the main character (preferably male) is taken for granted. By that, I mean the female closest to him always treats him like he's a loser and he's worthless. Then, he suddenly grows up or maybe disappears for a while and suddenly comes back all grown up into someone strong and someone that takes her by surprise.

It'd even be better if his feelings for her weren't as visible anymore. I don't mean that he has no feelings for her but he's colder towards her so she starts to regret the way she used to treat him.

I can think of a similar situation in Kekkaishi where the main character is always treated like a little kid. Until recently, since she's starting to realize that he's changing. However, Yoshimori still shows the same feelings towards her and he never disappeared and came back. Major is similar too; when Honda leaves at an early age and comes back later. Although Major doesn't really focus on the romance at all.

I've already read Love Hina in case you recommend it since it's kind of similar (but I wouldn't really like such a loser protagonist).

It doesn't have to be romance of course. It can be any type of genre (except same sex love) as long as it involves a boy and a girl.

Sorry for the long post but I'm really trying to find something good to read! Thank you for reading (whoever you are!), and thanks in advance for the recommendations.

Hmmm...what I can think of would be Love Pop

Something close of the girl treating the guy badly in the beginning
Zero no Tsukaima
Shakugan no Shana
Suzuka
Unbalance x Unbalance girl treats guy like a child
Hatsukoi Limited
Beauty Pop - opposite of what your looking for but worth a try

All of them don't have a long separation other than Suzuka

In Shakugan, Suzuka, and Unbalance, the guy gets treated "badly" for other reasons.

With Shakugan, Shana knows just how fragile human life is and doesn't want tog et attached. Since she is young and naive herself, this causes her to be overly emotional rather than distant and uncaring.

With Suzuka, we're talking about a girl who puts WAY too much pressure on herself. The death of X (won't say who it is who died, but it affected her a lot), the desire to be the best, the pressure her father puts on her to be the best, etc., all takes a toll on her. She internalizes those feelings, so she can't help but be hard on Yamato, whose carefree persona allows him to let go of those kinds of problems.

In Unbalance, the lead female distrusts all males, especially ones who are not the utmost of gentlemen. But I dislike Unbalance because her character is extremely inconsistently portrayed. It's a story that had a lot of potential but went nowhere with it. People just read it for the mindless humor and ecchi content, rather than a desire for more profound feelings.

how about Welcome to the NHK?

but the romance is really weird in it and the main character basically suicidal and stays in his room all the time....

I was looking for a manga exactly like you were talking about but none really came into my head but NHK popped up and it was pretty good IMO.

its called my life was wrecked and rebuilt by anime and manga

i remember one of the stories of boys be anime being like that. im not sure about the manga though: http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=5814

[img]http://i17.tinypic.com/7wh7xx1.jpg[/img]

In Kare Kano, one of the side stories (as in, story about the main characters' friends, not the main characters) fits your discription prefectly... Dunno if you want to try it?

Thanks for the replies. I'll read the first volume of each recommendation to see if it's what I'm looking for or not.

Have you tried Please Save my Earth ? In a way the dynamics between the female and male main cuple are similar to Kekkaishi (younger guy with a crush for older girl and living close), but here there's a sci-fi twist that give you quite interesting development. Also, it fits your ' boy goes away/changes, when they meet again he seems colder' criteria. You get romance, some esp, past lives interfering wih present ones, and a large -but interesting- cast of characters, and a good plot with a nice 'message': it's one of the best shoujo ever in terms of plot, characterization and dynamics. Art is not the best, but improves a lot. And it's complete and scanlated to boot ^^ .

Motomi Kyousuke is DA (WO)MAN ;D
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=14467&post=382161

One that comes to mind is Tona-Gura where the boy and girl start off as childhood friends. It has the boy move away and return part you describe and also the girls treating him badly despite liking him. The only thing missing is the boy treating her badly when he returns. You can try it and see if you it's what your looking for.