In most romance anime - and other media in the genre - there’s often a disproportionate focus on the obstacles that keep a couple apart, while most real-life relationships would end if the conflicts were so painful. It’s a nice change to see more mundane, drama-free relationships where the leads are sure of each other early on and navigate any difficulties as a team, together. Here are our best suggestions:
In the this comedy anime which borrows heavily from Victorian gothic aesthetics and fairy tales, the Duke of Death has been cursed by a witch to kill everything he touches. Abandoned by his family, the Duke only has contact with his butler, Rob, and his maid, Alice. The Duke and Alice are deeply in love and want to get married despite the fact that they’re presently unable to touch. They’re able to speak of their feelings within the first couple of episodes and they’ve been together ever since. While the Duke tries to break his curse, the two still find other ways to maintain a loving relationship and they hardly ever show doubts about their mutual commitment. During Japan’s Taisho era, where rapid technological, educational, and social changes unfold, Tamaki Shima finds himself isolated and ostracised by his family, after an accident during which he lost the use of his dominant hand. Tamaki’s life changes when he meets Yuzuki, a girl his father sent to be his bride. The concept might seem a bit icky by modern standards as Tamaki and Yuzu are teenagers, though engagements of this type weren’t uncommon back in the day. It takes a little while for Tamaki and Yuzuki to warm up to each other and become a couple but they still fall in love quite early on. Their relationship isn’t without turbulent moments but they decide to commit to becoming each other’s family early on and face all difficulties together. In it, we meet Kyouko Hori and Izumi Miyamura, two high school students who don’t seem to have a lot in common. Hori is a friendly, smart girl, while Miyamura appears meek and a bit aloof. After a fateful encounter, the two realize that their school personas are different from their true selves, and they start spending more time together. As they get to know each other better in Hori’s house, they realize they might not be so different. Although the two teenagers spend quite a lot of time together before confessing their feelings, they take less than other anime couples to start dating. Fudou Aikawa and Desumi Magahara come from different worlds. He’s a superhero, while she’s an evil minion. During working hours, they have to act like enemies but secretly they are dating, engaging in cute and mundane activities when off-duty. A unique feature of the anime is that the two characters have their first date in the first episode. While both are inexperienced with romance, they don’t dance around the feelings but they immediately dive into a relationship - even if they have to immediately pretend to be fighting when colleagues are around! The title might seem a bit concerning, but it’s an actually an interesting supernatural anime with school elements. In a world where the so-called Puberty Syndrome is a bit of a legend, Sakuta Azusagawa meets Mai Sakurajima who became famous as a child actress. When he finds her at school, he’s shocked to find that he’s the only person who can actually see her – she’s invisible to everyone else. From there on, Sakuta helps Mai and other girls with the same predicaments, but his special relationship with Mai remains; they acknowledge their feelings from the third episode, and they’re a couple from there on. To those who don’t know her, Shikimori appears to be very cute, almost stereotypically so, but since they started dating Izumi witnessed a different side of her. Shikimori more or less switches to a “cool” mode when the need arises, becoming a knight in shining armor for Izumi. For those who don’t like slow-burn situations, Shikimori Is Not Just a Cutie is a really great anime; Shikimori and Izumi have already been dating for a year at the beginning of the anime, so there’s no frustration in that regard. Plus, their relationship is quite cute! Shirayuki, a pharmacist who has often been singled out due to her bright red hair, flees the unwanted attentions of the local prince, only to get lost in the forest and meet Zen, another, much more likable prince! Zen invites Shirayuki to his palace, where she can live out her dream as the royal pharmacist. While the two don’t become a couple in the first few episodes, Zen’s feelings become clear soon enough, and he kisses Shirayuki in episode 11/24 which is still quite early for this type of story!
At the beginning, Ichijou has a crush on another girl and wants nothing to do with his family leagacy. When circumstances force him and Kirisaki to pretend they’re a couple, it’s hate at first sight for them. This, however, changes as the show progresses, and the two are very much in love by the end. Nasa Yuzaki had everything planned in life but he didn’t account for love. Fate, however, had other ideas for him. Yuzaki becomes smitten with a beautiful girl named Tsukasa. As he tries to approach her, though, he gets hit by a truck. But this isn’t the end of their story, as Tsukasa saves his life. Bewitched, he finds the courage to ask her out and she accepts with one condition; she will only go out with him if he marries her first. Thus what is possibly the fastest anime wedding comes to pass, and the two continues the romance as a maried couple!
This is, once again, a rather icky concept, and things get complicated when Kazuya introduces this girl, Chizuru, to his family. To avoid their rebuke, Kazuya now pretends to be an actual boyfriend to Chizuru, but it sure becomes more than a pretense. Once again, we have two main characters who get together early on for the wrong reasons but they eventually develop true feelings for each other. This takes a bit longer than the actual dating, but, at least, this might be interesting to watch if you don’t want to wait three seasons for the characters to ask each other out. Takeo Gouda is a big, muscled high-schooler who fears he’ll never end up in a relationship as most of his classmates find him intimidating. When he meets and saves Rinko Yamato, Takeo immediately develops feelings for her, but thinks he must let go of his yearning for a love story, believing that, like most other girls, she’ll be in love with his first, Makoto. To Takeos’s surprise, Rinko fell in love with him, not with his friend, and they soon enough start a relationship, avoiding the long confession arc that we get in other shows. Narumi Momose is an office worker with a secret; while she was to present as a mature adult, she’s actually a nerd and she enjoys gay fanfiction. Hirotaka Nifuji is an old friend of Narumi’s, and the two unexpectedly bump into each other. After Narumi complains about her ex, who dumped her due to her hobbies, Hirotaka suggests that she dates a fellow otaku like him. The two start dating from episode 1, so the rest of their cute and awkward love story!
