Mohsin Lag 
I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class is exactly what its title promises — a fake-marriage romcom between two classmates who openly can’t stand each other — and the reason it works is simpler than most anime would have you believe: the show never tries to make the premise plausible. It just commits. Forced cohabitation, family pressure, two stubborn people slowly discovering the gap between “I hate this person” and “I can’t stop thinking about this person.” The formula is old; the execution is what matters.
So the list below is built on the actual mechanics of the show, not the vibes: arranged or fake relationships, rivals-to-lovers escalation, and the specific comedy of two people performing a romance they don’t yet feel. Every pick earns its place on at least one of those three counts.
| # | Anime | What it’s for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | More than a Married Couple, but Not Lovers. | The closest match on this list by literal premise, and the show you should watch next. A high school runs a marriage-pra… |
| 2 | Nisekoi | The genre’s reference point and the most famous fake-relationship anime ever made. Raku and Chitoge are forced into a pr… |
| 3 | The Dreaming Boy is a Realist | The twist pick. The protagonist chases his crush relentlessly for years, gets rejected hard, and decides — with the cold… |
| 4 | Toradora! | The gold standard of the enemies-to-allies-to-more pipeline, and the show every entry on this list is measured against. … |
| 5 | My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me! | The sneaky pick. The title sounds like pure fanservice bait, and the show does deploy its share — but underneath it’s a … |
| 6 | Horimiya | The palette-cleanser pick, included for contrast rather than similarity. Horimiya is what happens when a romance skips t… |
| 7 | Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? (If It Doesn’t, It’s Over) | The newest pick on the list and the one I’m most curious about long-term. Two childhood friends make a bet: can a boy an… |
| 8 | Love and Lies | The dystopian pick, and the only show on this list where the “arranged marriage” is literal government polic… |
| 9 | My Dress-Up Darling | The off-axis pick, included for the thing every entry on this list secretly runs on: two people whose partnership outrun… |
| 10 | The Quintessential Quintuplets | The finale pick, and the answer to the question “what if the fake-marriage show had five candidates and a framing … |
1. More than a Married Couple, but Not Lovers.
The closest match on this list by literal premise, and the show you should watch next. A high school runs a marriage-practice program pairing students into simulated couples — and the protagonist gets paired with the girl he can’t stand, who happens to be the most popular person in class. Fake marriage, real feelings, the works. It’s more fanservice-forward than I’m Getting Married, and the manga continues well past the anime’s stopping point. But the core dynamic — perform the relationship until it stops being a performance — is identical, and the show commits to it completely.
2. Nisekoi
The genre’s reference point and the most famous fake-relationship anime ever made. Raku and Chitoge are forced into a pretend romance to stop a gang war — their families are rival yakuza — and spend two seasons insisting, louder each time, that it’s all an act. The comedy is broad, the harem sprawls, and the show’s legendary refusal to resolve anything drove a generation of fans to the manga. What matters here is the foundation: the fake-relationship premise executed with total craft, and the chemistry between the two leads is the reason the formula became a genre. Required viewing for context, even if you skip the ending.
3. The Dreaming Boy is a Realist
The twist pick. The protagonist chases his crush relentlessly for years, gets rejected hard, and decides — with the cold clarity of the newly humiliated — to stop. At which point she, having built her identity around being chased, starts losing her mind. It’s the inverse of the fake-marriage premise: instead of two people performing a relationship, it’s one person withdrawing from a pursuit, and the comedy is watching the pursuer become the pursued. It shares I’m Getting Married’s real engine — two people failing to read their own feelings — from the opposite direction. Breezy, funny, and smarter than its title sounds.
4. Toradora!
The gold standard of the enemies-to-allies-to-more pipeline, and the show every entry on this list is measured against. Ryuuji and Taiga start as reluctant co-conspirators — he helps her chase his best friend, she helps him chase hers — and the show spends twenty-five episodes letting the obvious happen at exactly the right speed. No fake marriage, but the same architecture: two people who don’t like each other, forced into proximity by circumstance, discovering that the person they thought they wanted was never the point. If you haven’t seen it, watch it before anything else on this list. It’s the genre’s thesis statement.
5. My Friend’s Little Sister Has It In for Me!
The sneaky pick. The title sounds like pure fanservice bait, and the show does deploy its share — but underneath it’s a genuine rivals-to-something story: the protagonist’s only connection to his ambition is his friend’s sister, who openly antagonizes him while secretly being the reason any of his plans work. The bickering is the romance; the show just doesn’t say so out loud. It’s lighter than I’m Getting Married and heavier on the teasing, and it knows exactly what it is. A good mid-list palate cleanser.
6. Horimiya
The palette-cleanser pick, included for contrast rather than similarity. Horimiya is what happens when a romance skips the whole fake-premise apparatus: two classmates discover each other’s hidden selves and simply… start dating, early, and the show follows the relationship instead of the chase. It’s the anti-Nisekoi — low drama, high warmth, people actually communicating. The reason it’s on this list is that after enough fake-marriage and will-they-won’t-they, Horimiya is the reminder of what all these shows are stalling toward. It’s also just excellent.
7. Can a Boy-Girl Friendship Survive? (If It Doesn’t, It’s Over)
The newest pick on the list and the one I’m most curious about long-term. Two childhood friends make a bet: can a boy and girl stay friends forever without romance ruining it? The show follows the friendship through its years of ups and downs, and the answer it’s building toward is the fun of the whole thing. It shares I’m Getting Married’s fixation on the mechanics of relationships — what actually changes when friendship tips into something else — but plays it as slow-burn sincerity rather than comedy. The adaptation is recent and promising; the premise alone is worth the price of admission.
8. Love and Lies
The dystopian pick, and the only show on this list where the “arranged marriage” is literal government policy. In a future Japan, every citizen is assigned their marriage partner at sixteen — and the protagonist, assigned to a stranger, is already in love with someone else. It’s I’m Getting Married’s “you will marry this person” premise with the comedy stripped out and the social critique turned on: the fake marriage isn’t a joke, it’s the law. The anime covers only the story’s opening and stops mid-stride (the manga continues), but the premise is the genre’s most provocative. Watch it when you want the premise to feel heavier.
9. My Dress-Up Darling
The off-axis pick, included for the thing every entry on this list secretly runs on: two people whose partnership outruns their labels. Marin and Gojo aren’t a fake couple — they’re a cosplayer and her maker, and the show lets their relationship grow through craft instead of confession. The connection to I’m Getting Married is tonal: both understand that watching two people learn each other’s rhythms is more compelling than any declaration. It’s also the best-looking romcom of the last five years. Watch it when you want the same warmth with zero of the contract drama.
10. The Quintessential Quintuplets
The finale pick, and the answer to the question “what if the fake-marriage show had five candidates and a framing device?” Futaro is hired to tutor quintuplets, and the series opens years later at a wedding — one of them is the bride, and the whole story is the mystery of which. It’s not a fake-relationship show, but it’s the genre’s best execution of the underlying engine: proximity, bickering, and the slow, fair distribution of reasons to fall for each girl. The ending is decisive, which is rarer than it should be. Watch it when you want the harem formula done right.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What’s the closest anime to I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in My Class? More than a Married Couple, but Not Lovers. — same fake-couple premise, same energy. Nisekoi is the genre’s classic foundation.
- Is the fake-marriage genre worth watching beyond these? It’s a deep genre, but quality drops fast. The ten above are the ones where the execution justifies the premise.
- Which of these have proper endings? Toradora!, Horimiya, Quintessential Quintuplets, and Love and Lies (in manga form) all conclude. Nisekoi’s anime stops early; the manga finishes.
- Which should I watch first? Toradora! — everything on this list is downstream of it. Then More than a Married Couple for the direct match.
The fake marriage is just an excuse. What these shows are really about — the thing I’m Getting Married gets right — is the moment the performance becomes the truth. All ten get there in their own way.
Looking for your next watch? Our anime where the bad boy changes for love roundup and our anime that will make you cry guide are the natural next stops.
