Fans looking for an anime idol group to get behind will find these shows should tickle their fancy.
People who love anime know that the industry has more to offer outside heroic adventures, awesome mecha, and magical girls. Those who want to see delightful anime stories with equal doses of song and dance will likely find idol anime very appealing. A lot of idol anime also feature quite catchy and captivating soundtracks for fans to enjoy.
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Along with great performances, the best idol anime are also captivating tales of friendships and persistence in the face of overwhelming challenges. Niche as the genre might be, idol stories come in many shapes and melodies.
Updated May 6, 2023 by Mark Sammut: When it comes to idol anime, Spring 2023 cannot offer quantity, but does it have quality?
«Best» might not be the correct word considering Spring 2023 has exactly one idol anime. Technically, Oshi no Ko also explores the industry and features comfortably the season’s most recognizable idol, but it is not an idol anime. That said, the series is undoubtedly worth watching since it is comfortably among Spring’s best anime.
So, what is the solitary Spring 2023 idol anime?
IDOLM@STER needs no introduction to people remotely familiar with the genre. Debuting as games, the franchise has consistently produced content over the last two decades, even if most releases were primarily successful in Japan rather than in Western nations. Unsurprisingly, the games proved successful enough to warrant many adaptations, including a couple of shows that comfortably rank among the best idol anime of all time. The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149 is the license’s latest project, with the anime being based on a shonen manga.
U149 follows a young producer who is assigned his first idol group; to his surprise, he finds himself in charge of elementary schoolgirls, which naturally raises some unique challenges. Now, the cast’s median age might be a sticking point for a lot of people; however, the characters are reasonably well-written and grounded. So far, the anime has not focused too much on performances or singing, opting instead to highlight the «grind» idols must go through to get their names out there. Even though it tries to be somewhat realistic, the show is still wholesome and sells the idea that becoming an idol is hard work but ultimately worth it. Also, U149’s animation is very good.
Now, on to the best idol anime of all time…
Idols always start somewhere. Sometimes, they begin right in their very own hometowns. In Locodol, Nanako Usami gets her world turned upside down when her uncle asks her to become a locodol or a local idol. Nanako gives this a shot, at first teaming up with her senior Yukari Kohinata to create Nagarekawa Girls. They’ve started performing around their town of Nagarekawa in the hopes of promoting it to the world.
Unlike other idol anime that branch out to rather large plots, Locodol keeps its story and setting very local. The anime gives a rather fresh take on the small-scale local idol industry and a brief look into the trials and tribulations that these idol groups face in their journey to success.
If music and friendship can save the world, surely it can save the solar system? In AKB0048, idol groups venture into the future — one where a devastating war forced humanity to start anew. At Star Calendar Year 0000, the Deep Galactic Trade Organization banned things that «disturbed» the heart, such as art and music. But music lovers won’t let such oppression happen and this resistance will cause the legendary AKB48 to resurface anew as AKB0048.
Such begins their rather unique struggle of spreading music in a world where the music itself is treated as terrorism.
