her back in time 60 years to meet her younger self. Hitomi is sent back to the year 2018 and must adapt to her new life in the past and learn why it was, her grandmother wanted her to learn.

This is the first anime on the list to feature a much more dramatic romantic story. The anime is filled with a complicated series of romantic connections that brings a lot of drama to the story. With Hitomi's colorblindness, the romances, and Yuito dealing with his own set of issues, Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara can come off as quite melodramatic, but between the romance and the growth Hitomi's character throughout the series, there is a lot to enjoy. Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara also has some fantastic visuals that really help carry the series.

Haruo Yaguchi doesn't have much going for him in his life. He isn't very good in school, he isn't very popular, but there is one thing that Haruo has and that is video games. Haruo has dedicated himself to the arcade where he spends hours every day playing the latest and greatest games to release. No matter who he faces Haruo is always able to come out on top until he plays against his classmate Akira Oono. Oono is easily able to defeat Haruo 30 times in a row and manages to beat him at every game they play. As they play together, they form an unlikely friendship and rivalry as they discover all kinds of new things to do at the arcade.

Hi Score Girl is great for two reasons. First, we have all of the old school video game references any longtime video game fan would enjoy. Then we have the way the the story goes about setting itself up for the romantic climax. The story starts out with Haruo bonding with Oono until she moves away, and then moves on to Haruo him growing closer to Hidaka and getting her into video games. After that, in the second half of the story, Oono moves back and the two girls start fighting over Haruo's affection. We get to experience are more organic love triangle than your typical anime love triangle, giving the anime a nice bit of drama without it ever feeling forced and overly dramatic.

Narumi Momose just started at a new company after her secret life as a fujoshi loving otaku was discovered by her coworkers. On her first day at her new company, Narumi runs into her childhood friend Hirotaka Nifuji, who just so happens to be a game otaku. Narumi invites Hirotaka out for drinks in hopes of keeping him from unintentionally revealing her secret. After hanging out for a couple of days, Narumi and Hirotaka decide to start going out, that way Narui would always have somebody she could be herself around. Together with their otaku coworkers, Hanako and Kabakura Narumi, they begin a new chapter of their life as an otaku couple.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii is one of the best romance anime of 2018 despite the fact there isn't a lot of romantic moments in the series. Most of the time, the anime focuses on the comedy and showing off the otaku nature of the main characters. After Narumi and Hirotaka start dating, we really don't get much development of their relationship at all. However, we do get are a lot of cute moments between the two of them and between Hanako and Kabakura. If you're really into a light hearted story with no real consequences and a pinch of romance, this may be your favorite anime of the year.

In a post-apocalyptic future, the world is under constant attack from monsters called the klaxosaurs. The surviving humans build up fortress cities they call plantations. In these cities, children are raised to become pilots of mechas known as FranXX. The children operate in pairs of one boy and one girl and with the help of the FranXX they are able to fight back against the klaxosaurs. Darling in the FranXX follows the story of a group of kids as they train to fight back against the klaxosaurs and save humanity.

Darling in the Franx has a nice balance between the mecha moments and the romantic aspects. The series gets off to a bit of a rough start, but once it gets going and we start diving deeper into the characters things really pick up. Many of the romantic parts and the growth in the characters are quite subtle and not thrown directly in your face. There is a large cast of characters and we get to watch them experience a wide range of different romantic experiences.

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san follows the story of classmates Takagi and Nishikata. Ever since they first met, Takagi has loved to tease Nishikata. Nishikata does his best to ignore the teasing, however, no matter how hard he tries Takagi always knows exactly what to do in order to get the best of him. Whenever Nishikata attempts to get her back, it always ends making thee worse.

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san is a nice sort of childhood romance story. Able to take the viewer back to their experience with crushes at a young age, the series is nice and heart-warming. The main focuses of the story is on comedy and Takagi teasing Nishikata. We do get some of the inner monologues of the characters to help give you just a bit of the budding romance between the two of them.

Second-year Sakuta Azusagawa has had his life turned upside down thanks to a phenomenon called puberty syndrome. One day while at the library, Sakuta runs into a girl wearing a bunny outfit who nobody else can see. The girl's name is Mai Sakurajima, an actress on hiatus and his senior at school. Mai is suffering from puberty syndrome and finds more and more people unable to see or remember her. Sakuta decides to help Mai figure out a way to help stop her disappearing before she disappears for good.

Despite how it first appears Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai is one of the best anime of the year. The story brings us plenty of romance, comedy, and drama thanks to the way the puberty syndrome issued throughout the story. Each arc brings us a new girl dealing with a different issue that has to be solved by Sakuta. Although plenty of new girls come into Sakuta's life, his romantic feelings for Mai never waver. The relationship between Sakuta and Mai carries the series with the organic way grows and how realistic of a couple they feel like.