Sometimes in romance anime, a love triangle is formed to add a little drama and an obstacle for the main couple to overcome. While it’s nice to see how it plays out and how the characters grow from it. However, there are some love triangles that leave fans frustrated for a variety of reasons. Some of them drag on for too long and the characters hardly seem to grow from it.

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Then there are some cases where the love triangles just seem pointless because they don’t really offer anything other than a headache. The characters involved are usually going around in circles and the relationships hardly develop in a healthy way. These love triangles are some of the most pointless in the romance anime genre and some of the worst in general.

10 Tsukushi Makino, Tsukasa Domyoji, And Shigeru Okawahara (Boys Over Flowers)

It would’ve been so easy to dislike Shigeru for appearing, but it’s a little hard since she’s a pretty likable character. Tsukushi and Tsukasa aren’t exactly the best couple and had a lot of problems they had to work through. Adding Shigeru into the mix just seemed unnecessary and pointless. Fans already knew that Tsukasa was in love with Tsukushi, but he still strung Shigeru along and made her think he would go through with their engagement and get married.

Granted, Shigeru also did force herself into his life, but Tsukasa was the one to ask her out and promised he would learn to love her. Even when she asked Tsukushi if it was okay to be with Tsukasa, she said it was fine and helped Shigeru in her relationship with Tsukasa. Had Tsukushi just been honest from the start, it would’ve saved Shigeru a lot of heartbreak.

9 Momo Adachi, Sae Kashiwagi, And Kazuya "Toji" Tojigamori (Peach Girl)

Peach Girl had so much drama going that adding some love triangles into it just seemed natural. However, this is one love triangle that wasn’t needed. Sae already made Momo’s life pretty miserable so her blackmailing Toji into going out with her was just plain horrible. She had a male model that she knows take photos of himself and Momo in a hotel bed when he tried to assault her. To protect Momo and prevent these photos from being released, Toji agreed to go out with Sae.

Sae herself didn’t love Toji but just went out with him to hurt Momo. How anyone, let alone Momo, can forgive her for all she’s done is mind-boggling. Sae could’ve found other ways to make Momo’s life miserable, but how she set this whole love triangle up is hateful and far beyond normal bullying.

8 Yuki Cross, Zero Kiryuu, And Kaname Kuran (Vampire Knight)

There are a lot of things about Vampire Knight that just haven't aged well, and this love triangle is one of them. It’s pretty confusing since Kaname is technically Yuki’s ancestor, but somehow he’s also her “brother”, and her fiancé. The Kuran family is known to intermarry, but some will marry outside the family. Then there’s her relationship with Zero, who is a hunter and hates all vampires but is in love with Yuki. The two of them clearly have feelings for each other, but there are a lot of things blocking them, mainly Kaname.

It’s all very confusing and complex whether fans watch the anime or read the manga. Either way, this love triangle was supposed to be a good thing for the show, but it was more frustrating and pointless than anything else.

7 Chiaki Yoshino, Yoshiyuki Hatori, And Yuu Yanase (Sekaiichi Hatsukoi: The World's Greatest First Love)

This is one love triangle that didn’t do any favors for the characters involved. Yoshino and Hatori are childhood friends, and Hatori has been in love with Yoshino for a long time. Yoshino was completely oblivious to his feelings as well as Yanase’s feelings. Because of this, Hatori and Yanase disliked each other and had a rivalry to get Yoshino to notice them. However, Yoshino mistook this as them being together which left fans feeling frustrated with how slow he is.

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Overall, Yoshino and Hatori’s relationship starts off very rocky and not in the best way (especially in the manga). Yoshino’s obliviousness causes him to hurt Yanase since he rejects him, but still wants to keep Yanase as a friend. It’s just one huge mess and has left fans divided when it comes to the characters and their relationships.

6 Tohru Honda, Kyo Sohma, And Kagura Sohma (Fruits Basket)

There are plenty of love triangles in the series, but this is one that shouldn’t have dragged on as long as it did. Kagura showing up usually means that hilarity and chaos will ensue, but poor Kyo is usually at the end of her unwanted affections. While she is a good character, Kagura was selfish in her desire of wanting a relationship with him. It was all because she felt guilty about using him as a means to feel better about herself when they were kids since he was the Cat. Kagura thought that if she could convince herself that she loved him, she would be a better person.

It also doesn’t help that Kagura would guilt Kyo into going out with her a few times by fake crying. Kyo had made it very clear and loudly said that he wasn’t interested in her in any way and avoided every chance he got. Her rivalry with Tohru is basically one-sided since Tohru admires her and even sees her as a great person. Maybe it was a good thing that Kagura wasn’t with anyone at the end of the series. That way she could focus more on herself.

5 Kotoko Aihara, Naoki Irie, And Kinnosuke Ikezawa (Itazura Na Kiss)

This is one anime where the best friend should’ve won. Kotoko is a dimwitted, well-meaning girl who is in love with Naoki Irie, the smartest boy in school. Naoki usually insults her whenever he interacts with her and is just plain disrespectful to her. Kinnosuke on the other hand absolutely adores Kotoko and doesn’t care whether she’s smart or dumb. He loves her just the way she is and works on himself to be a better man for her. Sadly for him, Kotoko’s feelings for Naoki never go away and she ends up marrying him.

Kinnosuke respects her decision, but it’s sad to see that his feelings for her were mostly used as a joke for the series. It really doesn’t help that Naoki sometimes taunts him over his feelings for Kotoko. Even if fans can’t agree on who’s better for her, most can agree that Kinnosuke deserved better than being treated as a joke.

4 Miaka Yuki, Tamahome, and Yui Hongo (Fushigi Yuugi)

Considering that this is a reverse harem anime, there are bound to be plenty of love triangles. Yui mostly wanted revenge on Miaka for seemingly returning to the book world just to be with Tamahome. Because of this and her growing affection for him, Yui tried to have Tamahome brainwashed, had Nakago nearly beat Miaka to death, and even used her second wish to send her and Miaka back to their world so Miaka and Tamahome couldn’t be together.

Thankfully, Yui managed to see that Nakago was manipulating her and eventually saw that Miaka and Tamahome were happy together. Seeing friends fight and stop being friends over a guy is an old trope, but it’s never a good thing when best friends literally try to kill each other just because one of them is jealous.

3 Haruhi Fujioka, Tamaki Suoh, And Eclair Tonnerre (Ouran High School Host Club)

The anime series did a great job of bringing the beginning of the manga to life. However, it decided it was going to end on an anime-only story arc in which Eclair appears. She heard stories about Tamaki and had built a fantasy life with him thanks to his mother (who was working as a servant in Eclair’s home) telling her stories about him. When she arrived at Ouran, she belittled Haruhi when she saw how affectionate Tamaki is with her.

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Tamaki only accepted the engagement between them because Eclair’s family could buy out his family and he would be able to see his mother again. Though Haruhi never admitted her feelings for him, it was clear that she didn’t want him to leave. There was no confession or anything at the end of this story. The whole thing was pointless and left fans wondering why the anime ended on a story that didn’t happen in the manga.

2 Makoto Ito, Kotonoha Katsura, And Sekai Saionji (School Days)

This is one triangle that was a huge mess for a variety of reasons. Makoto was interested in Kotonoha but doesn’t know how to talk to her. Sekai is Makoto’s desk partner and becomes his personal guinea pig when it comes to kissing or other things in relationships. She develops feelings for him and this love triangle becomes one of the biggest messes in anime history.

Makoto hooks up Sekai and other girls under the guise of becoming more educated while he continues to date Kotonoha. All of the girls that he’s hooked up with eventually find out the truth and break things off with him. He yells at Sekai for ruining his life after learning that she's possibly pregnant (she isn’t) and that he wants to be with Kotonoha. Broken from this, Sekai brutally murders him then she’s later murdered by Kotonoha. Overall, this is one love triangle where everyone sucks and where the situation definitely got out of hand.

1 Inuyasha, Kagome Higurashi, And Kikyo (Inuyasha)

If there’s one anime that’s known for having a messy and pointless love triangle, Inuyasha reigns supreme. Inuyasha and Kikyo were in a relationship before Naraku manipulated events around them that made them betray one another. After being freed from his fifty-year coma, Inuyasha fell in love with Kagome, Kikyo’s reincarnation. However, Kikyo was later revived and his feelings for her were still there. This would lead to Inuyasha going to her whenever she was nearby but also having feelings for Kagome. Whenever another male would flirt with her, Inuyasha would get jealous and pout if Kagome was friendly to them.

Kikyo could’ve just let Inuyasha go, but she wasn’t happy with his feelings for her future counterpart and had a hard time accepting it. On the other hand, Kagome could’ve easily moved on with Koga, another demon who loved her, or Hojo, a boy from her time. Inuyasha would always leave her whenever Kikyo appeared, not really caring what she thought or felt. The whole situation makes Inuyasha look selfish because he didn’t want Kagome to love another man, but wouldn’t return her feelings because of his love for Kikyo. However, he also didn’t pursue a relationship after she was revived because he loved Kagome.

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