When it comes to romance anime, there are a lot of easy premises. The kind where you kind of just let the plot unfold as it naturally would so it doesn’t involve so much writing. One of those “easy” romance anime plots is where the main couple starts as a fake couple. Maybe they want to make someone jealous, get flirty classmates off their case, or just to look like someone can love them. Of course, we know that eventually that fake relationship is going to become a real one. If this trope is kind of your jam, you have quite a bit of romance series to choose from.

Nisekoi

This is the most well-known series and often gives people a taste for fake relationships in anime. Hopefully, that leads to anime relationships that have more romantic progression than this series had. In it, the main characters come from opposing Yakuza families. In order to stop a war, they must pretend to be dating to keep the peace.

Oreshura

Similar to Nisekoi, this is another infamous series for this set up. In it, the main man is put off by love due to his love-addled parents. He studies hard and swears off ever experiencing it. However, the main girl, noticing his apathy, decides to blackmail him into becoming her boyfriend to stop others from constantly asking her out. Oh-so-obviously it becomes more.

Wolf Girl and Black Prince

In order to fit in, the main girl makes up a boyfriend and snaps a photo of a hottie on the street to give a face to her friends. Unfortunately, he goes to her school. He ends up agreeing to pretend to be her boyfriend if she agrees to become his dog. Thankfully, it ends up much sweeter than that synopsis makes it sound.

Scum’s Wish

Neither can be with the person that they really want to be with, so they end up together. Their arrangement is almost purely for sex and comfort with no real feelings involved. Scum’s Wish, unlike many of these other series, is not a warm and fuzzy romantic series. It is actually one where everyone kind of people garbage people.

Love and Lies

This series has an interesting premise where every person is paired up at a certain age with someone selected for them. Unfortunately for the main character, he fell in love naturally. So now he has to deal with these feelings of love and a new partner they paired him with. The premise forms a pretty intense emotional series.

The World is Still Beautiful

We have been indoctrinated by fairy tales that when a king and a princess see each other, they must immediately fall in love. This story is the contrary. While the relationship isn’t so much fake, it is forced. A girl is sent to marry a king that is rumored to be cruel. He turns out to be nicer than expected, but it is still a relationship between two strangers.

Magical Warfare

This is more of a sub-plot in Magical Warfare. The series is action-heavy, but there is a part in which the main character becomes the pretend boyfriend to his childhood friend. She keeps getting flirted with and even had a traumatic incident with a stalker, and this is one easily solved problem for him.

My Bride is a Mermaid

Having spotted a mermaid, the main character of this series must marry her or else she will be killed by her family. So begins the very strange relationship between strangers and their odd and supernatural family. This is a comedy series, for sure, but there are some nice moments as the pair actually get to know each other and form a real relationship.

Engaged to the Unidentified

Due to an agreement between their elders, Kobeni finds out on her birthday that she is engaged. Her betrothed and his sister move into the home, and later on she discovers that they are actually supernatural beings. Over time real feelings do start to develop, but this show is more of a comedy than a romance.

Love Tyrant

This is a more silly example of trying to fake a relationship. The show revolves around a Kiss Note. Yes, much like a Death Note, if you write two names in it, they will kiss. Unfortunately, the wielder of the Kiss Note misspelled a name while carrying out her yaoi shipping and now the main characters has to find someone he wants to kiss. If he doesn’t, the wielder will die and he will forever remain a virgin. This is infinitely more of a comedy show about trying to fake love.