Whether you’re single, taken, or somewhere in between (oof), there’s no denying that Valentine’s season brings with it a whole bag of sappy feelings. And while love is in the air, there’s also something else still in the air (it rhymes with “Melona Cyrus”) that ought to make you reconsider acting on those sappy feelings and spending Valentine’s Day outside. Regardless of your civil status, there are plenty of ways to celebrate Happy Hearts Day without leaving the comfort of your own home, and that includes binge-watching some romance anime.
There’s plenty of great romance anime out there, like the classic Honey & Clover or the currently airing Horimiya, but for the sake of wider accessibility, we’ll be taking a look at the options available on the streaming platform everyone knows best: Netflix. For your viewing convenience, here are some great romance anime picks currently available on the streaming platform.
Kaguya-Sama: Love is War
Arguably the best rom-com anime to come out in recent years, Kaguya-Sama: Love is War is an anime so nice, we’re recommending it twice. You’ve heard of people beating around the bush when it comes to confessing their feelings, but Kaguya-Sama takes this all-too-common occurrence and stretches it out into a full-fledged comedy anime.
The story centers on its two protagonists, Student Council President Miyuki Shirogane and Vice President Kaguya Shinomiya as they participate in a battle of wits to get the other to confess their love first. Believing that whoever confesses first is the loser, neither of them can back down, and it’s their increasingly complicated schemes that make up the show’s funny moments.
With two seasons available on Netflix and a third one planned for production, Kaguya-Sama is a worthy candidate for a binge-watch that’ll leave you laughing and feeling all sappy as Miyuki and Kaguya get closer and closer to finally being honest with themselves.
Toradora!
All the OG weebs out there ought to know this one. Toradora! is a classic rom-com anime that originally aired from 2008 to 2009, and it was even aired in the Philippines in May 2009 on TV5, one of the first channels to officially air the show outside of Japan. Despite its age, Toradora! remains a well-loved romance anime because of its timeless plot: a group of friends develop an overlapping pentagram of feelings for each other, resulting in plenty of humorous, heartwarming, and heartbreaking scenes.
The story centers on Ryuji and Taiga, total opposites who eventually become allies as they try to set up the other in a romantic relationship with their best friends, Yusaku and Minori. Frequently going out together to plan out their schemes, Ryuji and Taiga inevitably develop feelings for one another, but it doesn’t stop there. Just as the two come to terms with their newfound emotions, a transfer student named Ami comes along to take Ryuji’s attention away from Taiga. Toradora! is a rollercoaster of emotions that’ll make for perfect Valentine’s season viewing.
Scum’s Wish
Let’s face it: romance anime is often predictable, and a good ending is almost always guaranteed, but that’s why we watch them. We want a little humor, some conflict, and a heartwarming moment at the end, making up a feel-good experience in a 12 to 25-episode package. Scum’s Wish is an anime that subverts those expectations and shows the darker side of messy relationships and unrequited feelings.
The story revolves around Mugi and Hanabi, two people who are brought together not by their mutual feelings of love, but of loneliness. They acknowledge each other as being “victims” of unrequited love, and so they pair up as a sort of pity party just to avoid feeling lonely. Their only rules are to keep each other company and to break up if they ever find their feelings reciprocated by the people they truly like.
Be warned that Scum’s Wish contains themes and contents way outside what we’re used to with romance anime, and it can be a depressing watch at times. Beyond its sad premise, however, is a more grounded take on the romance genre, showing the messier, lonelier, and sadder parts that we don’t really see in most romance anime.
Tsuredure Children
If you’re old enough to have watched Boys Be on TV back when it aired in the 2000s, Tsuredure Children will have a familiar structure. Newer romance anime series tend to follow a storyline with two or more characters at the forefront, but there was a time when the omnibus format dominated the romance genre in both manga and anime.
Tsuredure Children carries on the omnibus romance anime tradition by having an ensemble cast of characters each with their own pairings and story arcs. Just like Boys Be, Tsuredure Children focuses on a different set of characters every episode, though they’re all connected through varying degrees of friendship.
If you don’t have the time to binge through an entire series, Tsuredure Children is a perfect watch because of its self-contained episodes, allowing you to watch a few episodes at a time without having to follow an overarching plot. It’s the rom-com anime experience served in pocket-sized, 20-minute portions.
Kiss Him, Not Me
Finally, it’s not a list of romance anime recommendations without a bit of BL. You can deny it all you want, but there’s a little fujoshi or fudanshi in all of us, and Kiss Him, Not Me is a hilarious depiction of what it’s like to be a BL fan. The anime tells the story of Kae Serinuma, a BL-loving fujoshi who becomes everyone’s campus crush overnight. When her male schoolmates begin asking her out, she finds herself in the middle of a harem, with only one problem: she doesn’t want these boys to like her, she wants them to like each other.
As Kae and her harem start to become good friends with each other, the boys come to accept Kae’s fujoshi nature and eventually understand the joys of BL themselves. They still end up fighting over who gets to date Kae, but it’s fun to see them all become good friends in the process.
If you’re looking for something more lighthearted that doesn’t necessarily end with the main girl ending up with the main guy, Kiss Him, Not Me is a great watch that also serves as an alternative to the usual romance anime.
Are there any other good romance anime picks on Netflix that we missed? Let us know in the comments! And for more anime news and recommendations, be sure to stay tuned to our website and Facebook page.
Happy Valentine’s Day!