More Than A Married Couple But Not Lovers. It’s a bit of a mouthful. The anime is about a school where they basically act out and pretend to be a married couple with each other as some sort of test.
The purpose of this is to test how well people will thrive once in a relationship later in life and to see what skills they have currently as far as potential and what not.
It’s an interesting concept with obvious but unique plot twists to make things interesting and entertaining.
Here’s a list of anime like more than a married couple but not lovers!
1. Kaguya Sama
By design this anime is different and completely unconventional as far as romance series go. Kaguya Sama is about two student council members with influence who like each other, but won’t admit it.
They try to force the other through reverse psychology to make them confess their feelings since either is too stubborn and prideful to say it straight.
It’s like Death Note but for romance and comedy.
In this way, it’s similar to More Than A Married Couple But Not Lovers because of theunique approach to the romance genre in general.
2. Maid Sama
Akari Watanabe in More Than A Married Couple starts out disliking and having an attitude towards Jirou, the main male character. She doesn’t even respect the guy.
This changes of course and it’s this similarity that connects it to rom com like Maid Sama.
In Maid Sama Misaki Ayuzawa secretly works as a maid and is a student council president who openly hates men and has double standards towards them, including the eventual love interest called Usui Takumi.
The anime gets more wholesome with each and every few episodes, making the romance bloom a little at a time.
Relevant: 12 Of The Funniest Rom Com Anime That Are English Dubbed
3. Boarding School Juliet
Persia, also known as Juliet puts on a front when she sees her love interest Inuzuka. Both characters represent different groups in a school who hate each others guts, and so they have to play a role in public.
In private after Inuzuka’s confession, they’re both intimate, close, and clearly into each other. And they’re forced to play by these rules since they can face eviction, public shame, and being banned if their relationship went public.
More Than A Married Couple But Not Lovers is a good transition anime for fans of either series.
4. Rent A Girlfriend
In some ways, Jirou who Akari calls “Virgin Kun” (despite being a virgin herself) is a lot like Kazuya from Rent A Girlfriend.
He’s easily flustered, embarrassed, isn’t the type to speak out and aggressively stand up for himself and so on.
Rent A Girlfriend’s main premise is about just that, renting girlfriends. It’s usually done by sad lonely men who can’t seem to get any action and have little confidence with women despite being in college and beyond.
Both anime share a creative approach to rom com while being different in how they go about it.
5. Lovely Complex
Otani is the small guy that girls in school make fun of. He’s isnecure about his height as a man and it doesn’t help that girls let him know about it with their stereotypical ways of thinking.
Risa Koizumi is the tall girl of the school, and some boys aren’t attracted to her for the compete opposite reason as far as stereotypes go.
Both characters warm to each other but not before the awkward stage of ignoring what other people think and getting over their insecurities built up by society’s ways of thinking.
Their relationship can be wholesome like Akari and jirou from More Than A Married Couplle, But Not Lovers.
6. Toradora
Similar to Akari Watanabe, Taiga Aisaka has a bit of a nasty attitude to most guys but not for the few she deals with. Ryuuji Takasu is the “punching bag” for her emotions in the early stages.
Eventually, when the character development and plot points start progressing in a more serious fashion, their relationship starts to go somewhere and more depth is added to the story.
Toradora and Taiga is a female protagonist is either an anime (or a character) you love or one you hate because of their Tsundere ways.
The anime though is a classic in the rom com/slice of life genre.
7. Nisekoi
one element you see early in More Than A Married Couple is the childhood friend cliche where the girl and the guy have been into each other for years of their lives. But never go anywhere with their feelings.
You see this in Nisekoi with Ichijou and Kosaki Onodera, who are both childhood friends ad Onodera’s introversion doesn’t help.
Chitoge Kirisaki, the anime’s main heroine takes the spot as her and Ichijou’s family are both from rival gangs and they both start dating out of necessity to quell the beef between both families.
That’s where Nisekoi (which means fake love) comes into the picture.
8. Masamune Kun No Revenge
Masamune Makabe was once a fat, overweight kid with little self confidence. He was turned down by the girl he liked as a child because of his weight, and so he became determined to get revenge.
Years later he’s a changed man. He works out, is physically fit, and looks completely different to who he used to be. is intention is to make Aki Adagaki, the girl who rejected him fall in love with him so he can then break her heart.
It doesn’t turn out this way in season 1 as the two start catching feelings.
Aki has a similar attitude to Akari Watanbe in a way.
9. Oregairu
In the beginning of Oregairu the pacing is more relaxed and chilled with the romance. The romance doesn’t come until later, and it happens more slowly.
Hachiman Hikigaya is an introvert who values genuine relationships and can’t stand the fake shit or the types of people who put on a mask to please others.
He’s intelligent and capable of doing his own thing if needs be. Girls like yuigahama are the cheerful, “nice girl” types, with Yukinoshita being more like Akari Watanabe except she’s more introverted and seemingly cold.
The anime centers around these three characters, including the romance, and all the drama and sometimes thoughtful episodes that happen in between.
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