There is a lot of comedy to be found in anime, but much of the time that comedy serves as a brief respite from a more serious plot. Yet, if you are in the mood to laugh, not so much to think or follow a plot, there are quite a few anime series that dedicate themselves fully to comedy. If all the plot you need is just jokes on top of jokes, then give these great pure comedy anime recommendations a try.
Best Pure Comedy Anime
Nichijou
Nichijou is absurdity in fine form. It takes being a school life comedy and adds in a dash of the most random occurrences. It’s not just school girls messing around. It’s principals suplexing deer. It’s getting talked down to by cats. It’s about girls that are actually robots. Nichijou is wholly random, and while that might not be a comedy for everyone, it hits pretty good.
Asobi Asobase
Asobi Asobase takes the common slice of life comedy plot of a few girls messing around in a club that doesn’t actually have a purpose other than entertaining those members, and gives that premise drugs. It is truly one of those comedies where you can imagine the voice actors in the booth recording those screeches, and it makes them all the more effective. Never be fooled by the screenshots that show these girls looking moe, either. Asobi Asobase mastered the art of silly facial expressions.
Daily Lives of High School Boys
What Asobi Asobase and Nichijou is for girls, Daily Lives of High School Boys is for boys. They both approach comedy with the same sort of absurd vigor that really highlights the weird turn that normal days can take with the right set up.
Grand Blue
In my opinion, Grand Blue sets itself apart from many comedy series by being about college-aged kids rather than high schoolers. It allows for more adult situations and shenanigans caused by drinking. While not an ecchi comedy, Grand Blue, being about a diving club, does like to play with its comical nudity in many of its jokes.
Hinamatsuri
Hinamatsuri does this lovely thing where it pretends to be serious or even lightly dramatic only for it to completely undercut in every single situation with jokes. It prevents this amazing comedy from weighing itself down in any concrete plot and also prevents it from becoming one of those wholesome found family shows as well.
Azumanga Daioh
Despite this series growing older by the day, Azumanga Daioh was one of the first shows to really do slice of life comedy well and absurdly. It is, in many ways, a precursor to the comedy of Nichijou where it is slice of life, but the strangest things keep happening around a mix of normal and strange characters.
Gintama
Gintama is wholly unique as a comedy series in that it actually does have a plot sometimes. Whereas shows like Naruto might have a few comedy episodes as a breather into the next serious arc, Gintama has a serious arc as a breather into its next bout of parody and comedy.
Cromartie High School
A good portion of comedy anime seems to embrace moe blobs and cute girls doing cute things comically, but Cromartie High School is decidedly the exact opposite. Everything is manly to the extreme and it makes a ridiculous school life even that much more intense.
Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist
Sex jokes. Shimoneta is just all sex jokes. Even when they are just talking, the show finds a way to wedge something in there. It is actually super impressive with how many they wedge in there, to be honest. You should also note that while this is just all dirty jokes, it isn’t an ecchi show.
Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto
This series is more comical situations rather than just outright jokes. It is all about characters trying to trip up Sakamoto, the most perfect person to ever exist. Everything he does is elegant, even the way he overcomes the comical trouble that people throw his way.
Plastic Neesan
In a familiar plot, Plastic Neesan quickly sets itself up as a “three girls in a club not doing club things” series. However, instead of going slice of life, it leans to the ridiculous. There’s really no good way to sell this series, which is ultimately that hardest part of writing about comedy anime. It sets up a good cast of characters and is often hilarious in unexpected ways.
D-Frag
D-Frag is yet another club-based comedy series, but this time it throws a man into the mix with the rest of the club being all girls. If your tastes tend to lean more towards nerd/gamer comedy, D-Frag is an excellent choice since they are a game development club, though as these things go, they never do any club-like activities.
Chio’s School Road
This series wedges in the innovation of not being a school-based absurd comedy, but only takes a few steps away in that it is a journey to school-based comedy. Regardless, we don’t enjoy comedy series for innovation. We enjoy them for the bizarre character fostering bizarre situations, and this series has that in absolute excess.
SYD
Much like Shimoneta, SYD is more dirty jokes, but also not an ecchi anime. It loves is sex-based jokes, but doesn’t adapt such a rapidfire pace about it. However, whereas Shimoneta did have a nonsensical plot it pursued,. SYD is more random situations and absurd occurrences.
Watamote
If you are a longtime gamer or anime fan, Watamote is comedy for you, but at the same time, it can be extremely difficult to watch. This series is cringe comedy where it can occasionally hit too close to home. It can sometimes be less funny and more actually painful. That is, however, what makes it such an excellent show.
Senyuu
Before isekai and general medieval fantasy became such a staple in anime, Senyuu was up to parodying it. The series follows the descendants of a great hero, but all those descendants are comically inept in various ways. While isekai and fantasy are not unfamiliar to parody, Senyuu is just comical skits and none of the pretense of actual plot like you would find in similar shows like Konosuba.
The Disastrous Life of Saiki K
Anime does love its overpowered characters, but The Disastrous Life of Saiki K takes full advantage of using them for comedic situations. In a similar vein to Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto, Saiki is perfection in most ways and his psychic powers are second to none. Instead of taking over the Earth, he tries his best to live normally. The comedy comes from all the ways that he fails at doing so and how his enormous power often gets in his way.
Wasteful Days of High School Girls
Oh, what’s one more wildly overlooked comedy anime about girls doing silly things. Again, I think these types of comedy series are just really hard to sell, but one episode and you are hooked from the laughs. Like other series, Wasteful Days of High School Girls really enjoys putting over the top comedy (and stupidity) on display in what should be a very normal classroom.
Osomatsu-san
I was doubtful of Osomatsu-san because it is a remake of an older anime. Luckily, they definitely modernized a fair bit of Osomatsu when compared to the original series, but kept the core kind of abstract and random comedy. The very fun thing about this series is each brother is a unique character and it really allows a lot of comedic flexibility in any situation.
Yuyushiki
One last cute girls doing comedic things in a club anime for the road, yes? Unlike other such series, Yuyushiki really leans deep into the moe blobness of its characters, but it does have a lovely passion for turning mundane activities into absolutely hilarious ones.
Do you have more purely comedy anime series you would recommend? Let fans know in the comments section below.
