Are you an adult who likes cartoons? Are you also being crushed in the meat grinder of late-stage capitalism that takes all your hard work and turns it into cash for others? Adulthood certainly isn’t as great as it was when you were a kid, right?
While escapism through cartoons is the reason isekai are so popular today, sometimes the best remedy for the sheer pain of reality is relativity.
The anime shows you, an overworked adult, other overworked adults are also suffering from burnout. Sometimes, they can help you find inspiration or at least a helpful coping mechanism. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to empathize with someone, even if they’re a fictional character.
If you are looking for anime where the main character is exhausted from overwork, then try these anime recommendations.
Anime About Adults Exhausted From Overwork
Zom 100 – Bucket List of the Dead
The Zom 100 speaks to loud silence when it comes to the many modern emotions of the pending apocalypse – Oh, at least I don’t have to go to work anymore!
In fact, that’s the whole premise of this zombie apocalypse series. The protagonist is so completely burned by an exploitative company that he considers jumping in front of a train so he doesn’t have to go to work. However, one day, he wakes up in a zombie apocalypse, where he joyfully realizes that he can finally live free.
Zom 100 is partly a zombie apocalypse survival anime, but it’s a place where the main characters prioritize having fun and doing everything they want to do as adults when they have the time and energy for them. that work.
Masterful Cat is depressed again today
There are a few series on this list that are best described as “overworked iyashikei, or “healing,” anime. They are supposed to be cute, without drama, and something that makes adult audiences strain to watch in order to feel a little healed by cute pranks.
The Masterful Cat is Depression Again Today follows a female office worker who brings home a small kitten in a snowstorm one day. Over the years, this cat has actually grown and grown larger than expected—the size of a bear rather than a cat. Moreover, the cat is really a master when it starts cooking, cleaning and shopping for the irresponsible office worker who is always exhausted from her work.
Today, the cat Masterful suffers from overwork depression again, but sometimes the human protagonist is a bit too approachable, such as when she sobs, hugging her cat at the front door and told him she didn’t want to go to work that day.
Meddlesome Kitsune Senko-san
Meddlesome Kitsune Senko-san is an overworked iyashikei who knows what overworked salaried people really want – someone soft to stroke their hair when they get home.
The series follows a standard Japanese salaried worker who returns home one day to an old fox spirit claiming she will take care of him – and that’s what she does. She cooks, she cleans, she gives him all the attention he needs without having time to go out and convince someone to do it for her.
Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost
This overworked iyashikei anime doesn’t have an ancient spirit or a giant cat taking care of an overworked female office worker, but rather a childish ghost.
Initially, the ghost haunts her office and tries to scare a female office worker out of the office when she gets caught up in the constant overtime. Realizing that she’s not really scared of any of her efforts, she begins to do nice things like bring her food and make sure she’s taken care of.
It eventually leads to the ghost going to live with the female office worker as she begins to find work-life balance.
Although being cared for by a natural-born child ghost makes viewers feel sad, this series emphasizes cuteness more than any other type of drama. We don’t act out in iyashikei.
Aggressive Retsuko
Aggressive Retsuko, or Aggretsuko as it is often shortened to, is an animated Sanrio mascot in which a super likable red panda character must face unreasonable expectations and expectations in the workplace. work, and a whole bunch of obnoxious co-workers. She copes with this by singing jarring death metal karaoke.
Despite being a comedy anime, Aggretsuko doesn’t really have a positive message overall. Since it has short-form episodes, it just shows you how stressful and frustrating office work can be, and the only way to deal with it is to find ways to cope and suffer.
MMO Junkie Recovery
You look at those senior businesswomen and think they look very content with high pressure work, but in reality, they are just as stressed as everyone else. Recovery of an MMO Junkie is about a highly successful businesswoman who saved enough money to quit her job, quit the ground, and become a self-contained person, playing MMOs all day.
She is living her dream and is happy no longer facing stress, but also realizes that her social skills decrease when she no longer has to use them on a daily basis.
The plot of the series is about her cross-playing a male character in her MMO, accidentally meeting a colleague who admires her from the past, who is also cross-playing a female character on that same MMO, and became closer in the game and once again met face-to-face.
The series is an admittedly romantic comedy aimed at gamers rather than exhausted non-gaming office workers.
Black Lagoon
Since Black Lagoon is best known as an anime about a group of mercenaries who take on a variety of morally questionable jobs just to make money, that-at first glance-doesn’t seem to apply. However, the supposed protagonist of the series started the series as a salaryman.
He goes to do his job and works tirelessly to bring glory to his boss. During one trip, he is kidnapped and learns how wasted his life is for the company that hires him when they are willing to let the kidnappers kill them instead of giving them what they want.
While his company eventually negotiates for his life, after learning the truth and experiencing the thrills of a less-than-legitimate profession, he joins the mercenary squad that formerly held him captive. as a member.
ReLife
Unlike the other series on this list, ReLife isn’t really about an overworked protagonist, but rather he’s the victim of a coworker.
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That means he was involved in a traumatic incident with a coworker that worried him too much to be able to do an office job. After abruptly quitting his job, the company blacklisted him, forcing him to become a self-contained NEET.
The plot of ReLife follows him as he is approached by a company that rehabilitates NEETs like him by giving them a drug to help them look younger and arranging for them to enjoy a year of high school.
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The theory was that re-enjoying a year of youth would help restore his social skills and confidence, and it did, though not without some stumbles.
Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan
Don’t be fooled by those happy smiles, you have to look into those dead and lifeless eyes. Uramichi Oniisan is a comedy anime about adults who realize that adulthood isn’t quite as brilliant as when they were younger. In fact, it’s not dazzling at all – that’s where dreams die.
The humor in this series comes from the fact that the main character is doing a cute show for kids and you, the audience, are enjoying his inner monologue about how he hates work. himself, these children, the people around him, and his life. There are also many supporting characters who also find adulthood disappointing in different ways.
Needless to say, this is a darker comedy.
Shirobako
Shirobako is a candid look at the life of someone who worked in the anime industry to create anime. It does a good job of balancing the character’s dream fulfillment while also showing some of the harsher realities and more intense expectations that come from doing so.
However, Shirobako was made before it started to become more common than common knowledge about how overworked animators really are. So sometimes I often wonder how the story of Shirobako would be presented if the story were made today. Will it still have the element of bright eyes and ruffled tails even in times of crisis or will it spawn burned individuals like Zom 100?
Police in a Pod
It doesn’t matter what country you do it in, if you’re a police officer, you’ll catch a lot of stuff from the public police.
Police in a Pod is about a woman who doesn’t have big dreams of becoming a police officer. She merely wanted a steady job and after failing every other civil service exam, she was only able to get into the police academy.
The film begins with her considering quitting her job due to constant criticism from disgruntled citizens. However, she is inspired by her new partner.
While Police in a Pod is often quite humorous, it’s not afraid to get serious when it comes to the dark realities of police work. It is a dangerous and often ungrateful job, but a necessary one.
I’ve been killing Slimes for 300 years and reached my max
The isekai genre is filled with overworked scenes where the protagonist dies and is rewarded with a new life in a fantasy world. Throw a stone, and you will hit three. So why, out of all the isekai anime that I could enrich this list, I chose this pretty slice of life isekai?
300 Slimes is about a woman who is killed by overwork and is exhausted because when she is reincarnated as an immortal being, she doesn’t even want to continue the adventure. She just wanted, very comfortably, to sit around her house. So that’s what she does, only going out to kill slimes to pay for food and other necessities.
Isekai is escapism and so is this person. 300 Slimes is a fun series about staying away from adventure and just having a good time with new friends.
Do you know any more cartoons about overworked main characters suffering from work burnout? Let fans know in the comments section below.