Highlights
- Anime explores the possibility of relationships between humans and non-human characters, depicting love stories that defy the laws of nature.
- Series like Everyday Life With Monster Girls and Konohana Kitan feature interspecies relationships that draw parallels to real-life interracial relationships.
- Shows like Chobits and Plastic Memories delve into the complexities of human-android relationships and the emotions that arise from them.
Science fiction and fantasy stories have long been known to transport viewers into worlds where everything is possible, so naturally, there are bound to be people asking if non-human characters can have relationships, with each other or with humans. After all, who says romance stories set in a speculative setting must follow the laws of nature?
Anime is known for its weird and wacky love stories involving aliens, demons, androids, humans with animal features, and full-blown furries. These series are likely to draw parallels to real-life interracial relationships with their interspecies equivalents, or perhaps one or both parties have trouble navigating the complex emotion known as ‘love’.
10 Everyday Life With Monster Girls
My-Anime-List Score: 6.96
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Release Date |
July 8, 2015 |
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Creator |
Okayado |
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Studio |
Lerche |
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No. of Episodes |
12 |
In a world where mythical creatures like centaurs and mermaids co-exist with humans, a lamia named Miia moves in with Kimihito Kurusu, a regular Japanese student. Much to Kimihito’s chagrin, he soon plays host to a bunch of other monster girls, including a centaur, a harpy, and a slime, as the series progresses.
The girls harbor affection for Kimihito soon enough, though unfortunately for them, interspecies relationships are forbidden by law, except for a loophole that allows Kimihito to marry one of the girls as an experiment. As is typical for a harem series, these monster girls start competing for his attention, resulting in hilarious escapades.
9 Konohana Kitan
My-Anime-List Score: 7.49
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Release Date |
October 4, 2017 |
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Creator |
Sakuya Amano |
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Studio |
Lerche |
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No. of Episodes |
12 |
Konohana Kitan is a yuri/girls’ love series following a group of fox spirits who work at an onsen. Yuzu, a ditzy fox girl, gets her first job working at Konohanatei, a traditional hot springs inn. As an iyashikei slice-of-life anime, the series is more about Yuzu’s interactions and growing relationship with the other fox girls, and it doesn’t have any overarching plot.
The rapport between the cheerful Yuzu and the serious Satsuki is absolutely adorable, and the relationships between the other characters are also a breezy watch. The show in general works as a relaxing breather more than anything else, and the chemistry between Yuzu and Satsuki is sure to warm anyone’s soul.
8 Kemonozume
My-Anime-List Score: 7.35
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Release Date |
August 5, 2006 |
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Creator |
Masaaki Yuasa |
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Studio |
Madhouse |
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No. of Episodes |
13 |
For centuries, a race of flesh-eating monsters called Shokujinki have lived alongside mankind, staying in the shadows and feeding on humans to survive. A martial arts school called Kifuuken came into existence to combat these creatures.
The heir to the Kifuuken, Toshihiko Momota, unknowingly falls in love with a Shokujinki named Yuka Kamitsuki, and the two begin their forbidden romance. Directed by the talented Masaaki Yuasa, Kemonozume has some visually striking scenes of gore to accompany its emotional love story.
7 Chobits
My-Anime-List Score: 7.40
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Release Date |
April 2, 2002 |
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Creator |
CLAMP |
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Studio |
Madhouse |
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No. of Episodes |
26 |
CLAMP’s classic Chobits series revolves around persocoms, androids that function as personal computers. College student Hideki Motosuwa dreams of having a persocom one day, but he’s too poor to afford one. Luckily, he finds one in the form of a beautiful girl lying among a pile of trash bags when walking home. Upon turning her on, Hideki decides there’s something wrong with the persocom. She can only say one word, ‘chii’ (which becomes her name), and she doesn’t behave like a typical persocom.
Hideki then gets confronted with the idea that Chii must be one of the ‘Chobits’, special units that have real emotions and thoughts, and so begins Hideki’s journey to help Chii act more ‘human’, including having to deal with the Chobit’s growing feelings for him.
6 Urusei Yatsura
My-Anime-List Score: 7.41
Urusei Yatsura is one of Rumiko Takahashi’s most popular series. Unlucky high-school student Ataru Moroboshi’s life is made even harder because he has to represent Earth in a game of tag against aliens. Facing off against the alien overlord’s daughter Lum, Ataru wins by stealing her bikini top.
Poor communication strikes, however, and Lum mistakes Ataru’s marriage promise to marry his girlfriend as a proposal to the alien princess. Lum happily accepts and moves into the unlucky boy’s house. Despite Ataru’s initial reluctance, the two grow closer, despite his flirtatious nature and Lum’s tendency to shock him as punishment.
5 Sacrificial Princess And The King of Beasts
My-Anime-List Score: 8.00
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Release Date |
April 20, 2023 |
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Creator |
Yu Tomofuji |
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Studio |
J.C Staff |
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No. of Episodes |
24 |
Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts can be regarded as the anime version of Beauty and the Beast. Ozmargo, a kingdom of beasts of all shapes and sizes, is separate from the human world, with no interaction between them. After a hundred years of war, a negotiation was reached, that every year a human female must be sent as a sacrifice to the Beast King.
The latest human sacrifice, Sariphi, doesn’t mind her plight, as she doesn’t have a home or family to return to. The King of Beasts, Leonhart, is fascinated by this. Little by little, Sariphi discovers that Leonhart isn’t the ruthless monster he’s thought to be, and the two develop a unique bond.
4 Plastic Memories
My-Anime-List Score: 7.91
Plastic Memories revolves around androids and ‘Giftias’ advanced androids with a short lifespan. Tsukasa Mizugaki, an eighteen-year-old who gets a job at the company that manufactures these androids, is assigned as the ‘spotter’ of one such Giftia, named Isla.
Tsukasa and Isla eventually develop feelings for each other, but unfortunately, Isla’s time is almost up with only nine years and four months left to live. The two of them must come to terms with their feelings and their fleeting moments together.
3 The Ancient Magus’ Bride
My-Anime-List Score: 8.06
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Release Date |
October 7, 2017 |
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Creator |
Kore Yamazaki |
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Studio |
Wit Studio |
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No. of Episodes |
24 |
Chise Hatori, a fifteen-year-old high-school student, sells herself off to slavery after having been isolated most of her life. At a London auction, a tall humanoid with an animal skull for a head buys her and takes her to his cottage in rural England.
There, the man, named Elias Ainsworth, tells Chise she is a Sleigh Beggy, a being with a natural affinity for magic. Elias himself is a magus, a demonic sorcerer with mysterious origins. Chise then starts her new life as Elias’ apprentice and future bride, discovering her magical abilities and forming relationships, including a romantic one with her master.
2 Beastars
My-Anime-List Score: 7.83
In a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, there exists a tension between carnivores and herbivores. Legoshi, a timid gray wolf and member of the high school’s drama club, meets Haru, a white dwarf rabbit with a less-than-stellar reputation.
Legoshi eventually develops feelings for Haru, with his own carnivorous desires and the inherent animosity between his kind and hers complicating things, to say the least. With a fair bit of violence and sexual content, this anime is definitely not family-friendly, despite it featuring furry creatures.
1 Kamisama Kiss
My-Anime-List Score: 8.22
Kamisama Kiss follows the forbidden relationship between Nanami Momozono, a regular high-school girl, and Tomoe, a fox yokai. After saving Mikage, a former land god, from a dog, Nanami is made the new land god. Despite Tomoe’s initial reluctance to serve Nanami, as he was Mikage’s familiar before, fate brings the two of them together anyway, and the two fall in love.
As a reverse harem series, Nanami is practically surrounded by other bishonen yokai, and the anime follows the young girl as she tries to balance her growing feelings for the hot-headed Tomoe, and her duties as a brand-new god.
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