While many people are interested in anime for intense action, vivid animation, or cerebral plot, there is a particular group of people that just want to watch something to relax and feel a little better about the world. For this, there is iyashikei anime.
Iyashikei essentially translates to “healing,” and it is a term used to define a genre that is meant to have a more soothing affect on the audience. It is meant to be a sort of episodic escapism where you slip into a relaxing setting to turn off the brain. Usually, it doesn’t have too much of a plot to follow and often is about characters just happily doing slice of life activities. Occasionally, the genre can also mix in some more cathartic sad moments as well, so it isn’t all happy bubblegum series. Iyashikei is certainly not a genre for everyone, but there are people that very much need it. If you, like a standard Genji main, need healing, check out these iyashikei anime recommendations.
Best Iyashikei Anime
Amanchu
There are many anime series both on this list and off that highlight scenery, but Amanchu sets itself apart by highlighting the joys of underwater scenery. It is a show wholly surrounding a small free diving club. They do nothing competitively, but you do follow an inexperienced main character as she learns about the joys and techniques of the activity.
Non Non Biyori
Legendary as a cute girls doing cute things anime, coincidentally the cute girls doing cute things genre is kissing cousins with iyashikei. Non Non Biyori may just be jokes and slice of life activities, but it is also long lingering shots of the serene countryside as well. It is healing in very respect.
Super Cub
Newer than many other series here, Super Cub follows a girl with no family and no friends. She lives in a routine, but one day she finds her life brightened by the addition of a Super Cub motorscooter that allows her a greater sense of freedom. It is definitely a show you watch and don’t listen to as the main character is mostly alone and doesn’t talk too much. However, it has great rural visuals and it is generally pleasing to watch her world expand and improve from the initial bland and depressing existence.
Tonikawa
While romance generally promotes a sense of healing, not all romance anime are iyashikei because they do tend to put emphasis on drama in arcs of the relationship between the characters. Tonikawa doesn’t do that. The main characters are married in the first episode and the subsequent episodes focus on the relationship growing in a positive (and yes, unrealistically pleasant) way.
Polar Bear Cafe
This is simply cute animals having small comical skits in and around a cafe run by a polar bear. It has some lovely animal-based comedy and a particularly soothing light color palate. It is definitely one of those shows that you put on to relax. It doesn’t expect you to keep track of much.
Wakakozake
This short episode series is about an office lady who enjoys food and drinking. She does so by herself and the entire series puts a big emphasis on being able to enjoy small pleasures as well as your own company.
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid
While Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon maid does have a growing plot, much of the time in the series is jokes, housekeeping activities, and outings with friends and family. As Kobayashi is a hardworking office lady, she benefits from all of these, though she doesn’t show it so obviously.
My Roommate is a Cat
A healing anime for both the audience and the main character. The plot is simple. The main character ends up with a stray cat that he takes in. It is him learning to take care of a cat, but half the episode is from the cat’s perspective about how she takes care of him, too.
Adachi and Shimamura
This is a yuri romance, yes, but you know what most of it is? Just two girls hanging out and doing silly stuff to pass time. What I always enjoyed about it is that it was a very realistic path to romance. Two people just becoming friends and realize they mean more to each other.
How to Keep a Mummy
Much like My Roommate is a Cat, How to Keep a Mummy is about a kid being sent a tiny, adorable mummy. That’s… About it, really. He learns to take care of it, the mummy gets into fun shenanigans, and that’s all there is.
Interviews With Monster Girls
Many of the monster girls you see in anime are either lewd or action-oriented. This is neither. It is a school life series where demi-humans exist in small numbers compared to humans. It then explores the slice of life problems that demi-humans face through the lens of one of their teachers who decides to study them. It is a very solid comedy and thankfully features a well-adjusted adult main character who didn’t make it weird.
Hitori Bocchi’s Lifestyle
This is a relatable series about a girl with social anxiety moving into middle school where she knows no one. It is the story of her journey to make friends despite the anxiety. Perhaps a little too relatable sometimes, but very cute none-the-less.
The Meddlesome Fox Senko-san
Much like Miss Kobayashgi’s Dragon Maid, Senko-san features a fox deity taking care of an overworked salaryman. Unlike Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, there is no building plot. It is just a fox loli doting on some guy.
Gourmet Girl Graffiti
Food and friendship. Those are the only two themes in this series. Every episode is about the characters deciding to cook some sort of food, doing that, and then eating it. It makes you hungry.
Sweetness and Lightning
Similar to Gourmet Girl Graffiti, Sweetness and Lightning is about a single dad learning to cook from one of his students in order to better feed his young daughter. The trio makes food together, then they enjoy eating it together. It is wholesome, cute, and also makes you hella hungry.
Girls’ Last Tour
This is one of those iyashikei anime series that can lean on the cathartic sad side. The whole story surrounds two girls roaming around in a world that has ended. There isn’t much room for a happy ending, but it shows that even in the most bleak of places, happiness can be found.
The Flying Witch
The Flying Witch is perhaps one of the most down to earth magic anime series around. It features a witch in training moving to the country where her powers will be improved by the natural setting. Mostly it is watching her explore her new rural community and practicing minor magic. It is unexpectedly engaging and really makes you want to keep watching.
Engaged to the Unidentified
If Engaged to the Unidentified treated itself like an actual romance, it might not be iyashikei, but it doesn’t. A motherly girl discovers on her sixteenth birthday that she is engaged. Her strong silent type husband moves in with his loud, meddling, comic relief little sister. There are moments of romance, but because the male character doesn’t talk much, mostly it is just gags and allowing the cute characters to be cute.
By the Grace of the Gods
Even isekai is not immune to iyashikei. By the Grace of the Gods literally has the plot of an overworked salaryman dying and being sent to another world by deities that pitied him. He is then empowered and told to enjoy his life. That’s what he does. He gets into adventures, but there is no overall plot beyond him just doing as he pleases. To be fair to what is likely considered a cookie-cutter isekai, the main character is quite the chad compared to the NEETs, M’lady white knights, and trash humans that usually make up isekai main characters.
Bartender
The very on the nose title pretty much sums up the series. This anime follows a bartender who hears the woes of his customers, then makes them a drink to sooth them to their very soul. It is a fine anime to drink to when you have problems.
Aria
If scenery porn is your passion, then Aria is a must. It follows a gondola operator on a beautiful water planet. You follow her giving tours and other minor slice of life activities. The surroundings are very much the star of the show here, though.
Barakamon
Barakamon is another series that prioritizing healing both the audience and the main character. The main character is a high-strung calligraphy artist that gets banished to a rural island to chill out. He resigns himself to work on his art, but is plagued by the whims of the local children who are intrigued by the new resident to their island. It is slice of life and comedy adventures, and a beloved anime all around.
K-On
What’s interesting about this music anime is that very little of it is about music. It follows the ridiculously over-the-top adorable light music club members as they try to form a band. Most of the time is not them practicing or playing, but rather having tea and goofing off.
Laid-Back Camp
This is another lovely series for those that like those wilderness visuals. The series is basically about girls engaging in winter camping, doing all that winter camping involves, and just kind of hanging out. It is the kind of show where you mostly just watch and admire it while you unwind.
Makura no Danshi
This is part of the very small genre of POV anime in which a character is talking directly to you, as in, you are the main character in a literal sense and not a self-insert sense. In this series, it is just handsome boys gently talking to you, asking about your day, complimenting you, and the like. Of course, it is aimed at lonely, tired working women, but there are other POV anime aimed at male audiences as well.
Natsume’s Book of Friends
Perhaps the most beloved iyashikei anime because it has many seasons, Natsume’s Book of Friends is essentially dealing with low intensity spirit problems and doing slice of life things with the spirits since Natsume doesn’t have many other friends. Atmospheric and lightly comical, it is a show that you can jump into at any episode of any season and not lose anything.
This certainly isn’t every iyashikei anime out there, but they are definitely a decent sampling. If you have more iyashikei anime recommendations that you think people should watch, leave them in the comments section below.
Mushishi