With Spy x Family‘s second season on the horizon and Buddy Daddies entering the fray as well, fans in the mood for upbeat humor and heartwarming slice-of-life scenarios have plenty of new favorites.
Whether the reader is a young fan just starting who can relate more to younger characters, or an older fan looking for a mood lightener after finishing a bleak seinen, there are plenty of manga featuring adorable kid protagonists navigating life with their friends and family.
Sweetness And Lightning
In one of the best anime about parenting, based on an equally good manga, newly widowed father Kouhei is struggling to balance work and raising his young daughter. One of the skills he most needs to work at is cooking, which he learns with the help of his student Kotori, a chef’s daughter.
Tsumugi gets just as much of a spotlight as the adults in the series. Much of the time, she goes through life with a cheerful smile, adoring her father and Kotori. But she is also dealing with the death of her mother, and often does not know how to handle the concept or the powerful emotions she’s feeling.
Magi: The Labyrinth Of Magic
While much of the action in Magi is carried out by adults young and old, the actual protagonist is the 10-year-old Aladdin, the mysterious Magi who seemingly appeared out of nowhere, with his flying carpet, magic flute, and loyal Djinn companion Ugo. He quickly befriends Alibaba, despite the older boy’s initial reluctance, and begins to explore the world.
Because he was raised in a separate dimension, Aladdin brings an innocence and kindness wherever he goes that is unfamiliar in an often-cruel society, always trying to understand even things and people that horrify him. Injustice confuses and enrages him, and as he matures and learns more about the world and himself, he uses his growing powers to create a better world alongside his friends.
Astro Boy
Because he was originally built to replace his creator’s young son, Astro Boy physically and mentally resembles an 8-year-old child. His round, wide-eyed, smiling face, designed by the legendary Osamu Tezuka, is one of the blueprints for the look of many future young manga protagonists, coming from one of the most influential manga ever written.
Programmed to be a good child and raised by a loving adoptive father after his creator abandoned him, Astro is as kind and heroic as he appears, believing wholeheartedly that he can foster peace between humans and machines. However, equipped with super strength, powerful weaponry, and the ability to fly, Astro is considerably stronger than the average robot, let alone the average boy, enabling him to protect his ideals and his loved ones.
Somali And The Forest Spirit
One of the most heartwarming anime of its season is this fantasy tale with a very grounded main story. A forest golem discovers an abandoned human girl in his territory, and the girl instantly latches onto him as a father. The golem decides to look after the girl until he can find her a human family, but that’s easier said than done in a world where humans have been hunted to near extinction by other creatures.
Despite the danger she is constantly in, Somali’s love for life and for her father are one of the cornerstones of both the show and the original manga. She and the golem are both learning how to relate to one another; she very much wants her dad to be happy too and tries very hard to be a good kid for him.
Cardcaptor Sakura
Even the younger shoujo heroines are usually at least in their early teens or close to it. The titular Cardcaptor Sakura in this classic ’90s manga is only 10 years old when she takes on the mission to recapture all the magical cards that she accidentally released from her father’s book. Using a magical wand, she must not only protect the town from them but claim their powers as well.
Sakura is joined in her quest by Syaoran, a boy her own age who competes with her for possession and mastery of the card spirits. He attempts to act as the typical cold and dismissive rival, but his burgeoning crush on her makes it very hard for him to maintain that image as they fight alongside each other.
Mahou Sensei Negima
Shounen heroes also trend towards their teens, but Negi Springfield is a 10-year-old magical prodigy who has not only graduated college way early, but is well on his way to earning his full magic license. However, to fulfill the requirements, Negi must complete a term teaching at a girls’ middle school, at which he must keep his magic secret.
Even leaving aside his career woes, Negi is also looking for his presumed-dead father Nagi, and is carrying plenty of baggage regarding that. He still keeps his chin up and always gives his all in everything he does. He bonds quickly with his students and is intensely protective of them; they in turn are fond of him, but find his efforts to act more dignified and mature than he is to be very funny.
Gakuen Babysitters
Though the protagonist is technically the teenage Ryuuichi, his toddler brother Kotaro and the other charges of Morinomiya Academy’s day care get the spotlight probably more often than the teens and adults do. From brash and aggressive Taka to cheerful baby Midori, the manga features an entire cast of adorable kids.
After their parents’ deaths, Ryuuichi is left to raise Kotaro on his own, and is constantly worrying about how Kotaro is affected by their loss. Kotaro isn’t given to showing much emotion, but he is very attached to his big brother, constantly trying to make Ryuuichi happy and afraid he’ll disappear one day too.
Dragon Ball
Most Dragon Ball fans of today, if asked to think about Goku, would picture him as an adult, as he is for most of one of the best Shonen Jump anime of all time. However, the original manga began with him as a child living in the mountains, full of raw power and entirely ignorant of people who aren’t his adoptive grandfather until about the age of twelve, let alone how to interact with them.
Small for his age and highly enthusiastic, Goku is still just as brave and kindhearted as a child as he is as an adult, though he has yet to achieve the height of his Saiyan strength. He is also special in that, after mangaka Akira Toriyama fought his editors for it to happen, he is one of the first shounen kid heroes to actually age into a teenager and then an adult as the manga went on.
Hunter x Hunter
While Killua and Gon both have moments that earn them spots among the scariest characters in Hunter x Hunter, they are both compassionate kids with power their trainers describe as “one in ten million” potential. They are both exploring the world for the first time and are each other’s first friends: their genuine joy in their friendship and in new things they find around every corner is infectious.
Interestingly, while the two are following the same path as Hunters, they appear very different between their first and most recent appearances. Killua’s more intimidating side is shown off often in the beginning of the manga, but as he gets further from assassin life, his kindness shines through more. Gon is introduced as bright and innocent, but by the later arcs, his capacity for ruthlessness is brought into full and shocking display.
Spy X Family
In his undercover mission, secret agent Twilight must acquire a family, so he marries assassin-disguised-as-civil-servant Yor and adopts telepathic orphan Anya, oblivious to their true natures. All three family members get largely equal time in the spotlight, including Anya, who, thanks to her power to read minds, knows all the secrets her new parents try to hide.
Though she doesn’t always understand what’s going on around her or in people’s heads, being only about four, Anya is determined to do the best she can in everything she does, whether it’s struggling with advanced classes in her elite school or trying to help her dad in his missions. Her earnest approach to her daily life endears her to both her parents and many manga fans.
