Kicking things off, we have a well-loved, now-classic anime. Spice and Wolf is a romantic fairytale in which an ancient wolf deity, Holo, meets a traveling merchant, Lawrence, and leaves her village with him after he agrees to take her to her homeland. As the two travel, the lone wolf becomes closer and closer to her accompanying gentleman and develops enough feelings to—adorably—show jealousy toward female shepherds and strongly care for her companion. Lawrence isn’t impervious to her charm and slowly grows fonder and fonder of the goddess too, which can never be an easy situation. Spice and Wolf has highs and lows and will make you sniffle at least once.

Highly-acclaimed for a reason, Howl’s Moving Castle is one of the most magical romance anime we have ever seen. And when it’s by Studio Ghibli, you know the story and visuals are both worth the watch. Sophie is a rebellious young girl who is cursed by a witch and turns into an old woman. As if that wasn’t enough, looking for a way to break the spell, she ends up on board a giant, crazy-looking magical castle in which lives one of the most powerful wizards in the land, Howl. Old lady Sophie discovers that the mighty Howl is kind of a childish brat, though a lovable—and gorgeous—one. Sophie chooses to stick with him and look for a way to break her curse, all the while getting wrapped up further and further in a magical war and learning more about herself than she ever imagined while helping Howl grow as a person too. Howl’s Moving Castle is a gorgeous romance fantasy adventure nobody should miss. And it’s a movie so it’s a quick watch!

Being in love in high school can be tough. You never know how the other person feels and even if they feel the same, the pressure of confessing can get to be too much! Especially when you are as proud as Miyuki and Kaguya, the president and vice-president of their wealthy high school respectively. Miyuki and Kaguya like each other and they know it, but they each refuse to confess first. Unlike other students there, Miyuki isn’t rich so he has a bit of an inferiority complex that makes him somehow think that Kaguya would look down on him for confessing, and Kaguya… is a naive, sheltered ojou-sama who thinks it would just be wrong in so many ways to be the one to confess first. A fun trip on a rollercoaster of the teenage egos of two kids that mean well, Kaguya-sama is full of funny moments, tender ones, and even cringy ones! Especially in the 2nd season… Will either of them ever break?

Also known as OreGairu, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU is already a successful romantic series about to start its 3rd season so you know there’s something good about it. Two apathetic, antisocial teens—Hachiman and Yukino—are punished for being that way by being forced to join a school club that helps students. Romance anime often have pretty, peppy girls as the main heroines and a completely standard guy as the main lead. The nature of Hachiman and Yukino is refreshing in a romance anime and those who have shared their apathetic feelings when in school may identify with the characters. Of course, the couple and the other club members develop into better people but not without also growing a little bit closer each day. If you haven’t checked OreGairu out yet, get caught up before the 3rd season airs!

Ok, ok. We hear some of the hissing and booing. But hear us out. SAO has been in our lives for 8 years with multiple seasons and arcs and we have followed Kirito and Asuna through not only the traumatizing ordeal of being trapped in a videogame where death is for real, but also the way they’ve dealt with all the fallout of the event. And if it wasn’t for Asuna, Kirito would have been royally screwed many times, and the same can be said for the beautiful redhead. Because of their unique circumstances, Kirito and Asuna have more years of experience being a couple—and even raising a child and having a home—than many adults have by the end of their 30s! This one is full of action, sci-fi, drama, and cute girls. The epic finale is this summer so let’s hope it’s a good one!

Many of us have heard the saying “one cannot truly love somebody until they can love themselves” and Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai goes the extra supernatural mile to exemplify it. Puberty Syndrome—IRL—is usually full of angst, insecurity, confusion, anxiety, and other mixed emotions, but in Rascal/Senpai (it’s too long, work with me here) those emotions take on physical form, afflicting teens at Sakuta’s high school at an alarming rate. Having suffered a particularly traumatic and mysterious bout of the illness, he is able to identify and help the girls in his school who also struggle with it. Especially Mai, who becomes invisible to all, except Sakuta, setting the scene for an out of the ordinary romance. Mai is an amazingly understanding girlfriend and the dynamics between her and Sakuta are mature and cute all at the same time. There’s also a movie sequel and a spinoff so there’s plenty to love!

Do you believe in soulmates or fated matches? If so, you’ll enjoy DARLING in the FRANXX. In a far future, monsters called Klaxxosaurs have brought humanity to near-extinction. The only way to fight them is with mechs called FranXX which must be piloted in boy-girl pairs by teens who are born and raised specifically for that purpose so they know nothing outside the training and life in the “plantations” they live in. Hiro is one of those teens and after failing his exam, he goes to feel sorry for himself at a lake where he encounters a beautiful naked girl named Zero Two

Zero Two is the complete opposite of him and has never lost a battle. However, every partner of hers has died. Forced to partner up to survive, Hiro and Zero Two find that they work very well together in the FranXX and actually defeat the enemy! Form here on, it is a struggle of love and passion vs the powers that be and the insecurities brought on two teens raised on lies in a harsh world. This one is full of action and mechs, a good amount of fanservice (the suits and positions they pilot in are just a bit suggestive), interesting twists, and great character development.

A big winner from 2019, BEASTARS isn’t even listed as a romance usually but, considering the entire plot centers around Legoshi the wolf’s infatuation with Haru the bunny and the ensuing inner turmoil that it brings, it’s hard to imagine it isn’t a romance-based drama. Don’t let the cute animals fool you, this anime can get pretty dark and cerebral, even in its most basic elements.

Anthropomorphic animals live in harmony, carnivores and hebrivores get along, and society has found a way to make it all work. It all changes when a carnivore kills and eats one of the drama club’s members at Cherryton Academy, which Legoshi is a part of. When Legoshi is on patrol at night during a club meeting after the attack, he thinks there may be an assailant and attacks a moving shadow. Stopping just before the killing move, he realizes it’s a tiny bunny girl! He lets her go and they each go their own way, but Legoshi realizes he has strong feelings for this girl. But… is it his predator instinct that was woken up that night? Or is it love? Haru has her own personal issues to deal with and she is also involved with school celebrity Louis the deer who happens to be in charge of the theater club. This triangle and the societal balance between carnivores and herbivores are only a fraction of what makes BEASTARS such an unforgettable anime. If you haven’t seen it… what are you waiting for!?

A new and improved classic, the 2019 version of Fruits Basket isn’t only much more beautiful to look at than the 90s’ version, it also completely sticks to the source manga and therefore does a magnificent job of portraying the characters’ deepest thoughts and feelings, which makes the romantic aspects of the series truly shine. Orphan high school girl Tooru ends up living with the “prince” of her school, Yuki Sohma, who offers her to stay in his family’s house with her cousins. But the Sohma family has a secret. Some members are cursed to transform into animals of the Chinese zodiac when hugged by the opposite sex—a rat in Yuki’s case. Tooru also meets Kyo, the cat of the zodiac story who gets left out, which in this family, comes with extra suffering. Tooru’s always loved the cat in the story, but Yuki is gorgeous and gentle, which boy will she connect with the most? Slowly, Tooru finds out the dark secrets of the Sohma family and works to make it so that everyone is happy.

While the story mainly follows Tooru and her relationships with Yuki and Kyo, we also get to learn about and peer into the romantic relationships among other characters too. Most of the characters carry heavy emotional baggage and it shows. They suffer but they do it together and their love, be it platonic or romantic, is what keeps everyone going and part of what makes this anime great. Fruits Basket will hit you in the feels in almost every episode and the 2nd season, which should cover the conclusion of the story, is airing now so get on it! It’s so worth the binge.

Your Name won eight awards between 2016 and 2018 and was nominated for at least twice that number. Unquestionably visually stunning, the movie also provides an allegory for the feelings many of us experience when unhappy with our lives as well as what happens when two people’s lives become intertwined. This is the only title we thought deserved to come back on the list, as it has been highly acclaimed by fans, critics, and even those that don’t normally watch anime alike.

Mitsuha lives in the countryside of Japan and just hates it. She wishes she could live in the bustling city of Tokyo and is generally annoyed at her situation in life. Meanwhile, Taki, a boy about Mitsuha’s age, lives in the heart of Tokyo and is working towards a career in architecture. One day, they each wake up in each other’s bodies with no explanation and no idea where they are or whose body they are in. They swap back and forth and they each try to find clues to find each other and figure out what’s going on. Through this indirect and yet incredibly intimate interaction, their feelings for each other grow and change through their unexplainable journey. A romantic—and more dramatic—anime version of Freaky Friday with a couple of funny body-swap moments, Kimi no Na wa is a must-watch for romance fans and fans of good anime in general!

Clannad makes many of the lists describing great love stories in anime, and Clannad: After Story, the sequel, is often considered the better anime. In Clannad: After Story, we find Tomoya and Nagisa are still together. The young couple has married shortly after graduation. Shortly after the wedding they learn Nagisa is pregnant. We see things looking up for the young family. We watch as Nagisa becomes bedridden during her pregnancy. She becomes weaker and weaker as the months go on. Tomoya is working as an electrician and is plagued by guilt and worries that he has to leave his young bedridden bride during the day. His heart is eventually filled with joy at the birth of their daughter and simultaneously drained of that joy at Nagisa’s death shortly after. The story gradually becomes one of increasing hardship and loss. We hopeless romantics thrive on tragedy, knowing that the saddest stories can find ways to end the happiest. The romance of this story comes in the in the Illusionary World, a separate narrative that seemingly doesn’t have anything to do with reality and appears throughout the anime. The World reappears and we watch it collapse and give birth to hope. A new narrative is created where Nagisa and Tomoya’s story is relived; this time she doesn’t die and their child lives a healthy life. We get to watch a family that sees a lot of tragedy have a chance at the happiness they deserve.

We suggest Clannad if you are a hopeless romantic and glutton for emotional punishment. The story does a great deal to get you to invest in the characters and feel their pain before rewarding you with the fairytale ending. A cynic would call that kind of storytelling manipulation, but a lonely heart would simply call it romantic.

Sajou is one of those genius guys who scored perfectly on his high school entrance exam and is a model student. Kusakabe is a bad boy and a heart breaker. The two boys live in different worlds. One day they meet when Kusakabe offers to help Sajou with an upcoming choral concert. The boys begin to develop a connection as they talk and plan the concert. Kusakabe and Sajou are like when two different instruments play together and create harmony.

At first Kusakabe seems to treat love as a game with seemingly frivolous gestures. The false confidence of Kusakabe’s actions cause Sajou to pause before taking action. We watch both boys open their hearts to each other in what is often considered of the most confusing time of a young life. Kusakabe and Sajou become each other’s support system as they navigate the waters of their developing sexual identities. A couple formed in a crucible of judgement for nonconformity becomes tempered and strong.

The story of Anohana is a tale of a haunting and a first love. Jinta lives his life under the radar, avoiding school and friends and spending his days at home. His peaceful life is upended by the return of a childhood friend named Menma. She simply askes him a favor, to grant a wish. He could tell Menma to go home, leave him alone, and he’s in no capacity to grant wishes, but he doesn’t because Menma is a ghost. Jinta is forced to seek out their childhood friends as he convinces them that they need to find a way for her spirit to move on. The biggest problem is that Menma can’t quite remember the wish she wanted to be granted. Convincing others that they need to do something to set the ghost of a dead childhood friend at ease isn’t exactly easy. He is accused of a lot of things, from being crazy to not being able to get over Menma’s death (which he hasn’t). We find that Menma’s ghost isn’t the only thing that needs to move on. The group of estranged friends need to face their regrets and their feelings about each other so they don’t remain stuck in the most tragic moment of their youth. The story has some romantic overtones as we see how Jinta, even at such a young age, truly loved Menma and that she loved him. We are certain that if the two childhood friends would have had the opportunity to grow up together they would still be together this day. Anohana is a story of young love as a pure love and it will warm your heart.

Misaki is a badass. She is an excellent student, student council president, and defender of virtue (sometimes through force) of Seika High School. The tall, strong Misaki does her best to handle the conflicts that are bound to arise between girls and boys in a school that just went co-ed. She feels her behavior needs to be above reproach in order to have the moral authority to run the school as the student council president. Misaki has a secret, though; she works part-time as a maid at a maid café one town over. She isn’t just working for the fun of it, either, she is forced to work to help her economically struggling family.

Enter Takumi Usui, who in all the maid cafés in all world happens to walk into hers. He has a choice: destroy her reputation with what she considers a deeply embarrassing secret or use this secret to get closer to the aloof student council president. The fun of the romance comes from watching suspicious Misaki thinking that the only reason that Takumi wants to be around her is to torture her. She doesn’t seem to think that Takumi might just happen to like her and want to spend time with her. Takumi proves again and again that he’s not just there to mock and torture Misaki -- although sometimes that is the case. He defends her and even gets physical in his defense of her, kicking some creep’s ass. We aren’t entirely sure if it was from the get-go, but at some point, Takumi really began to like Misaki and despite her resistance, Misaki begins to really like him too. We see two young people hiding behind masks until they finally find the right person they’re willing to shed those disguises for. Maid Sama! is great romance with some great rom-com moments that will have you laughing as this pair of strong personalities get together.

Shirayuki (Snow White) has hair as red as an apple, a trait that is nearly unheard of in the medieval world. Her hair makes her a target of men who want to possess her as a trophy. After the local lord decides just that, she flees her country to seek sanctuary elsewhere. She is quickly captured by bandits in a forest. Shirayuki is fortunate to be rescued by Prince Zen of Clarines and his companions. The hero and his friends look just like they stepped out of the pages of a fairytale. The attraction between rescued maiden and prince charming is immediate. Zen offers her refuge in his kingdom and even a job at something she excels at -- being an apothecary. The romance really takes off at that point as the courtship of a prince and a commoner begins in court.

We love watching Zen wrestle with his feelings for Shirayuki as he balances his responsibilities to the kingdom and his love for the red-haired maiden. He is also a classic man of action who finds it easier to charge into unknown dangers than express his feelings for the woman he loves. Shirayuki is also cautious, especially when it comes to dealing with men. We get the privilege of watching her overcome her insecurities and build a trusting relationship with Zen. The young couple, who everyone in their orbit knows should be together, gradually figures out who they are as people first before diving headlong into a relationship. We get to watch them each discover their own hopes and dreams as they grow closer. Shirayuki and Zen are possibly one of the cutest and most romantic couples in anime.

Marasame is a popular high school girl who excels in athletics and academics. She is tall with straight black hair and comes from a traditional Japanese family that runs a karate dojo. Marasame excelled in karate and earned the nickname violence-Marasame. Kazama is a cheerful girl who is admired for her beauty and is best friends with Marasame. She is about average height, loves frills and is a bit of a girly girl. She shares a small apartment with her brother who writes shojo light novels. Kazama is also very open about her love for cute girls. Kazama is gay, though she is never referred to as such, but she has no interest in guys and is only attracted to girls, so the assumption isn’t that far of a reach. Marasame hasn’t thought a lot about love or sexuality; she is simply in love with her best friend Kazama and she doesn’t know how to express her confusing feelings. Marasame also doesn’t think Kazama would like her that way even if she does confess because she doesn’t consider herself a cute girl.

We have a wonderful slow-burning romance of two people who care deeply for each other and yet don’t see exactly how deep those feelings run. The two girls face a confusing world of expectations and societal norms that they, and Marasame especially, find challenging to overcome. This coming-of-age romance follows the heroines as they deal with their evolving relationship. A true sense of will-they-or-won’t-they overcome the obstacles in their path permeates the whole story. You truly believe that they are meant for each other and can visualize them living a happy married life. Whispered Words is a perfect example of a romance that doesn’t rely on melodrama and feels grounded in reality.

Your Lie in April is a masterpiece of storytelling and tragic romances. A young piano prodigy named Kousei Arima has suffered deep emotional trauma and can no longer hear the music he plays. He is simply content to leave the world of music that he once loved and never again reach for anything greater. A spring breeze blows and changes his life when he meets a beautiful violinist by the name of Kaori Miyazono. Kaori is dating his athletic best friend. She’s a bright light that shines in the night and pushes back the darkness for everyone she meets, especially Kousei.

Your Lie in April is about love and life. It’s the story of two people who communicate and connect through their music more than anything. Kousei finds himself drawn to the energetic girl who is filled with the passion for music. She makes him confront the reality that despite his talent, he never really had any passion (hence his nickname: the human metronome). You quickly become invested in the journey of the characters and join them on the emotional rollercoaster. Kaori seems to like him too, yet she often refers of him as having the role of “friend A,” a nod to the generic supporter friend of the main protagonist in a story. Yet he is the one person she gravitates toward. The music that is used to express their unsaid feelings will make your blood race. You so desperately want them to admit their feelings, to hold each other close in their darkest hours. The romance of the story is the tragedy of what can be left unsaid, reminding you to share your feelings with the ones you love.

A romance usually starts with boy-meets-girl or boy-rescues-girl or maybe they meet and flirt or they meet and survive a life and death situation. The romance in A Silent Voice doesn’t start on such a sweet or overly dramatic note. An elementary school boy, Shouya, bullies his classmate, a girl named Shouko, simply because she’s deaf. Shouya is a bully and he bullies her simply because she is different and he is bored. The two even come to blows and both end up bloody on the classroom floor. Shouko transfers out and Shouya is suspended. We fast forward several years to their senior year of high school. Shouya has come to realize his sins and seeks redemption and forgiveness. He works tirelessly to earn money to pay his mother back for the financial hardship caused by his bullying, which involved the destruction of several of Shouko’s hearing aids. Shouya is attempting to tie up the loose ends of his life before committing suicide, a solution he thinks will make the lives of his mother, sister and niece easier. He only has one more loose end to tie up: apologize to Shouko.

The quest for redemption becomes romance when Shouya tracks down Shouko and begs for forgiveness, hoping he can die with that burden lifted from his soul. Shouya spent years learning sign language just so he could talk with her and apologize. It may have been her reaction or just coming face to face, but something in him changes and his desire for death begins to fade. Shouko, hesitant at first, allows Shouya to gradually become part of her life. Shouya realizes his tormenting of Shouko damaged her far more than he realized. The two troubled teens gradually grow closer over the course of time. Shouko has demons, too, suffering from depression and loneliness -- two things she has in common with her former tormentor. The most remarkable part of this story is that the acts of redemption are realistic. You don’t get a grand gesture or climactic moment that brings the couple together. You get the sense of two flawed and haunted young people who find they have a connection in their shared struggle to overcome their pasts. Shouya and Shouko’s romance feels realistic, creating catharsis through a raw emotional narrative. Fans should also read the manga series it was based on for an even more gripping tale of redemption.

You spend your whole life going through the motions, being tied to your daily routine and responsibilities of family and school until one day you look at yourself in the mirror and don’t recognize the person looking back. This exact thing happens to Mitsuha Miyamizu. She wakes up one morning and finds herself in the body of a boy in Tokyo, not the remote village she’s spent all her life in. A similar thing happens to Taki Tachibana; he’s going about his business of school, work and daily life when he wakes up in the body of a girl living in a remote village. The two get to know each other in the most intimate ways as they repeatedly swap bodies. You get to know a lot about a person by walking a mile in their shoes, not to mention their skin. The couple doesn’t understand what magic has brought them together but they’ll be forced to change the events of history when they do.

You could say Mitsuha and Taki’s relationship begins as pen pals as they constantly try to figure out what the other did in their body. A system of notes and ground rules are quickly laid out. Mitsuha and Taki also find ways to influence each other’s lives positive ways by taking the chances their natural selves might not want to take. The two find as time goes on, even without ever meeting, that they miss the other when they can’t communicate. You could say in a way it was a marriage, because in a marriage you share everything: family, friends, stresses in your lives and the intimate parts of each other. The fated couple of Mitsuha and Taki, even when the memories of their body swapping experience begin to fade, feel as though a large part of themselves is missing and are constantly searching for their missing half. We who love romance latch onto the idea that fate plays a hand in finding your other half.

The rain has always found its way to set a romantic mood in stories and on screen. The setting for Garden of Words is no different. Takao Akizuki, a high school senior, decides to skip class one rainy morning and sketch designs in a beautiful park. He takes shelter in a small pavilion. There he finds Yukari Yukino, a beautiful older woman who seems to be hiding too from some part of her life by coming to the park and spending the rainy days of early spring. The conversations the two have let us learn a little about them, how Akizuki wants to design and make shoes, and how Yukino is on extended leave from her job because of an unnamed incident.

Garden of Words is a story driven by simple dialogue between compelling characters, quiet pauses and beautiful artwork. You watch two characters grow closer over time even though they only can see through a small window into each other lives. The couple’s love grows despite the attempts for the two to ignore their feelings. You can see their inner turmoil as they try to come to terms with their intimate yet platonic relationship. The relationship would easily blossom if they were only closer in age. The rainy season ends and the two are forced to meet less frequently even though they long to be near each other. We easily find ourselves wishing that things work out as the movie comes closer to a close and our hearts soar when they do.