Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai, Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo Recommendations
Yamada-kun & TWGOK share similar plotline of accidentally dealing with supernaturals and the mission of "conquering" girls by kissing them which indirectly adds to a hidden harem. MC gets dragged from their comfort zone and by the end has their life changed by interaction with others. Only difference is the MC is either an otaku vs delinquent.
Both involve the main character going around a school setting searching for girls who have a tie to the supernatural. In The World God Only Knows, it involves "conquering" girls in order to get the bad presence out of them. In Yamada and the 7 Witches, they are trying to find the witches in the school. Both involve the kissing of the found girls to resolve plot. All in all, I did enjoy both shows and I definitely recommend them.
Instead of simply pointing out similarities, I'll put it in a different way.
Yamada-kun to Nananin no Majo and Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai form a new genre themselves. We're yet to see more like this, but somehow the idea both of them have is appealing. Approaching to the Harem genre in such a distinct way, without having a girl falling in love in each episode because of the MC's generosity, the lead ends up being "forced" to get the girl of the episode. That is, if it's only one episode for that girl. Unfortunately Yamada-kun is apparenty getting only one season(I think) but if you
enjoyed Kami Nomi or is enjoying Yamada-kun, there is literally no reason to skip the other.
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Romantic comedies, with the same 'let's grab dem chicks' rythm to them. Kami nomi requires some effort to get through all of the seasons, while Yamada-kun has a simpler and tighter narrative where everything is pretty much resolved by the end.
Likeable casts with, uh, quite unusual leads. Drama/silliness are balanced well, and both have solid scores to back them up. Good stuff.
Rampant Weaponized Kissing. Any series that has that as a driving plot device is bound to be chock-full of laughs and inevitably confused romancing, especially with a bumbling male MC. Welcome to Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai (The World God Only Knows) and Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo (Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches), where virtually every episode features at least one targeted kiss.
In TWGOK, the male protag, Keima, must kiss the girls to free evil spirits bound to their hearts. In Yamada-kun, the male protag, Yamada, must kiss the girls to unravel the mystery of who the "witches" of Suzuku High are (and in the
case of Yamada-kun, the kissing is not only weaponized but tactical, too). With each new girl to kiss, us viewers get to witness what it'll take for that kiss to happen, though the focus is slightly different. TWGOK's Keima is uprooted from his 2D-obsessed, bishojo gaming into real-world romancing missions, so the question in TWGOK is mostly /how/ he'll make that kiss happen. Yamada-kun's Yamada happens to be a headstrong delinquent, so it's less of how the kiss will happen and more of /who/ will be kissed, or rather who the witches are and what their powers will be. Our peculiar MCs will have to improvise. Adapt. Overcome. Their first encounters and forays into this weaponized kissing business give them the valuable experience they need to tackle future encounters, but new obstacles show up to thwart the foolproof plans they envision at each turn.
It's worth noting that both series have exceptionally catchy opening themes. But a word of caution: both openings also showcase the MC's targets. That's less of an issue for TWGOK, but it might get pretty spoilery for Yamada-kun since identifying those people is the central mystery of the whole show. So if you want to keep the heroines a surprise for yourself, don't pay too close attention to the opening sequences' characters and promo art for these series.
TWGOK spreads its material over three seasons, so it's more gradual in its pacing versus the compacted frenzy of Yamada-kun, but both follow the tried-and-true episodic progression of harem rom-coms: a few episodes for setup, then a girl-by-girl showcase of the MC's "targets", and then the final episodes showing the fallout/payoff. In TWGOK, the fallout is mostly weighted towards later seasons, while Yamada-kun wraps up this general arc in its singular season. Both have a highly varied cast of characters including the vibrant waifu-war-cast that these kinds of series are infamous for, though the "targets" of TWGOK are written as satires/caricatures of female anime archetypes. Season 1 of TWGOK mostly goes step-by-step through the different romantic targets with airheaded-sidekick Elsie guiding the 2D-obsessed Keima to his target [3D] girls, moving from girl to girl in mostly self-contained arcs. Yamada-kun also starts out with Yamada and the studious and reserved Shiraishi (his first inadvertent target) as a central team of detectives, but their efforts as part of the Supernatural Studies Club draw in other interested members and the targets (i.e. witches) over time, so we have a growing crew of recurring characters unlike TWGOK's first season (though many characters reemerge in later seasons of TWGOK). This structural difference makes TWGOK a bit easier to follow, where we can focus on one girl at a time, while Yamada-kun's character persistence allows the development of a web of interpersonal relationships.
It's probably accurate to describe the series as comedies first and romantic shows second, but with all the kissing involved, the tactical romancing provides the rom part of the rom-com description. It's a varied take on the usual harem formula: think of anime with fake/forced romances, multiply it with a harem/multiple-girl setup, and you've got the mold of TWGOK and Yamada-kun. TWGOK season 1 contains its romantic aspects within each episode with each featured heroine. On the other hand, Yamada-kun's growing-main-cast direction allows a romantic subtext to build over time across episodes. The romance of TWGOK is foundational to each arc, while in Yamada-kun the central mystery of the Suzuku High witches provides the basis of the plot, complemented by a season-spanning, slow-budding romantic development.
TLDR: This recommendation is based primarily on similarities in atmosphere, premise, and plot structure.
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MC has an ability that leads to a harem
