In general, most people watch romantic comedy anime for those warm and fuzzy feelings of love that one would get from a romantic relationship. The appeal is not just for the chronically lonely, but a large chunk of people just like watching others falling in love. After all, you only get to experience first love once yourself, but you can experience it second-hand through anime at your leisure.
However, there is a small sub-section of romantic comedy anime that is for a particular niche – an audience that wants something a little more intellectual from their standard rom-com. They are romances where the series isn’t just lingering gazes and tired tropes about misunderstandings that would be cleared up with simple communication. No, instead communication is the key element.
While there is no specific term for these types of elevated romantic comedy anime, you do know one when you see it – a romance series where they spend long moments locked in deep conversation.
You enjoy the characters sparring quip-for-quip with each other in a battle of words, and sometimes you come out of it realizing that – while a lot of words were said – they really didn’t communicate anything at all.
If you enjoy romantic comedies that are heavy on the dialogue, put an above average amount of effort into witticisms and sarcasm, and often require more than just casual attention to really grasp, then check out these dialogue-dense romantic comedy anime.
Dialogue-Dense Romantic Comedy Anime
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU is iconic as a more intelligent, but still quite cute and fun romantic comedy. It is in no small part responsible for its wild popularity during its run.
The series has a simple set up that becomes increasingly complex in the small details that get involved in it. It follows an apathetic nihilist that believes a happy youth is just a lie and that most people who believe in it are just lying to themselves. Of course, after writing an essay about just that, his teacher punishes him by forcing him to join the Volunteer Service Club that is dedicated to helping people. The only other member of the club is an icy girl who tries her best to help people despite a cold exterior.
All the pieces are in place. With them neatly laid out in front of you, you know that Hachiman, the main character in My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, is in imminent danger of falling in love and experiencing a joyful youth.
The series is framed through the main characters solving the various student problems, but often at the same time, addressing their own more personal issues. The lessons they learn from helping others are used to learn more about themselves and forge a bond between the love triangle that eventually forms in the club.
While My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU, in its initial season at least, suffers from a lack of the lovey-dovey moments that many crave in their romantic comedy anime, it does provide a deeper look at relationships, and does – by the end – offer you that sweet, sweet romance to gush over.
Hyouka
While Hyouka is an investigative mystery first and a romantic comedy second, people come to Hyouka for the intriguing premise and stay for the increasingly precious dynamic between the deadpan snarker main character and the paragon of curious innocence that pulls him into mysteries.
Hyouka follows a chronically energy-conserving main character who is essentially forced to join the Classic Literature club by his sister. As these things so often go, the Classic Literature club spends little time on literature and instead is constantly pulled into investigating small, supernatural-seeming mysteries around the school and town.
It is these mysteries that invite the dialogue to flow. Both the main character and his love interest go into long dialogues that lay out the facts of the mysteries, propose reasons for the events, and speculate on conclusions. The back-and-forth between a realist and a girl willing to believe in a supernatural cause in a world where the supernatural clearly does not exist is the intoxicating thing about Hyouka. However, as the series goes on, it isn’t just about the mysteries anymore, it becomes about the increasing closeness of feelings between the characters.
Bakemonogatari
Bakemonogatari is a series that hides itself under a thick blanket of dialogue as well as the Studio Shaft-signature head tilts and surrealist set pieces. However, if you strip away the long, meandering conversations about nothing in particular and the occasionally avant-garde visual experimentation, you find a supernatural romantic comedy with strong harem elements.
Supernatural harem rom-coms are quite common in anime, but Bakemonogatari hides its so well with its longer periods of dialogue that many who aren’t interested in a more artistic or intellectual experience will drop the show before even realizing what it was.
That said, while all of the romantic comedies on this list have a shared love of dialogue, Bakemonogatari can be an exercise in subtitle speed reading at times as the conversations are both dense with details and quick-moving.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
In terms of plot, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai is about half way between My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU and Bakemonogatari. It is not as strictly steeped in pragmatism like My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU nor are the supernatural elements as wildly detached from reality like Bakemonogatari.
In fact, the lightly supernatural elements tinting the otherwise grounded story in Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai adds a charming layer of interest to what is essentially a romantic comedy with harem elements.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai features a somewhat apathetic main character with his own mysterious problems that he cleverly ignores by solving the problems of the many other women that he meets. Of course, this ultimately leads to him having the support of a girlfriend and treasured friends that allow him to deal with his own issues.
While the main character himself is quiet and often succinct in his communication, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai still has those long moments of witty back-and-forth between him and his love interest. The fact that what they are saying is particularly clever adds in the comedy in this occasionally more dramatic romantic comedy.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
For many, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya likely introduced them to the concept of a romantic comedy that is elevated by a dense amount of clever dialogue between the characters. However, as the oldest of the bunch, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya does make more time for silliness than lengthy monologues.
Similar to some other series, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya melds the mundanity of school life with an increasing amount of supernatural. As the series starts with the main character famously proclaiming that he doesn’t believe in aliens, time travelers, or espers – you know he is about to meet the lot.
While The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya starts off simple and silly, it is a series that grows exponentially in complexity as a series of reveals are made. By the end, it has become an even stronger romance, though the comedy may have fallen off somewhat.
The Dreaming Boy is a Realist
All of the above dialogue-dense romantic comedy anime are quite well-received because they do dialogue so well. It is immediately clear in The Dreaming Boy is a Realist that it was inspired by the lengthy conversations and romance in many of the above series, but this one may not do it with as much finesse.
The Dreaming Boy is a Realist follows a boy who has been persistently pursuing his tsundere crush until one day he just decides to quit. One does not simply just quit pursuing a tsundere, and the series dedicates itself to his crush’s visible and violent confusion while the main character sorts through his feelings as he interacts with new people he never had any interest in before due to his laser-targeted affection.
While the concept is quite interesting, The Dreaming Boy is a Realist often has its long moments of conversation focused on the main character explaining to people how they should solve their problems. It often lacks the lovely back-and-forth as the characters often just listen, agree or disagree, and provide not especially clever, logic-steeped responses. So, there is ample dialogue in The Dreaming Boy is a Realist, but it lacks the sharp wit of its other peers on this list.
My Stepmom’s Daughter is My Ex
Unlike The Dreaming Boy is a Realist that attempts at elevated banter and sort of falls flat due to a lack of spiffy wit, My Stepsister is My Ex is a series that doesn’t try so hard to be verbose for the sake of seeming more intelligent in conversations. It is probably the lightest on lengthy diatribes between characters, but it has plenty of snark-on-snark combat between the two bookish and clever leads.
As a series about an ex-boyfriend and an ex-girlfriend that are now step-siblings, it seems like a cheap ploy to catch some of that wincest fandom run-off without actually being too gross about it. However, the series does offer more than just cheap thrills.
Instead of cattiness to disguise the flirting – well, maybe alongside the cattiness to disguise flirting – My Stepsister is My Ex does offer a thoughtful exploration of what happens when your love is soured and how the heart can’t move past those feelings so easily.
Do you have more romantic comedy anime that feature long moments of conversation? Let fans know in the comments section below.
