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Romance anime can often provide unique premises too. If it didn’t, every romance anime would be the same - and that’s just not true. Take Fruits Basket, Toradora!, Ouran High School Host Club - they all have a unique premise with the main couple in a central role. In 2023, a lot of romance anime tends to land in the spring and summer anime seasons, a time when something light-hearted and pure most suits the season. Here are ten of the best romance anime series’ to fall for in 2023 (so far).
10 Tomo-chan is a Girl!
In-Tomo-chan is a Girl!, Tomo Aizawa (left) and Junichirou Kubota (right) are the best of friends, with one slight problem. Tomo is in love with Jun, and Jun is too muscle-brained to see it, even when Tomo explicitly confesses her love. To make things worse, Jun only just released that Tomo is even a girl.
Fans of Haikyuu!! and One Punch Man might recognize Jun as Kaito Ishikawa, the voice of Kageyama and Genos respectively, as well as from hundreds of other iconic roles.
9 Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts
Get ready for a new kind of Beauty and the Beast. From JC.Staff (Toradora!, Bakuman, Food Wars) comes shojo anime Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts, a fantasy romance anime set in a beast-filled world that has long reviled humans.
When 15-year-old Sariphi is taken from her village to the kingdom of Ozmargo as a sacrifice to the king, something happens that will change history forever. Kana Hanazawa, who voices Sariphi, is an extremely prolific voice actress known for her roles as Akane Tsunemori in Psycho-Pass, Kanade Tachibana in Angel Beats, and Chiaki Nanami in Danganronpa 3.
8 A Galaxy Next Door
Struggling mangaka Ichirou Kuga is tasked with raising his younger siblings after the death of their father. With deadlines looming and his responsibilities growing, he hires startlingly competent Shiori Goshiki to assist him with his manga. As beautiful and talented as Goshiki is, she has a strange quality about her - one that only grows as she declares they are engaged to marry.
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Based on the original manga by Gido Amagakure, A Galaxy Next Door is set to be a sweet slice-of-life comedy with a compelling central romance. It’s due to air in April of 2023.
7 Insomniacs After School
This cute and charming slice-of-life anime follows the awkward friendship of Ganta Nakami and Isata Magari, two high schoolers with insomnia that revive their school’s defunct astronomy club. Set to air in April of 2023, Insomniacs After School is an Iyashikei (calming, healing) anime based on the manga by Makoto Ojiro.
No stranger to the slice-of-life/romance genre, Seiichirou Yamashita is in the cast as Tao Ukegawa, Nakami’s friend. Yamashita is best known for his main role in Orange, a slice-of-life anime with dark undertones and a time travel twist.
6 Opus.COLORs
Opus.COLORs is an original anime series that focuses on the relationship between ‘artist’ Kazuya Yamanashi, and ‘grader’ Jun Tsuzuki, in an immersive field of digital art known as “perception art”, developed by Yamanashi’s parents only ten years ago.
This unique romance anime from Studio C-Station is set to air in April of 2023 and is directed by Shunsuke Tada, who also worked on Kuroko’s Basketball, Hunter x Hunter, and countless other iconic anime series. With an all-star cast and crew and a truly original concept, Opus.COLORs is definitely one to look out for.
5 The Dangers in My Heart
The Dangers In My Heart is a comedy romance anime with a twist. Middle-schooler Kyoutaro Ichikawa dreams of murder and committing the perfect crime. The one he wants to kill the most is class idol Anna Yamada, who he bumps into in the school library where she comes to eat sweets in peace.
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Through flustered encounters and heartwarming daily interactions, the unlikely pair become close friends. Soon, Ichikawa finds that his murderous desires have turned into something much sweeter.
4 The Ice Guy and his Cool Female Colleague
The Ice Guy and His Female Colleague is a fantasy rom-com series perfect for winter. Based on an original manga by Miyuki Tonogaya, the show follows Himuro, the descendant of a snow spirit, whose strong emotions lead to blasts of snow.
As a newbie office worker, Himuro has to keep his nerves in check. Unfortunately for him, he quickly develops feelings for his cute and cool coworker Fuyutsuki and has to work even harder to control his emotions, lest his new coworkers get frozen. And while everyone sees her as the cool mysterious type, Fuyutsuki is also pretty curious about her mysterious coworker, too.
3 Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible
Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible is an upcoming Winter 2023 anime from Studio Pine Jam (Do It Yourself!). Junta Shiraishi is an average, unnoticeable high-school freshman - and he likes it that way. Nobody notices when he’s around, except for Nagisa Kubo, the popular class idol that won’t stop teasing him.
Fans of Demon Slayer might recognize Junta Shiraishi as Kengo Kawanishi, who plays Tokitou Muichirou, a demon hunter and the mist killer of the Demon Corps.
2 The Cafe Terrace and its Goddesses
The Cafe Terrace and its Goddesses is a classic harem anime adapted from a comedy romance Manga by Kouji Seo. The series follows Hayato, a young boy who plans on selling the café left to him by his recently-deceased grandmother. On arrival, however, he finds out that the café is home to five young women.
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Animated by Tezuka Productions (Astro Boy, Samurai Warriors, The Dawn of the Witch), The Cafe Terrace and its Goddesses is set to air in April of 2023.
1 My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv999
Animated by the prestigious Studio MADHOUSE (Death Note, Chihayafuru, Parasyte), My Love Story With Yamada-kun at Lv999 is a highly-anticipated modern shojo anime set to air in April of 2023.
The story follows Akane Kinoshita, a young girl who discovers her boyfriend has been cheating on her through an online game. Venting her frustrations through video games herself, Akane meets the unsociable and curt Akito Yamada. Inexperienced with love and blatantly rude, Yamada is hardly her type, but she still finds herself inexplicably moved by him.
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