As a boy, the young prince Oscar was cursed by the Witch of Silence, rendering it impossible for him to sire an heir to the kingdom he will one day inherit. After 15 years of trying to break the curse, Oscar finally resorts to enlisting the help of another witch.
He conquers the legendary Azure Tower to meet with the Witch of the Azure Moon, Tinasha. At the top, he discovers this hundreds-of-years-old witch is still a beautiful young woman.
Tinasha claims that undoing the spell would be difficult, but offers solution – find Oscar a woman to partner with who can withstand the effects of the curse. In response, Oscar boldly proposes marriage to Tinasha, which she immediately rejects. After some debate, the pair come to the conclusion that she will return to Oscar’s kingdom for one year to try and break the curse. However, Tinasha’s emergence from the Azure Tower attracts the attention of many of her old acquaintances.
I guess add this to the pile of detail-dense light novel series made blander by low budget anime adaptations. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Unnamed Memory, head on down below.
Anime Like Unnamed Memory
For Fans of The Knight and The Sorceress
Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World
For years, war has raged between the Empire and the realm of witches, Nebulis.
On the battlefield, a talented young knight is tasked with killing the princess of Nebulis, but he is taken by her beauty and she taken by his honor.
Despite their two nations at war, they find themselves continually drawn to each other, discovering they share similar ideals of peace.
Similarities Between Unnamed Memory and Our Last Crusade
- A knight and a sorceress fall in love
- Witches are vilified in the world, but the main character is proof that they should not be
- Both series are lovely fantasy action romance anime
Differences Between Unnamed Memory and Our Last Crusade
- The male main character in Our Last Crusade is not a prince, simply a knight
- The world in Our Last Crusade is split between a kingdom of humans and a kingdom of witches, and they are at war.
- Our Last Crusade is often framed as more of a Romeo & Juliet story, but with more action
Maoyu – Archenemy and Hero
After fifteen years of warfare with the demon world, the Hero is unsatisfied with their advance and rushes forward to the Demon Queen’s Castle. There, he not only finds a beautiful woman that is the queen, but she needs his help.
To his surprise, she offers a way to not only help his country, but hers as well. Together, they join forces to make that dream a reality.
Similarities Between Unnamed Memory and Maoyu
- A hero starts a romance with a magical woman that should be his enemy
- Both are lovely fantasy action romances with good world building
- Cute dynamic between the main couple
- The female love interest is vilified, despite being one of the nicest characters
Differences Between Unnamed Memory and Maoyu
- Maoyu does reward you with the occasional very cute romantic moment, but it does have much less of those moments than Unnamed Memory.
- Maoyu has the deeper world building. I hope you like economics, politics, and agriculture.
- Maoyu is a romance between the demon queen and the hero that was supposed to defeat her. Together they are trying to stop a war between their kingdoms.
The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt
With his father ailing and the responsibility for his small poor kingdom falling to him, genius prince Wein is ready to commit treason. He desires to auction off his kingdom and retire in luxury.
However, his treasonous schemes always conclude with dire consequences, for him, anyway. His plans to fail instead constantly succeed and his kingdom begins to flourish.
Similarities Between Unnamed Memory and The Genius Prince
- Fantasy anime following the prince of the kingdom and the skilled woman that advises him
- Cute dynamic and building romance between the pair
- Both series are about settling various conflicts inside the kingdom
Differences Between Unnamed Memory and The Genius Prince
- While The Genius Prince has plenty of serious moments, it is more often a comedic series
- The prince in The Genius Prince is actively trying to ruin his kingdom so he can sell it and be a layabout, but fails upwards to a thriving kingdom instead.
- The female advisor in The Genius Prince isn’t actually a sorceress, but she is still very skilled in combat
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 country, Wistalia, named Zen.
In order to repay her life debt to him, she sets her hopes on becoming the court herbalist in the capital of Clarines.
Similarities Between Unnamed Memory and Snow White With The Red Hair
- Romance between a prince and a girl he meets
- The girl comes to stay at the palace where their relationship grows
- Outside of romance, the series explores various problems in the kingdom and how the girl sometimes helps to solve them.
Differences Between Unnamed Memory and Snow White With The Red Hair
- Snow White is definitively more shoujo romance whereas Unnamed Memory is more dedicated to its intricate plot
- The main character in Snow White isn’t magical, she is just an herbalist
- As the main character in Snow White is also a common girl, that serves as a hurdle to their relationship.
- Action is present in Snow White, but far less frequent. Furthermore, the female main character isn’t a fighter of any kind, so it ends up as a frequent rescue romance sort of affair.
For Fans of Fantasy With Both Romance AND Plot
The Ancient Magus’ Bride
After being abandoned by her family, Chise Hatori is a 16-year-old teenager without hope.
In order to not have to worry about herself, she sells herself to slavers, only to be purchased by Magus Elias Ainsworth.
There, she is told she will become his apprentice and, in the future, his bride. Together, they work to build a relationship and work to control her own magus powers that will eventually result in her early death.
Similarities Between Unnamed Memory and The Ancient Magus’ Bride
- Deep world building fantasy anime with dense lore
- A woman comes to live with a man and they bond over time
- Someone is trying to deal with the magic that is consuming the other party
- Rewarding small romantic moments in between otherwise great action and plot
Differences Between Unnamed Memory and The Ancient Magus’ Bride
- If Unnamed Memory had the budget, it could have been The Ancient Magus’ Bride 🙁
- The Ancient Magus’ Bride is about an inhuman mage teaching a girl how to control her rare magic that will kill her otherwise, so it is not quite the same as dealing with Oscar’s curse.
- The Ancient Magus’ Bride is fully about the magical world, unlike Unnamed Memory that is about, primarily, the human kingdoms and their relationship with the occasional magical being.
Spice and Wolf
For generations, Holo was a revered wolf deity that helped the local wheat harvest in exchange for tribute. However, as the villagers become more self-sufficient, they no longer need or even believe in her anymore.
During her annual festival, she sneaks into the cart of Kraft, a visiting merchant, hoping he will let her hitch a ride home.
Similarities Between Unnamed Memory and Spice and Wolf
- A magical woman starts a relationship with a human man she finds interesting
- Dense world building and more plot than the usual fantasy romance anime.
- A cute dynamic between the main couple that is fun to watch
Differences Between Unnamed Memory and Spice and Wolf
- The female lead in Spice and Wolf is far more mischievous and cocky than Tinasha in Unnamed Memory.
- The male lead in Spice and Wolf is more a normal merchant and not a dashing prince like Oscar in Unnamed Memory
- Spice and Wolf is a “journey” anime, where the couple are constantly traveling to new places, thus getting into new adventures.
- Spice and Wolf enjoys its dialogue a lot more, and its action a lot less.
The Sacrificial Bride and The King of Beasts
After hundreds of years of war between the kingdom of beasts and the neighboring human kingdom, a peace treaty was signed. The conditions of this treaty say that humans must offer a sacrifice to be devoured by the King of Beasts every year on a particular night.
Sariphi is the latest sacrifice to be sent, adopted by her parents to specifically protect their true-born daughter. Despondent after learning that truth and feeling like she has no home to return back to anyway, Sariphi is fine with dying and unafraid of the King of Beasts.
Intrigued by her lack of fear, the King of Beasts begins to grow closer to her, and when the day of sacrifice comes, he defies his advisors and decides to takes this interesting girl as his wife.
Similarities Between Unnamed Memory and Sacrificial Bride and the King of Beasts
- A girl starts a romance with royalty that they met suddenly
- Both plots focus more on the intrigues happening in the kingdom
- The female and male love interests are both from different kingdoms that, historically, do not get along well.
Differences Between Unnamed Memory and Sacrificial Bride and the King of Beasts
- Sacrificial Bride is more shoujo romance, but it is actually light on romance. The main couple gets along perfectly, but everyone else is against their relationship until she does the shoujo heroine thing and endears herself to them by solving their problems.
- Unlike humans and witches like Unnamed Memory, Sacrificial Bride is more beast kingdom and humans that don’t get along with each other.
- Sacrificial Bride doesn’t feature the same sort of snaky back and forth between the main couple like Unnamed Memory offers with Oscar and Tinasha.
For Fans Witches in Fantasy Worlds
Frieren – Beyond Journey’s End
After the Demon King’s defeat, the victorious hero’s party returns home. After disbanding, the elven mage Frieren continues journeying to indulge her hobby of collecting spells. However, being a long-living elf, fifty years pass in the blink of an eye for her. Now, she finds her old companions and friends slowly passing away from age one by one.
Before his death, Heiter the cleric manages to foist his young ward, Fern, onto Frieren as her apprentice mage. Together, they travel to collect spells, but after visiting many locations that Frieren had once visited with the hero’s party, she begins to ponder the missed opportunity to form deeper bonds with her now-dead comrades and cherish the new opportunities she has with her current ones.
Similarities Between Unnamed Memory and Frieren
- Both series are fantasy anime where witches are present, but not everyone is a magical person
- Lovely world building and stories that expand upon the past of the characters
- The main character are long-living witches
Differences Between Unnamed Memory and Frieren
- Frieren is not a romance anime, though it does have a side couple or two that people enjoy
- Frieren is most often a journey anime about the main character traveling, where each new location has a new story.
- Witches are not usually very evil in Frieren, thus humanity looks upon them more favorably
- Frieren hides its action until late in the series, but it is better animated action then you get in Unnamed Memory.
Wandering Witch – The Journey of Elaina
Ever since she was a child, Elaina has been enamored by the stories in her favorite book. It tells the tale of Nike, a famous witch who enjoyed many great adventures around the world.
After becoming a fully-fledged witch herself, she departs, becoming entangled in a number of stories of those she meets around the world.
Similarities Between Unnamed Memory and Wandering Witch
- Both series are set in worlds where witches are present, but somewhat rare
- Both follow somewhat sassy/feisty witches
- Pretty intricate world building that is not always particularly happy and pleasant
Differences Between Unnamed Memory and Wandering Witch
- There is no romance in Wandering Witch
- Wandering Witch, as its name suggests, is about a young witch traveling and getting involved in various small stories
- Despite how it looks, Wandering Witch can be a bit dark, but not as dark and dire as Unnamed Memory often is.
- Witches are respected in Wandering Witch, rather than feared like Unnamed Memory.
Grimoire of Zero
While witches exist, very little is understood about magic, so their kind is ostracized. Half-beast men like Yohei are also shunned, causing him to make his living as a mercenary and wish he was human.
One day, he meets a witch called Zero who offers to grant the wish to turn him human, but only if he agrees to be her escort.
Similarities Between Unnamed Memory and Grimoire of Zero
- Both series feature worlds where witches are rare and often feared for their power
- The main character is an older (but still young looking) witch of infamous power
- They both have a “sorceress and her cursed knight” romantic element
- Intriguing plots about things that are unfolding in the world
Differences Between Unnamed Memory and Grimoire of Zero
- While Grimoire of Zero has romance, it is a slow romance and the anime, since it only goes so far in the overall story, doesn’t show that as much as Unnamed Memory does.
- Grimoire of Zero has the “knight” (who is actually just a mercenary) be a beastperson as his curse.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Unnamed Memory? Let fans know in the comments section below.