Love takes time and love takes work. A lot of romance anime know this fact, and so they often take time to build up the romance between main characters that leads to the payoff of them getting together. While this long game can keep fans invested to see the lead characters finally confess their feelings, some anime make their characters take that plunge much earlier.
While this does not mean the characters become a couple by episode one, they do end up dating earlier than those other anime that have the two getting into a relationship as the end goal. And as such, viewers get to see not only the build-up but also a glimpse at what the couple is like when they start dating.
10 Gamers!: Keita & Karen Get Together After Hilarious Misunderstandings
Admittedly, Karen Tendo and Keita Amano got off to a rocky start. Between Keita’s incredibly low self-esteem and Karen’s maddening obsession with Keita, after he rejects her offer to join the gaming club (as well as a truckload of hilarious misunderstandings), it seemed like these two wouldn’t get together.
Surprisingly though, Keita managed to muster up the courage to jump past “friend territory” and go straight to dating in episode six. Despite the both of them being socially awkward and the other little entanglements that got in the way for them, they manage to date and stay a couple for the rest of the season.
9 And You Thought There Is Never a Girl Online?: When Internet Dating Becomes Real Dating
At the start of And You Thought There Is Never a Girl Online? Hideki Nishimura, aka Rusian, and Ako are married in the game “Legendary Age,” and while it’s not real to Rusian, it is very real to Ako due to her rejection of the real world. Eventually, the two meet up in real life and, along with their fellow guildmates, try to get Ako to give the outside world another chance.
This quickly strengthens the bond between Ako and Rusian, and their in-game love starts to become the real deal by episode six. While Ako’s mentality is a little skewed to her in-game counterpart, the fact still stands that her love for him is genuine and they were together even before Rusian started to reciprocate those feelings.
8 Rent-A-Girlfriend: Rental Rebound
Poor Kazuya gets hit hard with heartbreak from the very start of Rent-A-Girlfriend, and eventually tries to drown his sorrows by using the Diamond App to rent Chizuru to go out with him. Unfortunately, he screws things up royally when he ends up introducing her to his family, causing them both into an awkward and tangled web of lies.
Despite not being an actual couple, the two are technically dating but just not in the traditional sense. Despite the constant mistakes and misunderstandings, two do start to grow genuine feelings for each other over the course of the series.
7 Arakawa Under the Bridge: Boy Meets Self-Proclaimed Girl From Venus
After falling into the Arakawa River, Kou Ichinomiya is rescued by a girl named Nino, who claims to be from Venus. Kou feels like he has to pay back the debt of saving his life and, without any other idea of how to do that, decides to start a relationship with Nino.
While unfamiliar with the concept of romance at first, Nino accepts and they start dating by episode four. Kou’s relationship with Nino leads him to discover the many strange people who live in Arakawa with Nino and all the bizarre things that come with them.
6 Nisekoi: Is it False Love?
Not all couples start out liking each other, something Chitoge and Raku known quite well. After giving off the worst first impressions possible, the two end up having to be in a false relationship in order for their families to call a truce to their feud. For the majority of the series, they fake being a couple.
Initially, Chitoge and Raku are like cats and dogs and can’t stand the fact they have to pretend to date each other, but as their false love continues, the two do grow closer. Eventually, those harsh feelings start becoming real feelings and prove that sometimes opposites do attract.
5 Horimiya: Confession By Episode 4, Dating By Episode 5
Horimiya quickly became a popular anime in this genre thanks to the raw emotion of its characters and its more realistic take of teenage romance. Part of that stems from the theme of falling for someone after getting to know them, which title characters Kyoko Hori and Izumi Miyamura do pretty quickly after seeing past initial appearances.
By the end of the fourth episode, Miyamura ends up confessing his feelings to Hori, believing she’s asleep at the time and this lights the spark to Hori confirming their couple status in the episode after. The two end up dating from then on out while riding through all the ups and downs that come with relationships.
4 Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai: A “Not A Date” First Date?
Sakuta and Mai end up having a unique first encounter, to say the least. Sakuta sees Mai walking around the public library while dressed as a bunny girl, and that begins their entanglement that ultimately leads to them becoming a couple. Surprisingly though, the two move pretty fast on that front, even if neither put a label on it at first.
To experiment with the strange happenings around the bunny girl senpai‘s existence, Sakuta and Mai go out on a date (though Mai denies it being one) as early as episode two. In the very next episode, Sakuta confesses that he loves Mai and the one after that is when she accepts his feelings, becoming an official couple for the rest of the season.
3 My Love Story!!: “My Blue Ogre”
Takeo Goda has had some rough luck when it comes to romance—not only are his crushes turned off by his large and intimidating appearance, but they always end up being interested in his best friend Makoto. That all changes when he meets the sweet and kind Rinko who quickly takes an interest in him.
Because Takeo was so used to things not going his way, he assumes Rinko’s just interested in Makoto at first. This misunderstanding gets put to rest soon enough, and they officially become a couple by episode three. That begins their true love story, one where beauty is more than just skin deep.
2 Tsuredure Children: Tons Of Love Confessions!
Tsuredure Children is an anthology of love stories centered around various students from the same high school. Since the struggles of confessing is an ongoing theme of the series, some of these stories end up being slow and steady. Others, however, are not.
As early as the first episode, a few of these characters end up becoming a couple and start dating, and more end up following not too far behind in the episodes after. While not every character gets together on the spot, it is amazing how many of them do so early on in the anime.
1 Tonikawa: Nasa & Tsukasa Are Married By The End Of Episode 1
Some relationships in anime are a slow burn, others move fast. Nasa and Tsukasa of Tonikawa: Over the Moon For You might just be one of the fastest. After surviving an encounter with a truck and meeting the girl of his dreams, Nasa gets another chance to ask Tsukasa out. Tsukasa accepts, on the condition that they get married.
Despite how fast that is and the little ceremony that comes with it, Nasa enthusiastically accepts and his very wholesome marriage to Tsukasa begins to take form. Nasa and Tsukasa not only get together by the end of the first episode, but they jump past several other lines and land straight on marriage after barely just meeting.
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