In romance anime, it takes two to make a couple, but there will almost always be a main character that drives of the story.
As romance anime is still widely considered a genre aimed at women, most commonly you will find that the main character of a large chunk of romance anime is the female side of the couple. Many series will focus on the feelings and experiences of the female character in order to appeal to a female audience.
If you are looking for great romance anime with a female main character, then check out these anime recommendations.
This is Part of a Series:
Best Romance Anime Told From The Female Perspective
My Little Monster
Shizuku Mizutani cares little of others and only about scoring top marks. However, when she is tasked with taking something to her desk neighbor Haru Yoshida, her world begins to change. Haru, too, knows little of human nature and hasn’t been to school for awhile due to fighting. Yet, it is the lack of friends that they both have that soon forms a friendship between them.
Although usually the more fiery force would be the main character, perhaps Haru is a little too fiery for that. Shizuku may be cold, but she has a pretty level head.
Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun
Chiyo Sakura has fallen head over heels for the handsome and oblivious Umetarou Nozaki. However, when she confesses her love, he gives her an autograph. It turns out this stoic boy is actually a respected shoujo manga artist. After a series of misunderstandings, Chiyo winds up not as his girlfriend, but as his manga assistant.
Nozaki can seen nothing but his work, and yet Chiyo still tries to attract his affections. In actuality, most of the time she seems content just spending time with him. So while not the most romantic series, it is darn cute.
Kimi ni Todoke
Due to her quiet nature and long black hair, Sawako Kuronuma’s kind deeds are often mistaken as malicious by her classmates. With the nickname of Sadako, like The Ring girl, people avoid her, but she still wants to make friends. When the popular Shouta Kazehaya begins to take notice of her, her fortunes might begin to change.
As Sawako is a bit awkward and thus misunderstood, the major charm of the series is not that she lands herself a cute popular guy, but exploring her new interactions with those around her. Sometimes it is pretty cringe, but for the most part, so poignant.
Say “I Love You”
After a traumatic incident in her past, Mei Tachibana swore off making friends, deeming all people as untrustworthy. While her quiet life seems to be going quite normally, her core as an introvert is shaken by a few chance encounters with the popular Yamato Kurosawa.
I often equate this story to a darker Kimi ni Todoke. The premise is very much the same, though all the characters are less wholesome. However, seeing Mei open up to others is not the charming bit. She has made her heart steel, so this time, it is a joy to see others show her kindness.
Blue Spring Ride
Futaba Yoshioka was liked by boys and hated by girls in middle school, but she didn’t care as long as Kou Tanaka noticed her. However, after Kou moves away and she enters high school, she does everything she can to be less attractive to the boys in her class so she can have girl friends. Yet when Kou comes back, even though he is a different person, the feelings come back as well.
When you have a man suddenly reappear into your life, you don’t just make him the main character. You have to learn all about the reason he suddenly left and why he came back an entirely different person.
Orange
On the first day of a new semester, Naho Takimiya oversleeps. On her way out after being late for school, she finds a letter waiting for her that says it is from herself ten years in the future. The letter ardently states her regrets that she has surrounding a new transfer student Kakeru Naruse. Thinking it is a prank at first, Naho ignores it, but when the events described within begin to come true, Naho decides that she will try to help her future self.
There is a very clear reason why the female in this series can only be the main character, but I don’t want to discuss that. Through her eyes, the drama is unraveled.
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for an Otaku
It its Narumi’s goal that her co-workers don’t find out that she is an otaku and fujoshi. However, that becomes more difficult when she discovers that she works with her old middle school friend Hirotaka who is more open about his passions. After a night of drinking and complaining about her failed past relationships, Hirotaka suggests she date an otaku, namely him.
You don’t get a lot of adult romances. This one isn’t the most exciting, but it is by far and wide the most mature. You could have either as the main character and still have the same show. It is just that Narumi wears her feelings on her sleeve a little more.
Vampire Knight
Cross Academy is separated into two classes, the day class and the night class. The day class is filled with normal students while the night class is made up of gorgeous elites. However, what the day students don’t know is that the night students are vampires. This is the tale of Yuuki and Zero, guardians of the night students that keep their secret. While Yuuki is the adopted daughter of the chairman, she is happy to interact with her night student savoir Kaname. Zero, on the other hand, has an intense hatred of vampires.
Two boys, each more vampire-y than the last, vie for the attentions of one girl. You must focus on the singular girl’s perspective lest it turn into a yaoi.
Snow White With the Red Hair
Shirayuki is an herbalist that lives a normal life in the country of Tanbarun. However, when her beautiful red hair is noticed by the Prince Raji, he tries to make her his concubine. She then decides to cut her hair and flees into the forest. It is there she is rescued by the second Prince of neighboring Zen Wistalia. In order to repay her life debt to him, she sets her hopes on becoming the court herbalist in the capital of Clarines.
I’ve always enjoyed this one because it obviously takes the whole fairy tale sort of story, but it gives the princess hopes and dreams rather than just the goal of becoming a baby machine for some dude.
Lovely Complex
Risa is very tall for a girl. Atsushi is very short for a boy. They are both in love with different people who actually end up dating each other. With both their loves taken, the two form an unlikely friendship that soon turns into something more.
As the object of her love is actually unsure if he can think of her as more than just a friend, Risa sort of falls into becoming the focus of the perspective.
Kamisama Kiss
Homeless and in debt, high schooler Nanami Momozono thinks things are looking up when she rescues a man and he offers to let her stay at his home. She soon discovers that his home is a rundown shrine. Trying to leave, she is mistaken for the man she saved – the man that is also the land god of the shrine, Mikage. Finding out she was tricked into being a god and not wanting to be homeless, Nanami tries to embrace her new divine duties, but has to deal with a hot-headed fox familiar to keep things running smoothly.
Earnest and hardworking, as shoujo romance protagonists often are, Nanami can charm even a 1,000-year-old demon that is well put off of humanity. Interestingly enough, Kamisama Kiss seems like the type of series that might have been just as good if it was from the male perspective as well.
Inu X Boku SS
Ririchiyo Shirakiin is the sheltered daughter of a rich family, but she has been dependent her entire life. However, while she seeks to change that, she has a sharp tongue that needs minding. As such, she moves into a high security apartment complex whose residents are not only strange, but half demon as well. She also finds herself in the company of her new secret service agent, Soushi. He is a man who is handsome, quiet, and creepily submissive. All these factors combined will make sure her high school life is not a dull one.
Soushi is one of those characters that you just know has a lot going on either in his past or under the surface. It is the type of character in a romance that the watcher wants to watch unfold rather than put in the driver’s seat.
Recovery of an MMO Junkie
Morioka Moriko has had enough of being an overworked corporate slave, so she decided to retire herself to the NEET lifestyle. While at home, yearning for the previous connections she once made in online gaming, she starts up a new MMO. There she creates her character, the handsome Hayashi. However, in her newbie struggles she meets a Lily, another character willing to help her and they begin to grow closer to each other. At the same time, in real life, Moriko also has a shocking encounter with a handsome corporate employee.
Women can be anything! Even NEETs! Joke aside, it is a cute little series about a love that forms online and is eventually realized IRL.
B Gata H Kei
Yamada is beautiful and just entering high school, but she has one strange goal – to have casual sex with 100 men. The problem is that she is afraid of being teased for being a virgin. Upon happenstance, she stumbles upon a solution to her problem, the soft-spoken (also virgin) Kosuda. The problem is, he knows nothing about sex and is a shy gentleman about it.
I enjoy this series purely because it is from the female perspective. It allows the viewer to understand the thirst of a female pervert from her perspective rather than framing it through the male gaze.
Engaged to the Unidentified
On Kobeni Yonomori’s 16th birthday, it is discovered that her grandfather arranged for her to marry the mysterious Hakuya Mitsumine. Shocked, she now finds herself living with her future husband, his deceptive little sister, and her own perverted older sister. However, Kobeni takes it in stride, adjusting to her new life and trying to learn more about the new additions.
I’m pretty sure that Hakuya only says a few sentences in the entire series. His little sister does most of the talking. He is good for a few tender moments and amazing at deadpan though. Regardless, that does force a female perspective.
Ouran High School Host Club
In Ouran High School, the typical student is a member of the wealthy elite, but not Haruhi Fujioka. Accepted on a scholarship, Haruhi wants to avoid all the glitz and glamour in order to study hard and become a lawyer. While looking for a rare quiet place to do so, Haruhi stumbles upon a host club. Frantic to get away from these weird boys, Haruhi breaks a valuable vase. In order to pay back the debt, the club demands that Haruhi becomes a host. There is only one problem, contrary to what the boys believe, Haruhi is actually a girl.
Considering the reverse harem, it requires focus on the Harem Queen. As she is what we call a “trope breaker” in many ways, she is a gem.
Wolf Girl and Black Prince
In order to make friends with some popular girls, Erika Shinohara has taken to lying about having a boyfriend. In order to prove it, she hastily takes a picture of a man, but her friends recognize him as a school mate, the popular Kyouya Sata. In order to avoid humiliation, she asks him to pretend to be her boyfriend. He accepts, but only if she agrees to become his dog.
It’s simple, if Sata were the main character, you would know immediately that he is not quite the dick that he is portrayed as. The charm here is that you unfold that as the series goes on.
His and Her Circumstances
Yukino Miyazawa is the perfect student to her peers, but it is all just a front to get the praise and admiration she thrives on. So naturally when Soichiro Arima takes her spot as number one in the class rankings, she goes a little batty. Yet after Arima finds out her true personality, he begins to blackmail her with it.
This is another series that takes advantage of that whole “you show certain sides of yourself to people” thing. As Arima is the more composed and he has a bit of a darker streak, Yukino and her sunny disposition are natural leads.
Itazura na Kiss
Kotoko Aihara finally works up the nerve to confess to her crush, only to be coldly shot down. Her bad luck continues when her new house is crumbled to the ground by an earthquake. While her father gets an offer from a friend to come live with them, her bad luck continues on when that family turns out to be her crush that just crushed her long-hidden love for him into the dirt.
This show is a lesson that if you are persistent enough and someone is faced with enough exposure to you, they will love you eventually. Kotoko is your typical earnest and hard-working shoujo anime lass who really continued to throw her affections at a literal anus of a man after he pretty brutally rejected her in the first episode.
Do you have more romance anime recommendations from the female perspective? Likely you do of course. Well, don’t deprive the romance-hungry masses from those recommendations. Head on down to the comments section below and let the world know.
funyn how ive never seen any of these