Unable to resist taking in abandoned kittens, and amassing quite a collection of them, Sorata Kanda is forced to move to Suimei high School’s infamous Sakura Hall. This dorm is used to house all the misfit students that don’t quite fit in the regular housing. There Sorata meets an array of different oddballs that inspire him to work towards getting back into the regular dorms. However, when a new transfer student moves in, he meets the incredible artist Shiina Mashiro. While talented, she is completely incapable of taking care of herself, and so, Sorata brings her into his care and his strange days truly begin.

Full of light-heart comedy and light romance, The Pet Girl of Sakura Hall is a great slice of life comedy for those that just want to relax and have a few laughs. While in the romance genre, it remains subtle and so much more fascinating is the array of different characters that it displays.

For Fans of Relaxed Romance

Golden Time

After a tragic accident, Banri Tada is struck with amnesia and forced to repeat his freshman year of college. After making a new friend at his Tokyo law school, his friend’s beautiful, but crazy stalker Kouko Kaga barges into his life and starts a whirlwind of love, mistakes, and friendships.

When it comes to romance in anime, Pet Girl of Sakura Hall keeps it somewhat realistic, but still surprisingly mature considering the comedy. Golden Time is considered one of the most mature romance shows in the genre. Both shows, however, deliver some stunning character development as well as engaging comedy.

The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior

Kazunari Usa is starting high school and finally talked his parents into letting him live alone. Excited for his new life, he moves into the Kawai Complex boarding house, only to find his new roommate a complete BSDM weirdo. Being put off by the eccentricity of it all, he is on his way to leave when he runs into his senior in high school, Ritsu Kawai, who also lives there. The sheer presence of this cool beauty talks him into giving life in this new house a try.

Out of all the other series on this list, Kawai Complex is the most similar to the Pet Girl of Sakura Hall, both are all about the laughs, lightly romantic, and about the female and male leads growing up and growing closer in a dorm and school setting. If you want the same vibes, these two series have the same vibes.

Toradora

Ryuuji Takasu is a gentle student with a passion for housework, however his thug face causes his fellow students to think him a delinquent. Taiga Aisaka is small and cute, but with an attitude as fierce as a tiger. Both of these misunderstood students have a crush two classmates, and after a series of misunderstandings of their own, they find themselves in an unlikely alliance.

While Toradora is about two unlikely souls coming together, Pet Girl of Sakura Hall is about two similar souls coming together. The male leads in both like to take care of other people, and both female leads are strongly dependant in terms of care. However, Taiga is much more aggressive about it, but both her and Shiina are poor at expressing their feelings.

For Fans of Oddballs

Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend

Tomoya Aki is a complete otaku obsesses with captivating stories and characters in his games, but recently he has decided to share this passion with others by creating a game himself. Unfortunately, he can’t do it on his own. In order to do it, he recruits a small harem to help him. However, in order to create the emotions in the game, what they don’t know is they have to experience those emotions in their lives.

While seemingly very different, at one arc in Pet Girl of Sakura Hall, they almost become the same anime. Both feature the characters coming together to create a game, but Pet Girl of Sakura Hall only focuses on it for a few episodes while Saekano is all about it. The romance is a bit different, too. Saekano is a harem while Pet Girl of Sakura Hall is more of a romantic triangle.

Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions

Everyone has that stage in their life where they think themselves special, different from mere humans. In middle school, Yuuta Togashi thought himself the Dark Flame Master, but upon entering high school, he has grown out of it. Unfortunately, after a chance meeting with Rikka Takanashi, a girl believing to have a God in her eye, attaches herself to him and brings that Chunibyo past back out.

Were you a fan of Pet Girl of Sakura Hall because of all the odd characters it introduced? Well, Chunibyo takes odd characters and turns the dial to eleven with them. If you’re an otaku that likes slice of life comedy with strong anime jokes, both series will be right for you.

My Little Monster

Shizuku Mizutani is highly intelligent, but apathetic to her classmates. However, when she is tasked with bringing homework to a violent delinquent, Haru Yoshida, her entire view of life slowly begins to change. Alongside the energetic Haru, they both learn how to interact with the world a little better.

Both anime series are about young people with some kind of emotional problems, however in each anime the male and female leads have different ones. In My Little Monster, the female lead is too cold while the male is too violent. In Pet Girl of Sakura Hall, the female lead is too helpless while the male is too caring. Both series are about them trying to overcome their flaws and figure out their shit.

For Fans of Making the Best Out of Life

Your Lie in April

After the death of his mother, young musical prodigy Kousei Arima is left the professional music world unable to play the piano. However, after being urged to attend a concert by his friends in support of another friend, he watches the brilliant violinist Kaori Miyazono bend the score to her will. Watching her energetic playing brings color back to Kousei’s world and might be the key to breaking his musical block.

While Pet Girl of Sakura Hall is somewhat bittersweet in the end, Your Lie in April is built on the platform of bittersweet. However, each series is about how the female leads inspire the male leads to figure out what they want out of their lives.

Honey and Clover

Yuuta, Takumi, and Shinobu all share an apartment with no bath. The low rent is perfect for their poor college student lifestyle. However, while they all have their own lives going on, they always come together for each others.

In its most basic form, these two series are exactly the same. A gentle boy falls for a quiet girl that is good at art. However, each presents different ways of handling the romance with the characters in Honey and Clover being just slightly more adept at life.

Hanasaku Iroha

Ohana Matsumae is an energetic teenager that lives with her mother in Tokyo. However, when her mother decides to run off with a man, she is sent to the country to live with a grandmother she has never met. As it turns out, her grandmother is not only cold to her, but runs an inn. Eager to earn her keep and grandmother’s affection, Ohana begins the hard work that makes sure an inn runs smoothly.

Instead of focusing on a boy and a girl as in the Pet Girl of Sakura Hall, this anime focuses on just a girl and her almost-loves. In both series, the main characters learn different views on life that ultimately help them decide what they want to do in their futures.

Did we miss any of your favorite anime recommendations for the Pet Girl of Sakura Hall? Tell us about them in the comments section below.