20 Best Romance Anime on Netflix (Ranked)
In this article, we will focus on romance as we have picked the 20 best romance anime – movies and series – that you can stream on Netflix. We are going to present these works to you in random order so you can watch them if you like a bit of Japanese magic and romance, since all of these works provide you with both. Note that not all of these titles will be available in all regions of the world.
1. Your Name
Original Release: July 3, 2016
Running Time: 107 minutes
The film is about Mitsuha and Taki who undergo a transformation at night. They live two completely different lives. Mitsuha is a high school girl in a rural mountain village where her father is the mayor. Mitsuha finds the countryside boring, her biggest dream is a life in the big city. Taki, also a high school student, lives in central Tokyo and is deeply involved in architecture.
One day, the two find out that a metamorphosis took place overnight, and they are now in another body. Taki and Mitsuha communicate with each other through notes and notes in their cell phones, helping each other with relationships and popularity at school. After Taki is back in his own body, he decides to visit Mitsuha.
A restaurant owner recognizes Taki’s sketch of the village of Itomori, and says it was destroyed by a comet impact. Taki learns that Mitsuha’s life happened three years ago, and she didn’t survive. Taki tries to contact Mitsuha to warn her of the comet impact. This succeeds and she tries to evacuate the village with her friends Tessie and Sayaka.
Eventually the comet hits, and destroys the entire village. Taki wakes up the next morning, remembering nothing of the events. Five years later, Taki learns that the people of Itomori survived the disaster thanks to the mayor. One day, Taki and Mitsuha recognize each other when their trains pass. They both get off at the next stop and ask for each other’s names.
2. Your Lie in April
Original Run: October 9, 2014 – March 19, 2015
Number of Episodes: 22
Kōsei Arima, a piano child prodigy, dominated various music competitions in Japan and became famous among children’s musicians, but also controversial. After his mother Saki dies, he has a nervous breakdown at a piano competition, which leads to the fact that he can no longer hear the notes of his piano even though he can hear everything else normally.
Two years have passed since then, in which Kōsei has not touched the piano and only perceives the world in black and white, without atmosphere or color. His best friends, the softball player Tsubaki Sawabe and the soccer player Ryōta Watari, try to cheer him up and arrange a kind of “double date” in which Kōsei meets a girl who brightens up his colorless world again: Kaori Miyazono.
The free-spirited 14-year-old violinist, whose playing style reflects her manic personality, helps Kōsei return to the music world by pushing him back to play the piano. By playing the violin, she also shows him that, in contrast to the structured and rigid style that Kōsei plays, she appears free and lively. They even made it to our list of best anime couples.
3. Toradora!
Original Run: October 2, 2008 – March 26, 2009
Number of Episodes: 25 (+ 1 OVA)
Ryuuji Takasu 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.
4. A Silent Voice
Original Release: September 17, 2016
Running Time: 130 minutes
Nishimiya is a sweet and caring student. Every day, however, she is harassed by Ishida because she is hard of hearing. Denounced for his behavior, the boy is in turn ostracized and finds himself alone. Five years later, he learns sign language and goes in search of the young girl.
5. Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
Original Run: January 12, 2019 – June 27, 2020
Number of Episodes: 24
The Shūchiin Academy is a prestigious school where the country’s future elites, almost exclusively the children of the rich, continue their studies. Within the high school students’ office, the two brilliant exemplary models of the academy, the vice-president Kaguya Shinomiya and the president – from a modest background – Miyuki Shirogane, conceive of love in a particular way: they are attracted to one by the other, but it is impossible for them to confess their feelings because of their too much pride, even if a semester has passed.
Indeed, considering the correlation between inequality of love interest and the relationship of domination in a relationship of this ilk, they each conclude that whoever confesses first, will become the “loser” of the couple and will inevitably come from there. to be submitted by the other. Thus begins their daily life filled with various plots and other stratagems to force the other to confess his feelings.
6. Violet Evergarden
Original Run: January 11, 2018 – April 5, 2018
Number of Episodes: 13 + OVA
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.
The words of a loved one still echo in her heart, without the young girl knowing the real reason. She wants to know, to understand their meaning. Thus begins the quest of Violet Evergarden, learning mixed with letters, encounters, and various emotions.
7. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Original Run: April 14, 2011 – June 23, 2011
Number of Episodes: 11
A group of six childhood friends split up after one of them, Meiko “Menma” Honma, died in an accident. Ten years after this tragedy, the leader of the group, Jinta Yadomi, isolates himself from society and lives in seclusion.
One summer day, however, Menma appears to Jinta, looking older, asking him for help in fulfilling her wish. She believes she needs to accomplish it to fulfill her destiny. But Menma doesn’t remember what her wish was, causing Jinta to reunite her childhood friends again, as she believes they are the key to solving this problem.
However, the hidden feelings, internal conflicts and the persistence of feelings of sadness by Menma’s parents result in complications for the group as they struggle not only to help Menma but themselves.
8. Weathering with You
Original Release: July 19, 2019
Running Time: 112 minutes
Young high school student Hodaka Morishima leaves his home on an isolated island to settle in Tokyo, but he quickly runs out of money. He lives in seclusion but eventually finds a job as a writer for a sleazy occult magazine.
After Hodaka starts working, the weather remains rainy day after day. One day, in a busy corner of town, he meets a young girl named Hina Amano. Hina and her younger brother live together but lead a happy and stable life. This playful and determined girl has a strange and wonderful power: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky.
9. Ouran High School Host Club
Original Run: April 5, 2006 – September 26, 2006
Number of Episodes: 26
Ouran High School is a privileged educational institution where children of the richest and noblest families in Japan (children of politicians and big business tycoons) go to school. At the school, some of the best teachers in the country design the curriculum in such a way as not to overload the pampered wealthy students. Thanks to such care, they have a huge amount of free time that they spend on their hobbies.
One of the adornments of the Ouran School is the so-called “Host Club”, where rich and handsome young men use their natural abilities to entertain equally rich and beautiful girls with a certain benefit for themselves.
By chance, Haruhi Fujioka, who had enrolled in this school thanks to his academic achievements, enters the abandoned music classroom in which this club is based. After accidentally knocking a luxurious 8-million yen vase off a stand, Haruhi Fujioka found himself in virtual slavery by the wealthy members of the Host Club. From now on, he must go to the store, work as a servant, carry out small errands and do other dirty work in the club until graduation, thereby fulfilling his duties to the club.
10. Yuri!!! on ICE
Original Release: October 6, 2016 – December 21, 2016
Number of Episodes: 12 + OVA
After coming in last place during his first participation in the Grand Prix, the young Japanese figure skater Yuri Katsuki continues to lose and begins to doubt his career. Months later, Yuri returns to his hometown of Hasetsu in Kyūshū, which he had left five years earlier, and there perfectly reproduces a choreography by the famous Russian skater Victor Nikiforov.
When a video of his performance filmed without his knowledge goes viral and catches Victor’s attention, the latter decides to become Yuri’s coach and train him with one of his prodigy students, Yuri Plisetsky.
11. Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun
Original Run: July 7, 2014 – September 22, 2014
Number of Episodes: 12
The high school student Chiyo Sakura has fallen in love with her classmate Umetaro Nozaki, but it is difficult for her to admit this to him. After one unsuccessful attempt, he takes it home with him. But contrary to Sakura’s hopes, he thinks she is a fan – Nozaki is a mangaka and draws a comic series for girls (“Shōjo”), which appears in the magazine Gekkan Shōjo Romance.
She has long since noticed her talent in the art club, so he recruits her as an Inker. Sakura likes to do this, after all, she is so close to him and maybe she can still confess her love to him. Through the frequent work together, they make new friends and Sakura learns about the work of a mangaka. So Nozaki first goes in search of interesting people who he can use as a template for his stories.
Sakura introduces him to her classmate Yuzuki Seo – a sporty, helpful, but also rough and insensitive girl. Through Nozaki, Sakura met Mikoto Mikoshiba, who drew Nozaki the decorations and patterns. Mikoto is a would-be womanizer who often knocks out slogans but is shortly afterwards ashamed of himself.
12. Kamisama Kiss
Original Run: October 1, 2012 – March 30, 2015
Number of Episodes: 25 (+ 5 OVA)
Nanami Momozono’s father has a thing for gambling, which causes them to live in misery. One day, her father runs away from home and abandons her, leaving behind his debts. Unable to pay the rent, Nanami is evicted from her apartment. She then wanders the streets until she meets a strange man, who gives her his house after hearing her story.
He leaves after kissing her on the forehead. When she goes to the address he gave her, Nanami realizes that the house is actually a temple, where spirits live, including a boy with fox ears and a tail. She learns that by kissing her, the man made her the new god of the Earth and she will have to face many situations to keep her place as a divinity!
13. Komi Can’t Communicate
Original Run: October 7, 2021 – present
Number of Episodes: 12
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.
14. 5 Centimeters per Second
Original Release: March 3, 2007
Running Time: 65 minutes
A tale of two people, Tono Takaki and Shinohara Akari, who were close friends but gradually grow farther and farther apart as time moves on. They become separated because of their families yet continue to exchange contact in the form of letters. Yet as time continues to trudge on, their contact with one another begins to cease. Years pass and the rift between them grows ever larger.
However, Takaki remembers the times they have shared together, but as life continues to unfold for him, he wonders if he would be given the chance to meet Akari again as the tale embarks on Takaki’s realization of the world and people around him.
15. Ride Your Wave
Original Release: June 10, 2019
Running Time: 96 minutes
Hinako is an enthusiastic and energetic young student who has just moved to a coastal town for her studies, but above all in order to be able to practice her passion, surfing. One evening, illegal fireworks set off a fire in the apartment building where she lives.
Hinako is saved by Minato, a dedicated firefighter, and the two quickly fall in love and become a couple. They have happy days and have plans for the future, but the young man suddenly loses his life trying to save a drowning person. Collapsed, Hinako takes the disappearance of her love hard until Minato’s spirit reappears.
16. InuYasha
Original Run: October 16, 2000 – September 13, 2004 / October 3, 2009 – March 29, 2010
Number of Episodes: 167 + 26
One isekai anime on this list. The plot featured in InuYasha is based on the adventures of a half-demon, a teenager from modern Japan, a pervy monk, a fox demon, and a demon exterminator from the Sengoku period, as they search for all the fragments of the Sacred Jewel and try to keep it away from criminals, especially Naraku.
Throughout the series, InuYasha is constantly torn between the desire to have the Sacred Jewel and his feelings for Kagome, considering that his demonic side is what gives him the most power; however, it is revealed that his human side is the strongest, the side exploited when InuYasha finds the Tessaiga sword.
17. Ocean Waves
Original Release: May 5, 1993
Running Time: 72 minutes
Rikako Mutō is a student from Tokyo who has just been transferred to one of the institutes in Kōchi, a coastal city far from the capital, after her parents’ divorce. Rikako is a beautiful, intelligent young woman, good at studies and sports. However, she is unable to adapt to the social life of the school. Taku Morisaki and Yutaka Matsuno, two great friends from high school, attend the same high school, the former of whom begins to notice the young newcomer visibly.
18. Flavors of Youth
Original Release: July 6, 2018
Running Time: 75 minutes
Flavors of Youth is made up of three stories set in a different city:
- The Rice Noodles: A young employee working in Beijing remembers his childhood, his grandmother in his hometown, and the taste of rice noodles.
- A Little Fashion Show: Orphan sisters live in Canton; the eldest earns her living as a model to enable her sister to study.
- Love in Shanghai: In Shanghai, a young man finds a K7 recorded in 1999 by the girl he was in love with.
19. Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
Original Release: July 25, 2020
Running Time: 87 minutes
Yui Sakura, known to her friends as Cherry, a shy young man fond of writing haikus, who replaces her mother at her job in a senior citizens’ club during their summer vacations and uses headphones to prevent people from talking to her on the street. , accidentally meets Yuki, an influencer known under the pseudonym Smile, who wears a Surgical Mask to hide her large incisors, the two develop a friendship while searching for a lost vinyl record.
20. Fruits Basket
Original Run: July 5, 2001 – June 29, 2021
Number of Episodes: 89
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).
