The colorful streets of Akiba have become a dangerous place as beings known as the bugged ones begin to possess people in the shopping district and use their bodies to commit mayhem in the city. The woman leading the defense of the otaku paradise is the softball bat wielding Matome Mayonaka. She and her vigilante team Electric Mayonnaise, a play on her name “Mayo”naka, patrol the streets and confront any suspicious activity. She also has a secret: she has supernatural strength, a power tied to Akiba that has one drawback, she can never leave the neighborhood. The character of Matome is a classic tusndere in a lot of ways. She gets along with the male lead and even has an obvious crush but is reluctant to open up to him in non-hostile ways. The calm, cool delivery of the dialogue and the simmering anger are easy to hear in Rei’s performance and are delivered in a clear way that lets you know she means business even without the anger marks on Matome’s forehead.

The Kativarna Empire is fading and, in an attempt to regain some of its past glory, they pick a fight against the Republic of Kioka on its border. The war expands from there and draws in the most unlikely of heroes, a young man named Ikta. He is all but forced to enter officer school and is knighted along with his friends for saving the emperor’s granddaughter. Ikta is an unconventional man who thinks scientifically and rationally in a world ruled by tradition and dogma. He and his division are eventually sent to the high mountains on the border of the empire to put down a revolt by the Shinaak Tribe who are taking advantage of the empires being distracted with other fronts in the war. The Shinaak chieftain is a young woman by the name of Nanaqu Dal. She is a caring leader of her people and a ferocious warrior. She has a complicated relationship with Ikta as a childhood friend and at one point had a deep-seated feeling of “like” for him. The winds of war change and they become allies again and this strong woman who is secure in her own sexuality more than once suggests that she and Ikta spend the night together. We may not think so, but grunting and moaning as if in a battle is hard; you’d know that if you try any acting, and Rie Takahashi does a very believable job. She makes you think that each swing of her character’s sword is filled with earnest rage. We hear the authority in her voice when she tells tells a room full of her male tribal warriors that her tribe’s allegiances are going to change to the side they had, up until recently, been fighting. Her performance makes you believe they’ll follow her without question. The ability of Rei to put authority into voice of the petite beauty of Nanaqu is absolutely amazing.

Subaru Natsuki finds himself in another world and shortly thereafter is killed. He awakens and lives the day again and manages to survive a little longer. He dies again and wakes up from the point he died at in the previous timeline. We then follow Subaru through ups and downs of starting his life from nothing in this new fantasy world. He falls in love at first sight with the silver haired half-elf girl named Emilia, voiced by Rei Takahashi. Subaru becomes a member of her household and works his many lives trying to support and protect her from sinister forces. The character of Emilia is a good-natured girl and seems to have a caring instinct. She attempts to be aloof but for some reason seems to let her guard down around Subaru. She is almost always accompanied by Puck, a sort of familiar, that reminds you of a small magical kitten that’s a bit of a smart ass. Emilia my not even be aware but she and Puck seem to be more than they appear. She is also a bit self-conscious about her looks because of her eerie resemblance to a legendary evil witch. Rei Takahashi does a wonderful job with this role, and yet doesn’t seem to get as much credit as some of the other members of the cast, most likely for her character being all but absent in the second arch. She does deliver some really good performances, most often when she isn’t being the “nice,” understanding Emilia. In one scene she chastises Subaru and you can’t help but feel like she’s chastising you and causing you, the viewer, to feel bad. We find drawing out an emotive response truly excellent acting.

Nishikata is a middle school boy who sits next to transfer student Takagi, a middle school girl. They meet on the first day of school when Takagi inadvertently causes Nishikata to be late and as a result he gets punished. He vows to get back at Takagi one day, yet every time he attempts to even the score by teasing her, she gets the upper hand. We get to follow the two each day during class and on their walk home as their contentious, yet cute relationship grows into another kind of relationship all together. Takagi is the kind of girl that is smart and cute and knows it. She has her sights set on Nashikata and shows her affection the only way she understands as a middle school girl: teasing him. She often wins because she is calculating, calm and always in control. She simply has to say his name and he jumps, wondering what mischief she is up to next. The anime is almost completely dialogue driven which is an amazing chance for any actress to get into a character. Rie doesn’t have to have manic range in this role as almost every line is delivered in a soft, seductive tone filled with mischief. You as a viewer will smile every time you hear her sweet voice say “hey, hey, Nishikata-kun” because you know each time something clever will come from that cute voice.

Kazuma Satou was on his way back from buying a video game when he died. He hadn’t lived much of a life up until that point, spending his time secluded in his room playing games and watching anime. We’re not saying being a NEET isn’t a valid lifestyle choice, it’s just who he was. He comes face to face with an obnoxious goddess named Aqua. She gives him an offer of going to heaven or being sent to a fantasy world fitting of a Fantasy RPG enthusiast. Kazuma choses the fantasy world. Aqua grants him his request and tells him in the most annoying manner possible that he can take one thing with him. He, being a bit of a smart-ass himself, says her. He then finds himself in this new world with no money, no home, no special powers and the most useless goddess you could imagine. Kazuma gradually gathers a party of all female specialists around him. The arch-wizard and descendant of crimson demons, Megumin is the hilarious character voiced by Rie Takahashi. She brings a lot of life and vitality to the role of this forthright girl who is also known as the “crazy-headed girl” in the town they live in. She is young and, in our world, would definitely be considered a chuunibyou, but in this one she is actually a wizard and not just a delusional middle schooler. The fun Rie must have with this role as she bounces from reasonable to outrageous and downright silly must make the character a joy to play. She also even gets to have a single word that represents her character and gets to say it often: “EXPOLSION!!” Megumin has devoted her life to the study of only one form of magic, explosion magic, and says it with such excitement and joy each time she uses it, you simply can’t separate the character from the action. The term seem accurately represents Megumin in that she always seems one step away from an outburst. We know a nut like Megumin might not be the hardest character for Rie to play, but she is likely one of the most fun and the most memorable in her career. You should take the time to take a look at some of the photos online of her cosplaying Megumin, they seem to show how much she likes this role.

Let's start this ranking out with Akuma to Dolce, which revolves around Mayuri Ogura, a high school girl. As the daughter of a demon-summoner, Mayuri has the same gift to summon demons, and she's already summoned a familiar who helps her to do chores as she lives alone. One day, after spilling tea on her skirt, she summons a high-level demon – Beaut – to make him remove it. Beaut can't believe he's been summoned over something so trivial... but then he smells sweets, his weak point. Mayuri doesn't lose time, she begins to use Beaut's weakness as a weapon! As her first story, Julietta Suzuki immediately managed to create a wonderful work. Each character has his own personality, and Mayuri is a not-so-ordinary girl with a sparkling disposition, while Belze is like a little child who only wants to eat sweets. Even though Akuma to Dolce is Julietta Suzuki's first manga, the art style is already amazingly beautiful, and detailed: it brings the readers to stop to admire the drawings. Sadly, though, Akuma to Dolce is currently on hiatus. We are hoping Julietta Suzuki will pick this story up again as we highly recommend it!

Let's go on with a little protagonist Julietta Suzuki created! Kaka is a little girl with an abnormal strength. She used to live with Genjou – her master – in a village far away from the capital. When poisoned water threatened to destroy the village, Genjou had to leave Kaka and head toward the capital, in order to find a solution. In a bad turn of events, their village is turned to ashes by demons and the villagers turned to monkeys. Kaka has to take things into her little hands; she decides to leave for the capital, looking for Genjou! What she will discover won't be very reassuring, though... As you can imagine, Julietta Suzuki has a passion for demons and what surrounds them. With Tripitaka Torinique, which is her latest manga, she takes the main theme of the evil demons and create a non-conventional protagonist. In fact, Kaka is very little, but with an enormous strength, and very brave in spite her size. In this story, the already beautiful art style Julietta Suzuki gave us in the past, has gotten even better. If you enjoy demon stories and extraordinary heroines, Tripitaka Torinique could be your next choice!

The young scientist Yoshizawa created an android and gave her the name of Odette. After creating Odette, Dr. Yoshizawa has a wish: to understand the ultimate difference between an android and human beings. Odette, the cute android with a strong personality, then tries to persuade Dr. Yoshizawa to let her attend a high school. That's how Odette's adventure as a high school girl begins! With Karakuri Odette, Julietta Suzuki diverges from demons and gives us a sci-fi, shoujo manga. Her attempt is successful, as she proved to be able to develop amazing plots even when demons aren't involved! Karakuri Odette turns out to be a sweet story about discovering what is like to be a human being. As this is a shoujo manga, expect a bit of romance in it, spiced with jealousy & misunderstandings. The art style is absolutely amazing, just what we expect by Julietta Suzuki. So, if you're curious to read something different by this amazing manga artist, you should pick Karakuri Odette up!

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Let's end this ranking with Julietta Suzuki's number one masterpiece: Kamisama Hajimemashita! Nanami Momozono is a high school girl who, due to terrible circumstances, finds herself homeless and broke. For as bad as her situation can be, Nanami doesn't hesitate one single minute to save a man harassed by a dog. Nanami doesn't know, but the mysterious man she saved is the Land God Mikage. Seeing Nanami's situation, as a sign of gratitude he kisses her on the forehead and says that she can have his house. But the house turns out to be a shrine, and Nanami suddenly realizes how she just became the new Land God. If that wasn't enough, when she meets a boy with fox's ears – Tomoe, Mikage's former servant – her life is literally turned upside down! Kamisama Hajimemashita is the longest and most wonderful story Julietta Suzuki created! It is full of every single thing you expect from a shoujo manga, without being cliched, or trivial. Nanami is a non-conventional heroine, relatable as she is clumsy and easily flustered, with a tendency to get into trouble. Tomoe is a familiar, with a tragic past who made him very introverted and cold. Step by step we follow the couple's growth, while witnessing the funniest situations. Aside from the main characters, a huge range of well-developed other characters frames everything perfectly. The art style is detailed and wonderful, all the more when Julietta Suzuki draws otherworldly creatures. It is a total must-read, you really can't let overlook Kamisama Hajimemashita!

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Loving one girl is incredibly hard. However, loving two girls is nothing but trouble. Yukiteru has unfortunately just fallen into the latter situation creating a love triangle that is only going to end badly for one of the girls involved. On one end, a childhood friend named Yuno who is obsessed with Yukiteru and on the other end is Rena, a girl who feels like Yukiteru might be the one. Which girl will Yukiteru ultimately choose? The better question though might be what will happen when Yukiteru does choose one of these girls? There are many guys in the world that wished they could be in their own harems like most manga protagonists. School Days, though, should have shown harems as being possibly deadly. If you need more proof of harems being quite dangerous, then we recommend checking out Uwa-Koi. In this deadly romance manga, you will get to see a man who ends up falling for girls but maybe not the best ones to fall in love with. Just like School Days, Uwa-Koi teaches a very valuable lesson to the reader. Be very careful of breaking a girls heart…

Etsurou Kurosu has had enough of his failure of a life. Tired of the daily grind that seems to go nowhere, Kurosu decides it’s time to end it all and prepares to kill himself. During his last moments, Kurosu ends up getting scared and flails about breaking a hole in his wall, which leads into his neighbor’s, Rio Miyaichi’s, room. Kurosu finds a new lease on life and begins to peek into her room daily. However, one day when he looks into the peephole, he notices Rio killing someone. Rio tells Kurosu that she won’t hurt him if he decides to fulfill one request of hers, love her even though she is a killer… When you fall in love with someone, you’re supposed to take them for their best and for their worst. Ana Satsujin by mangaka Larsson asks can you really take someone for their worst if they are a killer? Similar to School Days, the love found in Ana Satsujin is horror filled but strangely gripping. With a solid narrative and twisted—but interesting—group of characters, Ana Satsujin will keep you reading from volume 1 chapter 1 to volume 8. We fully recommend checking out Ana Satsujin if you’re tired of a typical romance story and need something dark.

Ichijou Kazuya has recently been murdered and shouldn’t be alive. However, for some reason, Kazuya is indeed alive and well but not in the current time he died in. Instead, Kazuya has been sent back in time and is once more a high school student! Kazuya realizes this rebirth might be a way to change his overly sexualized lifestyle and prevent his best friend from killing him out of jealousy. However, Kazuya will soon learn that fate might have given him a second chance but will that mean he can change his life or will it just end up going down the same dead end? Alright, let us step away from the overly dark stories for a moment and look at Ore ga Doutei wo Sutetara Shinu Ken ni Tsuite from mangaka Morita Mario. While Ore ga Doutei wo Sutetara Shinu Ken ni Tsuite is almost like a reverse version of School Days—in terms of our protagonist Kazuya actually trying to undo his sexual misdeeds—but still contains a dramatic tale of sex being a deadly game for our main man. Ore ga Doutei wo Sutetara Shinu Ken ni Tsuite contains some impressive art a story that will have you questioning what awaits Kazuya on his battle to undo the path that leads to his demise. If you love School Days, we can’t recommend Ore ga Doutei wo Sutetara Shinu Ken ni Tsuite any harder.

In the current generation, there’s a desire to make videos and upload them to various sites in hope of instant fame. Wanting to also become famous himself, Tomohiro Machiya is always looking for something to film next. Unfortunately for Machiya, this filming obsessions get the attention of Mai Mashiro who wishes he would film her actions for two days. While filming a cute girl might be seen as pleasing, Mai ends up being filmed doing something horrible. Mai murders a fellow classmate and claims that it’s all for a site called Dead Tube. On Dead Tube, films get more hits when they are dark and cruel and Machiya’s video has just become a winner…what does this mean for Machiya’s life now?! What do you get when you mix a guy into filmmaking and a girl who is a killer for views? Obviously, you get Dead Tube by mangaka Yamaguchi Mikoto and artist Kitakawa Touta. Dead Tube isn’t like most of the other manga we’ve recommended on our 6 Manga Like School Days, but that doesn’t mean the two aren’t similar. Dead Tube mirrors School Days by exploring romance bred from a dark series of events and only becomes stranger as time goes on. Currently, Dead Tube is still an ongoing series and we can only imagine what awaits further for Mai and Machiya and you can wonder alongside with us here at Honey’s Anime if you check out Dead Tube for yourselves.

Matsuzaka Satou is considered the prettiest and cutest girl in school but also is known for being one of the easiest girls to get with. However, Satou’s life changes one day greatly when she meets a young girl named Shio. Vowing to protect this runaway girl, Satou begins to live only for Shio and her sake. However, Satou’s love for Shio begins to get more and more strange as time goes by. For Shio, Satou will do anything…and that means even commit murder to keep her safe. In almost any relationship there’s always a sense of wanting to protect the one you love. Its natural to want to be the defender of someone you care about and keep them safe from any type of harm or danger. However, Happy Sugar Life by mangaka Kagisora Tomiyaki takes protection a bit…too far. Reading Happy Sugar Life with its cute art and design initially make you think it’s a cute story but as you venture further in, you see that it’s a façade. Happy Sugar Life is soon to become an anime but before that releases we recommend checking it out and witnessing how protection can become imprisonment.

Kasuga Takao is a bookworm who has fallen in love with a girl named Saeki Nanako but only loves her from afar. One day when the class has left, Takao notices Saeki left her gym clothes behind and immediately takes it for himself. When the realization of what he done hits Takao he begins to worry that if his classmates found out—especially Saeki—he would be labeled a pervert and a sicko. While at first it seems like no one knows saw his action, one girl named Nakamura comes forth and claims that she knows what Takao did. Now under Nakamura’s command, what fate awaits Takao? We wrap up this dark romance manga list of 6 Manga Like School Days with Aku no Hana by mangaka Oshimi Shuuzou. Aku no Hana at first seems like a pretty simple plot of a manipulative girl using blackmail on the main lead for random actions, it slowly becomes a psychological thrill ride that blooms romance. Though word of warning to you readers. The romance seen in Aku no Hana isn’t so nice and just like School Days, it will make you question just how dark can a romance story be before it’s basically just straight up psychological horror? However, as dark as Aku no Hana is, we think it’s one of the best manga of its kind and we know fans of School Days will truly enjoy this roller coaster thrill ride of a series. Beautiful art, wonderfully descriptive narrative and a unique theme, what’s not to love about Aku no Hana?

Long before K-pop was relevant and the concept of manufactured artists was suddenly accepted, Japan was churning out these “idols” for decades. They were meant to showcase many different types of talents and personalities suited for excellent roles. It was the non-japanese singer, Sylvie Vartan who coined the term “idol” and before anyone could say it again, it was being applied to anything cute and female, though occasionally, men took the title as well. The 1980s is when the idol craze really took off and people were clamoring to follow major acts. The 1990s saw them die out a bit before supergroups Morning Musume & Speed suddenly jumped into the spotlight. Then they were singing anime songs, getting more and more exposure, deals, commercials, acting roles and more before taking off. The founding of Johnny’s also pushed male idols back into the spotlight tapping a market that women suddenly had massive amounts of money to pour into. Nowadays, you have supergroups like AKB48 which has a revolving door of members via their audition and research students along with their graduation, that have more or less taken over. However, there are still other groups like Momoiro Clover, S/mileage, and more, including “sister groups” to AKB48, that still manage to be popular and relevant to this day. Recently, in the last 5 to 10 years too, digital idols have really taken off. Groups like iDOLM@STER & Love Live! sell tens of thousands of copies of singles and their concerts, which actually use the real artists for them, are always packed to capacity. Idol anime are the reflection of the good in idols. The anime feature girls, usually faced with some sort of issue, where singing can be used to overcome their problems or help them reach a goal to become top idols in Japan. Almost all idol anime feature songs with catchy beats, lyrics about love or supporting each other and loving their friends, and of course, a good dance number or two. The other good aspect of idol anime is that they encourage and foster new friendships by showing people growing together as well as befriending people who they normally might not approach or work together with all for the sake of music or through the power of music.

Chika Takami is just another girl. She has no real standout qualities and hasn’t really participated in anything with school. Sounds like the perfect person to form a club! After being inspired by µ’s, a group from the first Love Live!, Chika sets out to for a new school idol group and save her school, Uranohoshi Girls High School. Chika is having problems though until she meets Riko, a new transfer student who is extremely talented at the piano. While rallying against the student council president and supreme tsundere, Dia, Chika works hard to form Aqours with the goal in mind of not only winning Love Live! the competition, but also revitalizing her high school and her hometown. We skipped over the original Love Live! School Idol Project, which is the precursor–but not the prequel since the stories are different–due to Sunshine!! being more well-received. Chika starts out with nothing but a dream, but before long, she is able to realize this dream with eight other girls who all share the same goal of boosting attendance to their high school as well as winning. Love Live! Sunshine!! does a very good job of keeping a very upbeat tempo while facing struggles and setbacks. Including a major one at the end of season one, and another towards the middle of season two. Even in the face of hardships that would easily discourage many, Chika and the girls put smiles on their faces while working even harder to achieve their dreams. This is yet another standout point of idol anime. Another final item is that each of the girls comes with a different personality stereotype, hair color, and even sometimes a catchphrase zura. Finally, something very unique about this anime is that through the influence it has had, it has actually revived the local economy to a certain extent as fans flock to see the real places captured in the anime.

Something that idol anime are often pegged for is an incredibly happy story with extremely unrealistic elements. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but when the biggest issue that idols face is maybe winning a contest or not, most fans don’t necessarily resonate with something that big. Idol culture is known for what we said above, but it also has a very dark underbelly on stage and off stage in reality. As real idols are expected to be these visions of purity with no experience with romance or sex and shy away from it, when real life ones are caught with a boyfriend or a sexual encounter, this leads to them being labeled a whore or slut–mind you, when male idols do it no one says a thing, but hey, sexism is alive and real, my friends–and then eventually dragged through the mud where they could be fired or pressured heavily into quitting. The auditions are rigorous and what you do not see is that for every group that has succeeded, there are about 50 in the background who did not. There is another anime that really shows how hard some idols do have to work just to be noticed not necessarily become a success.

Please note that there is a prequel movie to this. Essentially, Wake Up, Girls! is about the story of an entertainment company in Senai called Green Leaves Entertainment. While it was once a great gig, recently it has fallen on hard times. In fact, since the last group quit, they do not have even a single good act signed to their names! So what do they do? The boss has a manager go out and recruit girls. Anyone with a pulse would do if they seem cute enough. So they get a group together and get ready for debut. After a mediocre debut though, their agency’s president runs off with all of the money that the girls had worked to raise. The future of the group seems to be hanging in the balance until a mysterious person puts up the cash with very high stakes. From there, the stakes get higher and higher. However, their former president comes back and manages to get the girls back into the spotlight! Well… sort of. They end up working it out, only to have a rival group that stands up to them and creates massive drama over a former member of theirs who is now part of WuG!. Drama only escalates further for the girls, but can they manage to make it to greener pastures? Wake Up, Girls! is brutal for an idol anime. Just the sheer fact of showing the girls not succeeding right out of the starting gate is a great look at how idol anime might not always be rainbows and happiness. In fact, the girls face a new crisis or problem every couple of episodes! Nothing is going smoothly for them and it really shows. Girls are placed in massive auditions, told to learn moves, given next to zero feedback before told “okay, you can leave now. Thanks, number blah blah.” It’s brutal and cutthroat and many people do not see how dark people can be to each other. It’s a great look at reality if you are interested!

315 Production is a brand new agency that is looking to specialize in making idols out of people who have left or held former major positions. These new idols are former doctors, lawyers, surgeons, pilots, attorneys and more! They each have a reason for being an idol, and so now, they are going to realize their dreams! Finally, we have a look at the other side of the iDOLM@STER franchise. The female one is booming and massive, and last year, producers realized that women have money as well and funneled funds into making a male anime. It’s literally like watching the female version of idol anime, except there are men, the songs are deeper and the lyrics are slightly different. However, the sales are through the roof because iDOLM@STER SideM is selling like hotcakes right now. Women ate this series up after it managed to capture their hearts with ridiculous drama, cute lyrics, and of course, appealing personalities and visuals. Nothing though, would capture their hearts more than seeing legions of cute boys and handsome men sing about their love for their female fans. Don’t take our word for it though. Be sure to check it out!