Anime like trapezium

GIRLS BAND CRY

Also known as Girls Band Cry.

Studio: Toei Animation
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Music , Slice of Life

Feeling out of place in the countryside, high school dropout Nina Iseri moves to Tokyo. After a rough first day and getting locked out of her apartment, she meets her favorite guitarist, Momoka Kawaragi. The two put on a street performance together and decide to start a band with three other girls. While each girl faces her own struggles, their passion for music keeps their dreams alive.

Tags: Band , Female Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast , Rock Music , Coming of Age , Full CGI , Urban , Bullying , Yuri , LGBTQ+ Themes , Found Family , Tragedy , Orphan , Acting , Tanned Skin , Family Life , Vocal Synth , Tsundere

Where to watch?

YouTube

Hoopla

Netflix

Laftel

Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai

Also known as Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night.

Studio: King Records , Doga Kobo , Asmik Ace , Kansai TV , Doga Kobo , BS11 , Movic , KLOCKWORX
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Music , Slice of Life

"I want to find what I enjoy."

Shibuya is a city full of identity. It is here on Shibuya’s late night streets that illustrator Mahiru Kozuki, former idol Kano Yamanouchi, Vtuber Kiui Watase and composer Mei Kim Anouk Takanashi — four young women who are slightly outside the world — join together and form an anonymous artist group called JELEE. “I” also want to shine like someone else. If it's not me but “we” then we might be able to shine.

Tags: Female Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast , Primarily Teen Cast , Coming of Age , Drawing , Urban , Band , Idol , Cute Girls Doing Cute Things , LGBTQ+ Themes , Hikikomori , VTuber , Yuri , Transgender , Bullying , Motorcycles

Where to watch?

HIDIVE

iQ

Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight

Also known as Revue Starlight.

Studio: Kinema Citrus , Pony Canyon , OVERLAP , APDREAM , TBS , Sound Team Don Juan , Nelke Planning , Bushiroad , Sentai Filmworks
Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Music , Psychological

The franchise centers on "Starlight" — the song and dance revue troupe loved throughout the world. Karen and Hikari make a promise with each other when they're young that one day they'll stand on that stage together. Time passes, and now the girls are 16 years old. Karen is very enthusiastic about the lessons she takes every day, holding her promise close to her heart. Hikari has transferred schools and is now away from Karen. But the cogs of fate turn, and the two are destined to meet again. The girls and other "Stage Girls" will compete in a mysterious audition process to gain acceptance into the revue.

Tags: Musical Theater , Primarily Female Cast , Ensemble Cast , Acting , Primarily Teen Cast , Female Protagonist , Meta , Boarding School , Battle Royale , Fairy Tale , Animals , Yuri , Time Loop , School , Coming of Age , Henshin , Swordplay , Philosophy , Dancing , LGBTQ+ Themes , Unrequited Love , Love Triangle , Tomboy , Spearplay , Archery , Amnesia , Motorcycles , Urban

Where to watch?

Hoopla

BanG Dream! Ave Mujica

Also known as Ave Mujica - The Die is Cast -.

Studio: Bushiroad , SANZIGEN , TOKYO MX , Good Smile Company , Horipro International , Ultra Super Pictures
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Music , Psychological

"Will you give me the rest of your life?"

After losing everything in a single night, Sakiko Togawa reaches out toward an even deeper abyss, one that will drag everyone around her down as well. Gathering the lives of girls burdened with their own troubles and desires, Sakiko raises the curtain on a perfect masquerade.

"Welcome to the world of Ave Mujica."

On a stage where sorrow, death, fear, love—even the solace of forgetting—are stripped away, will their masks be torn off and shatter into oblivion, or will they….

Tags: Band , Primarily Female Cast , Female Protagonist , Primarily Teen Cast , Tragedy , Dissociative Identities , Estranged Family , Yuri , Full CGI , LGBTQ+ Themes , Metal Music , Acting , Rock Music , Musical Theater , Incest , Disability , Ensemble Cast , Urban , Orphan , Ojou-sama , Adoption , Anti-Hero , Yandere , Kuudere , Tsundere

Where to watch?

YouTube

PERFECT BLUE

Also known as Perfect Blue.

Studio: MADHOUSE , Rex Entertainment , ONIRO , Techno Sound , GKIDS
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Psychological , Thriller

Rising pop star Mima has quit singing to pursue a career as an actress and model, but her fans aren’t ready to see her go... Encouraged by her managers, Mima takes on a recurring role on a popular TV show, when suddenly her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered. Harboring feelings of guilt and haunted by visions of her former self, Mima’s reality and fantasy meld into a frenzied paranoia. As her stalker closes in, in person and online, the threat he poses is more real than even Mima knows, in this iconic psychological thriller that has frequently been hailed as one of the most important animated films of all time.

Note: The film received an early premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival on August 5, 1997.

Tags: Dissociative Identities , Denpa , Female Protagonist , Acting , Idol , Primarily Adult Cast , Work , Meta , Filmmaking , Philosophy , Tragedy , Gore , Feet , Nudity , Noir

Where to watch?

Max

Bocchi the Rock!

Also known as BOCCHI THE ROCK!.

Studio: CloverWorks , Aniplex , Houbunsha
Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Music , Slice of Life

Hitori Gotou, “Bocchi-chan,” is a girl who’s so introverted and shy around people that she’d always start her conversations with “Ah...”

During her middle school years, she started playing the guitar, wanting to join a band because she thought it could be an opportunity for even someone shy like her to also shine. But because she had no friends, she ended up practicing guitar for six hours every day all by herself. After becoming a skilled guitar player, she uploaded videos of herself playing the guitar to the internet under the name “Guitar Hero” and fantasized about performing at her school’s cultural festival concert. But not only could she not find any bandmates, before she knew it, she was in high school and still wasn’t able to make a single friend!

She was really close to becoming a shut-in, but one day, Nijika Ijichi, the drummer in Kessoku Band, reached out to her. And because of that, her everyday life started to change little by little...

Tags: Band , Female Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast , Primarily Teen Cast , Rock Music , Cute Girls Doing Cute Things , Coming of Age , Hikikomori , Rehabilitation , Surreal Comedy , Meta , Seinen , Mixed Media , Slapstick , School , LGBTQ+ Themes , Yuri , Rotoscoping , Chibi , Urban

Where to watch?

Bilibili TV

Netflix

[Oshi no Ko]

Also known as OSHI NO KO.

Studio: Doga Kobo , KADOKAWA , Shueisha , Doga Kobo , CyberAgent
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Psychological , Supernatural

When a pregnant young starlet appears in Gorou Amemiya’s countryside medical clinic, the doctor takes it upon himself to safely (and secretly) deliver Ai Hoshino’s child so she can make a scandal-free return to the stage. But no good deed goes unpunished, and on the eve of her delivery, he finds himself slain at the hands of Ai’s deluded stalker — and subsequently reborn as Ai’s child, Aquamarine Hoshino! The glitz and glamor of showbiz hide the dark underbelly of the entertainment industry, threatening to dull the shine of his favorite star. Can he help his new mother rise to the top of the charts? And what will he do when unthinkable disaster strikes?

Note: Episode 1【推しの子】Mother and Children was pre-screened in advance in Japanese theaters on March 17, 2023. The regular TV broadcast began on April 12, 2023. The first episode has an extended runtime of ~82 minutes.

Tags: Acting , Tragedy , Idol , Revenge , Twins , Male Protagonist , Urban , Reincarnation , Heterosexual , Detective , Ensemble Cast , Coming of Age , Female Protagonist , Anti-Hero , Time Skip , Orphan , Pregnancy , Age Regression , Tsundere , Filmmaking , Seinen , Bullying , Love Triangle , Fake Relationship , Unrequited Love , Primarily Female Cast , Family Life , Urban Fantasy , Suicide , Fashion , School , Otaku Culture , Female Harem

Where to watch?

HIDIVE

Bilibili TV

iQ

Netflix

Hulu

Disney Plus

Fuujin Monogatari

Also known as Windy Tales.

Studio: Production I.G , Touhouku Shinsha , Sentai Filmworks
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Fantasy , Slice of Life , Supernatural

Nao, an 8th grader, is one of the only two members of a Digital Camera Club, where she also serves as the manager. It's a mystery that she shoots nothing else but the skies and clouds. One day, she finds a cat on a rooftop where she usually shoots her camera. It's a cat that knows how to manipulate the flow of a wind. Shocked to find a strange animal, Nao loses her footing and falls off from the rooftop!

Miki is the other member of the club, and also Nao's best friend. Taiki is the teacher who taught the cat how to manipulate the flow of a wind. Ryoko is a girl who has a huge crush on Taiki. And there's Jun, who helps Nao and Miki look for a cat that can fly. Then, there's Yukio, who is the widow of Taiki's deceased brother.

On the outskirts of this big city, a town off the "Wind Handlers," has been formed - and a mysterious Wind Festival is about to begin...

Tags: Coming of Age , Iyashikei , Photography , Female Protagonist , Urban Fantasy , Super Power , Primarily Teen Cast , Philosophy , Animals , School , Episodic , School Club , Heterosexual , Time Skip , Motorcycles

Where to watch?

No streaming links available

Maebashi Witches

Also known as Maebashi Witches.

Studio: Sunrise , Bandai Namco Filmworks , Bandai Namco Music Live , Asmik Ace , BS11 , KADOKAWA , Tohan , Koshidaka Holdings , Bushiroad Move
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mahou Shoujo , Music , Supernatural

Welcome to Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture. For first-year high school student Yuina Akagi, her middling life takes a wild turn the moment a mysterious frog named Keroppe shows up and asks her, “Why don’t you become a witch?” Alongside Azu Niisato, Kyouka Kitahara, Choco Mitsumata, and Mai Kamiizumi, Yuina and her friends are excited to make people’s dreams come true as the Maebashi Witches.

Tags: Female Protagonist , Magic , Henshin , Witch , Primarily Female Cast , Urban , Urban Fantasy , Idol , Primarily Teen Cast , Coming of Age , Body Image , Bullying , CGI , Dancing , Animals , Tsundere , Photography , Work , Memory Manipulation , Cute Girls Doing Cute Things , Fashion , Unrequited Love , LGBTQ+ Themes , Yuri , Meta , Time Manipulation

Where to watch?

Bilibili TV

Wake Up, Girls!

Also known as Wake Up, Girls!.

Studio: Ordet , Tatsunoko Production , Ultra Super Pictures , DIVE II Entertainment , Wake Up, Girls! Partners , AT-X , Toho , TV Tokyo , Sotsu , Avex Entertainment , Sega Games , Good Smile Company
Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Music , Slice of Life

The gateway to Idol stardom might have opened for the newly formed singing group Wake Up, Girls, but the path to fame is full of perils and pitfalls. And for Mayu, Airi, Minami, Yoshino, Nanami, Kaya and Miyu, it's going to be especially difficult knowing who to trust, as their manager Matsuda's lack of experience could give other, less scrupulous, individuals a chance to take advantage.

That's a situation that quickly comes to a head when Green Leaves' president suddenly disappears with most of the money, and things only get worse when the replacement producer seems more interested in getting the girls into revealing swimsuits than promoting their music.

As malicious gossip begins to surface regarding Mayu's past membership in a rival group, and internal tensions begin to tear the team apart, they'll need more than just ambition to survive. Singing may be a business, but friendship and a love of music is what will keep everything together.

Tags: Idol , Primarily Female Cast , Ensemble Cast , Urban , Female Protagonist , Work , Otaku Culture , Musical Theater , Dancing , Cute Girls Doing Cute Things , School , Primarily Teen Cast

Where to watch?

Crunchyroll