kimi ni todoke anime

Anime Like Kimi Ni Todoke

Quiet and relatively timid, Sawako Kuronuma is misunderstood by her classmates. Due to her long black hair and shyness, they have taken to calling her Sadako, the ghost girl from The Ring. Longing to make friends, she is drawn to Kazehaya Shouta, the most popular boy in school and his refreshing personality. However, when Kazehaya starts talking to her, Sawako’s lonely world begins to open up.

Slow burning to an occasionally frustrating degree, Kimi Ni Todoke provides one of the sweeter and more realistic romances out there. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Kimi ni Todoke, then head on down below.

Anime Like Kimi Ni Todoke

For Fans of Socially Unusual Characters

the wallflower anime

The Wallflower

Four boys are offered to live in a fantastic mansion rent-free, but on one condition. They must make the girl of the house into a fine young lady. Enter Nakahara Sunako. She loves horror movies, death, and all things gloomy, stemming from a junior high school trauma. Blinded by all things beautiful, these four handsome men have their work cut out for them.

Sawako in Kimi Ni Todoke is one horror movie obsession from being Sunako in The Wallflower. Both not only look similar, but once Sunako starts to normal out, they act like each other. However, while Kimi Ni Todoke has a strong romantic slice of life focus, The Wallflower is meant to lean more towards comedy.

kotoura anime

Kotoura-san

Haruka Kotoura is a school girl that can read people’s minds. Unfortunately, it has caused her nothing but trouble, eventually causing her parents divorce. After she moves to a new school, she tries to avoid her classmates, but a classmate of hers finds her power not scary, but intriguing.

Although Kotoura-san has a touch of supernatural to it, at its core it is extremely similar to Kimi Ni Todoke. Both series feature girls that are alienated for one reason or another, and then slowly brought out of their shell by the sudden interest of a guy. Through their friendship, they actually are able to make friends of their own as well as develop a romance.

relife anime

ReLife

Arata Kaizaki is an unemployed 27-year-old that has thus far been living with the financial support of his parents and part-time jobs. After leaving his first job after only three months, he has not been able to find proper work. However, after a night of drinking with his friends, he meets a mysterious man that offers a drunk Arata a pill that will turn him 17 again so that he can redo a year of his youth, all expenses paid. Will Arata find what he needs to live a happy life after one year in high school again?

While ReLife has a plot different from your standard school romance anime, like Kimi ni Todoke, it follows a guy that ends up falling in love with a shy girl. Both main characters in each series have their problems and, due to one reason or another, the romance is rather slow.

Miyamura and Hori from Horimiya laying down

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.

Horimiya is gender-flipped. The male character is the quiet and misunderstood one whereas the female character is popular (though has her own issues) yet still gives him a chance. It is the chance meeting of both couples that kick things off. Furthermore, both series do give the side characters a lot of attention as well.

Clannad anime

Clannad

Tomoya Okazaki is a delinquent who finds everything dull and believes he will never amount to anything. That is, until a girl named Nagisa catches his eye one day on his way to school. Suddenly, Tomoya begins to notice Nagisa more and more. She is sickly and weak, but she always tries her best in order to follow her dream of reviving the school’s drama club. Claiming he has nothing better to do, he decides to help Nagisa, and along the way ends up helping several other girls and potential drama club members. However, as he learns more about the girls and helps them overcome their problems, he might just be able to overcome his own as well.

While Clannad is definitely a bit more melodramatic with certain things, it also focuses on a guy helping a shy girl try to accomplish making friends. However, the romance moves at a faster pace in Clannad and generally gives more satisfying payoff.

one week friend anime

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?

Essentially, both series focus on a guy noticing a girl, and helping her through various means. However, because One Week Friends has that whole amnesia thing, it makes the romance move very, very slowly.

For Fans of Slow Romance

we were there anime

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.

While slightly less dramatic than Kimi Ni Todoke, We Were There features the same slow burn romance that is shown through character growth. Initially, both main girls end up admiring the male protagonist, but slowly they actually end up loving them.

blue spring ride anime

Blue Spring Ride

Futaba Yoshioka was liked by boys and hated by girls in middle school, but she didn’t care as long as Kou Tanaka noticed her. However, after Kou moves away and she enters high school, she does everything she can to be less attractive to the boys in her class so she can have girl friends. Yet when Kou comes back, even though he is a different person, the feelings come back as well.

Both series end up being school romances surrounding growth and change. However, Blue Spring Ride does have the more drama focus to it as well as the usual romantic tropes. Unfortunately, the Blue Spring Ride anime doesn’t actually get to the real payoff of the relationship since it only got the one season.

lovely complex anime

Lovely Complex

Risa is very tall for a girl. Atsushi is very short for a boy. They are both in love with different people who actually end up dating each other. With both their loves taken, the two form an unlikely friendship that soon turns into something more.

Like love stories that move a little slowly and have a big old scoop of awkwardness on top? Well, then! Like Kimi Ni Todoke, Lovely Complex tells the awkward tale of two high schoolers slowly falling in love while also featuring the development of several side characters. With a nice mix of comedy and romance, these two series both sit at the top tier of the romance genre.

anime series like Tsuki ga Kirei

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.

Romance anime tends to be on the dramatic side for entertainment. Tsuki ga Kirei, like Kimi ni Todoke, focuses on a grounded romance. There’s no typical romance drama sub-plots to spice things up, but they do focus on romantic problems in a non-sensationalized way.

kawai complex anime

Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior

Kazunari Usa is starting high school and finally talked his parents into letting him live alone. Excited for his new life, he moves into the Kawai Complex boarding house, only to find his new roommate a complete BSDM weirdo. Being put off by the eccentricity of it all, he is on his way to leave when he runs into his senior in high school, Ritsu Kawai, who also lives there. The sheer presence of this cool beauty talks him into giving life in this new house a try.

Both shows are very cute about a normal guy falling in love with a shy girl. Kawai Complex even goes so far as to have them live together. The issues with each is that the romance moves so slowly that you might not even think these shows are romances at times.

my little monster romance anime

My Little Monster

Shizuku Mizutani cares little of others and only about scoring top marks. However, when she is tasked with taking something to her desk neighbor Haru Yoshida, her world begins to change. Haru, too, knows little of human nature and hasn’t been to school for awhile due to fighting. Yet, it is the lack of friends that they both have that soon forms a friendship between them.

Although the heroines are ostracized by their classmates for completely different reasons, they both sit on the fringe. However, Shizuku is more emotionally stable and her sheer bluntness doesn’t make conversation quite the chore as it is in Kimi Ni Todoke, but both do provide a show that covers two girls having their world expanded and the trials that go with it.

For Fans of Popular Guys and Outcast Girls

say i love you anime

Say, “I Love You”

After a traumatic incident in her past, Mei Tachibana swore off making friends, deeming all people as untrustworthy. While her quiet life seems to be going quite normally, her core as an introvert is shaken by a few chance encounters with the popular Yamato Kurosawa.

The female protagonist in both Kimi Ni Todoke and Say, “I Love You” are extremely similar. They are both deeply misunderstood by their peers, but some of the kindest girls in reality. Both anime series also have these girls pursued by a popular guy that, in turn, causes them to make friends, so their plots are not all too different either.

his and her circumstances anime

His and Her Circumstances

Yukino Miyazawa is the perfect student to her peers, but it is all just a front to get the praise and admiration she thrives on. So naturally when Soichiro Arima takes her spot as number one in the class rankings, she goes a little batty. Yet after Arima finds out her true personality, he begins to blackmail her with it.

The major theme of both series is character growth. While Kimi Ni Todoke takes a more gradual and careful path, His and Her Circumstances follows the characters as they grow in both their love and their own personality.

snow white with the red hair anime

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.

Most obviously, there is a difference in setting here since Snow White With the Red Hair is more of a fairy tale world. However, both shows focus on the building romance between two people of difference stations. Both female characters also have their own motivations besides just falling in love.

fruits baskets anime new

Fruits Basket

When Tooru Honda finds herself homeless, she decides to live in a tent in the wilderness. However, one day she is discovered by a classmate, Yuki Souma, and invited to come live in his house. From there she gets to know many members of the Souma family, not realizing that they all are inflicted by a curse. When they hug the opposite gender, they turn into an animal from the Chinese zodiac.

While Fruits Baskets does lean into the main character getting all tangled up in the complex drama of one family, it is still a romance show. It is more complicated than Kimi ni Todoke, but Tooru is as likable as Sawako and both shows heavily explore side characters.

class president is a maid anime

Class President is a Maid

After their high school’s recent transfer from all-boys school to co-ed, it wasn’t easy for Misaki Ayuzawa to become the school’s first female class president. While she inspires terror at school, she also works part-time at a maid café to help her struggling family. However, when one of the most popular boys at school, Takumi Usui, discovers her secret, her world is about to get a whole lot more complicated.

Both shows feature a romance that starts when a popular guy notices that the female main character exists. However, while Kimi ni Todoke is slow and grounded, with them very much becoming friends first, Class President is a Maid definitely moves faster with things. It is more your standard romance anime where there is a lot of comedy and a lot of tropes.

Do you have more anime recommendations like Kimi ni Todoke? Let fans know in the comments section below.

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