While walking through the woods, the petite witch Alyssa finds a baby in a bush who is exuding an incredible magical aura. Naming her Viola, she decides to raise the baby as he own child after taking her home.
16 years later, Viola now towers over her mother and her more mature looks often cause her to be mistaken for Alyssa’s mother. However, no matter how mature she looks, Viola is still a child who is very attached to her mother, often driving anyone off that she thinks will be competition for her love.
Even amid constant visits from their array of friends, Viola remains Alyssa’s dedicated student, studying magic to make her adoptive mother proud.
Amid the plague of dead mothers in anime, it is nice to see an anime at least attempt to tell a mother-child story. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch, head on down below.
Anime Like The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch
For Fans of Comedic Fantasy
The Vampire Dies in No Time
Vampire hunter Ronald has received a job to rescue the son of a woman from the castle of what is said to be a legendarily powerful vampire.
However, upon arriving, he finds that this “powerful” vampire named Draluc immediately turned to ash when he kicked in the door. In fact, most things scatter him into a pile of ash as this “legendarily powerful vampire” is just strange reputation given to him. He’s actually super weak to everything.
Furthermore, the child in question was just freeloading there to play games during the day when Draluc was asleep and unaware.
In a strange turn of events, Draluc’s castle is destroyed and he and his armadillo move in with Ronald at his office. Now the pair work together taking care of the vampires and other problems that plague the city.
Both The Vampire Dies in No Time and Family Circumstances have a similar approach to comedy. They are both highly stuffed with gag comedy, but they also both are exploring small, episodic plots while doing so.
The biggest difference between these two is the setting. The Vampire Dies in No Time is more supernatural than the more standard fantasy-set Family Circumstances. Furthermore, the main characters are more contentious friends than the wholesome mother-daughter relationship presented in Family Circumstances.
Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle
In order to sow chaos and discord among the human kingdom, the Demon King Tasogare abducted the beloved human princess, Syalis.
In an effort to rescue her, a mighty hero sets forth.
Meanwhile, held in the demon castle, Princess Syalis discovers that being held captive is quite boring. She decides to sleep away her time awaiting rescue, but… She can’t sleep.
Cheap bedding, insomnia, and demonic snores plague her as she tries to get a solid night’s sleep.
The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch worked with a pretty limited concept – a mother and daughter in the woods. However, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle limits that even more by being about a princess locked in a cell in the demon king’s castle, trying to take a nice nap. So what do both these series do to elevate their limited concept into something fun and more engaging than you’d think? Gag comedy.
Both of these series are cozy gag comedy anime following female characters often doing very strange things for laughs. However, while Family Circumstances is pretty wholesome, Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle often follows the titular princess bullying and torturing big tough demons, so it is a bit less wholesome.
Otaku Elf
Koito Koganei is a teenager who serves as a shrine maiden to the Takamimi Shrine as her family has always has. Alongside normal shrine maiden duties, she is also charged with taking care of the deity enshrined there.
Elda, an immortal elf summoned by Tokugawa Ieyasu, has lived in the shrine for 400 years. However, over that time, she has grown afraid of going outside and fallen deeply in love with games, anime, and other otaku hobbies.
The setting is different and the dynamic is a bit different, but Otaku Elf does provide a similar sort of wholesome fantasy comedy experience like The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch.
Both series are episodic adventures following an older, ageless woman and the child that lives with her. However, while Alyssa is actually a mother, Elda is a shut-in elf being taken care of like an enshrined deity at a shrine in modern Tokyo. Her caretaker, a teen girl, looks down on her for being a shut-in, but still loves her.
That said, while both series are slice of life fantasy comedies, Otaku Elf does have a little bit of drama to it since it has a little bit of a coming-of-age theme within.
For Fans of Cozy Fantasy Life
RPG Real Estate
After the defeat of the demon lord, the world is at peace. Kotone Kazairo is a newly graduated mage who is looking to start her life.
She starts by visiting Rent Plan Guide (RPG) Real Estate, to find a home. The company also happens to be the place she will also work as well.
There, she discovers the company’s dedication to catering to its diverse pool of customers and finding a home to suit all client’s needs is not always so easy.
While no one does much actual work in The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch, it is a fantasy anime aimed at more comedic shenanigans like RPG Real Estate.
Both series focus on a mostly female cast living their sometimes average lives in a fantasy world. RPG Real Estate is actually more focused on selling real estate, but since it is done in a fantasy land, there is plenty of quirky weirdness that makes it similar to the more gag comedy-focused Family Circumstances.
Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life!?
Because of her exceptional abilities, Misato Kurihara never got to live a normal life. However, after her sudden death, she is offered reincarnation and one wish. Her wish is to have average abilities so that she can live an average life.
Unfortunately, reincarnated as a noble’s daughter, she still has impressive magic ability.
Determined to still have her normal life, she flees to a far away hunter school and attempts to hide her abilities.
While Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life is an isekai, it is more of a comedy isekai with the occasional adventure thrown in. Furthermore, it is very much a Cute Girls Doing Cute Things comedy.
Similar to The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch, the big emphasis in Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average is comedy. However, while Family Circumstances has more diverse and occasionally unexpected gag comedy, Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average is mostly focused on how comically overpowered the main character is despite trying to hide it.
The Flying Witch
The young Makoto Kowata is a witch, but her skills in magic leave something to be desired. To further train her craft, she moves to rural Aomori to live with her cousins.
This area, rich in nature, is the perfect place to commune with natural forces and hone her craft.
Similar to The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch, The Flying Witch features the rural life of a witch and her family. However, instead of following the comedic adventures of a mother and daughter, The Flying Witch is about a teenage witch honing her magic while living with her cousins.
The Flying Witch is distinctly different as it isn’t really a comedy anime like Family Circumstances, but it still shares the more wholesome family and friends moments. The Flying Witch also has more grounded and realistic magic and centers its plot around cozy, plotless, slice of life adventures rather than random shenanigans.
For Fans of Living in Seclusion
Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood
In Akari’s neighborhood, there are rumors of an ageless girl that only comes out at night and lives in a mansion in the forest.
While seeking out this girl, Akari grows lost in the woods and is saved by the girl of rumor. It turns out the girl is a vampire named Sophie. She orders to blood online and avoids attacking humans.
Akari, a connoisseur of dolls, is instantly charmed by her doll-like appearance and moves in.
Both The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch and Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood are about supernatural beings (vampires/witches) who live alone in seclusion. However, their new housemate/child moves in and their life becomes a lot of social and chaotic.
Both series feature rather normal supernatural beings, but the girls that come to live with them are extremely, obsessively attached to them, which is used for comedy.
While Family Circumstances is more of an episodic gag comedy between the variety of odd characters, Ms. Vampire lives firmly as a Cute Girls Doing Cute Things anime where there isn’t a lot of intense comedy, but rather, it is focused on the moe characters doing very lightly comedic slice of life things.
I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level
Dying from overwork, Azusa Aizawa is allowed to reincarnate into a new world as a witch that will live forever.
Wanting to never be overworked again, she leisurely kills slimes in order to pay for living expenses. However, this meager amount of XP stacks over 300 years of doing it, and she finds herself at max level.
Fearing someone will try to thrust work upon her, she decides to try and hide her strength.
Both Family Circumstances and 300 Slimes feature witches who live in seclusion and are eternally young and cute. However, while Alyssa goes and finds herself a daughter to raise in the woods, Azusa has a series of friends that she makes move into her home.
While I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years is distinctly different in that it is an isekai, both it and The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch are really just cozy slice of life anime about women who live comfortably in seclusion and have weird friends pop in for fun shenanigans. However, Family Circumstances does have a lot more gag comedy. 300 Slimes is more focused on the cozy slice of life aspect than it is on comedy.
I’m Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness
With his powerful magic earning him the label of “Demon Lord” and causing him to be feared by most people, Allen Crawford lives in seclusion in the woods.
One day, he finds a girl collapsed in the forest and brings her home. He learns that her name is Charlotte and she was falsely accused of evil deeds which resulted in the annulment of her arranged marriage to royalty and forced her to flee her country.
Having experience being betrayed by humanity before, Allen decides to not just give her a place to call home, but declares that if people think she is a bad person, he will teach her to do all sorts of naughty things!
What Family Circumstances offers in mother-daughter cute comedy in the woods, Disgraced Noble Lady offers to cute rom-com in the woods.
Both series feature two people that live outside society in the middle of the woods, but are frequently visited by their large array of weird friends. What ensues is a balance of comedy and “something else.” In Family Circumstances, that “something else” is wholesome family moments while Disgraced Noble Lady adds in romance instead.
While both series offers a fun and cozy watch, Disgraced Noble Lady is more of a cute romantic comedy than a gag comedy like Family Circumstances.
Do you have more anime recommendations like The Family Circumstances of the Irregular Witch? Let fans know in the comments section below.
