It is the first day for incoming freshmen at the prestigious Itan Private High School. For Hitohito Tadano, he considers himself lucky to get in and angles to not make waves during his high school career. However, he finds himself sitting next to the beautiful, beloved, yet cold and silent Shouko Komi, immediately earning the ire of his classmates. After a series of events leads to him being left alone with her, he discovers that she is not cold, but suffers from extreme social anxiety that prevents her from speaking. After a long conversation through writing, he wants to help her reach her goal of making 100 friends.
With a silent main character, I was skeptical about how well this could be adapted, but damn if they didn’t do some interesting new things to further elevate the visual comedy. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Komi-san Can’t Communicate, then head on down below.
Anime Like Komi-san Can’t Communicate
For Fans of Poor Social Skills
High Score Girl
Haruo is not popular, handsome, or even friendly. His sole redeeming quality is his skill at video games. However, his world is thrown upside down by a popular rich girl in his class, Oono, who absolutely trounces him in every game. Now he follows her from arcade to arcade trying to win.
High Score Girl and Komi-san Can’t Communicate both follow normal boys that end up befriending a silent girl. High Score Girl, of course, is often more about gaming, but the characters all have their problems too.
Hitori Bocchi’s Lifestyle
Suffering from extreme social anxiety, Hitori Bocchi has problems making friends. To make matters worse, she is going to middle school without her one and only friend. Furthermore, her only friend will only talk to her if she makes new friends at this school. So begins her struggle.
Both are anime series fully surrounding social anxiety in a girl that just wants to make friends. However, Hitori doesn’t have as stalwart a companion as Tadano, but she has the ability to speak, so she makes do.
Watamote
Tomoko Kuroki is well on her way to becoming a full hikkikomori. The only problem is, she has to get through high school first. However, her short lifetime of playing dating sims and watching anime hasn’t prepared her for the social interactions of real life. Still, Tomoko struggles through each day and the social interactions that they bring.
These shows take different routes when it comes to comedy. Komi-san is visual comedy and nice moments while Watamote is some occasionally painful to watch cringe-based comedy. However, both shows follow girls with anxiety and poor social skills on their quest to connect with others.
Miss Morita is Taciturn
Morita Mayu has a bit of a reputation of intimidating people by looking them straight in the eye. She rarely speaks too. Not because she doesn’t like to or can’t, but because she ends up thinking too much about what to say.
Both series are simple comedies about girls that can’t talk to others. Essentially, Miss Morita is about what Komi is feeling on the inside. However, it is a little less visually lovely.
For Fans of Slice of Life Comedies
Kaguya-sama: Love is War
Considered a genius, Miyuki Shirogane leads the student council in his prestigious school. Alongside his beautiful and wealthy vice president, Kaguya Shinomiya, the two are regarded as the perfect couple despite no romantic relationship. The truth is, however, they both have feelings for each other, but neither can confess. This is the battle of two people trying to get the other to confess first!
Komi-san has its cute moments, and Kaguya-sama is much more of that. It has more emphasis on the relationships, but Kaguya-sama and Komi-san really exceed in having a lot of good visual comedy instead of just straight up jokes.
Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun
Chiyo Sakura has fallen head over heels for the handsome and oblivious Umetarou Nozaki. However, when she confesses her love, he gives her an autograph. It turns out this stoic boy is actually a respected shoujo manga artist. After a series of misunderstandings, Chiyo winds up not as his girlfriend, but as his manga assistant.
While Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun is a romance show, and occasionally remembers that, it, like Komi-san Can’t Communicate, is mostly just jokes. Both series put a big emphasis on visual gags rather than jokes as well as feature an ever-growing cast of odd and comically broken characters.
Handa-kun
Sei Handa believes that he is hated by all his classmates and lives as an outcast. However, in reality, he is the most popular student on campus due to his good looks, calligraphy skills, and cool attitude. However, he often misunderstands their adoration as bullying or abuse.
Both series are very simple slice of life comedies where a character is often misunderstood in their intentions and they way they act. Since Handa can talk, it is less visual comedy than Komi-san, but still simple slice of life comedy.
For Fans of Helping A Cute Girl
Love, Chunibyou, and Other Delusions
Everyone has that stage in their life where they think themselves special, different from mere humans. This phenomenon is called Chunibyou Syndrome and most common in pre-pubescent children. In middle school, Yuuta Togashi thought himself the Dark Flame Master. He has since grown out of it upon entering high school and looks back at those cringe-worthy times with displeasure. Unfortunately, after a chance meeting with Rikka Takanashi, a girl believing to have a God in her eye, she attaches herself to him and brings that Chunibyou past back out.
Both of these series have a normal boy meet a girl who has some kind of various quirk. They then find themselves roped into helping her. Both series are comedies, but Chunibyou has a bigger emphasis on that. Furthermore, the comedy is more at a rapid pace since many of the characters are a bit manic in their energy.
One Week Friends
High school student Hase Yuuki finds out the hard way how difficult romance can be after finding out Kaori, the girl he has fallen for, can only remember memories for a week at a time. Because of this, she often shies away from making friends, but can Yuuki’s sheer determination help her come out of her shell for just one week?
Both series are about boys who meet a girl and essentially fall in love at first sight. They then learn that this girl has a disability that prevents her from connecting to others. He then bends over backwards to help. One Week Friends does put more emphasis on romance rather than comedy, but it also holds a somewhat melancholic tone as well.
Senryuu Girl
Yukishiro Nanako is cute and cheerful, but so shy she has become non-verbal. The only way she can express her thoughts is through haiku. Busujima Eiji is a delinquent in every way, except for the fact that he is kind and has never been in a fight. Together these two form the school’s literature club.
Both series do happen to be about girls who simply can’t speak due to anxiety. They then have unique ways of communicating with others, though Senryuu Girl is more unique in that respect. Throughout both series, you watch the male main character try to help their female peer through various comedic efforts.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Komi-san Can’t Communicate? Let fans know in the comments section below.
