Kara Dennison
June 24, 2025 
Anime love stories have a special something… and sometimes that “special something” is a relationship chart that simply cannot be contained. Forget love triangles—there’s some seriously advanced geometry in some of these series!
From an 80s classic getting new life to a pair of series continuing this summer, here are three (of many) series with massive love polygons. Which will you be watching when they return?
Rent-a-Girlfriend
This popular anime love story started relatively simply. Boy loses girl, boy meets rent-a-girlfriend, hijinks ensue. At least in the early episodes, there were only two girls tearing Kazuya in different directions. Ex-girlfriend Mami seems disinclined to leave his life after all, and professional rental girlfriend Chizuru isn’t actually his girlfriend. Even if they have to pretend she is for the sake of their grandmothers. But, of course, things don’t stay this straightforward for long.
Throughout the bulk of the series, Kazuya juggles multiple relationships. There’s Chizuru: not his real girlfriend, but he wishes she was (and it might be mutual). Ruka aggressively stakes her claim on the only guy who can make her heart race. And sweet, shy Sumi pursues her feelings in the only ways she knows how. Add in the lurking spectre of Mami, and Kazuya has his hands full!
Rent-a-Girlfriend returns on July 5.
A Couple of Cuckoos
A Couple of Cuckoos starts with its protagonists, studious Nagi and rich princess Erika, being swapped at birth. Their respective families decide 18 years later that the easiest fix is to have the two get married. But Nagi pines for classmate and school rival Hiro. This is already some extra-special anime love geometry… but now add in Sachi, Nagi’s “little sister.” After all, she’s technically Erika’s little sister, meaning she’s in the running for Nagi’s affection. Three is a lot—but there’s room for one more.
Meet Ai, Nagi’s childhood friend. In the years since she moved away, she’s become a popular online singer. She also remembers Nagi’s childhood confession to her, and she’s here to make good. How will he cope with four girls, all of whom are vying for his affection in their own unique way?
A Couple of Cuckoos returns July 8.
Ranma 1/2
While Ranma 1/2 may not be returning for the summer anime season, it remains one of the greatest anime love stories ever told. And if you thought our other two entries were complex, just wait. Because Ranma complicates his own love geometry by being (at least in some people’s eyes) two separate people! Thanks to the curse he picked up while studying martial arts in China, Ranma turns into a girl when he’s splashed with cold water. So while he’s battling with his feelings for Akane Tendo while also fending off the affections of Shampoo and Kodachi, girl-type Ranma has “her” own problems. Kodachi’s brother Kuno, for instance, who loves both Akane and the mysterious readheaded girl.
Ranma’s not alone in fending off multiple suitors, though. Akane has caught the eye of both the aforementioned Kuno and Ranma’s rival Ryoga. But Ryoga is also cursed, and spends much of his time as a miniature pig Akane has dubbed P-chan. And that’s still not the end of the story. The incoming season 2 will introduce Shampoo’s childhood friend Mousse and another fiancee for Ranma in the person of the okonomiyaki-singing Ukyo!
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