@AnonymousJim
I'm actually not all that into the sci-fi-fantasy settings either. I guess it depends on what you like from Western media. In the romance/comedy realm there's a lot of stuff that is not remotely fantasy. Some of it is more light-hearted like Tsurezure children, but there's more "realistic" romance like Domestic Girlfriend, Tatami Galaxy, Scum's Wish, and Schooldays.
Since its Halloween though, one of my favorite animes was Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, or The Cicadas When They Cry. Its a horror anime and honestly one of the best shows I've ever seen. The premise is that the main character moves from Tokyo to a rural village somewhere in Japan. At first everything seems alright, but there's something in the village that is making people insane, killing others and themselves. The show slowly reveals what's going on each episode and has a really interesting portrayal of insanity. Despite being animated, the show is surprisingly creepy.
I've thought before that TUSCLers might find Schooldays particularly interesting but that anime is absolutely a love it or hate it kind of thing. The plot is basically a shy freshman who gets setup with a girl, but he wants to do sexual things with her and she's too shy to do it. So he starts cheating on her with other girls at the school, and becomes a sex addict who can't get enough and ends up having to deal with the consequences of his behavior.
Domestic girlfriend is really funny. A guy goes to a mixer party where he ends up sleeping with a random girl, but it turns out his divorced father is marrying her mother and she's not only moving in with him but becoming his step-sibling.
Hetalia Axis Powers is basically about all the countries of the world throughout history being people. So Italy is a person, Germany is a person. All the characters are hilariously stereotypical though. Italy is air-headed, weak, and obsessed with pasta, Japan is an isolated introvert, America is really loud, munches on burgers and thinks he is the center of the world.
Shimoneta takes place in the near future and takes the 1984 concept to sexual materials. The government wants to completely ban sexuality, all photographs that are sexual, all nudity, all dirty jokes, they are even trying to make the high school teens forget what sex is. One character believes everyone needs to know about sex and tries to educate the high schoolers against the government's wishes and another character is unwillingly made to help her do that.
Sorry I just gave a shit ton of suggestions lol. One good thing about anime though is that most animes are pretty short. Schooldays and Domestic Girlfriend for example are 12 episodes that are about 20 minutes each. Higurashi is longer, but its worth it. Just some suggestions if the fictional worlds seemed boring. I'm not too into that style either so I get that.