After receiving an invitation from a friend, Kaede Honjou starts playing the VRMMO game New World Online as a character named Maple. However, in her desire to not get hurt, she puts all her stats in Vitality. This makes her move very slowly, unable to use magic, and get attacked by even the smallest creatures. However, it does allow her impenetrable defense and the gear she finds while wandering grants her a one-hit counter skill. And so, her adventures begin.
Such a wholesome spin on the action-dominated VRMMO genre. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense, head on down below.
Anime Like Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense
For Fans of VRMMORPGs
Sword Art Online
With the aid of NerveGear technology, video game players can now experience their playable worlds like never before – in virtual reality. For Kazuto Kirigaya, his game of choice is Sword Art Online. After beta testing the game, he logs into the launch and finds himself, as well as ten thousand other players, trapped in the game world.
The original VRMMO anime, or at least the most notable. If the setting of Bofuri and some of the characters intrigue you, this is your natural best bet. Yet, as the series goes on, you will find it becomes significantly less similar since it moves away from VR.
Log Horizon
Thirty thousand Japanese players of the popular Elder Tale game all log in to explore the new update of their game, only to discover they are unable to log out. The story focuses on the socially awkward college student Shiroe, a master strategist in-game, and his friends as they try to navigate their new reality.
Whereas Bofuri is about the adventures of a mega-tank, Log Horizon is about the adventures of a supreme strategist and mage. As such, it is more clever, dialogue-heavy, and focuses on specifics of the game rather than the cuteness of the characters.
Infinite Dendrogram
Infinite Dendrogram is the world’s first successful full-dive VRMMO. It can replicate the five senses and provides infinite possibilities. College freshman Reiji has just started playing with his brother Shuu and is ready to set off on adventure.
If you take out the defensive focus that gives Bofuri its unique plot, you would have Infinite Dendrogram. It is a pretty general VRMMO show that has all the action it needs to have and all your standard characters. It does lack the same ultra cute flair that Bofuri has sometimes, though.
If you enjoy the VRMMO setup, check out there 13 VRMMO Isekai Anime Where Games Go Wonderfully Wrong.
For Fans of Defensive Fighters
The Rising of the Shield Hero
The stories tell of four heroes summoned from another world – the sword, spear, bow, and shield heroes who will prevent calamity. With darkness bearing down on them, the Kingdom of Melromarc summons these heroes from modern day Japan. For otaku Naofumi Iwatani, unfortunately he is labeled the shield hero, the weakest of the group. Worse yet, betrayal sees him labeled as a criminal and outcasted. With hatred and vengeance consuming him, he sets forth to grow strong.
If you are intrigued by the defensive fighting in Bofuri, but want something more action and drama-oriented, The Rising of the Shield Hero is your best choice. He has virtually no offensive abilities and uses his companions as his offense, much like Maple does at times.
Tower of Druaga
Every few years when the sky-god Anu extends his protection, the monsters in the Tower of Druaga weaken and adventurers go forth for fame and fortune, trying to reach the top. Like many adventurers, Jil is young and ready to make the push towards the top. While inexperienced in the Tower, his combat skills have the promise for him to go the distance.
While Tower of Druaga is more action-oriented, it is a series about a main character that plays the tank role. They are not quite so ridiculous as Maple, but their abilities are defensive.
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
After a run in with a robber, the 37-year-old Satoru is suddenly killed. He is reincarnated into a fantasy land, but not as a man. In fact, he is no longer even human! He is reincarnated as a lowly slime. After wandering, he comes across a dragon who he befriends and who gives him the new name of Rimuru. Absorbing this dragon into his slime body, promising to eventually break the seal that has bound him, gives Rimuru great magical ability. He then continues to inadvertently befriend beleaguered fantasy creatures in the forest who are constantly threatened by humanity. Eventually, he decides to found a nation uniting these creatures in order to help them protect themselves.
While both series subvert the expectations of their genre in their own ways, Slime is more traditional in its fantasy adventure than Bofuri is. However, the real similarities is that both main characters have very strong defensive abilities due to them not wanting to get hurt. Furthermore, those abilities evolve with enemy encounters.
Cautious Hero – The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious
In the divine realm, Gods and Goddesses are assigned worlds in peril to summon heroes to guide on their quest to save those worlds. The Goddess of Healing, Ristarte, is assigned a difficult S-class world and told to pick a hero to defeat the Demon King. While her choices are underwhelming, one low level hero with super stats catches her eye! Seiya Ryuuguuin is indeed a powerful hero, but he also has the problematic quirk of being overly cautious. His desire to stay on the safe side, over-preparing and over-training for all encounters, is a source of frustration for all.
While not strictly about a shield-type fighter like Bofuri, Cautious Hero is about a different sort of defensive fighting. It is about prepping (comically) for any and every sort of situation that can happen in an event. While not as wholesome as Bofuri, it does comedy well.
For Fans of Wholesome Fantasy Adventure
Ascendance of a Bookworm
Motosu Urano loves books. She recently got her librarian certification and was about to enter her dream job when an earthquake caused her to be crushed by her collection of books. She is reincarnated into a new world as the five year old daughter of a soldier. Unfortunately, in this world, books are reserved for the elite nobility. What do you do when your station in life does not afford you access to books? Make your own.
Perhaps it is now becoming a new evolution in isekai-esque fantasy to have the series be about things other than fighting in a new world. Bookworm and Bofuri are both a bit like that. They focus on entertaining you in cuter ways rather than throwing some action at you.
Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?
After finishing a random survey, Masato becomes involved in a government scheme that transports him inside of a game. Excited to begin his new life as an adventurer, he is thoroughly disappointed when his mother Mamako ends up being there as well. Eventually giving in to her companionship, they start their journey.
In both series, there is some action, but it is hardly the focus. Do You Like Your Mom has flashy action that is also over in a flash. Instead, like Bofuri entertains you with its cute main character, Do You Like Your Mother entertains you with its wholesome mother.
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.
Both of these fantasy series differ from the standard grand adventure by being much about doing nothing. There isn’t ten tons of action, but instead they are designed to be cute and funny to entertain you instead.
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear
Yuna much prefers staying home and playing her favorite VRMMO instead of going to school. During an update, she receives a strange and powerful bear outfit. It was overpowered, but too embarrassing to wear in-game. However, she finds herself suddenly transported to the world of the game, and her bear suit becomes her best chance of surviving.
Both series are about cute girls playing a VRMMO. However, Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear is about being transported in that game. While Bofuri is quirky because of her stat allocation choices, Kuma is quirky because of a super overpowered, but silly-looking armor.
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 of these shows take a more leisurely approach to adventure. As such, the adventures are lower intensity, but super wholesome. Yet, Bofuri does have more going on. 300 Slimes is more about her getting pestered by new characters that want to fight, then doing slice of life stuff with them.
In The Land of Leadale
After an accident put her on life support, Keina took up playing the VRMMO game, World of Leadale. After a power outage at the hospital, she wakes up fully inside the game as her avatar, Cayna. Furthermore, it seems that 200 years have passed since she last played and no other player characters can be found.
Essentially, both shows are VRMMO-based adventures, but Leadale is an actual isekai show. Regardless, they share cute and nice girls exploring a fantasy world and being wildly overpowered compared to others while doing it.
She Professed Herself The Pupil of The Wise Man
Kagami is a VRMMMO player of a game called Arch Earth Online. He is a veteran player that helped form a kingdom for mages and plays the wise old man. However, one day he purchases an appearance change item with currency about to expire and tests out what it would be like if his character was a super cute girl. However, after falling asleep, he finds himself still in the body of a girl and the game feels a little more real than it used to.
Both are based on VRMMOs, but She Professed Herself The Pupil of The Wise Man is an isekai affair with the twist being that he is in a girl character’s body. Both shows have overpowered characters, but don’t have intense, action-oriented adventures. They are mostly just strong characters being cute.
My Next Life as a Villainess – All Routes Lead to Doom
At eight years old, Katarina Claes, the only daughter of a duke, hits her head and suddenly remembers she was once a seventeen-year-old otaku that got isekai’d. She realizes that she is now in the world of Fortune Lover, the otome game that she had been playing before her death. Unfortunately, she is not the heroine, but rather the villainess who usually ends up dead or exiled at the end. As such, she endeavors to change her fate and avoid all doom flags.
If you enjoyed Bofuri for how absolutely perfectly wholesome it was, My Next Life as a Villainess is exactly that. It is more a dating sim-type affair than MMO adventures, but in it she ends up being beloved by a harem of both the date-able men and women. It low drama and very cute all around.
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.
While Princess Connect is technically an isekai based on a mobile game, it handles its series really well by stuffing it full of cute and lovable girl characters. While they go on adventures at a similar intensity to Bofuri, Princess Connect does have large food focus.
Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a New Starter Town?
In ancient times, those who saved humanity settled outside of the infamous Last Dungeon. Their descendants have all been strong enough to survive in the area by building a community. Lloyd is one such descendant, but the weakest in the village. Hoping to grow strong, he heads to the Kingdom of Azami to enroll in their military academy. However, in this starter zone, Lloyd’s powers seem otherworldly to everyone around him.
Both of these series could have been average action anime, but instead they took a different road and injected innocent characters put in comical situations. If you enjoyed Maple stomping tryhards with an innocent smile, Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a New Starter Town has that exact same energy, but with a male main character.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Bofuri? Let fans know in the comments section below.
I’d say Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear is a good one. It’s an isekai and it doesn’t really have that much action in it. It’s also a very cute show.