Highlights

• Married couples in romance anime are rare but can provide a refreshing change of pace and deeper emotional connections.
• Shows like "The World is Still Beautiful" and "Spy x Family" showcase married couples who overcome challenges and develop genuine love for each other.
• Comedy anime like "My Bride Is A Mermaid" and "I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying" explore the humorous dynamics of married life and the contrast between partners.

Love and anime are old friends. Whether the series is horror, sci-fi, martial arts, slice-of-life, or anything else, romance almost inevitably rears its head at one point or another, even if it isn't the show's sole focus. Yet the relationships most often shown are young and new, with protagonists in school or on some great adventure. Rarely is the happy couple a married one.

Yet married couples do exist in romance anime, and their relationships are sometimes all the more profound for having made such a commitment. That's not to say that these relationships are drama-free; often the best part of these romances is watching two people committed to one another struggle to love their partner's quirks. In these anime, love might truly be eternal.

As anime about married couples are not that common, shows will be considered even if their leads are only pretending to be married.

Updated February 10, 2024 by Mark Sammut: Anime with married couples are not extremely common, but they do exist and they tend to provide a refreshing change of pace. Winter 2024 has Tales of Wedding Rings which somewhat fits the theme, although the ecchi isekai anime is more of a harem than a romance. Meanwhile, 7th Time Loop and Urusei Yatsura have betrothed couples, with the former being particularly great in the romance department (and the latter is hilarious). Still, if someone is craving the best marriage anime, they will need to look to the past.

11 The World is Still Beautiful

MyAnimeList: 7.60

The World is Still Beautiful is a great choice for those who love romance and fantasy anime and want to watch a unique show with a powerful married anime couple who weren't exactly madly in love when they got married. Nike and Livius are a young couple who had an arranged marriage, so their two kingdoms can form a strong alliance.

While Nike is one of the friendliest anime characters, it took her a long time to get used to and appreciate Livius' behavior and decisions. The story follows their life and relationship as it changes and grows while the young couple has to overcome various difficulties together including personal and political issues. While the show is a fun fantasy romance anime, their relationship, and growing love for each other feels realistic because it develops in a bit slower but organic way.

10 Spy x Family

MyAnimeList: 8.55 (Season 1, Part 1)

Spy x Family's Yor and Loid are certainly one of the deadliest married couples in anime history. While their marriage was built on deception, the two of them developed a surprisingly strong relationship. There are so many interesting facts about Loid as well as Yor since one of them is secretly a spy while the other is an assassin and they both have their own hidden agendas.

However, the two characters complement each other well, and while they started as a pretend married couple, they soon developed a mutual respect and admiration for each other. They always had each other's backs during their many dangerous adventures and missions, and thanks to their active daily lives as a family, they eventually developed feelings for each other which made it much more entertaining, hilarious, and heartwarming for fans to watch their unique relationship develop.

9 My Bride Is A Mermaid

MyAnimeList: 7.66

A mermaid named Sun Seto saves high school student Nagasumi from drowning, and unfortunately, being a mermaid is only the second-most problematic thing about her, as she then reveals that she is part of a yakuza family.

Normally, a human who learns a mermaid's name must be killed, but the two families decide that Nagasumi can be spared this fate as long as he marries Sun. Perhaps it's not the best anime, but never before have crime, marriage, and mermaids united so spectacularly. That said, My Bride is a Mermaid is mainly worth watching for its humor.

8 More Than A Married Couple, But Not Lovers.

MyAnimeList: 7.59

OK, this one is a special case as More Than A Married Couple, But Not Lovers does not feature legitimate married couples. At a particularly strange high school, students engage in a practical where guys and girls are paired up and forced to pretend to be a married couple. Naturally, the ordinary Jirou is married off to Akari, a popular girl with a gyaru fashion sense. The two students' crushes are also paired together, which adds some tension right out of the gate.

At first, More Than A Married Couple, But Not Lovers appears to be a fairly uninteresting fanservice-driven series, but the anime has more depth than is initially apparent. Akari and Jirou's relationship blossoms nicely as their preconceptions of each other are challenged, and they begin to gradually become quite close. As this is just a practical, their "marriage" largely boils down to them sitting on the living room sofa together, but they have some genuine heart-to-heart conversations.

7 Love Is Like A Cocktail

MyAnimeList: 6.96

Outside the house, particularly when at her job as an assistant manager, Chisato is calm and collected, the face of professionalism. At home with her husband Sora, however, a different side of Chisato is revealed: one that loves to drink and unwind.

Both lead characters are quirky and interesting in their own right, but the chemistry between the two is what leads to all the anime's best and funniest moments. The affection Chisato and Sora have for one another is clear, and watching the husband and wife try to make each other happy is a genuine pleasure.

6 Troublesome Old Man

MyAnimeList: 6.40

When it comes to exploring what love looks like when the decades have flown by and old age has arrived, no anime beats Komatta Jii-san. The one-minute episodes are gone in a flash, but the memories of them will linger long after the series is done.

Komatta Jii-san is about an old man flirting with his wife to make her happy. The abbreviated episode length gives the show a minimalist feel, each episode building like a comedy set before delivering the punchline. Seeing a husband and wife interact from a place of such love and comfort makes it easy for viewers to imagine the characters' relationship when they were younger, which only makes the affection they retain more adorable.

5 I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying

MyAnimeList: 7.28 (Season 1)

Good comedy is often built on contrasts, which is why in so many sitcoms the best friend of the tall skinny character is often short and round. Anime exploits this trend as much as any other genre, as I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying demonstrates. Hajime is an otaku who works from home on his blog, and his wife Kaoru is an office assistant and rowdy drunk.

Most of the show's comedy comes from each partner's inability to understand or relate to the other despite their loyalty, particularly Kaoru's struggle to grasp Hajime's otaku interests. It's simple, solid, and effective.

4 The Way Of The Househusband

MyAnimeList: 7.24 (Season 1)

Dragon is an impressive nickname. Immortal Dragon even more so. Legendary Immortal Dragon is a nickname so grandiose that even in anime, a medium where flowery character names are commonplace, a character with such a name would have to be something special.

Tatsu, aka Legendary Immortal Dragon, is a former yakuza member turned househusband. All he wants is to make his wife's life easier, whether that means cooking, cleaning, giving her gifts, or otherwise doting upon and helping her. This "bad boy turns good for love" scenario is perfectly executed, and The Way of the Househusband flourishes as a result.

3 In This Corner Of The World

MyAnimeList: 8.22

The more subgenres an anime tries to incorporate, the more likely it is to fall apart, unable to make its many threads connect. That's not the case here In addition to being a romance, In This Corner of the World is a historical drama about Suzu, a girl growing up in Hiroshima who is wed to a young man she doesn't know when she comes of age.

The animation is top-tier, the emotional beats powerful, and some moments in the film are absolutely gut-wrenching. It's a serious film interested in serious business, but that's the backdrop for a serious look at romance.

2 Clannad: After Story

MyAnimeList: 8.93

If it doesn't go without saying, Clannad: After Story is a story that takes place after Clannad, and watching that anime first is a prerequisite for this one. Series protagonists Tomoya and Nagisa decide to get married after high school, which is where this anime picks up.

Clannad: After Story does its best to present an authentic, rounded portrait of a marriage, the highs as well as the lows. One aspect of marriage that doesn't surface much in romance anime is the prospect of growing older, changing, and watching one's partner change with time. Clannad: After Story isn't a perfect depiction of that process, and perhaps no series could be, but it goes further than most in exploring what love with age looks like.

1 Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You

MyAnimeList: 7.88 (Season 1)

Some anime plots are more realistic than others. Adding elves or space lasers is an easy way to steer a story away from reality, but even stories that take place in a world very much like the real one can sometimes go off the rails. Tonikawa: Over the Moon For You is an off-the-rails kind of romance anime.

Nasa Yuzaki, ranked first in the nation's mock exams, is struck by a truck and saved a beautiful woman. When he asks her out, she accepts on one condition: they get married. The series then turns into an exploration of the new relationship, as two young people get to know the person they've just decided to spend the rest of their lives with. This is what a warm, endearing rom-com looks like. While certainly idealized, Tonikawa's protagonists are so charming as individuals and as a couple that they make everything work. This is the definitive married couple anime.