The world of anime and manga is bigger and better than ever before. Encompassing an impressive variety of literary genres, themes and settings, there's truly something out there for everyone. While shonen action/adventure stories are dominant, anime fans can try other genres too, from gruesome horror to slapstick comedy.
Some of the most beloved non-violent anime take place in high school, a highly relatable setting for their intended audience. These series are often romances, dramas or a comedy series, or even a combination of the three. Anyone who enjoys lighthearted high school series is encouraged to try out these recommendations, some of which are romantic comedies in particular -- and they all make for easy viewing.
Azumanga Daioh Is Good Clean Comedy Fun
Azumanga Daioh is an older but beloved anime series taking place in an ordinary high school, featuring students who are not so ordinary. There are few, if any, supernatural or fantastical elements to this series, with the narrative focusing on the hilarious hijinks and pratfalls of everyday life.
The story follows a core group of female students who might prank one another, get on each other's nerves and have adventures all over Japan with their equally immature teacher, Ms. Tanizaki, who often enables them. Azumanga Daioh has many running gags to it, from the kuudere Sakaki secretly loving cute things and cats to Tomo's tireless troublemaking and Chiyo, a kid genius who's a little too naive for her own good.
Azumanga Daioh is available to stream on HIDIVE.
Nichijou Continues What Azumanga Daioh Started
In a similar vein as Azumanga Daioh before it, the hit comedy series Nichijou takes place in an ordinary high school that's home to some truly extraordinary students -- and some of them aren't even human. At this school, students such as Yuuko, the aspiring manga artist Mio and the robot girl Nano seem to get into trouble every day, and it's always a riot to watch.
Some of these characters are trying to have a normal and productive high school career, but the wild antics catch up with them in the most unexpected ways. When a young professor and a talking black cat are thrown in, all sense of normalcy goes out the window. Class is always an adventure around here, and at times Nichijou's gags are downright psychedelic in nature.
Nichijou is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-Kun Is A Would-Be Shojo Anime
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-Kun is a short but colorful anime based on the ongoing manga of the same name. It shares the Azumanga Daioh manga's four-panel layout, making it roughly similar to Western comic strips. Protagonist Sakura Chiyo is a cheerful and friendly high school student who nurses a huge but one-sided crush on her classmate Nozaki, who is currently drawing his own serialized shojo manga series titled Let's Fall in Love.
Chiyo failed to win Nozaki's heart, but she does score a position as the new assistant in his manga studio. The two strike up a warm friendship based on using the wild antics around them as inspiration for the next chapter of Let's Fall in Love. With so many zany characters around her, Sakura has no shortage of material to work with.
Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun is available to stream on Netflix and Crunchyroll.
Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War Blends Wits, Romance & Great Comedy
Some high school anime blend comedy with compatible genres -- often romance -- and the result is a story that can appeal to a remarkably broad swath of fans. The charming seinen anime Kaguya-Sama: Love is War may appeal to Death Note fans with its 'battle of wits' storyline, but it should also appeal greatly to shojo fans and lovers of high school anime in general. Kaguya-Sama has its fair share of drama, but as a whole this romantic intellectual battle is a silly and lighthearted affair with no end of running jokes, bizarre dialogue and more than a little chaos.
Kaguya-sama is available to stream on Crucnchyroll and Hulu.
Komi Can't Communicate Is A Sweet Comedy With Romantic Undertones
Komi Can't Communicate, based on author Tomohito Oda's ongoing manga series of the same name, is an inspiring story about the charming dandere heroine Komi Shoko and her quest to make 100 friends in high school. She has always struggled with a communication disorder, but this year will be different -- and she has her new best friend Tadano Hitohito to help her.
The story has a subtle romantic undertone between Komi and Tadano but is primarily a feel-good comedy that, like Azumanga Daioh, takes place in a regular Japanese high school with the most bizarre but lovable students anyone could hope to meet.
Komi Can't Communicate is available to stream on Netflix.
