I Can’t Understand What My Husband is Saying is about a star-crossed couple. Kaoru, a run-of-the-mill, hard-working office lady, and her awkward, blogger husband obsessed with otaku culture, Hajime. It is a slice-of-life anime about adjusting to living with the foibles of the one you love. I Can’t Understand What My Husband is Saying is a classic example of how short form anime can be home to an incredibly endearing cast of characters. Its sense of humor is perfect for anime lovers, as the jokes and conflicts at the heart of the series usually revolve around the clash between everyday Japanese culture and otaku culture. Definitely a great way to get into shorter anime, and a great place for couples to get into anime in general.

Sazae-san is a behemoth in terms of its continued relevance in both everyday Japanese culture, and in the medium of anime. The show is a slice-of-life adaptation about the titular Sazae and her family, focusing on topical issues and family dynamic. Each episode consists of three vignettes approximately ten minutes in length. While not the most action-packed anime out there, Sazae-san deserves attention for several reasons. First, the earnest style of the show, combined with its large, distinct cast, makes it impossible to dislike, which is demonstrated by the place it holds in the hearts of Japanese kids and adults alike. Sazae-san is also the longest running anime in the history of the medium, with over 40 years (!!!!) of episodes aired, and more on the way. It’s impossible to ignore such a mammoth piece of anime history.

Sexy Commando Gaiden: Sugio Yo!! Masaru San is a story about Wakame High School’s Sexy Commando Club, which practices a martial art with roots in historical Japan, and focuses less on the act of violence, but on the art of distracting your opponent to the point where there’s no possible way for them to defend themselves. As one would expect, Sexy Commando Gaiden fires on all of its extremely weird cylinders. The show feels a bit like manzai, a style of comedy with a by the books straight man to balance out the funny man. Club creator Masaru is larger than life, and his over the top antics are hilarious, while the narrator Fuumin gives the audience a window into the erotic martial art at the heart of the show. Sexy Commando’s inscrutable silliness might not be for everyone, but it had me hooked from the first episode.

Detroit Metal City is an incredibly unique anime series, despite the fact that its title was obviously inspired by rock legend KISS’s Detroit Rock City. It’s the story of an aspiring pop artist named Soichi, who finds himself in a financial bind and ends up the lead singer of a black metal band, the titular Detroit Metal City. When on stage, he adopts the metal persona of Krauser, an axe-grinding metalhead straight out of Hell. This series is great because its blatant parody of an already hilarious genre never comes off as mean-spirited. While the show is funny, the central conflict is about financial obligation and creative expression, and Soichi finds himself torn between his unattainable-seeming dreams and the artistic freedom he feels adopting his raunchy, immoral on-stage persona. Great for fans of metal and anime alike.

Dōjin Work tells the story of down-on-her-luck college student, Najimi, who decides to try her hand at dōjin, or self-published manga, after losing her job. While success seems unattainable for her at first, she meets a group of colorful, more experienced dōjin artists to help her persevere in pursuit of her dream. This series is great because it clocks in at about 4 minutes an episode (not counting the live-action segments at the end of each episode), making it one of the shorter short-form anime I’ve come across, but still packing in plenty of humor and charm from its characters, while addressing adult subject matter. It is very accessible to fans of anime and manga alike, and speaks to creative and financial struggles that come with pursuing your creative passions.

Like others on the list, My Neighbor Seki is a short anime that takes place in the classroom. It revolves around the characters Yokoi, and the kid that sits next to her in class, the titular Seki. Despite her best attempts to concentrate in class, Seki constantly distracts her with seemingly-impossible games and projects that he keeps hidden in his desk. No matter how complex and disruptive the project, Seki always escapes the attention of the teachers. My Neighbor Seki is a bit formulaic in terms of structure, but the chemistry between its two main characters, and the light-hearted nature of the storytelling are perfect for the shorter form. It’s also a blast to see what Seki attempts to accomplish in such a short amount of time, as his projects range from plausible to downright surreal.

Like other anime on this list, Rec is about an aspiring professional, in this case would-be voice actress Aka, and her relationship with a salaryman, Fumihiko, an often over-looked part of his company’s marketing department. Their fates collide when a sudden fire results in cohabiting Fumihiko’s apartment. Their lives become even more entwined when Fumihiko’s mascot for a new product line is chosen, and Aka is hired to voice it. Because the central premise of Rec is the complications of the burgeoning relationship between its two main characters, and the misunderstandings involved with the supporting cast, the subject matter is a bit more adult-oriented than some of the previous selections. Even so, there is plenty of fun to be had in Fumihiko and Aka’s romantic game of cat and mouse, and the challenges of juggling their feelings with their professions.

Cromartie High School is another anime about school life, but unlike previous mentions on the list, it focuses on the notoriously delinquent titular high school, and the rough spun students that inhabit it. Main character Takashi is assumed to be an even crazier badass than even the craziest badasses at Cromartie, and he has no intention of correcting their perception of him, although he would like to change the student body for the better. This show is great because of its over the top satire of yankii (literally, Yankee) culture, Japan’s answer to rude, juvenile delinquents. The show never takes itself too seriously, and the surreal nature of the events that move the plot forward means you can easily hop in and out whenever you have time for it.

Time of Eve is a short anime that challenges its viewer’s perception of what it means to be human. The story is set in the near-future, in a world where androids are as common and ubiquitous as smart phones are today. The main character, Rikuo, is in possession of a piano-savant android named Sammy. After noticing strange activity, coupled by a strange phrase, in her GPS log, Rikuo learns Sammy has been frequenting a café that treats androids and humans as equal. This show is a slow burn with a lot going on in very few episodes. It is a meditation on what constitutes human “life,” and often references smart sci-fi like Asimov, and his Laws of Robotics. There are many interesting conversations about subjects that are pertinent even today, with androids taking the place in issues such as equality for different genders, ethnicities, and value systems. More proof that you don’t need an overly long run time to ask big questions.

An absolute must-watch for fans of short anime and history buffs alike, Hetalia: Axis Powers is a show where countries that participated in WWII are reimaged as specific characters, and important battles and historical events are reimagined with a charming, more satirical tone. This series is great because it features many deep cuts from historical events that occurred throughout WWII, and takes the inherently jingoistic and racist nature of war-time propaganda to create characters that, while somewhat stereotypical, are easy-to-like and feature positive and negative cultural aspects of their respective countries. With a lot going on in five minutes, and over 120 episodes to go through, Hetalia: Axis Powers will guarantee to spice up your down time when you need a quick anime fix.