I Like Azumanga Dioh. What Can You Give Me?

[SacremPyrobolum]

I found Azumanga Dioh charming I think mostly due to it focusing solely on the girls. There was no real fanservice, there was no stupid love plot, there were no enemies that were confronted conveniently in ascending order of power so that the girls could level up until they were powerful enough to confront the big bad, there was only this group of friends getting into hilarious situations with one another.

Can you recommend anything like that?

 

[[Kira Must Die]]

While I haven't seen Azumanga Daioh, you can try Nichijou, which people say is similar.

 

[Super Cyborg]

Another one you might like is Lucky Star then. The animation is very different from Azumanga, but it's the same type of thing. A group of friends that are all girls that talk about random stuff and do random things. I've never seen Azumanga myself, but from your description, it seems like you would like Lucky Star. They do make references to other shows, so if you may not get all the jokes, which happened to me as well. There is no fan service, no love plot, and no fighting people for the fate of something.

 

[Nouw]

I recommend reading Yotsuba, another slice-of-life manga by the same guy. It's about the titular young girl and her everyday life in the countryside. It is amazing.

 

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

I second both Nichijou (anime) and Yotsuba! (manga). I also want to recommend Aria The Animation, which is similarly conflict-free and lighthearted, though it focuses less on comedy and more on being, for the lack of a better word, endearing.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Nichijou definately.

It has a similar "lazy sunday afternoon" feeling to it, as well as the same type of off-beat sense of humor. Probably has the best voice acting I've ever seen in an anime, and dispite the simplistic art style the animation is incredible. Some of the most amazing animation you'll see in the show is dedicated to a pricipal trying (and failing) to catch a deer in the school courtyard.

It's extremely random though. So much so that you can almost get the the same exprerience just watching clips on youtube.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Another one you might like is Lucky Star then. The animation is very different from Azumanga, but it's the same type of thing. A group of friends that are all girls that talk about random stuff and do random things. I've never seen Azumanga myself, but from your description, it seems like you would like Lucky Star. They do make references to other shows, so if you may not get all the jokes, which happened to me as well. There is no fan service, no love plot, and no fighting people for the fate of something.

Lucky Star is the only one that really comes to my mind that's similar to Azumanga Dioh. I want to say K-On may also be a good fit but from what I remember of it, there's a firmer grounding in reality instead of being too silly. I think there's also an emphasis on music/their school's band...I could be wrong though, it's been a while since I've checked out K-On.

 

[Pinkamena]

]While I haven't seen Azumanga Daioh, you can try Nichijou, which people say is similar.

I watched Nichijou right after Azumanga. The similarities are striking, but Nichijou is more random. Don't know which I preferred, probably nichi.

 

[mjharper]

I'll second or third or whatever Lucky Star, Aria, and Yotsuba!. Haven't seen Nichijou, so can't comment. Will have to check it out.

That being said, all these are still rather different to Azumanga Daioh. I went into Lucky Star expecting it to be "like Azumanga Daioh" and it took a while to adjust. It's at once more bizarre and more mundane. And the show changed director after the first four episodes because it wasn't quite working, which probably didn't help.

 

[thePyro_13]

I felt that School Rumble was pretty similar, in both theme and style of humour.

Though it does pretend that their is a love plot, not that it ever moves.

 

[AntiChri5]

K-On!

A tad more grounded and realistic then Azumanga and the girls have musical instruments they occasionally play. But other then that it's pretty much exactly the same.

 

[Queen Michael]

K-On! is pretty darn good, and is definitely worth checking out. I liked it so much I bought the entire series.

 

[SecondPrize]

I'll give you the non anime answer as I don't know shit about those other than Azumanga and Cromartie High. It's Seinfeld.

 

[Wakey87]

I personly didn't like Nichijou or lucky star, I would defently recomend reading Yotsuba tho as it was by the same guy.

Yuru Yuri is a light hearted moe slice of life and despite the title there is no real romantic plot other than ones played for comedy value (like Kaori and Sakaki)

Squid Girl and Kill me Baby are pretty good nonsense comedys without any of that stuff you mentioned.

 

[Ishigami]

Excel Saga

The classic. Wins every contest by default:

Puni Puni Poemy

Spin off series to Excel Saga. Nuff said.

Those Who Hunt Elves

A tank for every situation.

 

[Little Woodsman]

I recommend reading Yotsuba, another slice-of-life manga by the same guy. It's about the titular young girl and her everyday life in the countryside. It is amazing.

I'll definitely throw in another recommendation for Yotsuba, though I would say that it focuses more on adorable than comedic.
I'd also suggest You're Under Arrest!, it is a cop show, but these cops are much more focused on the hijinks that make up their daily lives, interacting with the normal people of the community, stopping a hazardous driver who is a grandmother on a motor-scooter, trying to stop the vigilante actions of a nut-bar who dresses in a baseball uniform and cape and goes around throwing baseballs at litterbugs and jaywalkers, and the surprisingly well-handled story of how a cross-dresser in their department is struggling for societal acceptance.
These police, BtW are the traffic division, I think there's one shoot-out over the course of the (very) long series. They do have occasional dramatic episodes, but I found those really enjoyable as well.

Oh, and I almost forgot Super Gals! The "super" in the title is a reference to how deeply they are immersed in "Gal" culture. (Google it.) But they are "normal" high school girls who have comedic hijinks. There are a few serious issues addressed briefly in the series, but it's mostly over the top comedy.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Allow me to give you two good reasons to watch Nichijou(don't worry; this show is so random, it's impossible to actually spoil)

 

[William Fleming]

I recommend giving both "2x2 = Shinobuden" (yes that's the actual title which is meant to be a Japanese pun) and "Servant x Service" a shot, if it least for the first few episodes.

Shinobuden is about a girl training to become a ninja but its mostly just her messing around with her friend and ninja clan. Unfortunately, I can't find any good clips for the show. This show does have some bits of fanservice however.

Servant x Service is about a group of people working as civil servants with their boss being a remote control bunny (no I am not making that up).


Another one which I have been meaning to getting around to is "Daily Lives of Highschool Boys". Sure it's centred around guys but it still seems to have the same kind of comedy in all honesty.

It's Spanish (I think its Spanish anyway) subs but it's the only clip I could find of this moment but basically the girl walks away on the train when a guy sits next her making them feel like crap. And then one of the main characters follows her and when she turns around to ask him out, he just walks off to make her feel the same way.

Another series I just remembered is "Non Non Biyori", I haven't watched it myself but from what I hear; its kind of relaxing in a way with no real fanservice and just a few girls living in the Japanese countryside. So if you ever feel stressed out... watching this series supposedly helps.

 

[sextus the crazy]

+1 for Nichijou. Everyone else has sad what needs to be said about it.

Also, It doesn't exactly have many girls in it, but Cromartie highschool is a blast to watch, and it otherwise fits the sort of show you're looking for. Watch it in dub; much of the humor is visual and the dub sounds like a (good) abridged series of itself.

Spoiler: cromartie high