It's the new school year at Sakuragaoka Girl's High School, and the Light Music Club are looking to recruit new musicians into their reasonably rag-tag group. So along comes young, naive first-year Azusa Nakano, an aspiring guitarist, to fall into their tea and cake littered trap. Thankfully Azusa is a fairly strong willed girl and is quick to put a stop to the current club member's overwhelming laziness, or at least she tries awfully hard. With her musical expertise guilting the club's other guitarist Yui into finally practicing, hopefully, their next concert will go just fine.

Azusa and Aoba have very similar personalities in that they're honest, very hard-working and diligent, as well constantly enthusiastic. On top of that, both of them have a troubled, embarrassed side that comes out whenever they mess up or have to do something they're not too happy about (although in Aoba's case she's up for pretty much anything). The biggest difference between the two is the situation they're in, with Aoba in a new company and Azusa in a new club. Aoba is very unsure of what she's doing but is luckily surrounded by competent co-workers that can help her.

Azusa on the other hand already knows what she's doing but has to convince her hopeless senpais to get their act together. Of course, let's not forget the cute twintails as well which are probably their biggest charm point. If you liked New Game! you should check out K-On! regardless, but be sure to look out for the kitty cat guitarist Azu-nyan!

After falling in love with stoic giant Umetarou Nozaki, Chiyo Sakura has finally built up enough courage to confess her feelings to him. Unfortunately, the confession causes a quite surprising misunderstanding, and instead of receiving a more traditional response, Chiyo walks away with an autograph. As it turns out Nozaki isn't just an ordinary high schooler, but a famous shoujo mangaka, said to be a master of love. Now in hopes of getting closer to him, Chiyo has become his assistant, although she's having some trouble getting her feelings through to the oblivious artist. It's a good thing she's so positive, or the direness of the situation would have quickly brought her down.

One thing's for sure, Chiyo and Aoba both have great taste when it comes to hairstyles and accessories. New Game! and Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun are also both made by the same studio, Doga Kobo, so you might notice some similarities with the girl's expressions and reactions. Chiyo has a positivity which is hard to keep down, although at times Nozaki's ridiculous antics can be wearing, to say the least.

This glass half full attitude is the main similarity between her and Aoba, with them both being able to carry on as usual despite the odd characters that surround them. Chiyo is also in a fairly similar situation to Aoba, with her being thrown in at the deep end working for a professional mangaka, and thus being the junior who's having to learn everything from scratch. Because of this, she wants to do the best job possible so as to not let her senpai down. Overall if you liked Aoba then you'll surely enjoy Chiyo as well, although she has to deal with much more ridiculous situations on a daily basis.

In the countryside town of Asahigaoka, nothing much of any significance happens, but that doesn't mean it's not a sweet place to live. Despite just moving to the small town from the big lights of Tokyo, Hotaru Ichijou has had no trouble making friends with everyone in her new school, though given that the school only had four students there's nothing too surprising there. Now she and her new friends spend their days studying, playing, and generally hanging around the countryside, with everything being a brand new experience for young Hotaru. Oh and she also obsessively makes plushies of her senpai, which is totally not concerning at all.

Here's a girl who, once again, is brimming with positivity such that very little can really get her down. Despite being in a completely new environment, she's determined to make it work, make new friends, and get used to her new life in the country, much like Aoba's attitude towards her new job. Both of the girls have a very relatable fear of messing up or doing something that isn't considered normal in their new situation, only to find out it's no big deal in the end. As mentioned before Hotaru is also always looking up to her senpai Komari, although her obsession is a bit more extreme than Aoba's respect for Kou. Hotaru and Aoba's situations may be very different but if you liked one of them you're sure to enjoy the other one as well.

Kobeni Yonomori thought she was just an ordinary highschool girl (with a bratty older sister) when one day her apparent fiancé and his younger sister show up and start living with her family. Unbeknownst Kobeni, her grandfather had arranged the marriage years ago between her and the boy who lived in the mountains. Finding the whole situation odd, but loveable, the story follows Kobeni and her fiancé Hakuya's daily life as they go to school, cook, and get to know each other better. Things are not quite as they seem with the newcomers, though, so it's a good thing Kobeni has an immeasurably kind and understanding personality.

Firstly it's worth mentioning that, like Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, Mikakunin de Shinkoukei is made by the studio Doga Kobo, so you'll certainly notice some similarities in Kobeni and Aoba's expressions and actions. The two of them are both very much the ordinary and diligent young girl in their series, somewhat immune to the madness surrounding them.

Much like Aoba, Kobeni gets worried over trivial things that seem important to her at the time, but turn out to not be something worth worrying about. They also both have a pure, sparkly aura around them that lifts other's spirits and cannot be tainted. One of the bigger differences between them is whereas Aoba is always looking up to her senpais, Kobeni has an older sister who adores her instead. We'd recommend Kobeni from Mikakunin de Shinkoukei to anyone who wants a similar character to Aoba, but in a very different, romcom setting.

The daughter of a mochi shop owner, Tamako Kitashirakawa splits her time between high school, helping out in their shop, and baton practice. Nothing too out of the ordinary there. But much to her surprise, a talking bird named Dera suddenly enters her life, which everyone is not as concerned about as perhaps they should be. After stating that he's part of a distant land's royal family and is looking for a wife for their prince, Dera then proceeds to eat an unreasonable amount of mochi and becomes too fat to fly. Despite now having a new fat feathered friend around, though, Tamako's life carries on much as usual in this slightly silly slice-of-life.

Much like Aoba, Tamako is the girl who's friends with everyone, with a positivity that's impossible to not be drawn in by. Although not quite the same, they two also share a very pretty and memorable twintails hairstyle, which is possibly their most defining physical feature. Tamako is another one who is ignorant to the strangeness around her and is much more focused on getting her work done and helping her family out. Whereas Aoba's hard working attitude is a key part of New Game!'s story, Tamako's diligence in her everyday life actually allows her to ignore the storyline (Dera) that is trying so hard to involve her in it, which is quite amusing. Both Aoba and Tamako are sweet, hard working girls, that you couldn't possibly dislike.

Yuru Yuri follows Nanamori Middle School's newly founded Amusement Club, home to four very different girls, who somehow manage to get along together. Their daily activities involve drinking tea, playing games, and bothering the student council for no good reason. Akarin Akaza is the supposed protagonist of the series, yet despite this, she has little to no influence over what's going on and has the quite fantastic ability to be able to turn virtually invisible to the rest of the cast. But she isn't about to let that get her down, apart from sometimes when she actually does let it get her down.

Yet again we meet the normal character surrounded by oddballs, only this time the crazies have basically taken over the show and left Akarin behind. Although Yuru Yuri is definitely wackier than New Game!, Akarin remains the ordinary Aoba-like character that everyone gets on with. When weird stuff happens or things go wrong, she's the one with the normal thoughts and concerns, trying her best to stay smiling throughout. Like Aoba, Akarin is the cheery and relatable girl of the series who you're with all the way.