Sometimes we don't need something dark and gritty or overly shounenesque power ups to take down big bads or for original and groundbreaking material to astound us, sometimes we want something to relax, love, or laugh to, so here are some slice of life, romance, and comedy anime that you may have overlooked.
Ikoku meiro no croisee
This anime centers around a sweet little japanese girl named Yune moving to France to work in a sign making shop struggling to survive with less demand for the craft and the competition of a market threatening to put out businesses like it. The anime likes to deal with culture clashes in values and customs between Yune in her new surroundings, trying to find a compromise and enjoying new little things she discovers, building a relationship with Claude (owner of the shop), who can sometimes go too far and be too blunt, but also has to learn how to deal with his visitor while respecting that this is all new to her. The slow, sleepy tone with beautiful backdrops and an adorable main make it a sweet watch.
Kimi to boku
This anime is what convinced me that it'd be nice to have more shoujo from the boys perspective, this slice of life has such a soft color palette and sweet cast. All their friendships have such a strong connection with light humor but realism with how they banter but truly care for each other.
Otome yokai zakuro
An period action supernatural piece with an interesting romance that sounds cliche in its antagonistic-to-love premise but manages to make so many likable connections between each of the romances with some really warm colored scenes of yokai ladies elegantly taking down monsters. Something inside you feels completely satisfied when a barrier is taken down by the characters so they can truly come to understand each other.
Inu x Boku ss
A romance based on two souls who don't particularly know how to love themselves but assuredly do love each other and strive to accept that the love they have for each other is true with some humor on the wacky side (like anime wacky that makes you wonder what you've gotten used to since watching anime). While there is a story it mostly gets expanded in the manga so be prepared to just enjoy the day to day antics of the characters in the anime for the most part.
Earl and Fairy
Earl and Fairy follows in the footsteps of many romance anime. Charming boy falls for girl no one else considered due to other people considering them weird, while she rejects the idea that he even has the slightest interest in her, and mashes it with fairies. Which I personally love and suggest you try because the succession of a non fae believer to being the fae protector is fascinating. It's some fantastical adventure romance with some fairy fun. Obviously a winner for me and maybe for you too.
La corda d'oro
I could never quite figure out why this one got left out of the reverse harem talk all the time. Of the many I've watched it certainly counts as one where the heroine has a definite personality and arc that actually doesn't have to do with the boys with some sweet short snippets of classical music.
Skip Beat
When a childhood crush betrays her, Kyoko decides to beat him at his own game. Show business. Kyoko is the most interesting female character I've come across being both extremely into girly things and verging on a horror character when revenge is involved. Her quest for vengeance also leads into a lot of self discovery which is great to see because Kyoko is a hard worker and just constantly strives to make herself someone she can be happy with. It's so easy to root for and have a lot of fun with Kyoko and if you're already on the main character's side that spells a great start to a series.
Special A
Time for some good old fashioned competition. The humor is so much fun in this anime. Each of the seven main characters are extremely likable and a little odd and always down to fight. Although it is centered more around the competition of the main duo, Hikari (number2) never really seems to win but Kei (numbah 1) obviously has a lot of respect for Hikari so its heartwarming to see them on equal emotional ground. I may have made it sound like it's a competition anime but really it's more a romance with a lot of fun friends doing anime-only privileged things.
Sket Dance
If you like language based humor this ones for you because while there are larger than life school competitions and characters who are more than a little quirky a lot of the humor comes from timed reactions to silly conversations. The characters are also really nice with even the most unexplainable quirk explained in a real down to earth backstory. The overall series just has a heartwarming lesson about helping people.
Kyoukai no rinne
Broke jokes are there for you to relate to in the main character Rinne in his eternal struggle to keep afloat with some dry humored ghost cases and self absorbed characters getting in the way. I have a lot of fun with these characters don't get me wrong but each of them definitely has a vice to mess up the situation even incidentally. No big overarching story so try an episode with no worries about missing the secrets to universe and hopefully have some fun.
Wallflower
Many anime have a be true to yourself and a few even have quirky main characters who do have that but rarely do they have it as well done as the horror girl who hates interacting with people (especially beautiful people) both comes to the realization that humans aren't all horrible and are worth connecting with while still saying its ok for her to like horror and still need a lot of alone time. This anime is absolutely amazing in its compromise to both develop the character for her own good and keep most of her fundamentally the same because that's just who she is. Though any attempts to change her make for some absolutely hilarious episodes.
Gokusen
Tough to be a teacher at a delinquent school especially while hiding you're actually mafia linked. A popular kid out to expose her, regular students out to undermine her, she's got a lot of work cut out for her but darn it she's gonna get it done with a lot of grit and good old fashioned intimidation.
Gugure Kokkuri san
The story of a girl who summoned Kokkuri for no real reason and he ended up staying because he thought she was lonely. Both the first and last episodes are actually really heartwarming. The rest of the series is some dead pan humor between a really odd family dynamic between people who aren't really family, you got your mom friend, your uncle who probably is up to illegal stuff friend and a stalker who should go to jail with a indifferent girl who loves noodles. TBH this is one of my guilty pleasures due to some of the humor REALLY being THAT anime humor where you realize.... yeah.... I'm used to anime..... but I still suggest it because its actually still pretty important to me in terms of comedy anime that I watched/watch when I am blue that gets a smile out of me. and pretty good.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for reading and I hope you found one that caught your attention!
What lighthearted anime do you think is underrated?
Ikoku meiro no croisee
This anime centers around a sweet little japanese girl named Yune moving to France to work in a sign making shop struggling to survive with less demand for the craft and the competition of a market threatening to put out businesses like it. The anime likes to deal with culture clashes in values and customs between Yune in her new surroundings, trying to find a compromise and enjoying new little things she discovers, building a relationship with Claude (owner of the shop), who can sometimes go too far and be too blunt, but also has to learn how to deal with his visitor while respecting that this is all new to her. The slow, sleepy tone with beautiful backdrops and an adorable main make it a sweet watch.
Kimi to boku
This anime is what convinced me that it'd be nice to have more shoujo from the boys perspective, this slice of life has such a soft color palette and sweet cast. All their friendships have such a strong connection with light humor but realism with how they banter but truly care for each other.
Otome yokai zakuro
An period action supernatural piece with an interesting romance that sounds cliche in its antagonistic-to-love premise but manages to make so many likable connections between each of the romances with some really warm colored scenes of yokai ladies elegantly taking down monsters. Something inside you feels completely satisfied when a barrier is taken down by the characters so they can truly come to understand each other.
Inu x Boku ss
A romance based on two souls who don't particularly know how to love themselves but assuredly do love each other and strive to accept that the love they have for each other is true with some humor on the wacky side (like anime wacky that makes you wonder what you've gotten used to since watching anime). While there is a story it mostly gets expanded in the manga so be prepared to just enjoy the day to day antics of the characters in the anime for the most part.
Earl and Fairy
Earl and Fairy follows in the footsteps of many romance anime. Charming boy falls for girl no one else considered due to other people considering them weird, while she rejects the idea that he even has the slightest interest in her, and mashes it with fairies. Which I personally love and suggest you try because the succession of a non fae believer to being the fae protector is fascinating. It's some fantastical adventure romance with some fairy fun. Obviously a winner for me and maybe for you too.
La corda d'oro
I could never quite figure out why this one got left out of the reverse harem talk all the time. Of the many I've watched it certainly counts as one where the heroine has a definite personality and arc that actually doesn't have to do with the boys with some sweet short snippets of classical music.
Skip Beat
When a childhood crush betrays her, Kyoko decides to beat him at his own game. Show business. Kyoko is the most interesting female character I've come across being both extremely into girly things and verging on a horror character when revenge is involved. Her quest for vengeance also leads into a lot of self discovery which is great to see because Kyoko is a hard worker and just constantly strives to make herself someone she can be happy with. It's so easy to root for and have a lot of fun with Kyoko and if you're already on the main character's side that spells a great start to a series.
Special A
Time for some good old fashioned competition. The humor is so much fun in this anime. Each of the seven main characters are extremely likable and a little odd and always down to fight. Although it is centered more around the competition of the main duo, Hikari (number2) never really seems to win but Kei (numbah 1) obviously has a lot of respect for Hikari so its heartwarming to see them on equal emotional ground. I may have made it sound like it's a competition anime but really it's more a romance with a lot of fun friends doing anime-only privileged things.
Sket Dance
If you like language based humor this ones for you because while there are larger than life school competitions and characters who are more than a little quirky a lot of the humor comes from timed reactions to silly conversations. The characters are also really nice with even the most unexplainable quirk explained in a real down to earth backstory. The overall series just has a heartwarming lesson about helping people.
Kyoukai no rinne
Broke jokes are there for you to relate to in the main character Rinne in his eternal struggle to keep afloat with some dry humored ghost cases and self absorbed characters getting in the way. I have a lot of fun with these characters don't get me wrong but each of them definitely has a vice to mess up the situation even incidentally. No big overarching story so try an episode with no worries about missing the secrets to universe and hopefully have some fun.
Wallflower
Many anime have a be true to yourself and a few even have quirky main characters who do have that but rarely do they have it as well done as the horror girl who hates interacting with people (especially beautiful people) both comes to the realization that humans aren't all horrible and are worth connecting with while still saying its ok for her to like horror and still need a lot of alone time. This anime is absolutely amazing in its compromise to both develop the character for her own good and keep most of her fundamentally the same because that's just who she is. Though any attempts to change her make for some absolutely hilarious episodes.
Gokusen
Tough to be a teacher at a delinquent school especially while hiding you're actually mafia linked. A popular kid out to expose her, regular students out to undermine her, she's got a lot of work cut out for her but darn it she's gonna get it done with a lot of grit and good old fashioned intimidation.
Gugure Kokkuri san
The story of a girl who summoned Kokkuri for no real reason and he ended up staying because he thought she was lonely. Both the first and last episodes are actually really heartwarming. The rest of the series is some dead pan humor between a really odd family dynamic between people who aren't really family, you got your mom friend, your uncle who probably is up to illegal stuff friend and a stalker who should go to jail with a indifferent girl who loves noodles. TBH this is one of my guilty pleasures due to some of the humor REALLY being THAT anime humor where you realize.... yeah.... I'm used to anime..... but I still suggest it because its actually still pretty important to me in terms of comedy anime that I watched/watch when I am blue that gets a smile out of me. and pretty good.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for reading and I hope you found one that caught your attention!
What lighthearted anime do you think is underrated?
