10 Best Anime Romances Of All Time

2. Yukino And Souichiro (Kare Kano)

Snow White With The Red Hair Anime
Gainax

Most anime romance is set in high school, for various complicated societal reasons that we don't have time to get into today. But the majority of them stop their story at the couple getting together, when romantic entanglement is easily the least interesting part of a romantic relationship.

And the anime that, for this author's money, understands the fascinating complexities of relationship maintenance is Kare Kano, known over here as His and Her Circumstances.

Yukino is an overachiever secretly super self conscious about the idea that people will find out that at home, she's a slovenly slacker.

Rather small potatoes when compared to her love interest Souichiro, a troubled teen from a broken home trapped in a cycle of his own self loathing, but hey, when you're her age, little bits of self consciousness feel monumental, ESPECIALLY when you have as methodically crafted a public persona as hers.

That point actually cuts to the real meat of what makes this relationship they have work so well, as this is one of the best portrayals of an adolescent romance going through the motions.

The first four episodes feature the two getting together and the rest of the show is just them holding it all together, complications arising from their own teenage hormones and egos combined with there just NOT being a way to prepare a teenager for the ending of the honeymoon phase.

Kare Kano is one of the best romance anime out there, but there is one romance that does top it.

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John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?