17 Anime Like Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You
Kimi ni todoke is a shōjo manga by Karuho Shiina. It was published between 2005 and 2017 in Shueisha’s Bessatsu Margaret magazine and was compiled into a total of 30 volumes. An anime adaptation of Kimi ni Todoke was made by Production I.G studio and aired in Japan between October 6, 2009, and March 30, 2010. A second season was announced and aired in Japan between January 4, 2011, and March 30. 2011.
To honor the legacy of Kimi ni Todoke, we have decided to compose a list of the best anime series like Kimi ni Todoke that every fan needs to see. The list is going to include a total of 17 different titles which resemble the Kimi ni Todoke anime in one way or the other.
Best Anime Like Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You
1. Maid Sama!
Original Run: April 1, 2010 – September 23, 2010
Number of Episodes: 26 (+ OVA)
Summary
The first anime like Kimi Ni Todoke on our list is Maid Sama. The Seika High School. It was once a school for boys only, but over time it opened up to girls too. The isolation created a harsh climate in the classes so that the girls find it very difficult to gain a foothold and repeatedly suffer from the humiliation of the boys.
The girl Misaki Ayuzawa still manages to assert herself against her classmates and become the first student representative. Because of her behavior, she is soon seen as a man-hater but is respected or feared. But behind this facade, she also fights against various other problems.
Among other things, her family, which consists of her mother and little sister, was abandoned by her father and is now sitting on a large pile of debts. To stop the collapse of her own apartment and to help her overworked mother, Misaki looks for a job in a maid café. Since she mainly has to serve male customers there, she tries to keep her job a secret from her classmates.
In the meantime, at school, she is often confronted with the heartthrob Takumi Usui, who repeatedly refuses all declarations of love and makes the girls cry. As a result, a special form of hatred against him builds up in her. One day, however, Takumi meets Misaki in front of the Maid Café and discovers her secret.
Her fears that she would now lose her reputation are not fulfilled, however, Takumi keeps her secret and protects her because, unlike the other girls, he develops feelings for her. Misaki also slowly develops feelings for Takumi and an ambivalent love relationship builds up, which has to suffer severe setbacks again and again.
In the end, however, Usui Takumi can confess his love to Misaki Ayuzawa at a school festival.
2. Fruits Basket
Original Run: July 5, 2001 – June 29, 2021
Number of Episodes: 89
Summary
One more romance anime like Kimi ni Todoke is Fruits Basket. Tohru Honda is a 16-year-old high school student who lives alone in a tent after the death of her mother. Without knowing it, she moved to the property of the Sôma family.
When she explores the surroundings, she sees a house and enters it. There she meets Yuki and Shigure Soma. Having learned that she was living in a tent, they offered to stay with them in exchange for household chores.
Tohru accepts and then begins to live with Yuki, Kyô and Shigure. Very quickly, she learns the secret of the family: 13 of its members are victims of a curse. These people transform into one of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac, and the cat, when a person of the opposite sex throws themselves at their neck or when they feel embarrassed, or even weakened.
They become human again a few minutes later (the duration of the transformation can vary), but reappear completely naked (which can be very annoying, especially for Tohru who is often there during the transformation).
3. Snow White with the Red Hair
Original Run: July 6, 2015 – March 28, 2016
Number of Episodes: 24 + OVA
Summary
Another anime like Kimi ni Todoke on our list, Shirayuki is a herbalist from the Kingdom of Tanbarun characterized by a single peculiarity: her red hair. When the prince of Tanbarun, Raji, orders her to become her concubine because of her, she cuts her hair and flees to the nearby Kingdom of Clarines.
Along her journey, Shirayuki meets her second son Zen prince, and her two guards, Mitsuhide and Kiki, who help her escape from Raji. After also rescuing Zen due to poisoning, Shirayuki embarks on the path to becoming a herbalist in the royal palace of Clarines.
From that moment, her life begins to intertwine with that of the characters linked to the court, and in particular to that of Zen, for which she begins to feel ever stronger feelings.
4. Say I Love You (Sukitte Ii na yo)
Original Run: October 6, 2012 – December 30, 2012
Number of Episodes: 13 + (1 OVA)
Summary
A romance anime like Kimi ni Todoke, Say I Love You (Sukitte Ii na yo) anime follows Mei Tachibana who is 16 and has never had a boyfriend and feels lonely. Suddenly, of all people, the crush at her school is interested in her: Yamato Kurosawa. Mei falls in love with Yamato and the friendship develops into a real and serious relationship.
The two have to survive different crises and collect their first experiences together. Above all, Aiko Muto is against the relationship. Over time, Mei makes new friends and Aiko recognizes the relationship. Say I Love You (Sukitte Ii na yo) rightfully deserves a spot on our list of anime like Kimi ni Todoke.
5. Tsuki ga Kirei
Original Release: April 6, 2017 – June 29, 2017
Summary
The somewhat shy and reserved Kotarō Azumi comes in the third year of middle school for the first time with the sporty Akane Mizuno in a class. During the preparations for the sports festival, they get to know each other a little better and exchange their line contact details. Soon they are texting each other regularly on their cell phones and getting closer.
Both spend their free time very differently: Kotarō is active in a traditional festival association, works in a bookstore, and is often in the school library. He writes stories himself and wants to be a writer. His role model is Osamu Dazai, whom he often quotes.
Akane, on the other hand, is a runner in the athletics club and is also successful at it. She represents the school in competitions. After a while, they finally admit their love for each other. Akane Mizuno and Kotaro Azumi are one of the best couples in anime.
6. Lovely Complex
Original Run: April 7, 2007 – September 29, 2007
Number of Episodes: 24
Summary
The Story of Lovely Complex anime follows the main characters The tall Risa Koizumi and her short classmate Atsushi Ōtani who both go to the first grade of high school. They are often referred to as “All Hanshin Kyojin,” a well-known Japanese comedy duo, because of their size differences and frequent arguments.
But both are otherwise very similar, have the same taste in music and develop a good friendship with each other. Lovely Complex is a classic romance story like Kimi ni Todoke.
Her classmates Ryōji Suzuki and Chiharu Tanaka, Nobuko Ishihara, and Heikichi Nakao found each other in the summer so Koizumi and Ōtani are now surrounded by two couples. Now they finally want to fall in love, and Koizumi soon finds out that Ōtani already had a girlfriend in Mayu Kanzaki.
Koizumi soon meets Haruka Fukagawa again, a kindergarten friend of hers, who now falls in love with her. The one-year younger transsexual Seishiro / Seiko Kotobuki falls in love with Ōtani, who rejects her when it is discovered that she is a boy by birth.
7. CLANNAD
Original Run: October 4, 2007 – March 26, 2009
Number of Episodes: 47 + 2 OVA
Summary
CLANNAD anime tells the story of Okazaki Tomoya, a brooding third-year high school student. When his mother died when he was young, he remains in the custody of Naoyuki, his father, who, when affected by this tragic loss, ends up immersed in gambling and alcohol. This anime has a withdrawn character like Kimi ni Todoke.
Father-son relationships get complicated to the point where Tomoya decides to go to his house as little as possible, developing a closed and indifferent personality, full of inner conflicts and no desire to improve.
His life takes a turn when one morning on his way to school he meets Furukawa Nagisa, an enigmatic girl with unusual qualities that will change the way he sees the world. From that moment begins a friendship between them.
Throughout history, new companions, new situations, new challenges, and sad and happy moments appear, and together they live strange and unusual experiences that make them understand the strength and fragility of life.
8. Hori-san to Miyamura-kun (Horimiya)
Original Run: January 10, 2021 – April 4, 2021
Number of Episodes: 13
Summary
The next anime on our list of anime like Kimi ni Todoke. Kyōko Hori is a bright and popular high school girl, contrasting with her classmate, Izumi Miyamura, a gloomy boy and supposed otaku wearing glasses.
Outside of school, Hori is a homebody who dresses simply and takes care of the house and her younger brother Souta. One day, when Souta returned home injured, he was helped by a stranger with multiple piercings.
This person is revealed to be Miyamura. While surprised that he is a different person at school, Hori is upset when Miyamura saw his true appearance at home, but the two agree to keep their true selves a secret from their classmates.
9. Toradora!
Original Run: October 2, 2008 – March 26, 2009
Number of Episodes: 25 (+ 1 OVA)
Summary
Romance anime like Kimi ni Todoke, Toradora follows Ryuuji Takasu who is a Japanese student who has just returned to the 12th grade and who lives alone with his mother. He would love to be an ordinary high school student, but he has one flaw: his intimidating eyes.
Because of his sinister demeanor, stupid rumors keep circulating about him, including the fact that he would hit anyone who dared to jostle him and that he would be ready to kill, while he is a very sensitive young man.
Because of this, he has great difficulty in making friends; the heaviest to bear is the absence of a romantic relationship. Luckily, he is in the same class as his best friend Yūsaku Kitamura and his crush, the pretty Minori Kushieda.
10. Ore Monogatari (My Love Story)
Original Run: April 8, 2015 – September 23, 2015
Number of Episodes: 24
Summary
Ore Monogatari anime follows Takeo Gōda and Makoto Sunakawa who are childhood friends, despite their great physical and psychological difference.
The first conceals great sensitivity behind an imposing body and easily falls in love without success because all the girls he has loved have preferred his friend to him, while the second is of great beauty but remains indifferent to the passions he unleashed.
One day, Takeo intervenes in the metro to protect a young girl, Rinko Yamato, from being touched by a pervert. This one multiplies the gestures of gratitude against him but shows a certain embarrassment in his presence, which Takeo attributes to the fact that she too has certainly fallen in love with Makoto. However, it seems that this time, it’s Takeo who is the object of love at first sight.
Ore Monogatari is a classic love story filled with sweet displays of affection.
11. The Wallflower (Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge)
Original Run: October 3, 2006 – March 27, 2007
Number of Episodes: 25
Summary
This next anime like Kimi ni Todoke is The Wallflower (Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge). The comfort of a free villa or triple the rent… All the four teenagers who are currently renting it will need to take in Sunako, the owner’s niece, and make her a lady before her aunt returns. Simple… seemingly. Indeed, the young Sunako turns out to be someone with a rather neglected appearance.
Sunako has a lot in common with the “girl from the ring” heroine of Kimi ni Todoke.
Fascinated by the morbid and the gore (skulls, skeletons, horror films), people often doubt that she belongs to the human species: she has denied all forms of beauty and communication with the rest of the world following a disappointment in love.
Haunted by the words of the one she loved, the beauty of her fellow creatures revolts her; she says she is “dazzled” and can’t stand their light and bleeds her nose every time she stares at a beautiful person for too long.
By ignoring her own image, Sunako thinks she can escape comparison with the other young girls.
The four young men – hugely popular bishonen and constantly beset by giggling groupies – will do everything in their power to transform Sunako into a true woman of the world. Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge features a strong character that is forced to conform to traditional beauty standards.
12. Komi Can’t Communicate
Original Run: October 7, 2021 – present
Number of Episodes: 12
Summary
Komi Shouko is a girl who attends Itan High private school, where she is extremely popular with her peers due to her beauty and her seemingly haughty and superior attitude.
On the first day of class, she meets Tadano Hitohito, her neighbor: he discovers, after trying to talk to her, that Komi actually suffers from a communication disorder that prevents her from speaking in front of other people and, consequently, from being able to make friends with anyone.
Tadano thus promises to help her achieve her goal of finding a hundred friends.
13. ReLIFE
Original Run: July 2, 2016 – September 24, 2016
Number of Episodes: 13 + 4 OVA
Summary
The story of this anime revolves around Arata Kaizaki, a 27-year-old man, who becomes unemployed by quitting his job after only 3 months of work. Following this, the difficulties are linked to obtaining a full-time job in another company and cause the young man to find himself working part-time in a konbini.
One evening, a mysterious man, Ryō Yoake, offers Arata a deal: to obtain a stable job in a company of his choice on the condition of becoming a tester for a period of one year within the framework of the “ReLIFE” project, a scientific experiment consisting of to rejuvenate the tester by 10 years (in appearance) and send him to high school as a simple pupil.
More than a chance to live his youth again, the experience could allow the subject to restore order in his life, in the present, and in the future.
14. One Week Friends
Original Run: April 6, 2014 – June 22, 2014
Number of Episodes: 12 + 12 Special episodes included in the DVD / Blu-ray of the series
Summary
The story of One Week Friends anime follows High school student Yūki Hase who notices that his classmate Kaori Fujimiya is always lonely and has no contact with anyone in the class.
Since he likes her, he approaches her, finds out that she is friendly and intelligent, and wants to make friends with her. But Kaori rejects him. At the end of the week, she finally explains to him why: Every weekend she forgets all memories of her friends.
Therefore, she no longer wants to have close contact with anyone and avoids her classmates. But Yūki wants to help her and from then on tries again every week to win her friendship.
He motivates her to write a diary so that she can at least read about her experiences with him. Slowly Yūki manages that Kaori can at least remember him a little bit.
Then he brings in his friend Shōgo Kiryū, who is initially not very enthusiastic about the new friendship with Kaori, and the experiences together can also help Kaori.
15. Violet Evergarden
Original Release: January 11, 2018 – April 5, 2018
Number of Episodes: 13 + OVA
Summary
One more anime like Kimi ni Todoke is Violet Evergarden. The story is set around a young girl who performs the trade of “automatic memory dolls”: dolls initially created by Professor Orland to help his blind wife Mollie write her novels, and later rented out to others. people who needed their services.
The term refers to people who perform the function of a public writer, whose purpose is to transcribe the words and feelings of people. After four years of bitter warfare, this young girl with a heavy past tries not without difficulty to rebuild her future, starting with the exercise of this profession.
However, among all the wounds inflicted on him during the war, there is one that seems unwilling to heal.
16. We Were There (Bokura ga Ita)
Original Release: Jul 4, 2006, to Dec 26, 2006
Number of Episodes: 26
Summary
Bokura Ga Ita follows Nanami Takahashi who just started high school and is hoping to meet new friends and maybe widen her social circle a bit. She meets the shy and withdrawn Yuri Yamamoto who seems to hold a grudge against another popular guy in their class, Yano Motoharu.
Yano dated Yuri’s older and deceased sister Nana in the past and that is part of the reason Yuri doesn’t like him. The second reason is his overall cold and disdainful attitude.
At first, Nanami shares Yuri’s sentiment toward Yano but eventually, she is forced to share his company and manages to break the ice a bit. As she gets to know him better she realizes that he is not at all like he seems at first.
The two connect on a deeper level and eventually start dating. But not everything is as good as it seems.
Bokura Ga Ita puts Nanami’s resolve and determination to a test. Her relationship with Yano is in a constant shadow of Yano’s former relationship with Nana and the scars the relationship left him with.
Nanami tries to keep her relationship steady, juggle Yano’s insecurities and school life, and make Yuri at peace with everything that’s been going on.
17. Ao Haru Ride (Blue Spring Ride)
Original Release: Jul 8, 2014, to Sep 23, 2014
Number of Episodes: 12
Summary
Ao Haru Ride anime (Blue Spring Ride) has an unconventional heroine. Futaba Yoshioka goes to great lengths to avoid any kind of “male attention” due to rumors that follow her from middle school. She desperately tries to avoid going down the same path and stop history from repeating itself.
Things change when her former flame Kou Tanaka makes a sudden appearance back in her school. He is now a popular boy in school. Her feelings return, but he doesn’t feel like he used to.
He acts differently he is popular, a bit withdrawn from her. She suddenly realizes that if she wants to capture his attention, she needs to go back to her old style and habits.
Making yet another drastic change in her style and behavior might ruin her new “normalcy” and the solid friendships she formed so far.
