Maiko Kawai is a first year university student who is afraid to try new things. While she enjoys cooking and wants to try the food around her, she is often thwarted by shyness and hesitation.
Unexpectedly, she runs into her elementary school friend, Shinon Ogawa, at her college. Shinon manages to convince her to start a new club on campus themed around food research, though mostly as an excuse to eat.
Cute girls eating food? An easy win. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Food for the Soul, head on down below.
Anime Like Food for the Soul
For Fans of Living Life, Eating Food
Gourmet Girl Graffiti
Ryou Makiko lives alone while attending art school in the city. Unfortunately, while Ryou loves to cook, all of her dishes have been tasting horrible to her lately.
Depressed, her aunt calls one day and tells her that her cousin will be staying with her sometimes on the weekend. When Ryou cooks for her cousin, suddenly she realizes that her cooking wasn’t bad, it was just meant to be eaten with others.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and Gourmet Girl Graffiti
- Girls adrift and in various states of loneliness come together over food
- Each episode is a new food, and occasional some characters living their lives.
- Cute Girls Doing Cute Food Things iyashikei anime
Differences Between Food for the Soul and Gourmet Girl Graffiti
- Gourmet Girl Graffiti is about social loneliness, Food for the Soul is more diverse in the anxieties, eccentricities, and worries of modern young adulthood.
- Gourmet Girl Graffiti is more about cooking various foods, then eating them in a semi-orgasmic, Food Wars-esque kind of way.
- The girls in Gourmet Girl Graffiti are a middle schooler and her younger cousin, which is a far cry from the university students in Food for the Soul.
Sweetness and Lightning
After the death of his wife, high school math teacher Kouhei Inuzuka is left to care for his young daughter, Tsumugi. He does his best, but his busy schedule and poor culinary skills limit them to eating convenience store food separately.
One day, his daughter expresses an interest to eat together after talking to one of his students in the park, Kotori, who deeply enjoys food. He rushes over to the restaurant owned by the student’s mother, but she is not there.
While Kotori tries her best to cook for them, her skills are lacking. However, together, Inuzuka-sensei, Tsumugi, and Kotori learn to expand their cooking skills.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and Sweetness and Lightning
- Characters of various anxieties and eccentricities coming together over food
- Cooking and eating food is the plot that fosters character growth and joy
Differences Between Food for the Soul and Sweetness and Lightning
- Sweetness and Lightning is about a windower learning to cook for his daughter with a high school girl, so it has a layer of found family/actual family to it. It also has a decent focus on the difficulties of being a parent.
- Sweetness and Lightning is a more emotional show since the characters all have some major worries.
- Sweetness and Lightning is fairly educational about food and cooking
Princess Connect Re-Dive
The nameless main character is sent to a new world. Kokoro, a girl chosen to be the guardian of her lord, travels to that specific location, told that she would find her lord there.
While teaching him of his new world, she meets several other companions and they decide to form a Gourmet Guild in search of delicious things to eat.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and Princess Connect
- Cute Girls Eating Food, Cutely
- A group of friends that come together over a meal at some point in the episode. Food is good and better with company.
Differences Between Food for the Soul and Princess Connect
- There be a man in the midst of Princess Connect, but he’s more of a self-insert for the audience than a character.
- Princess Connect is set in a fantasy land, so sometimes they go adventuring, but it has a strong food focus without being a fully food-centered plot.
- There are occasionally more dire character stories going on in Princess Connect. While it is very food-focused, it does have some plot going on.
Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles
Unassuming and mysterious in her high school life, Koizumi has a secret. She is actually a ramen master that is constantly looking for great ramen restaurants. Adept at eating and discerning in her tastes, join her for on the hunt for great ramen.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles
- Cute Girls Eating Food, Cutely
- Food is very much the plot, but also cute friendship moments
- Light-hearted, soothing, minimal stress iyashikei shows with food is good, but better with company themes.
Differences Between Food for the Soul and Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles
- As you’d expect, Ms Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles is laser-focused on various forms of ramen.
- Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles is far more of a coemdy and the characters are a bit more eccentric. They are also high schoolers.
Takunomi
After a career change, Michiru Amatsuki moved to Tokyo and moved into a shared house with several other women. Every night after work, the group settles in and enjoys some drinks.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and Takunomi
- Newly young adult women living their lives and taking refuge in food
- Characters who occasionally do non-food related things meeting up to eat, drink, or make food
Differences Between Food for the Soul and Takunomi
- Takunomi is more of a comedy, which means it is quicker with a joke than it is trying specifically to be cute and pleasant.
- You could say that Takunomi is more alcohol-focused, and you wouldn’t be wrong.
- Takunomi is about women in a boarding house rather than university students in a club, so some of them are a bit older and they all have different jobs.
Kiyo in Kyoto – From the Maiko House
Kiyo Nozuki and Sumire Herai are childhood friends that both want to become maikos, apprentice geishas in Kyoto. When they both join a maiko house, Kiyo is rejected to be a maiko, but hired to be the live-in cook while Sumire is invited to begin maiko training.
While disheartened, Kiyo dives head first into cooking, and becomes happy to nourish them in their endeavors.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and Kiyo in Kyoto
- Cute girls enjoying food together
- Regional, historical, or cultural significance of various foods
- Pleasant iyashikai comfort anime about food and cute girls
Differences Between Food for the Soul and Kiyo in Kyoto
- Kiyo in Kyoto, as it is about cooking for modern geisha, is also historically and culturally educational in a non-food way as well.
- The setting definitely makes Kiyo in Kyoto feel much different from the very modern Food for the Soul, despite both being set in the modern day.
For Fans of Cute Girls Doing a Hobby, Cutely
Non Non Biyori
Asahigaoka is rural village in the middle of nowhere, and for the five students who go to school there, their days are all about keeping the boredom at bay.
All of different ages, the ways they entertain themselves never border on normal.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and Non Non Biyori
- These series were made by the same author, and it shows.
- Cute Girls Doing Cute Things
- Eating food, living life, enjoying nature as they come together as friends.
- Eccentric characters and an extra eccentric small gremlin that makes them seem more normal.
Differences Between Food for the Soul and Non Non Biyori
- Non Non Biyori is all about the rural summer vibes of living in a small village with nothing much to do.
- Non Non Biyori follows much younger kids
Mono
After being utterly taken with a senpai, Satsuki Amamiya joins the photography club. However, the next year when her senpai graduates, she finds the club left in her care in danger of shutting down due to a lack of members.
After discovering the Cinema Club is in the same situation, the members decide to combine the two clubs where they are then asked by a manga artist to become the main characters in her work-in-progress manga that leads them all over Japan.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and Mono
- Lightly spastic main character finds something that captivates her
- She joins a club about it with other girls, but they also have to build the club up to be official
- A whole lot of girls just roaming around, enjoying their lives.
Differences Between Food for the Soul and Mono
- Mono is about cameras and photography
- Mono follows high school girls in a combined-subject club. (i.e. two clubs without enough members make one club)
- Mono has food moments, but obviously far less of them.
Laid-Back Camp
After moving, Nadeshiko decides to go see Mount Fuji. She manages to bike pretty far, but has to turn back because of the weather and ends up fainting.
When she wakes up, she finds herself somewhere she has never been and no way to find her way back. It is in this wilderness where she is saved by Rin, a girl who was out camping by herself.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and Laid-Back Camp
- Lightly spastic main character finds something that captivates her
- A group of girls with a shared interest come together to start a club
- They explore that club interest in a pleasant iyashikei way
- Food is good, and better with company.
Differences Between Food for the Soul and Laid-Back Camp
- Laid-back Camp is about girls who go camping, so it is far more rural and nature-focused
- Laid-Back Camp follows high schoolers, but with the amount they travel independently, it also doesn’t quiet feel like it does.
New Game
Ever since she was little, Aoba Suzukaze has been in love with one game series in particular. So it should be no surprise when she graduates high school that she goes and works for the company that makes it.
This is about her adventures in game making and the oddballs that work within.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and New Game
- Cute young adult girls doing things cutely
- Both series follow adult women in a distinctly Cute Girls Doing Cute Things wrapper and format.
- Eccentric array of girls doing a specific thing
Differences Between Food for the Soul and New Game
- New Game takes place at a company rather than following university students, so they are working adults.
- New Game is about video games and less about food.
- The characters in New Game are a little more energetic with how eccentric the characters are. Food for the Soul is a bit more grounded in their personalities.
Slow Loop
As a young girl, Hiyori’s father taught her the joys of fly fishing. Even after he unexpectedly passed away, she still uses fishing as a way to feel connected to him.
One day while fishing, she meets and energetic new girl in town named Koharu who ends up fishing and eating said fish together. However, when she returns home, she discovers that Koharu is also her new step-sister.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and Slow Loop
- Cute Girls Doing a Specific Thing
- The thing they are focused on is helping characters overcome their problems, anxieties, ect and bonding them closer as friends.
- Food is good, and better with company.
Differences Between Food for the Soul and Slow Loop
- Slow Loop follows school-aged girls, that look quite young, but don’t spend much time at school or act much like school children.
- Slow Loop is about fishing, which also means most of the food they eat is fish-based.
- Slow Loop has some emotional character arcs going on, so it is not as iyashikei.
Encouragement of Climb
Aoi Yukimura has loved mountains since she was a kid, but a playground accident left her afraid of heights. Now a timid first year high school student, she is practically friendless until she reconnects with the lively Hinata.
As an old friend from her climbing days, Hinata fosters a change in Aoi’s world that leads her back to the mountains she loves.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and Encouragement of Climb
- Cute Girls Doing A Specific Thing
- Iyashikei stories about soothing anxieties with friendship
- Eccentric girls finding camaraderie with each other
Differences Between Food for the Soul and Encouragement of Climb
- Encouragement of Climb is about high schoolers going mountain climbing.
- Encouragement of Climb only has short-form 3-minute episodes, so it lacks a lot of character depth.
Long Riders
After being enamored with a collapsible bicycle she saw, university student Ami Kurata empties her account and buys a bicycle.
Now with her friends, she enjoys weekend bicycle trips with that changes her view of the world completely.
Similarities Between Food for the Soul and Long Riders
- Cute Girls Doing a Specific Thing
- Cute Girls Doing Cute Things anime, but following adult women.
- Eccentric characters bonded in friendship by a specific passion
Differences Between Food for the Soul and Long Riders
- Long Riders is about road cycling
- Long Riders is more focused on being a comedy than an iyashikei slice of life
Do you have more anime recommendations like Food for the Soul? Let fans know in the comments section below.
