30 Day Anime Challenge: Day 22 – Favorite Romantic Couple

For today’s challenge, I’ve chosen two of the most wholesome characters in anime, Gouda, Takeo and Yamato, Rinko. They’re the leading couple of My Love Story!!, an anime about, well, their relationship. And it really is about their relationship; this anime doesn’t spend a lot of time setting them up as a couple. The first few episodes contain the entire arc that forms their relationship. After that, it’s simply about two high school students who are wholesomely in love and constantly trying to make the other one happy. It’s quite frankly adorable and it would not be a stretch to simply call this “Cotton Candy the Anime.”

Part of the reason I connect so strongly with this one is it’s really easy to self-insert into Takeo. He is who I imagined myself to be when I was in high school. I always wanted to be that kind and dependable person who could be there for anyone. Honestly, I think lots of people would love to be that person. The only thing I lacked was the sheer gorilla nature of Takeo, so seeing him on screen really struck a chord with me.

And every Takeo wants a Yamato. She’s cute, innocent, kind and loves to bake sweets! Also, she absolutely adores Takeo. One of the most interesting things about watching their relationship evolve is seeing them slowly try to understand really who the other person is. They both had their ideal images in their mind when they started dating; he was seeing an angel, and she a knight in shining armor. But when the rose colored glasses started to fade, rather than getting upset when the dream didn’t meet reality, they accepted the other person for who they were and did their best to make each other happy.

Now, obviously this is a hyper-fantasized version of how relationships actually work. People disagree and there is disappointment and heartbreak in even the strongest relationships. Part of growing in a relationship is realizing your individuality and how that works with a second person in the picture; adapting to that can be tough sometimes. But seeing what a perfect execution of a perfect match looks like is nice as well.

Even knowing that everything will work out in the end because it’s just that kind of anime, it’s still very easy to cheer for them and laugh at their innocent love. And that’s why they’re my pick for favorite romantic couple.

Who is your pick for best romantic couple?