Like the fiery, sugar-and-violence tsundere or the beloved, always-losing childhood friend, the oujo is just one more type of anime waifu archetype.
The oujo is a woman, often of wealth, but even if they aren’t ridiculously rich, they carry themselves like a refined woman of culture. They enjoy everything high class and everyone looks up to them as peerless in their style and taste.
However, the oujo comes in many flavors in and of itself. Sometimes their life of wealth and privileged makes them cold to those they perceive below them. Other times, it is their warmth to those not of the same class that makes them so beloved by everyone around them. No matter your favorite flavor of Oujo-sama, if you are interested in romance anime about an oujo falling in love, head on down below.
Oujo Romance Anime
Kaguya-sama: Love is War
While you can’t say that Kaguya-sama: Love is War provides the most satisfying Oujo-sama character in line with the tropes, it certainly does provide the most satisfying oujo romance.
This series follow the titular Kaguya, the daughter of a wealthy corporate dynasty, who attends an elite school. She is the vice president of the student council, and secretly in love with the student council president – a boy whose hard work is what made his way into such an elite school possible despite his family’s poor finances.
Now, as a daughter raised to be a CEO’s successor, Kaguya believes that to confess love is a weakness, and her crush feels the same way. So while both are actually in love with each other, they are constantly in a battle of wits trying to make the other confess first.
Sankarea
Sankarea is an anime that combines two things that don’t seem like they would work well together – zombies and romance.
The series follows a boy that is obsessed with zombies and has a chance encounter with a wealthy girl who is frustrated with the lack of freedom that being an oujo affords her. After his cat dies, they work together to try to bring it back to life using an old resurrection potion recipe. The recipe seems to fail, and the oujo uses it to kill herself, only to come back as a zombie that soon becomes the main character’s increasingly menacing zombie girlfriend.
Why yes, when you explain it out in text, Sankarea does sound quite dark. However, the way the very serious subject matter is portrayed sort of cuts the melancholy of it, weirdly enough.
I’m In Love With The Villainess
The increasing trend of “villainess anime,” or anime following the villainess of an otome game as a main character, is a ripe area for oujos, since villainess in otome games often are the of oujo archetype. However, not all vilainess anime is romance anime.
As its title may suggest, I’m in Love With The Villainess is a villainess anime, and definitely is a romance. This series follows a girl isekai’d into the otome game as the actual main character of that game. Instead of romancing any of the male love interests, she obsessively bee-lines right for the oujo, or rather, the villainess character.
This series balances her romancing a character that is often put off by her obsessive behavior, but slowly comes to appreciate her charms with the main character growing more comfortable with herself.
High Score Girl
As a series that is kind of a love letter to the early 90’s days of arcade gaming in Japan, High Score Girl is actually one of the last places you might expect to find an oujo, much less a romance of her.
High Score Girl follows a young boy who is only good at arcade games and has little other redeeming qualities. However, he is continually frustrated as he is beaten by a wealthy, near-mute girl who plays him at the arcade before disappearing back to her mansion.
The series follows them from their elementary school days all the way through their high school years as the pair bond through their mutual love of arcade gaming. However, as his love interest is from a wealthy family, her passion for gaming and the boy prove to be a source of drama as her wealthy father begins to disapprove and intervene.
I’m The Villainess, So I’m Taming The Final Boss
A another villainess anime, I’m The Villainess , So I’m Taming The Final Boss, again, helpfully describes its entire plot right in the title.
The main character was isekai’d into her favorite otome game, but as the villainess rather than the main character of the game. After being dumped by the prince, she decides to go woo his brother, the demon lord, who, if left to his own devices, would off-handedly kill her during his rampage in the final act of the game.
The main character is more a shoujo protagonist in the body of an oujo. She comes from wealth and influence, but acts as nicely as any female main character in a rom-com. The great benefit that I’m The Villainess, So I’m Taming The Final Boss has over many other oujo romance anime is that it progresses the romance quickly and doesn’t dabble in tawdry, tired drama tropes like love rivals.
Maria Watches Over Us
While older shoujo and shoujo ai romance are often a great place to hunt for Oujo-sama’s, usually you just get to enjoy them in a villainous role and not so much having a rewarding romance of their own.
Maria Watch Over Us is an older shoujo ai romance that has oujos aplenty, and romance aplenty, but it also does the frustrating shoujo ai thing where their romances are not as satisfying as you would find in a heterosexual shoujo romance.
This series follows the relationships formed at an prestigious all-girls school. The older girls are encouraged to mentor younger students and the relationships they form with each other are as close as you can imagine. While not every character is an oujo, the series has an above average amount of them who are used along with the intense emotions to foster drama.
Bibliophile Princess
If you like your oujo women arrogant and looking down their nose at everyone around them, then the Bibliophile Princess may not be the oujo romance anime for you.
This series follows a young noble lady who was raised in wealth and even engaged to the prince of her kingdom. She believes the marriage was simply a placeholder so he can find a better suitor without other noble interference, but much of Bibliophile Princess is about her realizing that his feelings for her were, in fact, true.
While dressed to the nines in filly dresses and possessing all the corrupting levels of wealth of an oujo, Bibliophile Princess has its oujo main character be more of a quiet, yet kind female lead who probably could benefit from stealing a little fire from her oujo peers on this list.
Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte
In a bit of a twist of being about a villainess of an otome game, Endo and Kobayashi Live is about two friends playing an otome game, but being able to communicate with the prince. As such, they are able to explain why the oujo villainess is acting so mean – and that reason is because she is a tsundere.
Once they explain the concept of a tsundere to him and give him some helpful advice on navigating those turbulent waters, she may lose some of her ice queen oujo edge, but their romance finally has a chance to flourish.
Yuri is My Job
In truth, none of the actual characters in Yuri is My Job are oujos. They are, for the most part, normal teenagers. However, just like yuri, being an oujo is their job too in Yuri is My Job.
This series follows a group of girls who work in a theme cafe. The theme is an elite all-girls school for the wealthy and privileged. As such, many of their characters fit the refined oujo archetype and they all play out various affectionate situations with each other.
Of course, the series is actually a progressing shoujo ai romance outside of the costumes as well. So while it may fit as an oujo romance sometimes, it doesn’t fit as an oujo romance all the time.
The Rose of Versailles
The Rose of Versailles is an older, but legendary anime, and admittedly more of a drama than a romance. However, what is more fertile ground for drama than romance?
The Rose of Versailles follows the intrigue building within and without the French Royal Palace prior to the French Revolution. The series follows the captain of the guard who is a woman pretending to be a man. While she has her own love affair building with a revolutionary, her dashing demeanor has made her a target of the affections of Marie Antoinette, a queen caught in her own complicated marriage.
While perhaps not as satisfying as a dedicated romance anime, it is the relationships that make this series such a legend, and the oujos certainly fuel it.
Do you have more oujo romance anime recommendations for those who worship at the alter of Oujo-sama to enjoy? Let fans know in the comments section below.
