In terms of anime consumption, I mostly watch action-packed or dramatic anime. Back when I had a VRV (RIP) subscription eight or nine years ago I began to dabble in slice-of-life and comedy. I found shows like The Devil is a Part-Timer, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, and Recovery of an MMO Junkie to be more enjoyable than I was expecting. Having gotten a fresh Crunchyroll subscription in 2024, I decided to dive into the world of anime romcoms this time around. What I mostly discovered is that a lot of these anime felt like an unsatisfying waste since they usually only adapted twelve episodes' worth of material before being abandoned. They would very rarely go longer, and even more rarely end at a satisfying point in the story. I didn't even realize how many of these I watched until going back through my watch history. Turns out, a lot! I won't lie, though, they started to blend together after a while.
Hensuki: Are You Willing to Fall in Love with a Pervert, as Long as She's a Cutie?
The mystery being that our main guy finds a love letter with a pair of underwear in his club room, and goes on an investigation to figure out who left it. After systematically investigating each girl in his club and finding out that they're not in love with him but would like to use him in other ways, the final episodes hit me with an insane double whammy of wtf and nope. You probably will not be shocked to learn that his sister is the one who left him the love letter. It turns out the panties were left unintentionally, and yes there is a wild explanation for how that happened. That's the nope. But then they hit you with the twist that his sister is not his biological sister, but was adopted by his family as a child and our idiot protagonist just somehow literally forgot. He wasn't too young to remember or to understand. When they were both children, she was introduced to him as an orphan who was being adopted by the family. We are shown this important life event in a flashback to drive home the point that this guy must have suffered brain damage to forget something that important. Like my own brain after watching this show, he literally just erased that crucial information. This dude may be stupid, but he's thankfully not insane. He makes it clearly known that they are siblings and that's creepy as fuck even if she's adopted and he will absolutely not be messing around with her. So I have to give the series credit for that, at least. This poor guy's struggle for actual love and flat-out refusal to put up with the bulshit of these crazy women around him was amusing at least. In the end, though, I had to ask myself "What was the point of this series existing?"
Too Many Losing Heroines
Too Many Losing Heroines was just a solid slice of life. Of course, at 12 episodes it has a bit of an unsatisfying ending that does imply Nukumizu and Yanami will get together at some point in the future, although it's not exactly definitive. Unbeknownst to me, the anime did just conclude this past September so it's possible they might continue it in the future. Many of the other shows I watched were years old and obviously are never going to be finished. Anyway, it's a little more grounded and less "anime" than a lot of similar shows that go way over the top, so it would be nice to see a continuation. A random stray thought to conclude on: I found myself really drawn to the character designs in this series and I wasn't sure why. I later found out it had the same character designer as Lycoris Recoil, another anime I recently watched and really enjoyed.
Ladies Versus Butlers
Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro
Something felt a little off about this series, though. Nagatoro makes Naoto cry the first time they meet, which was kind of a lot. Her bullying starts off as actual bullying, not teasing as presented in Takagi-san. Not to mention the series has, sprinkled in from time to time, some weird fetishy scenarios. For example, there's the president of the art club who paints nude self portraits of herself, and a scene much later in the story where the two main characters are naked in a hot spring together. Stuff like that. Well, I ended up looking into the series more after finishing it and found a very reasonable explanation for all of it. Turns out the author is a hentai artist. Evidently, he created the series as a side project in his spare time and it got picked up as a web manga, which became popular enough to eventually get an anime adaptation. Despite the beginning and all the aforementioned weirdness, the characters were surprisingly well written. The series had two seasons (hallelujah!) in 2021 and 2023 at different studios. The second season does unfortunately look worse, but it's not unwatchable. It has kind of a weird aetherial haziness to it, and somebody over there really loves using the lens flare tool. I actually ended up liking this series enough to read the recently-completed manga which really picks up after the anime, and concludes with a very sweet ending. The anime itself ends in a decent enough spot, but I would definitely recommend the manga if the series sounds interesting to you.
Real quick, I'd like to shout out the actress for Nagatoro, Kimberley Anne Campbell. I'm not familiar with her, and have never heard her in anything else, but she did a phenomenal job here. Her range really brings depth to the character. I especially enjoyed her teasing laugh.
Haganai
I would say this is probably most unique romcom I watched in terms of premise. The series' full title is "I Don't Have Many Friends", which tells you just about all you need to know. A high school transfer student reconnects with his old friend and together they form the "Neighbors Club", a club for people with no friends, in an effort to make friends. The story starts with an amusing scene of our protagonist Kodaka stumbling upon his old acquaintance, Yozora, having a conversation with herself because she has no one to talk to, which she plays off as talking with her invisible best friend as if that somehow looks better. After putting out a fliers with a hidden message only loners could decipher, they slowly attract more members. Of course, Kodaka remains the only guy in the club and, oops!, all the girls are into him! As I have discovered with many of these anime, Japan really loves harems. I have to give this one credit, though, because bro actually makes a choice pretty early on and sticks with it. Of course, this causes tension within the group and plenty of drama as the series goes forward. He also just becomes besties with one of the other girls, which was refreshing to see.
Final notes about this series: As you might have guessed by now, I'm a filthy dub watcher and watch all my anime dubbed unless no dub exists. The entire cast of this show was completely fine except for our protagonist Kodaka, and unfortunately that's the worst one to flub. This is one of the only times ever where I would describe a dub performance as bad. Kodaka is voiced by Jerry Jewell, who is a perfectly capable actor I've heard in other anime before. He had been in the anime industry for about 12 years at the point when Haganai came out, so it must have come down to a matter of direction. I can't imagine why anyone would direct him to sound so flat and lifeless, though. Besides that, a weird quirk I discovered is that the anime added nudity that didn't exist in the manga. Perhaps it was mentioned in the books and the manga author chose to exclude it, but the weirdest part is that the manga has nudity later after the point where the anime ends. There's no shortage of questionable "anime moments"... but on that note, I feel the need to point out a bizarre scene in particular towards the end that really came out of left field. Kodaka's sister smuggles Yozora into their house after she has a falling out with her mother, and Kodaka then finds her masturbating in their bathroom while meowing like a cat. Her fingers are covering the, uh... kitty... but it's way beyond the brief nip slips in the anime. That whole thing just backhanded my brain out of nowhere and stuck with me. Why was she meowing????
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian
This series was cute... until it wasn't. It went completely off the rails after a few episodes and became decidedly "un-cute". The premise is that Alya and our protagonist Masachika meet at the beginning of a new school year as they have been assigned to sit next to each other. Alya is half Russian, and speaks Russian when she doesn't want anyone to understand what she's saying. Masachika, it turns out, had a Russian friend when he was a kid and actually learned to speak Russian, unbeknownst to her. As you might imagine, Alya starts to fall in love with him and tells him as such by teasing him in Russian. Of course, Masachika can understand everything she's saying and has to keep up the ruse that he doesn't. Later on comes the added layer that Alya's sister is actually the one that Masachika was friends with way back, when their family briefly lived in Japan the first time, but Masachika doesn't recognize her. Sounds cute, right? It indeed had all the makings of a cute romcom before Masachika's sister got involved. There's this weird and confusing family drama where the two are siblings, but the parents are divorced so they live separately and have to pretend not to be related and also she definitely wants to fuck her brother. Between that and the bizarre student council elections arc that comes out of nowhere, this one unfortunately flew off the rails and straight into the trash. Also, I'm pretty sure this series is mostly known for the infamous foot scene near the beginning. If you know, you know.
But! I've got another shoutout for this one: Alya's voice actress is Sarah Natochenny, aka, the second voice of Ash Ketchum and the reason I stopped watching the Pokemon anime. No fault of her's, of course, since she was just doing the job she was hired to do. Anway, she's actually Russian and fluent in Russian, so she was basically born for this role specifically and kills it.
More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers
"Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro" may have been created by an actual hentai artist, but it ended up surprisingly wholesome. However, you can't convince me that this series was not originally the concept for a hentai. Basically, in some twisted, fucked up version of Japan, schools have a "marriage practical" where male and female pairs of students must live together in an apartment pretending to be married, and are graded on the basis of how well they get along. Inexplicably, if the pairings do well enough they can switch partners during the end portion of the "exam". No, it doesn't make sense to me either.
This show was sometimes suggestive, but surprisingly light on fanservice for once! Despite the tried and true harem situation and the absolutely insane premise, I enjoyed that things actually got pretty real as the characters sorted out their feelings. I really, really enjoyed the coloring work of the anime that reminded me a bit of Promare with lots of bright shades and neon pop. Having aired in 2022, they're probably not going to continue the anime (would you believe me if I told you it's only 12 episodes?) but the manga is still ongoing. At some point, I'd like to see how this one ends.
Horimiya
It does have its comedic moments, but it's pretty understated in favor of moments that feel real. It's cute, it's chill, and the first season is worth a watch. If you've ever wanted to watch an anime with few to no tropes, watch this. Sidenote: The dub for this series is next level. The actors were directed to sound as natural as possible, not exaggerated like in most anime, since that's what fits best here. (P.S.- The title of the series is literally the main characters' ship name.)
Tomo-chan is a Girl
Yamada's First Time: B Gata H Kei
I'm in Love With the Villainess
This series is a multilayered smorgasbord of tropes. First, it's an isekai in which ordinary office worker Rei finds herself reincarnated into her favorite dating simulator. The problem is, she has no interest in dating the three princes the game has programmed to be interested in her. Instead, she uses her knowledge of the game to pursue the protagonist's rival, Claire, the villainous whose purpose is to get in the way of the player's progress towards dating the boys. That's right, yuri alert! Unfortunately for Claire, Rei is into her bullying. These comedic moments do become a bit much sometimes, but I appreciated how straightforward Rei was for the entire series. She literally comes to this magical school out of nowhere declaring she is in love with Claire, which absolutely confuses the hell out of everybody. Of course they would treat her like she's crazy! For the most part, the series is a silly good time with some surprisingly serious and wholesome moments. The third episode has a surprisingly candid discussion about Rei's sexuality and prejudice towards it, which I really enjoyed. Then a few episodes later I got sucker punched with the completely out of nowhere incest side plot involving some of the (actual) villains. I probably will never forget how out of nowhere that was for the rest of my life.
Putting that aside, I'm hoping the anime continues at some point. It only finished airing in December of 2023, and the source material, including the books and the manga, has already completed. There's a finished story just waiting for an adaptation. The series ends with Claire becoming more accepting of Rei's feelings while hinting at a future horrible disaster befalling her that Rei is trying to prevent. It would be a shame to leave that nugget unexplored in animated form.
Adachi and Shimamura
More yuri! This series is a pretty understated slice-of-life about two girls who have a chance meeting while skipping class. They hang out, start to become friends, and then the series ends because it's the usual twelve episodes. There were some interesting character dynamics here, though. Adachi is very socially awkward, clingy and emotional, and even in the twelve episodes we get it's clear she has feelings for Shimamura but doesn't know what to do with them. Meanwhile, Shimamura can't comprehend them being more than just friends. It's not a matter of being oblivious, but her kind of detached view of the world. To be completely honest, the anime is so short it unfortunately doesn't go much of anywhere in particular. I could see the potential, so I went to check out the manga... which didn't progress too far past the anime. So I did something I've never done before and checked out the light novels.
These books blew the characters wide open, alternating between the perspective of both girls. Adachi has a lot going on, which is explored much more in depth in these novels. However, Shimamura turned out to be the more interesting of the two because of her enigmatic behavior. Having chapters narrated by her and finding out what she was actually thinking was pretty interesting. I cannot express enough, though, that that is about 90% of the story. There isn't really much in the way of plot other than ordinary events that move the relationship forward like festivals, school trips, and holidays. It's all about how these two girls navigate through all of those things in their own very different ways. The book series was evidently intended to conclude last year before the author changed his mind. Nevertheless, I read far ahead enough to know how things end thanks to an entire flash forward chapter. To be honest, it didn't seem like the type of series that needed to run for as long as it has.
Bloom Into You
Hey look, it's an anime I watched on Hulu! Also, the final attack of the three-hit yuri combo! It is a shame that this series never continued because it has a very diverse and interesting cast of characters unlike anything else here. There's a demisexual protagonist, an aroace character, gay character, you name it. It's rare to see something like this in general, let alone animation, and especially anime. Beyond the superficial, the characters are interesting in other ways. Touko, the eventual love interest, has basically taken it on herself to "replace" her deceased sister out of a feeling of obligation. Our protagonist Yuu is the only one who's seen her vulnerable side and and is attempting to help her work through her identity crisis when the anime series ends.
Yuu has never felt romantic feelings for anyone before. When she finds out that Touko from the student council hasn't either, she hopes to relate to her. Unfortunately, it's love at first sight for Touko. Yuu joins the student council and things do get a little weird and awkward. Part of me is still off put by the fact that Touko is so forward. Touko requests that Yuu allows her to love her even though Yuu doesn't feel the same way, which Yuu agrees to. Even though she's consenting, it makes for a weird and kind of uncomfortable dynamic. They'll be scenes where Touko is really into making out and Yuu is just sitting there getting her face sucked thinking "Wow, I wish I felt something." One of the reasons I've wanted to check out the manga is to see how this progresses. The series has been praised, so I want to see if the relationship really ends up feeling organic.
A bit later, Touko declares that the student council will be reviving an old tradition of putting on a play for the festival. After realizing she wants to finish what her sister never could, Yuu decides to have a friend write the play about a girl with amnesia who must decide which persona to embrace: the version of her that her that her lover knew or the one her family knew. Hoping that this will help Touko discover herself, the anime ends before they actually perform the play. I was enjoying this story of identity more than the romance, actually, and it really sucked for the story to end there.
LOVE IS WAR
When it comes to romance anime, I've been hearing for years that "Love is War" was basically as good as it gets. Well, I can say the internet wasn't lying for once and that the hype for this series is real. Amazingly, it somehow manages to pull off being a romance, comedy, and drama all at the same time in a way that makes it seem effortless. It knows when to be silly or sweet or tense without the tone ever feeling inappropriate for what's happening. You might think that would lead to tonal whiplash, but somehow it doesn't. It was immediately apparent to me why this anime is so highly recommended.
The story begins with the show's unsung hero, the narrator. Having a narrator at all was completely unnecessary, but keeping him for the anime makes it so much better. It still would have been a perfectly well executed series, but it adds so much hilariously colorful commentary. A lot of the time he's less like an actual narrator and more like a literal commentator, breaking the fourth wall and cracking jokes about the events on screen. In the show's opening moments he explains the series' "love is war" premise. In summary, pride is on the line as each potential partner wages a mental battle to get the other person to confess their feelings first. And then we are introduced to the two warriors of our story: Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane, the vice president and president of Shuchiin Academy, a prestigious school for mostly well-to-do families. Kaguya is the heir to a huge conglomerate whereas Miyuki is just some guy who worked very hard. I could tell from the start that their varying backgrounds would make for somewhat of a Romeo and Juliet situation. After being in the student council together for a year, they have developed feeling for one another though neither one is willing to confess.
Their going above and beyond with mind games to trick the other into confessing is the backbone of the series early on. Each school day we are presented with a "battle" after which the narrator announces a victor at the end. The series is legitimately very funny and made even funnier by the the aforementioned narrator, who is voiced in english by Ian Sinclair giving the performance of his damn life. I swear a lot of his lines were just improvised because of how hilarious and fourth wall breaking they are.
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Predictably, the anime is an incomplete adaptation, but it's at least of a decent length. It got three seasons and a movie which ends things off somewhere near the middle of the series. In regards to the anime adaptation, I saw someone say that they ended it in about the best possible place without having to commit to multiple further seasons, because the arc in the second half is kind of a point of no return without any reasonable stopping points. Of course, I did indeed complete this series by reading the manga and I have to say it was a pretty great ending. The series in general gets very intense after the anime's conclusion. Whereas the part adapted for animation posits the "love is war" premise as a battle for one's affection, the rest of the story covered in the manga frames it as a battle for love's survival. It really kind of felt like a sequel to what I watched. I'd definitely recommend it, and especially if you enjoyed the anime. I hope they animate the rest of the story someday because it deserves to happen. However, with the focus on the author's other story, Oshi no Ko, as well as his upcoming fantasy manga in the works, I don't really have my hopes up for a further adaptation. It seems kind of foolish not to capitalize on one of the best selling manga of all time though.
Love is War is just an all around fantastic series that thankfully doesn't beat around the bush too much, but just enough to make an impact. Full of nuanced characters with just the right mix of comedy and drama, it's one of the easiest anime recommendations there is.
DISHONORABLE MENTION
Maken-Ki
You're probably wondering why I'm singling out this particular series. While I wouldn't exactly classify it as romantic, it does have a harem element going on with a himbo dude who gets all the ladies for no particular reason. Once upon a time I watched Highschool DxD, and this series gave me similar vibes. On the surface, it presents itself as a goofy, ecchi series that doesn't take itself too seriously. It has more to it, though, and I actually found myself becoming invested with story in the first season. Why am I telling you not to waste your time with it, then? Because the second season throws everything interesting in the trash. The supernatural plot and all the character arcs go completely out the window. For some inexplicable reason, they decided not to adapt the manga story any further but instead create a second season of one-off episodic stories that have nothing to do with anything. It was just an excuse to create sexy scenarios for the protag without anything of value actually happening. I could vibe with the mix of ecchi and story, but take the story away and I was out. Once I got to the episode where all the girls inexplicabley turned into cats, I had had enough. It actually sucks they didn't continue the story since they were actually given the opportunity to do so. Unfortunately, the second season's mindless drivel makes the first season not worth watching since it ends of a cliffhanger that everyone just collectively acts like never happened. Also, they changed animation studios or staff or something and it looks worse too. I guess there's no reason I couldn't just read the completed manga, but that second season weirdly just vaporized all my interest.
And that is every romance-focused anime I watched in 2024. Well, with the exception of Dandadan which deserves its own post because it has so much more going on. Happy Valentine's Day, and see you next year for the 2025 roundup that I just decided will be a thing!
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