O Maidens in Your Savage Season focuses on a high school literature club. The five members of the club often spend time in their club room reading aloud to each other, often in an attempt to get answers to questions they have about life. The lit club, which has a reputation as being a group that discusses inappropriate things, is a refuge for these often-quiet girls. The ranks are made up of two seniors, Rika and Hitoha, and freshmen Kazusa, Momoko, and Niina. We find each of the girls on their journeys of self-discovery, some more innocent than others but all using literature as their guidebook.

O Maidens in Your Savage Season is a bit different than the other selections on this list as it follows a slice-of-life format but leans more toward the dramatic rather than the comedic. At times it can remind you of shows like Convenience Store Boyfriends or Hatsukoi Limited with its focus on how relationships between the sexes can change and grow in high school. It does, however, have a similarity in the honest conversations that the girls of the literature club have about sex, their sex, and relationships.

We’d usually describe someone walking in on doing something embarrassing and sparking a relationship as a cute meet at the beginning of a comedy, but not in this case. The student council president of Fujisaki Girls Academy, Natsuo Maki, carries an air of dignity around her and is a model of womanly virtue for all the students in the school. Riko Kurahashi is not an example of virtue and is often considered quite the opposite due to her willingness to break school rules. One day Riko walks into the student council office and finds Maki practicing kissing, badly, on a dummy she fashioned. The incident leads to Maki drafting Riko into the student council to be her advisor on romance. We see comedy take off as it becomes a case of the blind leading the blind as Riko “the expert” with no experience leads the rest of the student council in the newly established Love Lab.

Love Lab is a lighter comedy than the others mentioned on this list and far less edgy. It has a heavy emphasis on slapstick and awkward situations for its comedic elements. It does have a very strong female-centered cast that is struggling to understand romance and love. If you like Joshikousei no Mudazukai but are looking for something lighter that will have you laughing, Love Lab should be part of your viewing queue.

A walk to school in the morning should be pretty mundane, you simply put one foot in front of the other and join the stream of other students headed in that direction. Chio Miyamo, on the other hand, seems to find an adventure every time she leaves the house. She often leaves for school late due to late nights playing video games and must find creative alternatives to the typical route to make sure she arrives at her private school on time. The anime is episodic as it focuses on a particular journey each time and then bringing back some to the characters in later episodes. Chio’s constant companions Nonomura and Hosokawa often find themselves caught up in the nonsense as they rush to school every day.

Chio’s School Road is a comedy through and through. The ridiculous situation when nerdy Chio was mistaken for a hoodlum called the Bloody Butterfly is a perfect example of the kind of comedy you can expect. The reason this show is similar to Joshikouse no Mudazukai is mainly because of its focus on a female cast not acting particularly feminine. Despite being a good girl, Chio often shows her more tomboyish side, and her friends’ teasing and goading don’t rein her in at all. You’ll love Chio’s School Road if you’re looking for something incredibly creative to fill 22 minutes of your time once a week.

Asobi Asobase is the story of three friends with little in common except they don’t want to do anything productive. Olivia, Honda, and Nomura quickly find themselves forming their own club, the Pastime Club, to avoid joining a real one. They spend their time after school playing ruckus games and simply wasting time. Their daily hijinks like trying to become popular or goofing off and avoiding getting caught by teachers, and occasionally slapping each other senseless is great slap-stick that will have you laughing.

The language used in Asobi Asobase is at times crass and often used as a method by members of the group to insult each other. We find the biggest connection that Asobi Asobase makes with Joshikousei no Mudasukai is the focus on nothing: the idea that you don’t need to be productive. You don’t need to accomplish some great goal in your youth to have a fulfilling school life. You can enjoy school without being over-organized with clubs or sports. You can just hang with your friends and live a life of nonsense. So if you want or need some nonsense in your life you won’t waste your time watching Asobi Asobase.