Otome games are visual novels where the player becomes the protagonist and can play through different routes depending on which love interest they're most interested in. Many of these story games have multiple endings, one good and one tragically bad. Though romance is one of the key elements in this genre of games, it's not the only aspect.
Many otome games have iworldbuilding and plotlines that really immerse players into the story. A few otome games have received anime adaptations. With the recent announcement of Collar X Malice's anime, the hype around otome-inspired anime series is greater than ever.
Updated on October 23rd, 2022 by Sarah Martin: Since this list was published in 2020, we've added a few more excellent anime series inspired by otome games. With otome games gaining popularity over the past few years, fans can only hope that more anime adaptations of their favorite games come to fruition soon.
10 My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom!
12 Episodes
My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom! isn't based on any specific otome game, but it's clearly inspired by the genre in general. Isekai series featuring villainesses inside otome games comprise their own subgenre, but My Next Life As A Villainess is the most well-known of these types of anime. Though the series has been well-received, avid otome enthusiasts can't help but point out that there's never actually been any villainesses in otome games.
My Next Life As A Villainess: All Routes Lead To Doom! follows a school girl who dies after being hit by a car. She gets reincarnated inside of an otome game, but instead of being a typical protagonist, she's a coldhearted villainess. As the title suggests, there's no possible happy ending for Catarina. She'll either be exiled or get killed. However, Catarina is bound and determined to change her fate.
9 Diabolik Lovers
12 Episodes
Diabolik Lovers is a franchise consisting of seven different games, Diabolik Lovers: Haunted Dark Bridal, Diabolik Lovers: More,Blood, Diabolik Lovers: Vandead Carnival, Diabolik Lovers: Dark Fate, Diabolik Lovers: Lunatic Parade, Diabolik Lovers: Lost Eden, and Diabolik Lovers: Chaos Lineage. The series received its own anime adaptation in 2013, running for 12 episodes with one OVA. Diabolik Lovers follows Yui Komori after her father traveled abroad and her life turned upside down.
Yui was forced to coexist with six vampiric brothers, fearing they'd attack her one day. It turns out that Yui is the sacrificial bride spoken about in legends of the Sakamaki vampires. Diabolik Lovers is dark and edgy and caused quite a bit of controversy when it came out.
8 Uta No Prince-Sama
52 Episodes
Uta no Prince-Sama is a popular otome game franchise that started in 2010 on the PlayStation Portable and received the "Best Consumer Game" award in the Dengeki Girls' Style Otome Game Awards in 2011. Players take on the role of Haruka Nanami, an aspiring composer who enters Saotome Academy, a performing arts school.
There, she meets several potential love connections, all of whom are competing to become the best pop idol. The anime adaptation came out in 2011, titled Uta No Prince-Sama: Maji Love 1000%. It had three seasons and concluded with a feature-length film.
7 Kamigami No Asobi
12 Episodes
Kamigami No Asobi is an otome game that came out in 2013 for the PlayStation Portable. Players step into Yui Kusanagi's shoes after she discovers a sword that teleports her to another world. She attends a school created by Zeus that's intended to train gods to love the humans they oversee.
The Kamigami No Asobi anime came out in 2014 and aired for twelve episodes. The anime stars six of the possible love interests from the otome game, including Apollo, Hades, Tsukito, Takeru, Balder, and Loki.
6 Meiji Tokyo Renka
12 Episodes
Unlike other otome games, Meiji Tokyo Renka started out as a mobile game in 2011 before moving to the PlayStation Portable in 2013. Players take on the role of Mei Ayazuki, who has traveled back in time. Mei lives with male historical figures from this era. While having lost her memories, she helps these historical figures with their own problems, using her ability to contact beings from the spiritual world.
Mei's faced with the decision of either falling in love and staying in the past forever or abandoning these new connections in favor of the future. In addition to sequel games, animated and live-action films, and musical theater performances based on the game, there was an anime that ran for 12 episodes that broadcast in 2019.
5 Hakuouki
12 Episodes
Hakuoki is a historical fantasy series that first launched on the PlayStation 2 in 2008. Hakuoki follows Chizuru Yukimura as she searches for her father. She gets attacked on her way to Kyoto, but a special police forced called the Shinsengumi took her in for questioning. The Shinsengumi's members are the game's love interests. Chizuru becomes an ally to the group as they offer to help find her father since he created the Water of Life elixir. However, this elixir turns humans into berserk vampires.
Hakuoki was 12 episodes long and premiered in 2010. It was then followed by a second season. There were two different manga, with a third that served as a prequel called Hakuoki Reimeiroku in 2012. Afterward, two films came out in 2013 and 2014.
4 Code: Realize
12 Episodes
Code: Realize − Guardian of Rebirth was originally released in Japan for the PlayStation Vita in 2014. The anime series ran for 12 episodes in 2017. The game's main character is Cardia, another girl who has lost her memories.
The twist in this game is that Cardia has a deadly poison that causes everything she touches to die, so she's been locked away in a mansion as the village's local "monster." When the English army comes for her, that is when the thief Arsène Lupin sweeps Cardia off her feet by saving her. The two search for her father and run into even more gorgeous gentlemen to romance in the game.
3 Norn9
12 Episodes
Norn9 began as a PlayStation Portable game released in 2013 and was ported to the PlayStation Vita the next year as Norn9: Var Commons. Another game with a time travel plot, the player begins as Sorata, an elementary schoolboy transported to the year 1919 on a ship called the Norn9 that flies in the sky. There, he meets The Gifted, peers who have special abilities.
After playing the prologue/epilogue with Sorata, the player can choose between three different character routes, each with their own set of heroes. The first option is Koharu, who has dangerous fire powers she keeps hidden from others. The second option is Mikoto, the role model of the group who can create barriers to keep people and objects safe. The third option is Nanami, who was raised by a ninja clan and can erase people's memories. The anime came out and ran for 12 episodes in 2016.
2 Prince of Stride: Alternative
12 Episodes
The Prince of Stride otome game originally came out for PlayStation Vita in 2015, and it differs from other games by focusing on sports over romance. The story explores the fictional extreme sport of "stride," in which teams run relay races throughout a town.
This game specifically follows a team of six, the Honan Academy's Stride club, running one such relay race. Two new students, Takeru Fujiwara and Nana Sakurai, try to bring stride back to their school by recruiting new members. Readers can also enjoy the spin-off manga Prince of Stride Galaxy Rush which debuted in 2015. The anime ran 12 episodes in 2016.
1 La Storia Della Arcana Famiglia
12 Episodes
La storia della Arcana Famiglia, which is Italian for The Story of the Arcane Family, was originally released on the PlayStation Portable in 2011. Then, a second game and a spin-off cooking game was released, but it was the first game that was turned into an anime with12 episodes and an OVA in 2012.
The Arcana Famiglia is a mafia family responsible for protecting Regalo. Each member has an Arcana card that gives them special abilities. The head of the island announces he's stepping down and whoever wins a tournament gets his title of "Papa," a wish, and can marry his daughter. His headstrong daughter, Felicità, refuses to act as a trophy to be won and enters the tournament, determined to win her own hand and legacy.