is a Japanese boys' love manga series by Shungiku Nakamura. It focuses on four storylines: the main couple, which comprises the bulk of the books, and three other male couples that provide ongoing side stories ("Junjo Egoist", "Junjo Terrorist", and "Junjo Mistake"). It has expanded into several CD-dramas, a manga series running in Asuka Ciel, a light novel series titled "Junai Romantica" running in The Ruby magazine, and a 37-episode anime series.
Shungiku Nakamura has written a spin-off of Junjo Romantica titled Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi () focusing on a manga editor and his first love, which was also animated by Studio Deen in 2011.
Characters
Junjo Romantica
Voiced by Takahiro Sakurai Misaki Takahashi (the of the Romantica couple) is Takahiro's younger brother. He is eighteen years old at the start of the series, nineteen in episode eight of the anime, and twenty-one in the third season. He is a textbook . At the start of the series, Misaki is about to take his college entrance exams. He aspires to attend Mitsuhashi University, the college his brother turned down in order to care for him after their parents died. Although he seems childish and brash, he simply does not want to cause trouble for anyone else. This is because he still blames himself for his parents' deaths; he thinks that if he had not asked them to hurry home that day, they wouldn't have had the accident. After failing all his practice exams, Misaki's only choice is to ask Usagi to tutor him. This professional relationship gradually evolves into a romantic one. Because Misaki has an idealistic view of relationships, he is reluctant to admit his feelings for Usagi. Even after the two move in together, many challenges come their way. With his so-called "Usa-mones", Misaki ends up attracting several of the Usami men, including Usagi's half-brother, Haruhiko, and his father, Fuyuhiko. Misaki, now a grad student at Mitsuhashi, got accepted into Marukawa after several interviews.
Voiced by Hikaru Hanada and Rina Sato (child) Akihiko is twenty-eight at the beginning of the series, and he has turned thirty-one by the third season. The to Misaki's , he is a prolific author of fiction and BL novels, not to mention the youngest recipient of the distinguished Naomori Award. His nickname is "Usagi" (rabbit in Japanese). Usagi is a close friend of Misaki's older brother, Takahiro, and secretly has feelings for him. Not long after meeting Misaki, he discovers Takahiro is engaged. Misaki gets upset on Usagi's behalf, which leads Usagi to realize his true feelings—he is actually in love with Misaki, not Takahiro. Once Takahiro moves away, Misaki and Usagi move in together, and go from roommates to lovers. Usagi has a cameo in the first episode of the Junjo Romantica spin-off Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi. Ritsu Onodera, the central protagonist of that series, was Usagi's editor prior to transferring to Marukawa.
Voiced by Kōsuke Toriumi (adult) Haruhiko Usami is Akihiko's 30-year-old half-brother (they have different mothers). Misaki calls him "Big Brother Usagi". He is generally cold and disapproving towards his brother, though no one really knows why. After a brief appearance in the middle of the series, he begins proclaiming that he "loves" Misaki, but that was only after he found out how close he and Akihiko were. When he begins sending Misaki flowers and saying that he would take Misaki as his own, Akihiko claims that Haruhiko was "always trying to take [his] things."
Voiced by Kishō Taniyama Takahiro is Misaki's 28-year-old brother and Usagi's long-time friend. He was the subject of Akihiko's affections for a long time, though he never seemed to notice as he is shown to be extremely naive. He is extremely caring towards his younger brother, who refers to him as "Niichan", even dropping out of school to raise Misaki after their parents died. Early in the series, he becomes engaged to and marries Kajiwara Manami. They soon move to Osaka due to his job, at which time Misaki goes to live with Usagi. He now has a son named Mahiro in season three, he and Misaki dote on him a lot, but Usagi does not like him because he is not comfortable with creatures ruled by instinct.
Voiced by Isshin Chiba A senior college student at Mitsuhashi University and Misaki's friend, Keiichi Sumi is a very mysterious young man; while it is usually hard to tell whether he is being serious or not, he is not viewed as a bad person. The son of famous novelist Ryouichi Sumi, Keiichi is also a member of the university's Onsen Research Group (ORG) which have been known for generations as makers of Japan's most terrifying haunted house. He is first introduced trying to lure Misaki away from Akihiko, fueling Akihiko to intervene. Afterwards, once Akihiko and Misaki admit their feelings for one another, Keiichi frequently creates problems between the two, suggesting to Misaki at one point that there might be something between Akihiko and Aikawa (as she had a key to his apartment). He later reveals that he was merely using Misaki to get closer to his true object of affections, Akihiko. Despite this, the two remain close friends, showing that he does care for Misaki. He graduated in season 3 and got a job in a video company, he was aiming for a publishing company but he did not get in.
Voiced by Noriko Namiki Eri Aikawa is Akihiko's editor, for both his fiction works and BL novels, as well as a friend to both him and Misaki. She is roughly the same age as Akihiko and is constantly pushing him to finish his work on time. On the exterior, she seems like a kind and nice-mannered person, but when Akihiko does not hand in his manuscripts on time, she is famous for freaking out and even, on one occasion, attacking him. A fan of Akihiko's work, as Misaki notes that Aikawa sometimes acts like a fan girl when she is around Akihiko and Misaki; in fact, Akihiko reveals that many scenes from his novels are Aikawa's own personal requests, a fact that seemed to surprise Misaki.
Voiced by Jūrōta Kosugi The father of Akihiko ("Usagi") and Haruhiko, as well as uncle to Kaoruko, Misaki calls him "Papa Usagi". Fuyuhiko Usami loves both of his sons equally and wants what is best for both of them. However, he is known to become quite ruthless in his need to accomplish that. He was married into the Usami family, originally being a commoner, which explains why he does not appreciate the relationship between Akihiko and Misaki. There are times he will step in to stop their relationship, but in the last episode of season two, he eventually accepts. Like his youngest son, Akihiko, he is very fond of bears and enjoys the art of woodcarving. He owns a successful business and is often seen carrying rubber ducks. It is briefly mentioned by Akihiko that Fuyuhiko was adopted.
Voiced by Mizuki Nana Kaoruko Usami is Akihiko's cousin on his mother's side. Akihiko did mention once that his father was adopted, so it is possible that Akihiko's mother is a blood relative of the Usami family, including Kaoruko Usami. A 20-year-old aspiring pâtissier (pastry chef), Kaoruko came to Japan after she was told her parents had fallen ill; however, this is revealed to be a trick on the part of her uncle Fuyuhiko, who wished for her to marry Haruhiko in an effort order to separate him from Misaki. As time progresses, however, Kaoruko claims to love Misaki, as she has the "same taste" as Akihiko.
Voiced by Hiro Shimono Mizuki is Akihiko's 25-year-old cousin from his father's side of the family. He has returned from America to visit Akihiko, freeloading off of his cousin while living in Akihiko's apartment. While he is shown to be quite attached to Akihiko, he comes off as cold and hostile toward Misaki; this is later revealed to be due to his feelings for Kaoruko, sensing her attraction towards Misaki.
Voiced by Wataru Hatano Shinnosuke is Misaki's friend and classmate. He is attending Mitsuhashi University as a law student with aspirations of becoming a police officer in the future. He is also a member of the Kendo club. He met Misaki when he picked up The☆Kan phone strap that Misaki had dropped and the two easily bond over their shared love for The☆Kan manga.
Voiced by Hozumi Gōda Kyō Ijuuin is the creator of Misaki's favorite manga, The☆Kan. Whenever the deadline for his next manga installment is near, he becomes incredibly pessimistic. According to Isaka, it is disputed as to whether The☆Kan is in first or second place in terms of sales at Marukawa Publishing. Misaki first met him at Marukawa when Kyō was in one of his pre-deadline funks, with Misaki giving him the motivation to continue by telling him how much his work meant to him. Later on, Misaki was selected in a lottery to meet him again for an autograph signing, then realized it was Misaki who encouraged him three years ago. Kyō is a bachelor who, when cleaned up, is shown to be a considerably attractive man. The majority of his fans are said to be women. It is revealed later in the series, that he has feelings for Misaki.
Voiced by Kenta Miyake Tanaka is the butler for the Usami household, often mistakenly called "Sebastian" by Misaki. There was another time when child Kamijou Hiroki mistakenly called him "Mary". This is because the Japanese word for butler, , sounds very similar to the Japanese word for sheep, .
Voiced by Yuuko Yamazaki Takahiro and Manami's toddler-age son, Misaki's nephew and Akihiko's godson. His name is a combination of his mother's (Manami) and his father's-(Takahiro) names; Mahiro often mispronounces people's names-(such as calling Usami "Unagi", much to the latter's annoyance).
Voiced by Mayumi Asano The ex-wife of Yō Miyagi and the older sister of Shinobu Takatsuki. Shortly after her divorce with Miyagi, Shinobu (Risako's younger brother) confesses to Miyagi and they begin a relationship, of which she is unaware. Risako was cheating on her husband because she felt that she did not love him anymore. However, in reality, she did love him but she always felt unloved because of his strong attachment of his deceased teacher. She felt that Miyagi never loved her at all and decided to divorced her because of her infidelity.
Voiced by Kumiko Hashimoto She is the fiance and later the wife of Takahiro Takahashi, the mother of Mahiro, and the sister-in-law of Misaki.
Voiced by Toshiyuki Toyonaga A new manga editor of Kyo Ijuuin. He often displays a cold emotionless attitude especially when he first meets Misaki; he also disapproves of people being huge crazy fans of Kyo's work even though he himself is a massive fan himself. It can be assumed that he secretly harbors a crush on Kyo.
Junjo Egoist
Voiced by Kentarō Itō (adult) and Eri Kitamura (child) In the anime, Hiroki Kamijou (the of the Egoist couple) is 29 years old (31 years old in season three), a long-time friend of Akihiko's, and an associate professor at Mitsuhashi University. He is a bit of a loner and is extremely passionate about classical Japanese literature, apparently having graduated at the top of his class. Hiroki initially loved Akihiko, his childhood friend. Six years prior to the main events of the story, he took advantage of Akihiko's unrequited love for Takahiro, convincing him to wear a blindfold as he pretended be Takahiro. Hiroki hoped that once Akihiko was intimate with him, his feelings would change, but Hiroki soon realized that he could never be with Akihiko as long as he was in love with Takahiro. He sympathizes with Akihiko, however, for just as Akihiko yearns for Takahiro, Hiroki pines for Akihiko. Soon afterwards, Hiroki would meet Nowaki Kusama, a student four years his junior who refers to him as "Hiro-san". Over the next six years, Hiroki and Nowaki fall in love with each other, but their personal dreams seem to get in the way of their being together. Their story arc focuses on their attempts to start over after Nowaki returns from his study abroad.