6 Anime Waifu Like Mio from K-On! [Recommendations]

We're back again with yet more adorable waifus, and this time we're looking at an old favourite, moe moe Mio Akiyama from the cute girls doing cute things classic K-On! It might be feeling a bit old now but K-On! remains a disgustingly popular series (and rightfully so), with new merchandise still being produced in Japan and selling out faster than Haikyuu goods at a fujoshi convention.

One of the only diligent and hardworking members of Hokago Tea Time, until the arrival of Azusa, Mio is pretty much on her own when it comes to controlling Ritsu, Yui, and the easily misled Mugi. Of course, there are also her angry tsun outbursts that are caused by Ritsu on a daily basis, despite the fact that she's not really a tsundere. Probably Mio's most memorable characteristic, however, is her adorable embarrassing moments, mostly caused by singing, cosplay, and letting the whole school see her stripes. So now that we know what we're after in our girls, let's take a look at the 6 anime waifu like Mio that we have for you today.


1. Umi Sonoda from Love Live! School Idol Project

One of idol band μ's first three members, Umi is one of the least likely girls out of the group to become a school idol. With a head that tells her to be serious and a heart that can't handle the pressure (or frilly costumes), it takes some convincing for fellow band members Honoka and Kotori to make her join. Although she might not feel suited for the role of school idol, Umi's songwriting talent proves vital to μ's success and the recruitment of new members.

Umi feels like she may have been largely based off of Mio, as nothing about her character is all that different. They both end up writing lyrics for their band and act as the disapproving, serious member. The share some serious performance anxiety, which plays a large part in their character development, and has the same embarrassed reactions to go along with it, getting flustered at a moment's notice. Umi and Mio also have the traditional Japanese beauty look, with long dark hair, and has a quite reserved way of acting. Umi is quite literally the Mio of Love Live.


2. Kagami Hiiragi from Lucky☆Star

The purest form of slice-of-life, Lucky☆Star follows four delightful high school girls, and various other cute girls surrounding them, in their daily high school lives. Kagami is the less airheaded one of the two Hiiragi sisters, with her sister Tsukasa being the kind of person that accidentally leaves her phone in the laundry and is generally incapable of waking up at a reasonable time. Kagami's role is to be the most grounded out of the four lovely girls, with the other three often off in their own, completely separate, worlds, that often involve doing no homework or avoiding the dentist. Kagami might sometimes be a stick in the mud, but she's the stick in the mud the group needs.

Here we meet another hard working girl, trying her best to take life seriously and not mess about all the time. Although Kagami is certainly angered faster than Mio, being named the tsundere of the group, they both respond in a very similar way to the laziness and disruptiveness of the girls surrounding them. On the flip side to that, though, they're both very reasonable and pleasant when they're around people who don't constantly test their patience or bully them.

One of the key similarities between the two girls though is the double act they have going with one of the other girls, Ritsu for Mio and Konata for Kagami. The two work together as a straight man funny man duo, with one being constantly ridiculous and our waifu returning fire with harsh comebacks and knocks to the head. As a series, if you liked K-On! then you will surely love Lucky☆Star and in particular the incredibly similar characters like Mio and Kagami.


3. Yui Kotegawa from To LOVE-Ru

Now for something completely different: To Love-Ru is one of the most well known ecchi harem series about, with "unfortunate" protagonist Rito being involved in constant "mishaps" with a swathe of beautiful girls. Yui Kotegawa is one of the girls in Rito's class, as well as the head of the school's disciplinary committee, so as you can imagine she always has something to say about the lewd acts going on around her. Despite her position as the defender of student purity, however, even she eventually succumbs to Rito's kindness and his being all around a genuinely nice guy. Unfortunately for her, though, competition for his affection is only growing stronger.

Although Mio and Yui exist in very different worlds, they both have a very similar role to play in the story. Like Mio, Yui is the defender of normality amongst the cast, and although her frustration may sometimes seem misplaced, more often than not it's quite reasonable considering the people she has to deal with on a daily basis. Although they are both very down to earth and strong willed, like Mio, Yui gets very suddenly embarrassed when it comes to certain things, with her weak point being love. Yui and Mio also share the traditional Japanese beauty look, with Yui's simple, long black hair actually standing out amongst To Love-Ru's bright and colourful cast, along with her reserved mannerisms. So if you're interested in seeing a waifu similar to Mio in a much, much lewder environment, then we'd recommend checking out Yui Kotegawa.



4. Shinka Nibutani from Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! (Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!)

By day, they are ordinary high school students, by night, they wield the power of darkness and battle demons and dragons. Well, actually they do that in the day too, in fact, all the time really. It's a growing concern. Chuunibyou, or Eighth Grader Syndrome, is the countless delusions that young teenagers are under that they are actually heroes from another world or mages wielding great power. Normally this terrible affliction ends upon entering high school, but not for the Rikka, wielder of the "Wicked Eye". Now Shinka Nibutani, along with several others, has been dragged along for the magical chuunibyou ride, with the ever so well hidden secrets of her past self gradually spilling out into her normal high school life. Something that as a popular member of the cheerleading club, she cannot afford.

Nibutani is in an interesting position compared to Mio, as she starts off as a stronger character who is brought down a peg or two after the other cast members find out about her past chuunibyou. Once again, like with Mio, it's down to Nibutani to be the sensible and rational member of the group, as everyone else ranges from generally incompetent, to borderline insane. Her ultra embarrassing point is her old chuunibyou past as the mage, Mori Summer, something that only the other club members know about and is now coming back to haunt her. Nibutani and fellow delusional teen Dekomori have a similar type of relationship to Mio and Ritsu as well, with Dekomori constantly toying with the normally serious Nibutani, who inevitably lashes out at her irritating junior. Although she's better than Mio at dealing with her unusual friends, Nibutani is one waifu we'd suggest checking out.


5. Yui Funami from Yuru Yuri (YuruYuri: Happy Go Lily)

It's amazing how little some clubs actually do take Yuru Yuri's Amusement Club for example; four middle school girls who sit around reading, talking and drinking tea. They're having a great time though so who are we to stop them? Yuru Yuri focuses on said Amusement Club and the various other girls they drag along for the ride, as they go day to day being cute girls doing cute things. Yui Funami is one of the two senpais in the club and the only one who can really be trusted with any kind of responsibility. Although normally quite dry and expressionless, Yui is a reliable and caring girl, and a good pun can quickly break her poker face and send her into fits of laughter.

Yui's relationship with Kyouko, the other clubs senpai, is the centerpiece of her similarity to Mio. We once again see the double act routine, with Yui playing the straight man and Kyouko as the funny man, although sometimes Yui does her best to simply ignore Kyouko's idiocy. She is by a long shot the most sensible girl out of pretty much the entire cast, a similar situation to Mio, and thus also one of the most trusted characters throughout. Yui is also one of the only normal, traditional looking members of the cast, being surrounded by crazy hair colours and detachable buns. The one biggest difference between Mio and Yui is that Yui rarely gets embarrassed like Mio so often does. Ignoring that, though, you should definitely check out Yui from Yuru Yuri when you get the chance.


6. Aya Komichi from Kiniro Mosaic (KINMOZA!)

Kiniro Mosaic is the slice-of-life result of two blonde, British high schoolers moving to Japan, both of whom thankfully have excellent Japanese. Alongside the two golden-haired fairies are three fairly ordinary Japanese girls, one of whom has a concerning obsession with blonde hair and Britain, but mostly just blonde hair. Aya Komichi is the twin-tailed tsundere of the group and one of the few who doesn't seem to be fascinated by the foreigners in the room. Together, Aya and the other four girls go about their generally ordinary high school lives, with much homework, tea, and messing around.

Aya is actually very similar to Kagami who we mentioned earlier on the list, particularly with them sharing tsundere tendencies and sporting similarly styled twin tails. So as you can imagine Aya also shares much with Mio, including those tsundere moments, a diligent and serious personality, and shy scenes where she basically has a meltdown. We see the comedy duo point come up here again as well, with Aya's friend Youko being her idiot that's always messing about. Their scenes very quickly go from Aya being taken aback by a compliment from Youko to Youko getting hit, or Aya running off crying. A bigger cry baby than Mio will ever be, be sure to check out Kiniro Mosaic for a glimpse of Aya in action.


Final Thoughts

Although there are many similar characters to Mio, somehow her perfect balance of maturity, tsun, and adorableness have managed to make her really stand out from the rest. It's interesting to note as well just how important Mio's relationship with Ritsu is to her character, and how often we see a similar relationship come up, particularly in slice-of-life series.

So what did you think of the waifu this time? Any that you prefer to Mio or that you're already a big fan of? Or maybe you have some suggestions of your own. Either way, we'd love to hear your thoughts, so why not leave us a comment down below!

Mio-Akiyama-K-On-wallpaper-300x385 6 Anime Waifu Like Mio from K-On! [Recommendations]

Writer

Author: Kristian

British guy doing student things in Tokyo. Slice-of-life and moe anime are my speciality, though I think something good can be found in almost every show. Outside of anime I spend most of my time feeding on DotA 2 or studying Japanese in a quest to one day watch cute girls without subtitles.

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