12 Anime Series to Cheer You Up When You Are Feeling Down

Usagi Drop

There is a huge lack of anime about parenting out there. Typically, most parents are drama fodder, ending up dead or absent. However, Usagi Drop gives you a heart-warming look at family, even if that family is made up between a man and a child that is technically his aunt. After a bachelor agrees to take in his grandfather’s illegitimate daughter, you get to see the pair overcome grief and all the hurdles and sacrifices that come with adjusting to life with a small child. It’s hard, but it is rewarding. If nothing else, it will show you how to savor the small moments.

Just don’t read the manga. Things get weird. Not Kodomo no Jikan or Boku No Pico weird, but pretty bad.

Haganai

If a harem and some fan service is not your shtick, Haganai can be nothing short of grating. However, if you are a fan who can look past that and the insane antics of an increasingly strange cast of characters, there is a nice little show in there about people who weren’t born quite right. It is about people who can’t make friends for one reason or another, but yet they persevere through the loneliness and keep at it.

Ghost Stories

^ A legitimate line in the dub.

The enjoyment of this anime is strictly limited to watching only the dub. At some point, someone wondered how to make a relatively sub-standard anime more likable to foreign audiences, and the Ghost Stories dub is the result. Ghost Stories is about, well, ghost stories, or rather a group of kids sealing a bunch of ghosts that were let loose around their school. However, they ended up turning it into a comedy by not taking the show quite so serious.

It’s hard to explain, but the dub is a show that will have you rolling around with laughter if you let it. It also helps that you can really hear the voice actors having fun with it, and that is something that doesn’t shine through in many series.

It is easier to understand if you just watch it for a spell.

Nichijou

Nichijou is simple in every possible way, from animation to story. It follows the daily lives of three high school girls. Throughout its run, it blends simple slice of life stories that are accented with something innately strange, like the principal suplexing a deer or getting bitten by a talking crow. It is the simplicity combined with the big dash of unpredictability that makes Nichijou so much fun to watch.

Let’s be completely candid for a second, though. If you are feeling sad, the opening song is enough cheer you up all on its own.

Silver Spoon

You know how you would never want to play a game about farming like Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley, but then you play it and it becomes your whole life for awhile? Silver Spoon is like that. You really don’t see yourself liking an anime about farming, but then you start and you can’t stop laughing and suddenly feel like you are ready for whatever hard work the world throws at you. Aside from being charmed by the bright, vibrant setting and quirky cast of characters, Silver Spoon will also give you a brief, but accurate glimpse into where your food comes from too.

Welcome to the NHK

Welcome to the NHK is a tricky recommendation. The anime is actually about depression and is rather black in its comedy about it. For some, it gives them hope. For others, it makes things worse. It is all about how you look at it, I suppose. However, for those that have issues with anxiety, I highly recommend it. It may give you a new outlook on how to deal with it through a character so relatable it is like looking at yourself in a mirror.

B Gata H Kei

The anime community really has a stick up its rear end about fan service and too many perverted situations in an anime, but you can’t really fault a series for it when pervert situations are its entire plot, right? If perverted situations make you laugh, this is the series to watch. It is about a girl that wants to sleep with 100 guys in high school, but first has to lose her virginity. While the premise sounds super slutty, B Gata H Kei actually turns into a rather sweet love story, but not without some laughs along the way.

Barakamon

Now you know where this picture comes from.

The premise of Barakamon alone will not win anyone over. In fact, it sounds downright boring. It is about a calligraphy artist that moves to a rural town in order to get his artistic inspiration back and get endlessly pestered by kids. There is no love triangle, no giant mechs, and, from the beginning to the end, nothing much changes at all. However, it is one of those perfect slice of life anime series that you turn on when you want to relax and have a few laughs. It is one of those series that you watch when you forget that regular life can sometimes be enough of a story.

Did we miss one of your favorite anime series that always cheers you up and puts you right? Don’t keep it a secret. Share it with the world in the comments section below.