There was plenty of romance to be found in the anime of 2022, and here are the five best anime couples of the year. Among the many staples of the anime medium, one of the biggest and most recurring has always been romance. There are plenty of anime famous for their focus on romance such as Love Hina, Clannad, and Toradora!, but it’s also managed to find a place in stories far removed from the genre, most notably in stories like Naruto.
There was plenty of great romance to behold in 2022’s anime, and that, of course, meant that there were many great couples, as well. Every couple is featured in an anime that can be watched on Hulu, Crunchyroll, and other streaming services, and they’ve all been chosen for doing such an effective job at selling their romance to the audience. Naturally, a couple not being featured doesn’t mean it was bad, but these are the five anime couples that stood out the most for one reason or another.
Izumi & Shikimori (Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie)
The first anime couple deserving of recognition is Izumi and Shikimori from Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie. Right from the start, Izumi and Shikimori benefit from being introduced as a couple, so no time has to be wasted on the will-they-won’t-they dynamic that drags out too many romance stories. That allows for the entire show to explore them as a legitimate couple, and what ends up being explored is nothing but charming.
The gimmick of Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie, with music by the Jujutsu Kaisen anime's Hiroaki Tsutsumi, is that Izumi is a ive boy dating the more aggressive and masculine Shikimori, and that reversal of traditional gender dynamics leads to plenty of great moments between them. It's mainly used for comedy, but it’s also used to emphasize how much the two care about each other and how far they go in ing one another, especially in the few moments Izumi gets to take charge. Izumi and Shikimori’s relationship isn’t very deep, but there’s plenty of heart to be found between them, and that’s what makes them so endearing.
Loid Forger & Yor Forger (Spy X Family)
Spy x Family was one of the biggest anime of 2022, and going right along with that, its main couple of Loid and Yor Forger was similarly great. Spy x Family's Loid and Yor Forger are technically in a fake relationship, so in that regard, it might not be right to count them as an official couple. Even so, a lot is done to develop their relationship throughout the series to give them a genuinely deep bond with each other.
Throughout Spy x Family, Loid and Yor go through many trials and tribulations to maintain their fake relationship, and everything they do pushes them closer to one another. Both are able to see the other as someone they can genuinely rely on even without the pretense of a fake relationship, and after the various hardships they’ve gone through, being together allows them to have the kind of they never had in their youth. Seeing Loid and Yor’s relationship develop is one of the biggest parts of 2022's Spy x Family, and with any luck, it won’t be long before it becomes officially romantic.
Ko Yamori & Nazuna Nanakusa (Call Of The Night)
Like Spy x Family, Call of the Night’s main couple technically aren’t a couple, but their inclusion stems from just how unique their relationship is. Call of the Night is a vampire romance story in a similar vein as Twilight, but rather than be a story about Ko and Nazuna slowly falling in love, the focus is on them wanting to be in love and working to figure out how to make that work. The premise of Call of the Night, produced by Liden Films, Inc. of 2021's Tokyo Revengers fame, is rather unique for a romance story, and it results in a relationship that’s very fresh for the genre.
Ko and Nazuna’s relationship has plenty of the sensuality that comes with vampire romances, but what makes their relationship work so well is how focused it is on them as characters. The two of them working to figure out what it means to be in love leads to all of their interactions being written with a great deal of introspection, far more than what’s usually expected out of the genre. Thanks to that, Call of the Night does a far better job of progressing its main couple’s characters in tandem with their romance than other stories, and that makes Ko and Nazuna’s relationship nothing but engaging.
Kaguya Shinomiya & Miyuki Shirogane (Kaguya-sama: Love is War — Ultra Romantic)
Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane from Aka Akasaka's Kaguya-sama: Love is War is another pairing who aren’t officially a couple, but the third season of the anime, Kaguya-sama: Love is War — Ultra Romantic progressed things further than ever. Ultra Romantic put a ticking clock on their relationship with Miyuki deciding to take an early ission to Stanford, so the episodic formula was largely discarded for a single ongoing story of Kaguya and Miyuki finally trying to get a confession out of the other person. That leads to plenty of hijinks, but more importantly, it leads to some of the most heartfelt moments between them in the entire show.
The grand finale to Kaguya-sama: Love is War — Ultra Romantic is the culmination of everything Kaguya-sama: Love is War had been doing with Kaguya and Miyuki. Both of them learn to be open with their insecurities in a way that emphasizes how vulnerable they are, and that adds an incredible amount of depth to their relationship. That level of honesty is further punctuated by the grand spectacle of Miyuki’s confession, and it all ends with the two of them finally having their dramatic kiss. It was the perfect way of showing their growth as a couple, and seeing how they’ll continue to grow will be a sight to behold.
Suletta Mercury & Miorine Rembran (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury)
The last anime couple to be discussed is Suletta Mercury and Miorine Rembran from Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. Right off the bat, a part of what makes Suletta and Miorine such a good couple is that they’re a main couple that’s explicitly a same-sex couple. Positive LGBTQ+ representation in media is always great to see, so the fact that a major property like Gundam would be so explicit about having two main characters be in a same-sex relationship is nothing but great to see.
Even without the element of representation, Suletta and Miorine are still an excellent couple. Both are constantly ing each other and helping each other grow as people while still maintaining their respective agencies, which results in an incredibly strong relationship between the two of them. The one time they do fight, it leads to a heartfelt moment that has them reaffirm their bond and completely dispel any notion that their relationship is anything but romantic. Suletta and Miorine having such a healthy relationship did a lot to make them one of the best anime couples of 2022, and with any luck, that will persist into 2023, as well.
