Bullying isn’t cool, but there is malicious bullying and then there is juvenile feelings of love that come out in bullying. The whole concept of a tsundere is built on this. She likes a person, and because she is not honest with her own feelings, that comes out as being mean to them. It happens a lot in anime and it can be a fun way to set up a romance anime at times.
Best Romance Anime Where a Girl Bullies The Guy She Likes
Skilled Teaser Takagi-san
The entire premise of this series is that a girl teases a boy she likes in middle school. He thinks she is legitimately picking on him, but rather she picks on him because she likes him. Unlike what is more typical in this sort of juvenile behavior, she actually realizes that she likes him. It is this self awareness that makes her teasing so effective at times as well.
Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan
This series perhaps takes this to the extreme. Although there is less focus on the romance, and more focus on the comedy, it fits the trope. Essentially, in order to stop the main character from transforming the world into immortal lolis, the main female is sent to kill him. She instead just keeps him very distracted. He whole joke is her violent fits of rage in which she brutally murders him and then revives him.
How Clumsy You Are, Ueno-san
Think of this as similar to the aforementioned Takagi-san, but a more lewd. Ueno is obsessed with a boy, and she does very strange things to him in the name of science and love. This is definitely a comed-based on romance, and not an actually realized romance, however.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
If you have watched Haruhi but never realized it, she is kind of a huge bully. She bullies everyone and manipulates them to get what she wants. There is a distinct reason for this as new watchers will come to find out. However, she is a jerk towards the boy she likes and literally everyone else.
MM!
If you don’t need serious declarations of love, but what to watch some bullying, this is an excellent option. MM is based around a boy that is a masochist. He wants to change and ends up joining a club that promises to change him. Unfortunately, it is full of other people that need fixing as well – one of which is a sadist.
Love Hina
A finer anime rom-com – Well, there are several – but this one is pretty good too if you like cliches. Keitaro ends up managing his grandmother’s hot springs inn, which turns out is also a girls dorm. Hot springs… College girls… Let’s just say misunderstandings are common and physical violence is used as well as scorn.
Suzuka
If you would rather your girl bullying a guy she likes anime turns into drama rather than comedy, then this is the show. Suzuka and its drama is built on its just crazy female love interest. She is actually kind of mean even when the romance comes to fruition as well.
The Familiar of Zero
Louise in The Familiar of Zero is a legendary tsundere girl because she has perfected it. She summons a boy as her familiar and he regularly gets degraded and beaten by her. It is played up for comedy, but she is rather quite harsh. It is balanced out by some sweet moments later, but at first, Saito is very much her whipping boy.
If you have more anime series where a girl bullies the boy she likes, then let fans know in the comments section below.
I wouldn’t say that Takagi is bullying Nishikata, her shenanigans with that poor boy almost always end up with the most gentle punishments or just situations that would put a less “dense” middle school boy floating couple of inches above ground for just pure joy and happiness. Due to the fact that Nishikata is a human equivalent of a black hole (density wise) about the true feelings of a certain female class mate, he ends up burdening himself with strenuous tasks and awkward blushings. Takagi would probably be happy with even a plain boring “normal” Nishikata, but with that we would not have this anime gem.