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10 Japanese high school romance anime you must watch

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Most famous shoujo manga or anime (aimed at a teenage female audience) circle around high school romance.

And when comes to Japanese high school romance manga, the most famous one is perhaps Boys Over Flowers or Hana Yori Dango.

It has been adapted into television dramas in five countries including Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and China.

But if you are looking for more high school romance animes to watch, here are 10 of our suggestions:

1.Maid Sama!

10 Japanese high school romance anime you must watch

Also know as Kaicho wa Meido-sama, the anime tells the story of Misaki Ayuzawa. She is the first female student council president in a male turned co-ed high school.

She seems to be this tough, alpha female, boy-hating girl but secretly she works part time at a maid cafe.

Then, the school’s most popular boy Takumi Usui discovers her secret, and that is when the story get interesting.

What makes Maid Sama! an interesting high school romance anime to watch is the female lead is not your typical damsel in distress type.

2.Say “I Love You”

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This is one of those high school romance animes where a popular guy falls in love with the not popular girl.

Here the unpopular girl is Mei Tachibana, a quiet girl who does not have any friends.

The guy is Yamato Kurosawa, the school’s popular dude who jas allegedly kissed every girl in school. The story follows the ups and downs in their romantic relationship in high school.

3.Wolf Girl and Black Prince

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Honestly, Wolf Girl and Black Prince is romantically disturbing. Erika Shinohara is the girl who cries wolf and one of the lies she tells is that she is dating a guy whom she randomly picks out on the street.

As it turns out, the guy she picks is one of the most popular boys in school. The guy, Kyoya Sata, agrees to pretend to be her boyfriend but in return Erika has to become his ‘pet’.

So this is a high school romance anime about how far this fake relationship would go.

4. Kimi ni Todoke

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If you look like the ghost from The Ring in high school, chances are high that you get ostracised. For Sawako Kuronuma in Kimi ni Todoke, rumours start to spread and the whole school believe she can see ghosts.

Thankfully, things slowly got better when she makes friends with the school popular boy Shota Kazehaya.

5. Ao Haru Ride

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Ao Haru Ride or Blue Spring Ride revolves around Futaba Yoshioka, a high school student who has an inferiority complex. The series follows Futaba reuniting with her middle school crush Kou Tanaka who abruptly moved away to Nagasaki .
It is a story of push-pull high school romantic relationship with some friendship drama thrown in.

6. Toradora

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Ryuji Takasu has a crush on Minori Kushieda, Taiga Aisaka’s friend. Meanwhile, Taiga Aisaka has a crush on Yusaku Kitamura, Ryuji’s friend. Over the course of this anime, Ryuji and Taiga try to help each other with their respective crushes. After spending so much time plotting their plans together, love starts to blossom between them instead.

7. Special A

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High school can be a very competitive environment to be in. In anime adaptation of Special A, it really shows how competitive it can get. The series is mainly about the long-time rivalry between Hikari Hanazono and Kei Takishima in grades, sports and any kind of competitions. Secretly and interestingly, unbeknown to Hikari, Kei has feelings for her.

8. My Little Monster

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The plot focuses on Shizuku Mizutani, a studious girl while the boy who sits next to her in class – Haru Yoshida – is seemingly a violent and uncontrollable person but actually is kind and gentle. My Little Monster is about the duo learning how to care about each other and people around them.

9. Itazura na Kiss

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When Kotoko Aihara, a high school senior confesses her affections for Naoki Irie, what she gets is harsh rejection. Thinking that she can move on, things get awkward after Kotoko lost her home due to earthquake. This is when she needs to stay temporarily at her dad’s friend home, which happens to be Naoki’s home.

10.We Were There

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In the manga version of We Were There, the story follows Motoharu Yano and Nanami Takahashi from their high school lives to their adulthood.

Sadly, the anime did not adapt the whole series. Prepare your tissues as this is one of those tear-jerker animes about the main characters struggling with love and grief.

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KajoPicks: 10 Japanese horror anime you must watch

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There is something about Japanese horror stories that make them one of the scariest, most eerie tales in the South East Asian region.

Even if it is an anime, not a live-action story, the Japanese horror genre still manages to transcend cultural borders and language barriers to give its audience a good scare.

Here KajoMag’s top 10 Japanese horror anime you must watch:

1.Another

This anime is based on Japanese horror novel by Yukito Ayatsuji which was published in 2009.

The plot is about a boy named Kouichi Sakakibara who transfers to Yomiyama North Middle School. There, he finds himself fascinated with a girl name Mei Misaki who is being ignored by the whole class.

What makes this anime iconic among fans is not just how killing the suspense is but its legendary death-by-umbrella scene.

SPOILER ALERT
One of the characters, Yukari, accidentally trips and tumbles down the school stairs while carrying an umbrella.
As her umbrella drops, it pops open as she falls face first towards the umbrella’s sharp end and is gruesomely skewered through the neck.

Nobody will look at an umbrella the same again after watching this anime.

2.Death Parade

Do you know where you go after you die? How about a bar?

In the universe of this Japanese horror anime, humans either head to the eternal void or are reincarnated after death.
However if there are any doubts, the souls arrive at the Quindecim bar instead without any memories of having died. There, Decim the bartender will challenge them to a Death Game.

It is not as horrifying as the other anime on this list but each episode has a different twisted, distorted storyline.

3.Hell Girl

This anime is so iconic that its soundtracks are widely used as a horror theme song in various shows including South Korean variety show like Running Man.

Ai Enma, the main character offers an interesting service. Basically, she is the chauffeur for highway to hell. She carries out grudges on behalf of the clients by sending the person the clients hate to hell.

Putting aside her scary job, Ai is full of wisdom as she comes with smartest quotes throughout this anime like“When one person is cursed, two graves are dug” and “The real hell is inside the person.”

Hermost memorable quote is what she says every time she sends somebody to hell.

“O pitiful shadow bound in darkness,
Looking down upon people, and causing them pain.
A soul drowned in sinful karma,
Want to try dying this once?”

4.Blood+

Blood+ is a dark and sad but full of action. The story focuses on Saya Otonashi who seems to be just an ordinary girl living with her adoptive family.

One night, she is attacked by a mysterious creature called Chiropteran. One thing leads to another and Saya realises she has a special power to defeat these creatures.

5.Ghost Hunt

Ghost Hunt is one of those Japanese horror anime that I wouldn’t recommend to watch at night. Watch it during the day when everything is lit and you won’t be looking over your shoulder.

It is based on a light novel series written by Fuyumi Ono. The story follows the adventures of Shibuya Psychic Research as they investigate mysterious events all over Japan.

Some of these ‘ghostly’ occurrences have horrifying, scary background stories while there are some which are sad and heartbreaking.

ghost hunt anime
Ghost Hunt’s official poster.
6.Ousama Game

Also known as King’s Game The Animation, this is a twisted horror story based in a Japanese high school. A class of 32 people receive a message on their phones from a person only known as the “King.”

The message has orders that the students must obey or they die.

It has a sick, contorted storyline which plays on humans’ instinct to survive.

7.Corpse Party: Tortured Soul

This four-episode anime is a sequel to the Corpse Party: Missing Footage OVA (original video animation).

The story starts with a group of students gathered at their high school at night to say goodbye to a friend. They perform a ritual to make sure they are friends forever using doll-like charms.

The ritual leads them to being stuck in another dimension with scary ghosts from the past.

8.Yami Shibai: Japanese Ghost Stories

If a masked stranger showed up in a playground to tell ghost stories, would you let your children listen to him?

Every week at 5pm, an old man in a yellow mask shows up at a children’s playground and tells ghost stories based on Japanese myths and urban legends.

It is inspired by kamishibai, a form of Japanese street theatre and storytelling that was popular during the Depression of the 1930s.

9.Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror

This Japanese horror anime has three parts: Yotsuya Kaidan, Tenshu Monogatari and Bake Neko.

Yotsuya Kaidan is perhaps the most famous Japanese ghost story about a husband who betrays his wife to marry a rich man’s daughter. The wife’s spirit comes back from the dead to curse those who involved with her death.

Tenshu Monogatari is the story of forbidden love between a god and a human while Bake Neko is about a man who is a medicine seller and hunts mononoke (demons).

10.Tokyo Ghoul

Based on best-selling horror manga by Sui Ishida, the plot follows Ken Kaneki who is living a secret life as a half-ghoul, half-human.

The ghouls in this universe are vicious creatures who can blend in with humans so that they can prey on them as food.

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