There’s no business like show business—a glittering world of fame, fortune, and ambition where dreams are made and broken in the blink of an eye. Yet, behind the dazzling smile of every star is a series of trials they had to overcome and likely more than a few dark secrets they have to keep.
That said, anime often likes to keep things light. It is all glitz and glamour about the rewards of stardom, and very few anime about the entertainment industry that acknowledges the secrets and scandals that occasionally pop up in the tabloids.
If you are tired of sickly sweet anime about young people reaching for stardom and loving everything they did to get there, then it is time you give these handful of anime recommendation about the dark side of show business a try.
Dark Entertainment Industry Anime
Oshi no Ko
Oshi no Ko is likely the series that whet your appetite for anime about the darker corners of Japan’s entertainment industry because it portrays the dark realities with a particular sinister flair that made it an exposing series as well as an entertaining one.
Through its many characters all striving for different things in the entertainment industry, Oshi no Ko can explore every dark corner. It can showcase the terrifying possibility that an unstable fan may assault an idol they are obsessed with. It can showcase the crumbling decline of even talented child stars who struggle to transition to adult stardom. It can even show the rampant horse-trading and sexual favors that go on behind the scenes of an industry full of beautiful people.
What is perhaps most impressive is that Oshi no Ko showcases all these things while it is exploring a larger plot so it is never focused on one single dark corner.
The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio
While not quite as “in the spotlight” as idols or actors, voice actors in Japan are creeping incredibly close to idol status these days. You are more than just a voice now – you are people’s waifus!
The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio follows two young high school voice actors that are celebrating various levels of success in their new career. One is having a harder time finding jobs and has yet to secure a breakout role, the other is slowly rising and driven to the top. They both end up on a promotional voice actor radio show where they banter with each other and slowly become friends.
While The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio is, at first, the witty banter between two people with opposite personalities and just a dash of yuri baiting, it shows its teeth later on when one girl is caught in a scandal.
Even after the scandal is resolved, The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio starts to embrace more serious aspects of voice acting like the demand to get the voice and tone for a character “just right” and having to feel like you are letting other, seasoned professionals down when you have to constantly re-record.
Revue Starlight
Revue Starlight is set in a prestigious school for hopeful actresses. The main character eventually discovers a sort of underground fight club-type affair where her fellow classmates literally fight each other for the top roles in school performances.
However, while Revue Starlight may have brought audiences in by adding an element of action to its otherwise dramatic competitive arts school plot, the actual action in Revue Starlight, as it turns out, is a thin metaphor for the cutthroat side of show business.
You watch best friends head into the underground with their hopes, dreams, and ambitions. Friendships are tested, shattered, and left sometimes irreparable by the obsessive quest for fame.
As first, Revue Starlight is a fun and new twist, but as it goes on and that thin veil over the metaphor blows away, it definitely becomes a haunting spotlight on the realities of what girls will really do to chase their dreams.
Glass Mask
Although showing its age a bit these days, Glass Mask endures as one of the finest pieces of drama about those striving to be a star.
Glass Mask follows two girls that both strive to achieve the perfection required to land the role of the Crimson Goddess in the stage play of the same name. One is a young girl discovered by the legendary actress who inspired and originally played the Crimson Goddess, and the other is an actress that has already experienced some success, but is trying to live by her own talent rather than the connections of her famous parents.
Glass Mask and its two main characters makes it clear that for one to succeed, the other will have to fail. As such, you watch two girls sacrifice everything else in their lives and obsessively grasp for an unclear concept of perfection.
As it is an older drama anime, Glass Mask can be a little over-dramatic sometimes, but it fully explores the cost of greatness.
Opera Girl
Opera Girl is like an interesting mix of the newer dark show business drama provided in series like Oshi no Ko and the older dark show business drama provided in series like Glass Mask.
Opera Girl takes place in an all-girls school that is renowned for producing talented actresses. As such, it creates a very competitive atmosphere among the girls. However, while distinctly focusing on the cutthroat nature of competition between many, there are also real traumas that effect the characters as well.
If you enjoy seeing girls occasionally be awful to each other in the pursuit of stardom, but also like a series that explore deeper topics like body image and sexual harassment in the industry that stars can experience, Opera Girls embraces both.
Skip Beat
In terms of darkness, Skip Beat – a shoujo romance set in the entertainment industry – is lighter than a good chunk of the other series on here.
Skip beat follows a girl who faithfully supports her childhood friend and crush on his path to stardom. After sacrificing a lot to support him, of course she is devastated when she overhears him describing her as a maid and little else. She decides to enter the entertainment industry herself and show him up.
While often pretty empowering for the heroine and with no small amount of lighter romantic comedy, Skip Beat does also touch on the transactional nature of showbiz. As the heroine is particularly naive, she falls for the easy exploitation of others more than a few heart-breaking times.
Idolish7
Idolish7 lives in a sea of idol anime about idol groups where the draw is cute characters with varying forms of drama going on in their personal or professional lives. However, what Idolish7 did to set itself apart from the adored mass of idol anime was embrace some of the darker realities that idols face.
While Idolish7 still has those lovable light moments of handsome male idols celebrating success, it does well to explore the effects of overwork and having to maintain a pristine image at all times in an industry that treats its very human idols like a commodity rather than a person.
Wake Up, Girls
Similar to Idolish7 – but with female idols this time – Wake Up, Girls also explores the darker sides of the idol industry. It follows a female idol group that is struggling towards stardom, but separates itself from the shadow of Love Live or Idolmaster by showcasing ungrateful fans, exploitative managers, girls manipulated by the industry and the struggle to maintain an impossible standard of perfection.
Like Idolish7, Wake Up, Girls also has some nicer moments showing the rewards of stardom, but the emotional toll that it takes is by far a larger focus in the story.
Do you have more anime recommendations that explore some of the darker potential realities that stars face in show business? Let fans know in the comments section below.
