Non-traditional romance with assertive/strong female *lead*

Granuli, yes, you do have a lot to watch now. :) I hope you find things you like. It is not easy to find female characters who are always truly strong when it comes to romance. One of my favourite female characters is the lead in Doctor X. There's no romance in this series, but she and her nurse are cool characters.

It looks like often when they want a drama about an independant woman they go for a doctor, but in all the ones I've seen (except Doctor X), these women are the kind of people who are single and are getting "too old" to get married (because in all dramas I've seen, over 30 means people will call them old). They don't care, because they always thought work was more important, and never wanted to depend on a man to make a living or to be happy. But because they hear all these comments (from friends, co-workers, parents...) they start to think they should try dating. Sometimes they find a younger guy, sometimes someone they fight with before they fall in love, and often they find themselves with more than one suitor after some time. But when it comes to relationships, they are often insecure, and don't know how to act and how to handle it. It doesn't have to mean that the guy gets to drag them around and decide everything, but it's not like the guy is in any way submissive.

Perfect example of this is Last Cinderella. Definitely noona romance since the age difference is 15 years or something, and I did enjoy the drama a lot, but it was not what I would wish for in a noona romance: "mature and powerful younger person seduces younger person with her elegance, and with her will and ability to dominate." Or something like that. (The Graduate is my favourite example. I love Mrs Robinson. Not that she is always in control - quite the opposite - but for the most part, and it would have been so much better if Ben hadn't been so stupid.)

From the ones you've added to your list, I recommend Kimi wa petto. It might not be exactly what you're looking for, but the relationship is definitely unusual, and the younger guy is in a way very submissive! But it was a long time since I watched it so I shouldn't say too much. In a way I guess this woman does need to be "saved" (but so did Mrs Robinson...), but I loved the drama because in a way I could really realte to the character.     

Hi lily_b!

I also like to watch shows about complex, independent and interesting women and their friendships and personal drama. Rizzoli&Isles for example (although I need an overarching story line to stay hooked, so I haven't watched past season 1 yet) or Nana (anime) and I loved the interaction between the leads in the UK version of Mistresses (I was very disappointed about the US remake, because at least in season 1 the women seem relatively weak, act quite silly at times and much more cliche, but I've heard that this got a lot better in season 3).
Going to look at Doctor X :)


I also noticed the magical 30s barrier in k-dramas already, it makes me a bit uncomfortable, being 33 and still single myself, even though I'm male.



I'm not specifically looking for younger and/or submissive males in relationships, although if they are, then it's definitely not a traditional romance and I'd love to see that too, at least once as a contrast to everything else.


I only noticed that it's difficult for me to find a satisfying romance, because especially in Eastern culture (at least on tv), women are mostly submissive in relationships and often they even get treated badly (wrist grabs, sexual assaults and so on).
The guys are mostly very dominant, even if they're nice and otherwise great, it's getting old.
And those are the kind of romances I really don't want to watch anymore.


I love movies/shows where the female partner is self confident, truly independent, doesn't really need the male for support (ofc they can support each other as long as it goes both ways) and isn't insecure most of the time + the male doesn't tell her what to do or how to feel.
I guess even if they're quite equal, depending on context, one of the partners is almost always a bit more dominant than the other, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the other one has to be clearly submissive I think.

If I can't get that, or just very few titles, then I'm going to look into lesbian romances, but I wouldn't be surprised if most of them were quite bad as it's the case in anime, where almost all of them are just exploitative, made for a male audience and I hate that even more.



I also tried Last Cinderella and noticed that, quickly dropped it.
It's been AGES that I've seen The Graduate, I think it was in school, don't remember much at all anymore. I should watch it again.

Regarding Kimi wa Pet, I still don't know which version to watch, but I'll definitely give it a try.

Thank you very much for the great post and all the details! I hope I can give something back one day.

The K-movie version of Kimi wa Petto is just... bleh. Misses the point of the story completely and really should be considered an adaptation pretty much in name only. So basically stick with the manga and J-drama (though the drama, since it came out before the manga was finished, doesn't get to the actual end of the story. But it's still a great J-drama imo).

yep also recommend I Hear Your Voice. My other fav noona romances Thumping Spike is short and sweet, there was a subtle one sided attraction in Angry Mom when female lead who is an ajhumma had to go in disguise as a student at her daughter's school but she looked so young after her makeover, the school bad boy fell for her and it was so sweet.

@lily_b

Haha I figured as much regarding lesbian romances.
I know about Aoi Hana, but I haven't watched it yet, because it's kind of sad I think and I wasn't in the mood yet.
It's a pity though, because if it's so rare in straight romances, then it would be much more likely to have at least one strong female lead if both partners were female.
This is what I hoped for after I was finished looking for similar anime and failed, but it was a major disappointment.
I have watched a really nice class-s "romance" though: Maria-sama ga Miteru

I can only agree about the "I'm already 30/almost 40 and I'm not married yet" dramas, don't need that either. It's not only silly, but always reminds me that I'm supposed to be old already :D


@HappySqueak
Thank you :) currently watching Angry Mom and looking forward to that :)
Angry Mom is amazing anyway, really love it so far!
The scenes I've watched of I Hear Your Voice, didn't seem like it, but I like the premise and I bet it's good, so I'm going to give it a try.
Thanks for Thumping Spike, going to look into it :)

Healer and I Hear Your Voice.  I loved the female leads in both dramas.

I highly recommend Faith.  She's at least 10 years older and they are both in quite powerful positions.  The romance develops slowly and sweetly with lots of negotiation on how best to communicate with each other and very few declarations.  they don't ever tell each other they love each other, they just show each other by their actions and there's never doubt about mutual respect.  It's my favourite drama mostly for those reasons.  I just watched Scholar who walked the night and i'm really glad that Lee Joon Gi had to drop out of Faith to go to the military. Faith was the first time I watched Lee Min Ho and understood why he's so loved.