Coming-of-age anime can be found in a number of anime genres that usually follow a group of young teens as they begin to grow up, learning life lessons along the way. Many shojo anime also fall under the coming-of-age troupe and are all the better for it.
But coming-of-age isn't only in shojo, it is in a number of other extremely popular anime as well and is a troupe that many fans gravitate towards without even realizing it. These anime usually are pretty heart-warming overall and will make audiences root for the main characters to become the best they can be.
10 Free!
Though Free! is a sports anime about swimming, it also makes for an excellent coming-of-age anime. If Haru knows anything, it is that he loves to swim, so much so that he finds that is all he really cares about. Haru is nearing the end of high school and he simply does not know what he wants to do with his life beyond.
He is rather quiet and keeps to himself, but with little pulls from his friends, he slowly realizes that swimming is a team sport, no matter how lonely it may seem. He decides on his future and leaves his hometown with his best friend, Mako, to start training as hard as he can.
9 Kimi Ni Todoke
This adorable shojo anime is about a shy girl who tries desperately to come out of her shell. Sawako Kuronuma, dubbed Sadako by her classmates because of her similarities to the horror character in The Ring, is feared by most, and she doesn't really know how to break out of it due to her own shyness around people. In comes totally normal boy, Shota Kazehaya who actually treats Sawako like a normal person. With his help, Sawako learns to be herself more openly and is actually able to make friends and new experiences.
8 Haikyuu!!
Haikyuu!! is another sports anime that focuses on volleyball, and may just be one of the most popular anime currently. This story focuses on two characters who played volleyball in their middle school teams, Shoto Hinata and Tobio Kageyama. The two go head to head and swear that they are each other's rivals, so it gets a bit complicated when they end up joining the same team in high school.
This sports anime focuses on Hinata and Kageyama coming into their own. Kageyama must learn how to be apart of a team and not the infamous King of the Court, while Hinata has to work hard in order to achieve his goals of becoming the new Little Giant.
7 Silver Spoon
City boy Hachiken Yuugo decided to change his own path and attend Oezo Agricultural High School out in the country where he would be able to dorm while learning all about agriculture and how to farm. He did this with the intention of leaving the highly demanding race to succeed in modern school and prep schools that really only care about test scores and class ranks, but he discovered that farming is just as difficult but way more rewarding.
6 Fruits Basket
The new iteration of Fruits Basket is probably one of the greatest anime that is currently airing. With the third and final season to be released this spring, Fruits Basket is closing in on a story about Tohru Honda, a high school girl who ends up getting mixed in with the cursed Soma family. Tohru helps all of her new friends with a number of issues, and by doing so ends up learning more about herself and realizing things she never knew about herself.
As she helps the Somas deal with their issues, she ends up solving her own problems as well. The art and story are truly beautiful and make this coming-of-age shojo anime a ten out of ten.
5 Whisper Of The Heart
Whisper of the Heart is one of Studio Ghibli's lesser-known anime movies about a young girl in school who has no idea what her passions are and what she would like to pursue after. But once Shizuku realizes that she keeps seeing the same name in the books she checks out in the library, Seiji Amasawa, Shizuku realizes that her passion lies within stories.
With the help of Seiji and her grandfather, Shizuku begins to explore this passion and decides to write her first novel and dreams of becoming an author while Seiji studies to become a violin maker. The story is super sweet with a beautiful love story and is definitely Ghibli's hidden gem.
4 Gurren Lagann
While many may think of Gurren Lagann as a shonen action/comedy anime made by Trigger, it is also a perfect coming-of-age story. At the beginning of the series, Simon is a young kid who dreams of seeing the surface again.
He, Yoko, and Kamina end up venturing out into the unknown with one another, and Simon is forced to learn how to grow up rather quickly. The show even has a time skip, with Simon becoming more of an adult and learning to believe in the him that Kamina believes in.
3 Hunter X Hunter
Though Gon and Killua remain as children for the majority of the series, the story heavily revolves around both of them going through trial and error, learning how to properly do things to achieve their goals. The two best friends come from extremely different backgrounds but learn to work with one another and end up getting along super well. They try to overcome enemy after enemy while remaining true to themselves and learning the powers deep within them.
2 Clannad
Clannad is another perfect example of a coming-of-age anime. While a lot of this story is sad and heartbreaking, it also has extremely uplifting themes and a happy ending. The story follows a male protagonist who learns life lessons and how to overcome his own problems as he helps his friends with the very intense problems each of them has. The story is divided into different arcs, focusing on a different character and their issues throughout. In Clannad: After Story, it follows the main two characters of the series just after graduation and shows what will happen next.
1 Naruto
With over 700 episodes of content, the fact that Naruto is a coming-of-age story may have been forgotten, but it is probably the most fitting anime for this genre and definitely, a must-watch for all. At the beginning of the series, Naruto Uzumaki is an orphan boy ostracized from the entire village due to the Fox Demon that lives within him. To prove everyone wrong about him, Naruto makes it his life ambition to become the Hokage.
The series continues throughout Naruto's life and shows him, and all of his friends, grow up. Together, they go through some intense changes both physically and mentally and learn to be the ninja they always wanted to be. Ultimately, Naruto is about the characters discovering their dreams and trying desperately to live them out. With Shippuden and Boruto, fans get to see the man Naruto becomes.