The romance genre in Japanese anime is primarily skewed to tell stories of the blossoming love between teenagers. While these stories can be genuinely great romantic tales, adult viewers would like to see the love between older, more mature characters whom those viewers can relate to more deeply. Even if anime often caters to tweens and teenagers, plenty of adult fans are tuning in too, and romance fans in their 20s and 30s would much rather watch adult romance anime than yet another “two high school students fall in love” series.
Plenty of these adult anime series are widely available on most streaming platforms, from pure genre romances to fantasy and comedy series that also work in plenty of adult-oriented romantic storylines. These anime stories can push certain boundaries because their protagonists are older, giving the audience darker narratives at times. In other cases, these adult romance anime are almost as silly as typical high school rom-coms, except the main characters have relatable working lives and can talk about romance over a few hard drinks.
Updated on August 21th, 2023 by Louis Kemner: Every year adds more fantastic romance anime for fans to watch, though most of them focus on teenagers, such as recent titles like Oshi no Ko and Romantic Killer. Fortunately, fans of adult romance anime series only have to spend a little time shuffling through all these titles to find outstanding romance anime series with relatable characters in their 20s and older.
15 Wotakoi
1 Season, 11 Episodes
It’s easy to spot an outstanding adult romance anime if the main characters are attractive, suit-wearing people working in a modern office. While high schools are the go-to setting for teen-oriented romances, offices are the prime venue for the best adult romance anime series, since it’s relatable for 20-something or 30-something Japanese viewers.
Wotakoi puts a twist on this office formula by making its four main characters passionate otaku, devoted to video games, cosplay, anime, and more. The cheerful protagonist Narumi Momose works hard to hide this fact, though her co-worker turned boyfriend Hirotaka Nifuji isn’t so concerned — though he understands Narumi’s concerns.
14 My Senpai Is Annoying
1 Season, 12 Episodes
My Senpai is Annoying is another wonderful adult romance anime series that sets itself apart from teen rom-coms with its office setting. Amusingly, the petite protagonist Futaba Igarashi is often mistaken for a middle schooler, though she is determined to prove her worth as a junior sales rep.
Futaba’s senior co-worker, the burly and handsome Harumi Takeda, is friendly but vaguely patronizing, and Futaba wishes he would take her more seriously for once. Still, even if these co-workers aren’t on the same page, they might come closer together as romantic sparks begin to fly.
13 Love is Like a Cocktail
1 Season, 14 Episodes
Even if Love is Like a Cocktail is one of the shortest anime series of all time, it’s a worthwhile watch for any fan of adult romance anime. Each episode is just three minutes long, with the hardworking Chisato Mizusawa returning home every night to a new mixed drink that her adoring Sora made for her.
The premise is simple and innocent, but it’s still gently adult-oriented since the episodes often explain how alcoholic mixed drinks are made. That, and Chisato is sympathetic not to teenagers, but to 20- and 30-somethings as a lovestruck but also exhausted office worker who just needs a drink after work.
12 Recovery of an MMO Junkie
1 Season, 10 Episodes + OVA
Recovery of an MMO Junkie should appeal to any anime fan who can relate to adults seeking love, people who feel overwhelmed by the real world, or dedicated gamers who connect more strongly with game characters than with the people around them. This anime stars the 30-year-old Moriko Mirioka, who just quit her office job and now intends to lose herself in MMOs, hence the anime’s title.
Moriko will slowly wonder whether she really made the right call, and despite her mission to only play games, she will gradually re-enter the dating pool by meeting a male gamer who’s kind to her. Moriko will then strive to juggle her gaming life with the re-emergence of her personal life, making this title a compelling adult romance anime.
11 The Ice Guy And His Cool Female Colleague
1 Season, 12 Episodes
The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague is a recent adult anime series that, like many adult romance anime, takes place in a typical Japanese office building. What sets this one apart is that several characters have mild supernatural powers, most of all Himuro’s icy gifts due to his Snow Woman ancestry.
Himuro may be the office “ice guy” with a cool exterior and snow-white hair, but he has a warm heart, and his equally cool and collected colleague Fuyutsuki likes what she sees. The two of them will soon share a wholesome romance, with Himuro pushing himself to restrain his inconvenient ice powers so he can find true love as an ordinary man.
10 Rurouni Kenshin
3 Seasons, 95 Episodes
Rurouni Kenshin follows the titular protagonist repenting for his time as the Battosai. However, the love that grows between himself and Kaoru affects both characters and Kenshin’s journey for redemption. The relationship between Kaoru and Kenshin begins as a budding friendship, as Kenshin saves Kaoru from a false Battosai ruining the reputation of her school.
From then, the two experience bouts of depression when they are separated from each other and make attempts to reunite at all costs. While Rurouni Kenshin is not billed as a romance, the relationship between Kenshin and Kaoru is the backbone of the series.
9 Nodame Cantabile
3 Seasons, 46 Episodes, 3 OVAs
Nodame Cantabile follows a perfectionist musician, Shinichi Chiaki, the top college student who dreams of becoming a conductor. He was born into a musical family, but he is trapped in Japan, despite his talents, because of his gripping fear of planes and the ocean. He meets Megumi Noda, nicknamed Nodame, a piano student at their university. Where Chiaki is a perfectionist, Nodame is messy and eccentric.
This opposites-attract tale is whimsical and ridiculous. Because of Chiaki’s involvement with Nodame, he can overcome his fears, follow his dreams, and understand what it means to fall in love and be loved. For Nodame’s part, she learns how to face her fears and competes in a piano competition.
8 Honey And Clover
2 Seasons, 36 Episodes
Honey and Clover focuses on three art students, Yuta Takemoto, Takumi Mayama, and Shinobu Morita, who all live in the same apartment complex. They are then introduced to Hagumi “Hagu” Hanamoto, the second cousin of an art professor at the boys’ art school. The anime follows these four and additional characters brought into their web.
Honey and Clover was created for young adults. It followed its characters through their different love triangles and dealt with unrequited love. Added to their love life is the more mundane aspect of being an adult, having to worry about the future after graduation, finding a job, and coming to terms with oneself as they learn more about who they are.
7 Spice And Wolf
1 Season, 12 Episodes
Spice And Wolf is a European-stylized fantasy. The protagonist, Kraft Lawrence, is a young traveling merchant who finds himself in the town of Pasloe for the night as they participate in an old pagan celebration for the wolf spirit, who is supposed to bring bountiful wheat harvests. Lawrence later finds the wolf deity, Holo, in his wagon.
After being forgotten by the town’s people and being deemed a fickle spirit, Holo decides she will return to her land in the North. She travels with Lawrence, providing him with wisdom that helps to increase his business profits, but in doing so, they also earn the ire of the Church.
6 Servant X Service
1 Season, 13 Episodes
Servant x Service is a comedy about the lives of civil servants in the fictional city of Mituba. The main character is Lucy, who joins the ranks of civil servants to find and get revenge on the government worker who approved of her parents giving her a ridiculously long name. Despite dealing with the wild challenges of civil servant life, Lucy is hell-bent on finding the worker who legalized her name and taking her revenge.
While on her mission, Lucy and her coworkers also navigate their different love lives. Lucy is the unrequited love of Yutaka Hasebe, although their relationship changes over time. Their relationship is further complicated when it is found out that Hasebe’s father was the worker that legalized Lucy’s name.
5 Spy X Family
Ongoing
Spy x Family is a series about a spy named Twilight who needs a family to complete a mission. He adopts a young girl to be his daughter, not realizing that she is telepathic, and the woman he finds to marry is an assassin named Yor.
However, neither Twilight, now under the alias Loid, nor Yor knows who the other is or that their telepathic adoptive daughter knows their true identities. Loid and Yor’s relationship slowly becomes more genuine as the series continues. Through the different challenges the family experiences, they can come together and fill their voids with their new family members.
4 Golden Time
1 Season, 24 Episodes
Golden Time is a romantic comedy that follows a law school student, Banri Tada, who suffers from memory loss from an accident before the series starts. He finds himself lost on campus after the opening ceremony, where he meets another lost student, Mitsuo Yanagisawa. The two young men become fast friends after the first-year orientation.
The series is about Banri handling his memories returning, the feelings of Linda, a second-year student who feels responsible for Banri’s accident and memory loss, and his growing feelings for Koko Kaga. The series also deals with the promise of childhood sweethearts and how that relationship changes as the two individuals get older, mainly when one takes the oath more seriously than the other.
3 Arakawa Under The Bridge
2 Seasons, 26 Episodes
Arakawa Under the Bridge follows a young man named Kou Ichinomiya. His father instructed Kou as he was growing up never to be indebted to others. Because of this, Kou does everything by himself, and he tends to have asthma attacks if he is obligated to someone and cannot repay them.
After being attacked by bullies, Kou falls into the river and is saved by a girl named Nino. Kou cannot accept that he should be indebted to Nino for saving his life and asks her what he can do for her. Nino states that she wants him to love her, which brings Kou to live under the bridge.
2 I Can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying
2 Seasons, 26 Episodes
I Can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying is a slice-of-life comedy that focuses on the lives of Kaoru and her husband, Hajime. Kaoru is an office worker, and her husband is an obsessed anime and manga fan who works as a blogger. The show’s premise is how Kaoru is adjusting to married life and being married to an otaku.
There are typical tropes about otaku and references to popular anime. Also, the anime also delves into the similarities between the otaku culture and regular life in Japan. This is a sweet romantic comedy with a fun cast of adult characters.
1 Nana
1 Season, 47 Episodes
Nana is the story of two women who meet by chance on a train ride to Tokyo in the snow. By luck, these women are the same age and named Nana. From the day they meet, they are bound to each other in a way that borders love and obsession.
The love lives in Nana are intense, and each Nana has her issue with the romantic parts of their lives. Beyond just the Nanas, the other characters in the anime all have intertwining and complicated emotions as they attempt to reach their goals.