Things are rarely perfect in love. People who fit each other like a jigsaw puzzle might not see that until it’s too late, while couples who are like chalk & cheese think they’re strawberries and cream. In real life, this would be awkward for all parties involved. But it’s fertile ground for romantic fiction.
This is also the case for romance anime, as many shows feature couples that are terrible for each other. Sometimes it’s the point of the anime and the source of its drama. Other times, it’s hindsight’s 20/20 vision pointing out its roughness. Whatever the reason, these are some romantic anime shows about terrible couples.
9 Hana Yori Dango
AKA “Boys Over Flowers,” Yoko Kamio’s original manga is one of the shojo genre's most iconic series. It’s received multiple live-action adaptations across different countries, audio CD follow-ups (one of which gave future Judgment lead Takuya Kimura his first acting role), and an anime adaptation. It’s essentially a reverse harem, as lead character Tsukushi Makino attracts the attention of the Flower Four, the sons of Japan’s richest families.
Led by Tsukasa Domyoji, they run roughshod over Eitoku Academy until Tsukushi stands up to them. Her courage was enough to charm Domyoji into trying to pursue her, but his idea of courting involves bribery, blackmail, and even kidnapping. Tsukushi only relents when the only other F4 member she actually likes, Rui Hanazawa, loves someone else. Iconic or not, it's not the most pristine expression of love and romance in anime.
8 Kaichou Wa Maid-sama!
Hiro Fujiwara’s Kaichou Wa Maid-sama! isn’t quite as beloved as Hana Yori Dango, but its anime adaptation was regarded as one of the best series of the 2010s, albeit with some caveats. The animators had a pedigree in romance anime, as it was made by J.C Staff, the studio behind the beloved Nodame Cantabile. Then the composition was handled by Mamiko Ikeda, who previously worked on Emma: A Victorian Romance.
Sadly, Maid-sama! doesn’t reach the heights of those two series. Misaki, a student who firmly stands up for the other girls at her school against the boys, works part-time at a maid café to support her family. Takumi stalks her workplace and uses it to blackmail her into softening her stance at school. This somehow leads to the two falling in love when it should really lead to Misaki calling the cops.
7 Love Hina
Ken Akamatsu’s Love Hina was one of, if not the most popular romantic comedy series in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Keitarō Urashima’s rocky journey to fulfill his childhood promise to a friend to enter Tokyo University with her was a comedic hit with fans and critics at the time. But it hasn’t weathered the test of time. Most of the gags between Keitarō and the love interests at the all-girls dorm he inherited boil down to innuendoes and wanton violence.
The worst of it comes from the short-tempered workaholic Naru, who turns out to be that long-lost childhood friend. While Keitarō comes off as a pervy schlub, Naru is often stuck-up, unfair, and abusive, smacking Keitarō around for mild and imagined slights alongside real ones. What used to be the source of yuks now invokes more yucks as the two bring out the worst in each other.
6 Urusei Yatsura
That said, it’s not like Ken Akamatsu invented comically abusive couples. Love Hina simply continued what Rumiko Takahashi popularized with her own rom-com mangas. Urusei Yatsura also had a horndog idiot in its lead Ataru, who ends up accidentally betrothed to the alien space babe Lum while trying to court his childhood friend Shinobu. Since then, Lum forces her way into Ataru’s life, fixing and causing him trouble in equal measure.
Lum isn’t as bad as Naru, though she wasn’t meant to be Ataru’s love interest. She was meant to be an obstacle for Ataru to overcome in his pursuit of Shinobu, giving the womanizer more than he can handle until he grows up. But Lum’s outgoing personality charmed readers (and editors) into making Takahashi switch gears. Ataru falls for Lum’s forceful personality, and the spurned childhood friend becomes an enduring trope.
5 Junjo Romantica
Queer relationships aren’t safe from toxicity in anime either. Created by Shungiku Nakamura, Junjo Romantica is technically an anthology of boy’s love (BL) stories. However, the other three stories are more sidetracks of the main story, which sees Misaki Takahashi try to get into Mitsubashi University to make his big brother Takahiro and their late parents proud.
Doing so requires him to move in with Takahiro’s friend Akihiko "Usagi" Usami, an acclaimed BL novelist who ends up taking a shine to Misaki. Maybe too much as he’s quite forward with his hands, so to speak. Misaki is the traditional tsundere who's fonder of Usagi than he lets on, but his "you know you like it" reason doesn't excuse him.
4 Scum’s Wish
An anime featuring a terrible couple doesn’t necessarily mean the show is terrible. In fact, there are plenty of good shows about very bad romances. It just has good-enough writing that makes it a compelling piece of drama than an actual, aspirational romantic tale. Hence, Mengo Yokoyari’s Scum’s Wish.
In it, Hanabi and Mugi start a fake relationship to satisfy their urges until their crushes return their feelings, only for it to leave them feeling even more empty. It even causes collateral damage, as Hanabi strings her gay best friend Sanae along just to fill her emotional hole. Everyone involved eventually makes amends, but it's an unhealthy situation that hurts anyone that gets caught up in it.
3 Wolf Girl & Black Prince
It’s more worrying when a show takes a premise as grim-sounding as Scum’s Wish and turns it into something light-hearted and comedic. Ayuko Hatta’s Wolf Girl & Black Prince starts off with a rom-com set-up, as Erika lies about having a boyfriend to impress her friends, and snaps a photo of a random guy when pressed for details, only to find out said guy is Kyōya, the most popular boy in school.
She asks him to fake being her boyfriend for a while to help her save face. But things get dark when Kyōya turns the situation around to blackmail her into being his “pet dog.” She has to do everything a “wolf girl” would do, or he’ll reveal the truth to everyone. It turns out the school’s Prince Charming is actually a cynical sadist who likes to make Erika do his bidding. Luckily for him, she falls for the guy. That or Stockholm Syndrome kicked in.
2 My Little Monster
What happens when the school’s coldest character meets its most violent and beastly student? Usually, at best, the two would pass each other by. But in My Little Monster, the two form an odd kind of bond. “Dry Ice” Shizuku is sometimes smitten by the titular “monster” Haru, as he has an inner innocence about socializing that intrigues her. Other times, she gets so angry and upset with him that she wishes she could get him out of her head.
In turn, Haru thinks she’s his first real friend, but he’s easily rattled by her attitude and by potential love rivals. This cycle of love and getting on each other's nerves make it a tense story where even the individuals involved wonder why they bother with each other, which is a surprisingly realistic take on relationships like this. Opposites may attract, but it doesn't mean they fit cleanly with each other.
1 Flowers Of Evil
Calling Shūzō Oshimi’s Flowers of Evil a romance is like calling The Shining a family film: it's taking the material way too lightly. Flowers of Evil involves a love triangle formed when Sawa spots Kasuga stealing the gym clothes of his crush, Nanako. She forces him into a “contract” where she stays quiet so long as he lets her play with him, even when he starts going out with Nanako for real.
Things only get worse from there as their true natures come to the surface. Sawa and Kasuga form a legitimate bond with each other, which only gets the two in more trouble. While Nanako proves to be more volatile and violent than either her lover or her rival. The three are as off-putting as the rotoscoping, but it makes for an engaging tale that requires a strong stomach to handle.