Regardless of genre and demographic, love stories and relationships are inseparable from anime. The main characters will always have a love interest or a crush, while the side characters either fawn over the hero or someone else. That being said, there are some anime that can take these mainstays and push them into overdrive.
Intentionally or otherwise, these anime have so much romance going on that they take away attention from the actual point of the story. This isn't detrimental to these shows' overall entertainment value, but the number of romantic side stories going on can clash with the series' genre, or even overwhelm what seemed to be typical romantic anime.
This article contains spoilers for various anime.
10 Super Dimension Fortress Macross Let Love Bloom On The Battlefield
These days, love triangles are practically a tradition in Macross. But when the franchise started in 1982, the idea of love not just being a space opera's heart, but also a galaxy-spanning war epic's core theme was unheard of. Macross' creative risk paid off amazingly and changed mecha anime forever, but its romance can still feel a bit misplaced in a rewatch.
For viewers who just wanted to see the UN Spacey's forces fight the Zentraedi armada, the love triangle for Hikaru's affection and Macross' achingly sincere belief in the power of love can feel lost amidst the warfare. However, Macross wore its heart so proudly on its sleeve that it turned these atypical mecha tropes into its unique signatures.
9 Neon Genesis Evangelion Left Its Romances Dangling For Years
Neon Genesis Evangelion set itself apart from its mecha contemporaries by debatably being more of a slice-of-life anime with giant robots than a straightforward mecha story, and this was especially true in its first half. While Shinji found himself torn between three love interests, there were more complex romances happening in the background.
But just like Evangelion's arcane mythos, Shinji's romantic subplots were left hanging in favor of psychological introspection as the anime went on. Because it took until the Rebuild of Evangelion movies for them to resolve, Evangelion's original romantic arcs were compelling and even emotionally resonant, but ultimately distracting and unsatisfying.
8 Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny Was Gundam At Its Most Romantic
Relationships and love triangles are fairly common in Gundam anime, but the SEED continuity was the most blatant about it. In fact, it could be argued that SEED was more of a romantic wartime story than a typical war anime. As romantically charged as SEED was, it had nothing on its sequel, SEED Destiny, where new and old romances collided.
As if introducing Shinn and Stella's romance while beefing up Kira and Athrun's respective relationships wasn't enough, SEED Destiny introduced tons of new love interests like Meer (the body double of Kira's lover, Lacus) for more drama. Unlike its predecessor, though, SEED Destiny struggled to balance these threads and suffered as a result.
7 Sword Art Online Got Distracted By Kirito's Growing Harem
Though it's not the first self-indulgent isekai of its kind, Sword Art Online was undeniably the most influential isekai of its kind. As such, Kirito's debut anime was also the progenitor of many of the modern isekai's biggest pitfalls, such as the distracting romance. Kirito settling down with Asuna isn't inherently bad, but it wrecked the anime's pacing.
Halfway through Sword Art Online, Kirito and Asuna basically left the plot to settle down and adopt Yui. This wouldn't be a problem in a domestic fantasy, which the action-packed and gamified Sword Art Online was not. Distracting romances would persist in future seasons, but they weren't as egregious as the one that started the trend.
6 Rosario + Vampire Erroneously Prioritized Its Harem Shenanigans
To most anime viewers, Rosario + Vampire was just that supernaturally-themed harem anime from the early 2000s. But to those who actually read the manga, Tsukune and Moka's love story in Yokai Academy was a disservice to the source material. In brief, the anime forwent the manga's deeper storylines in favor of generic romances and fanservice.
Rosario + Vampire is really about the prejudices that divide humans and yokai, and the cast's attempts to repair the bridges that were burned generations ago. The anime, meanwhile, only glossed over these themes in the first season before doing away with them completely in its infamous second season that put generic harem fun at the forefront.
5 Hamtaro Has More Romance Than Anyone Expected
As far as most anime fans are concerned, Hamtaro is that innocent kids' show starring a cute hamster. While a love subplot or two in a children's cartoon may not be that surprising, Hamtaro went one step further by featuring a complex web of romantic possibilities for its characters. In fact, the anime has an official chart to help bring fans up to speed.
Hamtaro himself is oblivious to romance, but the same can't be said for his friends. Just to name a few of the many love threads, Dexter and Howdy are competing for the affection of the same girl, Boss likes Bijou but she has a crush on Hamtaro, and so forth. These aren't even running jokes; these are long arcs that change all those involved.
4 To Love Ru Pushed The Harem Formula To The Extreme
At first glance, To Love Ru may seem like a generic harem anime with some aliens for extra flavor. By no fault of his, Rito found himself in the middle of a harem that he didn't ask for. However, To Love Ru immortalized itself in anime viewers' memories by having one of the most convoluted strings of romantic threads ever seen.
Besides being part of To Love Ru's central and default love triangle, Rito, Haruna, and Lala have their own suitors and potential crushes. What's more, aliens like Ren can switch genders at any time, and their romantic actions depend on which gender is currently active. Even by romantic-comedy anime standards, To Love Ru is loveably complex.
3 Ranma 1/2 Codified The Harem Anime's Romantic Overload
While it's debatably not the first harem anime, Ranma 1/2 was undeniably the rom-com anime that set the genre's trends and conventions. One of its biggest contributions to anime romances was the complicated harem, since Ranma and Akane's growing relationship was just the start of a hilariously complicated string of love and gender-bending.
As if Akane being pursued by countless suitors wasn't enough, Ranma 1/2 introduced gender-bending mechanics that gave certain characters even more crushes and suitors to deal with. Keeping tabs on all of Ranma 1/2's love possible relationships can look like a chore, but this is only part of what made the anime a beloved nostalgic icon.
2 Monthly Girls' Nozaki-Kun Parodied Convoluted Webs Of Love
Although Nozaki-Kun is an affectionate spoof of shojo fiction and romantic clichés, it committed so much to its characters' relationships that it can be counted as its own romantic comedy. That being said, Nozaki-Kun's otherwise straightforward love stories are still exaggerated parodies of formulaic anime love stories at heart.
Chiyo may be set on Nozaki, but she attracted a bunch of potential suitors who also have their own crushes and/or suitors. The anime ended abruptly and left these threads dangling, but the still-ongoing manga didn't fare any better. Besides keeping the romantic humor around, the manga added even more in the form of new characters and miscommunication.
1 Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War Turned Young Love Into A Campus-Wide Battle Of Wits
It's not surprising to say that Kaguya-Sama is a parody of the typical romantic anime. What many may not realize is just how far it pushes the formula to the breaking point for more than just a laugh. Besides Kagura and Miyuki's hilariously labyrinthine mental battle to see who confesses first, every other character has a romantic drama of their own.
From the lonesome Yu, who wound up in his own love triangle, to Chika's unpredictability threatening to throw everything into flux, Kaguya-Sama has so much love in the air that it will take a while to keep track of everything. Combine this with energetic animation, and Kaguya-Sama earned its place as one of the genre's best titles in years.