Average-looking and unsuccessful at making friends in high school, Hana Tabata has all but left behind the idea of experiencing a heart-throbbing romance like in her shojo manga.
After joining the beautification committee and her flowers catching the attention of warm and friendly classmate, Yousuke Ueno, her high school life begins to open up. Grappling with her unexpected new friendship and the feelings swirling within, Tabata has failed to realize that her high school romance has already started.
Spring has sprung for the normals! If you are looking for more anime recommendations like April Showers Bring May Flowers, head on down below.
Anime Like April Showers Bring May Flowers
For Fans of Non-Hotties Experiencing Love
Skip and Loafer
In order to pursue a career in politics to make a positive change for Japan, Mitsumi leaves her rural town to go to high school in Tokyo. While she has a clear life plan for herself, she is still a country girl in a big city and ends up late and lost on her first day.
Luckily, Mitsumi is noticed by a fellow new student, Sousuke Shima, and he guides her to school. This laid-back guy is charmed by her motivated personality and strikes up a friendship with her, supporting her as she tries to make meaningful friendships with her classmates.
Similarities Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and Skip and Loafer
- Extremely average, doughy looking girl endears herself to the popular boy
- Romantic feelings begin to bloom between them
- A more beautiful girl has her eyes on the popular boy, but keeps losing due to the ugliness inside.
- Outside of romance, the series is about watching a friend group come together in high school
Differences Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and Skip and Loafer
- Skip and Loafer is not strictly a romance like April Showers Bring May Flowers. It is structured more as a coming-of-age drama where young people are both working through their issues and enjoying youth, but presented in usually a light-hearted way.
- The “popular guy” in Skip and Loafer is nice, but definitely has some issues.
- The main character in Skip and Loafer is upbeat and oozes confidence, which is usually what endears the little gremlin to others. Her thinking she is ugly is not really a thing like it is in April Showers Bring May Flowers.
My Love Story
With his tall stature, bulky muscles, and mean face, Takeo Gouda is not exactly a hit with the ladies. Men and women alike find him terrifying, but he still tries to do the right thing.
One day he saves a cute girl from a molester on the train. When she reaches out to him again, he thinks she likes his handsome friend, but he is shocked to discover she actually likes him!
Similarities Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and My Love Story
- An allegedly ugly person experiences love for the first time from a person they believe is out of their league.
- Comedy and romance with a big dollop of “I can’t believe they love me when I look the way I do”
- Shines light on the manipulation and problems beautiful people also deal with.
Differences Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and My Love Story
- My Love Story is from the male POV and is about a man who scares girls with his gorilla looks and strength landing himself a very small, cute girlfriend who loves him.
- My Love Story goes a bit wackier with the comedy.
- My Love Story starts with the main character getting his girlfriend pretty quickly. So they are not slowly realizing their feelings for each other like in April Showers Bring May Flowers.
Honey Lemon Soda
After being bullied in middle school for her shyness being misinterpreted as coldness, Uka Ishimori hopes that she can get a fresh start in high school.
After accidentally being sprayed with lemon soda by the cool and popular Kai Miura, she finds herself constantly crossing paths with Kai whose small acts of kindness and encouragement help her break out of her shell.
Similarities Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and Honey Lemon Soda
- A normal, average-looking shy girl has trouble coming out of her shell at school
- An attractive boy helps her come out of her shell and also becomes the subject of her romantic attraction over time.
- The female main character doesn’t think she is worthy of a such a beautiful man and other women try to interfere, but the male love interest has a clear interest.
Differences Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and Honey Lemon Soda
- Honey Lemon Soda features a stoic, cool-type male love interest. He is more brooding and less cinnamon roll than Yousuke.
- Honey Lemon Soda is more dramatic, focusing more on the heroine coming out of her shell and standing up for herself and what she wants. April Showers Bring May Flowers is definitely more focused on just being cute.
- Honey Lemon Soda doesn’t depict the heroine as unattractive. Just shy and meek.
Find Out Where to Continue The April Showers Bring may Flowers Story at Our Sibling Site:
For Fans of Adopted by the Extrovert
My Clueless First Friend
Akane Nishimura is a quiet girl with an intimidating gaze. As such, her classmates gave her the ominous nickname of “The Grim Reaper” and started avoiding her due to fear that they would be cursed.
However, these rumors don’t deter the new transfer student, Taiyou Takada. He finds out about her nickname and her powers and immediately tries to befriend her with no hesitation, excited to be cursed and to be friends with The Grim Reaper. His cheerful disposition and ability to make everything seem positive is just what Akane needed in her first ever friend.
Similarities Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and My Clueless First Friend
- A shy, unpopular girl has trouble connecting with her peers, and is they type of person to do small tasks at school while others goof off.
- She is noticed by an extroverted boy who takes an interest and reaches out to her at every opportunity
- Fluffy, cute romance with just a dash of drama
- The male love interest is flawlessly innocent and an all around cheerful, good-hearted person.
Differences Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and My Clueless First Friend
- My Clueless First Friend is about very young kids, so any romance will be minimal and innocent.
- My Clueless First Friend is more about the heroine being bullied and her new friend helping her overcome that with his friendship.
- The male love interest in My Clueless First Friend is very kind, but also incredibly dense. The story does use this in an interesting way, though.
Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible
Junta Shiraishi has a special, if not sometimes inconvenient skill of being difficult for people to notice due to his lack of presence. However, while even the teacher fails to notice him, his desk neighbor Nagisa Kubo seems to never miss him.
Unfortunately, Kubo likes to tease him on a daily basis and put his near-invisibility to the test in nerve-wracking situations. However, her playful antics begin to evolve into what normal people would easy see as clear feelings for him.
Similarities Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible
- A student in class has trouble reaching out to others, but is not fully unhappy just going through their high school years on their own.
- A more popular student notices them and takes an interest.
- Fluffy, cute romantic moments as they grow closer
Differences Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and Kubo Won’t Let Me Be Invisible
- Kubo is gender-reversed. The boy is unpopular and a more popular girl reaches out to him.
- Kubo is more about the main character having profoundly little presence, so people don’t notice him. He is not ugly or bullied, just more of the NPC type.
- Kubo has very little drama and no love rivals.
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.
Similarities Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and Say I Love You
- A normal, quiet girl exists quietly at school
- After an incident, she attracts the attention of a popular, handsome boy
- A love rival takes offense that the boy has been spending so much time with the heroine and tries to interfere.
- Their romance helps the heroine start to come out of her shell.
Differences Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and Say I Love You
- Say I Love You is more melancholy and dramatic. Both the heroine and the love interest are a bit broken, and use each other to fix that a bit.
- Say I Love You have love rivals on both sides and wields them for extra drama.
- Say I Love You works with different personalities. The love interest is smooth and a bit sinister, the heroine is quiet and a bit angry at the world.
Kimi ni Todoke
Quiet and relatively timid, Sawako Kuronuma is misunderstood by her classmates. Due to her long black hair and shyness, they have taken to calling her Sadako, the ghost girl from The Ring.
Longing to make friends, she is drawn to Kazehaya Shouta, the most popular boy in school and his refreshing personality. However, when Kazehaya starts talking to her, Sawako’s lonely world begins to open up.
Similarities Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and Kimi ni Todoke
- Normal, shy girl has trouble reaching out and making friends in high school
- A popular boy takes an interest in her, helps her come out of her shell, and romance blooms
- Love rivals try to pry the boy away, and fail
- Two very wholesome people, slowly realizing they have feelings for each other.
Differences Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and Kimi ni Todoke
- Kimi ni Todoke is a very slow burn romance and is often more focused on the heroine making friends than landing herself a boyfriend.
- While these series actually has pretty similar side characters, Kimi ni Todoke puts more effort into fleshing out those side characters.
- The heroine is considered scary in Kimi ni Todoke, not ugly.
Kotoura-san
Haruka Kotoura is a school girl that can read people’s minds. Unfortunately, it has caused her nothing but trouble, eventually causing her parent’s divorce.
After she moves to a new school, she tries to avoid her classmates, but a classmate of hers finds her power not scary, but intriguing.
Similarities Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and Kotoura-san
- A shy girl has trouble reaching out to others in school
- A more energetic, talkative boy reaches out to her and sparks a romance
Differences Between April Showers Bring May Flowers and Kotoura-san
- Kotoura-san has a supernatural element in that the heroine can read minds, and is traumatized by the people she accidentally hurt with that ability.
- The male love interest in Kotoura-san is more a talkative nerd. He’s eccentric and not especially popular.
- Kotoura-san can be a bit heart-breaking with its dramatic backstories.
- Kotoura-san is more about rehabilitating the damaged heroine than it is about romance.
Do you have more anime recommendations like April Showers Bring May Flowers? Let fans know in the comments section below.
