Futaba Yoshioka was an attractive middle schooler, popular with boys, but not with girls. It left her feeling lonely, but none of that mattered as long as her crush, Kou Tanaka, liked her. However, when Kou moved away, Futaba decided to change herself, purposely adopting unattractive traits to be popular with the girls, but one day, Kou comes back as different of a person as she is.
Aw, I hate it when good romance anime series only have one season so you have to read the manga to get to the good bits. Well, if you want more anime recommendations like Blue Spring Ride, then head on down below.
Anime Like Blue Spring Ride
For Fans of Grounded Romance
Kimi ni Todoke
Completely misunderstood by her classmates, everyone considered Sawako Kuronuma to be scary. However, while her sweet and timid behavior is mistaken as malicious, she longs to make friends. When the most popular guy in school takes notice of her true nature, Sawako’s life begins to change.
The romance in both is something that happens at a pretty slow pace. While in Blue Spring Ride it is slow for no good reason, Kimi ni Todoke’s slowness comes from a focus on other relationships.
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 Blue Spring Ride has its plot hook, Tsuki ga Kirei is perhaps one of the most grounded romance anime series ever. There is little drama and it is firmly caught up in real concerns, It also has some lovely whimsical musings that come with first love.
Convenience Store Boyfriends
This is the story of six students and the convenience store that they frequent on their way to and from school. They love, they laugh, they eat pudding cups, and this is their story.
While Convenience Store Boyfriends focuses on three different couples, you can see a lot of Blue Spring Ride in each of them. It takes things slow and there is a good balance between nice moments and those frustrating romance anime moments where problems are caused by miscommunication.
For Fans of Past Traumas
We Were There
Nanami Takahashi is ready to enter her high school life and hopes to make as many friends as possible. However, she makes a fool of herself during class nominations by calling a student by the fake name a boy gave her. This boy is the super popular Motoharo Yano who has most of the girls in their class in love with him. At first Nanami is mad, but soon she, too, begins to like Yano.
We Were There is definitely a bit more heavy on the drama in this romance, but like Blue Spring Ride it is a romance between a guy that has a difficult past and a more earnest girl that wants friends. As the series progresses, you definitely watch them get a lot more attached to each other.
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.
While more so in Orange, both series are about regret. More directly, both series are about a girl that helps a damaged guy work through their mother issues as she falls in love with him.
Horimiya
Although lauded for being likable and intelligent, Kyouko Hori hides the fact that she has to take care of her brother and the housework because her parents are always working. Izumi Miyamura, on the other hand, is seen as a brooding, bespectacled otaku. Outside of school, he sports tattoos and nine piercings. By happenstance, the two outside school personalities of these two classmates meet and they get to know a side of each other they don’t show their peers.
Both series are rather romantic comedies where the characters have difficulties with emotions because of the events that happened in their past. You watch them come out of their shell and get plenty of those sweet moments. The good news is that Horimiya actually has a formal ending.
For Fans of Reconnecting With Past Loves
A Town Where You Live
Haruto Kirishima lived a calm life out in the country when Yuzuki Eba moved there from Tokyo. While she was there just a short time, she filled his life with happy memories. Later, Haruto moves to Tokyo to live with his sister and pursue a career as a chef. In truth, he went there to pursue Yuzuki, but things don’t go as cleanly as he had hoped.
Both series follow characters that are trying to get people they loved in the past to notice them. However, while doing that, another contender appears and a love triangle forms. Unlike Blue Spring Ride where the love triangle is pretty half-hearted, A Town Where You Live gives them a sporting chance.
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 shows lean heavily on people not being particularly honest with their feelings. They also have a plot that surrounds a character suddenly returning to a group of friends that they knew in the past, but being changed by time. While Blue Spring Ride is pretty realistic itself, Just Because takes that an even further step by avoiding a lot of tired drama.
Sing “Yesterday” for Me
After college, unsure of what to do with his life, Rikou gets a job at a convenience store. There he becomes visited by a high school drop out with a pet crow as well as has rekindled feelings for a senpai that visits the store one day. This is the story of the growth of several individuals as they take their first steps into adulthood.
Both series are rather whimsical when it comes to romance. There isn’t a lot of intensity to the feelings like in other romance series. However, while pining after a past love is part of Sing Yesterday to Me, it is not the main part like in Blue Spring Ride. Sing Yesterday to Me also follows older characters.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Blue Spring Ride? Let fans know in the comments section below.
