20 anime similar to Love Live! School idol project OVA based on genre, format, studio, and popularity
Looking for anime similar to Love Live! School idol project OVA? Here are 10 anime recommendations that share similar themes, genres, or storytelling styles.
We selected these anime based on shared genres (Music, Slice of Life), similar narrative structures, comparable art styles, and positive fan overlap. If you enjoyed Love Live! School idol project OVA, these series should appeal to your taste.
Otonokizaka High School stands on the border of three cities: Akihabara—a pop culture mecca that's evolving by the minute; Kanda—a conservative, cultured city where history and tradition reign supreme; and Jinbo—a quiet area reserved for a more mature, sophisticated population. Amidst this culture clash, the school now faces closure due to the enrollment of fewer and fewer students. With the school planning to close within three years, nine female students come together with one thing in mind—form a pop idol group to revive the school's popularity and keep it from shutting down. "In order to protect our beloved school, there's only one thing we can do... become pop stars!" Their goal is simple: Become an overnight sensation and use their nationwide media exposure to promote their school and bring in a wave of new students to the ailing area. A simple but solid plan, they figure. Naturally, they're nervous and wonder if this plan can really succeed, but for better or worse their new journey has begun... "All we can ask for is just a tiny bit of support from you. We truly believe that with your help, we can change the world around us. We will make our dreams come true!" (Source: NIS America)
Tadakuni, Hidenori, and Yoshitake are students at the all-boys academy, Sanada North High School. This is a tale about just that—their daily lives as students. Winning the basketball tournament? Finding true love? You won't find any of that here. Whether it's sparking random arguments while hanging out with friends, meeting that one weird co-worker at a part-time job, or even letting imaginations run wild on a windy afternoon, we've all experienced the show's ordinary but true-to-life themes at one point or another. (Source: NIS America)
Piano prodigy Arima Kousei dominated the competition and all child musicians knew his name. But after his mother, who was also his instructor, passed away, he had a mental breakdown while performing at a recital. This resulted in him no longer being able to hear the sound of his piano playing. Two years later, Kousei hasn’t touched the piano and views the world without any flair or color. He was content at living out his life with his good friends Tsubaki and Watari until, one day, a girl changed everything. Miyazono Kaori is a pretty, free spirited violinist whose playing style reflects her personality. Kaori helps Kousei return to the music world and show that it should be free and mold breaking unlike the structured and rigid style Kousei was used to.
Spring in the first year of high school. Kumiko, a member of the brass band in junior high school, visits the high school brass band club with classmates Hazuki and Sapphire. There, she comes across Reina, her former classmate from junior high. Hazuki and Sapphire decide to join the club, but Kumiko can’t make up her mind. She recollects her experience with Reina at a competition in junior high school. (Source: Pony Canyon USA)
Hirasawa Yui, a young, carefree girl entering high school, has her imagination instantly captured when she sees a poster advertising the ‘Light Music Club’. Being the carefree girl that she is, she quickly signs up. However, Yui has a problem, she is unable to play an instrument. When Yui goes to the clubroom to explain, she's greeted by the other members: Ritsu, Mio and Tsumugi. Although disheartened at Yui’s lack of musical know-how, they still try to convince her to stay to prevent the club’s disbandment. After playing Yui a short piece which re-ignites her imagination, they succeed in keeping their new member and guitarist. Along with the tasks of school and homework, Yui begins to learn the guitar with the help of the other band members, experiencing many mishaps along the way. However, with the school-festival drawing near and Yui getting stuck with her practice, will the Light Music Club be ready in time for their debut? (Source: MAL Rewrite)
It is the new year, which means that the senior members of the Light Music Club are now third-years, with Azusa Nakano being the only second-year. The seniors soon realize that Azusa will be the only member left once they graduate and decide to recruit new members. Despite trying many methods of attracting underclassmen—handing out fliers, bringing people into the clubroom, and performing at the welcoming ceremony—there are no signs of anyone that plans to join. While heading to the clubroom, Azusa overhears Yui Hirasawa say that the club is fine with only five people and that they can do many fun things together. Changing her mind, she decides that they do not need to recruit any members for the time being. K-On!! revolves around the members of the Light Music Club as they experience their daily high school life. From rehearsing for concerts to just messing around, they are ready to make their last year together an exciting one! (Source: MAL Rewrite)
When Hotaru moves from Tokyo to a tiny town in the rural countryside, she’s in for some serious culture shock: the nearest place that sells comics is 20 minutes away, the nearest video store is ten train stations down the line, and there are only three other girls and one boy in her entire school! Even though everything’s so different, there’s something about the laid-back atmosphere that makes her feel strangely comfortable. While she’ll certainly miss parts of her old life, there’s a whole lifetime of experiences waiting to be enjoyed with her new friends Renge, Komari, Natsumi, and Suguru! (Source: Sentai Filmworks)
Seishuu Handa is an up-and-coming calligrapher: young, handsome, talented, and unfortunately, a narcissist to boot. When a veteran labels his award-winning piece as "unoriginal," Seishuu quickly loses his cool with severe repercussions. As punishment, and also in order to aid him in self-reflection, Seishuu's father exiles him to the Goto Islands, far from the comfortable Tokyo lifestyle the temperamental artist is used to. Now thrown into a rural setting, Seishuu must attempt to find new inspiration and develop his own unique art style—that is, if boisterous children (headed by the frisky Naru Kotoishi), fujoshi middle schoolers, and energetic old men stop barging into his house! The newest addition to the intimate and quirky Goto community only wants to get some work done, but the islands are far from the peaceful countryside he signed up for. Thanks to his wacky neighbors who are entirely incapable of minding their own business, the arrogant calligrapher learns so much more than he ever hoped to. (Source: MAL Rewrite)
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... (Source: Crunchyroll)
After transferring into a new school, a deaf girl, Shouko Nishimiya, is bullied by the popular Shouya Ishida. As Shouya continues to bully Shouko, the class turns its back on him. Shouko transfers and Shouya grows up as an outcast. Alone and depressed, the regretful Shouya finds Shouko to make amends. (Source: Eleven Arts)
Going home from his grandfather's funeral, thirty-year-old Daikichi is floored to discover that the old man had an illegitimate child with a younger lover. The rest of his family is equally shocked and embarrassed by this surprise development, and not one of them wants anything to do with the silent little girl, Rin Kaga. In a fit of anger, Daikichi decides to take her in himself. As Daikichi nurtures Rin, he started to understand the struggle while at the same time the joy of parenting. (Source: Anime News Network)
The CH Postal Company has just received a request to transcribe a love letter from Irma Felice, a famous opera singer. Accepting the task, Violet Evergarden visits Irma to write her letter. However, not only does Irma provide little information, she asks Violet to write based on her own feelings. Despite Violet's numerous attempts, Irma finds every version of the letter inadequate. Violet consults her colleagues, and they help her out by writing love letters of their own. Yet even those are rejected by the opera singer. As a last resort, Violet asks Irma for her true thoughts and feelings, hoping to find the missing puzzle piece. Will the Auto Memory Doll be able to translate Irma's emotions into words? (Source: MAL Rewrite) Note: Unaired episode included with the 4th BD/DVD release. It takes place between episodes 4 and 5 of the show.
After reliving the life of a high school student through the ReLIFE experiment, 27-year-old Arata Kaizaki cannot believe how quickly it has changed him. He has begun to see the world through a different perspective that he had completely forgotten as an adult. He has made friends and formed deep relationships with each one of them. However his support, Ryou Yoake, reminds him that the experiment is all an illusion; after his experiment ends, he will be forgotten by all of them. The experiment of another ReLIFE subject is also coming to an end. After spending two years with ReLIFE, Chizuru Hishiro has developed into a more open, more thoughtful person than she could have ever imagined. She has met people who have changed her life, her perspective, and ultimately her. However, now that their ReLIFE is coming to an end, will they be able to let go of the memories they have made? (Source: MAL Rewrite)
At the tender age of 15, Tomoko Kuroki has already dated hundreds of boys — or at least in dating games she has. The sad truth is that she gets tongue-tied just talking to people, which makes her entrance into the social pressure cooker of high school especially odious and riddled with anxiety. Can Tomoko overcome her crippling social anxiety and finally have the popular high school life she’s always dreamed of? Or will she merely get caught in the downward spiral that is her awkward life? (Source: HIDIVE)
Tightly clutching his Gibson guitar, Mafuyu Satou steps out of his dark apartment to begin another day of his high school life. While taking a nap in a quiet spot on the gymnasium staircase, he has a chance encounter with fellow student Ritsuka Uenoyama, who berates him for letting his guitar's strings rust and break. Noticing Uenoyama's knowledge of the instrument, Satou pleads for him to fix it and to teach him how to play. Uenoyama eventually agrees and invites him to sit in on a jam session with his two band mates: bassist Haruki Nakayama and drummer Akihiko Kaji. Satou's voice is strikingly beautiful, filling Uenoyama with the determination to make Satou the lead singer of the band. Though reticent at first, Satou takes the offer after an emotional meeting with an old friend. With the support of his new friends, Satou must not only learn how to play guitar, but also come to terms with the mysterious circumstances that led him to be its owner. (Source: MAL Rewrite)
Tamako knows just about everything there is to know about mochi, the traditional Japanese dessert treats. When she's not attending her first year of high school, she even invents new flavors and varieties for Tama-ya, her family's mochi shop. School and growing up, on the other hand, are some things that she's still trying to find the right recipe for. But with the help of her best friends Kanna and Midori, two girls whose parents run businesses in the same shopping district, Tamako's determined to make the best of things. It's complicated though, especially when it comes to emotions and her relationship with her best boy friend Mochizou, whose family runs a rival mochi shop. And lately, Midori's been feeling a little odd about her feelings towards Tamako as well. And what's with up with that strange bird fluttering around, the one that speaks fluent Japanese? It's all very mysterious and overwhelming, but at least Tamako always has one thing she can count on: No matter if your day's been good or bad, there's certain to be something sugary and delicious waiting at the end of every adventure whenever you take a walk through Tamako Market! (Source: Sentai Filmworks)
Devil King Sadao is only one step away from conquering the world when he is beaten by Hero Emilia and forced to drift to the other world: modern-day Tokyo. As "conquering the world" are the only skills the Devil King possesses—and are obviously unnecessary in his new situation—he must work as a freeter to pay for his living expenses!
Energy-conservative high school student Houtarou Oreki ends up with more than he bargained for when he signs up for the Classic Literature Club at his sister's behest—especially when he realizes how deep-rooted the club's history really is. Begrudgingly, Oreki is dragged into an investigation concerning the 45-year-old mystery that surrounds the club room. Accompanied by his fellow club members, the knowledgeable Satoshi Fukube, the stern but benign Mayaka Ibara, and the ever-curious Eru Chitanda, Oreki must combat deadlines and lack of information with resourcefulness and hidden talent, in order to not only find the truth buried beneath the dust of works created years before them, but of other side cases as well. Based on the award-winning Koten-bu light novel series, and directed by Yasuhiro Takemoto of Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu, Hyouka shows that normal life can be full of small mysteries, be it family history, a student film, or even the withered flowers that make up a ghost story. (Source: MAL Rewrite)
Nichijou primarily focuses on the daily antics of a trio of childhood friends—high school girls Mio Naganohara, Yuuko Aioi and Mai Minakami—whose stories soon intertwine with the young genius Hakase Shinonome, her robot caretaker Nano, and their talking cat Sakamoto. With every passing day, the lives of these six, as well as of the many people around them, experience both the calms of normal life and the insanity of the absurd. Walking to school, being bitten by a talking crow, spending time with friends, and watching the principal suplex a deer: they are all in a day's work in the extraordinary everyday lives of those in Nichijou. (Source: MAL Rewrite)
Jun is a girl whose words have been sealed away. She was once a very happy girl, but because of a certain thing she said when she was very young, her family was torn apart. One day, the egg fairy appeared in front of her and sealed away her ability to talk in order to stop her from hurting anybody else. Since this traumatic experience, Jun lives in the shadows away from the limelight. But, one day, she is nominated to become an executive member of the "community outreach council." On top of that, Jun is also appointed to play the main lead in their musical... (Source: Official website)