15 Best Anime Like Gintama You Need to Watch in 2023
Gintama is a shōnen manga written and illustrated by Hideaki Sorachi. It was published from December 8, 2003 to June 20, 2019 and has a total of 77 volumes. In 2005, an OVA was produced that was followed by an anime series consisting of a total of 367 episodes; several other OVAs were produced subsequently, as well as three animated films respectively released in 2010, 2013 and 2021. The manga was a commercial success in Japan, with a total circulation exceeding 55 million copies. As you can see, it is obvious why Gintama is the topic of this article!
To honor the strange cuteness of KonoSuba, we have decided to compose a list of the best anime series like KonoSuba that every fan needs to see. The list is going to include a total of 15 different titles which resemble the KonoSuba anime in one way or the other.
1. Daily Lives of High School Boys
Original Run: January 9, 2012 – March 26, 2012
Number of Episodes: 12 + 6 specials
A trio of teenagers, Tadakuni, Hidenori, and Yoshitake, and their second A class live a very mundane everyday life. They attend the Sanada Nord high school, an establishment reserved exclusively for boys. Tadakuni, the main character, lives in a charming house with his younger sister and parents.
He wishes to have a companion like his two best friends, but his life is far from quiet because they often involve him in more than embarrassing situations and crazy plans, between his friends who constantly squat at his house, fittings of her sister’s female clothes, and their jealous classmates who can’t stand to see one of their own going out, or even talking with a girl.
2. Noragami
Original Run: January 5, 2014 – December 25, 2015
Number of Episodes: 25 + 4 OVAs
Hiyori Iki was a normal middle school student until she was rammed by a bus trying to save someone from being run over. The stranger wears a sports suit and a scarf and later turns out to be God Yato. This incident causes her to become half an ayakashi, a demon. When she meets Yato again and learns that he is a god, she asks him to help her get back to normal. But Yato recently lost his sacred weapon (shinki) – another supernatural being who serves a god and strengthens his power.
He is also only a very little-known and therefore weak god. When both are attacked by an Ayakashi, Yato chooses a boy’s ghost as the new Shinki and names him Yukine. This turns out to be a good weapon, but is very insecure and impetuous due to his early death. Even with Yukine’s help, Yato cannot help Hiyori at first. When he turns to Tenjin, god of education, he sees that his former weapon Mayu now serves him.
Yato’s friend Kofuku, goddess of poverty, and her Shinki Daikoku cannot help them either. The conflicts between Yato and Yukine, who does not feel valued and mourns his human life, increase. Eventually, Yukine starts stealing – since he’s already dead and none of the living notice him, he doesn’t care about their reactions or the damage. But every sin of Yukine carries over to Yato, who is more and more exposed to putrefaction. Still, he doesn’t want to punish Yukine.
3. KonoSuba
Original Run: January 14, 2016 – March 16, 2017
Number of Episodes: 20 (+ 2 OVA)
After an untimely and embarrassing death, Kazuma Satō, a Japanese hikikomori teenager, meets a goddess named Aqua, who offers him to reincarnate in a parallel world with MMORPG elements, where he can embark on adventure and combat. against monsters.
Although offered a divine item or overpowered ability to use in this new world, Kazuma, following a taunt from Aqua, chooses her to accompany him to Axel’s town, where he quickly finds that the latter’s lack of judgment is of little benefit to him.
4. KenIchi: The Mightiest Disciple
Original Run: October 7, 2006 – September 29, 2007
Number of Episodes: 50 (+ 11 OVA)
Kenichi Shirahama, also known as ken-chan or funuken (weak legs), is a 16-year-old high school student accustomed, to his greatest shame, to being the target of his classmates. His lack of experience and know-how in the art of fighting forces him to flee violence. One day, however, when he witnesses an old man being attacked by thugs, a new student, Fuurinji Miu, manages to defend the old man using martial arts techniques that Kenichi immediately wishes to learn.
For this, Miu will present him to his masters so that the young man can be trained. Unfortunately for him, the latter will not take gloves with him. But to his great surprise, the training he will undergo will allow him to make enormous progress in a short time. This will have unexpected consequences: all the gangs in the city (especially the most virulent, called Ragnarok) now want to fight Kenichi, who from his first fight, had a reputation as an experienced fighter.
He belongs to the “Katsujinken” style (just like his masters), which means: the fist that gives life, or the art of defeating his opponent by sparing his life, in order to calm his ardor and make him give up fighting, an ideal for overcoming violence and the urge to kill.
5. Cromartie High School
Original Run:
Number of Episodes:
Student Takashi Kamiyama transfers from his old school to Cromartie High School. This school is full of braggarts and troublemakers, each of whom wants to be the toughest in the school. Takashi is the best in school and wants to change his classmates for the better. He also writes jokes for a radio show under the pseudonym Honey Boy.
Later he wants to do the same professionally. In his plan to change the students, he soon gets support from the stupid Shinjiro Hayashida and the strong Akira Maeda. But he also encounters resistance. After some time, Takashi manages to secure the loyalty of most of the students and also defeats a legendary biker with the motorcycle.
6. Excel Saga
Original Run: October 7, 1999 – March 30, 2000
Number of Episodes: 26
Right after graduating from college, an exuberant and energetic young girl, Hanako Dosukoi, nicknamed Excel, finds work in the secret organization Across, whose goal of the only member (Il Palazzo, a parody dictator) is to enslave the world. Excel, madly in love with her master, works hard but ineffectually to help him take over the world (starting with F City, whose sewers house Across’ base).
It causes the accidental death of a worker from Colombia, Pedro, whose misfortunes will be told to us over the episodes. Excel is soon joined on her mission by Hayatt, an anemic princess from Mars, and Menchi, a little dog meant to serve as an emergency ration. With Hayatt also landed the Puchu, extraterrestrials as endearing as they are dangerous.
Their invasion of Earth fails, but many Puchus remain infiltrated into human society (and sewers). Note also the presence of Nabeshin, a mysterious man wearing an Afro haircut who always intervenes at the least expected moment, for no apparent reason.
7. Good Luck Girl!
Original Run: July 4, 2012 – September 26, 2012
Number of Episodes: 13
Ichiko Sakura is a 16-year-old high school girl who since birth has been blessed with great luck. This is due to the fact that her body contains an extraordinary amount of happiness energy, energy that she has the ability to drain to others without even knowing it, causing imbalance in the world. To remedy this, a goddess of misfortune, Momiji, is sent to the human world in order to recover and then redistribute the lucky energy that Ichiko steals in spite of herself.
8. Arakawa Under the Bridge
Original Run: April 4, 2010 – December 26, 2010
Number of Episodes: 26
Set in Arakawa (Tokyo), the story follows the adventures of Kou Ichinomiya, a man who accomplished everything on his own. Ever since he was little, his father taught him one rule: never be beholden to anyone. One day, following unfortunate events, he falls into the Arakawa River and finds himself on the verge of drowning.
A girl named Nino rescues him, and therefore saves his life. Seeking to no longer be indebted, but knowing that he owes her his life, he asks her how he can repay her debt, but nothing he offers interests her. In the end, she tells him that there would be one thing she would want: for him to fall in love with her, which is how Kou began to live under a bridge. Kou soon learns that Arakawa is a place full of freaks and that all the people living under the bridge are what society calls “denpasan”.
9. Mr. Osomatsu
Original Run: October 6, 2015 – March 30, 2021
Number of Episodes: 75 (+ 1 Special)
The six boys of the Matsuno family, sextuplets who spent their childhood doing mischief, have grown up and are now NEET young adults. Osomatsu is the “eldest”, surrounded by his five brothers: Karamatsu, Choromatsu, Ichimatsu, Jūshimatsu and Todomatsu.
They are often nicknamed “parasites” because they live off their parents. Now adults, will they have become wiser? The anime is a comical slice of life: it follows the life not only of the Matsuno family, but also of other characters such as Iyami or Hatabō.
10. Cuticle Detective Inaba
Original Run: January 4, 2013 – March 22, 2013
Number of Episodes: 12
The story revolves around Hiroshi Inaba, a part human and part wolf genetically modified. Inaba is also a private detective, who runs his agency with the help of his transvestite secretary, Yuuta, and his “mostly normal” teenage assistant Kei. The plot centers mainly on the gang trying to arrest Don Valentino, a mafia goat who produces fake money.
11. Rurouni Kenshin
Original Run: January 10, 1996 – September 8, 1998
Number of Episodes: 95
The story takes place in 1878 in Tokyo. Kenshin Himura, a former assassin nicknamed Battosaï, literally “master in the drawing of the sword”, during the time of the Tokugawa reign, hides a very heavy past. Become a wanderer since the establishment of the Meiji era, he travels the country equipped with his sword with an inverted blade, with the desire not to kill again.
12. SKET DANCE
Original Run: April 7, 2011 – September 27, 2012
Number of Episodes: 77 (+ 1 OVA)
At Kaimei Academy, a club made up of 3 students, the SKET (Support, Kindness, Encouragement, Troubleshoot) or “school life protectors club”, has set itself the goal of helping anyone who asks. Whatever their abilities, they will have a hard time with the funny fanatics who come to see them! And that’s without taking into account the student council, which takes a dim view of the activities, subversive in their eyes, of this club. Each chapter therefore focuses on a mission with regulars who return from time to time.
13. The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K.
Original Run: July 4, 2016 – December 28, 2018
Number of Episodes: 145 (+ 7 OVA)
Kusuo Saiki is a high school student who was born with all kinds of psychic abilities, including telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation, and many more. Despite having all these powers, Saiki faces endless difficulties and tries to keep as low a profile as possible. The story follows Saiki as he attempts to secretly use his powers to live a normal high school life while dealing with his less than ordinary classmates at P.K.
14. Beelzebub
Original Run: January 9, 2011 – March 25, 2012
Number of Episodes: 60 (+ 1 OVA)
Tatsumi Oga is a delinquent and student at Ishiyama High School. He is nicknamed “The Killer Ogre” or “Mad Oga” by the other students. One day, he sees a man floating on a river and decides to bring him back to shore and to his great surprise, this man’s body splits open. Out comes a baby with green hair, who happens to be the son of the Demon King, Kaiser de Emperana Beelzebub IV, nicknamed Beel.
Oga thus learns that he has been chosen to be his parent, and must therefore raise the baby until he is old enough to destroy Humanity. It is the servant and “mother” of the baby, Hildegarde, who, coming to meet him to try to take the baby back, reveals it to him, after seeing that Baby Beel did not want to let him go. Hilda tells him that he is bound by a contract with Beel, and informs him that he will die if they are more than 15 meters apart.
Unwilling to assume his paternal charge, and his responsibilities, Oga seeks to pass Baby Beel on to someone else, which he can do if that person is stronger and worse than him. Baby Beel would then attach to that person instead of Oga. Thus begins the story of Tatsumi Oga, “father” of the future Demon King and receptacle of his powers.
15. Full Metal Panic!
Original Run: January 8, 2002 – July 19, 2018
Number of Episodes: 61
The story begins on Earth in 2001. This is not the modern world as we know it. But rather a parallel world in which humanity has discovered what is called “Black Technology”. The analogy that exists between this term and that of black magic is not fortuitous. The population does not realize it, but the armament has reached a completely unimaginable technological level.
Only people of the previous generation are aware of the gap that has been crossed: mechs have appeared, military machines now have camouflage making them totally invisible, nuclear energy is outdated. As a result, the balance of the great powers has become very unstable, civil wars are propagating into violence, terrorism is developing at high speed, drug trafficking is multiplying.
The population is not aware of this, but chaos gradually sets in. To restore the balance, a para-military organization was founded, its name is Mithril. Benefiting from the latest discoveries in Black Technology and totally independent, she seeks to be the champion of justice. The story tells of an encounter between two characters against a science fiction background.
Chidori Kaname is a high school student. Smart, beautiful, responsible, she could be Miss Japan if she had a better character. She does not know it yet, but she is the target of terrorists interested in her “potential”. Sagara Sôsuke then intervenes, charged with two of his colleagues from Mithril to ensure the protection of Kaname. It’s up to him to pass himself off as a high school student, he who has never lived other than as a mercenary since his earliest childhood.
