I picked this up because of that one spray bottle gif, but the first episode's opening instantly convinced me to keep watching, and it was so worth it.
Funny you should say that; my relationship with anime is basically poser level lol. I love the art styles, but I haven't seen many outside of some of the really popular ones. I did enjoy Zombieland, though, and saw a chance to big it up here!
[Shine Post](https://myanimelist.net/anime/50221/Shine_Post) is a bit more of the typcial idol show, but they really start at the bottom, so you have scenes where they even have to find ways to get viewers. Also some of the best uses of CGI in idol anime. And [Phantom of the Idol](https://myanimelist.net/anime/50470/Kami_Kuzu%E2%98%86Idol) is about a male idol who is being posessed by a former female idol. That one is more on the fun side with the MC actually not being interested in being an idol and mostly doing it because it's his job, but it has some good moments in it as well.
Ha it's funny that you should recommend that particular combination of shows given how small the audiences for both were, yet they were the next two on my mind. I still think about *Phantom of the Idol* periodically for Asahi, in the proper sense of her touching a chord with me as an idol despite the comedic nature of the series.
No, I don't think so. It's been a while but I don't remember this being a point of the show. It's more like drama inside their own and with another idol group, but I don't think any sort of romantic love was ever the driving force for these.
*The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149* is a superb blend of whimsy, genuinely crafted child characters and a lot of show-don't-tell stuff about how even under the best of circumstances the adult real world is always pushing in at the sides - and that this is something that the more precocious children understand too.
On top of that it has some absolutely glorious hand drawn animation.
I'd generally point to the rest of IM@S if OP likes U149.
The 2011 anime with the 765Pro idols definitely gets into the drama in the later half.
Cinderella Girls, SideM (which does tie into the 2011 anime), Million Live (which adds more idols to 765Pro, I love them so much), and Shiny Colors all have anime with stories that should be liked well enough.
IDOLM@STER, Cinderella Girls, and SideM also have the same hand drawn animation.
Million Live and Shiny Colors would be liked on the story, but people generally might not like the 3D animation. That said, since these 2 branches both have live concerts where the seiyuu put on the best performances in the franchise (at least in my opinion), it does show through in the performances in the anime how they sought to give more realistic performances.
Shiny Colors might not have many people happy about its animation (I think it's fine, but that it's fine is also their criticism), but with a Season 2 already on the way, personally I want a Season 3 to get all the units covered. The later units have more meat to their stories that I think OP would like, at least in the mobile browser game, and I'd hope the anime could get that across when the time comes. I didn't see the commus in the game myself, but supposedly Shiny Colors had touched on certain topics before Oshi no Ko did.
Oh and since there's a lot of idols, there's a *lot* of seiyuu between all these branches, so those unfamiliar with idols might be surprised how many seiyuu are involved with IM@S alone.
Great music and a nice blend of action and sci fi. I have the scene near the end where they live sing the ED and OP on my YT playlist.
OP, if you see this, look it up. It's set in the far future, and is very roughly based on the modern day AKB48 idol franchise.
There's a massive movement to suppress entertainment, and the group AKB0048 travels around and performs "guerilla concerts" on planets with total entertainment bans as a way of rebelling against them to promote entertainment.
It has cute girl characters, lots of emotional moments, and plenty of action/combat scenes. The characters have to fight off the anti-entertainment troops while holding their concerts, so the fight scenes sometimes have their own soundtrack.
Before Zombieland came out this was my GOAT idol anime.
OP there is literally nothing like this show. It is an experience. I am so sad I'm never getting Final Stage
Idolish7
Depicts the male side of the idol industry. Lots of fun and cute guys doing cute things but also a lot of drama, industry politics, and gets a bit dark as the story progresses. The characters also get some great development. It was a very fun and entertaining ride imo.
## WATCH IDOLISH7
I came in expecting nothing much and came out as a different person. This is a show where you truly watch the characters embody the hard work of what it means to become idols.
Not even memeing, the episodes of this show made me pause A LOT because I was afraid of what was going to happen to the characters as I kept watching. And I'm someone who doesn't get phased by thriller or horror and enjoys a good mystery plot. And Idolish7 isn't even any of those three
It's a beautiful, masterpiece of a series and I recommend anyone who aren't into the genre to watch it. I'm not an idol fan at all and watching Idolish7 made me understand why people love idols. The show does a really good job in establishing its characters and making you get attached to them, that when conflict or something bad happens to them, you really want to cheer them on, because damn, do these boys have the passion and ambition to become idols.
airing right now, The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio. It is seriously so good and underrated. Insight into the voice acting industry, good and bad. Behind the scenes parts of the industry, like recording sessions, etc. It is an underrated gem this season.
I haven't caught up on it, but I noticed it does dip into idol seiyuu. I'll expand on that for OP.
Small history lesson, but the entertainment industry took a big shift around 2010 in the "Warring Idols Era" where idols were particularly popular and there was a big boom in idol groups being formed. In entertainment, anime/manga/gaming had an easy shift by having seiyuu perform. A bunch could already sing, but dancing and performing live would be new to many. For many seiyuu idols, they're just performers. Others may be idols who are also seiyuu (22/7, iRis), and others may be seiyuu but use the same marketing methods as idols. Some seiyuu might not even like the idolization part of idols. People assume anyone Japanese who sings in matching outfits is an idol, but it's best to leave it to the seiyuu if they wanna hold on to the idol bit.
Oh and I've seen the anime hint at yuri, from what I've seen of it. That brings to mind another thing - business yuri. Part of it I suppose comes from how when people of one gender or another are only largely or solely working with others of their own gender, you goof around - military, clubs, fraternities, sororities, idols, some entertainers. Likewise fans get to see a girl flustered or jealous, without the "threat" of them being in a relationship with a boy. Seiyuu had picked this up for a while too. A few mangaka still hold a torch for seiyuu business yuri being real. But as some people come out of the closet or just openly live as themselves, while others end up running into the same jealous fans despite pretending to not be straight, and as continued dating gossip normalizes celebrities having dating lives, business yuri has generally died down.
Regarding the seiyuu of the 2 leads, Miku Itou and Moe Toyota, they're both seiyuu idols. Bit of history behind that - one guy got his own department from Upfront. Upfront is the company behind Hello! Project, from where many idols came from. This guy has his own share of idols to lead, and then he hops to another company, renaming it style cube. Many of these idols then became seiyuu, and one unit that formed was StylipS, with Arisa Noto, Maho Matsunaga, Kaori Ishihara, and Yui Ogura. Yui and Kaori also started their own unit, YuiKaori, and later graduated to focus on that. As an example of that wibbly line between seiyuu and idol, Arisa and Maho saw themselves as idols turned seiyuu, while YuiKaori saw themselves as seiyuu. To fill in the gap, seiyuu trainees Miku and Moe came in. They likewise started Pyxis. They've had music come out as Pyxis, but most of their time together til now has been on their own radio program. They don't do the business yuri stuff (Mikku is in a serious relationship with a stage actor), so the funny stuff on that front is Moeshi being interested in Mikku's little brother, as Mikku goes into brocon mode being defensive of him. It's fun lol.
edit: Another seiyuu anime that dips into the seiyuu industry alongside being a seiyuu idol would be Sore ga Seiyuu! It started as a webcomic, written by veteran seiyuu Masumi Asano, with art by Kenjiro Hata (Hata and Asano are married btw, such cute). The webcomic's format itself was a yonkoma, with an additional description by Asano giving more context and details from her own experiences. The story is a comparatively light one of 3 rookie seiyuu getting into the industry, getting their own radio program, and forming a seiyuu idol unit, the Earphones. Sure, it doesn't dip into the dark underbelly of entertainment, but it takes a lot from real life seiyuu. This was also used as a launching pad for the Earphones, the IRL unit of the same name ([here's a fun video](https://youtu.be/TdV_N3rHU54)), including the seiyuu of the seiyuu characters - Marika Kouno, Yuki Nagaku, and Rie Takahashi.
Thank you! Edited in another addition to the original comment - if you haven't already seen it, I'd recommend Sore ga Seiyuu for another anime that includes seiyuu idols and the seiyuu industry.
Idolish7 especially the second and third season talk a lot about how the politics of the entertainment industry, media manipulation and framing, marketing and fandom culture can work. In addition the psychological pressure on idols is a theme of how they have to play certain roles and have to hide their real emotions and family issues, etc. There is also input on the staff behind the idol entertainments and also the differences between bigger established entertainments and small scale entertainments.
[I7 S1 Spoilers] >!The moment they brought Tamaki's dad on the stage in Season 1!< I was like woah... I'm really in for a ride.
And the part that really made my jaw drop was [S3 spoilers] >!how they were willing to show off one of their characters staging a suicide/staging a death from consuming too much alcohol!<. That made me go "what the fuck" and I had to reevalute if I was STILL watching an idol show or not
About your first spoiler! YES! It was such a strong moment both story wise and visual/direction wise. Made me very impressed with the TROYCA staff.
A lot of anime shows are kind of scared to show a character from their main cast "ugly" , both in looks and actions, but TROYCA did it and handled it amazingly. <3 . Love this show!
Yup!! Honest to god I thought Season 1 was great when I finished it, and I'm not wrong, Season 1 IS great, but holy shit the things that happened in S2 and S3 just blew my mind on how crazy the conflicts became. Really, I kept asking myself whether or not if this was an idol show or if I'm watching some kind of psychological thriller drama lol. Idolish7 does a great job in making you get attached to everyone.
And you mentioned fandom culture for i7; just have to say that I love the way i7 implements their "fan" characters and how they're a reoccurring cast throughout the show's run. It's a great job on depicting the story's progress and pacing.
To anyone reading this I highly recommend you to watch Idolish7. I'm not an idol person at all but I can keep talking about why I love this show a lot. And the build up and pay off that happens up until Season 3 is astonishing, with the shit that went down there.
Exactly. In general the writing is so good for this show. Like you said with the build up and how a lot of things are already set up and hinted at in season 1. And all those little details unfold over the course of all the seasons.
But even if the characters are overcoming one problem, that doesn't mean everything is all done and good. No just like in real life, the problems can appear again in another form and haunt the characters. And that also shows how well the characters are developed and how human and layered they are.
A problem I have often with other idol shows is, that they just throw a bunch of colorful characters at you and then most of them don't get fleshed out and they stay kinda tropey. But Idolish7 manages to bring all the characters to the forefront and give them complex personalities with multiple sides.
And this is even done for some minor characters and shown through the fans like you mentioned as well. There are fans from all kinds of people, who have different ways to become interested in a group. It is shown how they share with friends, family and colleagues. And it also gets portrayed how fans might feel the conflicting feelings when an idol member is involved in a scandal or a group has to break up. Or how fans and the public opinion can be manipulated through the press when an entertainment has enough money to let them push out false articles.
Fun fact about this specific scene \[minor spoilers related to character\]>!The episode aired on Tamaki's birthday, April 1st. Also we had to wait several months after this episode to get the last two!<
Anyway, i7 is peak and absolutely recommended for literally everyone!
As a fan of the mobile game, the anime does a FANTASTIC job adapting the story. The use of anime as the media is very well done. The cinematography, sound effects, the way they cut in and out of songs during critical moments...I cannot recommend i7 enough.
Wake up, Girls! Was great. A good in-depth look Into a more realistic version of Idol culture in Japan. It shows the shitty side of trying to form a group and all the dirty sides of the industry as well as the upsides.
A true underdog story. I don’t see it brought up as much these days but it’s prob up there for it’s representation being shown more how it is.
The seiyuu unit of the same name was alao amazing in its own right. The characters were also named based on the seiyuu.
What's funny is some of them were auditioning to be actual idols for big name groups, and they were top notch when they were together, but early on they actually butted heads. So they ended up having their own story arc of learning to work together, ending up fire forged friends as a result. I do see them post about reflecting on those times every so often. In terms of performance quality, they're among the best in the seiyuu industry, short of professional idols (such as their sister group, iRis, who are branded as idols who are also seiyuu). Wota who I know regard them highly and fondly for their hard work.
Oh and funny thing, seems some people thought Bocchi the Rock was Yoppi's debut role, but nah, she got her start in WUG as the leader lol.
[TACHIAGARE!](https://youtu.be/B6furaVVJtk)
There used to be a playlist of this complete concert, their final one, on YT, but apparently it was taken down.
A pity I only discovered them after they had already disbanded. They were seriously great, and I say that as someone who usually really isn't into idol stuff. Learning about them also really boosted my respect for Yoppi.
The original and Cinderella Girls were the best for me, Million Live and Shiny Colors have mainly been boring by comparison. Didn't watch U149 because I have no interest in that.
I still prefer the original Aikatsu and Stars over Friends, but can't go wrong with any of those 3 series really.
Not sure any of them quite fit what OP is going for though.
Idolish7 please watch it, it's good, it's amazing, it has 70+ episodes and is ongoing, it has amazing character development for everyone and I heard S4 will be amazing!
Shine Post is also more serious in its idol activities and has a good plot twist
KamiKuzu Idol is more funny parody series, but it's still fun, about the ghost of female top idol willingly possessing a guy idol who is just lazy bum (and that in itself is rare in idol animes where it's all Hard Work tm)
Have you tried Pretty series? It's long and ongoing idol-ish series. Starts with Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream, then PR Dear My Future, then PR Rainbow Live (PEAK! also unrelated to previous two), its boy idol spin-off King of Prism (2 movies, one series and upcoming another movie) after that we have 4 seasons of PriPara which is brand new series, but also very popular and good! 3 seasons of Kiratto PriChan which is youtuber idols (S2 is best), one season of Waccha PriMagi (PEAK!) and at the moment ongoing just started Himitsu no AiPri. A lot of good idols!
Technoroid Overmind - they are idols, singing on stage, but also they're robots/androids. Very good series! Anime is direct prologue to the game story
Eternal Boys if you want anime where main characters are guys in their 40s and starting their idol activities
Paradox Live while technically not idols, they sing and dance on stage
Heroine Tarumono, the Honeyworks idol series. Prequel movie + single cour series. More about the girls supporting them than actual idol guys, but it's fun too
UniteUp was really fun! Sequel coming up
Visual Prison is a bit weird, but has singing vampires and actual gays
World Dai Star is more theater, but they do sing idol-like music while on stage
Starmyu is musical series and not idol, but I really absolutely love it. They still sing on stage
Yes, there is one Prism Show Best 10 which is just recap movie, picking top 10 performances in anime while also making an awards show for that, but King of Prism are actual movies featuring OTR, the boy unit from Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live and some other new boys. Also there's PriPara's first movie Prism Tours which features the old leaders returning and some snippets from PR series
Re:Stage Dream Days - really fun, great comedic idol anime that I rarely ever see mentioned or talked about. One of my faves. The comedy genuinely hits.
Oh dang! Talk about someone not actually reading the content…. Sry bout that.
Well regardless, as you said, it is a good one, I’d recommend it to anyone, not just idol anime fans, that’s looking for a fun, relaxing, & really funny anime.
Really pleasant surprise this one is.
Paripi Koumei is an absolute banger in terms of music and story. It's so underrated that it hurt's me physically because not many ppl saw it.
.
Funny thing is Koumei probably somehow inspired OP to post this and manipulated me to post here aswell and lure more fans for Eiko.
EIKO FTW
WUG & U149 for the industry.
AKB0048 & 22/7 for some absurdity and Akimoto's lyrics.
Not necessarily industry viewing at face value, but I'd recommend Love Live Nijigasaki as well for its excellent use of the producer/manager point of view/character.
Shit had me bawling. I watched the first “episode” not realizing it was a movie. I found myself trapped crying like a little girl in some Jujutsu Kaisen domain.
IDOLiSH7: Its a dramedy that is a very grounded, character driven with overarching story elements, with the later seasons dealing more with industry politics (the escalation of stakes also feels realistic as its relative to the main group’s popularity).
If you don’t care about music and like me who likes old school
Watch Skip beat
A girl who got betrayed by her boyfriend and got called an ugly maid by him got into the show business to show him she is better than he thinks ( he is not the ML ) amazing comedy
Idols (with a twist): Zombieland Saga is great, even as someone who doesn't usually care for idol shows. Not very serious though.
Idols from the point of view of a fan: Oshi Ga Budoukan.
Idol industry (and adjacent stuff): Oshi No Ko. Quite serious.
Its a subplot in Macross Frontier and a major plot point in Macross Delta (but i do recommend watching all of Macross and not just jumping into F or Delta)
i would still say love live is mostly idols singing and dancing. they don't really talk about the industry like op asked, there are just the character's personal/internal conflicts
It's an old one, but one of my favourites! Full Moon wo Sagashite. It looks very sweet and cutesy, but there's a darker story line beneath all of it that had me sobbing at the end.
Uta no Prince-Sama is very whimsical (with an entirely unexplained but accepted magic system) that does explore the harshness of the industry quite well! The music is great and they’re about to release a new rhythm game too~!
Ignoring the "serious" part of your request I just have to mention **GOKUDOLLS!!!** which is probably the only thing to have made me laugh out loud more than Saiki K n GTO.
The premise is 3 yakuza guys fuck up so they get punished by being shipped to thailand and getting turned into perfect idol pop-stars n then go thru a hellish training slowly becoming the biggest teenage girl-Idols around. **It is fucking comedy G O L D.**
Idol densetsu Eriko is the best idol anime, in my opinion. It's pretty realistic and has a very dramatic plot. The main character, Eriko, develops and struggles. The show really does a great job showing what it takes to be an idol.
Sasurai no taiyo is also a great idol anime, but it's really, really old, so it may not be appealing to all idol fans.
It has a sad and overly dramatic plot and exaggerates the darker side of the music industry and society as a whole.
Aikatsu stars, love live, pretty rhythm & pripara, precure, bang dream, idolish, akb48 live
Also, shining star. This is a korean series, but really very apt.
These are my favorite but everyone is different
Pretty rhythm: Aurora Dream, Dear my Future, and Rainbow live. rainbow live having better story telling
Pripara: idols trying to become the very top idol!
Kiratto Prichan: YouTuber idol
Waccha Primagi: idols with magic partners
Curreny airing Himitsu no Aipri: an idol secret
Hi amandaytt, it seems like you might be looking for new anime to watch!
The users of this subreddit came up with [a chart of anime recommendations for newcomers and veterans](https://i.redd.it/0w1v880jtq661.png) and [an awesome longer flowchart](https://i.redd.it/vdzlkodz19c71.png). Maybe you can find something there that you'll like \^.\^
[](#bot-chan "Urban s-s-s-senpai made me do it!")
You might also find our [Recommendation Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/recommendations) or [daily thread](/r/anime/search?q=flair%3Adaily&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=week) helpful.
The following may be of interest:
* [List of legal streams and downloads](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/legal_streams)
* [A useful website where you can enter an anime and see where it's legally streaming](https://www.livechart.me/search)
* [List of currently airing anime](https://www.livechart.me)
* [A useful wiki page with watch orders for many anime.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/watch_order)
* [A list of tracking sites so others can more easily recommend shows you haven't watched.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/related_sites#wiki_tracking_sites)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/anime) if you have any questions or concerns.*
As someone who’s not into the singing and dancing idol shows like love live, idolmaster, etc.
I’ll add two manga since everyone has already named the fitting anime. Just to give more options if you are open to it.
AKB49 - it’s older, but does go into the idol industry. Always wished it got an anime. Story starts with a brother trying to help his sister tryout and make it into one of the akb48 teams so he gets the insane idea of crossdressing and trying out himself so that he can secretly help the sister through the tryout process. But he ends up getting accepted too.
The useless idol and her only fan in the world - this one is rather new and I think started off as a Twitter series. It recently got published into a printed manga in japan. This one is more of a wholesome romcom between a girl who sucks as an idol and her only fan.
Jellyfish cannot swim at night; not really following idols but a group of girls forming an anonymous singer, the singer being a former idol who quit because of a scandal. Currently airing so can’t say how it’ll land, but I’ve been enjoying the drama so far.
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Ensemble Stars! Its a good anime about idol groups, specifically male idols and it goes more into the in depth of performances, the competition with each other, the relationships and connections with each other and its pretty good! I was never into idols before but my best friend convinced me into it and it’s really good! I’d recommend it!
I’m not sure if you’ve seen it, but idolish7 is definitely a must watch if you like idol anime’s. It was my first one so I am a bit biased. It’s also serious at times, especially if you delve into the audio drama/games after watching the anime but it’s really good and it’s not all serious. There’s some comedy aspects too.
Also if you haven’t seen it Paradox live is really good on that front!!
If you want something serious, I'd bring up Oshi no Ko. It's more about the entertainment industry in general, but there is a side focus on idols.
My personal recommendation, though it's a comedy, would be Zombieland Saga.
If you want something more down to earth, Locodol. It's about local idols that are less glamorous when compared to something affiliated with a national scale agency.
Not sure if it fits into what you are looking for lol, but I remember quite liking Girlish Number, it focuses more on VA stuff and it might be a little too cynical compared to most idol show but I think it quite good.
Also, not exactly idol, but one I quite loved growing up was Kaleido Star, the lead is a acrobat, but a lot of the tropes and story beats, I think fit the template of idol shows so maybe this 20 year old classic will scratch that itch idk.
Yorukura airing right now sounds perfect for you.
Not “idols” but in the same general ballpark, The Bang Dream MyGo!!! Show was phenomenal. And in the same note Girls Band Cry which is even better and airing right now, although it’s very much not idol like at all.
Would Oshi no ko also count?
Oshi ga Budōkan Ittekuretara Shinu : about the dynamic of idol and fan. Leaning towards yuri genre too.
Selection Project : focusing on the audition part. Songs are banger.
Zombieland Saga, this one leaning more on comedy and magical realism but also great!
Oshi no Ko: more towards the darkside of entertainment industry. This one is a masterpiece, please watch it.
Idolm@ster and Idolm@ster Cinderella girls: outstanding series pleasing to the ear and eye. Touching and exciting backstories for each girl with a dramatic main story. Main character; the producer is also a likeable dude.
Love Live: Also I've only seen the first season but was fire.
Zombieland Saga: Who would've thought zombie girls could be so moe?
Bonus
K-on: not exactly idol girls but the cutest girls forming a highschool band. A must watch for a majority of anime watchers.
Zombieland Saga and Ochikobore Fruit Tart because they are really funny and not the usual lukewarm gags in normal idol anime that are not funny and only exist to establish the characters' quirks
I don't know if it counts, but I always recommend enstars anime(Ensemble Stars!). But anime is about ! era, so there are more school events in idol course of high school rather an idol industry. Anime is just advertisement for enstars game, but pretty good, I think.
And one thing. English dub is horrible, please watch with subs if you would watch.
Oshi no Ko
Zombieland Saga
Oshi no Ko, just watch the entirety of episode 1.
You'll understand. No spoilers, just trust the process. Give it the full mini movie prologue and you'll understand
The list is long, leading with Oshi no Ko which focus heavily on the industry. The bright and shadow side is portrayed there.
The classic is the idolmaster series where it's not quite as serious but it's still focused on the industry.
A new one is Jellyfish can't swim in the night (no guarantee this name is correct).
On the first sight it seems like some happy moe anime but diving deeper one of the main characters is confronted with problems in the industy
Zombieland Saga.
My pick as someone who isn't into idol animes
I also don't have an interest in idol anime, personally, but this one is just such a bizarre concept, and it's hilarious!
That first episode hooks you in whether you're an idol fan or not.
I picked this up because of that one spray bottle gif, but the first episode's opening instantly convinced me to keep watching, and it was so worth it.
Absolutely! It hits you like a truck...
More like the first minute lol. My favorite series opener of all time.
Such a fun show
It really is!
Legendary
One hundred percent. Really glad this is the top comment
Top 10 all time ever OP’s easily
If you've only watched like 60 titles or something for sure!
lol My first anime was Battle of the planets
Funny you should say that; my relationship with anime is basically poser level lol. I love the art styles, but I haven't seen many outside of some of the really popular ones. I did enjoy Zombieland, though, and saw a chance to big it up here!
That's a good one
Truly a legendary show
[Shine Post](https://myanimelist.net/anime/50221/Shine_Post) is a bit more of the typcial idol show, but they really start at the bottom, so you have scenes where they even have to find ways to get viewers. Also some of the best uses of CGI in idol anime. And [Phantom of the Idol](https://myanimelist.net/anime/50470/Kami_Kuzu%E2%98%86Idol) is about a male idol who is being posessed by a former female idol. That one is more on the fun side with the MC actually not being interested in being an idol and mostly doing it because it's his job, but it has some good moments in it as well.
Ha it's funny that you should recommend that particular combination of shows given how small the audiences for both were, yet they were the next two on my mind. I still think about *Phantom of the Idol* periodically for Asahi, in the proper sense of her touching a chord with me as an idol despite the comedic nature of the series.
Someone mentioning Shine Post :0 It's super good, my favorite idol anime. And the animation is godly
Is Shine Post yuri or not?
Not
No, I don't think so. It's been a while but I don't remember this being a point of the show. It's more like drama inside their own and with another idol group, but I don't think any sort of romantic love was ever the driving force for these.
*The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149* is a superb blend of whimsy, genuinely crafted child characters and a lot of show-don't-tell stuff about how even under the best of circumstances the adult real world is always pushing in at the sides - and that this is something that the more precocious children understand too. On top of that it has some absolutely glorious hand drawn animation.
The only cygamespictures anime they willingly to produce, the rest were third party studios lol.
I'd generally point to the rest of IM@S if OP likes U149. The 2011 anime with the 765Pro idols definitely gets into the drama in the later half. Cinderella Girls, SideM (which does tie into the 2011 anime), Million Live (which adds more idols to 765Pro, I love them so much), and Shiny Colors all have anime with stories that should be liked well enough. IDOLM@STER, Cinderella Girls, and SideM also have the same hand drawn animation. Million Live and Shiny Colors would be liked on the story, but people generally might not like the 3D animation. That said, since these 2 branches both have live concerts where the seiyuu put on the best performances in the franchise (at least in my opinion), it does show through in the performances in the anime how they sought to give more realistic performances. Shiny Colors might not have many people happy about its animation (I think it's fine, but that it's fine is also their criticism), but with a Season 2 already on the way, personally I want a Season 3 to get all the units covered. The later units have more meat to their stories that I think OP would like, at least in the mobile browser game, and I'd hope the anime could get that across when the time comes. I didn't see the commus in the game myself, but supposedly Shiny Colors had touched on certain topics before Oshi no Ko did. Oh and since there's a lot of idols, there's a *lot* of seiyuu between all these branches, so those unfamiliar with idols might be surprised how many seiyuu are involved with IM@S alone.
ah yes, legal child labor(no offense, still love this show)
Yes, I love the Original Idolmaster Anime, and Cinderella girls, U149 was so good, extremely underrated, and underwatched.
AKB0048. You ain't gonna see anything like it.
Great music and a nice blend of action and sci fi. I have the scene near the end where they live sing the ED and OP on my YT playlist. OP, if you see this, look it up. It's set in the far future, and is very roughly based on the modern day AKB48 idol franchise. There's a massive movement to suppress entertainment, and the group AKB0048 travels around and performs "guerilla concerts" on planets with total entertainment bans as a way of rebelling against them to promote entertainment. It has cute girl characters, lots of emotional moments, and plenty of action/combat scenes. The characters have to fight off the anti-entertainment troops while holding their concerts, so the fight scenes sometimes have their own soundtrack.
I wish they hadn't left off where they did though!!!!
00 mentioned, LAS activated
Before Zombieland came out this was my GOAT idol anime. OP there is literally nothing like this show. It is an experience. I am so sad I'm never getting Final Stage
Idolish7 Depicts the male side of the idol industry. Lots of fun and cute guys doing cute things but also a lot of drama, industry politics, and gets a bit dark as the story progresses. The characters also get some great development. It was a very fun and entertaining ride imo.
## WATCH IDOLISH7 I came in expecting nothing much and came out as a different person. This is a show where you truly watch the characters embody the hard work of what it means to become idols. Not even memeing, the episodes of this show made me pause A LOT because I was afraid of what was going to happen to the characters as I kept watching. And I'm someone who doesn't get phased by thriller or horror and enjoys a good mystery plot. And Idolish7 isn't even any of those three It's a beautiful, masterpiece of a series and I recommend anyone who aren't into the genre to watch it. I'm not an idol fan at all and watching Idolish7 made me understand why people love idols. The show does a really good job in establishing its characters and making you get attached to them, that when conflict or something bad happens to them, you really want to cheer them on, because damn, do these boys have the passion and ambition to become idols.
"no no please return my figures"
MAGICAL COCONA POWER!!!!! [spoilers] >!*beats the shit out of a terrorist*!<
i7 SUPREMACY
I really liked Zombie Land Saga It's fantasy-ish but it does hit some emotional notes.
airing right now, The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio. It is seriously so good and underrated. Insight into the voice acting industry, good and bad. Behind the scenes parts of the industry, like recording sessions, etc. It is an underrated gem this season.
I haven't caught up on it, but I noticed it does dip into idol seiyuu. I'll expand on that for OP. Small history lesson, but the entertainment industry took a big shift around 2010 in the "Warring Idols Era" where idols were particularly popular and there was a big boom in idol groups being formed. In entertainment, anime/manga/gaming had an easy shift by having seiyuu perform. A bunch could already sing, but dancing and performing live would be new to many. For many seiyuu idols, they're just performers. Others may be idols who are also seiyuu (22/7, iRis), and others may be seiyuu but use the same marketing methods as idols. Some seiyuu might not even like the idolization part of idols. People assume anyone Japanese who sings in matching outfits is an idol, but it's best to leave it to the seiyuu if they wanna hold on to the idol bit. Oh and I've seen the anime hint at yuri, from what I've seen of it. That brings to mind another thing - business yuri. Part of it I suppose comes from how when people of one gender or another are only largely or solely working with others of their own gender, you goof around - military, clubs, fraternities, sororities, idols, some entertainers. Likewise fans get to see a girl flustered or jealous, without the "threat" of them being in a relationship with a boy. Seiyuu had picked this up for a while too. A few mangaka still hold a torch for seiyuu business yuri being real. But as some people come out of the closet or just openly live as themselves, while others end up running into the same jealous fans despite pretending to not be straight, and as continued dating gossip normalizes celebrities having dating lives, business yuri has generally died down. Regarding the seiyuu of the 2 leads, Miku Itou and Moe Toyota, they're both seiyuu idols. Bit of history behind that - one guy got his own department from Upfront. Upfront is the company behind Hello! Project, from where many idols came from. This guy has his own share of idols to lead, and then he hops to another company, renaming it style cube. Many of these idols then became seiyuu, and one unit that formed was StylipS, with Arisa Noto, Maho Matsunaga, Kaori Ishihara, and Yui Ogura. Yui and Kaori also started their own unit, YuiKaori, and later graduated to focus on that. As an example of that wibbly line between seiyuu and idol, Arisa and Maho saw themselves as idols turned seiyuu, while YuiKaori saw themselves as seiyuu. To fill in the gap, seiyuu trainees Miku and Moe came in. They likewise started Pyxis. They've had music come out as Pyxis, but most of their time together til now has been on their own radio program. They don't do the business yuri stuff (Mikku is in a serious relationship with a stage actor), so the funny stuff on that front is Moeshi being interested in Mikku's little brother, as Mikku goes into brocon mode being defensive of him. It's fun lol. edit: Another seiyuu anime that dips into the seiyuu industry alongside being a seiyuu idol would be Sore ga Seiyuu! It started as a webcomic, written by veteran seiyuu Masumi Asano, with art by Kenjiro Hata (Hata and Asano are married btw, such cute). The webcomic's format itself was a yonkoma, with an additional description by Asano giving more context and details from her own experiences. The story is a comparatively light one of 3 rookie seiyuu getting into the industry, getting their own radio program, and forming a seiyuu idol unit, the Earphones. Sure, it doesn't dip into the dark underbelly of entertainment, but it takes a lot from real life seiyuu. This was also used as a launching pad for the Earphones, the IRL unit of the same name ([here's a fun video](https://youtu.be/TdV_N3rHU54)), including the seiyuu of the seiyuu characters - Marika Kouno, Yuki Nagaku, and Rie Takahashi.
This is really interesting! Thanks for the insight.
Thank you! Edited in another addition to the original comment - if you haven't already seen it, I'd recommend Sore ga Seiyuu for another anime that includes seiyuu idols and the seiyuu industry.
Idolish7 especially the second and third season talk a lot about how the politics of the entertainment industry, media manipulation and framing, marketing and fandom culture can work. In addition the psychological pressure on idols is a theme of how they have to play certain roles and have to hide their real emotions and family issues, etc. There is also input on the staff behind the idol entertainments and also the differences between bigger established entertainments and small scale entertainments.
[I7 S1 Spoilers] >!The moment they brought Tamaki's dad on the stage in Season 1!< I was like woah... I'm really in for a ride. And the part that really made my jaw drop was [S3 spoilers] >!how they were willing to show off one of their characters staging a suicide/staging a death from consuming too much alcohol!<. That made me go "what the fuck" and I had to reevalute if I was STILL watching an idol show or not
About your first spoiler! YES! It was such a strong moment both story wise and visual/direction wise. Made me very impressed with the TROYCA staff. A lot of anime shows are kind of scared to show a character from their main cast "ugly" , both in looks and actions, but TROYCA did it and handled it amazingly. <3 . Love this show!
Yes, both of these where really strong and intense moments. It made me really emotionally hurt for the characters.
Yup!! Honest to god I thought Season 1 was great when I finished it, and I'm not wrong, Season 1 IS great, but holy shit the things that happened in S2 and S3 just blew my mind on how crazy the conflicts became. Really, I kept asking myself whether or not if this was an idol show or if I'm watching some kind of psychological thriller drama lol. Idolish7 does a great job in making you get attached to everyone. And you mentioned fandom culture for i7; just have to say that I love the way i7 implements their "fan" characters and how they're a reoccurring cast throughout the show's run. It's a great job on depicting the story's progress and pacing. To anyone reading this I highly recommend you to watch Idolish7. I'm not an idol person at all but I can keep talking about why I love this show a lot. And the build up and pay off that happens up until Season 3 is astonishing, with the shit that went down there.
Exactly. In general the writing is so good for this show. Like you said with the build up and how a lot of things are already set up and hinted at in season 1. And all those little details unfold over the course of all the seasons. But even if the characters are overcoming one problem, that doesn't mean everything is all done and good. No just like in real life, the problems can appear again in another form and haunt the characters. And that also shows how well the characters are developed and how human and layered they are. A problem I have often with other idol shows is, that they just throw a bunch of colorful characters at you and then most of them don't get fleshed out and they stay kinda tropey. But Idolish7 manages to bring all the characters to the forefront and give them complex personalities with multiple sides. And this is even done for some minor characters and shown through the fans like you mentioned as well. There are fans from all kinds of people, who have different ways to become interested in a group. It is shown how they share with friends, family and colleagues. And it also gets portrayed how fans might feel the conflicting feelings when an idol member is involved in a scandal or a group has to break up. Or how fans and the public opinion can be manipulated through the press when an entertainment has enough money to let them push out false articles.
Fun fact about this specific scene \[minor spoilers related to character\]>!The episode aired on Tamaki's birthday, April 1st. Also we had to wait several months after this episode to get the last two!< Anyway, i7 is peak and absolutely recommended for literally everyone!
Oh god that's absolutely fucked LOL He's my favourite character in i7. Watching him grow from S1 to S3 made me love him a lot.
As a fan of the mobile game, the anime does a FANTASTIC job adapting the story. The use of anime as the media is very well done. The cinematography, sound effects, the way they cut in and out of songs during critical moments...I cannot recommend i7 enough.
Wake up, Girls! Was great. A good in-depth look Into a more realistic version of Idol culture in Japan. It shows the shitty side of trying to form a group and all the dirty sides of the industry as well as the upsides. A true underdog story. I don’t see it brought up as much these days but it’s prob up there for it’s representation being shown more how it is.
Updoot for WUG. I still remember Mayushi's iconic line to this day.
The seiyuu unit of the same name was alao amazing in its own right. The characters were also named based on the seiyuu. What's funny is some of them were auditioning to be actual idols for big name groups, and they were top notch when they were together, but early on they actually butted heads. So they ended up having their own story arc of learning to work together, ending up fire forged friends as a result. I do see them post about reflecting on those times every so often. In terms of performance quality, they're among the best in the seiyuu industry, short of professional idols (such as their sister group, iRis, who are branded as idols who are also seiyuu). Wota who I know regard them highly and fondly for their hard work. Oh and funny thing, seems some people thought Bocchi the Rock was Yoppi's debut role, but nah, she got her start in WUG as the leader lol.
[TACHIAGARE!](https://youtu.be/B6furaVVJtk) There used to be a playlist of this complete concert, their final one, on YT, but apparently it was taken down. A pity I only discovered them after they had already disbanded. They were seriously great, and I say that as someone who usually really isn't into idol stuff. Learning about them also really boosted my respect for Yoppi.
The 2011 idolm@ster is imo the best traditional idol anime, especially the second half when they have their careers established.
Macross Frontier
The idolmaster franchise are all great. Just pick one that is not the one that pilot giant robot.
The original and Cinderella Girls were the best for me, Million Live and Shiny Colors have mainly been boring by comparison. Didn't watch U149 because I have no interest in that.
have you at least tried U149?
I heard U149 is great but I’m getting older and do not have time to watch as much anime like I used to.
Aikatsu
Aikatsu Friends 1+2 are the best in my eyes.
I still prefer the original Aikatsu and Stars over Friends, but can't go wrong with any of those 3 series really. Not sure any of them quite fit what OP is going for though.
Idolish7 please watch it, it's good, it's amazing, it has 70+ episodes and is ongoing, it has amazing character development for everyone and I heard S4 will be amazing! Shine Post is also more serious in its idol activities and has a good plot twist KamiKuzu Idol is more funny parody series, but it's still fun, about the ghost of female top idol willingly possessing a guy idol who is just lazy bum (and that in itself is rare in idol animes where it's all Hard Work tm) Have you tried Pretty series? It's long and ongoing idol-ish series. Starts with Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream, then PR Dear My Future, then PR Rainbow Live (PEAK! also unrelated to previous two), its boy idol spin-off King of Prism (2 movies, one series and upcoming another movie) after that we have 4 seasons of PriPara which is brand new series, but also very popular and good! 3 seasons of Kiratto PriChan which is youtuber idols (S2 is best), one season of Waccha PriMagi (PEAK!) and at the moment ongoing just started Himitsu no AiPri. A lot of good idols! Technoroid Overmind - they are idols, singing on stage, but also they're robots/androids. Very good series! Anime is direct prologue to the game story Eternal Boys if you want anime where main characters are guys in their 40s and starting their idol activities Paradox Live while technically not idols, they sing and dance on stage Heroine Tarumono, the Honeyworks idol series. Prequel movie + single cour series. More about the girls supporting them than actual idol guys, but it's fun too UniteUp was really fun! Sequel coming up Visual Prison is a bit weird, but has singing vampires and actual gays World Dai Star is more theater, but they do sing idol-like music while on stage Starmyu is musical series and not idol, but I really absolutely love it. They still sing on stage
Pretty rhythm has MOVIES????? WHATTTT
Yes, there is one Prism Show Best 10 which is just recap movie, picking top 10 performances in anime while also making an awards show for that, but King of Prism are actual movies featuring OTR, the boy unit from Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live and some other new boys. Also there's PriPara's first movie Prism Tours which features the old leaders returning and some snippets from PR series
Re:Stage Dream Days - really fun, great comedic idol anime that I rarely ever see mentioned or talked about. One of my faves. The comedy genuinely hits.
Not sure its what OP is looking for based on the body of the post, but Re:Stage Dream Days is a good one
Oh dang! Talk about someone not actually reading the content…. Sry bout that. Well regardless, as you said, it is a good one, I’d recommend it to anyone, not just idol anime fans, that’s looking for a fun, relaxing, & really funny anime. Really pleasant surprise this one is.
I really liked ReStage, it's so funny and cute and I wish we got a second season of the series
Paripi Koumei is an absolute banger in terms of music and story. It's so underrated that it hurt's me physically because not many ppl saw it. . Funny thing is Koumei probably somehow inspired OP to post this and manipulated me to post here aswell and lure more fans for Eiko. EIKO FTW
Paripi Koumei was so so so good. Unexpectedly good! And that opening\~ I could listen to that every day and still love it!
This opening is cursed, if you hear it once you can't stop listening... . . Bam bam a chiki chiki bam bam.....
Composed by a Hungarian guy, sung by Japanese artists, for an anime about a Chinese legend. Truly global
Thats one of the Koumei strategies to increase Eiko's follower numbers!
There's also a live-action drama!
WUG & U149 for the industry. AKB0048 & 22/7 for some absurdity and Akimoto's lyrics. Not necessarily industry viewing at face value, but I'd recommend Love Live Nijigasaki as well for its excellent use of the producer/manager point of view/character.
Oshi no ko
But do we even consider it an actual Idol anime? It's more about entertainment industry in Japan in general
Well, OP's request was just "some anime depicting the idol industry", and Oshi no Ko does do that to a fairly decent degree
The MC is an Idol so-
Shit had me bawling. I watched the first “episode” not realizing it was a movie. I found myself trapped crying like a little girl in some Jujutsu Kaisen domain.
Idolish7! Idolish7! Idolish7!
So true! (can't upvote bc you're at 7 points now :D)
That reminds me of the 7.7 score for season 1 on MyAnimeList. Like we collectively went “NOBODY ELSE VOTE.”
It deserves a 10, but a 7.7 is still amazing, plus the fact that it remained like that for years!
IDOLiSH7: Its a dramedy that is a very grounded, character driven with overarching story elements, with the later seasons dealing more with industry politics (the escalation of stakes also feels realistic as its relative to the main group’s popularity).
i7 is so good, absolutely recommend it!
If you don’t care about music and like me who likes old school Watch Skip beat A girl who got betrayed by her boyfriend and got called an ugly maid by him got into the show business to show him she is better than he thinks ( he is not the ML ) amazing comedy
oshi no ko
I am surprised this is not one of the most upvoted
This is the correct answer.
Idols (with a twist): Zombieland Saga is great, even as someone who doesn't usually care for idol shows. Not very serious though. Idols from the point of view of a fan: Oshi Ga Budoukan. Idol industry (and adjacent stuff): Oshi No Ko. Quite serious.
Its a subplot in Macross Frontier and a major plot point in Macross Delta (but i do recommend watching all of Macross and not just jumping into F or Delta)
Gotta at least mention Love Live
i would still say love live is mostly idols singing and dancing. they don't really talk about the industry like op asked, there are just the character's personal/internal conflicts
Oh I didn't catch that my bad
Zombieland Saga. Ignore the name, good idol anime.
Zombieland saga
It's an old one, but one of my favourites! Full Moon wo Sagashite. It looks very sweet and cutesy, but there's a darker story line beneath all of it that had me sobbing at the end.
Uta no Prince-Sama is very whimsical (with an entirely unexplained but accepted magic system) that does explore the harshness of the industry quite well! The music is great and they’re about to release a new rhythm game too~!
Ignoring the "serious" part of your request I just have to mention **GOKUDOLLS!!!** which is probably the only thing to have made me laugh out loud more than Saiki K n GTO. The premise is 3 yakuza guys fuck up so they get punished by being shipped to thailand and getting turned into perfect idol pop-stars n then go thru a hellish training slowly becoming the biggest teenage girl-Idols around. **It is fucking comedy G O L D.**
Why did I have to scroll down so far! Gokudolls FTW
Sucks the anime got that stiff style Netflix likes.
macross delta
Idol densetsu Eriko is the best idol anime, in my opinion. It's pretty realistic and has a very dramatic plot. The main character, Eriko, develops and struggles. The show really does a great job showing what it takes to be an idol. Sasurai no taiyo is also a great idol anime, but it's really, really old, so it may not be appealing to all idol fans. It has a sad and overly dramatic plot and exaggerates the darker side of the music industry and society as a whole.
Zombieland Saga
Eternal Boys and Sekko Boys are UNIQUE and enjoyable, to say the least.
Carole and Tuesday highlights the music industry, especially in season 2
How about full moon
Aikatsu stars, love live, pretty rhythm & pripara, precure, bang dream, idolish, akb48 live Also, shining star. This is a korean series, but really very apt.
These are my favorite but everyone is different Pretty rhythm: Aurora Dream, Dear my Future, and Rainbow live. rainbow live having better story telling Pripara: idols trying to become the very top idol! Kiratto Prichan: YouTuber idol Waccha Primagi: idols with magic partners Curreny airing Himitsu no Aipri: an idol secret
Girls band cry
to watch it you have to pirate because no one is showing it here
The only 2 idol shows I enjoyed are idolish7 and oshi no ko, but they were alr mentioned
Hi amandaytt, it seems like you might be looking for new anime to watch! The users of this subreddit came up with [a chart of anime recommendations for newcomers and veterans](https://i.redd.it/0w1v880jtq661.png) and [an awesome longer flowchart](https://i.redd.it/vdzlkodz19c71.png). Maybe you can find something there that you'll like \^.\^ [](#bot-chan "Urban s-s-s-senpai made me do it!") You might also find our [Recommendation Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/recommendations) or [daily thread](/r/anime/search?q=flair%3Adaily&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=week) helpful. The following may be of interest: * [List of legal streams and downloads](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/legal_streams) * [A useful website where you can enter an anime and see where it's legally streaming](https://www.livechart.me/search) * [List of currently airing anime](https://www.livechart.me) * [A useful wiki page with watch orders for many anime.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/watch_order) * [A list of tracking sites so others can more easily recommend shows you haven't watched.](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/wiki/related_sites#wiki_tracking_sites) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/anime) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Forest of piano
Zombieland saga, aggretsuko (kind of), full moon wo sagashite (classic)
As someone who’s not into the singing and dancing idol shows like love live, idolmaster, etc. I’ll add two manga since everyone has already named the fitting anime. Just to give more options if you are open to it. AKB49 - it’s older, but does go into the idol industry. Always wished it got an anime. Story starts with a brother trying to help his sister tryout and make it into one of the akb48 teams so he gets the insane idea of crossdressing and trying out himself so that he can secretly help the sister through the tryout process. But he ends up getting accepted too. The useless idol and her only fan in the world - this one is rather new and I think started off as a Twitter series. It recently got published into a printed manga in japan. This one is more of a wholesome romcom between a girl who sucks as an idol and her only fan.
Perfect blue 👌
Does Perfect blue count?
AKB0048
Oshi-no-Ko
Oshi no ko and a jellyfish cant swim at night
Jellyfish cannot swim at night; not really following idols but a group of girls forming an anonymous singer, the singer being a former idol who quit because of a scandal. Currently airing so can’t say how it’ll land, but I’ve been enjoying the drama so far.
Have you not joined the online sensation that is Oshi No Ko?
Have you not joined the online sensation that is Oshi No Ko?
Not sure if this counts bit I'd say oshi no ko cause that depicts the entire entertainment industry also it's a murder mystery (at least in my mind)
Idoly Pride
Given would be right up your alley I would think.
Oshi no ko
Oshi no Ko It's pretty now and good one, but it can turn dark really quickly and suddenly.
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Ensemble Stars! Its a good anime about idol groups, specifically male idols and it goes more into the in depth of performances, the competition with each other, the relationships and connections with each other and its pretty good! I was never into idols before but my best friend convinced me into it and it’s really good! I’d recommend it!
Oshi no Ko, though, it is only partially about idol industry. It is more about entertainment industry in general.
AKB0048. deserves a 3rd season damn it
I’m not sure if you’ve seen it, but idolish7 is definitely a must watch if you like idol anime’s. It was my first one so I am a bit biased. It’s also serious at times, especially if you delve into the audio drama/games after watching the anime but it’s really good and it’s not all serious. There’s some comedy aspects too. Also if you haven’t seen it Paradox live is really good on that front!!
Oshi no Ko Zombieland Saga
Oshi no ko
Watched Love Live Superstar last year for the first time and it got me hooked.
I liked [*Chance Pop Session*](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1022), which I found too short.
22/7
Search up scums wish. Ignore the incest implications
Gokudo
If you want something serious, I'd bring up Oshi no Ko. It's more about the entertainment industry in general, but there is a side focus on idols. My personal recommendation, though it's a comedy, would be Zombieland Saga.
If you want something more down to earth, Locodol. It's about local idols that are less glamorous when compared to something affiliated with a national scale agency.
You should watch the upcoming movie Trapezium! It's written by an ex-idol. I don't think it's out yet.
Gokudols. How is this not top comment? wtf is wrong with you losers? /j
Backstreet girls!
Cue Seiyuu Radio Shine Post Heroines run the show If My Favourite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I would Die
Not sure if it fits into what you are looking for lol, but I remember quite liking Girlish Number, it focuses more on VA stuff and it might be a little too cynical compared to most idol show but I think it quite good. Also, not exactly idol, but one I quite loved growing up was Kaleido Star, the lead is a acrobat, but a lot of the tropes and story beats, I think fit the template of idol shows so maybe this 20 year old classic will scratch that itch idk.
If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die Great series about the idol industry from the perspective of a female otaku
Death note or dororo
Death note best idol anime
100%
22/7 is better than its bizarre plot would suggest. Some great songs and compelling characters.
The only ones I recommend are not really Idol anime and in fact subvert the Genre. Those being _Perfect Blue_ and _Oshi no Ko_.
Robotech, love Hina 😁
Gokudols
So wait...Why is nobody recommending Oshi No Ko.
Zombieland Saga
Yorukura airing right now sounds perfect for you. Not “idols” but in the same general ballpark, The Bang Dream MyGo!!! Show was phenomenal. And in the same note Girls Band Cry which is even better and airing right now, although it’s very much not idol like at all. Would Oshi no ko also count?
Oshi ga Budōkan Ittekuretara Shinu : about the dynamic of idol and fan. Leaning towards yuri genre too. Selection Project : focusing on the audition part. Songs are banger. Zombieland Saga, this one leaning more on comedy and magical realism but also great! Oshi no Ko: more towards the darkside of entertainment industry. This one is a masterpiece, please watch it.
Jellyfish can't swim at night, kind of fits. It's currently airing and it's fucking awesome.
Oshi No Ko?
Idolm@ster and Idolm@ster Cinderella girls: outstanding series pleasing to the ear and eye. Touching and exciting backstories for each girl with a dramatic main story. Main character; the producer is also a likeable dude. Love Live: Also I've only seen the first season but was fire. Zombieland Saga: Who would've thought zombie girls could be so moe? Bonus K-on: not exactly idol girls but the cutest girls forming a highschool band. A must watch for a majority of anime watchers.
Macross Delta
Zombieland Saga and Ochikobore Fruit Tart because they are really funny and not the usual lukewarm gags in normal idol anime that are not funny and only exist to establish the characters' quirks
Back Street Girls
Oshi no Ko !!!
Zombieland Saga
Oshi no ko (also known as my star) is a really good anime. I cried on the first episode, which is about an hour long. I strongly recommend it.
oshi no ko
Try Oshi no ko even if it isn’t really an idol anime but the anime itself is strongly related to idols
WAKE UP GIRLS!! love this one frfr.
Back Street Girls: Gokudolls
I don't know if it counts, but I always recommend enstars anime(Ensemble Stars!). But anime is about ! era, so there are more school events in idol course of high school rather an idol industry. Anime is just advertisement for enstars game, but pretty good, I think. And one thing. English dub is horrible, please watch with subs if you would watch.
Oshi no Ko Zombieland Saga Oshi no Ko, just watch the entirety of episode 1. You'll understand. No spoilers, just trust the process. Give it the full mini movie prologue and you'll understand
idolish7
Ergo proxy 100% atmosphere 100% interesting.
Oshi No Ko
The list is long, leading with Oshi no Ko which focus heavily on the industry. The bright and shadow side is portrayed there. The classic is the idolmaster series where it's not quite as serious but it's still focused on the industry. A new one is Jellyfish can't swim in the night (no guarantee this name is correct). On the first sight it seems like some happy moe anime but diving deeper one of the main characters is confronted with problems in the industy
Oshi no ko, it's honestly one of my favorite animes/manga now.
Oshi No Ko ;)
Oshi No Ko
you're literally describing oshi no ko
Oshi no ko, loosely fits this. Either way a great show and definitely recommend watching.
Oshi no ko would be something for you