When she was a child, Yukimura Aoi fell completely in love with mountains and climbing. However, a terrible playground accident has left Aoi with a fear of heights, which turned her to more indoor pursuits. Unfortunately, Aoi has become closed-off as a result of these hobbies, leaving her unable to socialise with other people and her life devoid of friendship. When she is reunited with a friend from her climbing days, Aoi finds herself tagging along with her childhood friend, Kuraue Hinata, and slowly returning to climbing. As she returns to her past hobby, Aoi’s life changes as her isolated life indoors opens and she makes friends, as well as amazing memories.

Much like Yuru Camp, Yama no Susume is another anime about a character’s enjoyment of a particular outdoor activity. Much like Yuru Camp, Yama no Susume is a slice of life anime that uses the hobby as a backdrop to developing the protagonist, as well as the characters around them. Another striking similarity between the two shows is their use of exposition to educate the viewer about certain aspects of the activities in question. Both anime use casts of female characters to drive their plot and coincidentally, this brings forth many moe elements in both.

Whenever 15-year-old Kino is feeling down, one thing that cheers her up without fail is travelling. The excitement of exploring the world around her and meeting various types of people makes her heart race, but given her cute appearance, it would seem that Kino is just a helpless child. However, Kino never goes anywhere without her trusted handguns, nor is she afraid to kill should the situation require. At her side is her best friend, Hermes, her sentient motorcycle who supports Kino whenever the road gets a little bumpy – in the metaphorical sense. The two of them travel the countryside with a shared goal: keeping it moving and never staying in one country for more than three days. As Kino and Hermes meet more people and learn more about the world, they in turn learn more about themselves.

Both Yuru Camp and Kino’s Journey share their taste in protagonists – both Kino and Rin are small and adorable yet hardy and perceptive, as one would have to be when travelling on their own. Both of these protagonists greatly enjoy being outdoors; for Kino, that means being on the path to a new destination while for Rin, it means finding a new campsite. Both shows exhibit a main character who meets many people and makes several friends while doing the one thing they love most.

Handa Seishuu is an up-and-coming calligrapher who is handsome, talented, but also highly narcissistic. When a calligraphy veteran judges an award-winning Handa piece, dubbing it “unoriginal”, Handa reacts violently. As punishment, Handa’s father exiles him to the Goto Islands, a far cry from the comfortable city life he had lived in Tokyo. With his environment completely different, Handa must find inspiration for a new and unique art style, but how can he when every single day brings a host of characters and wacky adventures to his doorstep?

Both Barakamon and Yuru Camp are anime which are centred on a particular activity; however, what Yuru Camp and Barakamon also have in common lies in the fact that they’re both shows that know exactly what they are: slice of life titles. If we completely removed the general premise of calligraphy from Barakamon and camping from Yuru Camp, we’d still be left with two anime which boast interesting and quirky casts, eccentric yet sincere protagonists, as well as an escape from the mundanities of everyday life – right into the mundanities of everyday life with anime characters.

In the small countryside village of Asahigaoka, there is only one class in the only school in town. With only five students in this class, it isn’t a very big class; however, together they are a vibrant and energetic class. Their class features Miyauchi Renge, the youngest in first grade; the Koshigaya siblings – the quiet ninth grader, Suguru, and the tiny eighth-grader Komari, as well as the mischievous child in seventh grade, Natsumi. With the arrival of Ichijou Hotaru, a Tokyo-raised fifth-grader who is overdeveloped for her age, these lively friends enjoy quirky days of fun and joy in the countryside.

Non Non Biyori’s greatest similarity to Yuru Camp lies in the genre tags: slice of life and comedy. Be that as it may, both casts of characters feature an interesting array of different characters, all with their own quirks. Non Non Biyori also makes use of the moe component brought on by the adorable characters on the show’s roster. This; however, is also attributed to the fact that the main characters of this show are children.

Takanashi Souta is a high schooler with a love for all things small and cute. As a result of this, he finds himself unable to refuse when the small and cute Taneshima Popura recruits him to work for Wagnaria, a family restaurant in Hokkaido. Souta enjoys doting on Popura, who has a complex over her incredibly young appearance. Souta also learns very quickly that his colleagues at Wagnaria aren’t quite the regular bunch. From the katana-wielding chief, Todoroki Yachiyo, to the sadistic Souma Hiroomi, to the scary Satou Jun, to the blatantly apathetic manager Shirafuji Kyouko, and the androphobic Inami Mahiru, Souta meets a large band of eccentrics. Catch Souta and the Wagnaria staff in their constant tomfoolery and banter!

Working!! is the kind of show you pick up out of pure curiosity for what it could be like, only to be completely absorbed by the stomach-punishing laughter that it brings. As a slice of life anime, Working!! brings out the same devices as Yuru Camp, such as on its emphasis on the individual characters rather than the overall context of the show. Much like Yuru Camp, Working!! has its own diminutive character to mirror Yuru Camp’s Rin.

The small Genma Iroe is a third-year high schooler who, despite her small size, is known to others as “Elder Sister”. The hotblooded blonde is president of her school’s Model Club, a club dedicated to the construction of plastic models of… well, anything! With her two underclassmen, Iroe tries to perform her club duties; however, various distractions make it impossible – especially when the distractions are as entertaining as they get for Iroe and her friends!

Like Yuru Camp, Plastic Nee-san features a diminutive main character who invests a lot of time into her hobby. In Iroe’s case, it is building plastic models. Both Yuru Camp and Plastic Nee-san are slice of life titles, meaning that they explore the day-to-day lives of their characters. With the quirky nature of both casts, as well as the fact that in both titles, both sets of main characters are female, it is very easy to see where the two anime are the same.