Chiyo-chan is in love! But there is a problem; her crush could not see her advances. It is not because he is feigning ignorance, he IS ignorant! The biggest irony here is that Chiyo's crush is none other than Nozaki-kun, a successful mangaka whose hit series happens to be, you guessed it, a romance themed manga. This anime is a good combination of slice of life and rom-com as both complements each other so well, the viewers have a jolly good time while at the same time leaving them wistful of the pain of unrequited love.

This anime shares two common elements with Saekano, for example, the plot line. Girl gets together with boy to develop manga, girl and boy gets closer, love blossoms. The plot line is so easy to describe, it fits into a single sentence! That is why Gekkan Shoujo reminds you of Saekano as both employ a simple story line to portray love and comedy, effectively making them hit rom-com titles.

The next common element is the variety of unique characters with their own unique personality. Every character introduced has a specific quirk to them that you can't help but laugh at their folly. I won't spoil much of the anime for you but the characters are definitely something to look out for!

Imagine if Megumi Kato from Saekano had a voice and is more vocal about it. That's Oregairu. The MC in this anime is Hikigaya Hachiman who also goes by his nickname "dead fish eye" because that's exactly what he is. Hikigaya-kun is a pragmatic and emotionless kind of person. His reasons for wanting to be a bear is, I quote: "The bear is a lone wolf, he finds no shame in living alone and feels proud for it" His deliberate acts to shun away from society makes you sympathize with him but leaves you feeling helpless even though you know it is reality and you gradually just have to accept it. He also strongly resembles Megumi as both employs deadpan humour to humour us. Hikigaya is just a more negative, vocal Megumi and a more NOTICEABLE character in the anime (jab intended).

This anime is also set in a high school setting with Hikigaya going about his daily life and presenting his views in matter of fact way that is simply irrefutable. He is a social outcast and spares absolutely no effort in trying to improve the situation and instead, take it with his usual matter of fact stance of the circumstances and accepting it. In the end, he leads a boring life which many of us do coincidentally, myself included. This is clearly also a strong characteristic of Megumi whom as mentioned, both utilizes deadpan humour to successfully make us laugh. Thank you Male Megumi!

Keima is just your everyday video game freak who only goes to school for the sake of attendance and plays his portable games in class to the annoyance of his school teachers. Keima is the typical Brilliant but Lazy Anti-hero trope and he knows it! At times he deliberately pokes fun at his characterisation by delivering his infamous catchphrase: "Reality is just a shitty game!" as well as claiming never failing one of his iconic 'captures'

In the same way that Saekano's characters are self-aware of their role in the anime even going to the extent of breaking the fourth wall at times, so too does the main character from Kami Nomi. Kami Nomi delivers the same blend of unique characters as Saekano. There will be a central character representing a typical typecast and by utilising the aforesaid character, deliberately poking fun at their style. The series further added more juice to the plot by parodying Gal Games and it's relation to the otaku culture.

“A club of social misfits with unique personalities”. Sounds familiar? Well, that's the setting for the anime next on our list, D-Frag. This series is about a club called the Video Game Creation Club. Kazama Kenji was unwillingly roped into the said club and forced to participate in the activities of the series main heroines. Of course in anime, nobody normal will compel another human being to join them. The characters all have otaku traits imbued in them. Therefore, the main nature of the comedy in this anime is on the subculture that we love and live by - the otaku culture.

It shares many similar traits with Saekano in that both have a fair bit of otaku humour in it with the characters being self-aware of their typecast as well such as the ever famous - tsundere and then poking fun at it. Viewers will feel right at home and in their comfort zone as the jokes and punchlines that is made all evoke a sense of familiarity which appeals to us as - let's face it, who else would know what tsundere is and the fact that there are THREE genders: Male, Female and Hideyoshi.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai is an anime of a club that was established for the purpose of making friends. Known as the Neighbour’s Club (Rinjinbu), the club is a vast collection of many different kinds of character including our MC, Hasegawa Kodaka. He has blond hair which gives off the impression of a typical delinquent which makes people fear him.

This anime has a fair bit of romance elements as well such as the relationship between the MC and the two heroines – Sena and Yozora. These two alone reminds you of Eriri and Utaha respectively, for they are always at constant war and forever bickering with each other. Very much like Saekano, this anime places much emphasis on the building of relationships in a small circle of friends with very interesting and comical results. Instead of creating a visual novel game however, this anime goal is for everybody in the circle to make friends. It is kind of obvious they are in a circle and more or less on good talking terms already, but these are just some of the silly things you can expect from this anime.

Lastly, this is an anime which shares Saekano tendency to exploit the otaku culture and make an effective comedy out of it. I'm talking about Oreimo.
Kirino Kosaka is your typical closeted otaku. She is deemed to be perfect by everyone as she has many outstanding qualities such as being athletic, scoring high grades and being a model as well.However deep down she is an otaku at heart and being unable to suppress her feelings anymore, decides to share her world with her brother.

The common ground for the both of them still lies at the heart of the otaku culture and both derive most of their humour through the satire of the subculture which gives us once again, the warm sense of familiarity that we love and understand. This anime is a rom-com after all. The difference with OreImo and Saekano however, is the romance factor. Whereas Saekano delves much into the comedic side instead of the romance, Oreimo puts more focus into the romance side; hence there is more character development in this anime.