Much like its characters, Aggretsuko is an odd animal in the world of anime. Focused on the daily life and tribulations of Retsuko and her friends, the series forgoes grandiose plot points for more grounded conflicts like getting along with coworkers, coping with the daily grind and how to get out of a stagnant relationship. It’s for this reason, though, that the series has struck such a good chord with fans and quickly become a favorite for the Spring 2018 season. Being a shorter series, it’s understandable that people will want something like it to fill the void once the last episode has been streamed. To that end, we’ve got five anime like Aggretsuko if you’re looking for something similar.
Wagnaria!!
Sometimes, the place you work can bring you some of the best adventures life has to offer. Or at least, that’s the case for the staff of the Wagnaria restaurant. Following the high schooler Souta Takahashi, the series shows their daily hijinks as they try to hold down a job, deal with coworkers, and make their way through life’s daily pitfalls and challenges. It won’t be long before viewers find themselves sucked wholeheartedly into the lives of these characters, and with three seasons available to watch, there’s plenty of time to be spent with them.
Detroit Metal City
Retsuko isn’t the only anime character with a heavy metal soul. An aspiring pop star by day and an accomplished death metal singer by night, Soichi Negishi finds himself drawn into regular dilemmas by his split personas. Along the way, he learns to harness who he really is to make progress in his daily life, even if that means unloading a can of unbridled death metal howls every now and again.
While the series can get a bit out there, its irreverence and satirical take on achieving one’s dreams is a blast to watch. Plus, with bite-sized episodes of only 13 minutes each, it’s easy to plow through this series in only a few hours.
Daily Lives of High School Boys
For Sanada North High School students Hidenori, Yoshitaki, and Tadakuni, every day holds its own opportunities for untold fortunes and inevitable catastrophes. From being enamored by girls in squirts to trying to tell the perfect ghost story to scare each other, their days are filled with plenty of excitement, even if they always end up right where they started and have to do it all over again.
While it might not be as relatable as the daily grind of a job, the lives of these goofball students always manages to elicit a smile somewhere along the way. Plus, as their plans and schemes only become stranger throughout its 20 episode run, the number of chances you’ll have to fall in love with the characters (and love seeing them face-plant in their misadventures) will only continue to grow.
Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO)
The titular protagonist Eikichi Onizuka is far from the ideal teacher. A perpetual screw-up and former gang member motivated by his libido far more often than his heart, he only got into teaching as a way to pick up women who respect educators. And yet, as he begins to navigate his way through the bureaucracy and challenges of teaching and raising students, he soon finds that he’s the perfect person to get through to the troubled youth of his class so that they don’t repeat the same mistakes he did. Full of laugh-out-loud comedic moments and tear-jerking payoffs in equal measure, this series is more than worthy of the reputation it has maintained over the years and is a great time for anyone willing to give it a try.
Kemono Friends
It’s still kind of amazing how big of a hit this show ended up being. Set in zoo where a strange substance has caused the animals to metamorphize into half-human, half-animal hybrids in search of adventure and friendship, it quickly established itself as one of the most adorable (and instantly beloved) series of the Winter 2017 season. Its popularity even extended past the human race, with one character becoming a favorite of the penguin Grape at Japan’s Kumamoto City Zoo and driving zoo tourism around the country.
Fluff stories aside, the show nails the same sense of endearing cuteness that Aggretsuko does, and is sure to put a smile on the face of anyone who watches it. If you need something to lighten your mood, don’t pass up on this excellent show.
Know of some other great shows like Aggretsuko that are worth watching? Let us know in the comments below, and check out some of our other great anime content.
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