When it comes to many romance anime, they tend to be based in a high school setting. It is quite easy to see why a lot of anime companies produce these kinds of shows, because the demographic watching anime are mostly in high school. Having familiar settings with relatable characters is one of the basics of storytelling, the kind of thing I was getting at a while back with experience taking.
With that said, the high school setting does get a bit stale, if you actually enjoy romance and can't seem to find one that isn't stuck in that location. Just to name a few good, but still in the high school area are, Kimi ni Todoke, Tasogare Otome x Amnesia, and Toradora!; two are regular school life types and Tasogare Otome x Amnesia was supernatural just to spice up the bland high school lifestyle, which was my first post and review on this blog.
One romantic anime that took the road less traveled was Rec, which was this weeks Anime Suggestion Sunday. Rec is all about work culture and the intermingling of companies, simultaneously balancing a romantic relationship between two different professions.
This type of change in pace, really is refreshing to me and is the main reason I suggested it.
Swimming in an ocean of high school romance, makes it pretty easy for an anime like Rec to stand out because of it being different. However, on the opposite side of the spectrum, finding good high school romances is like trying to find a specific drop of water inside this ocean of similar looking drops.
Besides the three anime I had listed above, Suki-tte Ii Na yo is one example of a high school romance done right. And what I mean by it being a good example is, they used the high school setting to its advantage.
From this point on, I can't be held responsible for any spoilers below this sentence.
Mei being in a relationship with popular guy like Yamato, brought about the wrath of many teen girls. That kind of volume of females in one area doesn't accrue as often than in a school.
Next is the two different types of challengers to an already established love, happening for both Yamato and Mei, the first being Megumi. Because Megumi is a super model and Mei isn't that confident, we have this conflict with herself not being good enough for Yamato; on the other hand, Megumi is also very insecure herself, but her approach of dealing with it is a bit different from Mei.
The other new challenger was Kai, who is Yamato's old friend from middle school. Kai wasn't as developed as Megumi was, but he was picked on in middle school and Yamato didn't help, even when knowing about it, which gave Yamato this complex about him being unhelpful.
So you can see how in depth you can get with a high school setting, and still bring out a pretty good romance.
Graduation
Having a romance anime around high school, is all well and good, but sometime we need more "adult" relationships that aren't as shallow as some teenage loves seem to be. There is a fairly solid formula for making a romance anime, but the variation of drama or overall problems that get in the way of a relationship, can be spiced up if some anime graduate from the high school stage and bring it outside the school environment.