Were you a romance anime fan in the 2000s? Or are you a current fan who wants to check out some classics? Whether you're motivated by nostalgia or a desire to expand your repertoire, there's a lot of great 2000s shojo anime, josei anime, and romance anime that you can watch.
Everyone has a different opinion on what the best 2000s romance anime are, but a lot of people would cite mega-hits like Ouran High School Host Club and Nana. Others might cite less well-known shows like Kobato or Sweet Blue Flowers. Which one gets your heart beating the fastest?
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Lovely Complex
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- Lovely Complex
- Toei Animation
High school students Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Otani are both looking for romance, but they're having a hard time. Otani is short for a boy his age, while Risa is tall for a girl. In some environments, this wouldn't matter, but for them it's a big deal. Things get even harder when their crushes fall in love with each other.
The two of them are often thought of as a comedy duo because of their height situation and because they're constantly bickering. But could they find actual love underneath that?
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- Ouran High School Host Club
- Bones
Haruhi Fujioka is a scholarship student attending an elite boarding school. When she breaks an expensive vase belonging to the school's host club, she's going to have to pay it back somehow. She doesn't have the money, so she ends up joining their club as a host. This requires her to disguise herself as a boy.
With so many eccentric and chaotic members in the club, Haruhi's life is about to get a lot stranger - and a lot more exciting.
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- Kimi ni Todoke
- Production I.G
Thanks to her shy personality and the fact that she looks like Sadako from The Ring, Sawako Kuronuma has a bad reputation at school. Most people think she's terrifying, but in reality she's a kind person who just wants to make friends.
She gets that chance when Shota Kazehaya takes an interest in her. He introduces her to other people and helps her open up. As she builds a social life, she grows increasingly grateful towards Kazehaya. But it's not one-sided - Kazehaya also feels like Sawako has changed his life for the better.
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Fruits Basket (2001)
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- Fruits Basket
- Studio Deen
Fruits Basket has since received a much more manga-compliant reboot, but the 2001 version is what got a lot of people into the series to begin with.
After her mother passes away, Tohru Honda moves into a tent, which turns out to be on the property of the enigmatic Sohma family. She ends up moving in with them, and growing close to them as a result. She soon discovers that the Sohmas are cursed. They transform into animals from the Chinese Zodiac.
This sounds silly, but it's actually quite serious - especially when it comes to their abusive family head. Tohru is determined to break the curse, but is that possible?
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- NANA
- Madhouse
Two young women who share the name Nana move to Tokyo at the same time for completely different reasons. The cheerful and somewhat air-headed Nana Komatsu is following her boyfriend, while the serious and career-minded Nana Osaki is trying to avoid her boyfriend in order to start a music career without getting distracted.
After a chance meeting on the train, the two become fast friends. It's a good thing, too, because their lives in Tokyo are about to get complicated, and they're going to need each other for support.
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- Skip Beat!
- Hal Film Maker
Kyoko Mogami is the epitome of a loving girlfriend - she works multiple jobs and dedicates pretty much every moment of her life to supporting her childhood friend Shotaro "Sho" Fuwa as he tries to achieve stardom.
When she finds out that he doesn't actually care about her and is just using her for her money and labor, her love becomes hatred - and a burning desire for revenge. Her goal is to become far more famous than he is so that she can laugh in his face. But in the process, she starts finding other things to care about besides getting back at her ex.
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- Paradise Kiss
- Madhouse
Yukari Hayasaka is a straight-laced teenager whose main focus is doing well in school. But this leaves her life feeling a little hollow. After a chance encounter with a group of fashion designers attending Yazawa School for the Arts, she reluctantly agrees to model their new brand in an upcoming fashion show.
It takes a while for them to convince her - she's never even considered doing something so counter-cultural and audacious - but George Koizumi, the head designer, is determined to have her join the group. Could this be what she needs to spice up her life, or will she be swallowed up by the fashion world?
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Clannad & Clannad: After Story
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- Clannad
- Kyoto Animation
Clannad is a classic for a reason, but be prepared to cry.
Tomoya Okazaki's life is pretty miserable. His mother passed away and his father is too busy drinking to take care of him properly. When he meets Nagisa Furukawa, he finds something to distract himself with. Nagisa wants to revive the school's drama club - a difficult task given her delicate health.
With nothing better to do, Tomoya resolves to help her. This choice results in a deep relationship that extends beyond high school. Clannad: After Story follows the two of them into the world of work, marriage, parenthood, and grief.
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- Spice and Wolf
- Imagin
Being a harvest deity serving a relatively sufficient village isn't exactly fulfilling. That's why when Holo meets Kraft Lawrence, a traveling merchant, she decides to tag along on his journey. Ultimately, she wants to get to her former hometown of Yoitsu, but in the meantime she's happy to be his business partner.
Of course, traveling together means growing closer - and developing goals and desires that neither Kraft nor Holo could have anticipated.
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- Toradora!
- J.C.Staff
Ryuji Takasu is a kindhearted boy who spends most of his free time cooking and cleaning for his mom. But a lot of people think that he looks like a delinquent. Meanwhile, the tiny Taiga Aisaka looks adorable, but is actually a violent tsundere.
The two forge an unlikely friendship when they discover that they each have an unrequited crush on a classmate. The plan is to help each other find love with their respective interests, but it's not long before they develop feelings for each other.
Love this anime?- 1Ryuji Takasu535 Votes
- 2Taiga Aisaka583 Votes
- 3Ami Kawashima286 Votes
- 4Minori Kushieda239 Votes
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- Vampire Knight
- Studio Deen
Vampire Knight isn't super well-rated, but it's a major source of nostalgia for a lot of anime fans who were growing up during the 2000s, so we couldn't not include it.
Cross Academy has two different classes - the Day Class and the Night Class. The classes need to be kept orderly when the switch happens, but that's no easy task. That's because the members of the Night Class are actually vampires, and the Day Class has no idea.
Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu are part of a disciplinary committee tasked with keeping order - but both of them have ulterior motives. Yuki wants to see Kaname Kuran, a vampire who saved her life ten years ago and is now the head of the Night Class. Meanwhile, Zero would rather see all vampire-kind destroyed.
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- 12
Bokura ga Ita
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- Bokura ga Ita
- Artland
When Nanami Takahashi starts high school, she's hoping to make a lot of friends. She's also hoping to avoid Yano Motoharu, a popular classmate. Yano once dated Nanami's sister Nana, and things didn't go well. Nanami might be able to overlook this, but Nana recently lost her life in a car accident, making the whole issue a lot more sensitive.
At first, Yano doesn't care much for Nanami either, but the two are eventually drawn to one another and begin dating. But the past will continue to haunt them, creating complications in their relationship that they must navigate if they want to stay together.
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Kobato
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- Kobato.
- Madhouse
This is one of CLAMP's lesser-known works, making it something of a hidden gem. If you missed it during the 2000s, check it out.
Kobato Hanato is a happy-go-lucky young woman who desperately wants to go to a mysterious place that she can't quite remember. To do it, she has to fill up a jar with konpeito. This is achieved by healing people's hearts. This isn't easy - especially when it comes to her grouchy co-worker who she finds herself inexplicably drawn to.
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- 5 Centimeters per Second
- CoMix Wave Films
These days, Makoto Shinkai is best known for films like Your Name and Suzume, but back in the 2000s he was already putting out notable anime.
Like many of Shinkai's works, 5 Centimeters per Second focuses on a relationship that faces significant obstacles. In this case, it's not supernatural - it's logistical. Takaki and Akari's relationship is curtailed when one of them is forced to move away. They try to see each other one last time before another move makes even that impossible… but unavoidable delays and weather problems give them only a few precious moments together.
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- Nodame Cantabile
- J.C.Staff
Shinichi Chiaki is a talented musician who hopes to one day conduct orchestras in prestigious institutes in Europe. This is easier said than done, because he's terrified of getting on a plane. Until he conquers his fear, he's stuck in Japan.
While making the best of his situation by studying at an elite Japanese music university, he meets Megumi Noda. She seems to be a totally directionless ditz, which Chiaki can't relate to at all. But when he hears her play piano, he realizes that there's more to her than he imagined. He still isn't happy to learn that she's moved in next door to him - or that she's apparently in love with him.
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Emma: A Victorian Romance
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- Emma: A Victorian Romance
- Pierrot
Set in 19th century England, Emma: A Victorian Romance is a unique anime experience. Emma is a maid who works for a retired governess named Kelly Stownar. She loves her work, and is happy with her relatively low status in society. She's received several offers of marriage, but she always turns them down.
When William Jones, the oldest son of a wealthy family and Kelly's former ward, comes to visit, he ends up falling in love with Emma. She reciprocates his feelings, but there's a major obstacle in their way: class. Victorian society doesn't exactly take kindly to the idea of a high society man marrying a maid.
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- School Rumble
- Studio Comet
If you like romantic comedies with a focus on the comedy, you might like School Rumble. Tenma Tsukamoto is a cheerful and somewhat childish girl who is trying to work up the nerve to ask out her crush, Oji Karasuma. Meanwhile, Kenji Harima, a former delinquent, is struggling to ask Tenma the same thing.
Both of them will have to deal with outlandish misunderstandings and unexpected complications as they try to make their romantic dreams come true.
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- Gravitation
- Studio Deen
Shuichi Shindo is a budding musician whose band Bad Luck is just starting to take off. But there's one big problem - he has no inspiration for lyrics. One night while walking through the park, he drops the paper he's been scribbling on.
It's picked up by Yuki Eiri, a popular romance novelist. Yuki dismisses Shuichi's work as drivel, which annoys the hell out of him - both because it's insulting and because Yuki is just about the hottest guy he's ever seen. Shuichi is determined to get Yuki to like him and his music - but he's going to have to overcome some serious barriers.
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- Honey and Clover
- J.C.Staff
Honey and Clover is technically a romance, but its main focus is unrequited love. So if you like watching characters get their hearts broken, this is a great choice.
Seriously though, it's a genuinely good anime. It follows a group of art students as they struggle to decide what to do with their lives post-graduation, and fall in love with people who just don't love them back. From the relatively ordinary Yuta Takemoto to the artistic genius Hagumi Hanamoto, the whole friend group goes through the emotional wringer - and learn a lot about themselves in the process.
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- Sweet Blue Flowers
- J.C.Staff
Akira Okudaira and Fumi Manjome were best friends in elementary school, but their relationship stalled after Fumi moved away. The two of them are thrilled that they'll be reunited in high school, but once they meet again, they realize that a lot has changed and they can't just go back to their childhood days.
As the two of them struggle to figure out how to relate to each other, they must also contend with Yasuko Sugimoto, a popular girl who seems to be really, really interested in Fumi.
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