While escapism through anime is the reason isekai is so popular right now, sometimes the best medicine for the sheer pain of reality is relatability.

Anime that shows you, an overworked adult, other overworked adults who are also overwhelmed. Sometimes they can help you find some inspiration or at least some helpful coping mechanisms. Sometimes it's nice to be able to feel sorry for someone, even if they're a fictional character.

If you're looking for an anime where the main character is burned out from overwork, try these anime recommendations.

12. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead

Zom 100 says the silent part out loud when it comes to many modern sentiments about an impending apocalypse – Oh well, at least I don't have to work anymore!

In fact, that's the entire premise of this zombie apocalypse series. The main character is burned to the ground by an exploitative corporation to the point that he considers jumping in front of a train to avoid having to go to work. However, one day, he wakes up in a full-blown zombie apocalypse, where he realizes, with great joy, that he can finally live freely.

Zom 100 is partly a zombie apocalypse survival anime, but it's one where the main characters prioritize having fun and doing everything they'd like to do as adults, now that they have the time and energy to do so.

11. The 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’re supposed to be super cute, drama-free, and stress-inducing enough for an adult audience to feel a little bit healed by the cute antics.

The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today follows an office lady who brings home a small kitten one day in a snowstorm. Over the years, this cat grows to be larger than expected – more the size of a bear than a cat. What’s more, the cat is truly masterful when he starts cooking, cleaning, and shopping for the irresponsible office lady who is constantly exhausted by her job.

The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today is overworked iyashikei, but sometimes the human main character is a little too relatable, like when she sobs, clinging to the cat at the front door and telling him how much she doesn't want to go to work that day.

10. Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san

The nosy Kitsune Senko-san is the overworked iyashikei who knows what overworked salarymen really want – someone soft to stroke their hair when they get home.

The series follows a standard Japanese salaryman who returns home one day to an ancient fox spirit who declares that 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 court someone to give it to him.

9. 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 office lady, but rather a childlike ghost.

Initially, the ghost haunts her office and begins trying to scare a secretary out of the office as she is caught working constant overtime. Realizing that she is not actually scared by any of her attempts, she begins doing nice things, such as bringing her food and making sure she is well taken care of.

It eventually progresses to the ghost moving in with the office lady as she begins to find a better work-life balance.

While being taken care of by a childlike ghost is kind of sad in nature, this series emphasizes cuteness over any kind of drama. We don't do drama in iyashikei.

8. Aggretsuko

Aggressive Retsuko, or Aggretsuko as it is often abbreviated, is a Sanrio mascot anime where a super cute red panda character deals with misogyny, unreasonable workplace expectations, and a whole host of nasty coworkers. She deals with it by playing some blaring death metal karaoke.

Although it is a comedy anime, Aggretsuko doesn't have a very positive message overall. Since it features short episodes, it only shows how stressful and unpleasant office work is, and the only way to deal with it is to find a coping mechanism and persevere.

7. Recovery of an MMO Junkie

You look at those high-flying corporate businesswomen and think they seem so content with their high-pressure jobs, but in reality, they’re just as stressed out as anyone else. Recovery of an MMO Junkie is about a successful high-flying businesswoman who saves enough money to quit her job, disappear off the face of the Earth, and become a recluse who plays MMOs all day.

She's living the dream and happy to no longer have to deal with stress, but she also notices that her social skills diminish when she no longer has to use them every day.

The plot of the series proper is about her playing a male character in her MMO, unknowingly meeting a fellow character who admired her in the past, who is also playing a female character in the same MMO, and becoming closer in-game and, again unknowingly, in person.

The series is a romantic comedy that is admittedly more geared toward gamers than non-gaming office workers.

6. Black Lagoon

Since Black Lagoon is best known as an anime about a group of mercenaries who take on a wide range of morally dubious jobs just to make money, it doesn't seem - at first glance - applicable. However, the series' arguably main character starts the series as a salaryman.

He travels for work and works tirelessly to bring glory to his boss. On one trip, he is kidnapped and discovers how disposable his life is to the corporation that employs him when they are willing to let his kidnappers kill them rather than give them what they want.

While his company ends up negotiating for his life, after discovering the truth and experiencing the thrills of a less-than-cool profession, he joins the mercenaries who previously held him captive as a member.

5. ReLIFE

Unlike other series on this list, ReLife isn't really about a main character who's been overworked into the ground, but rather he's sort of the victim of a coworker who was.

What this means is that he was involved in a traumatic incident with a coworker that left him too anxiety-ridden to work in an office. After leaving a job so suddenly, the company blacklisted him, forcing him to become a NEET closed.

The plot of ReLife is about him being approached by a company that rehabilitates NEETs like him, giving them a pill that makes them look younger and making arrangements for them to enjoy a year of high school.

The theory is that enjoying a year of youth again will rehabilitate your social skills and self-confidence, and it does, although not without a few missteps.

4. Uramichi Oniisan

Don’t be fooled by those happy smiles, you have to look into those dead, soulless eyes. Uramichi Oniisan is a comedy anime about adults who are realizing that adulthood isn’t as dazzling as it seemed when they were younger. In fact, it’s not dazzling at all – it’s where dreams go to die.

The comedy in this series comes from the main character working on a cute kids show and you, the audience, enjoying his inner monologue about how much he hates his job, these kids, everyone around him, and his life. There are also a variety of supporting characters who also find adulthood disappointing in various ways.

3. Shirobako

Shirobako is a realistic look into the life of someone who works in the anime industry creating anime. It does a good job of balancing the character fulfilling his dreams of doing so, while also showing some of the harsher realities and more stressful expectations that come with doing so.

However, Shirobako was made before it started to become more common knowledge of how overworked animators really are. Sometimes I often wonder how Shirobako's story would be presented if the story were made today. Would it still have that element of bright eyes and bushy tails even in times of crisis, or would it show burned individuals like Zom 100?

2. Police in a Pod

No matter what country you do it in, if you're a cop you're going to get a lot of shit from the public.

Police in a Pod is about a woman who didn't have the big dream of being a police officer. She just wanted a stable job and, after failing all the other public exams, she only managed to get accepted into the police academy.

The series begins with her thinking about giving up due to constant criticism from disgruntled citizens. However, she finds inspiration in her new partner.

While Police in a Pod is quite comedic, it doesn't shy away from getting serious when it comes to the grim realities of police work. It's a dangerous and often thankless job, but a necessary one.

1. Slime Taoshite 300-nen, Shiranai Uchi ni Level Max ni Nattemashita

The isekai genre is full of overwhelmed protagonists who die and are rewarded with a new life in a fantasy world. Throw a rock and you'll hit three. So why, out of all the isekai anime I could have bloated this list with, did I choose this rather cute slice-of-life isekai?

300 Slimes is about a woman who is overworked and so exhausted that when she is reincarnated as an immortal being, she doesn't even want to go on adventures. She just wants to, in a very relatable way, sit in her house. So that's what she does, she only goes out to kill slimes to pay for food and other necessities.

Isekai is escapism and this one is too. 300 Slimes is a pleasant series about avoiding adventures and just having fun with new friends.

Do you know any other anime about overworked and exhausted protagonists? Let your fans know in the comments section below.