Top 10 anime about nerd life
It took a while, but pop culture has finally come around on nerds. Things like cosplay, comic books and Dungeons & Dragons aren't just mainstream now, they're cool. TV and movies have moved beyond shunning and mocking nerds to embracing and celebrating their hobbies and passions.
Since nerds are cool now, we're living a gold age of nerd-centric media. Anime is no exception. A growing number of anime shows and movies follow nerdy characters as they game, collect and cosplay.
With that in mind, here is an alphabetical list of the best anime about characters living their best nerd lives:
1. Comic Girls
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
Led by main character Kaoruko – known by her pen name Kaos – Comic Girls follows a group of female manga artists living in a special dorm for aspiring artists. What follows is a pretty neat spin on a slice of life story. While all of the main cast are pretty nerdy characters, the stand-out is Tsubasa, whose artistic process involves cosplaying as her own characters, complete with yelling her over-the-top attack names.
Comic Girls will be particularly interesting to non-Japanese viewers, who don't necessarily have any insight into the inner workings of the manga industry. In general, though, the series is also both an examination and a celebration of the lives and works of creative people chasing their ambitions to bring their ideas to life.
2. Dr. Stone
Where to watch: Crunchyroll (three seasons), Netflix (two seasons)
One day, the entire human race is suddenly turned to stone. Through sheer force of will, scientific prodigy Senku is able to remain conscious and aware for the next 3,700 years until managing to break free from the stone. Not long after, Senku reunites with his friend Taiju and the two resolve to combine Taiju's physical strength and Senku's genius mind to free the rest of humanity from being petrified and restore civilization.
While Dr. Stone is the closest thing to a typical shōnen action series, it's still notable for following a hero who uses intellect and scientific knowledge rather than brute force or elaborate fighting techniques. That's not to say there's no action in Dr. Stone, but it is fascinating to see how the series took the time to figure out how a small group of people would use science to rebuild civilization from basically zero.
3. Himouto! Umaru-chan
Where to watch: HIDIVE
In public, Umaru is beautiful, graceful and supremely talented both athletically and academically. When she goes, however, she regresses to her true self: an immature gremlin obsessed with anime and video games who subsists on a diet of potato chips and cola. Her true self is a secret to everybody but her older brother Taihei, and her attempts to conceal this persona from her friends creates a lot of funny moments.
"Himouto" is a Japanese pun based on combing a slang word for "lazy person" and the word for "little sister." That about sums it up. Despite her talented and dignified public persona, Umaru is a total slacker who' so obsessed with playing video games and reading her manga that she won't even go to get the new releases herself, forcing Taihei to basically do everything for her.
4. Hi Score Girl
Where to watch: Netflix
The year is 1991. Street Fighter II has taken Japanese arcades by storm. A chance encounter between Haruo's Guile and Akira's Zangief sets off a gaming rivalry that slowly blossoms into friendship as the two bond over their shared love of gaming. The two main characters of Hi Score Girl play some of the most iconic games of the 1990s.
Thanks to being set in the 90s, Hi-Score Girl doesn't just celebrate gaming. It particularly relishes in taking viewers in a deep dive about retro gaming. For example, if you've never heard the phrase "Guile-turtling", Hi-Score Girl has more than a few things to teach you about classic Street Fighter.
5. Kaguya-sama: Love is War
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
The main cast of Kaguya-sama: Love is War are the members of Shuchiin Academy student council. There are a lot of different flavors of nerdy behavior on display in the group. Chika creates board games for fun, speaks five languages and is surprisingly skilled at dance choreography and freestyle rap; Yu is into video games, manga and light novels; Miko is obsessed with following and upholding the school rules. The two primary characters, Miyuki and Kaguya are the student council president and vice president and the two top students.
Most of the series's humor comes from watching very smart people acting very stupid. Although Miyuki and Kaguya are the two top students in their class, they're both socially clueless in a lot of ways, which leads to many comic misunderstandings with the other characters. They're also hopelessly in love with each other but also both convinced that they can't be the first to admit it, so they have to resort to ridiculously convoluted methods to avoid admitting their feelings and try to force the other to do it first.
6. Lucky Star
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
Lucky Star is easily one of the most laid-back slice of life anime series there is. There's not real overarching plot and most episodes consists of little more than conversations between the main cast of girls. The most prominent character, Konata is a huge nerd, while the the rest of the main cast are also nerds to varying degrees. This means that most of those conversations are about anime and video games.
Unfortunately, since the Lucky Star anime is almost 20 years old at this point, not all of the pop culture references have remained topical. Some the games and anime that are the basis for the jokes in the anime haven't stayed at the forefront of pop culture awareness, so viewers may be a little lost at certain points. The original four-panel manga, however, is still running.
7. Martian Successor Nadesico
Where to watch: Crunchyroll (sub only)
The easiest way to describe Martian Successor Nadesico is "Evangelion if it were a comedy." In fact, the original English dubs of Evangelion and Nadesico shared several of the same voice actors. Like Evangelion, Nadesico follows a group of teenage mecha pilots as they fight off an alien menace. Unlike Evangelion, most of the cast of Nadesico are huge fans of classic mecha anime and model their own mecha piloting on the exploits of their animated heroes.
Martian Successor Nadesico has a lot of fourth wall breaking, meta humor poking fun at the mecha genre and science fiction stories in general. There are also a lot of wacky, offbeat quick visual gags. On the other hand, despite being genuinely funny most of the time, Martian Successor Nadesico does have plenty of moments of real emotion weight and high stakes in the story.
8. My Dress-Up Darling
Where to watch: Crunchyroll
Following the familiar premise of "whimsical girl drags boring guy into her antics", what Gojo, the boring guy in question is being drag into specifically is Marin's cosplay. Previously an aspiring dollmaker, a chance encounter with Marin leads to her discovery of Gojo's eye for detail and talent with sewing. From there, the two bond as they work towards Marin's goal of becoming a cosplay model.
Although there's a lot of cosplay-based humor in My Dress-Up Darling, the series is fundamentally respectful towards the hobby. My Dress-Up Darling is very informative and detailed in its depiction of cosplay. The series makes it clear that pro cosplayers are talented, passionate people who work very hard to bring their favorite characters to life.
9. Otaku Elf
Where to watch: HIDIVE
400 years ago, the Elf Eldarie Irma Fanomene was summoned by the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu to become the patron deity of Tokyo. Although the general public knows her as the goddess Takamimi Hime no Mikoto, her shrine maiden and only friend Koito knows her as Elda. Since the general public isn't allowed into the inner temple, the only person who knows that Elda is actually a colossal nerd is Koito.
Since Elda has been a nerd for 400 years, one of the most interesting things about Otaku Elf is how it gives a surprisingly informative look at how the popular hobbies in Japanese society have changed since the Edo period. As Elda explains to Koito, a lot of present-day things since collectible figurines and prize raffles actually have parallels with similar phenomena from the past.
10. Uncle from Another World
Where to watch: Netflix
One day, Takafumi receives word that his uncle Yōsuke has awoken from a 17 year coma. Taken in by Takafumi, Yōsuke reveals that during his coma, he was actually transported to the world of Granbahamal and he is able to share his memories of Granbahamal by playing them like internet videos. Unfortunately, Yōsuke's adventures Granbahamal were complicated by his glaring lack of social skills.
Of course, since Yōsuke spent 17 years trapped in another world, he isn't just a nerd — he's a nerd stuck in the 90s. Yōsuke's reaction to the rise and fall of his beloved Sega in the time he's been gone is one of the series's funniest running gags. In general, his difficulty with adapting to 17 years of technological improvement is a constant struggle.
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