The best enemies-to-lovers anime excel at portraying one of the most beloved tropes among audiences. Not all couples begin with love at first sight – any of them feel nothing but anger toward their future partner at first, until becoming closer makes them both realize that they’re more than what they appear.

Enemies-to-lovers stories, more than anything, adore love that's based on intense and ionate feelings and, eventually, fully cemented by deep trust and understanding. In some cases, the couples overcome years of bad blood to be with one another. Sometimes, no one knows you more intimately than your closest enemy.

20 Whisper Of The Heart

Original Anime Movie By Studio Ghibli; Directed By Yoshifumi Kondo

Shizuku Tsukishima and Seiji Amasawa are one of the best Studio Ghibli couples, and also one of the few that are explicitly romantic. However, it takes them the full movie to it it. After reading Seiji’s name in the check-out cards of all her library books, Shizuku has a romantic fantasy of who he is, which is promptly shattered when they actually meet.

Animator Yoshifumi Kondō directed Whisper of the Heart: his sole directorial credit before his ing in 1998.

Seiji and Shizuku have a knack for getting on each other’s nerves. But the more time they spend together, the clearer it becomes that they are also one another's greatest . Their deepening love and iration gives them the courage they need to take risks and pursue their dreams, no matter how frightening or difficult the journey is.

19 I'm In Love With The Villainess

Anime Series By Platinum Vision; Based On The Light Novel By Inori

Platinum Vision's I’m in Love with the Villainess begins with the typical setup of a “reincarnated into an otome game” story with the protagonist, Rei Ohashi, overworking herself to death and reincarnating into Rae Taylor, the protagonist of her favorite otome game, Revolution. Unlike other stories like it, however, Rae is openly gay and has no interest in the canonical male love interests of Revolution, instead seeking a relationship with the villainess of the story, Claire François.

While the antagonistic aspect of Rei and Claire's is entirely one-sided, the comedic nature of Rei and Claire's dynamic, combined with the genuinely heartwarming moments when Rei succeeds at making progress with Claire, always makes them fun to watch. The anime ended before their relationship could become official, but even what was presented made for a great relationship, from start to finish.

18 Maid Sama!

Anime Series By J.C.Staff; Based On The Manga By Hiro Fujiwara

Usui represents the complete opposite of Misaki and what she hates most as president of the student council: someone carefree who doesn't care about the rules or the school. However, this changes when he discovers that she works in a maid cafe, something that could ruin her reputation and position. However, Usui, instead of divulging it, becomes more interested in her and begins to constantly bother her.

Despite this rocky start, Misaki and Usui combine perfectly with each other, and although Usui puts her through embarrassing and very comical situations, he always ends up helping her in everything he can and is always there for her. Also, even though Misaki spends all her time trying to evade him, deep down she likes that Usui is there for her and ends up developing strong feelings for him, sparking a very tender romance.

17 Nisekoi

Anime Series By Shaft; Based On The Manga By Naoshi Komi

Raku and Chitoge’s fathers are gang leaders on the verge of an all-out war. The only thing keeping the war at bay is the fact that their heirs are hopelessly in love. The catch, though, is that Raku and Chitoge actually can't stand each other, and are faking their relationship to trick their dads.

Nisekoi combines the fake dating trope with the enemies-to-lovers trope perfectly. Despite being one of the best anime about the mafia, it stays lighthearted and fun throughout. Raku and Chitoge go from constantly bickering to realizing that they've genuinely come to enjoy being around one another all the time.

16 Food Wars!

Anime Series By J.C.Staff; Based On The Manga By Yuuto Tsukuda & Shun Saeki

The main concept of this anime is elite (and often extreme) cooking, and a major theme is the clash between what is considered high- and low-class dining and the "correct" method of cooking and culinary education. Nowhere is this more evident than in the central relationship between Souma Yukihira and Erina Nakiri.

In everything he does at Tootsuki Academy, diner chef Souma is determined to prove the worth of his cooking, which Erina is horrified to discover she finds amazing. As they constantly compete against and try to impress one another, both of them realize they have a lot to learn about their chosen art and their rival. Some of the wildest dishes ever cooked on Food Wars! symbolize the growth of their relationship and highlight the heavy implications of their feelings for one another, all of which adds up to a great enemies to lovers dynamic, even if nothing ever explicitly comes of it.

15 The Magical Girl And The Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies

Anime Series By Bones; Based On The Manga By Cocoa Fujiwara

MahoAku follows Byakuya Mimori, an unconventional magical girl who sees her mission of protecting the world as just another part-time job and who must face a demonic organization represented by Mira. However, Mira falls in love at first sight with Byakuya, seriously affecting her motivation to dominate the world.

The Magical Girl and the Evil Lieutenant Used to Be Archenemies’ author, Cocoa Fujiwara, also previously wrote the popular series Ino x Boku SS.

Mira then becomes the most obvious example of being trapped between love and duty, though love always wins as he can't find in himself to do something against the adorable, helpless, and overworked Byakuya. So, instead of planning strategies to destroy humans and conquer the earth, Mira just looks for ways to give food to Byakuya, who has a low income and is financially abused by his highly questionable familiar. Byakuya also became fond of the evil boss, slowly blooming an innocent and fluffy romance between them.

14 Princess Mononoke

Original Anime Movie By Studio Ghibli; Directed By Hayao Miyazaki

Technically, Ashitaka insists upon not being anyone's enemy: one of the most charming princes in anime is determined to help both the humans of Iron Town and the spirits of the forest. As far as San, the vengeful daughter of the wolf god is concerned, this makes him just as much her enemy as any other human.

The English dub of Princess Mononoke was written by Sandman writer Neil Gaiman.

However, as they both discover, life is more complicated and more beautiful than that. Both of them save each other's lives repeatedly over the course of the movie as the stakes climb higher. By the end, though San still can't forgive humans for their crimes against spirit-kind, she decides that she can and will return Ashitaka's love.

13 The Devil Is A Part-Timer!

Anime Series By Studio 3Hz; Based On The Light Novel By Satoshi Wagahara

The Devil King and the Hero of Justice are enemies by nature. The Hero, Emilia, follows Sadao Maou through an interdimensional portal he escaped through intending on vanquishing him for real. Instead, she winds up just as powerless as he is, befriending him instead as they both learn how to build a life on Earth.

A second season of The Devil is a Part-Timer! began airing in 2022.

The deepening romantic relationship between Maou and Emilia is expanded upon more in the light novels. However, the seeds of it are very clearly planted in the current anime. Forced to live normal lives and think for the first time about what they want for themselves, the two quickly learn that they work much better as partners than as opponents.

12 Space Patrol Luluco

Anime Series By Studio Trigger; Directed By Hiroyuki Imaishi

Space Patrol Luluco is all about high-energy space shenanigans. Perhaps naturally, not one, but two of the central relationships of the show are enemies-to-lovers. These include Luluco's parents, Keiji and Lalaco, and Luluco's romance with her beau, Nova.

Part of Luluco's exposition in the first episode is how Lalaco ran out on them after a fight with Keiji and stole all their stuff, and it's still unclear where any kind of settled family life fit into the ions of a space cop and space pirate. However, they will chase each other all over the galaxy out of love. Similarly, it's Luluco's love that gives the Nothingling Nova emotions, and when he is lost, Luluco swears to search forever until she finds him, despite how he has betrayed her in the past.

11 Maoyu

Anime Series By Arms; Based On The Light Novel By Mamare Touno

In many of the best fantasy anime, the forces of evil and good battle one another to the death. But here, the sworn enemies – a human Hero and the reigning Demon Queen – agree that not only are things not that black and white, but their war is doing neither side any good. They must work out a way to find true peace while keeping their relationship a secret.

The longer the Demon Queen and Hero work together, the more they learn from each other. Hero fully accepts the way his people take advantage of his outrageous strength, and must learn guile to make them listen to him. Demon Queen is perpetually threatened by warlike fellow demons and her own ancestors, and relies on the strength of her promise with Hero to keep confident.