here for the lulz😂

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sick and tired of seeing “Top ___ Best Anime of All Time” lists that are nothing but shounen. So, with "My Happy Marriage" getting a little attention from the anime community, I wanted to put together a list of some romance anime that I consider good “starters” for the genre. Because if I were just now becoming an anime fan, I’d think all there was to offer was shounen action series.

And by “starters” I mean basic stuff that’s not too…out there, and actually involves the characters getting together instead of just harems or using romance as a side plot (sorry Ouran High School Host Club and My Next Life as a Villainess). 

So if you’re new to anime and want stuff that’s not just guys beating the shit out of each other (which is also fun, don’t get me wrong), here are some basics.

Taisho Maiden Fairy Tale- When the pessimistic Tamahiko Shima loses all function in his right arm, his family sends him away to live in the mountains with the cheerful, hard working Yuzuki Tachibana…who was purchased by the Shima family to pay off her family’s debts and basically act as a caretaker/future bride for Tamahiko so they’d never have to deal with him again. It’s a more cheerful version of My Happy Marriage (without the supernatural stuff), except in this one, the guy is the one who has massive self-esteem issues and an abusive family. There are still very serious themes, but ultimately it’s not meant to make you cry every episode. I swear it’s so good, but nobody watched it!

Horimiya- A slice of life in which pretty and popular high school queen bee Hori, finds out her quiet, unassuming classmate Miyamura is hiding piercings and tattoos that could get him expelled. The two gradually find out more about each other and get together in the most realistic way I’ve seen depicted in an anime. It’s also fucking hysterical and genuinely emotional.

Recovery of an MMO Junkie- Another slice of life that focuses on two adults who meet in an MMO game without realizing they also know each other in real life. I don’t want to say much more than that. It’s adorable, and the main character is so relatable it hurts.

Love with Yamada-kun at Level 999- Speaking of MMOs, this is a newer series about Akane Kinoshita, a college first year who’s reeling from a bad break up. In an attempt to get back at her ex, she winds up meeting Akito Yamada, a popular gamer who happens to be in her guild in the MMO they both play at an IRL meetup. The two go from acquaintances to something more as they keep running into each other. Even more relatable main characters and just wholesome relationships all around.

Snow White With The Red Hair- A fantasy in which an apothecary named Shirayuki (meaning, you guessed it, “snow white”) runs away from her home in order to escape becoming the concubine of her town’s prince. While fleeing, she is rescued by Zen, the prince of a neighboring country, and she ends up becoming an herbalist to repay him. It's super cute with some genuinely swoon worthy moments and a couple that just works so well together. I have a habit of comparing this to Akatsuki no Yona, even though the two aren’t really that alike. This is more romance driven while Akatsuki no Yona is more of a serious historical fantasy with romance elements (Yona manga is amazing, but the anime barely scratches the surface, so that’s why I didn’t include it).

Sasaki to Miyano- When the shy, easily flustered Miyano meets Sasaki, a cool “delinquent” upperclassmen, the two end up bonding over manga…specifically BL manga. That’s right, Miyano is a fudanshi, but due to his small stature and somewhat feminine appearance, he’s constantly trying to convince others that he’s not interested in having his own love story where he’d be reduced to a stereotypical doe-eyed uke. But as Sasaki and Miyano spend more time together, they realize that what they have is more than friendship, and they have to come to terms with their own perception of gay relationships. This is my favorite romance of all time. It’s a slow burn, but boy is it worth it. Their relationship is so natural and realistic, just like Horimiya. Just two people hanging out and bonding over things the way people do in real life!

Given: The story of some boys in a band with trauma. Enough said. It's great. Go watch it.

Bloom Into You- Yuu Koito is a high school girl who’s been waiting her whole life for her own perfect romance to start…but when she receives a confession, she realizes she doesn’t know how to respond when she’s just not into the guy. And then she gets another confession…this time from the cool student council president Touko Nanami, who basically jumpstarts her lesbian awakening. Very cute story about how we perceive the concept of love vs actually feeling it. Also has a canonically aro/ace side character, so that’s a win for me. Another show like this is Adachi to Shimamura (but I honestly don’t remember much about it. It just didn’t stick with me as much).

Ore Monogatari- Takeo Gouda is a tall, bulky high school first year with a sensitive heart of gold. He wants nothing more than to find his own true love, but most girls are intimidated by his enormous stature, and they end up falling for his conventionally attractive friend instead. That is, until he meets the tiny, adorable Rinko Yamato. He falls in love instantly, but he’s sure she’s interested in his best friend like everyone else, so he vows to help get them together, even though his heart is breaking. Peak himbo behavior. Pure of heart, dumb of ass.

Yuri on Ice- Yes it’s the gay figure skating anime everyone knows. And yes it’s a fucking romance, okay? I will die on this hill. The romance between Viktor and Yuri is just as important as the plot!

Kaguya-sama Love Is War- Two insanely smart high school students both have a crush on the other, but since they’re…you know…high schoolers, neither of them wants to admit it first. So they come up with increasingly convoluted plans to get the other to confess first. This will go down as one of the best of all time. It’s a hilarious yet poignant modern classic.

Fruits Basket- I’ve talked about it before and I’ll talk about it again. A romance “comedy” that slowly morphs into a drama about a girl named Tohru who finds herself living with the mysterious Sohma family after her mother dies. Little does she know, the Sohmas are the victims of a  (somewhat silly, but ultimately tragic) curse that she must fight to break. Even though I’m more into it for the family drama, the romance is still top tier and plays an important role in the story. This is my second favorite anime of all time, and it’s a classic for a reason. If anyone hasn’t watched it yet, GO WATCH IT! IT WILL RIP YOU TO SHREDS!

And now for some honorable mentions that didn't quite fit into the regular list:

Ride Your Wave- A movie about a surfer who falls in love with a firefighter……and I’m not going to say any more than that. Go into it blind. If you like stuff like Your Name, this is a good one to watch.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun- A comedy about a high school girl who finds out the upperclassman she has a crush on is actually a shoujo manga artist, and no matter how she tries to confess to him, he just never gets it.

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague- A slow burn slice of life that focuses on a guy with ice powers who has a crush on his coworker. That’s it. That’s the show. When I say slow, I mean SLOW. It’s perfectly cute and fluffy, but my god does it take forever to get anywhere with these two.

Skip to Loafer- A high strung, small town girl decides to go to high school in Tokyo, where she meets a variety of classmates, including the laid back Sousuke Shima. The unlikely pair become friends, and soon enough, she starts to feel something more than friendship. The only reason I didn’t include it in the main list is because they don’t get together by the end of the first season, but it’s still really cute (also canonically trans character for the win!?)

So hello everyone! We’re back this week with Bad Buddy Ep. 11. I’m actually writing this just after watching episode eleven - and yeah, I’m probably writing a script for a formal reaction video for youtube.

Anyway, this will be very short so let’s go straight to the point of this post. 

Is Bad Buddy’s eleventh episode really a cursed episode?

In a way, yeah - especially if you’ve watched until the end; but entirely, no.

Instead of feeling as if it was, I felt like it was a healing episode. I’ve made a lot of realizations and a lot of thoughts about it - which will be added to my formal weekly recaps - that somehow, I’ve even wondered how much of a handful I was when I was a kid (I’m officially an adult eight years ago?). 

Before I go with it, I’d like to make it clear that: Pat and Pran were still brats. Not literally, but figuratively. 

I’ve realized that as I’ve watched the episode. 

There was this looming question I had in my head since last week: why do people run away when they have problems even?

Accept it or not, we, as youngsters often run away from ourselves when we encounter a problem that we think are beyond of what we are capable of. We began making a web of reasons to explain our side of things and eventually come to a realization that we are quite wrong doing so. That’s probably how our two leads felt.

The thing about their parents are too hard for them to handle so they have no other choice but to run away together. But I think in reality, they just wanted to escape everything. They wanted to run from it but in essence, Pat and Pran just wanted to be in a world where they can be themselves. So they did. But as they stayed longer, they eventually opened their eyes that running away won’t solve the problem and sooner or later, they’d be forced to face the problem again.

So as I was saying, Pat and Pran are brats. They’re literally kids trapped in a second year college’s body. That’s probably why Pran easily saw himself in Junior. Because he realized that all in all, what they were doing weren’t really solving the problem - but is delaying the problem. They weren’t only running away from reality, but from themselves as well.

There’s a reason why Pran is the most affected with the situation though. Yes, some might argue that they’re both affected but let’s try to examine (1) family structure and (2) social structure.

 Pran is an only child. I am guessing that while Pran’s dad is busy with their company, Pran only had his mom. Basically, Pran is a mama’s boy, in layman’s term. A person who’s very close to his mom can’t be away from her for a long time. I’ve expected him not to last for a few days. Also, given at what happened between them, Pran should’ve felt really bad, guilty and devastated just because of the fact that he talked back to her. Pat had Pa. Whatever he can’t tell his parent’s he can tell Pa about it and it’s fine because Pa is still family. Something Pran doesn’t have. If he can’t confide to his mom, who would he confide to?

Pat is way more sociable that Pran. He’s a people’s person and just gets along with everyone he meet. Running away might not be a big deal for extroverts but it is for introverts. It’s not a straight cut thing someone like Pran would do. Without Pat there, Pran wouldn’t even last a day.

But you know what’s amazing, disregarding everything I’ve written in number bullets, they actually solved everything on their own. Pat stayed with Pran and so as Pran. They might be selfish children in the eyes of us, adults, but all in all, they were there for each other - and I think that is what love is. Standing beside one another even if other people doesn’t approve. A you and me against the world thing. It sounds really lame but when you’re just there you can’t laugh it off as a silly thing to believe.

My favorite part? When Pat said: “…And together, we’ve been through a lot. We’ve experienced wonderful times a lot, we’ve had awful times a lot, we’ve looked out for each other a lot, we’ve been concerned about each other a lot, we’ve been thinking about each other a lot, and we’ve been happier a lot.”

Why? Well aside from the fact that it actually mirrors the thought that I want people to think throughout my recaps from Ep. 1, it also mirrors Pat’s and Pran’s true feelings to one another. Because they indeed were feelings those things as they were growing up.

Really, this episode is a breakthrough for GMM. I liked it and not regretting every moment I spent waiting for it. Props to Pat being too patient with Pran. We know how Pran is but Pat was always there for him althroughout. And props to Pran being he is. He supported Pat’s decision and stood for him all along the way. Can’t these two be more perfect? They’re basically like two wolves.

Context: When wolves are attacked one (usally the female) actually acts as if it cowers to the male’s chest (neck-line) but in reality, it protects the male’s weakest part (which is it’s throat) from being attacked. Just like Pat and Pran, even if they’re being thrown sticks and stones, Pat’s aggressive behavior doesn’t - and will never bother Pran - instead he’d just stand by him and protect his weakest parts (his heart).

But either way, Episode 11 gives me feels like: You know, it’s like seeing people fall in love in a 360 degree point of view. You kinda know it would end but you enjoy the moment.

And that’s when I realized the curse.

I mean, I know that not all good things comes for free but it’s just hard to accept that leaving their dream also means leaving each other’s arms.

It’s bittersweet. It’s like they met the right person, just not on the right time.

Like sure he was unreasonable sometimes and a bit of a jerk some other times but he was endearing and protective and loyal. But in ep 5 I saw him as an asshole and unreasonably protective and everytime I thought of the future I thought 'oh he is gonna make trouble for Pat and Pran' and interestingly I felt 'Korn is okay' in ep 5 while I was just raging against him for the past 4 episodes.

And basically what I need to say is that ep 5's POV shift really worked so well that I didn't even realise I was seeing it from Pat's point and so thought that Korn was alright and Wai is an asshole while in the past 4 episodes it was Pran's POV and so had thought in the exact opposite way.

Everyone can keep adding! Linked the songs from YouTube so it’ll be easier for everyone to listen to! Enjoy & have fun making scenarios & feeling the feels!!

1. Just Friends? By Nanon Kirdpan

2. Cold Light of Day by Across The Great Valley

3. If Our Love Is Wrong by Calum Scott

4. There’s No Way by Lauv ft. Julia Michaels

5. We’re Not Friends by Ingrid Andress

6. Honest Mistake by Max Embers

7. Hate You + Love You by Cheat Codes ft. AJ Mitchell

8. Rock Bottom by Hailee Steinfeld ft. DNCE

9. Thinking Bout You by WOODZ

10. Hold Your Breath by Chase Atlantic

11. Elephant by Freya Ridings

“he won’t tell you that he loves you, but he loves you” —crush, Richard Siken