As one of the more absurd slice-of-life animes out there, Nichijou has some of the best and the wackiest characters to grace your television or computer screen. Set around a few overlapping groups as they live out their regular, everyday lives ("nichijou" in Japanese) and all of the surreal, insightful, and hilarious moments that come with those small points in time.
A robot that wants to be a real girl, a talking cat, a troll queen, and a girl with yaoi drawings' talent, Nichijou really does deliver with its characters. But who's the most likable?
10 Yoshino Naganohara
As Mio's older sister, Yoshino has made it her life's mission to prank Mio mercilessly. Even though she has her own college classes to attend, she still puts time into dressing up in an unsettling costume and chasing her younger sister when she's late to class. While Yoshino does seem to have a good relationship with a member of her kendo team, the shenanigans that she puts Mio through definitely puts her at the bottom of the likeability list - no matter how funny the prank.
9 Koujirou Sasahara
Koujirou Sasahara is the upperclassman that Mio has an enormous crush on. So much so that she uses him as inspiration for her yaoi drawings. Sasahara is a peculiar student as he arrives at school everyday riding a goat and accompanied by a butler. Sasahara gives an aristocracy air, which is hilarious since he is just the eldest son of a regular farming family. What makes him so likable is how delusional yet irresistible he is, especially to the other girl who likes him.
8 Misato Tachibana
Misato is a character that takes her role as this anime's designated "tsundere" seriously, as she will stop at nothing to deflect the fact that she has feelings for Koujirou Sasahara. Misato's crush on him is so severe that it triggers her tsundere personality, which means that she's temperamental at first but then softens up.
However, in Nichijou, Misato pulls out a gun to shoot him with when she gets angry with him. Koujirou never actually gets wounded, though, so it's all in good, trope-y fun.
7 Mai Minakami
Mai is a prevalent character in Nichijou but let's be real - she is a troll. Mai is very quiet and odd and chooses to spend her time either reading or pranking her people. While most of her pranks are hilarious, like when Mai releases a fish she just caught on their big camping trip after all the food's been ruined, sometimes they can be a little cruel. Like when she used her dog's frisbee for skeet shooting...during their game of frisbee fetch.
6 Mio Naganohara
While Mio is a talented artist, an excellent friend, and is usually the resident Straight Man of the trio, the girl does have a temper. From assaulting a goat and a police officer to look at her yaoi drawing of Sasahara-senpai to insult Yuuko regularly, she can't help but get angry and lash out. However, Mio's sensitivity about her drawings is completely relatable, making her outlandish reactions - like running away from Yuuko at superhuman speed - at least a little justified.
5 Yuuko Aoi
Despite being the scatterbrain of the trio who never does well in school, Yuuko has an unbridled charisma her friends Mai and Mio don't have, and it makes her the most likable of the three of them.
Even though she doesn't do her homework, she can't figure out how to order a coffee, and she can't get the mosquito flying around her room; Yuuko is a good portion of the anime's laughs. She's also the one to befriend Nano, and for that, we love her.
4 Professor Shinonome
An actual genius and child prodigy in science, the Professor, get away with many things because she's a cute 8-year-old kid who loves cakes and sharks. Even though it takes her a long time to let Nano go to school finally and she can behave like a spoiled brat that only cares about omelet rice, there's no doubt that the Professor (some fans prefer to call her Hakase, which is Japanese for "professor") is one of the most likable characters in the anime.
3 Sakamoto
As he prefers, a black cat who gets taken in by Nano and the Professor, Sakamoto, or Sakamoto-san is one of the best parts of Nichijou. When he wears a special red scarf that Professor invented, Sakamoto has the ability to speak, and he lets everyone know that he is their respected elder who becomes ashamed when he gives in to his cat instincts and - gasps! - plays with tissues, which adds to his grumpy charm and likability. And who doesn't love a cute cat?
2 Izumi Sakurai
As Mai, Mio, and Yuuko's English teacher, Sakurai-sensei is a 24-year-old who's always nervous and flustered, with cute little anime sweat drops constantly surrounding her like a halo. Sakurai-sensei also serves as a career adviser and a counselor, which she may not be exactly suited for, as she has a hard time telling students what to do - which is just so charming. Sakurai's likability also lies in how anxious she gets whenever she's confronted with the looniness and absurdities within the anime.
1 Nano Shinonome
From her first introduction in episode one, it was obvious that Nano would be the most endearing character of the entire anime. Built by the Professor, Nano is a cute robot with an enormous wind-up key on her back, which she is deathly insecure about, prompting her to try and make excuses for it to a random cat. Even though she was built to be a caretaker/cake vending machine, all Nano really wants is to be a normal teenager.
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