Bofuri: I Don't Want To Get Hurt So I'll Max Out My Defense is a charming Winter 2020 anime about Kaede Honjou's journey into the a virtual reality game called New World Online. New to the world of gaming and afraid of getting hurt, Kaede creates a character named Maple who has impossibly high defense skills, but no ability to fight whatsoever. As she continues to play, she finds ways to use her defensive abilities offensively, and becomes one of the strongest players in the game. It's a fun, lighthearted show that's great for isekai fans - but are there other anime like Bofuri: I Don't Want To Get Hurt So I'll Max Out My Defense? You bet there are!
If you love the idea of defensive abilities being far more awesome than they appear on the surface, you should check out The Rising of the Shield Hero, a show that's different in tone, but which focuses on the surprising powers of defensive abilities. If you're looking for a hero who is just as reluctant to get hurt as Maple, try Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious. Just want to watch cute girls doing cute things in a fantasy world? Try Endro~!
Which of these Bofuri: I Don't Want To Get Hurt So I'll Max Out My Defense anime recommendations do you think is the best? Be sure to help out your fellow fans pick their next great watch, and vote them up.
The key similarity between Maple and Rimuru is that both of them start from a place where it seems like they aren't going to be able to accomplish anything in their respective fantasy worlds.
When Rimuru is reincarnated as a slime, it seems like he'll be weak and powerless - but that turns out to be far from the truth. He actually has a wide variety of impressive abilities, the most noteworthy of which is Predator, which allows him to absorb his opponents abilities and characteristics and use them for himself. Despite being initially underestimated, he quickly gains allies and respect. The same thing happens to Maple, whose defensive abilities seem useless at first, but ultimately blossom into something really awesome.
The tone of these two anime are pretty different, but they do have two key things in common: both are anime that take place in a video game world, and both feature protagonists who are heavily focused on defense.
While Naofumi was made into the Shield Hero against his will and suffers a lot of discrimination because of it, he finds that his supposedly useless shield actually has a number of offensive capabilities and may be the strongest weapon in his world. Meanwhile, Maple chooses to beef up her defenses out of fear, but finds that her skills have far more uses than just defense.
Love overpowered characters mopping the floor with their enemies in a fantasy world? Then you have to watch one of the titans of the genre, No Game No Life. Sora and Shiro are a sibling duo who play video games under the moniker Blank. While they struggle to maintain social relationships, go to school, or work in the real world, they find success in the world of Disboard, where everything is decided by games. The two of them are so strong that they're practically unbeatable - kind of like Maple as the story progresses. Besides having a somewhat similar concept, both shows are brightly colored, fun, and energetic.
Just like Maple, Seiya Ryuuguuin doesn't want to get hurt, and is willing to go to extreme lengths to avoid that outcome. But because Seiya is stuck in a fantasy world and Maple can disengage from hers whenever she feels like it, Seiya has to take the issue a little more seriously. He trains to the point where other people are getting impatient, maxing out his skills to the point where there's no possible way he could ever be defeated.
Both In Another World With My Smartphone and Bofuri have protagonists with an expected source of strength. As you might have guessed from the title, Touya Mochizuki's strengh is his smartphone. After he's accidentally eliminated by God before his time, God tries to make it up to him by reincarnating him into another world with all the powers he could want, and one request granted - that he be able to keep his phone. This gives him access to all kinds of information he wouldn't otherwise have, and makes him powerful in an unexpected way.
If you're looking for another light-hearted, cheerful isekai, you should check out KonoSuba, one of the most notorious parodies of the genre. KonoSuba follows Kazuma Satou, a reclusive high school student who rarely leaves home except to go to school and buy video games. When he perishes in an embarrassing way, he's transported to a fantasy world where he's granted a single wish by a goddess. He wishes for the goddess to stay by his side, but she turns out to be utterly useless! From then on, he gets into all kinds of madcap adventures.
