Among all the numerous manga that received an anime adaptation in the Fall 2023 season, You Were Experienced, I Was Not: Our Dating Story is one of the best in the romance genre. It started as a light novel series by Makiki Nagaoka before being serialized in Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. It follows a popular plotline where a popular girl and a more introverted guy slowly get to know each other and develop feelings.
People interested in Our Dating Story will be pleased to know that several romance anime might interest them with equal levels of character development, storytelling, and fan service. Here are a few of them.
10 The Dreaming Boy Is A Realist
| Studio | Studio Gokumi, AXsiZ |
|---|---|
| Where To Watch | HIDIVE |
Filled with conflicting emotions, The Dreaming Boy Is A Realist follows the story of Wataru Sajo, a boy who falls in love with the most beautiful girl in his class and gets rejected by her.
The girl, Aika Natsukawa, shoots him down, so he decides to stop pursuing her and move on with his life. She thinks he resents her now and starts trying to interact with him, which marks the start of a romantic comedy filled with wacky situations as other girls come into the mix.
9 Blue Spring Ride
| Studio | Production I.G |
|---|---|
| Where To Watch | Crunchyroll |
This story is filled with the many ups and downs and growths in teenage love. It is centered around Futaba Yoshioka, a high schooler reunited with her first love from middle school, Kou Tanaka, who moved to Nagasaki years ago.
However, the present Kou Tanaka is not the same one from her memories, as a tragic incident that occurred made him cold to people. In her quest to warm up to Tanaka and change his demeanor, there are a lot of challenges and faces from the past they must overcome.
8 My Love Story!!
| Studio | Madhouse |
|---|---|
| Where To Watch | Crunchyroll, Hulu |
My Love Story is a heartwarming series that accurately showcases the unpredictability of love and feelings. Takeo Goda is a tall and muscular high school student who has problems finding a girlfriend, mainly because his charming best friend is what most people call a chick magnet. As a result, he loses his potential love interests because they are all for him.
A shy and small-statured girl falls for Takeo after he saves her, and a beautiful love story unfolds when they spend more time together.
7 From Me To You
| Studio | Production I.G |
|---|---|
| Where To Watch | Netflix, Crunchyroll, Hulu |
Karuho Shiina’s From Me To You follows an ostracized young girl named Sawako Kuronuma, who her peers fear because of her striking resemblance to a character from a horror movie called The Ring. Her life changes for the better when Kazehaya, one of the popular boys in school, notices her and extends a branch of friendship in her direction.
His affection opens her up to the world and allows her to foster new friendships while intense feelings slowly blossom between the two young lovers.
6 Golden Time
| Studio | J.C Staff |
|---|---|
| Where To Watch | Crunchyroll, HIDIVE |
In Golden Time, Banri Tada, a young man suffering from retrograde amnesia, gets admitted into a law school in Tokyo. After getting lost while finding his way to the orientation program, he meets another lost freshman, who happens to be a girl named Mitsuo Yanagisawa and makes friends with her.
He also runs into an obsessive childhood friend whom he had promised to marry named Kogo Kaga and a previously forgotten best friend who feels responsible for the accident that cost him his memories. All these characters provide a unique dynamic as Banri slowly regains his memories.
5 Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For An Otaku
| Studio | A-1 Pictures |
|---|---|
| Where To Watch | Amazon Prime Video |
The characters in this series are much older than the ones featured in Our Dating Story; however, it does not matter because they spend most of their time channeling their inner child. The main protagonists are Narumi and Hirotaka, who are hardcore otakus who learn to find love and comfort in the arms of each other.
Narumi is an office woman who prefers to hide that she is an otaku, and Hirotaka is a less talkative company man who loves playing games and reading manga.
4 The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten
| Studio | Project No. 9 |
|---|---|
| Where To Watch | Crunchyroll |
Like Our Dating Story, this anime also explores the elements of finding love where one least expects it. Amane, the protagonist, lives right next to the most beautiful girl in school, Mahiru, but never attempts to converse with her.
However, that changes when he notices her without an umbrella on a day with heavy downpours and decides to give her his. This sole gesture became the start of a beautiful relationship that slowly blossomed between the both of them as they began to interact with each other more.
3 My Little Monster
| Studio | Brain’s Base |
|---|---|
| Where To Watch | Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime Video |
The protagonist, Shizuku Mizutani, is a cold-hearted girl who shows no interest in boys and only likes to study and plan for her future. One day, she was tasked with delivering class notes to the house of her ever-absent and popularly notorious seat partner, Haru Yoshida, and it sparked something great.
She learns about Haru’s genuine and kind nature and starts developing an interest in him. Haru confesses his love for her, and although it takes some time, Shizuku realizes her feelings for him, and they slowly learn to shed their antisocial shells.
2 Toradora!
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| Studio | J.C Staff |
|---|---|
| Where To Watch | Netflix, Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime Video |
Toradora! Is an anime classic that has quite a unique storyline. Although it is not quite similar to Our Dating Story, it also tells a lovely story of two young lovers and complicated relationships in their own way.
Ryuji Takasu and Taiga Aisaka find their paths intertwined when they discover that they have feelings for each other’s best friends and agree to help the other person out with their situation. However, in their quest to do so, they spend so much time together that they find their feelings shifting toward each other instead, despite initially despising each other.
1 My First Girlfriend Is A Gal
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| Studio | NAZ |
|---|---|
| Where To Watch | Crunchyroll |
My First Girlfriend Is A Gal shares almost the same story as Our Dating Story, where the protagonist, Junichi, is forced to confess his feelings to the most beautiful girl at school, Yukana Yame, who surprisingly agrees to his request.
However, as the relationship story unfolds, Junichi attracts the attention of several other girls, including his childhood friend and practically sister, Nene Fujinoki, and Yukana’s best friend, Ranko Hojo. Genuine love blossoms between the young couple as they overcome numerous challenges and spend more time together.