WARNING: The following contains significant spoilers for Season 1 of Komi Can’t Communicate, now streaming on Netflix.
Season 2 of Komi Can't Communicate has already been confirmed for release on Netflix in the West, a reminder that there are plenty more chapters of Oda Tomohito's manga for animation studio OLM to adapt. In the meantime, which characters from the tentpole anime could carry their own spinoff?
One of the strengths of the series is the cast of countless quirky characters who became friends with Komi as she grappled with her social anxiety. This means that there are numerous opportunities for characters introduced in the course of the series to start to stand out on their own. Here are three hypothetical spinoffs from the world of Komi Can't Communicate, and the anime in similar genres that could inspire them.
An Isekai Starring Komi's Chunibyo Classmate
Nakanaka Omoharu is introduced in Episode 5 of the anime. She has chunibyo syndrome, which means that she lives out an imaginary fantasy lifestyle. In Nakanaka's mind, she is Marsault Les Primavera (later Lord Malt Trie Vessner, as the story changes at Nakanaka's convenience) and Komi is Princess Komilia. As a refresher, key elements of Nakanaka's ridiculous story included the Dragon Force, a power shared by Nakanaka and Komi that would "cause a huge explosion" if they are ever ten meters apart, and the "Blood pact" that made Komi her vassal.
A spinoff from Nakanaka's point of view could be an adaptation of her fantasy as written by a grown-up Nakanaka who has since made peace with its fictional nature. It could transplant the human characters of Komi Can't Communicate into a fantasy setting, a reversal of comedy spinoffs such as Isekai Quartet or Attack on Titan: Junior High. Nakanaka said that "We have died and been reborn many times (...) across nations," presumably to justify the mundane high school setting of her fantasy story. An anime adaptation of Nakanaka's fantasy could take place in one of these imagined previous lives.
Even though Nakanaka's "Dragon Force" fantasy apparently only concerns herself and Komi, this spinoff could adapt the whole cast into fantasy characters. The helpful yet mischievous Osana Najimi could be a wise mage, the humble yet encouraging Tadano Hitohito could be a brave hero, and the friendly yet creepy Yamai Ren could be a morally ambiguous rogue. Some characters, such as Ninja-like Shinobino Mono and "Armor Girl" Kishi Himeko, already look like they belong to a fantasy story.
The story could involve a Nakanaka-esque figure in the modern-day ending up in a fantasy world and learning about her "Dragon Force" lineage that she had forgotten. It could even be an isekai that ironically and coincidentally confirms a chunibyo protagonist's fantasy, like The Eminence in Shadow. The often bizarre cast of Komi in a fantasy setting also brings to mind the dysfunctional main party of KonoSuba.
A Workplace Comedy Anime With a Strong Central Relationship
Episode 6 introduced Arai Kamiko and Karisu Maki, who work at the hair salon "Beyough Sheets." It's unclear what the name is intended to mean, but given Oda's love of puns (Karisu Maki, for example, is a pun on "charisma,") it may have a meaning that fans haven't discovered yet. Arai narrated her internal monologue as she posed in the mirror and sounds like an upbeat anime protagonist already: "My name is Arai Kamiko. I just started working here! I'm eager to learn!"
Arai's introduction then extended to her boss Karisu Maki, a serious hairstyling professional whom she admires. Arai's deadpan dedication to her clients' needs immediately created a direct contrast with Arai's well-meaning absent-mindedness that could carry an odd-couple workplace comedy. In the episode, Karisu cuts Komi's hair, revealing that she had been coming to them for a long time. Arai struggled to match Karisu and Komi's unspoken bond when she washed her hair afterward, but Komi ultimately thanked her by pointing to the word in a magazine.
The characters' personalities were not so one-note, though. The aloof, subdued Karisu took advantage of Komi's silence to joke that she would give her a radical "Blonde and short" haircut, much to her horror. Arai seemed careless by posing and getting distracted by Karisu's coolness when she could be helping her work, but she truly tried her best to meaningfully connect with Komi when she was washing her hair. These hidden depths could unfold in even more detail in a spinoff series.
This could be an episodic series in which the duo finds the right haircut for various iconic Komi characters. In this way, the series could be about the professionals fashioning a haircut that speaks to each client’s personality, like Violet Evergarden’s letters do for hers. This would not be the only haircutting series, as the manga Beauty Pop is about a brilliant teenage hairstylist. What would set this series apart from the high school world of Komi is that it would be a workplace comedy about adults, like Aggretsuko.
Agari Himiko Could Overcome an Anxiety of Her Own
Agari Himiko has a lot in common with Komi Shoko, and yet she also struggles with challenges that Komi does not. Like Komi, Agari is nervous around other people and dislikes attention. Komi "feels a kinship" with her and in fact, Osana specifically picked Agari to be Komi's first new friend because they thought she was similar to her. In contrast to Komi, Agari was not as beloved by the other students. Most strikingly, Agari had an obsessively negative and self-defeating opinion of herself, wondering for example why Komi would approach her because "My eyes are bad and I'm not cute or anything. I'm chubby, my legs are short, and I get stage fright easily."
Because the anime engages with Komi's communication issues so meaningfully, fans may have expected Agari's nervousness to be approached with the same dedication and attention. Instead, as soon as Tadano proposes that Agari and Komi become friends, she announced that "I'm not worthy enough to be Komi's friend" and offered to be her "dog" instead. Later in the same episode, Agari acted in a servile way to Komi, further reinforcing her absurd idea of an inherent distinction in standing between the two.
An Agari spinoff would take a similar form to the Komi anime, with an episodic format in which Agari meets new friends and familiar faces poised to help challenge her self-esteem issues as she overcomes her own, unique anxiety. In order to introduce so many new characters for Agari to make friends with, the series could follow Agari in college. In this way, the series would be less of a spinoff and more of a continuation of the anime's story and themes into another era, like Boruto or Clannad: After Story.
There is a lot of high school anime, but Komi Can't Communicate truly resonated with audiences in 2021. It could be because the nostalgia that subtly permeates every high school anime is brought to the fore in Komi. It could be the series' transparent and straightforward engagement with disability. Perhaps most of all, it could be the cast of unforgettable characters, all of whom are so funny and engaging that they could each be the star of the show.
