Most of the romance anime I’ve seen are based on a high school setting or something similar.
They were good and all but all have this typical format with the usual shenanigans like Love triangle, beach and fireworks festival episodes, useless love interests that have a shelf life of a hamburger… Etc.
And the memorable ones have me feeling nostalgia for memories I’ve never even had. And in some cases its almost like waking up after a fever dream but with chest pain.
P.S - From the top of my head- the only grown up romance setting I can think of is Wotakoi. Maybe it’s time I venture more into K-dramas for the romance, I remember seeing one named “Twentyfive twentyone” which was absolutely amazing.
You might like Servant x Service, it’s not explicitly a romance anime, more of a comedy but it has some romance sprinkled in from what I remember. It focuses on a a few employees working for the local government at a DMV style office where they deal with customers all day. Light hearted and definitely relatable if you’ve ever worked a service job.
Golden Time was pretty good when I saw it 12 years ago. It’s a college setting so a lot of high school tropes are gone and the characters act more like young adults. I wouldn’t say you need to watch it, but it’s not bad.
Ore Monogatari or “My Love Story” is a favorite for me and my partner. It is a high school setting, but the characters and the pacing make it worth it. If you give it a shot just make it to episode 3 before writing it off.
You probably wouldn’t like Toradora but it’s highly regarded. High school setting again with a lot of clichés, but the clichés are used really well, and make up for the fact that you’ve probably already seen the stereotypes play out before.
From the ones you’ve mentioned, I’ve watched Golden time. It was pretty good.
Ore monogatati and Torodora were in my watchlist for a long time, I almost forgot about them until I read your comment.