The Best Romance Anime From The 2000s, Ranked

Two young women who share the name Nana move to Tokyo at the same time for completely different reasons. The cheerful and somewhat air-headed Nana Komatsu is following her boyfriend, while the serious and career-minded Nana Osaki is trying to avoid her boyfriend in order to start a music career without getting distracted.

After a chance meeting on the train, the two become fast friends. It's a good thing, too, because their lives in Tokyo are about to get complicated, and they're going to need each other for support.

Haruhi Fujioka is a scholarship student attending an elite boarding school. When she breaks an expensive vase belonging to the school's host club, she's going to have to pay it back somehow. She doesn't have the money, so she ends up joining their club as a host. This requires her to disguise herself as a boy.

With so many eccentric and chaotic members in the club, Haruhi's life is about to get a lot stranger - and a lot more exciting. 

Fruits Basket has since received a much more manga-compliant reboot, but the 2001 version is what got a lot of people into the series to begin with.

After her mother passes away, Tohru Honda moves into a tent, which turns out to be on the property of the enigmatic Sohma family. She ends up moving in with them, and growing close to them as a result. She soon discovers that the Sohmas are cursed. They transform into animals from the Chinese Zodiac.

This sounds silly, but it's actually quite serious - especially when it comes to their abusive family head. Tohru is determined to break the curse, but is that possible? 

Ryuji Takasu is a kindhearted boy who spends most of his free time cooking and cleaning for his mom. But a lot of people think that he looks like a delinquent. Meanwhile, the tiny Taiga Aisaka looks adorable, but is actually a violent tsundere.

The two forge an unlikely friendship when they discover that they each have an unrequited crush on a classmate. The plan is to help each other find love with their respective interests, but it's not long before they develop feelings for each other.

High school students Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Otani are both looking for romance, but they're having a hard time. Otani is short for a boy his age, while Risa is tall for a girl. In some environments, this wouldn't matter, but for them it's a big deal. Things get even harder when their crushes fall in love with each other.

The two of them are often thought of as a comedy duo because of their height situation and because they're constantly bickering. But could they find actual love underneath that?

Thanks to her shy personality and the fact that she looks like Sadako from The Ring, Sawako Kuronuma has a bad reputation at school. Most people think she's terrifying, but in reality she's a kind person who just wants to make friends.

She gets that chance when Shota Kazehaya takes an interest in her. He introduces her to other people and helps her open up. As she builds a social life, she grows increasingly grateful towards Kazehaya. But it's not one-sided - Kazehaya also feels like Sawako has changed his life for the better.