Not all anime is easy to watch, and not because they’re bad. But because they have elements to them they can make things more complex.
So an easy anime has to fit these criteria:
- Simple.
- Straightforward.
- No hidden messages.
- Follows a logical order.
- Plot that’s easy to follow.
- Short series (not always).
And an anime that doesn’t require focus to understand what is happening.
Let’s talk about those easy types of anime to start watching.
Easiest anime shows to start watching:
1. Hitoribocchi
A simple slice of life anime series about an introverted girl who after starting at a new school, is determined to make NEW friends.
This is part of a promise she made to her best friend that she tries to make new friends once her new school life begins.
Of course, unlike her friend, she isn’t as social or confident but she tries anyway. And the anime portrays these struggles in a comedic fashion, making it also relatable and easy to follow.
Related: The Mount Rushmore Of Slice Of Life Anime (Recommended)
2. Quintessential Quintuplets
For a harem anime series, Quintessential Quintuplets is an anime that many harems can learn a lot from.
First of all, it’s simple, which is not surprising, but it’s also high quality, and entertaining, and it chooses to focus on each Quintuplet at a pace that can be appreciated.
While the attention is on Uesugi, the MC, he too gets plenty of character development and evolves into more than the typical harem MC the industry is used to seeing.
It’s an easy anime to watch, and an even easier harem series to enjoy.
3. Flying Witch
Flying Witch is exactly that. A girl who is a witch who can fly, but is sent to the countryside to live with family as part of her witch training.
She’s 16 years old. Her rname is Makoto Kowata. She has a sister called Akane, and a “cute” little cousin called Chinatsu.
If a slice of life interests you, this is one of the more relaxing, laid back, chilled, and wholesome ones you’ll ever come across.
No forced comedy, no unnecessary scenes, just purity, serenity, and relaxation like nothing else the industry has offered (not in droves).
4. Black Lagoon
Black Lagoon has a black male lead called Dutch. He runs the lagoon company.
The female lead of the show is Revyy Rebecca, who works for Dutch, but is also the character to steal the spotlight and is essentially a protagonist because of it.
As a Chinese American, she was abused by Police Officers growing up and ended up in the underworld of smuggling.
She’s nicknamed Two Hands because of her obsession with carrying two pistols and excelling at the use of twin pistols in shootouts.
The anime is produced by Madhouse Studios!
5. Mayonaka Punch
Mayonaka Punch is a 2024 original anime series produced by P.A Works. They’re known for Sakura Quest, Charlotte, among other anime shows.
Masaki was a star YouTuber but becomes a nobody after getting kicked out of her group for her attitude.
Lonely, frustrated, angry, and desperate, she does everything in her power to become famous again and to make a YouTube channel that’s successful. This leads to her meeting a group of vampires of all people, who then form a group “Mayonaka Punch”.
The anime, aside from its emotional storytelling and backstories, is about reaching 1 million subscribers on YouTube and the journey of getting there.
It’s relatable for creators in the 21st century, especially as of 2024 and beyond.
6. Redo Of Healer
Redo Of Healer is one of the simplest anime shows out there, and one that is easy to watch (ignoring the brutality if that bothers you).
That’s because the anime is about revenge, which is a concept everyone understands.
The MC is r*ped, abused, drugged, gang banged, tortured, enslaved, and every other bad thing you can do to a human, let alone a teenager.
After finding a way to redo time, he seeks revenge and achieves it in the most savage ways imaginable.
Ticking off his blacklist of abusers who ruined his life, one by one.
7. Fairy Tail
Fairy Tail is about wizards and their Guild “Fairy Tail”. It’s as simple as that.
Along the way, they fight, laugh, cry, have fun, suffer, struggle, and do their best to live life to the best of their ability.
They do it all together as a group, and what unites them is the source of inspiration for many, or a source of envy, jealousy, and competition for others.
The anime’s common theme is “the power of friendship” which literally gives the many mages of this series real power in the form of magic.
8. I Parry Everything
Noor is the MC. As a kid, he trains relentlessly. More so than any normal person his age would be doing.
He’s driven, dedicated, and a workaholic.
The problem is he doesn’t see himself to be anything amazing like others. He’s modest to a fault and painfully humble.
And even more painfully naive and dense.
Still, his hard work allows him to surpass his wildest expectations despite him sometimes not realizing it.
It’s a story of hard work and not having any immediate or flashy talents that help others get ahead quickly.
All with some comedy sprinkled in and enjoyable, if not repetitive (and simple) action depending on how you see it.
9. K-On
K-On is about 5 girls. The first is Yui Hirasawa, the airhead, a fearless risk-taker who prioritizes her happiness and having fun over everything else.
She’s the source of the anime’s humour.
There is Ritsu Tainaka, who is like the YIN to Yui’s Yang. Mischievous, sarcastic, and loves to wind others up.
Tsumugi Kotobuki is the “rich girl” who eats cakes, drinks tea, and brings these things to school with a different one for a different day for her friends.
Mio Akiyama is an introvert who is hard-working, serious, and strict, but sometimes nervous.
Then there is Azusa Nakano, the other introvert who despite her age has strong leadership skills and compliments Mio’s personality in a lot of ways.
All of these girls make music together, drink tea together, eat cakes, and live their lives while in college and end up graduating together.
10. Violet Evergarden
Violet Evergarden is an orphan groomed into a military soldier. After the war, she searches for meaning.
She finds the answers while writing for others to make a living, helping people write out their feelings on paper to those they struggle to convey their emotions to (kids, family, partners, etc).
It’s an emotional series from start to finish with many relatable stories.
11. Mitsuboshi Colors
Imagine you’re a kid and you have a group of friends under the age of 10. You all have the goal of protecting your city, and you make the effort to do it in the mind of a child who sees the world in ways most adults can’t comprehend.
This is what Mitsuboshi Colors is. It’s a wholesome anime about kids going on adventures in the city, and their innocence while doing so.
Related: 15 Appropriate Anime Shows For Kids And Young Teenagers
12. Love Live School Idol Project
Love Live is an anime about idols. School girls who pursue becoming idols that is.
Honoka Kousaka the oranged haired MC starts it off by recruiting members, asking friends, and pestering as many people as she can to join her and form the group “U’s” (pronounced “Muse”).
In total, there ends up being 9 members, and this series and the following seasons have followed this pattern but with new sets of characters. Making this franchise one that has been milked for all of its popularity.
Still, it’s a good series and one that is easy to watch and follow.
13. Date A Live
Date A Live is an anime series about saving girls. Those girls are “saved” by a kiss from the main character Shido Itsuka, conveniently.
It’s an ecchi and a harem series. It doesn’t get any more simple and easy than this.
The anime has 5 seasons and the franchise is very successful following this model, with the odd twists and turns along the way.
14. High School Of The Dead
Another ecchi and harem anime series, but this time under the guise of a HORROR series with action scenes and killer zombies.
While the characters fight off sometimes, there are convenient camera angles of women’s skirts flying up while being chased, panty shots while killing zombies, and every other ridiculous camera angle and scenario you can imagine.
Still, it’s gone on to become a successful and straightforward anime series despite the death of the author which may have limited its progress.
15. Food Wars
Food Wars is about exactly that. Wars but with food at the forefront. Characters battle it out with cookouts among chefs of all ages and skill sets.
Soma Yukihira takes it to the big leagues in an attempt to improve his skills and rise up the ranks to challenge and better himself.
The only difference in this anime is when the food tastes too good to be true, clothes start flying off to exaggerate how good it feels, adding fanservice to the mix from both genders.
16. How Heavy Are The Dumbbells You Lift?
An ecchi anime series focused on workouts, the gym, and women working out in the gym trying to lose weight or maintain it.
As well as a hilarious fitness teacher and lots of camera angles for both genders.
This is the anime you don’t take seriously and enjoy to the fullest while genuinely learning about gym life, fitness, losing weight, calories, techniques, and more that are legitimate and far from fictional.
So it can be applied in real life.
Stream your favourite Hentai and play adult anime games when you gain access to the FULL library of content.
17. Plus Sized Elf
As the name implies, many elves who are overweight exist in this world. They end up on earth and can’t go back (one in particular) until she loses weight so she can fit inside the gate to her world.
But she’s an addict of course, so once she loses the weight after working with a personal trainer, she ends up back in the same position.
Other elf girls have different issues despite the overarching theme focusing on their weight in general.
Lots of camera angles, and surprisingly good humour considering what this anime would look like if it were written by Westerners (thankfully not).
18. My Wife Has No Emotion
The main character has given up on dating, sadly, despite only failing with ONE woman who seems to have hurt him deeply.
After this event, he decides to hire a housemaid in the form of a robot of course. This robot becomes the new lover of the MC’s life in a sad yet entertaining twist of events and storytelling.
In some aspects, it’s wholesome and comedic, but the motivation and the point of this series speaks to what could happen in reality in as little as 10 or 20 years (2030 and beyond).
19. Chainsaw Man
Chainsaw Man speaks for itself. That is who the anime is about and who it focuses on.
Denji is a kid who grows up in circumstances he could never have asked for, like most people. His father left debt behind not before killing himself. Now Denji is forced to sell a kidney and do other unsavoury things to survive.
He seems lucky when he escapes that life, only to end up now being the lapdog of Makima, who seems neutral but has her sinister ways and is mysterious.
Denji’s life can be summed up as having to rely on others based on the difference in power between himself and the person “taking care of him”.
The anime’s larger image is about devils and eliminating them to protect the peace, and it’s pretty straightforward despite the underbelly of the series.
20. Naruto
Naruto is another self explanatory series. Naruto Uzumaki is a kid who has a demon inside him from birth, and this is the reason he experiences so much discrimination and prejudice for no fault of his own.
The anime is about his journey to becoming Hokage, as he claims he wants to achieve, and the man he becomes in the process.
One who chooses peace over war, and has enough empathy to abandon pride and ego in the process in order to achieve it and persuade others.
21. Demon Slayer
Tanjiro loses his family after demons slaughter them one day while he is away from home. His sister is the only survivor, but now she has become a demon as well somehow.
Tanjiro swears to protect Nezuko, and to turn her into a human and holds onto this belief while travelling with Nezuko who has a muzzle for his safety.
The anime is simple, the motivation is wholesome, and it’s easy to watch.
22. The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K
Saiki K is born a psychic, hence the anime’s play on the word psychic with “Saiki”.
He wants to be left alone, but that becomes hard in his school life. He claims to not wanna bother others or be in their business but will go out of his way to help others indiscriminately.
Saiki is the average teenager with immense supernatural powers, navigating his way through the world in a way that’s relatable and too funny to not laugh hysterically as each episode passes by.
23. My Bride Is A Mermaid
Nagasumi Michishio falls into the ocean, almost drowning, and is saved by a maid who is also the family of Yakuza.
To save Nagasumi, Sun Seto (the mermaid) gets engaged to deter her family from killing Nagasumi.
The whole anime is a parody but in the context of a romance, a real romance, with lots of references and name-dropping.
24. Hell Girl
Hell Girl at 12AM is summoned by those who ask for her help once it hits midnight. The purpose? If you summon Hell Girl, she will send your enemies or those you dislike straight to hell.
Except there is a price to pay. By doing the deed, it also means the person committing the act will also go to hell the day they die, whenever that may be.
The anime’s concepts are simple: revenge isn’t cheap and it doesn’t come for free. There are consequences to your actions, and this anime highlights them in the most vile and sometimes cruel ways possible.
25. The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really Love You
As the title implies, this anime is about multiple girlfriends or better yet, polygamous relationships.
It doesn’t get any more simple and straightforward as that. Easy to follow and understand, making it one of the easiest animes to start watching.
26. In Another World With My Smartphone
Mochizuki Touya dies and is reborn in another world. He is killed accidentally by God, who then gives Touya his personal phone number and a special smartphone to not just contact God, but also use special powers in the new world he finds himself in.
The intro is hilarious, and the anime’s plot is simplistic.
The MC dates multiple women, making it one of the most literal harems out there.
27. Ascendance Of A Bookworm
Myne, as she’s called in the new world after death, was originally working in a bookshop until one day a ton of books fell off the bookshelf, crushing and killing her in the process.
It’s a pathetic death, to say the least.
She has one goal in the new world: to pursue her passion for books as the bookworm she is. And so she makes products like moisturizers, hairclips, and more that her current world is unaware of.
With the help of an entrepreneur called Benno, she’s able to sell these products faster and to a wider market, but other troubles are brewing in her life related to a certain church.
28. Attack On Titan
Attack On Titan is a direct and literal name. It’s about the ATTACK on the Titans who are terrorising the people.
Humans vs Titans, fighting for their own existence and survival. But the anime’s plot thickens as each season passes by, becoming even more surprising than the last, and also tying up loose ends.
Still, it’s simple enough and is one of the easiest anime shows to get into.
The visuals are nice and are among the most unique art designs seen in the industry.
29. Sword Art Online
When the VR world is turned upside down and players are now forced to fight for their survival, to the point where if they die in the game they die in real life, it’s easy to see why everyone starts going rogue.
This is the main plot of SAO and is easy to follow despite its many seasons. It gets only slightly more complicated with Alicization (3rd season).
Everyone has an opinion of SAO, but it can’t be denied that it’s an easy anime to get into.
30. Gunsmith Cats
This short anime franchise (not the manga, that one is longer) is only 3 episodes long or so.
It’s about a bounty hunter called Rally Vincent, and a “bomb girl” called Minnie May Hopkins.
They work together. Rally owns a gun shop in Chicago, USA, where it’s based.
Gunfights, missions, action, and relatable moments. The anime is simply about the lives of its main characters in a realistic world involving guns, police, and those in the underworld.
–
Recommended:
12 Anime Girls Who Would Make A Good Air Hostess In Real Life
