Valentine’s Day is once again upon us, and what better way to celebrate a holiday of love with a selection of 14 anime films and series that we adore? Yes, these titles all deal with that oh-so-complicated human drive. From series such as Tamako Market and Paradise Kiss to films including Whisper of the Heart and Doukyusei, we’ve got you covered.
Oh, and while we were at it, we’ve went ahead and organised this list by what might correspond to your mood. So read on for 14 anime titles that are perfect to watch on Valentine’s Day!
Perfect for when: You’re looking for something goofy, and maybe you’re hungry for sweets.
Following up her hit show K-On!, Naoko Yamada’s Tamako Market immediately differentiates itself from its predecessor in that most classic of ways: It adds a talking bird. But really the main difference is in the focus of its story, as it looks at the professional ambitions of and slowly blooming affection between childhood friends Tamako and Mochizo, each of whom are the children of competing mochi shops. It’s not exactly a Romeo and Juliet story – it’s much more sugary sweet than that (though not so much to inspire tooth rot). The series also got a lovely follow-up in the feature film Tamako Love Story, also directed by Yamada and also very worth watching.
Perfect for when: You honestly have no idea that someone is super into you.
A romantic comedy built around teenage ignorance and meta-humour poking fun at its own genre, Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun is a short but sweet adaptation of the four-panel comic-strip style manga by Tsubaki Izumi, in which a girl helps her completely obvious crush in his secret career of making shoujo manga. With its surprisingly large cast of charmingly idiotic teenagers, every situational sketch of Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun is perfectly expanded upon from its source - amplifying its various, loving parodies of shoujo manga tropes to endearing hilarity. If after you’re done you find yourself looking for more stories about sharing nerdy hobbies, Wotakoi, while aimed at an older crowd, may also be of interest. For another opposites attract rom-com, the recent series Horimiya – though it takes a dive in its final stages – is also incredibly charming.
Perfect for when: You want to watch something more mature (and see some cool outfits).
Opening with beguiling interpolation of animated images over live-action photographs is just the beginning of the ingenuity and idiosyncrasy of Osamu Kobayashi (who sadly passed last year) in the adaptation of Paradise Kiss. As Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad followed a pursuit of passion into the world of music, Paradise Kiss explores fashion, framed as a sort of wonderland accessed by an isolated staircase into the HQ of the eponymous brand Paradise Kiss, which is run by students of Yazawa School for the Arts. (Fans of Ai Yazawa’s manga will know that school is also a primary location in her manga Neighbourhood Story). Yukari is recruited to model their output, and finds herself drawn to the designer Jōji "George" Koizumi. At the same time, she experiences an awakening of personal ambition that she lacked before.
It’s a show with romantic overtures, but with a more mature perspective on sexuality and the heartbreak that comes with coming-of-age. It also features gorgeous animation, and is must-watch at any time of the year, really. Plus, every episode culminating with a needle drop of Franz Ferdinand's "Do You Want To" over wildly stylised ending credits is just the delightful cherry on top.
Perfect for when: You want to watch something relaxing.
A slice-of-life show exploring the intersection between love and self-actualisation, Honey and Clover stands out a little from the rest of this selection simply because it’s the only one I picked that features college students. But it’s also good because of its unpacking of the intricate relationships between its characters at crossroads in their lives, deftly handling various tonal switches as it flits between charming circumstantial comedy and more serious introspection. The unrequited love between a number of characters is about as high as the stakes get in this show, which is content to put simple emotional uncertainties at the forefront of its drama.
Perfect for when: You want to be introspective about what love even means.
Probably most people’s first stop when it comes to yuri romance series, Bloom Into You, while conforming to the traditions of the genre in some manners, is also known for playing with audience expectations when it comes to the characterisation of its leads. The main character, Yuu, begins the series believing in the kind of overwhelming and dramatic love as storied in “shoujo manga and love songs,” a feeling she’s never felt. After she meets Touko, someone who has similarly never experienced such a feeling, the show continues to unpack over the course of its 13 episodes the much more complicated emotions that come from relationships. The anime adaptation by studio Troyca, directed by Makoto Katō, covers roughly five volumes of Nio Nakatani’s manga and isn’t technically a complete version of the story, but it tells it more than well enough.
Perfect for when: Your pride (and dysfunctional upbringing) as the heir of a mega-conglomerate leads to a mutual refusal to admit you like someone.
The anime adaptation of Aka Asakasa’s outstanding manga turns high-school romance into an absurdist battle of the sexes, as main characters Shirogane and Shinomiya play increasingly ridiculous mind-games with the other. It crams an almost overwhelming amount of laugh-out-loud rapid-fire jokes into every chapter, no matter how short. In sub and dub alike, the voice performances are outstanding across the board, with its excellent dead-panning narrator holding things together in both instances. The animation works overtime to accommodate too, with spoils of visual gags referring to everything from “Vogue” by Madonna to entire scenes from Shaft studio’s Bakemonogatari. It’s a show run by overachievers; even the teaser trailer for the upcoming third season was an entire 10-minute adaptation of a chapter, pushing its meta comedy to giddy extremes. There’s something for everyone in Kaguya-sama, which manages to balance genuinely earnest romance with parody. Really, whoever loses, we win.
Perfect for when: Your hot landlords are connected to an immensely complex supernatural dynasty.
It’s a timeless story - girl meets boy, girl meets other boys, girl accidentally discovers that they all turn into animals of the Chinese Zodiac when touched by girls. The second adaptation of Natsuki Takaya’s smash-hit manga Fruits Basket finally gets to tell a complete version of the 23-volume story, penned by Taku Kishimoto (best known for Erased, Usagi Drop, Haikyu!!). It’s the story of Tohru Honda, an orphan who is offered lodging by Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure Soma – all from a family with the strange aforementioned affliction. Despite the goofy circumstances that lead to Tohru’s discovery of that strange family secret, it opens up a surprisingly sad rabbit hole of intergenerational traumas. As of last year, the series is now complete, though it is now getting a feature-length follow-up in Fruits Basket: Prelude, due for release in Japan in February, 2022.
Perfect for when: You’re looking for stories that deeply empathise with unrequited longing.
Keenly observed and beautifully animated, the most recent feature film from the ever-excellent Naoko Yamada spins heartache out of a subtle, subjective gaze, with feelings of longing drawn into every frame. Liz and the Blue Bird is a spin-off sequel film to the series Sound Euphonium, focusing in on two supporting characters - the introverted oboist Mizore Yoroizuka and the more outgoing flautist Nozomi Kasaki. It’s a simple story about insecurity and longing, told with a deep complexity through its multifaceted soundtrack (from Kensuke Ushio and Sound Euphonium composer Akito Matsuda) and its fairy tale story-within-a-story.
Perfect for when: You’re looking for something with big feelings.
Aspiring horticulturalist Yui Yamada is dating popular, sporty tomboy Kase, and struggles with how that popularity decentres her. At the same time, the usual awkwardness of navigating the vaguely defined early stages of intimacy with another plays out, as the two figure out what they want from the other. Told with gorgeous watercolour background art featuring slightly rough and faded textures, the almost dream-like story tracks their relationship across different seasons at school and on a summer trip to Okinawa, all during a transitional point in the two girls’ lives. That only amplifies the fear of any distance between them, especially regarding their separation when university comes along (with Yui staying close to home and Kase going further away). A yuri story told with sensitivity and introspection, this one is sugary-sweet throughout, but tempered by a sense of melancholy. It’s short enough that it’s not overwhelming in either sense.
Perfect for when: You need a confidence boost (and you also miss nights out with friends).
A sort of follow-up to Masaaki Yuasa’s series The Tatami Galaxy, The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl is another adaptation of a Tomihiko Morimi work that deals with young love on a university campus. The film compresses the several seasons of Tomihiko’s novel into a single, wild night full of surreal encounters amongst Kyoto’s nightlife. Told from two perspectives, a young man known only as “Senpai” tries to ask out (through various convoluted means) a young woman only referred to as “Kouhai.” Told with Yuasa’s trademark freeform style, intentionally cartoonish drawings, and wild colouring, the film’s peculiar romance and jovial celebration of friendship is told with a quick-witted sense of humour.
Perfect for when: You want to do some choir practice with your guitarist boyfriend.
This one is a visually ravishing boys love story set over the course of a year. In telling this story the animation walks the line between refinement, sensuality and an expressive, cartoonish elasticity. This is achieved in part through striking character designs, lanky figures with lines that ride the border between elegance and an idiosyncratic roughness. Similarly expressive is its evocative use of colour and editing, carrying jokes between scenes through inventive transitions. For all its jokes about soap operatic teen drama, the film indulges a little in melodrama even as it mostly remains a low-key, thoughtful unpacking of a relationship, told with gentle humour, and, of course, a lot of making out.
Perfect for when: You feel like watching something that’s as much about young love and dreams as it is about the songs of John Denver.
The late Yoshifumi Kondō’s Whisper of the Heart, from Studio Ghibli, is as romantic about following one’s artistic passions as it is about first love. One of a handful of films from the animation house not directed by Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, it follows Shizuku Tsukishima, a 14-year-old girl living in a Tokyo suburb who is unsure of what direction she wants her life to head in. She discovers that a number of her library books had been previously checked out by someone named Seiji Amasawa, and her search takes her both down a path of romance and of self-realization. One of Studio Ghibli’s finest works, this is a down-to-earth ode to youthful idealism and imagination.
Perfect for when: You’re feeling like some romantic melodrama, but you also have climate anxiety.
In 2021, high-schooler Hodaka Morishima runs away from home to Tokyo and quickly finds himself alone in the big city, plagued with an onslaught of rainstorms. He meets Hina Amano, a girl with the strange power to clear the sky by praying, and the two start a business to clear the weather for whoever will pay. Weathering With You takes something of an “if it ain’t broke…” approach in following up Makoto Shinkai’s international smash hit Your Name, running with the latter’s connection between spirituality and the whims of lovelorn teenagers and applying themes about climate disaster. Like Shinkai’s previous film, this one simply looks stunning, and its over-the-top adolescent attitude is infectious. If you’re feeling something that’s capital “D” dramatic, this is a safe bet.
Perfect for when: You need to demolish gender roles through sword fights, and maybe turn into an automobile too.
Calling Adolescence of Utena simply a romance or an action film feels reductive to both it and the series that it’s readapting. But it does make an incredibly strong impression in both respects, as it’s full of rich visual metaphor amidst incredible, sometimes Escher-esque art direction - all in a story that gives itself the task of obliterating binary ways of thinking. There are somewhat metatextual elements at play, with some story and characterisation depending on foreknowledge of Revolutionary Girl Utena, but it’s a delightful experience regardless. As in the show, the plot follows Utena Tenjou, who is enrolled at the illustrious and archaically chivalrous Ohtori Academy. Students participate in a ritual of sword duels that are conducted to win the hand of the "Rose Bride,” a title belonging to fellow student Anthy. As the transitional element of its title suggests, Adolescence of Utena takes a journey into maturity, full of beguiling symbolism as it remixes elements from its predecessor to frequently astonishing effect.
So there are some recommendations for anime to view on Valentine’s Day. What are your favorite titles in this realm? Let’s discuss in the comments!
Continue reading...
Oh, and while we were at it, we’ve went ahead and organised this list by what might correspond to your mood. So read on for 14 anime titles that are perfect to watch on Valentine’s Day!
Anime Series for Valentine’s Day
Tamako Market
Perfect for when: You’re looking for something goofy, and maybe you’re hungry for sweets.
Following up her hit show K-On!, Naoko Yamada’s Tamako Market immediately differentiates itself from its predecessor in that most classic of ways: It adds a talking bird. But really the main difference is in the focus of its story, as it looks at the professional ambitions of and slowly blooming affection between childhood friends Tamako and Mochizo, each of whom are the children of competing mochi shops. It’s not exactly a Romeo and Juliet story – it’s much more sugary sweet than that (though not so much to inspire tooth rot). The series also got a lovely follow-up in the feature film Tamako Love Story, also directed by Yamada and also very worth watching.
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun
Perfect for when: You honestly have no idea that someone is super into you.
A romantic comedy built around teenage ignorance and meta-humour poking fun at its own genre, Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun is a short but sweet adaptation of the four-panel comic-strip style manga by Tsubaki Izumi, in which a girl helps her completely obvious crush in his secret career of making shoujo manga. With its surprisingly large cast of charmingly idiotic teenagers, every situational sketch of Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun is perfectly expanded upon from its source - amplifying its various, loving parodies of shoujo manga tropes to endearing hilarity. If after you’re done you find yourself looking for more stories about sharing nerdy hobbies, Wotakoi, while aimed at an older crowd, may also be of interest. For another opposites attract rom-com, the recent series Horimiya – though it takes a dive in its final stages – is also incredibly charming.
Paradise Kiss
Perfect for when: You want to watch something more mature (and see some cool outfits).
Opening with beguiling interpolation of animated images over live-action photographs is just the beginning of the ingenuity and idiosyncrasy of Osamu Kobayashi (who sadly passed last year) in the adaptation of Paradise Kiss. As Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad followed a pursuit of passion into the world of music, Paradise Kiss explores fashion, framed as a sort of wonderland accessed by an isolated staircase into the HQ of the eponymous brand Paradise Kiss, which is run by students of Yazawa School for the Arts. (Fans of Ai Yazawa’s manga will know that school is also a primary location in her manga Neighbourhood Story). Yukari is recruited to model their output, and finds herself drawn to the designer Jōji "George" Koizumi. At the same time, she experiences an awakening of personal ambition that she lacked before.
It’s a show with romantic overtures, but with a more mature perspective on sexuality and the heartbreak that comes with coming-of-age. It also features gorgeous animation, and is must-watch at any time of the year, really. Plus, every episode culminating with a needle drop of Franz Ferdinand's "Do You Want To" over wildly stylised ending credits is just the delightful cherry on top.
Honey and Clover
Perfect for when: You want to watch something relaxing.
A slice-of-life show exploring the intersection between love and self-actualisation, Honey and Clover stands out a little from the rest of this selection simply because it’s the only one I picked that features college students. But it’s also good because of its unpacking of the intricate relationships between its characters at crossroads in their lives, deftly handling various tonal switches as it flits between charming circumstantial comedy and more serious introspection. The unrequited love between a number of characters is about as high as the stakes get in this show, which is content to put simple emotional uncertainties at the forefront of its drama.
Bloom Into You
Perfect for when: You want to be introspective about what love even means.
Probably most people’s first stop when it comes to yuri romance series, Bloom Into You, while conforming to the traditions of the genre in some manners, is also known for playing with audience expectations when it comes to the characterisation of its leads. The main character, Yuu, begins the series believing in the kind of overwhelming and dramatic love as storied in “shoujo manga and love songs,” a feeling she’s never felt. After she meets Touko, someone who has similarly never experienced such a feeling, the show continues to unpack over the course of its 13 episodes the much more complicated emotions that come from relationships. The anime adaptation by studio Troyca, directed by Makoto Katō, covers roughly five volumes of Nio Nakatani’s manga and isn’t technically a complete version of the story, but it tells it more than well enough.
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
Perfect for when: Your pride (and dysfunctional upbringing) as the heir of a mega-conglomerate leads to a mutual refusal to admit you like someone.
The anime adaptation of Aka Asakasa’s outstanding manga turns high-school romance into an absurdist battle of the sexes, as main characters Shirogane and Shinomiya play increasingly ridiculous mind-games with the other. It crams an almost overwhelming amount of laugh-out-loud rapid-fire jokes into every chapter, no matter how short. In sub and dub alike, the voice performances are outstanding across the board, with its excellent dead-panning narrator holding things together in both instances. The animation works overtime to accommodate too, with spoils of visual gags referring to everything from “Vogue” by Madonna to entire scenes from Shaft studio’s Bakemonogatari. It’s a show run by overachievers; even the teaser trailer for the upcoming third season was an entire 10-minute adaptation of a chapter, pushing its meta comedy to giddy extremes. There’s something for everyone in Kaguya-sama, which manages to balance genuinely earnest romance with parody. Really, whoever loses, we win.
Fruits Basket
Perfect for when: Your hot landlords are connected to an immensely complex supernatural dynasty.
It’s a timeless story - girl meets boy, girl meets other boys, girl accidentally discovers that they all turn into animals of the Chinese Zodiac when touched by girls. The second adaptation of Natsuki Takaya’s smash-hit manga Fruits Basket finally gets to tell a complete version of the 23-volume story, penned by Taku Kishimoto (best known for Erased, Usagi Drop, Haikyu!!). It’s the story of Tohru Honda, an orphan who is offered lodging by Yuki, Kyo, and Shigure Soma – all from a family with the strange aforementioned affliction. Despite the goofy circumstances that lead to Tohru’s discovery of that strange family secret, it opens up a surprisingly sad rabbit hole of intergenerational traumas. As of last year, the series is now complete, though it is now getting a feature-length follow-up in Fruits Basket: Prelude, due for release in Japan in February, 2022.
Anime Movies for Valentine’s Day
Liz and the Blue Bird
Perfect for when: You’re looking for stories that deeply empathise with unrequited longing.
Keenly observed and beautifully animated, the most recent feature film from the ever-excellent Naoko Yamada spins heartache out of a subtle, subjective gaze, with feelings of longing drawn into every frame. Liz and the Blue Bird is a spin-off sequel film to the series Sound Euphonium, focusing in on two supporting characters - the introverted oboist Mizore Yoroizuka and the more outgoing flautist Nozomi Kasaki. It’s a simple story about insecurity and longing, told with a deep complexity through its multifaceted soundtrack (from Kensuke Ushio and Sound Euphonium composer Akito Matsuda) and its fairy tale story-within-a-story.
Kase-san and Morning Glories
Perfect for when: You’re looking for something with big feelings.
Aspiring horticulturalist Yui Yamada is dating popular, sporty tomboy Kase, and struggles with how that popularity decentres her. At the same time, the usual awkwardness of navigating the vaguely defined early stages of intimacy with another plays out, as the two figure out what they want from the other. Told with gorgeous watercolour background art featuring slightly rough and faded textures, the almost dream-like story tracks their relationship across different seasons at school and on a summer trip to Okinawa, all during a transitional point in the two girls’ lives. That only amplifies the fear of any distance between them, especially regarding their separation when university comes along (with Yui staying close to home and Kase going further away). A yuri story told with sensitivity and introspection, this one is sugary-sweet throughout, but tempered by a sense of melancholy. It’s short enough that it’s not overwhelming in either sense.
The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl
Perfect for when: You need a confidence boost (and you also miss nights out with friends).
A sort of follow-up to Masaaki Yuasa’s series The Tatami Galaxy, The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl is another adaptation of a Tomihiko Morimi work that deals with young love on a university campus. The film compresses the several seasons of Tomihiko’s novel into a single, wild night full of surreal encounters amongst Kyoto’s nightlife. Told from two perspectives, a young man known only as “Senpai” tries to ask out (through various convoluted means) a young woman only referred to as “Kouhai.” Told with Yuasa’s trademark freeform style, intentionally cartoonish drawings, and wild colouring, the film’s peculiar romance and jovial celebration of friendship is told with a quick-witted sense of humour.
Classmates (aka Doukyusei)
Perfect for when: You want to do some choir practice with your guitarist boyfriend.
This one is a visually ravishing boys love story set over the course of a year. In telling this story the animation walks the line between refinement, sensuality and an expressive, cartoonish elasticity. This is achieved in part through striking character designs, lanky figures with lines that ride the border between elegance and an idiosyncratic roughness. Similarly expressive is its evocative use of colour and editing, carrying jokes between scenes through inventive transitions. For all its jokes about soap operatic teen drama, the film indulges a little in melodrama even as it mostly remains a low-key, thoughtful unpacking of a relationship, told with gentle humour, and, of course, a lot of making out.
Whisper of the Heart
Perfect for when: You feel like watching something that’s as much about young love and dreams as it is about the songs of John Denver.
The late Yoshifumi Kondō’s Whisper of the Heart, from Studio Ghibli, is as romantic about following one’s artistic passions as it is about first love. One of a handful of films from the animation house not directed by Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, it follows Shizuku Tsukishima, a 14-year-old girl living in a Tokyo suburb who is unsure of what direction she wants her life to head in. She discovers that a number of her library books had been previously checked out by someone named Seiji Amasawa, and her search takes her both down a path of romance and of self-realization. One of Studio Ghibli’s finest works, this is a down-to-earth ode to youthful idealism and imagination.
Weathering With You
Perfect for when: You’re feeling like some romantic melodrama, but you also have climate anxiety.
In 2021, high-schooler Hodaka Morishima runs away from home to Tokyo and quickly finds himself alone in the big city, plagued with an onslaught of rainstorms. He meets Hina Amano, a girl with the strange power to clear the sky by praying, and the two start a business to clear the weather for whoever will pay. Weathering With You takes something of an “if it ain’t broke…” approach in following up Makoto Shinkai’s international smash hit Your Name, running with the latter’s connection between spirituality and the whims of lovelorn teenagers and applying themes about climate disaster. Like Shinkai’s previous film, this one simply looks stunning, and its over-the-top adolescent attitude is infectious. If you’re feeling something that’s capital “D” dramatic, this is a safe bet.
Adolescence of Utena
Perfect for when: You need to demolish gender roles through sword fights, and maybe turn into an automobile too.
Calling Adolescence of Utena simply a romance or an action film feels reductive to both it and the series that it’s readapting. But it does make an incredibly strong impression in both respects, as it’s full of rich visual metaphor amidst incredible, sometimes Escher-esque art direction - all in a story that gives itself the task of obliterating binary ways of thinking. There are somewhat metatextual elements at play, with some story and characterisation depending on foreknowledge of Revolutionary Girl Utena, but it’s a delightful experience regardless. As in the show, the plot follows Utena Tenjou, who is enrolled at the illustrious and archaically chivalrous Ohtori Academy. Students participate in a ritual of sword duels that are conducted to win the hand of the "Rose Bride,” a title belonging to fellow student Anthy. As the transitional element of its title suggests, Adolescence of Utena takes a journey into maturity, full of beguiling symbolism as it remixes elements from its predecessor to frequently astonishing effect.
So there are some recommendations for anime to view on Valentine’s Day. What are your favorite titles in this realm? Let’s discuss in the comments!
Continue reading...