Summary
People’s suffering is almost never funny - unless, of course, it happens to someone who had it coming. Schadenfreude, the feeling of joy when something bad happens to someone, is a huge part of comedy, not without reason. Audiences have a part of them that’s at least a little sadistic, and seeing bad things happen to fictional characters can fulfill that desire.
Whether it’s through slapstick, snarky remarks, or good old physical humor, plenty of anime make use of the schadenfreude factor. And despite their mean-spirited nature, it’s hard to deny their entertainment value. After all, it’s asafe way to indulge in the darker aspects of humorwithout causing real harm.
6No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys' Fault I’m Not Popular!
The Protagonist’s Failed Attempts at Becoming Popular are Both Cringe-Worthy and Hilarious
No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys' Fault I’m Not Popular!a.k.a.WataMoteis about asocially awkward otaku girlnamed Tomoko Kuroki who struggles with making friends and fitting in. The series' humor comes from the fact from Tomoko’s desperate and cringe-worthy attempts to become popular, making it the most well-known cringe comedy in anime.
WataMotewalks a fine line between mean-spirited and funny, especially for viewers with social anxiety. A lot of the anime’s comedy comes from Tomoko’s social blunders and general awkwardness. Despite all that, she’s still incredibly relatable, and many fans can’t help but laugh at her antics.
5Excel Saga
Gleefully Mocks its Characters' Failures While Throwing Logic Out the Window
Excel Sagais a satirical anime that pokes fun at nearly every genre and trope in anime and manga, so it’s bound to get a little mean-spirited. It follows a ditzy but energetic agent of a secret organization called ACROSS named Excel as she gets into wacky hijinks with her partner Hyatt.
Much of the humor inExcel Sagacomes from the misfortune of its characters, especially Excel. She faces absurdly harsh punishments fromher boss, Il Palazzo,and she suffers throughout the series in other ways too, like being electrocuted, getting caught in explosions, and falling from great heights. And it’s all played for laughs.
A spiritual successor toExcel Saga,Panty and Stocking with Garterbeltsimilarly follows the hilarious misadventures of the two main characters. Except in this case,the comedy is much morecrude and vulgar, similar to many adult animated comedies in the West.
And just likeSouth Park,the violence is over-the-top, the jokes are raunchy, and both Panty and Stocking have mouths of sailors. Along with the two protagonists' complete disregard for other people and each other, the show manages to be crass and hysterical simultaneously.
3Prison School
The Punishments Inflicted on the Five Main Characters are Too Over-the-Top to Take Seriously
Prison Schooltakes place in Hachimitsu Academy, an all-girls school that has recently started accepting male students. While the first five male students to enroll are eager to be surrounded by a thousand girls at first, their excitement turns to fear when they get sent to the school’s prison after getting caught peeping in the girls' showers. Unfortunately for them, the Underground Student Council in charge of their punishments is composed of sadistic women.
Prison Schoolmight as well be called ‘Schadenfreude: The Series’, as the five boys faceincredibly bizarre and humiliating punishmentsat the hands of the Underground Student Council.
2Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei
Deals with Suicide and Depression in the Most Darkly Hilarious Way Possible
Sayonara Zetsubou-senseiis a satirical series that followsa high school teacher named Nozomu Itoshikiwho is extremely pessimistic and perpetually in despair. He often contemplates suicide, although his attempts are always thwarted in a darkly funny matter.
While topics such as suicide and depression are inherently serious,Sayonara Zetsubou-senseicritiques and brings light to these issues with its unique brand of dark comedy. The ridiculous ways Nozomu’s suicide attempts are thwarted add to the series' hilarity, as well as the fact that his foil is a relentlessly cheerful girl named Kafuka Fuura, who insists he’s just trying to make himself taller.
While most of Rumiko Takahashi’s works are mean-spirited to some degree,Ranma 1/2takes the cake because ofits protagonist’s unique circumstances. Ranma Saotome, a teenage martial artist, falls into a cursed spring during a training trip in China. As a result, he transforms into a girl when splashed with cold water and reverts into a boy when splashed with hot water.
Ranma’s gender-bending abilities provide much of the series' humor, giving way to numerous misunderstandings and embarrassing moments. In addition, the series features lots of slapstick and over-the-top violence, courtesy of Ranma’s tsundere love interest, Akane Tendo.
