Banri Tada has finally been accepted into a private law academy in Tokyo, but due to an accident, he is without all his memories. During his freshmen orientation, he meets Mitsuo Yanagisawa who is consummately stalked by Kouko Kaga, a girl from his old school. Banri begins to hit it off with both of them. As they spend more time together, their fates seem intertwined, but for better or worse?
I find that Golden Time is an excellent example of insecurity in a relationship, and it is that clingyness that ultimately makes Golden Time such a great drama-driven romance. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Golden Time, head on down below.
Anime Like Golden Time
For Fans of College Romance
Honey and Clover
Honey and Clover follows a group of college students who meet Hagumi, an artist with a tremendous amount of talent that transfers to their school. From there on, Honey and Clover tells stories about the joys of falling in love, the pain of letting go, and the journey to discovering who you really are.
Both shows are great choices for those who want a romance that takes place in college. However, while Golden Time is more plot-driven, Honey and Clover is driven by character relationships. It is a slice of life show where the plot is the dynamic between the group of characters. Golden Time has a lot of inter-character drama in their group, but Honey and Clover has more.
Nana
This is the story of two girls, both of which are named Nana. Nana Komatsu is a naive girl addicted to love who is moving to Tokyo to chase after her boyfriend going to school there. Nana Osaki is a proud punk rocker that is moving to Tokyo to become a rock star. By chance, they meet on the train. By even bigger chance, they end up wanting to rent the same apartment only to decide to rent it together.
Both of the shows are romance shows that rise above the high school life. They deal with younger people problems, but following young adults outside of school that adds a more mature tone. They both really lack overall plots outside of the character storylines which allows for a ton of drama.
Ah My Goddess
Through the Goddess Help Hotline, humans can call to have their wish granted. However, Keiichi, a college student, accidentally calls and summons Belldandy. In a joke, he wishes that she would stay with him forever. Now, this young man finds himself living alone with a goddess.
Ah My Goddess forces a man and women to live together for comedy, drama, and romance, but like Golden Time, you watch their relationship progress in a more mature way. Despite the supernatural themes, it does feature two adults getting to know each other without all the high school problems.
Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out
Sakurai Shinichi just wants a little peace and quiet, but after he meets a kouhai, Uzaki Hana, from his old high school swim club at university, she wants to hang out. This peppy, loud, and well endowed woman just wants to spend time together and tease him. Will Shinichi get the peace and quiet he desires? No.
If you like your female romantic leads clingy to an almost annoying degree, Uzaki is also all about that. However, whereas Golden Time is more of a romantic drama, Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out is distinctly a romantic comedy where the male lead is often annoyed by his clingy female companion that likes him a lot, yet continues to hang out with her.
Remake Our Life
As an adult, Kyouya Hashiba left his office job to pursue a career in the video game industry. However, although he tried every role, nothing has worked out. Even with the bright potential of a popular game he got a job on after giving up, the division closes down abruptly. Now moving back in with his parents, he wishes he had gone to the arts university he had gotten into instead of the safer business university he chose so that perhaps he could have trained with the similarly aged Platinum Generation of hit gamemakers. Upon falling asleep one night, he wakes up as a high school graduate again getting ready to make his choice on which university to attend.
Both Golden Time and Remake Our Life features male protagonists that don’t really seem to have strong future plans. Whereas Golden Time gets much of its plot through Banri’s amnesia, Remake Our Life features the main character jumping back to his youth in order to have a redo at college life. Of course, they meet enchanting women that soon develops into a messy, but groundedly dramatic romance.
For Fans of Aggressively Dedicated Female Love Interests
Toradora
Ryuuji Takasu is a gentle student with a passion for housework, but his thuggish face causes his fellow students to think him a delinquent. Taiga Aisaka is small and cute, but with an attitude as fierce as a tiger. Both of these misunderstood students also harbor feelings for their crushes, and after a series of misunderstandings of their own, they find themselves in an unlikely alliance to get their crushes to notice them.
Golden Time and Toradora were made by the same author, so you will see certain similarities. The biggest notable similarity is the female lead. Both Taiga and Koko are blonde, aggressive, and storm onto every scene. They are both innately flawed characters, but their energy often makes you root for them.
Your Lie in April
Although once a child prodigy in the music world, pianist Kousei Arima is left in a downward spiral after his mother’s death, unable to even hear the sound of his own piano. Even after two years, Arima has all but left the music world behind, disappointing fans and rivals alike, and living in a colorless world. Then one day that all changes when he is introduced to the beautiful violinist Kaori Miyazono who brings color into his world once more.
Banri and Arima are both boys with problems caused by trauma. They live normal, albeit slightly sad lives until a vibrant female love interest just kind of burst into their lives in the most magical way. These girls, at first, seem to be in love with a friend of the main character as well.
Dusk Maiden of Amnesia
For 60 years, the Seikyou Private Academy has been haunted by a ghost known as Yuuko, a young woman that died in the basement. With no memory of her life, the ghost founds the Paranormal Investigation Club to find answers.
While both series wield amnesia in a relationship, that’s not really what they have in common. The most common aspect that they share is that the female love interest is very possessive and extra-special levels of clingy. They do differ in the fact that Dusk Maiden of Amnesia takes place in high school between a school boy and a teenage ghost, though. Even though she is dead, it doesn’t stop the series from having cute romantic moments, weirdly enough.
3D Girlfriend
Tsusui Hikari is an otaku that mostly avoids social life. He only really has one friend at school and is otherwise mocked by his classmates. One day, he ends up having to clean the pool with Igarashi Iroha. She is blunt, truant, and a troublemaker, but she stands up for Hikari when people make fun of him. While he is harsh with her, she never dismisses him. Could real 3D love be in the air?
While Iroha in 3D Girlfriend looks like she’d be the same sort of strong personality like Koko, she is actually rather tame until angered. While Iroha isn’t necessarily clingy through insecurity like Koko, she is extremely dedicated to the man she fell in love with. Ultimately, what both of these series have most in common is that they are romance anime that wield quite a lot of drama for plot rather than just nice romantic moments.
For Fans of Amnesia Romances
One Week Friends
High school student Hase Yuuki finds out the hard way how difficult romance can be after finding out Kaori, the girl he has fallen for, can only remember memories for a week at a time. Because of this, she often shies away from making friends, but can Yuuki’s sheer determination help her come out of her shell for just one week?
Golden Time takes a more traditional approach to the whole amnesia trope while One Week Friends has a neat way of utilizing it. However, be prepared that, while present, the romance in One Week Friends isn’t as satisfying. It is a cute show about friendship and much lower on drama compared to Golden Time.
Amnesia
After fainting at work, a young lady awakens in the back room of the café she works at with no memory of her life or those around her. Two of her friends, whom she soon learns are named Shin and Toma, are called to help her get home safely. Once she is alone, she meets a spectral boy named Orion that only she can see and hear. He explains that she lost her memories because of his chance visit to her world, so he vows to help her remember who she is.
While Amnesia is a reverse harem and Golden Time is more of a love triangle, both of these shows highlight how a simple loss of memory can open up new opportunities for romance. They also show the struggle of romance for those who have been forgotten.
Myself;Yourself
As a child, Hidaka Sana leaves his friends and life behind to move to Tokyo with his parents. Years later, he returns as a high school student. While some friends have remained the same, some people, including Sana himself, are completely different. However, the thing that has changed the most is his dear friend Yatsushiro Nanaka. She used to smile and be so sweet, but now she is withdrawn and overcome by an air of gloom.
While the amnesia in Golden Time is rather a legitimate case, the amnesia in Myself;Yourself is rather a desire to forget and not acknowledge things in the past for many characters. However, both shows are pretty enamored with really dramatic drama, though admittedly Golden Time pulls it off a little better.
Kanon
As a young child, Yuuichi Aizawa frequently visited his cousins in the country. However, after something traumatic happens, he has stayed away for seven long years. Now, when Yuuichi returns, he has completely blocked out his hurtful memories. However, when he begins to meet girls he knew during his childhood, the past begins to bubble forth.
There is so much about Golden Time that seems like Kanon with a better looking wrapper and older aged characters. Both series are drama-driven romances that follow a main character caught in between just trying to live his current life as his current self, but also having at least a little desire to recover his forgotten memories. Lo and behold, a love is also hidden in those memories as well.
For Fans of Love Triangles
A Lull in The Sea
Long ago, all of humanity lived underwater. However, a portion of them soon left to live on the surface, losing the ability to breath underwater. With this gap between them, the two societies grew apart. A Lull in the Sea tells the story of a group of kids forced to attend school above the water where they come to terms with themselves and the discrimination against them.
Do you you large love polygons where someone likes a person and that person for sure likes someone else? Golden Time has a manageable love triangle between a small handful of people while A Lull in the Sea is legendary in its unwieldy polygon of one-sided feelings. While Golden Time is often driven by drama, A Lull in the Sea does have a plot outside of the character relationships.
Nisekoi
Ten years ago, Raku Ichijou made a promise with a childhood friend to meet again and use the key she holds to open the locket he wears around his neck then be together forever. In the present day, this heir apparent to an intimidating yakuza family continues to wait for his friend’s return while trying to be as uninvolved in family matters as possible. However, when a rival gang invades his family’s turf, the family leaders decide Raku should start a romantic relationship with the other chief’s daughter, Chitoge. While they pretend to be dating to maintain the peace, Raku is almost positive his classmate Kosaki Onodera is the girl he made his promise with.
Koko and Chitoge are both special sunflowers in terms of romance heroines. They aren’t meek, they are bold, brash, and at times just kind of crazy. Yet, they have those times of weakness that make them even more endearing and adorable. What ties these two series together is how refreshing that sort of female love interest is despite Nisekoi being more of a harem series.
The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall
Unable to resist taking in abandoned kittens, and amassing quite a collection of them, Sorata Kanda is forced to move to Suimei High School’s infamous Sakura Hall. This dorm is used to house all the misfit students that don’t quite fit in the regular housing. There, Sorata meets an array of different oddballs that inspire him to work towards getting back into the regular dorms and away from them. However, when a new transfer student moves in, he meets the incredible artist, Shiina Mashiro. While talented, she is completely incapable of taking care of herself, and so, Sorata brings her into his care and his strange days truly begin.
The major difference between The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall and Golden Time is the age of the characters. Golden Time happens in college and Pet Girl happens in high school. Despite that, it explores similar relationships and complicated feelings in a fairly grounded way. While Golden Time has its overall amnesia plot, Pet Girl of Sakura Hall has its main character dealing with coming-of-age problems like what to do with his own future when everyone already has very passionate paths to walk.
Rumbling Hearts
Initially, Takayuki Narumi befriended Mitsuki Hayase because Mitsuki’s friend Haruka Suzumiya had a crush on him. He grew close to Mitsuki, but when Haruka asked him out, he accepted in order to not hurt her feelings. However, as Takayuki and Mitsuki begin to realize their feelings, tragedy strikes that changes everything.
Both series are highly drama driven romances that feature love triangles. Furthermore, in both series the plot ultimately deals with the main character trying to reconcile what happened in the past with who he is in the present. However, amnesia isn’t a factor in Rumbling Hearts, but rather the fact that one friend was put into a coma and wakes up to find that time did indeed continue to march onwards.
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 have a similar set up in that a main character is moving from the country to the city in order to sort of start anew. They meet people and so begins their drama-heavy romantic relationship. However, while Golden Time meanders into slice of life activities in the middle of the series, A Town Where You Live keeps the plot more tautly paced.
White Album 2
Haruki Kitahara’s light music club is on the verge of disbanding due to lack of interest, an event that will crush his dream of playing at the school festival. However, as he solemnly plays “White Album,” the first song he ever learned to play, an angelic voice suddenly harmonizes with his lonely guitar.
Both series are dramatic romance anime in which much of the drama is actually driven by insecurity because there are other girls with an emotional connection present in his life. However, while Banri has his amnesia as an excuse for indecision, White Album 2 features a main character who is both indecisive and passive, which also drives that insecurity. An added note that needs to be attached to this series every time I recommend it is that you do not need to watch the first White Album. The stories are unrelated except in small details.
Do you have any more anime recommendations like Golden Time? Let fans know in the comments section below.
