Anime Like Prison School: 15 Best Ecchi Comedy Series

The 2018 anime by Zero-G, adapted from Kenji Inoue and Kimitake Yoshioka’s manga. Iori Kitahara starts college expecting a peaceful undergraduate life and instead gets pulled into Peek-a-Boo, his uncle’s scuba diving club whose members spend more time drinking and pulling clothes off each other than actually diving. This is probably the closest match to Prison School’s spirit on the entire list: the same commitment to following a gross-out gag to its absolute limit, the same willingness to depict its characters at their most pathetic, the same pristine animation rendering increasingly chaotic scenarios. If you only watch one Prison School successor, make it this.

The 2013-2014 Studio Trigger anime directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi (also behind Gurren Lagann and Promare). Kill la Kill follows Ryuko Matoi, who transfers to Honnoji Academy seeking her father’s killer, armed with half of a special scissor blade and a sentient sailor uniform that grants her power when she wears it. The other half belongs to Satsuki Kiryuin, the academy’s iron-fisted student council president. Like Prison School, it’s set at an extreme version of a Japanese high school where the council holds absolute power, and the over-the-top action, constant ecchi humor, and absurd power escalation all hit similar notes. Trigger at the height of its powers.

The 1999-2000 adaptation of Tooru Fujisawa’s legendary manga (1997-2002). Eikichi Onizuka is a 22-year-old former bike-gang leader who becomes a teacher to meet high-school girls, then slowly discovers he’s actually good at the job. His unconventional methods (often involving intimidation and emotional manipulation) somehow solve the deeper problems his students are facing. GTO is the foundational text for the “delinquent applies his disreputable skills to a traditional institution” comedy, and Prison School and several other shows here owe it a debt. The 43-episode anime is one of the most beloved adaptations of the late ’90s, and the manga is even better.

A 2010-2014 series based on Tozen Ujiie’s manga. Takatoshi Tsuda is the first male student to enroll at Ousai Academy after it goes co-ed, and he ends up as Vice President of the Student Council, surrounded by three female members whose conversations are wall-to-wall innuendo delivered with completely deadpan expressions. The humor is built entirely on the contrast between their polite, professional demeanor and the constant lewd content of what they’re actually saying. Several seasons plus films exist, and for Prison School fans who loved the council dynamics and the running humor, this is the most consistent match.

A 2016 Xebec adaptation of Daichi Sorayomi’s manga, built around a fictional Japanese sport called “Keijo” in which competitors knock each other off floating platforms using only their bodies. The premise is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds, but the show works because it plays the absurdity completely straight as a legitimate sports anime: training arcs, tournament structure, rival schools, and named special moves all follow shonen sports tradition. Genuinely entertaining if you can embrace the concept, and like Prison School, it commits absolutely.

A 2014 anime by Brain’s Base based on Tomoya Haruno’s manga. Kenji Kazama considers himself a delinquent until he meets Roka Shibasaki and the rest of the Game Creation Club, who forcibly recruit him into their increasingly chaotic plans. Roka uses fire powers, Chitose lightning, Sakura earth, and the actual relationship between these “powers” and reality is never explained. D-Frag has Prison School’s chaotic energy and over-the-top character design without the harder ecchi content, so if you liked Prison School more for the absurd setting and eccentric cast than the explicit material, this is a great alternative.

Hideaki Sorachi’s long-running manga (2003-2018) got an enormous 367-episode anime plus multiple films. Set in an alternate Edo Japan where aliens (Amanto) have invaded and banned swords, it follows Gintoki Sakata, a lazy ex-samurai running an odd-jobs business with two assistants. Gintama isn’t a school anime, but its commitment to absurdist comedy, mature humor, parody, and breaking the fourth wall shares Prison School’s DNA. When it gets serious, it produces some of the best samurai drama in anime; when it’s silly, it’s some of the funniest material ever animated. A massive time commitment, but well worth it.

The 2010 Madhouse adaptation of Daisuke and Shouji Sato’s manga. When a zombie outbreak hits Fujimi High School, a group of students and a teacher fight their way through hordes of “Them” while their relationships shift in the apocalypse. Like Prison School, it pairs a high-stakes premise with constant ecchi humor and exaggerated designs, and the action and survival-horror elements are taken seriously despite the gratuitous fan service. The manga sadly remains unfinished after writer Daisuke Sato’s death in 2017, but the anime is a complete enough watch.

The 1995-1996 OVA series adapted from Tatsuya Egawa’s manga. Kintaro Oe is a 25-year-old wanderer with a law degree who travels Japan taking odd jobs and learning life lessons (and chasing women). Each of the six episodes is a self-contained story showcasing his surprising competence beneath a perverted exterior. This is the OG ecchi-comedy classic and foundational for the whole genre. The animation holds up well 30 years later, and Kintaro’s habit of studying everything he encounters became the template for countless ecchi protagonists who followed.

The 2004-2008 anime by Studio Comet adapted from Jin Kobayashi’s manga. Tenma Tsukamoto is a high schooler in love with the strange, silent Karasuma Oji, while delinquent Kenji Harima is in love with Tenma, and the resulting misunderstandings drive most of the series. It’s lighter than Prison School in content (no real ecchi), but it shares the same gift for chasing a gag to its furthest absurd conclusion. The “love is a battlefield” tagline genuinely fits, and School Rumble is a classic for a reason.

The 2008 adaptation of Akihisa Ikeda’s manga (2004-2014). Tsukune Aono fails to get into any normal high school, so his parents accidentally enroll him in Yokai Academy, a school exclusively for supernatural monsters. He has to hide his human identity (humans are killed on sight) while navigating interest from various monster girls. It’s a pure school harem anime: two seasons, plenty of fan service, increasingly elaborate monster-girl designs. For Prison School fans who liked the school setting and the dynamic between the protagonist and an exotic female cast, it hits the right notes.

The 2010 anime by Gainax (the studio behind Evangelion and Gurren Lagann). Two fallen angels, Panty, the boy-crazy one, and Stocking, the goth glutton, work to earn their way back into Heaven by hunting ghosts in Daten City. The animation deliberately mimics Western cartoons like The Powerpuff Girls, giving the show a unique aesthetic unlike anything else in anime. It’s aggressively crude, gleefully blasphemous, and absolutely committed to its irreverent tone, with wild and inventive animation. A long-awaited second season finally arrived more than a decade after the original.

The 2008 OVA adaptation of Kiminori Wakasugi’s manga. Souichi Negishi is a sensitive young man who moved to Tokyo to become a soft-spoken Swedish-style pop musician. Instead, he’s somehow become the lead singer of Detroit Metal City, a death metal band, performing as the demonic “Johannes Krauser II” while desperately trying to keep his actual gentle personality secret. The premise is brilliant, and the comedy of Souichi’s double life produces some of the funniest sequences in any ecchi-adjacent anime. The OVA is short (12 episodes around 13 minutes each) but absolutely worth it. The manga is even better.

The 2011-2012 anime adapted from Shinichi Kimura’s light-novel series. Ayumu Aikawa is murdered, resurrected as a zombie by a necromancer, then accidentally absorbs the powers of a passing magical girl, so now he can transform into one himself, chainsaw and pink frilly outfit included. He has to protect both his necromancer benefactor (who lives in his house) and the magical girl whose powers he stole. The show throws zombie story, magical-girl parody, vampire mythology, and comedy harem into a blender and somehow makes it work, and that genre-blending and willingness to embrace the ridiculous match Prison School’s tonal commitment.