Minami-kun no Koibito: My Little Lover (2015)

Both Have Same Story But Minami-kun no Koibito Season 3 is Older.... And It Have .... Ninomiya Kazunari

Genres: Comedy, Romance, Drama
Tags: Student Female Lead, School Setting, Teacher Supporting Character, Child Female Lead, Teacher Female Lead, Family Relationship

The stories themselves aren't that similar but I felt the vibe is. They are both cute dramas about high school students dealing with life and romance. Though romance is more central in Minami-kun no koibito: My Little Lover. Both also have light supernatural elements (time travel in Splash, shrinking in Minami-kun).

Main character had a crush on her childhood friend for the longest time. However, there was a girl he got involved with that he couldn't reject. Leading male's parent also abandoned him at a young age, but meet again years later.

The male lead is protecting the female lead from her family and from the rest of the world without realizing his feelings for her.

I CANNOT believe that nobody noticed these two shows have the EXACT same tropes-

- Airhead FL chases after honor student childhood friend who seems very cold to her. But he's actually just bad at expressing his feelings due to abandonment issues.
- Second FL has advantage in spending alone time with ML just because she's also an honor student.
- Second ML makes ML very jealous, which eventually helped him realize his feelings.

It has a similar shoujo, light and fluffy vibe to it. In a way, the female lead has a similar charm to her, and they're but pretty cute. The main male leads are both tsundere as well, and they end up becoming increasingly kind of the female lead. Both works are by the same director too!