10 picks for when it’s just the two of you…but Your Name isn’t number one on the list.

Not so long ago, anime was largely considered to be a hobby for perpetually single dudes. However, in recent years there’s been a huge gender diversification among anime fans, accompanied by a major boom in series that focus not on a band of heroes obtaining world-saving powers, but on two characters realizing they have life-changing feelings for one another.

As such, we’ve entered an era where anime isn’t just something for lone-wolf otaku to watch in their personal fortresses of solitude, but viable date night viewing. Japanese survey website Charapedia recently asked its users what anime they’d like to watch with just their special sweetheart, receiving 10,000 responses (53.2 percent from men, 46.8 percent from women, 60.1 percent from participants 29 or younger, and the remaining 39.9 percent 30 or older).

Let’s take a loot at the top 10:

10. Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World (225 votes)
9. Your Name (255 votes)

Considering how massively successful, unabashedly romantic, and even recent Makoto Shinkai’s masterpiece is, it’s surprising Your Name didn’t rate higher. Could its connection to SoraNews24 writer Seiji’s high-profile failed confession of love have been a limiting factor?

8. One Week Friends (278 votes)
7. Honey and Clover (340 votes)

A tale of passionate art school students who develop passions for each other, Honey and Clover has enough sweetly sticky emotion that in addition to the anime adaptation of the original manga, there’s a Japanese live-action film version, Japanese live-action television drama (with a different cast than the film), and even a Taiwanese live-action TV series.

6. Your Lie in April (351 votes)
5. Sword Art Online (390 votes)

A series about teens being forced to play an MMORPG under the looming threat of real-life death might not sound like the sort of thing to watch while snuggled up on the couch next to your boyfriend or girlfriend, but Sword Art Online’s male and female leads, Kirito and Asuna, have become one of anime’s most well-known and enduring couples, and their ability to maintain a happy relationship even while having to battle fantasy monsters shows an aspirational level of commitment to one another.

4. Clannad (403 votes)

So, as you can see, this anime adaptation of Key Visual Art’s visual novel has been known to inspire some strong reactions. Don’t let the above tweet fool you, though, as there’s plenty of potentially divisive content to be found in Clannad. Still, watching it with your significant other is a good way to perform a litmus test on how strict or lenient they are on topics ranging from parental abandonment and drug abuse to hyper-moe character design and conveniently forgetting significant childhood events as a storytelling device. It’s also a good way to gauge how much faith your partner has in you if you agree with the oft-expressed stance that “After 22 so-so episodes, the series starts to get really good when it enters the After Story arc.”

3. Tsuki ga Kirei (444 votes)
2. Toradora (479 votes)
1. Kimi ni Todoke (512 votes)

Kimi ni Todoke may not have the fiercely passionate fanbases of Clannad or Sword Art Online, but maybe that’s to be expected for a series about a painfully shy high school girl learning to love both herself and someone else. While it likely got a few extra votes on account of the 29th collected volume of the original manga being released late last year, the anime adaptation aired its last episode all the way back in 2011, but as Charapedia’s poll shows, it still has a spot in the hearts of fans.

Source: Charapedia via Nico Nico News via Otakomu

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s kind of sad to see both Escaflowne and Maison Ikkoku left out of the top 10.