Wataru Sajo has been deeply in love with his classmate Aika Natsukawa for years. He persistently pursued her with the hopes of mutual love until one day he realized that they just weren’t a good fit. Finally, her rejections stuck.
After suddenly calling it quits on her after so long, Aika begins to wonder if he started to hate her. So begins the difficult romance between two people that think their love is unrequited.
While it works with a unique new spin on a rom-com with a tsundere, I don’t know if it pulled it off as well as it could have. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like The Dreaming Boy is a Realist, head on down below.
Anime Like The Dreaming Boy is a Realist
For Fans of Women Love an Uninterested Man, Apparently
My Stepmom’s Daughter is My Ex
In middle school, two bookish kids met in the library, bonding over books, and eventually dating. However, as time went on, the small annoyances began to add up, and so Mizuto Irido and Yume Ayai ended up breaking their relationship off.
Getting ready to move onto high school and move on with their lives, a wrench was thrown in their new separate lives when it turns out that their parents had married and they are now step-siblings living in the same house and going to the same school.
As they try to regard each other as siblings, their feelings are proving hard to move past.
Both The Dreaming Boy is a Realist and My Stepmom’s Daughter is My Ex start with or after the main character giving up on a relationship. The Dreaming Boy is a Realist features him giving up on his crush while My Stepmom’s Daughter is My Ex features exactly what it says in the title – his ex-girlfriend is now his stepsister.
Of course, the rest of the series is the guy getting steadily closer to the girl he gave up on.
Unlike The Dreaming Boy is a Realist, My Stepmom’s Daughter is My Ex is more focused on the main girl. The Dreaming Boy is a Realist has a bit of a harem forming on the sidelines.
Higehiro – I Shaved Then Picked Up a High School Girl
Office worker Yoshida finally worked up the courage to ask his boss out, only for her to swiftly reject him. On his way home from getting completely drunk to drown his heartbreak, he sees a high school girl sitting outside by herself late at night.
After discovering that she was a runaway, he ends up taking her home while constantly shutting down her efforts to pay for her stay with her body. Talking to her further, he discovers that she traveled for six months from Hokkaido trading sexual favors for what she needed.
While trying to figure out what to do, he puts her to work cooking and cleaning instead so she can have a place to stay.
While Higehiro follows a much older main character, both series feature a calm and realistic main character who is casually pined over by a girl that he both is and is not interest in.
Unlike The Dreaming Boy is a Realist where he just sort of gives up on the chase, Higehiro has the main character actively trying to not be interested in the teenage girl that lives with him because she is a high school girl and an abuse victim.
While both series have their drama, Higehiro focuses more on that drama rather than the rom-com elements.
The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten
After seeing the “angel” of his school, Mahiru Shiina, sitting in the rain, Amane Fujimiya gives her his umbrella and catches a cold because of it.
While he expected her to return the umbrella eventually, he is surprised when she, a girl who is also his neighbor, comes over to take care of him.
Seeing the unsightly state of his apartment, she helps him get that in order and suddenly he finds that she is doing small household tasks for him every day after school as they spend more time together.
Both The Dreaming Boy is a Realist and The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten follow high school boys who are sort of casually pursued by a cute girl that they also have an interest in.
While most of the roadblock between their romance in both series is no one communicating their feelings, The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten does move a bit faster and lacks the same sort of sideline harem element that The Dreaming Boy is a Realist has.
While both series have their differences, the most notable is between the female love interests. The Dreaming Boy is a Realist features a tsundere and The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten features a more demure and damaged girl.
Oreshura
After being abandoned by his love-addled parents, Eita Kidou is a bit put off by romance. It also causes him to see through the love confession of one, Masuzu Natsukawa.
As it turns out, she just wanted a boyfriend to stop the daily love confessions. While he initially declines, she takes to blackmailing him to be her fake boyfriend.
Oh, you know how it goes, the man who announces he is not interested in love has to then beat off interested girls with a stick.
While The Dreaming Boy is a Realist has the main character giving up on one girl and inadvertently building a harem, Oreshura is more comedy-focused in that the main character hates love, is blackmailed into having a girlfriend, and also has a harem build up around him.
While both series are slice of school life-oriented romances, Oreshura is a bit sillier than the more grounded plot of The Dreaming Boy is a Realist.
For Fans of Narrative-Dense Romantic Comedies
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
On a day like any other, Sakuta is in the library, and there he spots a wild bunny girl. This wild bunny girl, or rather, Mai Sakurajima, a semi-retired actress dressed like a bunny girl, catches no one else’s eye.
In fact, Sakuta seems to be the only one that can see her on that day and on many other days.
This phenomenon, called Puberty Syndrome, is rumored on the internet. As Sakuta decides to solve the mystery, he grows closer to Mai and other girls that suffer the same malady.
With the uncommonly large amount of time The Dreaming Boy is a Realist focuses on just two people having a meandering conversation with each other, it became pretty clear that the series was trying to evoke the same elevated and more mature high school romance that Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai presented.
Both series are harem anime with a very small focus on the harem and a very large focus on the main romantic love interest. However, unlike The Dreaming Boy is a Realist, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai has a whole supernatural mystery element to keep things interesting and it gets the main couple together quite quickly.
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
Hachiman Hikigaya firmly believes that a joyful youth is something that people make up just to lie to themselves.
After writing an essay criticizing relationships, he is forced to join the Volunteer Service Club that is aimed at helping others solve their problems.
With the only other member being the icy Yukino Yukinoshita, they use their wits and cold views on society to help others.
Both The Dreaming Boy is a Realist and My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU are both romantic comedies with an above-average focus on complex dialogue.
While both series are essentially about the main character solving problems with explained rational solutions, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU sets the main character in a club dedicated to helping people.
In both series, you get a pragmatic realist male main character, and an array of girls that are interested in him. However, The Dreaming Boy is a Realist has a harem focus while My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU is a smaller love triangle.
For Fans of Misunderstanding Tsunderes
Masamune-kun’s Revenge
As a child, Masamune Makabe confessed his love to the wealthy and beautiful Aki Adagaki. However, she brutally rejected him and nicknamed him “Piggy” due to his chubby appearance.
Fleeing to his grandfather’s home in the country, Masamune toiled endlessly to become fit. Once he became skinny and handsome, he returns to his old neighborhood in order to carry out revenge against the girl that wronged him.
With the help of Aki’s maid, Masamune sets out to make her fall in love with him so that he can be the one to break her heart.
Both The Dreaming Boy is a Realist and Masamune-kun’s Revenge focus on main characters and what they do after their first crush falls apart. Masamune goes for vengeance years later after it ended badly while The Dreaming Boy is a Realist features him exploring other friendships immediately after giving up.
While both series are sluggish romantic comedies with light harem or love triangle elements, Masamune-kun’s Revenge is a little more occasionally dramatic.
Just Because
Due to his father’s work, Eita Izumi is used to moving around. In the final semester of high school, he moves back to his hometown.
There, Eita reconnects with his old best friend Haruto who is obsessed with baseball for an unknown reason. He also reconnects with Mio, a girl he once had unrequited feelings for.
As their high school years rapidly approach a close, Eita’s arrival seems to spur on a series of anxieties and buried emotions in everyone around him.
Both The Dreaming Boy is a Realist and Just Because are about main characters dealing with girls they had a crush on in the past. It is just that The Dreaming Boy is a Realist has the main character dealing with her immediately after deciding to discontinue his crush.
Both series feature pragmatic realists as main characters and pink-haired tsunderes that aren’t honest with their feelings as the love interest. However, while The Dreaming Boy is a Realist explores some more harem-like themes, Just Because is more focused on being a slow, realistic romance about the messiness of love on the cusp of adulthood.
Uncle From Another World
Takafumi’s uncle has been in a coma for 17 years after being hit by a truck when he was 17. However, after all this time, he has woken up.
As Takafumi discovers, while his uncle was in a coma in his world, he was transported to a fantasy land and became a great hero despite constantly being confused for an orc due to his appearance.
Now, Takafumi has to room with this man who needs to catch up on 20 years of gaming and anime culture while still possessing literal magical powers.
As a comedy about a guy that was isekai’d while he was in a coma detailing his unconventional adventurers in another world to his nephew, Uncle From Another World doesn’t seem especially applicable as a recommendations to The Dreaming Boy is a Realist. However, both series have a huge focus on romance not happening because the main character doesn’t recognize a tsundere’s love language.
While Uncle From Another World isn’t a romance, it isn’t a romance because he doesn’t know what tsunderes are. That is one of the major jokes of his adventurers, but the anime isn’t so focused on a romance plot like The Dreaming Boy is a Realist.
Do you have more anime recommendations like The Dreaming Boy is a Realist? Let fans know in the comments section below.
