I’m watching Blue Spring Ride this season. (To be honest, I started because I love Futaba’s hairstyle, and I’m still debating with myself whether or not it’d be too awkward for everyone involved to bring a picture of an anime character to a hairdresser.)
Blue Spring Ride is ostensibly a shoujo romance show, but I think Beneath The Tangles hit the nail on the head when writer JP summarized it as an anime about learning to be yourself. Like a lot of teens, Futaba tries on personalities she hopes are more “likeable” than her own. She is unable to discover whether or not she’s in love with handsome Kou until she discovers herself.
This is all well and good as a coming-of-age story, but for me it’s not a very satisfying romance. Stuff like Kimi No Todoke is endearing at first, but can you believe it’s been 24 episodes and they still can’t confess? As I’ve gotten older and gotten married, I’ve learned that romance is about a lot more than the butterflies in your stomach when you’re trying to admit you like somebody.
I’m not just talking about sex. There’s learning to trust each other, dealing with jealousy regarding other love interests, sharing each other’s identity and physical space, and learning to resolve the inevitable argument without saying something you regret.
In order to get stories like this, you have to move beyond the shoujo genre into josei, which is geared at older women (but I’d argue that my favorite josei anime and manga, just like my favorite seinen stuff, are for everyone). These all involve straight relationships, but if you know of one that breaks that mold, I’d love to hear about it!
My favorite is 1998’s His And Her Circumstances. Yukino and Arima are both seemingly-perfect students who find they can be themselves around each other. It’s a rare high school romance that answers the question, “What happens after the first kiss?” One reviewer called it director Hideki Anno’s “personal case study of relationships.”
Both of Ai Yazawa’s most well known works, Paradise Kiss and Nana, involve more mature relationships, too. The characters in these shows have sex and contemplate or commit to cohabitation. They have arguments, resolutions, and sometimes, amicable separations.
Moving on to manga, there’s Happy Marriage?, the story of an office lady who has to marry a man she doesn’t know in order to keep up appearances. Perhaps since they live together, they’re able to get beyond the “does he like me?” tier of the relationship into subplots about infidelity and reconciling each others’ obnoxious housekeeping habits.
At any age, that very first “I love you” is the biggest rush you’ll ever feel. But as we get older, we aren’t fooled that it’s all “happily ever after” from here. I have a craving for more anime and manga that smartly and wholeheartedly explores the messiness of a romantic relationship.
Do you have any favorite romance anime or manga?
14 Comments.
Good on His and Her Circumstances, though the second half of the anime kind of falls apart amidst the recap episodes and internal turmoil. Still, the first 10 episodes or so of that are great.
I assume you mean just full-on romance, not romantic comedy or else we’d already be talking about Toradora!. Similarly, for straight-up dramas, I love Rumbling Hearts, but that’s 1.5 episodes of romance and 12.5 episodes of wrenching misery.
Stripped of its harem elements, Clannad could be a great romance, but there’s a lot to get in the way for those who don’t like the VN genre. It wouldn’t be completely unreasonable to just watch the best part of that series — Clannad After Story episodes 9-22 — and skip the rest. There’ll be a few character relationships you won’t be clued into, but just not knowing who Fuuko is might be preferable to watching her dull 7-episode arc in season one.
One of my favorite manga romances is the yuri Girl Friends. At just two double-sized volumes, it moves fast, so it doesn’t spin its wheels the way 17-volume romances like Lovely Complex (shoujo) or Ai Yori Aoishi (seinen, I guess?) do.
@realinvalidname:disqus I DID think about including Toradora, but I think it focuses just as much on Ryuuji and Taiga’s relationship as it does the entire group’s increasingly close bonds with one another. It’s an awesome show but Taiga’s tsundere status makes it hard to acknowledge when the tension over admitting their feelings stops being a major plot point.
I haven’t seen Clannad but what a good idea! I mean in After Story they’re actually married and dealing with the ups and downs of married life, right?
Thanks for all the recommendations!
Marriage is involved in that stretch of episodes of Clannad After Story, yes. Along with a lot of downs. Really, really down.
I think all you’d need to know going into that incredible run of episodes of After Story:
* Tomoya’s mom died when he was young, his dad’s a drunk/gambler, and Tomoya himself is a lousy student.
* There’s a harem (Kyou, Ryou, Kotomi, Tomoyo), and Tomoya picked Nagisa, the shy, sickly one with the awesome parents who own the bakery.
* There is a parallel “illusionary world”, whose only human resident is a teenage girl who has built a sentient robot out of junk. That world is ending and they need to escape. THIS IS IMPORTANT.
Actually, you could get almost all this from Clannad episode 1, and then skip directly to Clannad After Story 9-22. God, why did I watch all this, again?
I’ve made at least three people miserable by making them watch Rumbling Hearts. (Great mention!) They’ve liked it, but you’re right about the wrenching misery of its downward spiral.
Have you seen Golden Time? If you’re looking for mature romance for adults, I totally recommend that one (;
Golden Time frustrates me terribly. I wish I’d stopped after 12 episodes. It was a lot of fun until the am—-a plotline took over.
Have you heard of Sweet Blue Flowers (Aoi Hana)? That’s the only thing immediately coming to mind that deals with homosexual relationships. Wandering Son, sort of, but not really as well. Both are Takako Shimura manga.
Also Blue Spring Ride is pretty great! Love that show.
Natsuyuki Rendezvous. It involves a young (30 year-old) widow and her 22 year-old suitor. The series portrays the selfishness inherent in romantic love with an honestly rarely seen in anime.
Also, a lovely read. Thanks!
DEFINITELY on the Natsuyuki Rendezvous. Amazing show.
After talking with you the other day, I’m really eager to check out Happy Marriage – thanks for the rec, Lauren!
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[…] about romance, but for grown ups! Lauren Orsini at Otaku Journalist published an article detailing her experiences with romantic anime aimed at the over-18 set. It’s personal, […]
His and her Circumstance is a one of my all time favorite anime (romance or not). The manga is even more enjoyable as it deals with more than the anime did.
Don’t forget Maison Ikkoku for a great mature romance though!
While only somewhat a romance Asatte no Houkou is a very well done drama that focuses on interpersonal relationships.
The anime version of Itazura no Kiss is one title I am sad will probably never see a North American release. It is one where you are better off skipping the manga though, as the manga could not be finished due to the authors untimely death and the anime essentially follows it verbatim.
REC is a short and touching romance, but the manga is considerably ecchi in nature, while the anime is not.
With all the romance manga I have read GE: Good Ending is the most enjoyable shonen romance by far. Very little in the way of harem plots and generally honest human interactions, I highly recommend it.
For an incredibly gripping and realistic romance, but one of the most depressing manga ever…Koizora. Its based on a novel series that is supposed to be based on the authors real life.
While it deals with the taboo subject of incest, I have always thought Koi Kaza was incredibly well done, mature and gripping.
And for realistic, emotional and moving, you can’t forget 5cm per Second. I have heard the manga alters the ending a bit and was approved to do that by Makoto Shinkai.