Anime Like Pretend It's a City
If you loved Pretend It's a City's Documentary and Comedy storytelling, these anime deliver a similar experience — selected for art style, narrative depth, and emotional impact. Each includes where to stream it now.
★ Top Picks
Will & Grace
Will Truman and Grace Adler are best friends living in New York, and when Grace's engagement falls apart, she moves in with Will. Together, along with their friends, they go through the trials of dating, sex, relationships and their careers, butting heads at times but ultimately supporting one another while exchanging plenty of witty banter along the way.
Master of None
30-year-old New York actor Dev takes on such pillars of maturity as the first big job, a serious relationship, and busting sex offenders on the subway.
Broad City
Broad City follows two women throughout their daily lives in New York City, making the smallest and mundane events hysterical and disturbing to watch all at the same time.
The Jeffersons
Sitcom following a successful African-American couple, George and Louise “Weezyö Jefferson as they “move on up” from working-class Queens to a ritzy Manhattan apartment. A spin-off of All in the Family.
Fantasmas
Julio Torres spins a fantastical tale of when he lost a gold oyster earring. In his search to find the precious object, Julio reflects on the offbeat characters he encounters in introspective, often eerie, and always comedic vignettes set in a dreamy, alternate version of New York City.
Seinfeld
A stand-up comedian and his three offbeat friends weather the pitfalls and payoffs of life in New York City in the '90s. It's a show about nothing.
Dream On
The family life, romantic life, and career of Martin Tupper, a divorced New York City book editor. The show distinctively interjected clips from older black and white television series to punctuate Tupper's feelings or thoughts.
How To with John Wilson
In a uniquely hilarious odyssey of self-discovery and cultural observation, documentary filmmaker and self-described "anxious New Yorker" John Wilson covertly and obsessively films the lives of his fellow New Yorkers while attempting to give everyday advice on relatable topics. The awkward contradictions of modern life are eased by Wilson’s candid, unpolished commentary. Building upon Wilson’s previously released "how to" short films, each episode takes wildly unexpected turns but is grounded in John's refreshing honesty.
More Anime Like Pretend It's a City
Sex and the City
Based on the bestselling book by Candace Bushnell, Sex and the City tells the story of four best friends, all single and in their late thirties, as they pursue their careers and talk about their sex lives, all while trying to survive the New York social scene.
Friends
Six young people from New York City, on their own and struggling to survive in the real world, find the companionship, comfort and support they get from each other to be the perfect antidote to the pressures of life.
Girls
The assorted humiliations, disasters and rare triumphs of four very different twenty-something girls: Hannah, an aspiring writer; Marnie, an art gallery assistant and cousins Jessa and Shoshanna.
Girlfriends
The series revolves around the friendship of four African-American women in different phases of their lives. They explore the many trials and tribulations that most women face today such as relationships, family, friends and other current issues that will interest most women. Whether it’s getting over a divorce, finding a career, or looking for true love, Girlfriends delivers along with comedy and wit.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
It’s 1958 Manhattan and Miriam “Midge” Maisel has everything she’s ever wanted - the perfect husband, kids, and Upper West Side apartment. But when her life suddenly takes a turn and Midge must start over, she discovers a previously unknown talent - one that will take her all the way from the comedy clubs of Greenwich Village to a spot on Johnny Carson’s couch.
Harlem
Four stylish and ambitious best girlfriends in Harlem, New York City: a rising star professor struggling to make space for her love life; a savvy tech entrepreneur always dating someone new; a no-filter singer; and a hopeless romantic fashion designer. Together, they level up into the next phase of their careers, relationships, and big city dreams.
Will & Grace
That’s right, honey! A decade after their unforgettable eight-season run, comedy’s most fabulous foursome is back.
Younger
Liza Miller, a suddenly single stay-at-home mother, tries to get back into the working world, only to find it’s nearly impossible to start at the bottom at 40-year old. When a chance encounter convinces her she looks younger than she is, Liza tries to pass herself off as 26 and lands a job as an assistant at Empirical Press. Now she just has to make sure no one finds out the secret only she and her best friend Maggie share.
What We Do in the Shadows
A documentary-style look into the daily (or rather, nightly) lives of a group of vampires in Staten Island who have “lived” together for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Tyler Perry's Sistas
There's nothing that bonds a group of single black women together more than sidestepping the land mines of living, working and dating in Atlanta. In a sea of swipe-lefts, social media drama and unrealistic #relationshipgoals, these friends try to find their Mr. Right.
Night Court
An eccentric fun-loving judge presides over an urban night court and all the silliness going on there.
Taxi
Louie De Palma is a cantankerous, acerbic taxi dispatcher in New York City. He tries to maintain order over a collection of varied and strange characters who drive for him. As he bullies and insults them from the safety of his “cage,” they form a special bond among themselves, becoming friends and supporting each other through the inevitable trials and tribulations of life.
Why These Anime Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with Pretend It's a City (2021): Documentary and Comedy themes, comparable animation style, and similar narrative pacing. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface anime most likely to resonate with fans of Pretend It's a City.
See full details for Pretend It's a City (2021)