There are a lot of difficult tropes to swallow in romance anime, but there is one bitter large pill that may be right for some, but catches in my throat every time. You know what they say, right? If at first a person shows absolutely no interest in you, or even blatant disgust – try, try again! Unfortunately, there is no romance anime where they eventually just shut that shit down, but instead it works out and gives all those degenerate young weebs out there license to go out and probably get a smack.
Warning you hopeful fools of a future sexual assault charge aside, if you can separate fantasy from reality, the persistent pestering in these romance anime series can be rewarding. There is no finer trope that shows love blooming since they need to bloom it from literally nothing.
Best Stalking Romance Anime
Love of Kill
While Love of Kill is a story about assassins, it is also just as much a love story between a super skilled assassin and the bounty hunter whom he is mystery linked to from the past and stalking in the present. She wants nothing to do with him (at first, as these things go), and he showers her with affection, pesters her with phone calls, and just straight up kills and captures people for her to collect bounties on.
Class President is a Maid
At a glance, Class President is a Maid is your pretty standard school shoujo romance. However, their romance isn’t based on some clandestine meeting or easily unraveled miscommunication meet-cute. Instead, it begins when a popular boy decides the hardassed class president is cute, follows her to her surprising job at a maid cafe which goes completely against her school image, and then shows up there every day to tease, chat, and otherwise flirt. Shoujo romance always has a certain element of possessiveness, and that is on display in this series as well.
Koikimo: It’s Too Sick to Call This Love
I kind of love that this series knows what it is. In Koikimo, a handsome salaryman, constantly flirted with by women yet with no interest in them, falls in love with a high school girl who showed him one passing act of innocent kindness. Repulsed by his offer of himself to her at first, he relentlessly pursues her and eventually his more sincere deeds wear her down.
Future Diary
To have someone that would kill wantonly for you, that’s the dream, right? That’s how the romantic relationship works in Future Diary. It becomes a killing game wherein a girl, who is also playing, teams up with the main character because she has a yandere obsession with him. Watch her murder with a smile on her face and eventually even try to kill his friends as they explain how crazy she is to him.
Momokuri
Of all stalking romances, the unassuming Momokuri stands at the pinnacle. The entire series is built around a newly dating couple. The girl has been obsessively stalking her paramour, and after her 100th candid photo while following him, she confesses her love to him. Even he finds her affectionate behavior a bit extreme sometimes, but flattered to have someone’s heart and this being his first girlfriend, he tries his best. It’s a nice fuzzy romance filled with cute moments if you don’t think about it too hard.
Happy Sugar Life
When yuri does obsessive love, it does it full-assedly and often to extremes. Happy Sugar Life is the tale of a girl who falls in love with a much younger girl, kidnaps her, confines her to her apartment, and they essentially play house together in isolated glee. Their relationship, aside from how it formed, is surprisingly wholesome. The interactions between the kidnapper and everyone else trying to interfere, however, are not.
Strawberry Panic
While less extreme than Happy Sugar Life, Strawberry Panic is another girl’s love series that dips its toe over the line between affection and obsession. In it, a girl transfers to an all-girls school and becomes entangled in all the drama that goes with that. While not the main relationship, the main character’s roommate develops a bit of an obsessive crush on her. However, as she is her roommate, hardcore stalking isn’t really required. She does partake in stalking-like activities though, such as recording her screams and watching her sleep.
Gravitation
Yaoi is no stranger to all forms of obsessive love. However, in terms of Gravitation, the stalking is a little bit different. At first, Shuichi meets Yuki in a park clandestinely, Yuki insults his lyrics, and then promptly leaves. They meet accidentally several other times, but eventually Shuichi starts to persistently pursue him despite that fact that Yuki shuts him down and verbally abuses him often. I say it is unique since it is usually the meaner one that is responsible for the stalking, not the kicked puppy that is the uke.
Ai no Kusabi
One more from the genre that is boy’s love. Ai no Kusabi is about a planet of mostly men where blonde haired people keep dark haired people as pets. The main character, a dark-haired slave man, is a fighter. As such, the show is all about his futile struggle against submission where he is constantly watched by others and kidnapped multiple times. ‘Tis a fine vintage.
My Sweet Tyrant
This series is a pretty frustrating romance all around, since it is built around a quirk that is not necessarily a joy to watch. In My Sweet Tyrant, the main character landed himself a girlfriend. Embarrassed from affectionate acts, he always accidentally responds to them with mean actions. She finds this cute, because of course she does. However, how he shows his true affection for her is essentially following her around, taking pictures, and eavesdropping on her conversations. In essence, the concept of the show is that he’s legitimately a good and normal guy, but acts like a stalker.
Shimoneta
Shimoneta is very much a comedy and very little a romance. However, as a show that is just a constant barrage of sex jokes, tender feelings are a must. While you can see a deeper relationship forming between main character Okuma and the woman that saw him dragged into lewd terrorism, the real obsessive romance comes between Okuma and his sheltered classmate Anna Nishikinomiya. He accidentally kisses her, she experiences arousal for the first time without even understanding what that is, and she develops an obsession with Okuma that comes out in a very yandere way.
Do you have more romance anime recommendations that focus up on a pretty obsessive romance built around persistent stalking? Let fans know in the comments section below.
