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Gintama is one of the funniest comedy anime to exist if the fact that it tops many top comedy anime lists is any indication. While many other comedy anime exist, none have quite earned the amazing popularity that Gintama has.
However, this doesn't mean there haven't been comedies that cannot match Gintama's brand of humor. Lucky Star, Pop Team Epic, Nichijou, and others exist that have as many, if not more, burst-out laughing moments in them as Gintama in some cases. This article will provide the 10 comedic anime that can rival Gintama for the next big laugh-out-loud comedy.
Disclaimer: Since this is a comparison article, the following article will contain Gintama spoilers as well as other anime spoilers. The opinions belong only to the author alone.
10 comedic anime that may be Gintama's successor
1) Pop Team Epic
To this day, most fans of comedic anime have searched for an anime that would match Gintama's fourth wall breaks and other references for humor. Pop Team Epic has this in spades, not only breaking genre conventions by being a sketch comedy but also having plenty of animation changes for jokes.
Gintama is likewise full of these kinds of moments. Despite the anime having a story already, the fans usually forget this in favor of the jokes made at the expense of other anime. Pop Team Epic is basically the jokes all over, with many being made with completely different VAs for the main two girls, and an in-universe shojo anime being relentlessly mocked.
2) The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Odd as this type of anime might be to compare to Gintama, consider this: both of them deal with a regular seeming life being interrupted by the supernatural elements around them. In Gintama's case, it's aliens invading Japan in the Edo Period. In Haruhi, it's the titular protagonist being a god who can summon any supernatural force she desires.
The other characters in Gintama tend to be dubbed the straight men in that comedy, particularly Shinpachi. This is similar to Kyon's role as the tsundere and straight man to the rest of the SOS Brigade. It doesn't mean they won't indulge in their own type of comedic antics, but more so that they'll keep people in line and their heads on straight when things go wrong.
3) Lucky Star
Gintama may not be as slice of life as Lucky Star, but the two are similar in some ways. They both have plenty of shout-outs and references to otaku culture, from Ultraman to Gunbuster and shonen anime like Dragon Ball Z. Some have even compared Konata and Gintoki, both protagonists usually being extreme slackers obsessed with pop culture.
The big difference is how the two anime go about their humor. Gintama tends to be quick, or rather dedicate entire episodes to its humorous stories about getting stuck in toilets, fighting ghosts, and the like. Lucky Star is more grounded with its brand of humor, much like Azumanga Diaoh.
4) Azumanga Daioh
Azumanga Daioh set the standard for "cute girls doing cute things," otherwise known as moe-type stories. From Lucky Star to Yotsuba&!, Azumanga Daioh is the progenitor of that genre. The fully grounded nature of the characters helps contrast the absurdism of everyday life, as sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.
The comedy doesn't go the full surreal that Gintama usually does, instead focuses on the banter between the high school girls. It also proved that stories about high school girls could be profitable and popular simply by giving them varied personalities and making that the focus.
5) Nichijou: My Ordinary Life
Surreal jokes are something special in the days of more ironic humor. While Nichijou doesn't quite get as serious as Gintama, it is frankly far superior in it's humor choices. It's a sketch comedy that likewise does art shifts like Bocchi the Rock! or Pop Team Epic and is considered one of the most popular comedy anime.
There are several signature scenes from this anime - the Principal performing a suplex on a deer and Mio beating up three people and a goat due to a manga scan in a newspaper being among them. The surreal nature of everything happening being taken perfectly straight is the comedy here.
6) The Disastrous Life of Saiki K
Weirdness and normalcy intermingle with Gintama and The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. Whereas Gintama deals with aliens vs. samurai, Saiki K. deals with humans and psychics. Kusuo Saiki is a psychic in a world that normally doesn't have anything supernatural in it.
This serves as a useful point of comparison between the two since both Gintoki and Kusuo are trying to be normal people. Kusuo is trying to live a quiet life, and he can't due to his powers and the general weird aspects of life that keep him away from it, Gintoki wants to just read manga, but everyone else gets in his way. One is obviously more sympathetic than the other, and thus more comedic.
7) Bocchi The Rock!
One of the things people love about Gintama is how it balances out the comedy with seriousness, even though some people only remember the seriousness. Bocchi The Rock! does both, often with animation changes or cuts to something that relates to the humor.
Whether a giant monster rampaging through town as a metaphor for social media attention-grabbing, Hitori just glitching out, and the other animation tricks done to convey the wild feelings anxiety hits, Bocchi The Rock! doesn't shy away from the consequences of anxiety and what it does to someone.
8) Beelzebub
Beelzebub profiles a delinquent named Tatsumi Oga, who is strongarmed into taking care of the demon king's baby. This isn't an exaggeration, nor a positive, as Baby Beel comes with his own set of challenges when it comes to raising him, including controlling his powers while having to deal with the troubles of a rough and tumble school.
Though the manga may get serious action scenes, the anime is more lighthearted and akin to Gintama's original humor focus. However, this does nothing to diminish Beelzebub in any way, shape, or form from being a great series since it follows a plot that gets serious after a while.
9) Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu
A spin-off of Full Metal Panic, Fumoffu does away with the mecha fights the series is known for in favor of high school antics. If this sounds repetitive, given that half the list is high school antics, it's differentiated in one key aspect: one of the main characters, Sousuke Sagara, is a military-trained kid serving as Kaname Chidori's bodyguard.
The problem in this series revolves around Sousuke not knowing when to turn off the military training to keep a low profile. So, everyday interactions become a hair trigger for him to spring into action. For example, Souske blows up his locker because someone got into it, and it's revealed its several girls with a crush on him or shooting an arcade cabinet with a real gun when it runs out of ammo.
10) GTO/Great Teacher Onizuka
If anyone is interested in the comedic antics of more adult characters in a comedic anime, Great Teacher Onizuka (also known as GTO) is right up their alley. The series profiles Eikichi Onizuka, an ex-gang member who is determined to become a great teacher to score with girls, much like Denji from Chainsaw Man.
While this bumbling man somehow manages to acquire a job at an esteemed private school, his trouble is only beginning as he faces plenty of challenges, from a failing class to teachers setting him up to fail. Onizuka starts to get used to his new job, despite having no idea what he's doing at first, owing to genuinely trying to help his students, much like Koro-Sensei from Assassination Classroom or even Gintoki himself.
This has been a list of 10 comedic anime that can rival and surpass Gintama. While the aforementioned anime is still atop many comedy lists, many of the ones on this list have probably surprised the reader considering they're either older or only recently airing.
Humor is usually subjective to personal opinion. After all, some may love Gintama or others something like GTO or Nichijou. If any comedy anime were forgotten, readers are encouraged to add more.
