In general when it comes to anime, I usually watch the genres of romance and slice of life. There are exceptions to be sure with the likes of Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man, but if a new season of anime has started up, it’s the romance ones I am trying out. This current summer season of anime has given me an embarrassment of riches that, based on a lot of anime polls, a lot of fans agree with that assessment.
What has made this season so great? The variety of romance stories being told and the incredible detail that goes into each story is a start, but I think another major part is avoiding a lot of the clichés that we see in romance anime.
I am currently watching three straight up romance or at least romance adjacent anime: Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian, Days with My Stepsister, and Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian is the most traditional anime story with the beautiful and serious student Alya liking the seemingly slacker Masachika but only admitting that when she speaks her native Russian. But what she doesn’t know is that Masachika learned Russian when he was a child to speak to a cute Russian girl. This seemed like a concept that wouldn’t be able to keep a whole series going. It also has a lot of the tropes we are used to seeing in this setup. Masachika has a childhood friend Yuki who seems to have feelings for him. Then Alya’s older sister Maria realizes that she is the little girl Masachika learned Russian for. But they turn these tropes on their heads. Yuki is actually his sister but due to family drama isn’t or can’t make it public. Maria also knows Alya is in love even if she denies it and, while having fond memories of Masachika, loves her sister and genuinely wants them together. Even Masachika’s so-called laziness is due more to his past history than any personal failing. He is motivated now because Alya is someone he cares about and he knows he can help her in her quest to be student body president and so he is going to. He is attracted to her as well; he is a high school boy after all.
By playing around with the usual tropes of the genre they give it a lot more depth to explore the feelings of the characters. While Alya feels Yuki’s presence she is aware enough that she needs to fight for him. It motivates her instead of discouraging her. Masachika is not actually having a harem and not just being the normal guy who gets a bunch of women around him for no reason. We see him be serious in his desire to assist Alya. Okay, he also says stuff to make her hate him because he thinks she looks cute when she is angry but again, he’s a high school boy.
Days with My Stepsister is an incredibly slow burn of a show, but if you stay with it there are some really interesting takes on finding a connection with someone. Yūta and Saki are high school juniors who do not really know each other when his father and her mother get married. They both take the news calmly, loving their parents and wanting them to be happy, and decide to basically keep out of each other’s way so as to not cause any issues.
But they spend time with each other and help out, doing simple things because they are genuinely nice people. By just doing little things and talking, a bond develops. Saki makes meals for Yūta in exchange for him looking for a job for her. He also finds her music to listen to to help her study and tutors her. These two are quite introspective people and in little moments they start to build what could be a couple. We mainly get Yūta’s point of view and his not pining for Saki at all. He acknowledges she is attractive but it’s just a matter of fact, and feels that she does stuff for him so it is the right thing to do to help her.
With Saki we get these interesting flashbacks over moments they have together, where she sees him and knows she is feeling things and yet doesn’t want to go too far. We learn she wants to get ahead in life due to the break-up of her family, and desires self-sufficiency as a form of protection. Yūta is someone she is starting to lean on and she likes it, despite her goals. It is a beautifully told story about small moments that can change depending on who is seeing it. It is purposely taking its time but it is building wonderfully.
Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! is actually more like the anti-romance in many ways. This is about the women in love triangles that lose. Kazuhiko is an average high school guy who witnesses his classmate Anna encourage her childhood friend to go after a girl he likes while also confessing her own love to him. The friend leaves to go after her and Anna, embarrassed and pissed, starts complaining to Kazuhiko. In the process she runs up the bill at the restaurant they are at so she starts making him lunches to pay him off.
Then we have Lemon, a track star and popular girl, who also gets crushed when her childhood friend and member of Kazuhiko’s literature club, Mitsuki, dates another girl thinking Lemon is too popular for a nerdy guy like him. To round it out, literature member Chika, a quiet girl, has a crush on the president of the club but he loves his childhood friend who he starts to date.
This could have ended up with Kazuhiko getting the leftover girls for his own harem but that is not where this show has gone at all. It takes the rejection they go through as actually a big deal, where time and serious conversations with the couples are needed to get closure. Kazuhiko usually wants to have nothing to do with it but keeps getting dragged in by the group, and ends up being a reluctant nice guy and also a genuine friend to them. He’s the butt of several jokes as well. Down the line this may end up being a romance for him but right now it is friends hanging out and coming to grips with things that they cannot change and doing the best they can.
This great romance in anime doesn’t end with the actual romance shows. Oshi No Ko, season 2, one of the biggest anime this season, is not primarily a romance anime, being focused on exposing the dark sides of the creative industry in Japan. But it has one of the most intense love triangles with Aqua and his two love interests Kana and Akane. With Aqua’s desire to avenge his mother’s death while helping these two out and making them feel things for him, we cannot claim he is leading anyone on or dragging this out for dramatic effect. Yet the rivalry between these two characters has been even better than in season one, not just over him but also about who is a better actor and wanting to get something out of the other. The dynamic between them has been a great highlight. It also has turned me, a diehard Kana shipper, to at least see that Akane has merit as a choice for Aqua.
What I love about all of these is they all have very different takes on romance but each is working really hard in their different methods to create a compelling view of the complexity of human relationships. A lot of these shows may not have anyone together by the end, and that is okay with me because of how well they have been set up. You can see how they can take a lot of time to get there. It is taking relationships seriously and it is enhancing the storytelling all around and making for one of the best anime seasons in recent memory.
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian, Days with My Stepsister, and Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! air on Crunchyroll.
Oshi No Ko airs on Hidive.
What an interesting survey of the state of this genre! I have never watched a romance anime – the closest I've come is, like, Ouran High School Host Club – but I'd be down to log back into Crunchyroll and give the Too Many Losing Heroines! show a try.
My wife had me watch Ouran and I didn't get into it, I may nedd to try it again somce i have seen a lot more anime simce then. Hope Too Many Losing Heroines is enjoyable for you.