I don’t know about the rest of you, but I never grew up in Japan. I didn’t go to elementary, middle, or high school here. But two Japanese shows have given me an intense nostalgia for the childhood I definitely didn’t have: Kei-On! and Kimi to Boku.

Kei-On! is about the Light Music Club at a girls’ high school. Kimi to Boku (You and Me) is about a group of high school boys. They’re both slice-of-life anime, dealing with nothing more epic nor dramatic than the somewhat fantastical but still comparatively normal lives of teenagers. Maybe it’s that, even having gone to school in a foreign country, some of our experiences are shared. I got sniffly at Kei-On’s graduation episode because I remembered graduating from high school, being excited and terrified and on the cusp of this massive transition I was both thrilled to finally reach and wasn’t sure I wanted. Or that, even if I didn’t go to high school with my long-time childhood friends, I still have people like that in my life, and the closeness and unspoken understandings of thoughts, feelings, quirks, and warts and all between the friends in Kimi to Boku makes me think of the people who are like that with me.

Whether or not you have particular memories of school in Japan, or just want to spend a heartwarming half hour or two in someone else’s high school days, I highly recommend both Kei-On and Kimi to Boku. Enjoy!