One thing I hear from a lot of J-List customers is that anime can have a positive influence on their mental well-being, in some cases being the thing that enables them to get through the next days, weeks, or anime seasons. There’s a specific genre of anime known as iyashi-kei or “healing” anime that seems tailor-made to help fans feel better inside, whether it’s watching cute girls do cute things in a moe slice-of-life, telling stories totally free from stress or conflict, or just taking us away to a better place for a few episodes. Let’s explore these relaxing anime series in this post!
The Best “Relaxing Anime” Shows To Heal Us!
I know whenever a post gets hundreds of replies that I’ve hit on a subject anime fans are really passionate about. Here are the top anime that our followers on Facebook and Twitter suggested as outstanding series to watch when you need to relax and unwind mentally!
(Of course, this is a post about relaxing anime series J-List customers wanted to share with everyone. Anime should not be used as a substitute for the real support mechanisms we should all be building into our lives.)
The cute-girls-doing-cute-things genre is always great to unwind with after a long day at school or work, and one fans really embraced was Kin’iro Mosaic, about two British girls who come to live in Japan. It’s basically Lucky Star with cultural jokes, and I love it.
There are many series in this genre, and another that fans have really enjoyed is Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka?, a play on the phrase gochuumon wa ikaga desu ka? or “What would you like to order?” It’s all pointless, with no story or plot or character development…just cute girls running a coffee shop.
Sometimes the simplest concepts can become great anime to unwind with. One show J-List customers really love is Flying Witch, a slice-of-life show about witches living in Japan’s Tohoku region. They don’t really do anything but interact with each other and get in some farming, but it’s such a great show.
On the other hand, sometimes an incredibly complex story can become something fun to relax with, like the long journey we’ve been on with Rimiru, the Japanese salaryman who dies and gets reincarnated as an endlessly powerful slime in a magical world. The story of all that Rimuru achieves with the various kingdoms around him is fun to watch unfold.
Having characters we know and love come back to us after a sad event is great for healing, and one relaxing anime we can’t get enough of is Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. My blog post on the return of Kobayashi-san and all her dragon friends is here!
The anime that made otakus want to google how two girls have sex in a tent get out and experience camping in winter was Yuru Camp🏕, aka Laid-Back Camp, the story of Rin, Nadeshiko, Aio, Ena, and Chiaki as they learned about camping together.
Another legendary relaxing anime was Konohana Kitan, about lesbian foxgirls living in a stylized traditional Japanese city. Did “lesbian foxgirls” make you want to watch it?
Anime studios think anime fans want super-heroic battles in our “virtual-game-as-isekai” anime, but sometimes we just want to watch a cute girl who’s afraid of taking damage win the game by maxing out her defensive stats.
We take slice-of-life anime for granted these days, but without the great Azumanga Daioh to show the industry the way, we might not have ever gotten all the other series to enjoy.
Can a show filled with endless ecchi jokes be a relaxing anime? If it’s something you can turn your brain off and enjoy in a totally stress-free way, sure. That’s exactly what SYD offers us.
The #SuperCub #SuperCubAnime takes such care to recreate the sounds of riding a Honda Cub, it’s worth watching with headphones on. When Kogura can’t get her bike started because she didn’t know about the spare tank, the sounds really heighten the drama. pic.twitter.com/qQUUuAVXbd
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) April 12, 2021
One extremely popular series from earlier in 2021 was Super Cub, the story of a girl who has a ho-hum boring life, until she buys a 50 cc Honda motorcycle and is suddenly free to travel anywhere she wants. The series makes use of sounds, allowing you to imagine what it would be like to start up your Honda Super Cub, click it into first gear then ride off.
You’ve had a rough day at work! Why not lay your tired head onto the lap of the Helpful Fox Senko-san, and let her clean your ears for you?
(This #ASMR clip is best watched with headphones on.) pic.twitter.com/xmtj7RdmBL
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) September 20, 2021
The anime that made us all want to be pampered by 800-year-old fox dieties was The Helpful Fox Senko-san. After each episode was a short POV episode that let us interact with Senko-san from the POV of Nakano, her human companion.
Thanks for reading this post on the best relaxing anime that are so good, you could almost use them in place of therapy. Did we miss your favorite “healing” anime series? Post it below, or tell us on Twitter!
We love Japan because there are so many wonderful products for us to find and post to the site for you. Recently we’ve been on a tear posting sexy photobooks with top-name JAV actresses, like Mei Miyajima or Mizuki Amane, or Moe Amatsuka. Browse them all here!
