Studio: Madhouse

Episodes: 12 + 6 OVAs

Quick Pitch: Saitama has a unique hobby: being a hero. After training for three years, he has developed an incredibly powerful punch that defeats enemies in one hit. In fact, this power leads to great boredom in Saitama’s life, as he is no longer thrilled when fighting.

Studio: J.C. Staff / EGG FIRM

Episodes: 120

Quick Pitch: Psychic abilities may seem like a blessing, but they are a curse for Kusou Saiki. All he wants is a normal life, but his powers bring all sorts of hardships and attract unwanted attention. The worst part is that he his “normal” life is filled with weird people.

Studio: Bones

Episodes: 12

Quick Pitch: Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama was born with powerful psychic powers, but he tries his best to live an ordinary life. As he enters adolescence, his emotionally-fueled powers become harder to suppress and threaten to break through its limits.

Studio: Nichijou

Episodes: 26

Quick Pitch: Yuuko Aioi, Mio Naganohara, and Mai Minakami are high school friends, and their seemingly normal life is filled with absurd moments. The bizarre lives of eight-year-old inventor Hakase, talking cat Sakamoto, and the robot Nana Shinonome also intersect with the trio’s daily lives.

Studio: Kinema Citrus

Episodes: 12

Quick pitch: Seishuu Handa is a young, handsome, talented, and narcissistic calligrapher living in Tokyo. When an elderly curator criticizes Seishuu’s technique for being too generic, he loses his cool and punches the curator. Seishuu’s father exiles him to live on Goto Island, which has a small rural town. He must deal with the eccentric villagers (which include crazy children and fujoshi) while developing his own calligraphy style

Studio: P.A. Works

Episodes: 24

What’s it about: Five members of the Kaminoyama High School animation club make a pledge to get jobs in the anime industry. Each of the girls specializes in different areas (like voice acting or CG animation) and face their own struggles trying to make it in the industry.

Studio: Studio Deen

Episodes: 20 + 2 OVAs

Quick Pitch: Kazuma is a NEET who meets a goddess named Aqua after a pathetic death and is offered to be reincarnated in a parallel world. Kazuma is allowed to bring one item or power with him, but he decides to bring Aqua out of spite.

Studio: Sunrise

Episodes: 12 + 7 Specials

Quick Pitch: Hidenori, Yoshitake, and Tadakuni are three close friends attending Sanada North High School. These everyday boys use their vivid imaginations to pass the time.

Studio: J.C. Staff

Episodes: 75

What’s it about: Akito is a great writer, but he cannot draw. After noticing Moritaka’s illustrations, Akito proposes that the two team up to become a manga team. Moritaka agrees because he thinks that he will be able to get the girl he has a crush on if he is able to work on a popular manga. The two write under the pen name Muto Ashirogi and attempt to create the greatest manga in history.

Studio: Tatsunoko Production

Episodes: 77 + 1 OVA

Quick Pitch: Kaimei High School is home to the SKET Brigade, which is a trio comprised of Kazuyoshi “Switch” Usui, Hime “Himeko” Onizuka, and Yusuke “Bossun” Fujisaki. When not slacking off in the club room, they are handling odd jobs and other services for their classmates.

Studio: Bones

Episodes: 26

Quick Pitch: There is a demand for exotic aliens, and Dandy is an alien hunter who will take on any job. His companions QT and Meow accompany him on the ship Aloha Oe. Together, they hunt and register previously unknown alien species and try to evade the Gogol Empire’s forces.

Studio: Studio Pierrot

Episodes: 25 + 4 Specials

Quick Pitch: The six Matsuno brothers are little more than 20-year-old NEETs. When they try to find jobs or hook up with girlfriends, their wild personalities get in the way.

Studio: Kyoto Animation

Episodes: 13 + 8 Specials

Quick Pitch: Kobayashi is a hardworking, otaku software programmer who enjoys drinking after work. One drunken night, Kobayashi climbs a mountain and saves the life of a dragon named Tohru and promises that Tohru can live with her. Not remember the events, Kobayashi is surprised to see Tohru at her door, ready to serve as her maid.

Studio: Doga Kobo

Episodes: 12 + 6 OVAs

Quick pitch: The story follows Sakura Chiyo as she tries to confess her feelings to Nozaki-kun, a student who is a renowned shoujo mangaka. Thinking Sakura is a fangirl, Nozaki gives her an autograph and allows her to work as his assistant.

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Episodes: 22

Quick Pitch: Tired of trying to meet the impossible expectations set upon him, Yuugo Hachiken enrolls at Ooezo Agricultural High School, which is far from the city life he has always known. With no plans for the future, Yuugo uses his high school years learning about agricultural life and how it affects the lives of his new friends.

Studio: Silver Link

Episodes: 12 + 2 OVAs

Quick pitch: Tanaka has mastered the listless way of life. Known for his ability to sleep anywhere and for being super laid-back, Tanaka’s only goal is to maintain his lazy lifestyle. His reliable friend Ohta is always watching Tanaka’s back and is willing to help Tanaka finish any tasks that get in the way of his listlessness.

Studio: Lerche

Episodes: 16 OVAs

Quick Pitch: Every 10 years, the “Carnival Moment” occurs, which pulls characters from the Fate and Tsukihime worlds to put them into a game show.

Studio: J.C. Staff

Episodes: 12 + 1 OVA

Quick Pitch: The prestigious Hachimitsu Private Academy has become a co-ed school and will receive male students for the first time. Only five boys are accepted, but they are treated as castaways. With nothing to lose, they decide to peep into the girls’ bath. But their plan quickly lands them into a “prison” with a sentence of one month of punishment.

Studio: P.A. Works

Episodes: 25

Quick Pitch: Modern day Kyoto is home to humans, tanuki, and tengu. Yasaburou is the third son of the Shimogamo tanuki family and he tries to live a care-free life. However, his crush Benten is a member of the Friday Fellows, which is a group of humans that eat a tanuki hot pot at the end of the year.

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Episodes: 2 OVA + 1 Movie

Quick Pitch: Jesus and Buddha decide to rent a Tokyo apartment while taking a vacation on Earth. They attempt to hide their true identities while learning about modern Japanese life.

Studio: Kyoto Animation

Episodes: 24 + 8 OVAs

Quick Pitch: Yuuta suffered from “chunibyo syndrome” during junior high, in which he believed he possessed supernatural powers. He attempts to start high school with a clean slate, but it proves difficult as a cute, yet delusion classmate learns of his past.

Studio: AIC A.S.T.A.

Episodes: 12

Quick Pitch: Declining birth rates has caused the human race to give up territory to mystical creatures. The handful of remaining humans elect an arbitrator to serve as a link between humanity and faeries so that the two sides can live peacefully. The arbitrator thinks the job will be easy, but the fickle and naive minds to faeries cause many problems for her.

Studio: Doga Kobo

Episodes: 24 + 1 OVA

Quick Pitch: Aoba Suzukaze is a high school graduate who lands a dream job as a character designer at a video game developing studio. Aoba discovers that her idol Kō Yagami is her senior at the studio, which motivates Aoba to do her best. The struggles of working in the video game industry are explored, as the other girls who work for the studio try to help Aoba get accustomed to the industry.

Studio: Sunrise

Episodes: 13

Quick Pitch: Ichiko Sakura has always been lucky thanks to her body being able to draw “Fortune energy” from her surroundings. To combat this, a God of Misfortune named Momiji is sent to steal Ichiko’s Fortune energy in an attempt to bring balance to the world.

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Episodes: 40

Quick Pitch: Souta Takanashi is enamored by small things and mistakes Popura Taneshima for a lost child. Upon learning that she is a year older than him, he agrees to work at a Wagnaria restaurant with her. He quickly discovers that his co-workers are a bunch of eccentrics and wonders how the restaurant manages to stay open.

Studio: Silver Link

Episodes: 26 + 2 OVAs

Quick Pitch: Akihisa Yoshii has a reputation for being a huge idiot and is assigned to Class F, which is the lowest rung of his school. The school has developed experiments to summon creatures, which causes Akihisa to rally his classmates to challenge higher-tiered classes and steal their perks.

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Episodes: 13

Quick Pitch: Lucy Yamagami lands a job at Welfare Administration Section in the city of Mitsuba for one goal: to seek revenge on the civil servant who approved her long name at birth, which is Lucy Kimiko Akie Airi Shiori Rinne Yoshiho Chihoko Ayano Fumika Chitose Sanae Mikiko Ichika Yukino Reina Eri…

Her co-workers include Yutaka Hasabe, who is a flirtatious man who loves to slack off, and Saya Miyoshi, a girl who just wants to survive.  Can the administration survive with these three eccentric personalities?

Studio: Studio Deen

Episodes: 12 + 1 OVA

Quick Pitch: Sakamoto is suave beyond words. His near perfection causes his female classmates to swoon and fills his male classmates with envy, but none of that stops Sakamoto from living life how he sees fit.

Studio: David Production

Episodes: 12 + 1 OVA

Quick Pitch: Ririchiyo has lived a sheltered and dependent life, but she has decided to change that. However, Ririchiyo’s sarcastic nature often times lands her into trouble. Taking up residence at Ayakashikan with other half-yokai people, she is assigned a Secret Service agent who would gladly submit to her every desire.

What are your favorite modern comedies?