16 Wholesome Anime That Feel Like A Warm Hug
Vote up the comfort anime that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.
If you're having a bad day, sometimes the best thing you can do to cheer yourself up is watch a wholesome anime.
Some of these anime are fully adorable, with few if any sad parts. If you watch Laid-Back Camp, you won't have to worry about much outside of the dangers of not setting up your camping equipment properly. Others tackle some tough subjects like abuse, anxiety, death, and bullying, but handle them in a way that feels hopeful and emotionally fulfilling. For instance, the protagonists in Buddy Daddies are hitmen with dark pasts, and the little girl they adopt comes from a troubled background, but together they make a loving and supportive family.
Which of these shows charm you the most?
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- Spy x Family
- Wit Studio, CloverWorks
An elite government spy known as Twilight receives a mission that requires him to get close to a reclusive politician. The only way to do that is through his son, who goes to an elite private school. But in order to get anywhere near that school, he needs to have a child of his own enrolled, and he needs to be married.
He winds up fake-married to an assassin named Yor and adopting a little girl named Anya who can read minds. All three are keeping secrets from one another, and their family is “fake” but they can't help acting like a family and caring about one another anyway.
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- Buddy Daddies
- P.A. Works
A story about two hitmen doesn't exactly seem like prime wholesome material, but if those hitmen end up adopting a little girl and finding purpose and meaning in their lives for the first time, it's a bit different. That's what Buddy Daddies is all about. What makes it great is that both Kazuki and Rei genuinely become better people because they're raising Miri.
Another great thing is that Miri's personality is so realistic. Watching her, it's easy to think of kids you may know in your personal life - and it might even evoke some nostalgia about your own childhood.
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Subaru Mikazuki has always been a bit of a recluse, but after his parents pass away in an accident, he stops interacting with anybody unless he absolutely has to. Instead, he spends most of his time working from home as a mystery writer. Things change for him when he encounters a stray cat, who he names Haru. At first, he's reluctant to take on the responsibility, but he quickly grows attached. Taking care of her forces him to interact with others. Despite himself, he soon starts making friends.
That would be inspiring enough, but the show doesn't stop there. It also shows Haru's perspective, as she moves from being a stray with few resources to having a real home with a person she can trust and love. If you love cats, you can't miss this series.
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- Barakamon
- Kinema Citrus
Seishuu Handa has a promising career in calligraphy - that is, until he punches an appraiser in the face for criticizing his work. Hoping to stop him from ruining his reputation any further, his father sends him to cool his heels on a remote, rural island.
At first, he tries to isolate himself, but that soon proves impossible when the neighborhood kids take him on as their new pet project. Through them - and through the adult members of the community - he learns how to relax, slow down, and not take himself so seriously. His transformation is a delight to see.
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- Kotaro Lives Alone
- LIDENFILMS
Kotaro Lives Alone is a surprisingly sad anime, as it focuses on a five-year-old boy who is living by himself because of his abusive father. But it's also really wholesome. Why? His adult neighbors rally around him, working together to make sure that someone is always there to support him and care for him as needed. His presence brings out something different in all of them, but in every case, he turns them into better people than they used to be.
You might cry a little bit watching this anime, but overall, the vibe is hopeful.
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- Production I.G
Often hailed as one of the best romance anime of all time, Kimi ni Todoke is a great choice if you're looking for something wholesome. Sawako Kuronuma wants to make friends, but because of her shyness and her long hair, her classmates compare her to Sadako from The Ring and generally treat her poorly.
Things change when she starts getting close to a popular, kind boy named Shota Kazehaya. She admires his cheerfulness and wants to be just like him, especially once he starts helping her get to know her classmates. But what she doesn't know is that the relationship isn't one-sided - he's benefitting from it too.
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- Sweetness & Lightning
- TMS Entertainment
Sweetness & Lightning tells the story of a young teacher named Kohei Inuzuka and his daughter Tsumugi. Kohei's wife recently passed away. As the two of them grieve their loss, Kohei struggles to fill in some of the holes she left behind. One big issue is food - his wife was the one who usually cooked, so he has no clue how to feed himself or his daughter aside from buying convenience store food.
To fix this, he teams up with a student of his whose family owns a restaurant. Together, the two of them try out different recipes in order to amp up their culinary skills. Kohei can't replace Tsumugi's mother, but he's determined to give her what she needs.
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The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons
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- The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons
- Shuka
Two years ago, the parents of the Yuzuki Family tragically passed away. They left behind four sons: Hayato, Mikoto, Minato, and Gakuto. Now the four brothers have to navigate life with just each other. This anime focuses on sibling bonds and the true meaning of family through hardships, even highlighting the roles as oldest, middle, and youngest children.
Although some scenes are more tear-jerking than not, the series is heartwarming and wholesome overall.
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- Skip and Loafer
- P.A. Works
When Mitsumi Iwakura leaves her rural hometown for life in the big city, she's full of big dreams about what she plans to accomplish to make the world a better place. But things don't exactly go the way she hopes they will when she starts at her new school. Not only is she late on the first day, her classmates don't warm up to her right away.
Luckily, she doesn't have to go through it alone, because she makes one new friend: a fellow first-year named Sosuke Shima.
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- My Love Story!!
- Madhouse
If you want to see some of the most dramatic expressions of love in existence, you need to watch My Love Story!! Takeo Gouda is a huge dude with an intense face that isn't conventionally attractive, so most people automatically assume he's a bit of a brute. But Takeo is actually the human personification of a big cuddly teddy bear, and we get to see this through his relationship with Rinko Yamada.
Yamada is a tiny, adorable girl who thinks that Takeo is amazing, and he feels the same way about her. Watching them get all goopy with each other makes it hard not to turn into a puddle of mush yourself.
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- Loving Yamada at Lv999!
- Madhouse
At first glance, Loving Yamada at Lv999! (also known as My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999) doesn't really scream wholesomeness: it's about a girl who falls for a guy who seems like an unsociable jerk. But that's not really what the series is about at all. Akito Yamada is actually a very caring person: he's just awkward and has trouble forming immediate connections with people.
Akane Kinoshita realizes this quickly, and finds herself falling in love with him. Meanwhile, she's also falling in love with gaming, and meeting a wide range of interesting people she never would have befriended in her everyday life. Overall, Yamada and Akane's budding romance is a really cute one that's impossible not to root for.
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- Laid-Back Camp
- C-Station
Laid-Back Camp is a delightful iyashikei (healing) anime about a group of girls who like going camping together in the winter. The show focuses on the small details that make it enjoyable, like what they're eating or how they interact with nature. It makes you feel like you're right there with them.
That plus the powerful friendships the girls create with one another makes for a wonderfully wholesome experience.
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My Clueless First Friend
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- My Clueless First Friend
- Studio Signpost
Because Akane Nishimura is quiet and has facial expressions that her classmates don't like, her classmates find her incredibly creepy. They nickname her “The Grim Reaper" and bully her constantly. She has no friends and is about to give up hope when a boy named Taiyo Takada transfers into her class.
Taiyo is immediately interested in Akane because he loves all things paranormal. Oblivious to the whole bullying situation, he sets about trying to become her friend. His optimism and cheerfulness bring some much-needed sunshine into Akane's world.
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- A Place Further than the Universe
- Madhouse
A Place Further than the Universe follows a group of girls on a seemingly impossible journey to Antarctica. At first, Shirase is determined to go to Antarctica alone in the hopes of finding her mother, who disappeared there on an expedition. But she's soon joined by Mari, a girl who wants to make the most of her teenage years, plus the vivacious and bubbly Hinata and the shy and timid Yuzuki.
As the four of them work hard to make their dreams come true, they bond with one another and learn about themselves and the world in the process.
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- Bocchi the Rock!
- CloverWorks
Bocchi the Rock! follows a teenage girl named Hitori Gotoh who loves music and desperately wants to join a band. Unfortunately for her, her social anxiety gets in the way. But through a combination of coincidences and help from her peers and a few supportive adults, she ends up joining a neophyte group called Kessoku Band. She not only learns how to socialize and work with the public, she also dramatically improves her musical skills by learning to play with others.
Watching Hitori come out of her shell with help from others is inspiring for anyone facing the same social anxiety issues that she does.
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- user uploaded My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
- SILVER LINK.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! might be a video game isekai, but it's also a wholesome tribute to the power of friendship. When the protagonist is reincarnated into a villainess from her favorite otome game named Caterina Claes, she's sure that she's doomed. In pretty much every possible route, she perishes or meets some other terrible fate. She's determined to change this, and the method she chooses is adorable: she decides to be as nice as humanly possible to everyone she meets.
If she befriends them all, they won't become her enemies. Watching her pursue this mission is a lot of fun, and watching the other characters fall in love with her for being her quirky, bizarre self is even more so.
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