May I suggest Rumiko Takahashi's
Maison Ikkoku? It's a late 80s romance/slice of life show with
- No character being clearly identifiable as tsundere or whatever, they are just characters.
- good romance (though I heard it really only picks up towards the end-ish)
- comedy without mindless violence
- i've watched about 35 of 96 eps so far and it's a really relaxing yet not entirely the "I'm just doing this to kill time" sort of show.
- allegedly the ending is very good
cons:
- it's long
- plot doesn't pick up for awhile (so I heard)
- it's not recent (1988-ish)
hope this helps