After a youth spent as a violent delinquent, Koshi Torako reformed herself in her high school debut and has since fostered a pristine reputation as an honor student. However, her picturesque high school life comes to a screeching halt one day when she finds a girl with inexplicable deer horns tangled in the power lines.
Originally hoping to just pretend she never saw her, she meets the girl again in her class. It seems the odd deer girl Shikanoko Noko has now set her sights on Koshi and intends to make her a dear friend.
How far can meme-able moments carry a series? Let’s find out! If you are looking for more anime recommendations like My Deer Friend Nokotan, head on down below.
Anime Like My Deer Friend Nokotan
For Fans of Cute Girls Doing Increasingly Unhinged Things
Nichijou
Nichijou is about the daily lives of a trio of three friends who soon find their fate intertwined with a young genius, her robot maid, and talking cat. Needless to say, the normal does not ensue.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Nichijou
- The daily lives of school girls surrounded by the most unexpected absurd comedy
- Both series love becoming very intense with many of the jokes to accentuate them.
- Plotless, episodic slice of life comedy – but more absurd.
- Both, in their basic premises, are Cute Girls Doing Cute Things genre parody.
- Both have – at least at times – deer-based comedy!
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Nichijou
- Nichijou only has occasional deer comedy. My Deer Friend Nokotan is 90% deer comedy.
- Nichijou follows a trio of friends rather than forced friendship and a chaotic club like My Deer Friend Nokotan.
Asobi Asobase
One day, Olivia – blonde-haired, foreign-looking transfer student – lies to air-headed Hanako about her English skills. Despite her looks, she has actually lived in Japan almost all her life and can’t speak English very well, but succeeded in tricking Hanako.
This bit of mischief sparked a series of small games in the classroom between them, annoying the nearby deadpan Kasumi who hates games after being teased mercilessly by her older sister for always losing.
However, the mischief eventually draws all three of them into the Pastime Club, a club Hanako created just to goof off.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Asobi Asobase
- Both Asobi Asobase and My Deer Friend Nokotan are extreme, absurd, weird comedy that, as a whole, are parodying the Cute Girls Doing Cute Things genre.
- Both series feature a similar “good student bothered by idiot girl” dynamic.
- Both enjoy making school girls do degenerate things for comedy.
- Unexpectedly good animation quality for pure comedy anime.
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Asobi Asobase
- My Deer Friend Nokotan gets comedy from being weird and unexpected, Asobi Asobase gets its comedy from extreme facial expressions and “cute girls being terrible people to each other” comedy.
- There are no deer in Asobi Asobase.
Chio’s School Road
This is the story of Chio, a young bookworm, and her daily walk to school. Of course, she won’t be getting to school anytime soon as her usual route usually takes her weirdly off course.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Chio’s School Road
- School girls acting odd and degenerate with each other
- Both series are purely built on eccentricity and comically weird situations
- Idiots girls intersect with more normal girls
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Chio’s School Road
- Chio’s School Road is all about the strange situations that arise on a girl’s trip to school. My Deer Friend Nokotan is more school club focused.
- Chio’s School Road, as the main character is a gamer, has a lot more otaku-type comedy.
- There are no deer in Chio’s School Road.
Azumanga Daioh
Chiyo Mihama is the strangest girl in her high school class of some already strange people. As a child prodigy, she skipped all the way to high school where she forms a bond with some of the oddest girls around.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Azumanga Daioh
- School girls in random and unhinged situations for comedy.
- Comedy is the plot of both series
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Azumanga Daioh
- Azumanga Daioh, while odd and an excellent comedy, isn’t quite filled with “meme-able moments” and absurdity. It is more comedy through exaggerated situations.
- Azumanga Daioh features a larger cast of oddballs
- There are no deer in Azumanga Daioh.
Gabriel Dropout
After graduating high school in Heaven, angels are sent down to Earth to guide humans down a righteous path. Heaven had high hopes for Gabriel, the top of her class. However, when she descended, she ended up skipping her duties and getting addicted to online games.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Gabriel Dropout
- Upstanding students become delinquents – or vice versa.
- Odd girls become obsessed with the main character and consistently insert themselves into her life.
- Cute girls being cute, but also occasionally unhinged.
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Gabriel Dropout
- Gabriel Dropout is about an angel that gets addicted to MMOs and becomes a shut-in. So a reverse Koshi situation, but also a bit different even beyond that.
- Gabriel Dropout primarily gets its comedy by making the angels scummy and the demons actually upstanding citizens. Outside of that, it is mostly just a normal CGDCT anime.
- Gabriel Dropout’s comedy is, despite the supernatural, more grounded in reality.
- There are no deer in Gabriel Dropout.
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For Fans of Laser-Targeted Forced Friendship
Seton Academy – Join the Pack
Thanks to population decline, there are fewer humans left. Enter Mazama Jin, an animal hater who has enrolled in Seton Academy that is mostly anthropomorphic animal people.
He immediately falls in love the Hino Hitomi, the only other human female in class. Unfortunately, as he tries to become closer with her, he gets pulled into the various shenanigans of his classmates.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Seton Academy
- Animal girl takes an instant, extreme, clingy interest in a good student who wants nothing to do with them.
- The normal main character is slowly worn down by their friendship.
- The main character is increasingly besieged by eccentric girls.
- Animal jokes. Seton Academy also has a deer girl.
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Seton Academy
- Seton Girl is about a boy that hates animals, but attends a school full of anthropomorphic animal people.
- Seton Academy is surprisingly very educational about different animals.
- While not visually graphic, Seton Academy likes sexual jokes.
- Seton Academy is a comedy anime, but more slice of life with a comedy harem rather than intense absurd situations like My Deer Friend Nokotan.
Aho Girl
Yoshiko Hanabatake is an idiot. So much so that even her own mother has given up hope on her.
However, her studious and terrifying childhood friend A-kun is up to the task of shutting down her shenanigans at every turn.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Aho Girl
- Comically stupid girl forces her unrelenting friendship on someone who really doesn’t want it.
- Both series feature non-stop absurd jokes and the occasional bout of comical violence
- Plotless, episodic slice of life comedy
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Aho Girl
- Aho Girl is about an idiot girl and her male childhood friend/love interest that wants nothing to do with her.
- Aho Girl features a male main character.
- Aho Girl is specifically comedy through the pure, unfiltered stupidity of its female lead. My Deer Friend Nokotan is comedy through the unexpected weirdness that occurs.
- Aho Girl has no deer.
D-Frag
Kazama thinks he has what it takes to take over his high school with his gang, even if it is just his two friends in it. However, when his gang has a run in with the four unique girls of the Game Development Club, he is forced in as a member himself.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and D-Frag
- A delinquent gets dragged into a club that threatens to ruin their reputation
- The members of that club are all very eccentric girls
- Plot is minimal, if present, with comedy ruling the story.
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and D-Frag
- D-Frag features a male main character that fancies himself a delinquent. Koshi in My Deer Friend Nokotan is an ex-delinquent worried about ruining her good reputations. D-Frag is more about him not wanting to ruin is delinquent reputation.
- D-Frag is very much video game comedy and references with elevated absurdism. My Deer Friend Nokotan is deer comedy and pure absurdism.
- What My Deer Friend Nokotan has in occasional yuri bait/jokes, D-frag has with romance.
- There are no deer in D-Frag.
For Fans of Meme-Inviting Absurdity
Kill Me Baby
Yasuna is a normal high school girl whose best friend, Sonya, just happens to be an assassin.
While they enjoy their usually normal high school days, Sonya can’t quite learn to turn off her honed instincts as an assassin. This means a hug can quickly turn into a snapped neck if Yasuna is too careless.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Kill Me Baby
- Both series offers a very specific joke that they repeat at every opportunity (Assassins can’t live like normal people, deer)
- Both series are purely comedy anime with an all-female cast in a school setting
- The jokes are, at least occasionally, violent or extreme.
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Kill Me Baby
- My Deer Friend Nokotan has a lot of effort and thought put into the animation and jokes. Kill Me Baby? Not so much. It has the one joke and minimal animation.
- Kill Me Baby often jump cuts to the next joke, My Deer Friend Nokotan has more flow to each episode.
- There are no deer in Kill Me Baby.
Pop Team Epic
Popuko is small and quick to anger. Pipiumi is tall and serene. Together these two high school girls swear like sailors and get up to all sorts of insane and meta activities.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Pop Team Epic
- Both feature an extremely similar style of comedy where everything is absurd and turned up to the extreme.
- Both are plotless, though in different ways.
- Girls doing extremely weird things with and to each other
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Pop Team Epic
- Pop Team Epic is sketch comedy that relies really heavily on parodying and riffing on pop culture things. While My Deer Friend Nokotan does this too, it also creates its own original jokes.
- Pop Team Epic does a strange thing with its episodes where the second half is mirrors in the first half of the episode with different voice actors and slightly different jokes.
- My Deer Friend Nokotan has roots in parodying the Cute Girls Doing Cute Things genre while Pop Team Epic has references, but is more sketch comedy.
- My Deer Friend Nokotan has a flow to each episode. Pop Team Epic jump cuts comedy segments like you are flipping through channels on an extremely weird Cable TV network.
- There are no deer in Pop Team Epic
The Daily Lives of High School Boys
This is the tale of three boys that roam the halls of the all-boys school of Sanada North. Their lives are filled with nothing but giant robot drama and true love stories, at least in their imaginations.
In reality, these three boys are nothing special, but they try their best to pass the time.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and The Daily Lives of High School Boys
- Plotless, episodic slice of life comedy
- Characters of all one gender engage in random, weird, and unexpected comedy
- Both offer the occasional parody or reference joke, but are mostly original comedies
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and The Daily Lives of High School Boys
- Daily Lives of High School Boys is about a group of male friends being comical teen boys.
- Daily Lives of High School Boys is lower in terms of absurdity. It often finds more comedy from real situations that are exaggerated a bit.
- Daily Lives of High School Boys has no deer.
Himouto! Umaru-chan
Umaru Doma is, by all accounts, the perfect student. She is beautiful, smart, and respectful, at least until she gets home, anyway.
Once that door closes, Umaru dons her hamster hoodie and transforms into a bratty, lazy, junk food-gorging otaku that is fully dependent on her responsible older brother, Taihei.
Whether it is playing video games or eating the right snack combinations, Umaru knows how to live.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Himouto! Umaru-chan
- Animal-themed girls do meme-worthy things, cutely
- Plotless, episodic slice of life comedy
- Both series feature girls bouncing silly comedy off beleaguered, long-suffering “straight man” type characters.
- Earworm opening themes.
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Himouto! Umaru-Chan
- While Himouto! Umaru-chan is often a comedy, it actually does have some more wholesome moments and even one or two moments of character growth.
- The “straight man” type in Himouto! Umaru-chan is a literal man – the titular Umaru’s older brother. Koshi is, in fact, a woman in My Deer Friend Nokotan.
- Himoutu! Umaru-chan is more otaku comedy and also has a lower intensity to it.
- Himouto! Umaru-chan is often hamster-themed due to the hoodie she wears. As such, there are no deer.
Pani Poni Dash
Class C-1 of Momotsuki Academy is getting a new instructor. Their teacher is an MIT grad, but she is also only 11 years old.
While newbie teacher Becky Minamoto may be one of the most intelligent people in the world, the child prodigy is woefully unprepared to teach the temperamental teens that await her in her new class.
Similarities Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Pani Poni Dash
- Absurd things happening at a school.
- Incredibly random and unpredictable comedy
- Cute girls doing increasingly random things
- The blonde “straight man” type character of the comedy is run ragged by the weirdos around her.
- Both are plotless comedy that also has a surprisingly large amount of effort put into the animation.
- Both series enjoy parody and reference humor, but balance them out with original jokes as well.
Differences Between My Deer Friend Nokotan and Pani Poni Dash
- Paniponi Dash is about an 11-year-old becoming a teacher. So there is a bit of a different dynamic, though her position of authority means little.
- My Deer Friend Nokotan keeps some of the wholesomeness from the CGDCT genre that it stems from. Paniponi Dashi is less wholesome.
- There are no deer in Paniponi Dash.
Do you have more anime recommendations like My Deer Friend Nokotan? Let fans know in the comments section below.
