And if you’re a fellow man or mam of culture, I’m sure you too have seen all the greatest hits, like KonoSuba, Saiki, and the Biblical retelling of Gintama. However, there are also a lot of hidden gems in the comedy community that you might have missed out on. Let’s take a look at some of these overlooked gems of humor that’ll keep you laughing.
10. Senyuu.
This series is extremely short and extremely sweet. It takes the basic formula of a hero’s descendant going out to defeat the demon king and runs it through the ground. The show makes fun of the trope so much that even the intro isn’t always consistent in the show, and is boiled down to a rough sketch. The characters are pretty ridiculous too. And the plot somehow feels tense, even though the absurdity level is through the roof. From the pedo knight to the manliest man to have ever been, the cast is truly something.
9. Isekai Quartet
Chibi shows are nothing new, with a lot of popular shows having their own version – most notably Attack on Titan. However, I found Isekai Quartet to be their champion. It’s like a giant inside joke between everyone in the isekai fandom. The show features four, and later five, top-tier isekai – and most of the humor derives from the interactions between the characters and references to their respective stories. You never know how much you want to see Subaru and Kazuma chill together until you see it.
8. Good Luck Girl!
A lot of newer fans might completely gloss over this show because it’s a tad old, having aired back around 2012. However, the show still holds up incredibly well. The premise is a bit bonkers: It features a protagonist who just drains the luck out of everyone around her, leading her to live a perfect life while the mortals suffer. This attracts the attention of a poverty goddess who’s in quite the different predicament, being that she’s playing this game on hard mode. The two often clash, and it honestly feels like a modern Tom and Jerry.
7. My Bride is a Mermaid
This show starts off quite generic, and then pulls one of the biggest 180s I have ever seen. So, a dude gets a cramp while swimming in the ocean and starts drowning. Okay. A mermaid shows up in the nick of time and save him. Sounds like a Disney movie right? But then you learn that the mermaid comes from a yakuza family, and that the protagonist must either marry her or be killed on the spot. That’s the type of twist you really cannot see coming.
6. I Can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying
Since we’re already on the topic of marriage, let’s put forth some wholesomeness. This show is all about a very unlikely married couple where the husband is a die-hard otaku, and his wife is the go get-em business woman. I initially thought that the series would boil down to just making fun of otaku culture. But it honestly has so much more to offer. With great personalities in the cast and pretty mundane situations made extravagant, the show just oozes funny bone material.
5. Saint☆Young Men
If you ever wanted a South Park episode that dealt with religion, but also won’t get you banned from church and is subsequently an anime, look no further. This show depicts Jesus and Buddha having a vacation on Earth and chilling out in Tokyo as roommates. If that alone doesn’t sell you on the show, I don’t know what will. It has plenty of subtle jokes for you religious folks to chuckle over, but also some more broad comedic elements, so everyone can have some fun.
4. Kemono Michi: Rise Up
A lot of anime typically has some iconic scene that eventually sells me on the entire show. For Grand Blue, that scene was as simple as a dude opening and closing the door. And in Kemono Michi, it was a dude suplexing a chick who just transported him into a different world. Yes, it’s an isekai – but it is far from anything I have even watched before. Not only is the dude a wrestler, but his main motivation in life is to open a pet shop. So many curve balls in this plot.
3. Plastic Neesan
So Plastic Neesan is one of the shortest anime of all time. And it is absolute insanity from start to finish. Basically, just imagine a ridiculous high school anime like Asobi Asobase, and then take everything that’s not a joke out of the runtime – and you’ll get Plastic Neesan. Everything here is chaotic, nothing is explained, and it somehow really keeps your attention. This is also wonderful if you’re doing a “try not to laugh” challenge with your buddies. From the bra-wearing vigilante to the cannon hat general, this show is what I imagined drugs to looks like.
2. To Be Hero
Here’s another anime series that’s just as weird as the last one, to be honest. I guess absurd comedy just gets me. To Be Hero is about a good looking plumber dude who really likes picking on women. But then the gods of feminism punish him and turn him fat and ugly after dragging him through a toilet pipe. But, since they didn’t want to be too rude, he also has superpowers now, of course. Even after watching it, it’s really hard to piece together exactly how this chain of events ever happened in this manner – but who really cares, we’re here for the laughs.
1. Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious
I know I’ve thrown a lot of isekai shows on here, but I simply have to mention Cautious Hero. It truly is a gem. It gives off very strong KonoSuba vibes in all of the best ways, and even has a fairly decent story that might make you shed a tear or two by the end. And in case you haven’t figured out the plot from the title, it’s about a dude who gets transported into a different world to become a hero – however, he’s extremely cautious. How cautious is he? Blowing up an entire village to make sure that a slime monster is dead. You know, that level of cautious.
