We know growing up can be confusing and that confusion can fill us with self-doubt, especially when we begin to compare ourselves to others. Yamada is a 15-year-old girl suffering from exactly those problems but confronts them head-on. She takes her insecurities and tries to cast them aside, declaring she will have sex with 100 guys upon entering high school. The catch-22 of her logic is that she’s afraid that if she has sex with an experienced guy that he’ll tease her about her virginity and she’ll be right back at the bottom filled with self-doubt. Yamada finds a solution in Kosuda Takashi, a fellow virgin. She then makes it her goal to seduce Takashi but being neither skilled in seduction nor sex it becomes one comedic situation after another.

Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai and B-gata H-kei have a few things in common. The two shows center around two girls whose active and dirty imaginations lead them to bouts of overexcitement and misunderstanding the most innocent situations. Yamada is admittedly horny. She wants to jump Kosuda. Ao is also extremely attracted to Kijima yet she isn’t willing to admit it. Both are sex comedies. You will have a good laugh and maybe even blush a little at the raucous humor.

Takatoshi Tsuda is in a unique situation. He is one of a handful of male students at the recently turned co-ed Ousai Private Academy. Takatoshi is also about to learn rather quickly that girls in a nearly all-female environment never act as feminine as they do in a co-ed one. After being named the vice president of the student council, he quickly learns that girls can be rude, sloppy, and just as crass as the boys. The president of the student council, who looks like a very buttoned-down student, is a huge pervert; the secretary, Aria, who seems like a girl who’d been cloistered behind the walls of a rich society is even more so. The treasurer, who seems to have a near normal personality, is very sensitive about the fact she is often mistaken for an elementary schooler. The show is paced with multiple vignettes, each the setup and execution of a gag in a 22-minute-long episode. The gags in the show are often risqué wordplay and situations.

Sexual humor is the key element that ties Seiokai Yakuindomo and Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai together. You will get sex-related gags multiple times each episode. We even have a literal straight man in each episode. Takatoshi and Kijima are both the spoilers for each of the girls in their series. The two boys are the sounding boards to bounce the jokes and situations off of, letting the girls say the shocking things. We know if your mind travels down the gutter like a badly thrown bowling ball you’ll really enjoy this series.

Fuutarou is a smart guy and knows that the best way for him to use his smarts is to work hard in school and succeed in life. He doesn’t want the success just for him but to help his family, which is struggling to get by. The golden ticket to an easier life is offered to him one afternoon when he is presented with the chance to get his family out of the hole. He’s offered a well-paying tutoring gig for a wealthy family. However, he quickly realizes why he was quoted five times the going rate for tutoring: the family has five daughters, quintuplets. The bar for him to keep his job is also very high as he must raise the test scores of incredibly bad students Itsuki, Miku, Yotsuba, Nino, and Ichika. Did we mention they all hate studying and most, in the beginning, are outright hostile to the idea of being tutored.

This anime has more to do with the softer side of romance than the in-your-face raunchiness of the previous two mentioned. We know right from the beginning that he will one day marry one of the quints, we just don’t know which one. 5-toubun no Hanayome and idara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai share the idea that romance at times makes it hard to focus even when that is what is most important. We also have those softer romantic comedy moments where there are simple misunderstandings and bouts of jealousy as the heroine tries to come to terms with the feelings they have for the male protagonist. Quints is wholesome and will warm your heart but still make you laugh even without the risqué writing.

We learn early on that Nariyuki’s life is hard. His father died young and his family slipped into poverty. He vowed that in order to give his family a better life he would raise his grades, get into a great school and create a better life for his family. Nariyuki’s achievements caught the eye of his principal and he was given an offer he couldn’t refuse, raise their scores and receive a full scholarship to university. To his surprise, the students he needs to tutor are none other than Rizu Ogata, the wiz of the mathematics department, and Fumino Furuhashi of the literature department. Nariyuki soon discovers that both girls are completely hopeless in any subject outside of their respective areas of expertise. He is even more shocked to learn that they both want to study each other’s field in college and not what is considered their strong suit. The story goes on to be filled with cute misunderstandings and the budding romance between Nariyuki, Ogata, and his athletic and energetic childhood friend Takemoto.

The two anime have some similarities despite Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai being a sex comedy and Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai having very mild fanservice. In each anime, a character desperately needs to study because they see getting into a university as the best way to better their circumstances. The male protagonist in each story is also the straight man or normal guy around which the zany misconceptions and wild imagination of the female characters revolve. You will also find a fun plot involving a love triangle as the girls in the orbit of the male character try to find a way to win his heart. The humor in this show is certainly more family friendly but you’ll still get a load of laughs.

You’ve probably felt the pangs of unrequited love in your life, as has Natsuo Fujii. The ever-young and beautiful cheerful teacher Hina is the subject of his story of unrequited love. The two work closely together as she helps him with his writing, but that line separating teacher and student is never crossed leaving him depressed. He goes to a mixer to humor his friends and meets a girl, Rui. Rui comes off plain and awkward despite being cute. She invites him back to her house since her mother was gone and asks him to have sex with her. For him, it’s a distraction from his love for Hina and for her, it’s simply a curiosity. The real story hits the fan next. Natsou’s father tells him the next day that he will be getting remarried and that he will be getting two stepsisters. His finds out moments later that his two new stepsisters are none-other than Hina-sensei and Rui. So, let’s get this clear: He is now the stepbrother of the girl he just slept with who happens to be the younger sister of his long-time crush. The story goes on to become a complex drama involving love, passion, sex and lies.

We did ask ourselves what these two anime have in common considering one is a comedy and one is a dark drama. The answer is simple: the world gets complicated when love is involved. We see the funny side with Ao as she deals with the world of relationships and sex through the distorted lens given to her by her father. We see the dark side when we realize that love and sex are complicated by forbidden relationships. The two shows bring you shock value, too. You get wacky shock value from Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai and the “oh my god they didn’t” kind from Domestic na Kanojo. Yes, the connection between these two is rather tenuous but you will enjoy one if you liked the other. The open in this one is pretty good, too; make sure you listen at least once.

Otaku Hikari Tsutsui likes his life. He has a world of anime and one good friend. The idea of more is overwhelming for the socially inept high school student. We get a great cute-meet when Tsutsui and the beautiful Iroha Igarashi are forced to clean the pool together as punishment for getting to school late. Iroha has a reputation in school for messing around with boys and being very blunt, so she’s disliked by the majority of the female population in school. Tsutsui attempts to steer clear of this girl, yet she doesn’t steer clear of him. She asks him if he wants a girlfriend and agrees to date him for a limited period of time. The story is one-part romantic comedy and one-part drama as both characters have to come to terms with who they are as they find ways to evolve as people. We get a look at Tsutsui’s insecurities as he is constantly worried that an amazing and beautiful girl like Iroha will leave him. If you consider these characters carefully you’ll see that they both suffer from versions of depression and need each other as touchstones so they don’t spiral out of control. We get a great supporting cast in this one as well with each of the side characters having their own arc about overcoming their insecurities.

Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai and 3D Kanojo: Real Girl are both stories about relationships and the emotional baggage we can carry into them. With Ao it’s the baggage of being raised by a sex-crazed father and the ridicule of people finding out about him. Tsutsui’s social awkwardness and torment as a child by the “normal kids” leave him feeling unworthy. The anime takes on those plots differently, the one being mostly serious with some comedic moments and the other being mostly comedy sprinkled with serious moments. We know whatever the measurement you’ll most likely enjoy both.