We’ve all had those moments when we just want to relax and watch something lighthearted to fill the void left by Attack on Titan and Tokyo Ghoul, or the usual depressing romance anime like Your Lie in April, A Silent Voice, Anohana, and Your Name! So, today we’ll look at the 7 Best Rom Com/Slice of Life Anime to Warm Your Heart and Recharge Your Dopamine Levels!
Slice of Life stories focus on an apparently random and mundane period in the lives of the main characters. Because there is no primary narrative to guide the story to a predetermined endpoint, slice of life stories typically lack overall conflict and resolution. While there is conflict in both life and Slice of Life, it appears and disappears seemingly at random, with no explicit storyline to impose it.
Tanaka-kun is Always Listless
Tanaka, a high school student, considers being listless to be a way of life. Tanaka, known for his inattention and proclivity to fall asleep anywhere, wishes that each day be as uneventful as the previous one, attempting to maintain his lazy lifestyle in any way he can by avoiding situations that require him to exert himself. The sluggish adolescent is constantly confronted with situations that prevent him from having the quiet and tranquil days he craves, with the help of his faithful companion Oota, who assists him with activities he is unable to complete.
“Of course, I have the inappropriate curiosity that all boys have, but not enough to make it worthwhile to act on it.”
– Tanaka
A straightforward plot line leads to a straightforward, sweet, and refreshing comedy. It’s a show about Tanaka’s listless adventures (or should I say non-adventures, because Tanaka said, “I don’t want to be the main character of my own life.”) with an amusing cast of adorable and lively friends.
There are no plot twists with dramatic climaxes or cliffhangers that make you want to rip your hair out. They are all wrong. It’s a very peaceful anime…
New Game!
Aoba Suzukaze has been a fan of the Fairies Story game series since he was a child, particularly the character designs. So it’s not surprising that she applies for a job at Eagle Jump, the company that created her favourite video game, after high school. On her first day, she is ecstatic to learn that she will be working on a new edition of the series: Fairies Story 3—especially under the supervision of Kou Yagami, the lead character designer.
People who are interested in games work in their department. Yun Iijima is a monster designer; Hifumi Takimoto is a shy animation team member with an impressive figurine collection; Rin Tooyama is the orderly art director; Shizuku Hazuki is the game director who brings her cat to work; and Umiko Ahagon is the short-tempered head programmer.
New Game! follows Aoba and the others as they navigate the ups and downs of game development, from creating the perfect character design to fixing all of the inevitable errors.
Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun
Chiyo Sakura is a cheerful high school student who is madly in love with Umetarou Nozaki, a naive high school student. When Chiyo confesses to Nozaki, he surprises her by handing her an unknown autograph. It turns out that the stoic adolescent is a well-known shoujo mangaka by the pen name Sakiko Yumeno! Chiyo becomes one of Nozaki’s manga assistants as a result of a series of misunderstandings.
Throughout the comedy, she befriends many of her oddball classmates, including her seemingly shameless fellow assistant, Mikoto Mikoshiba, and the “Prince of the School,” Yuu Kashima. Chiyo is followed by Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun as she works to assist Nozaki with his manga in the hopes that he will finally recognise her feelings for him.
If you want an anime with endless hilarity and gags that revolve around love and romance, this is the anime for you. Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun thrives on mistakes and its characters.
ReLIFE
Arata Kaizaki, 27, has bounced from job to job after being labelled a hopeless loser by those around him. His mundane existence is transformed when he meets Ryou Yoake, a member of the ReLife Research Institute who offers Arata the chance to improve his life by taking a strange pill. Arata accepts it without hesitation, and when he wakes up the next day, he has reverted to the appearance of a 17-year-old.
Arata quickly realises he is the subject of an unusual experiment and must attend high school as a transfer student for a year. Though he believes it will be a breeze because of his superior life experience, Arata is proven gravely wrong on his first day: he fails all of his exams, is completely out of shape, and is unable to keep up with the new school policies that have emerged in the last ten years. Ryou has also been assigned to monitor him, much to Arata’s dismay. ReLIFE follows Arata as he tries to adjust to his fast-paced new life and avoid repeating his mistakes from the past, all while learning more about his classmates.
I’d recommend reading the manga after you’ve watched the anime ’cause the anime skipped a lot of stuff.
Himouto! Umaru-chan
People are not always what they appear to be, as demonstrated by Umaru Doma, the perfect high school girl—until she returns home! The real fun begins when the front door is shut. When she puts on her hamster hoodie, she transforms from a sophisticated, overachieving student to a slacker, junk food-eating otaku, delegating all housekeeping to her responsible older brother Taihei. Umaru knows how to have fun, whether she’s hanging out with her friends Nana Ebina and Kirie Motoba or competing against her self-proclaimed “rival,” Sylphinford Tachibana.
Himouto! Umaru-chan is a sweet story about Umaru and Taihei’s daily adventures as they care for (and put up with) each other to the best of their abilities, as well as the unbreakable bonds that exist between friends and siblings.
Hyouka
Houtarou Oreki, a high school freshman, has only one goal in life: to live a grey existence while conserving as much energy as possible. His calm days are cut short when his older sister, Tomoe, forces him to save the memberless Classics Club from disbandment.
Oreki’s problem appears to be solved when he walks into the clubroom and sees that his fellow first-year, Eru Chitanda, has already joined. Despite fulfilling his obligation, Oreki is drawn to Chitanda’s inquisitive and lively personality and soon joins the group on his own accord.
Hyouka follows the four Classics Club members, including Oreki’s friends Satoshi Fukube and Mayaka Ibara, as they solve petty yet intriguing mysteries in their daily lives, inspired by Chitanda’s insatiable curiosity.
Oresuki
Amatsuyu “Jouro” Kisaragi is an ordinary second-year high school student who has two dates on the same weekend: one with student council president Sakura “Cosmos” Akino on Saturday and one with his childhood friend Aoi “Himawari” Hinata on Sunday. Unfortunately for Jouro, both girls adore his best friend, baseball team ace Taiyou “Sun-chan” Ooga. After accepting each of their pleas for advice and guidance, he is now in charge of assisting the two girls in winning the same guy’s heart.
Unbeknownst to his friends, Jouro’s friendly and obtuse persona is a ruse designed to cast himself as the clueless protagonist of a typical romantic comedy. He is a schemer beneath his pleasant exterior, and he takes advantage of this unexpected turn of events by devising a new plan: convince Sun-chan to fall for either Cosmos or Himawari, and then take the other as his prize. The gloomy, four-eyed Sumireko “Pansy” Sanshokuin, who surprises Jouro not only with her understanding of his secret personality, but also with a confession to the true self he has been hiding all this time, jeopardises Jouro’s last-ditch effort.
Just a heads up, beware of the bench!
Let us know what’s your favorite slice of life or rom com anime in the comments below and as always, thanks for reading!