Most of the time, slice-of-life anime generally takes place in a normal setting with normal characters. Since the genre is generally about everyday moments and day-to-day activities, there's not really much need for characters with weird abilities or strange powers.
Sometimes, however, fans get a slice-of-life series that seems to take place in a real-world setting but features a protagonist that has a strange power. Due to the anime still being largely slice of life, these powers don't come with action-heavy fights and world-threatening villains but do affect their everyday life in some way. Here are some slice-of-life anime protagonists that have exhibited strange powers.
8 Junpei Kosaka – Nyan Koi!
Junpei Kosaka is incredibly allergic to cats and therefore hates them with a passion. Unfortunately for him, he accidentally destroys a statue of a local cat deity, cursing him. He gains the ability to talk to cats, but must atone by granting the wishes of 100 cats lest he be turned into one himself!
Junpei's ability to talk to cats might sound fun, but it is hardly a blessing to him, as it forces him to bow to the whims of nearly every cat he comes across. Despite this, he works hard to make sure the wishes of every cat he meets are granted, but only to avoid the dire consequences.
7 Mameda – My Master Has No Tail
Mameda is a tanuki living in the Taisho era who heads out to the city of Osaka in order to play pranks on humans. She is surprised at how ineffective her pranks are and is almost captured when she is saved by Bunko Daikokutei, a rakugoka. Fascinated by her performance, Mameda works to become a rakugoka in her own right.
As a tanuki, Mameda can transform her appearance, which is how she creates her human form. Despite her interesting power, she rarely uses it outside of maintaining her human disguise, preferring to improve her rakugo skills and relationships with others.
6 Miko Yotsuya – Mieruko-chan
Miko Yotsuya is a normal high school girl with an abnormal problem: she has the ability to see ghosts. The ghosts are constantly wandering Japan no matter where she goes, but if she pretends she doesn't see them, they ignore her.
Miko's daily life soon becomes a trial where every day she has to act unfazed by all the horrific sights she sees. Unfortunately for her, ghosts are everywhere, and the fact that her friend naturally draws ghosts to her doesn't make things easier.
5 Keitaro Urashima – Love Hina
As children, Keitaro Urashima and an unknown girl heard that two people in love with be happy together forever if they can enter Tokyo University. Keitaro makes a promise with the girl to enter the university together, but after two failed attempts, Keitaro is still struggling to get into the school and has to move to Hinata Inn if he wants to keep studying to get in.
While Keitaro Urashima himself is a normal person, he has shown himself to be incredibly resilient, whether it be the physical attacks he endures from the girls he lives with or falls from high places. Keitaro's resilience is so extreme that when he does actually get injured, his acquaintances are beyond shocked.
4 Tadayasu Sawaki – Moyashimon
Tadayasu Sawaki and his best friend Kei Yuki are about to start their university life when they are pulled into Professor Keizo Itsuki's microbial studies due to Sawaki's ability to see and communicate with microorganisms. The series follows their lives at the university as they engage in various kinds of fermentation and brewing.
Sawaki's ability to see and speak with microorganisms isn't a strong feature in the series, but it is still an important part of his character. His ability does come in handy now and again, and while Sawaki himself does not make much of an impact, his ability keeps him relevant to the story.
3 Makoto Kowata – Flying Witch
Makoto Kowata moves to Aomori to live with some of her relatives. Her cousin Chinatsu is initially suspicious of her, and soon learns that Makoto isn't an average high school girl - she's a witch, and she's come to finish her training.
Makoto Kowata is not the only witch in the series, and Chinatsu soon embarks on her own journey to become a witch. Despite the fantasy elements, the series never ventures far from slice of life, and magic is only used to spice up the everyday life Makoto and Chinatsu experience.
2 Squid Girl
After watching humans pollute the sea, Squid Girl decides to take over the world, starting with the local beach house restaurant. To her surprise, the Aizawa siblings that own the shop barely consider her a threat, and when she destroys part of the shop's wall, she is immediately put to work to pay them back.
Squid Girl has a lot of abilities common to real squids, but her most frequently used ability is her hair tentacles, which she can control independently of each other. Despite the fact that these can be used for battle, they are often used for more mundane things like cleaning tables and carrying plates.
1 Takashi Natsume – Natsume's Book Of Friends
Takashi Natsume has always been able to see and talk to yokai, a power he inherited from his grandmother along with the Book of Friends, a strange book that turns out to be the list of names that his grandmother had obtained from the spirits she bullied.
Due to his abilities and possession of the Book of Friends, Takashi is often badgered and hounded by yokai hoping to be freed from the book's shackles. Most of his encounters with yokai are surprisingly peaceful, though more dangerous spirits are often kept at bay by his guardian spirit "Nyanko-sensei."