After moving around his entire life, classical pianist Kaoru Nishimi has abandoned all hope of fitting in as he arrives in Kyushu for his final year of high school. However, that all changes when he meets the thuggish drummer, Sentaro Kawabuchi, a man with an immeasurable love for jazz. Over the music, they bond together and Kaoru learns that music should be something to bring joy to others, not something dictated by hundreds of years of technique.
People think Shinichiro Watanabe peaked with Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, but I maintain the unpopular opinion that his newer stuff is the better stuff. This is one series I use as proof of that. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Kids on the Slope, then head on down below.
Anime Like Kids on the Slope
For Fans of Musical Character Dramas
Your Lie in April
Although once a child prodigy in the music world, pianist Kousei Arima is left in a downward spiral after his mother’s death, unable to even hear the sound of his own piano. Even after two years, Arima has all but left the music world behind, disappointing fans and rivals alike, and living in a colorless world. Then one day that that all changes when he is introduced to the beautiful violinist Kaori Miyazono who brings color into his world once more.
You simply can’t talk about an anime that is both heavily musical and all about character drama, trauma, and relationships without throwing Your Lie in April as the first recommendation. It is the more tragic of the two series here, but it does drama in a nicely emotional way and, like Kids on the Slope, makes its music genre of choice – classical music – seem so interesting.
Nodame Cantabile
Shinichi Chiaki is a first-rate musician that has dreams of playing among Europe’s elite. However, due to his fear of flying, he has remained firmly grounded in Japan. In his fourth year at Japan’s top music university, he meets Megumi Noda, or Nodame, as she prefers to be called. At first she seems unkempt and without direction, but when he hears her play, everything he thought he knew about her was wrong.
If you were a touch frustrated about how the romance went in Kids on the Slope, Nodame Cantabile can help you relieve some of that frustration. It is a romance show, but like Kids on the Slope, it is still very much about the characters and how they help each other with their own individual problems. This is a series about classical music rather than jazz, though.
Given
On one particular day, Ritsuka Uenoyama decided that two things he loved – playing guitar and playing baseball – had become boring to him. However, when he encountered Mafuyu Sato holding a broken guitar, he fixes it. Upon fixing it and hearing him sing, it leaves a huge impression.
Full disclosure that Given is a boy’s love series, which may be a put off for some. However, considering the intense bromance that went on in Kids on the Slope, the BL themes in Given aren’t such a huge jump. Furthermore, no one does intense character drama like a BL series does. This one just also happens to have a nice rock and roll theme too.
Nana
This is the story of two girls, both of which are named Nana. Nana Komatsu is a naive girl addicted to love who is moving to Tokyo to chase after her boyfriend going to school there. Nana Osaki is a proud punk rocker that is moving to Tokyo to become a rock star. By chance, they meet on the train. By even bigger chance, they end up wanting to rent the same apartment only to decide to rent it together.
Although older and about a pair of female friends rather than male friends, Nana is all about rock and roll and character drama. Both shows feature unlikely friends who help uplift each other out of their problems, but Nana is a bit more heavy with its drama.
For Fans of Unlikely Bromance
Stop This Sound
After the senior members graduated, Takezou is now the sole member of his Japanese string instrument club. Facing termination, he now begins his search for new members when suddenly a wily one bursts right into his club room. Chika has a strong reputation as a violent thug, but due to his grandfather being a renowned koto artisan before his death, he has a passion for the koto that will help Takezou revive his dying club.
Both series are rather underrated music show, to be honest, but what they have most in common is the friendship between a more wild individual and a more straight-laced one. The real major differences are the genre of music and the setting.
Carole and Tuesday
This is the story about two very different girls with the same goal. Tuesday, a girl raised in wealth, and Carole, a girl just scraping by, both want to make music. A chance meeting brings them together, and together they may just make their dream come true.
Both series are lesser appreciated Shinichiro Watanabe series, which means they share a theme of music permeated throughout the entire series. Carole and Tuesday is more pop / rock and roll music and it takes place on Mars. However, although the main characters are both girls, they are from two different social classes, but bond through the mutual shared love of music.
Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
Former Yakuza member Yotarou is fresh out of prison and looking to keep his nose clean. In order to stay out of trouble, he aspires to the stage of Rakugo, a traditional Japanese form of comedic storytelling. Inspired by a man he saw perform while incarcerated, he seeks out the man to mentor him, forcing the unwilling, but distinguished Yakumo Yuurakutei to take on his first apprentice.
If you enjoyed the grounded, older era story that Kids on the Slope told, then this series will feel very similar even though it is not about music. It does highlight the particular art that is is based around really well, but the biggest similarity between these two series is that unlikely bromance between the distinctly different characters.
For Fans of Coming-of-Age Stories
Beck
After dispirited young boy Yukio rescues a dog, he becomes dazzled with the dog’s owner, Ray, and his guitar skills. This entices him to the world of rock music, and ultimately the pair decide to form a band together.
Although older and often overlooked now, Beck shares a lot of similarities with Kids on the Slope. It features a series of characters bonding over their exploration of music while also simultaneously focusing on the coming-of-age story of the main character.
Hanasaku Iroha
Ohana Matsumae is an energetic teenager that lives with her mother in Tokyo. However, when her mother decides to run off with a man, she is sent to the country to live with a grandmother she has never met. As it turns out, her grandmother runs a traditional Japanese inn, but due to her frivolous mother, treats Ohana quite coldly. Eager to earn her keep and grandmother’s affection, Ohana begins the hard work that makes sure an inn runs smoothly.
While it is not musical like Kids on the Slope, Hanasaku Iroha is a similarly enjoyable to watch coming-of-age tale where the main character has a number of family problems and outside relationship problems that are explored diligently.
A Lull in the Sea
Long ago, all of humanity lived underwater. However, a portion of them soon left to live on the surface, losing the ability to breath underwater. With this gap between them, the two societies grew apart. A Lull in the Sea tells the story of a group of kids forced to attend school above the water where they come to terms with themselves and the discrimination against them.
If, for some reason, you are a special type of monster who enjoyed the love triangle in Kids on the Slope, A Lull in the Sea has the largest friend group love triangle in all of anime. That aside, it is also about young people problems as they grow up, but it has a distinct supernatural tinge to it that drives the plot instead of just drama alone.
Anohana
One hot summer day, recluse and truant Jinta Yadomi is approached by his childhood friend Menma that comes to pester him about a wish he had long forgotten. However, Menma has been dead for some time. Thinking he is hallucinating at first, eventually Jinta accepts her as a ghost and begins to work towards fulfilling her wish with his friends that had long drifted away from each other.
Kids on the Slope deals with different coming-of-age issues while Anohana is more grief-oriented. However, both shows have themes of moving forward and navigating the drama between a friend group.
Just Because
Due to his father’s work, Eita Izumi is used to moving around. In the final semester of high school, he moves back to his hometown. There, Eita reconnects with his old best friend Haruto who is obsessed with baseball for an unknown reason. He also reconnects with Mio, a girl he once had unrequited feelings for. As their high school years rapidly approach a close, Eita’s arrival seems to spur on a series of anxieties and buried emotions in everyone around him.
If you take out the music and change the setting in Kids on the Slope, you would actually get something pretty close to Just Because. It navigates character drama in a pretty realistic way and even its romance highlights just how untidily most things usually wrap up.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Kids on the Slope? Let fans know in the comments section below.
