After growing up in a small rural town with strict parents, Nina Iseri leaves it all behind to start over in the city. With her time in the city off to a rough start, she ends up going to a street concert for Momoka Kawaragi, a small musician whose song inspired Nina to move to the city in the first place.
Getting to know Momoko, and discovering that both of them are at odds with the disappointing, dream-crushing nature of the world, she talks Nina into forming a band with her as a way to vent their frustrations.
Girls Band Cry had what any fantastic music anime should have – lovable characters, rich drama, and absolutely killer music. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Girls Band Cry, head on down below.
Anime Like Girls Band Cry
For Fans of Girls in a Band
Jellyfish Can’t Swim at Night
Mahiru Kouzuki had a gift for art from a young age, but after her classmates ridiculed a jellyfish mural she worked so hard on, she gave it up. In front of that aging mural years later, she meets an unexpected fan of it, Kano Yamanouchi, a former idol who has a troubled past in the industry.
Kano enlists Mahiru’s help creating a mascot for her new music project, JELEE, a V-Tube idol. Recruiting a reclusive V-Tuber and a gifted musician, the four girls set out to make JELEE a global sensation while working through their own troubles.
Similarities Between Girls Band Cry and Jellyfish Can’t Swim at Night
- Both series follow a group of misfit girls who start a band
- The girls all have various problems with the world, but are bonded by a love of music and the camaraderie of a band
- Dope beats and emotional character drama
- Both series feature once-rising stars who floundered out due to a disagreement, but are trying again with a new group.
- Both series know how to use their lovely visuals in conjunction with their music
Differences Between Girls Band Cry and Jellyfish Can’t Swim at Night
- As Jellyfish Can’t Swim at Night follows high schoolers who didn’t drop out of school, it has more coming-of-age themes in the story than Girls Band Cry and its more jaded adult cast.
- Kano wants to be a star again, Momoka is more resistant to trying again.
- As Jellyfish Can’t Swim at Night is about making a Vtuber idol, it puts the characters out there less than an actual band on a stage. Vtuber idols have lower stakes than real bands where people know your face.
- Girls Band Cry has the better, and more frequent music.
Bocchi the Rock
Having social anxiety but still wishing to make friends, Hitori Gotou started learning the guitar to help lure people into talking to her. Years later, she has amassed great guitar skills, but is in high school with still no friends.
One day, she happens to meet an outgoing girl who just so happens to need a guitarist for her band. Gaining the nickname Bocchi, Hitori is recruited in and puts her heart into improving her stage skills to make the band a success.
Similarities Between Girls Band Cry and Bocchi the Rock
- Girls start a band
- Dope beats and emotional character drama
- Mostly novice rockers are guided by more experienced ones
- Both series feature the characters overcoming the personal hurdles they have that prevent them from professionally thriving.
Differences Between Girls Band Cry and Bocchi the Rock
- Bocchi the Rock features social anxiety as the primary hurdle to the band
- Bocchi the Rock has a lot more outright comedy.
- Bocchi the Rock doesn’t shy away from the realities of trying to make it as a musician, but depicts life as a lot less gritty and frustrating than Girls Band Cry.
BanG Dream!
When Kasumi Toyama was camping as a child, she was gazing at the stars while the song Star Beat was playing. This experience left a profound impression on her and was a sensation that she has been chasing ever since.
Now a student in Hanasakigawa Girls’ High School, Kasumi is sampling a number of activities to find one that hopefully has that same heart-racing sensation for her. While having little luck and considering just getting a part-time job instead, she finds a star-shaped guitar in a pawn shop. She ends up wandering into a live performance for the first time where, after he heart starts racing, she decides to start a band.
Similarities Between Girls Band Cry and Band Dream
- Girls start a band
- The main character decides to join a band randomly and suddenly after being seduced by live music.
- Dope beats and character drama
Differences Between Girls Band Cry and Bang Dream
- Bang Dream is distinctly Cute Girls Doing Band Things, but more focused on music than something similar like K-on.
- As Bang Dream is a “media franchise,” all characters are created to be cute and marketable, which means you don’t get a lot of the rougher “realness” that Girls Band Cry offers with the characters.
- Bang Dream expands to be about a lot more bands as the series goes on
For Fans of Belting Out Frustrations Through Music
Anonymous Noise
After her childhood best friend, crush, and singing buddy moves away as a child, Nino Arisugawa is devastated.
Yet, years later she reunited with both this boy and the boy who comforted her during that fateful time. After joining a rock band at her high school, each finds their paths intersecting.
Similarities Between Girls Band Cry and Anonymous Noise
- Young people decide to start a band
- Both feature screaming your personal frustrations out in a rock song
- Dope beats and character drama
Differences Between Girls Band Cry and Anonymous Noise
- Anonymous Noise has a love triangle element to it
- The characters in Anonymous Noise are less easy to like because the series turns the character drama dial up to melodrama. However, if you like over-the-top character drama, then it is great.
Nana
This is the story of two girls, both 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.
Similarities Between Girls Band Cry and Nana
- A girl moves to Tokyo, meets another girl, and they are best friends within the first episode.
- Both series feature girls screaming their frustrations out in rock and roll
- Both series feature someone trying to make it on the music scene with their band
- Dope beats and character drama
- The world is difficult and things aren’t always happy.
Differences Between Girls Band Cry and Nana
- Nana follows two girls named Nana that share an apartment. One is a depressed rocker, the other is a normal girl in a string of toxic relationships. The series explores both stories, but only the rocker Nana’s story is like Girls Band Cry.
- Nana has a bigger focus on various romances.
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.
Similarities Between Girls Band Cry and Beck
- Both are music anime where the cast all feel “real,” and who are grounded with more realistic worries and obstacles to overcome.
- Adrift main characters that experiences their own coming-of-age story by joining a band.
- Both main characters are dragged into a band by an older, world-weary peer that they join a band with.
- Both bands are “rock and roll” and resist the “band templates” that would make their music into money-printing machines.
Differences Between Girls Band Cry and Beck
- Girls Band Cry follows an all-girl band while Beck follows an all-boy band.
- Girls Band Cry features more modern music sensibilities while Beck, as an older series, has older school rock and roll sensibilities.
For Fans of Clandestine Meetings With Musicians
Fuuka
After his father transferred overseas, Yuu Haruna moved to Tokyo with his sisters.
While looking at his phone while on his way to buy dinner, a girl crashes into him. Thinking he was taking upskirt shots, she takes his phone, breaks it, and gives him a slap before leaving and leaving him stunned.
It turns out that this girl, named Fuuka Akitsuki, also goes to his school. Bonded by the misunderstanding, he grows closer to this odd girl as she convinces him to join a band with her.
Similarities Between Girls Band Cry and Fuuka
- The main characters have a sudden, random encounter with a musician
- They are swiftly recruited into a band with them
- They start the climb to stardom, but characters from their past start to complicate things
- The main character is caught between the freedom of rock and roll and the money-making allure of idol music.
Differences Between Girls Band Cry and Fuuka
- The main character in Fuuka is a boy
- Fuuka follows high school students who are still actually students and not dropouts
- Fuuka is very much a love triangle romance that is full of drama
- Fuuka does have some ecchi moments to it
Ya Boy Kongming
As a general in China’s Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang Kongming had endured countless battles that shaped him into an excellent strategist. However, on his deathbed, his only wish is to be reborn in a more peaceful world.
This results in him being reborn as his younger self in modern day Shibuya, Tokyo.
After being dragged around by partiers, Kongming becomes taken with the songs of a struggling singer who ends up sheltering him. He decides to use his tactical genius to make her into a top star!
Similarities Between Girls Band Cry and Ya Boy Kongming
- The main character is given purpose when they meet a musician
- The musician was struggling and considering quitting before they meet the main character
- They form a band/team together and begin to thrive, eventually recruiting others
- Both series offer a glimpse into modern music scenes and have some good insert songs.
Differences Between Girls Band Cry and Ya Boy Kongming
- Ya Boy Kongming is EDM-themed, not rock and roll like Girls Band Cry
- Ya Boy Kongming has the whole “the legendary Chinese strategist Zhuge Liang reincarnated in modern Tokyo” thing, making it slightly detached from reality.
- The main character in Ya Boy Kongming is actively shooting for stardom from the start while Girls Band Cry spends almost the whole series talking Momoka into try again.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Girls Band Cry? Let fans know in the comments section below.
