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Iaboo, Youaboo, Weallaboo for Anime!

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Not quite the same but Ore Monogatari is a sweet love story about a super petit girl and a big giant strong softie who fall in love and its all nice.
 
My friend and I just finished watching Yuru Camp.

Does anyone have suggestions for something similarly cozy we can watch next?
It really depends. There are a lot of shows that are similar, but nothing that really 100% scratches the same itch.

There are a lot of shows that have similar tones and are comfy experiences, but most of them still have a certain amount of drama and tension interspersed to mix things up on occasion that might or might not be welcome depending your mood and expectations. There are very few shows that are completely devoid of any conflict or tension whatsoever like Yuru Camp.

And the ones that are, are often different levels of problematic and might not be good viewing for you and/or your friend. Yuru Camp is squarely a "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" show - a weird genre in and of itself whose title is a pretty apt description. The problem with this genre though, is that most shows in the genre are overwhelmingly made to cater to an adult, male, otaku demographic. So most of the time there's invariably going to be some weird/gross shit and inappropriate sexualization of its characters and garbage like girls comparing breast sizes in the bath and stuff. Yuru Camp is guilty of this to a degree too, but it's a very mild case of it all things considered. So I can't really recommend a lot of shows that are actually like Yuru Camp in good faith, because without knowing your tolerance level on those things, it would be irresponsible to guide you towards those shows. q_3 recommended Flying Witch, which is probably a decent comp, but it's still got a lot of strangely skin-tight clothing, and a lot of male gaze going on. Ore Monogatari though is 100% unadulterated, pure, good time with extremely mild amounts of drama.

Some more firm recommendations:

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. -- This show is about a middle-management bureaucrat who travels around a fictitious country (largely modeled on Europe) to take in the sights, sample local delicacies, and inspect local branch offices of the government. There is some mild intrigue and political drama. But the show is mostly a pretty comfy ride, and most of the drama/tension amounts to nothing but sexy bois looking at each other with sexy eyes for a bit and then evaporating.

The Great Passage -- This show lacks the joy of Yuru Camp, but it is an extremely sedate, mellow, and enjoyable experience. There's zero tension and drama to be had here. And the show is all about a bookish fellow who begins working for a dictionary publisher, as he explores how to do his new job, and makes connections between the lives we all live, and the specific words imbued with meaning that we use to describe those lives to each other. It's occasionally pretty cerebral so it's not like you can just turn your brain off while watching like Yuru Camp, but it's still a guaranteed good time that will put you at ease.

Silver Spoon -- If Yuru Camp is like a 0 on the comfy/tension-scale, and Evangelion is like a 10, then Silver Spoon is like a 2. The story is about a kid suffering from pretty severe burnout and a lot of hang-ups surrounding the high pressure culture of Japanese primary/secondary education. Which... sounds really stressful, right? Except in this show, he transfers to an agriculture-focused high school in the countryside and learns all about how to do farming. Which is hard work for sure, but ends up being a soothing balm for his soul as he gets over his anxieties and issues, and finds purpose/joy in life. There's a certain amount of natural anxiety that follows the character because that's who he is, but watching him be surrounded by a supportive community and generally enjoying himself while learning about farming/ranching is a very comfy and rewarding experience. It's also written by the lady who wrote Fullmetal Alchemist too, so you know it's going to be a good time regardless, and you can really tell she loves farming and pours her soul into the manga/show.

Bunny Drop -- I almost feel guilty recommending this one for reasons I'm sure other TTers can figure out. But as long as you only stick to the show and then never seek out any supplemental information, it's a good time. It's a show about a guy who gets stuck raising an orphaned relative because the rest of his family are terrible people. And it's a largely comfy, good time about a guy learning to be a single dad for a very adorable child. Just again, please, don't ever look into any supplemental material. "Death of the Author" is a philosophy for a reason.

Natsume Yuujinchou -- This show is a little bit harder to recommend. Because I'd say a good quarter of the show is stressful tension. But the rest is so uplifting and mellow that it feels like a good rec. And that tension/drama is really only there to help underscore how wonderful and blissful the happy/peaceful/quiet moments that the rest of the show is. Natsume Yuujinchou, aka Natume's Book of Friends, is about a teenager who can see spirits. That led to a very hard and traumatic life before the show begins, but the show is really about decompressing that trauma and learning to open up to the supportive and kind community that he finally finds a home in, as he goes about his daily life. A lot of the stories play out like fairy tales and are based on Japanese folklore, and its usually Natsume's job to come in and fix things. And he usually solves problems by addressing the core underlying issue and helping people (be them spirits or human beings) come to peace and able to move on with their lives. It's definitely a little stressful at times, but that stress almost always gives way to a comfy and uplifting resolution.

Kyoukai no Rinne -- This is a paranormal, high school, comedy show by Rumiko Takahashi of Ranma/Inuyasha/Urusei Yatsura fame. It's not as good as any of those shows, but its sense of humor still clicks with me and it is probably the most low-stakes, zero-drama, comfy show of Takahashi's. The show follows a kid Rinne whose parents were shinigami - death gods who help usher souls to the afterlife/reincarnation. Which sounds pretty severe, but it's not. There's more tension surrounding how Rinne is going to buy lunch versus any actual drama or conflict. It's kinda like if Bleach was more like Ranma with regards to slapstick humor and low-to-no stakes. It's not the best show, but I love how comfy and amusing it is.

Fake edit: I just realized all my recs are by female authors. That was not my intent, but it's a happy little coincidence. And it also probably tells you something about manga/anime in general.
 

Hilene

Loves "Friendly Girls"
(She/Her)
A non-squicky alternative to Bunny Drop is Sweetness and Lightning, which is about a single father trying to balance caring for his daughter and trying to give her good food, so he ends up working with one of his students, who is the daughter of a famous restaurateur and food critic, who also can't cook.

It's incredibly cute and heartwarming and as far as I can tell doesn't have the... uh. Issues that Bunny Drop has.
 
I thought about that. I liked Sweetness & Lightning a lot and it does not have the same issues, but it definitely has different issues. Where as Bunny Drop's issues can be completely divorced from the anime so long as you ignore supplementary/source material, Sweetness & Lightning certainly has problems where the teenage girl definitely wants to hook up with her adult male teacher and it's a different kind of problematic re: grooming fantasies. It's the same thing that kills shows like "Interviews With Monster Girls" - which has similar issues, but takes sexualizing its cast of underage girls to more intense levels over Sweetness & Lightning's. Sweetness & Lightning, if you can largely compartmentalize the main female character's blushing horny face, it's a v.cute show.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Olympia Kyklos finally ended. This show was a delight and one of my favourite short-form series in a very long while. While not on the same level, With a Dog and a Cat Every Day is Fun is an adorable and humourous enough micro-show. The jokes are pretty basic but man, every time a giant real picture of the cat fills the screen, I'm into it.

The fight animation in the Adventures of Dai is very good.

Also, I can't wait to go through the years OPs and EDs to make some top ten lists, as there have been some great ones this year.
 

Hilene

Loves "Friendly Girls"
(She/Her)
I thought about that. I liked Sweetness & Lightning a lot and it does not have the same issues, but it definitely has different issues. Where as Bunny Drop's issues can be completely divorced from the anime so long as you ignore supplementary/source material, Sweetness & Lightning certainly has problems where the teenage girl definitely wants to hook up with her adult male teacher and it's a different kind of problematic re: grooming fantasies. It's the same thing that kills shows like "Interviews With Monster Girls" - which has similar issues, but takes sexualizing its cast of underage girls to more intense levels over Sweetness & Lightning's. Sweetness & Lightning, if you can largely compartmentalize the main female character's blushing horny face, it's a v.cute show.
I don't want to come across as dismissive of your view, but I didn't really get that vibe from them personally. Well, I'm admittingly concerned about Sweetness eventually Bunny Dropping (I'm only about halfway through the manga), but that's because Bunny Drop has ruined attempts to have that kind of story, but I also don't get THAT vibe, and instead it seems that he and her mom are who are going to get together, honestly. And with Interviews, they have that bit but it's part of her story arc and she is explicitly shot down. I actually kind of liked how it was handled, and in fact actually really liked how the series handled her, the vampire, and the succubus' "romances".


Also, I want to second Asteroid In Love, and was gonna submit it myself but I wasn't sure if it really met the criteria. And I do need to finish watching it.
 

clarice

bebadosamba
As far as we're talking about (sort of, in this case) taking care of a kid, there's also Barakamon, which is a relaxing/cozy show, too. I think an ideal recommendation would be Yotsuba&, but sadly there is not an animated version. How come we have no Yotsuba& anime? I thought Azumanga Daioh was a success and all.

I think Time Of Eve is very cozy, too, but there's a lot of drama.
 

aturtledoesbite

earthquake ace
(any/all)
Ah, I'm seeing where I made a mistake.

Friend is androphobic. Men in general make things uncozy for her. It sounds like Flying Witch and Asteroid in Love should be good choices, though!
 

Peklo

Oh! Create!
(they/them, she/her)
Trying not to get too hung up on "cozy" as the denominator here because frankly that's hard to apply in general terms to people's individual preferences, but if stories about women is what you're looking for where men remain entirely in the margins if present at all, A Place Further than the Universe and Zombie Land Saga are both unmissable. Good for happy crying!
 

Nich

stuck in baby prison
(he/him)
Consider also the first season of Kemono Friends, which has some of the same light and fluffy atmosphere as Yuru Camp, and also has no men in it at all that I can recall.
 
MMMmmm yes, I second the Kemono Friends rec. It's a fantastic show. Keep in mind: the animation is shockingly bad, but it becomes endearing after a while. Especially when you consider the entire show was basically animated by just 4 dudes. If you can make it to episode 3, that's when it usually really clicks with people. But if you like the show, just don't watch the sequel Kemono Friends 2. It's bad. Like, megabad. It's actually made by people who actively hate Kemono Friends.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
Ah, I'm seeing where I made a mistake.

Friend is androphobic. Men in general make things uncozy for her. It sounds like Flying Witch and Asteroid in Love should be good choices, though!

Gotcha. Then I have the perfect choice. Hitori Bocchi. Exclusively female cast (if there are any men, I don't remember them. I guess you could count a wacky good luck charm that looks like a chunky shirtless gnome but it doesn't say anything). Feel good show about an impossibly shy girl pushing herself out of her comfort zone to make friends. My only issue is her first friend tries to give the protagonist incentive by saying "I'll stop being your friend until you become friends with everyone in class." THAT'S A TERRIBLE IDEA!

Well, my other issue is one of the running jokes just isn't that funny to me but overall its good.

Anyway, seems like it might be up her alley.

 

JBear

Internet's foremost Bertolli cosplayer
(He/Him)
Hitoribocchi is a good rec.

However, I would also add that Zombie Land Saga certainly has at least one man in it who is very present, loud, angry, and abusive that might make that a poor choice in this instance (as much as I like the show).
 

aturtledoesbite

earthquake ace
(any/all)
Yeah, we tried ZLS a while back, and said man was a hard no for her. We started Further than the Universe a while back but forgot to keep up with it; can add that to the list for sure. And I'll suggest Kemono and Hitoribocchi to her! Thanks!
 

Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
I wish Yokohama Shopping Log/Yokohama Kaidashi Kiko were available legally, anywhere (especially the manga), since it would seem like a great rec for this conversation (and the... two? I think? male characters are about as threatening as a cup of warm water), but I wouldn't blame anyone for Youtubing it or seeking it out in less wholesome venues.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
I was also just going to mention Further than the Universe is Peklo hadn't beat me to it. Basically a whole show of high school girls supporting each other. There's a lot of emotional drama which may or may not disqualify it as entirely "cozy", but it's good, affirming drama.

Yokohama Shopping Log is definitely cozy if you can track it down.
 

q 3

here to eat fish and erase the universe
(they/them)
Anima Yell (chairleaders, volunteerism, and coming out) and Konohana Kitan (fox girls run a hot springs inn) are another couple possibilities.

Not totally cozy but very heartwarming, The Demon Girl Next Door is literally a Madoka Magica hurt/comfort fic with the serial numbers filed off.
 

Hilene

Loves "Friendly Girls"
(She/Her)
Anima Yell was pretty cute, yeah. I wonder how well New Game would fly? It's a really rose-coloured glasses look at game dev, but it's fairly cute and quite gay.
 
I'm going to throw out an "older" recommendation:

Aria and it's various sequel series/seasons are some of my favorites. Low key, uplifting, mostly grounded but with a touch of mysticism.

Best of all, the entirety of the first two seasons are available on YouTube (sub-only) directly from the North American localizer/distributor. There was a Kickstarter to dub the whole series recently (well within the last few years), but I believe the dub is only available on the Blu-rays and not streaming anywhere.

It's got a few *very* minor male characters, but most episodes it's just the core trio of girls from each of the gondola companies, sometimes with their instructors. It's mostly episodic as well, so if you do start up an episode and it features any male characters it can be safely skipped. I've recommended it a few times over the years to others and almost everyone who has watched it has loved it, though I know some got a bit distracted by how nearly all the characters have names that start with "A".

Here's the OP (the music in the series is also wonderful):
 
Damn you people mentioning Hayate: The Combat Butler. I remembered that I watched the first 50-odd episodes a year or two back before I had Crunchyroll and now that I have CR, I can now watch the rest of this mediocre comedy.
 
Yasha-Hime is still amazing and oodles of fun. But my one big complaint is that the English subs so far have been pretty bad. Mostly because in the realm of Japanese folklore etymology, they're doing an awful job of translating/explaining mythological terms like "bakeneko" or "youkai" or whatnot. Which is doubly perplexing when the original Inuyasha generally did an ok job of it, and whoever is translating Yasha-Hime could/should just follow that show's naming conventions.
 

Zef

Find Your Reason
(He/Him)
Yasha-Hime is still amazing and oodles of fun. But my one big complaint is that the English subs so far have been pretty bad. Mostly because in the realm of Japanese folklore etymology, they're doing an awful job of translating/explaining mythological terms like "bakeneko" or "youkai" or whatnot. Which is doubly perplexing when the original Inuyasha generally did an ok job of it, and whoever is translating Yasha-Hime could/should just follow that show's naming conventions.

My mind is still drawn to famous restaurant chain Benihana whenever Moroha calls out her stage name, even though it takes half a second to add "Crimson Demon" to the subtitle.
 
Sooooooo, about that Netflix Dragon's Dogma anime. I decided to give it a chance, convinced it would be mediocre, but entertaining enough to kill a few hours.

I miscalculated.

It's actually aggravatingly, aggressively bad. I made it to the end of episode 2 before a particular bit of zero-irony, "both sides are just as bad" moralizing made me quit in disgust. I could have endured the incredibly stilted body language of the characters and the awkward dialogue that could maybe fit in an actual videogame* but has no business being in a TV show, but the whole thing has a slimy veneer of "humans are the real monsters" misanthropy that I'm really not in the mood for right now.

*Dragon's Dogma the videogame probably has better written dialogue than this
I went ahead and watched all seven episodes of it (thinking there would be more, thankfully I was wrong in that assumption) and WOW this was spot-on even without watching it. Every episode is just "humans are the real monsters" and while I can't necessarily say each episode is worse than the last about it (episode 3 in particular is just disgusting on so many levels), it does its best to try. And the final episode just goes right ahead and says it explicitly, out loud, nearly verbatim.

Like, people have a lot of very reasonable and justified problems with the content of Berserk. The content of the Dragon's Dogma anime, rather than its theme, is like if many (I can't say all) of those problems were either still there, or implied about to happen, for absolutely no reason. It is simply there to exist. In two of these instances, it doesn't even have anything to do with the "humans are the real monsters" crap and if you think critically about both of them it has some really deeply disturbing misogynistic implications. It's about at Lord of the Flies level garbage. Which isn't even getting into critique about the Pawn, Hannah and what she exists to do. The game goes some interesting places with Pawns and the question of whether they're really human/people. The anime does not. They just made a woman for the purpose of being a protector/bearer of manpain (even the name she's given by Ethan is from losing his mother as a child and while that COULD have been interesting, it's just manpain).

Dragon's Dogma the game is SECRETLY Berserk and does away with most of the more grotesque aspects, and while it has a lot of references for someone in the know, it only really hits you when you beat the game. Dragon's Dogma the anime is a bargain bin knockoff of Berserk that screams desperately with each episode "AREN'T I LIKE BERSERK THOUGH?" It's absolutely atrocious. And then there's the Dragon. The one thing that is consistent and somewhat well-represented from the game. They still get it wrong both at the very beginning, and in the final episode where it would almost be game spoilers, except it's needlessly wrong.

I get where some of these problems come from. It's just 7 episodes, they gotta really race through a plot somehow and they chose a very basic Monster of the Week approach, but even just getting specific details correct from that last point would've made it slightly more compelling and given it a reason to throw together enough trash for double its episode count. That said, I'm really glad there isn't more because none of the actual BIG problems with it would be any different, they'd just be around for longer.
 
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Hilene

Loves "Friendly Girls"
(She/Her)
I just want to say that this week's episode of Wandering Witch was just incredible. The last 2 episodes have been very light, but the most recent one has the girl from the second episode come back and just be incredibly gay. See, Elaina ends up in a country that has been magically cursed such that people in it can only speak or write truths, and cannot lie, and Saya is there because the country's witch (who implemented the curse) needs help to break it. So when Saya meets with Elaina randomly...

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She cannot tell a lie.
 
I'd been putting off finishing the 2nd part of The Great Pretender in order to watch it with some friends. Friends finally had time to convene last night and we poopsock'd the last 9 episodes. And all I've got to say is - phew. What a good show. Probably the best of the year? It's a really strong, compelling, interesting show from beginning to end, and it really stuck the landing imo. Great cast, incredible voice work (can't speak for the dub), and just really really good writing. It really makes a difference when an anime studio brings in real, accomplished, literary writers to put together their stories/scripts. It's a continual shame that it's a show stuck in Netflix Jail, but it should come out of that on the 25th of this month so set your calendars if you haven't already downloaded the show. It's a shame what Netflix Jail does to shows, but I still hope people will eventually discover and experience this anyways because this is a pretty solid recommendation with little to no caveats here. (Don't watch with little kids; there's sex, drug use, and violence; beyond that it's a good experience for everyone else.)


One thing that bugged me about the 2nd half of the show versus the first, is that I watched official subs over fansubs in the 2nd half, and it was a markedly inferior experience. Netflix has been around how long now, and they still can't get some basic shit like subtitles right? Lots of poorly timed, poorly translated subtitles all over the place. To say nothing of the fact that their English subs don't bother to subtitle when the characters are speaking in English. Get fucked if you need closed captions I guess. (I usually throw subtitles on when watching things in a group so that you can still focus on the dialog if the people you're watching with decide to talk over the show for a bit; not having everything subtitled was pretty obnoxious.) Hopefully this gets addressed for when it hits NA, but I have my doubts. Also I have no idea how the dub will handle Case 4, since the story goes back to Japan and thus they're speaking Japanese a big chunk of the time. (But also lots of English and Chinese as well.)
 

Alixsar

The Shogun of Harlem
(He/him)
I started watching the 2011 Hunter X Hunter series because *shrug* and I was like "oh, okay I get it...it's like Dragonball but not as good". Now I'm at the point where everyone is using magic and I'm like "OHHHH OKAY this is why people like this". But man, those early episodes have the WEIRDEST vibe...every episode is something bonkers happens and then Gon gets the shit beat out of him and everyone's like "wow, he has such POTENTIAL" and then they move on. It's like...yeah, alright I guess?

I do think it's funny that the arc I'm on is 100% about Gon/Killua and they showed Kurapika once and then they're like "oh yeah, he can do magic karate now too" and gave NO FURTHER explanation. Cracks me up.
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
The show really become Gon and Killua from hereon in. Which is good because their friendship is one of the strongest thing about the show. Also, the fact that the Hunters Association is shockingly amoral.
 
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