While testing out his filming camera one night, Kaito is blown off the bridge by a streak of blue light. As he is falling, the last thing he remembers is a hand, grabbing his own. When he wakes up, he finds himself mysteriously back in his room, dazed but uninjured. As Kaito proceeds with his summer break, deciding to make a movie with his friends, he takes an interest the new upperclassman wandering the town, Ichika Takatsuki, and she ends up invited to join them.
Japan has a lot of festivals, traditions, and cuisine that celebrate the seasons. Not all anime is like that, but Waiting in Summer is true revelry for the season in animation form. With some good comedy, passable romance, and beautiful animation, if you are looking for more anime recommendations like Waiting in Summer, look no further.
Anime Like Waiting in Summer
For Fans of Meandering Summer Days~
Anohana
After the death of childhood friend Meiko “Menma” Honma, Jinta Yadomi and his group of friends grew apart, each trying to deal with grief and guilt in their own way. However, when Jinta starts seeing what he believes to be Menma’s ghost, the group of friends are drawn together to help grant her long-desired wish.
While Anohana is tinged with a little more tragedy, it does feature a group of friends that have to endure a supernatural event in the summer. In both shows, their summer brings out a lot of feelings from past and present. However, overall Waiting in Summer is a little brighter in tone.
Natsu-Iro Kiseki
A group of four girls are excited to close out their second year of middle school with a summer break. Unfortunately, one will be transferring away to a new school. They decide to head to a large stone at a Shinto shrine where the played as children to make a wish. Surprising to each of them is that the wish comes true.
While Natsu-Iro doesn’t have the same alien plot, it does have a supernatural element to it. What it really has in common with Waiting in Summer is that it is about a group of friends having a summer that will shape their life forever.
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, their ways to entertain themselves never border on normal.
Waiting in Summer has a bit of a flimsy one, but it does have a plot. Non Non Biyori does not. However, both shows are vibrant in color palate, relish in rural scenery, and have that beautiful summer feeling. However, Non Non Biyori is pure slice of life comedy and no romance.
For Fans of Aliens
Tsuritama
Yuki Sanada is a socially awkward young man that, due to his grandmother’s job, has to move around a lot. He has all but given up on making normal friends until he moved to the town of Enoshima. There he meets a man named Haru who claims to be an alien. It turns out Yuki was right on one account, he would never make “normal” friends.
Both shows are bright and summery in color palate that focus on both a beauty in nature and aliens. While Waiting in Summer has its comedy moments, Tsuritama is distinctly more comedic than anything else.
Birdy The Mighty: Decode
Federation investigator Birdy is chasing a space criminal called Geega through the universe until their game of cat and mouse lands them on Earth. Geega has disguised himself as a human in the entertainment industry, making Birdy’s search more difficult. Unluckily for college student Senkawa, he gets used as a shield by Geega during one of their fights. Birdy saves his life, but the two now find their lives linked to each other.
While both shows are immediately similar for featuring foxy red-headed alien girls. Both shows also end up about them having to cohabitate with a human, but in different ways. Birdy is also a more action-oriented show in case you wanted to escape the slice of life genre.
To Love-Ru
Timid Rito wants is to confess his love to a girl in class. However, things quickly become complicated when one night a naked girl comes crashing in on him while he is in the bath. This girl, as it turns out, is an alien princess on the run and she wants to marry him to avoid a political marriage. Thus begins Rito’s endless days of girl struggle.
Both shows are about a romance between a human and an alien girl. There is just one really crucial difference and that is that To Love Ru is an ecchi series. While Waiting in Summer has a few moments of summery short-shorts and shiny skin, To Love Ru takes things to a potentially uncomfortable level.
For Fans of Complicated Romance
A Lull in the Sea
Long ago, all of humanity lived underwater. However, a portion of them soon left to live on the surface, losing the ability to breath underwater. With this gap between them, the two societies grew apart. A Lull in the Sea tells the story of a group of kids forced to attend school above the water where they come to terms with themselves and the discrimination against them.
While Waiting in Summer has its complicated feelings, A Lull in the Sea is famous for it large amount of unrequited love where every character is in love with someone else. As both also have stunning animation, it is a good set up for a visual feast.
Please Teacher
One day, Kei discovers a floating woman in a lake and discovers two things – she is an alien and also his teacher. As they get to know each other, a romance blooms, but when the principal discovers this, he insists they get married.
The plot of these series are so similar that it’s quite odd. If you look into it, they actually turn out to be written by the same person. What you get is a rom-com about bespectacled alien girls falling for bespectacled nerds. The difference is that Please Teacher has older animation.
Sankarea
After his cat gets run over, Chihiro is convinced that he can make a potion to resurrect him. On his task to do so, he meets a wealthy girl from his school who comes to an abandon spot to yell in a well about her troubles every day. The two bond and she encourages him to continue his resurrection potion creation. Eventually, he succeeds after adding poisonous hydrangea leaves. Sanka, however, doesn’t know it has worked, and decided to kill herself with what should be a poisonous potion. Suddenly, Chihiro has a beautiful zombie on his hands.
While Sankarea has a distinctly darker tone because it is about zombies, it features the same sort of romance. A girl that is way out of the main character’s league becomes intertwined with them, and they become close.
Do you have any more anime series like Waiting in Summer? Let fans know in the comments section below.
