One day while skipping class, Adachi Sakura and Shimamura Hougetsu meet in the second floor gym. They talk, play ping pong, and eventually become friends. However, as they spend more time together, their feelings begin to shift.
While having never experienced same-sex love myself, I reckon it is a lot like falling in any other kind of love. This series is not about love at first sight. No, no. The good stuff is often slow, subtle, and often you don’t know it is even happening at first. Adachi and Shimamura is that, and I adored it. If you are looking for similar anime recommendations like Adachi and Shimamura, then head on down below.
Anime Like Adachi and Shimamura
For Fans of Shoujo Ai
Bloom Into You
As a young girl, Yuu has always loved shoujo manga and has awaited a love confession that sets her heart aflutter. However, when she gets one from a junior high classmate, she feels nothing. Unsure how to respond, she watches Nanami, her high school student council president, expertly let someone down who just confessed to her. Seeking her guidance, she asks for Nanami’s help. However, the next love confession she receives is from Nanami, could this be the romance she was waiting for?
From the get-go, the subtlety of Adachi and Shimamura has all the vibes of Bloom Into You. If it weren’t for the premise promising more, you might not know either series is shoujo ai at first, and that sort of yuri is just the best.
Whispered Words
Sumika is a high school girl that gets good grades and excels at sports. However, she is secretly in love with her friend Ushio. While Ushio is constantly falling in love with girls, she is completely oblivious to Sumika’s feelings. This means that when Ushio is dumped, it is her job to console her.
While more upfront with the characters romantic interests, the main couple faces the same difficulties of being honest with their feelings. Characters have eyes for others, but being upfront with your feelings can be difficult.
Sweet Blue Flowers
Introverted Fumi is entering her new all-girls high school for her first year with a broken heart. However, she reconnects with her old best friend, Akira, who is going to another neighboring all-girls school. Together they both reconnect and discuss their various love problems.
Aside from being shoujo ai series, both Sweet Blue Flowers and Adachi and Shimamura are bound together by building – or rebuilding – friendships. They have that same slow burn of friends realizing they might want to be something more, but Adachi and Shimamura is definitely more subtle.
For Fans of Best Friendships
Sakura Trick
Haruka and Yuu have been best friends since middle school. However, now that they are in high school together, they are both growing apart. To cement their friendship, they decide to do something that have never done with anyone else – kiss. However, this awakens a whole slew of new feelings for them both.
Both series are about people becoming friends and having interesting new feelings about it. However, Sakura Trick is much more aggressive with its girl love as well as its comedy.
Kiniro Mosaic
Shinobu left Japan to do a homestay in England. There she grew close to her friend Alice, and despite the language barrier, they both expressed their sorrow when it was time to go home. Five years later, Shinobu receives a letter she doesn’t understand. It turns out to be from Alice detailing her upcoming homestay in Japan, and that she will be attending her high school.
Although not outwardly yuri, there is no doubt that Kiniro Mosaic has some of those same vibes. However, both shows are bound together by the friendships. Both are about girls building up those relationships, but Kiniro Mosaic is definitely more comedy than romance.
Yuru Yuri
After being reunited with her childhood friends in middle school, Akari is enticed to join the Amusement Club that Yui and Kyoko created in their own first year of middle school. They convince Akari to join, only for her to discover that the club’s only function is to amuse its members.
Enjoyed those dashes of shoujo ai in Adachi and Shimamura that kept catching your interest? Yuru Yuri is a similar sort of beast. Although it is a cute girls doing cute things comedy, you also get those dashes of shoujo ai throughout as well.
For Fans of First Romances
O Maidens in Your Savage Season
The girls of the literature club have recently been reading sexually charged pieces of literature. This combined with a newfound interest in adult relationships sends each member spiraling off into the world of sex and intimate relations.
Both series essentially focus on girls in the same time in their lives where they are experiencing love for the first time. They also both so do in a poignant and lovable way. Although not as obvious, O Maidens also has their own shoujo ai plot thread to follow as well.
Hatsukoi Limited
This is a tale of middle school and high school girls and their first loves. Each episode is its own love story, but those same couples may play other roles in the next love story.
While Adachi and Shimamura is about first love, it leans on the more realistic side of it. Hatsukoi Limited is more on the anime side of first loves. You know, things are silly and fun to watch, but not altogether relatable.
Tsuki ga Kirei
For the first time in their third year, Azumi and Mizuno were put in the same class. Initially, they are nothing more than classmates, but continued exposure sees them grow progressively closer. As the year goes on, the pair and their classmates must come to face themselves as they mature and face challenges.
While Tsuki ga Kirei is a straight romance, what it has most in common with Adachi and Shimamura is that it is a grounded romance. It isn’t overly dramatic or unrealistic. There are no huge grand gestures to declare their love. It is about two people slowly falling in love for the first time.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Adachi and Shimamura? Let fans know in the comments section below.
