Love is a universal language, but it loses its sparkle for many people when they have to read subtitles. Dubbed romance anime has a bad reputation, but as anime has grown in popularity, the quality of dubs has significantly improved—at least when it comes to English dubs; we can’t speak for other localizations!
Top 12 Best Dubbed Romance Anime Series in 2021
As a consequence, we thought it would be a nice gesture to produce a list of some of the best-dubbed romance anime available today, with plots and dubs worthy of viewing on Valentine’s Day.
1. Toradora
Toradora! is not just one of the finest dubbed romance anime, but also one of the best anime series overall. We’ve included it in other top lists as well, but it deserves to be on this one since it has a great dub and is a top anime in this genre.
Toradora is a film about two outcast high school students. Ryuji is a mischievous young man with a loving heart. People, however, tend to evaluate him based on his appearance and believe he isn’t a good man. Taiga is an aggressive girl with a poor reputation at school as the “palm-top tiger” owing to her small size.
Ryuji and Taiga have affection for each other’s closest friends and devise a scheme to help them fall in love. However, as a result of this, they get closer and closer, resulting in some difficult decisions and mixed emotions. It’s a respectable rendition of a wonderful program, even though the English dub vocals for characters we first encountered in the Japanese subtitled version is difficult to hear. This may easily be the finest dubbed romantic animation just because it’s Toradora.
2. Chobits
This is one of our favorite programs of all time, and it’s now accessible in English dubbed form. The English dubbed romance anime isn’t nearly as adorable as the Japanese original, but it’s still quite excellent! CLAMP! is the studio behind Chobits, a game that follows in the footsteps of Angelic Layer, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Cardcaptor Sakura. As a result, it features the characteristic Clamp art style and narrative emotions.
Hideki Motosuwa is a country kid who fails his university admission tests, so he comes to Tokyo to attend a “cram” school that helps students get into actual universities. Personal computers exist in the form of humans on this planet. As a result, they’re effectively robot personal assistants.
Hideki rescues a seemingly abandoned and damaged “pasokon” and brings her home with him. Upon activation, it is clear that this is not a typical computer, but Hideki has no experience with them and is unaware of this. He gives her the name Chii and enlists the aid of new acquaintances to discover who she is and where she came from, despite the societal taboo of having affections for a humanoid computer.
3. Spice and Wolf
Spice and Wolf is a lighthearted magical romance that follows the exploits of a wandering trader and a wolf goddess longing to return to her country and family. Holo, as she is known, boards a merchant’s cart to flee the town where she has been blessing the harvest for ages. They go on numerous excursions together and become closer as time goes on.
Man and goddess, on the other hand, are diametrically opposed. The show’s most intriguing aspect is how an eternal supernatural entity and a finite human may learn from and appreciate each other. The program moves at a leisurely pace, with plenty of clever dialogue and the occasional high-stakes climax. Spice and Wolf are obviously intended for a more mature audience, but even if you favor shonen or shojo anime, you should see it. It isn’t a tremendously long show, but it tells a compelling narrative.
4. Inuyasha
Inuyasha is a famous isekai anime in which a girl called Kagome Higurashi falls into a magical well and is transported to another world. She learns that she is the reincarnation of a great priestess and that she is the guardian of a strong magical diamond in her body. She also comes upon Inuyasha, a half-demon kid impaled on a tree by an arrow shot by Kagome’s former existence.
She sets Inuyasha free to stop a demon from stealing the diamond, but Inuyasha quickly turns on her and takes it for himself. She succeeds in subjugating Inuyasha and recruiting his aid, albeit against his will, by using a cursed necklace.
The diamond is stolen by a bird, but it is smashed by an arrow, shattering it into several shards that fall into the hands of various foes. As a result, we have the reason for the two to embark on an adventure – but a huge part of this program is, of course, the slow-burning, back-and-forth romance that evolves into one of anime’s most legendary pairings.
5. The Ancient Magus’ Bride
This program has slipped under the radar of far too many dubbed romance anime fans, and that has to change. Although the film is set in England and therefore suitable for an English version, the dub cast features American accents. It’s a squandered opportunity, but the dub is generally passable. This is a fantastic dark fantasy story about a Japanese girl who agrees to be auctioned off in a supernatural auction.
A creature wants to understand more about what it means to be human, so she buys her. The young lady is also known as a “sleigh buggy.” This implies she possesses enormous magical potential, but the continual infusion of magic into her body drastically reduces her life expectancy. She is taken in by the ancient magus as both his fiancée and his apprentice.
He intends to lengthen her life by giving her objects and educating her in the use of magic. The Ancient Magus’ Bride is a hauntingly beautiful spectacle that is both fascinating and terrifying. If you enjoy fantasy with a dark, romantic edge and are interested in British mythology, the dubbed version of this show is a great choice.
6. ReLIFE
ReLIFE offers an intriguing idea, but it may also have some worrying consequences. Do you ever wish you could use your adult intellect and knowledge to travel back in time and experience your childhood? On the exterior, ReLIFE has the ability to make someone seem like they should be in high school, but on the inside, those who take the medicine are still the same age.
So, if you’re 35, your middle-aged lungs won’t be able to complete a 100m sprint. Arata, the main character of ReLIFE, is a sad figure. He is a 27-year-old jobless man. He’s also a NEET or someone who isn’t seeking work. A guy named Ryo appears one day and offers Arate a job.
The catch is that he must participate in a study. He has to take medication that will make him appear younger on the outside, allowing him to return to high school, where he hopes to correct any psychological issues he has. As you can expect, being a mature man trapped in the body of an adolescent has certain challenges. Arata, for example, isn’t meant to fall in love with a high schooler. You’ll have to watch the episode to see how he handles that specific challenge.
7. Snow White With the Red Hair
Because it is not an isekai, this program differs from other fantasy dubbed romance anime. Instead, the protagonist of this story is a full-fledged, born-and-bred Tanbarun citizen. Shirayuki is an uncommon and unique red-haired herbalist. When the prince of the realm sees her hair, he is immediately enthralled.
She cuts her hair and escapes to a neighboring country after he orders her to become his royal concubine. She meets their prince here, but he turns out to be a much kinder individual. She attempts to establish herself in this new country, and a true relationship blossom between her and this new prince, but the royal suitor she eluded hasn’t given up and would go to any length to obtain what he wants.
8. My Bride Is a Mermaid
This show’s setup is really inventive. The protagonist travels to see his grandma in a more remote section of the nation. He nearly drowns in an inland sea there but is rescued by a mermaid. So far, everything has gone well, right? The mermaid in question, however, turns out to be the daughter of the local Yakuza (Japanese organized crime) boss. Yes, there are mermaids among the Yakuza in this episode.
According to mermaid law, the girl must be executed since she revealed her mermaid form to someone outside the family. His mother, on the other hand, discovers a loophole: if the two children marry, the family problem will be addressed. This arrangement does not sit well with the Yakuza fish-dad, who begins scheming about our unfortunate protagonist’s fate. As you can expect, hilarity ensues.
9. Kiss Him, Not Me!
This is a romantic comedy with a really funny idea. When it comes to boys’ love manga, the heroine of this narrative is a major otaku. She’s a touch fat, so she becomes unhappy and loses weight, which causes a slew of attractive males to take an interest in her. The difficulty is that she has no desire to be the object of male lust.
Instead, she wants to see these males be romantically involved with one another. Much of the comedy in this episode comes from reversing the standard reverse-harem clichés and confounding the expected consequences. This shojo romantic comedy is a wonderful palate cleanser if you’re not in the mood for something serious. In terms of the dubbed romance anime itself, it does a good job of conveying the comedy, so it’s a win in our book.
10. Citrus
While BL (Boys’ Love) gets the most attention, the medium also has a significant yuri (girls’ love) tradition. If girl-on-girl romance is your style, you’d be negligent if you didn’t check out Citrus. Yuzu Aihara is a stylish, carefree city girl whose mother remarried. They move, and she is forced to attend a much more traditional school, where she is unable to express herself as freely.
The student council at her school is particularly rigorous, but it turns out she has feelings for this blonde outcast, something her strict father would not approve of. Citrus is a fruit that is meant to be used in a variety of ways.
11. A Silent Voice
One of the most interesting aspects of the A Silent Voice dub is that the protagonist, Shoko Nishimiya, is played by a deaf actress, Lexi Cowden. This was an excellent option since it gave Shoko’s voice a much more genuine and natural tone than it would otherwise have had.
Aside from that casting decision, the rest of the dubbed romance anime is excellent. It successfully communicates the story’s intense emotions, which follows Shoya, a kid who bullied Shoko in the past and is now seeking to make peace with her.
12. Your Name
Your Name was a phenomenon, whether you saw the dub version or the subversion. Mitsuha and Taki are two very different people who lead completely different lifestyles: Mitsuha is a girl who lives in a traditional rural location, while Taki is a boy who lives in a bustling metropolis.
When they start switching bodies at random, they begin to comprehend one another’s lives and establish a love relationship. However, Mizuha’s relationship is jeopardized when it is discovered that she is living in a different timeframe than Taki, and a comet has struck her town in Mizuha’s timeline. The dub cast does an excellent job of expressing their desperation as well as their affection for one another.
Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”
Whether you enjoy romantic comedies, tragedies, or any other type of love narrative, there is likely an anime that will appeal to you. Unfortunately, not all of the finest dubbed romance anime has been released in English or other languages other than Japanese. Nonetheless, there are many excellent dubbed romance anime series that do not require subtitles, and their English casts generally perform admirably.
