You know what they say, all it takes is the attentions of one popular person to shine even the biggest turd into a diamond. It certainly isn’t a particularly relatable situation, but it is one of the finer forms of wish fulfillment that anime can indulge. While it isn’t always at the intervention of another, more naturally popular person, these romance anime series feature zeroes becoming heroes in the eyes of everyone around them, especially the person they love.
Best Romance Anime Where The Main Character Suddenly Becomes Popular
Masamune-kun’s Revenge
After being insulted by her as a child, the now-handsome Masamune has decided to make Aki fall in love with him so he can utterly decimate her heart by rejecting her. That’s the plot, but you can guess that it doesn’t go that way. In fact, it didn’t go the way anyone expected it to.
Kiss Him, Not Me
In this potentially insulting series to women, the chubby main character gets wildly depressed when an anime character she likes dies. In her depression, she sheds all her weight, and suddenly a manageable series of hot men from her class all realize how lovely she is. Thankfully, it eventually becomes apparent that her primary man will be the one that liked her before the glow up.
Fruit of Evolution
Isekai commonly makes the main character cool simply because they end up in a different world where the social rules can be whatever they want them to be. The Fruit of Evolution is unique in that the main character isn’t just cool because people think him so, but rather it is because he eats said fruit of evolution and evolves to become the pinnacle of human coolness. It does tend to focus more on following a plot than sappy romance, but a major element is the busty ape lady (who evolves into a cute anime girl) that ends up in love with him.
Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki-kun
Disappointed that her gaming idol is a loser at life, a popular girl ends up trying to socially rehabilitate the titular Tomozaki. This series is, in every sense, a rehabilitation series. They cover things like growing socially and giving yourself a glow up in ways that are actually applicable instead of a sudden fairy godmother-esque “you’re just cool now because I noticed you” way.
Horimiya
Not every romance where a loser become popular is necessarily a touching romance. However, Horimiya handles the occasionally confusing message that some people aren’t valuable until someone cool notices them with a gentle hand. The series is all about two people, misunderstood in different ways, finding common ground with each other. In the end, Hori draws Miyamura out of his loner shell and he wishes to be the best person he can be so he can feel like he is able to stand by her side. In turn, he provides the emotional support that Hori doesn’t really receive from her busy parents.
Haganai
The entire premise of Haganai is that two people with no friends start a club to make friends. While this may not make them popular, they sure do attract enough club members to say that they are no longer friendless. Of course, since this is a harem anime, those members are almost exclusively women.
Ouran High School Host Club
While one might not say Haruhi was unpopular before, necessarily. Her stock probably did certainly rise when she became involved with the titular host club. After accidentally breaking a vase, she ends up working at a wealthy school’s secret host club with a whole harem of handsome men. While most other students think her a boy, she is, at least, a popular boy as well as increasingly beloved by her man harem.
Chivalry of a Failed Knight
If you fancy something with a bit more action, Chivalry of a Failed Knight takes a more common harem approach of building popularity through overwhelming force! Initially, Ikki is considered one of the weakest mage-knight candidates as his school, but as his power is just misunderstood, his talent and prowess awes his peers, especially the female ones.
Kimi ni Todoke
While simultaneously being the world’s sweetest and world’s most slowest moving romance, Kimi ni Todoke has the strong base of being lifted from solitude by the sudden attentions of a popular boy. Sawako is sweet, but quiet and misunderstood. It is only after the handsome and popular Kazehaya encourages her does her social world start to expand.
Hana Yori Dango
While easily the oldest series on this list, it is quintessential to the genre. In it, the poor Makino’s family pinches pennies to send her to a wealthy school, and there she becomes the target of the four popular and wealthy boys that rule over everyone there. Eventually this malicious targeting gives way to the more amorous kind. It actually makes her kind of unpopular among the other female students, but when you have the four most popular boys surrounding you, it kind of fades everyone out. It’s a shame the series has both sloppy animation and a “too old school shoujo manga for anime” art style. (I recommend the live actions as an alternative, truthfully.)
Shomin Sample
While Shomin Sample is definitely more comedy than romance, it features an all-around average guy that is kidnapped and placed in a school for wealthy young women. He is meant to serve as an example of “common folk” to help acclimatize the sheltered missuses there to their shocking(ly normal) presence. This comes on the condition that they think him gay, though. Romance finds a way, of course, but the comedy does come from how into him every single girl there is due to their curiosity.
Do you have more romance anime recommendations where the main character suddenly gets popular? Let fans know in the comments section below.
