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.
The koto doesn’t exactly have a wide audience appeal, but that’s not what this series is about. Stop This Sound is really about highly relatable character drama, and it explores it in a way that you can’t get enough. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Stop This Sound, head on down below.
Anime Like Kono Oto Tomare – Stop This Sound
For Fans of Traditional Japanese Activities
Those Snow White Notes
After watching his grandfather perform the shamisen at a young age, Setsu became entranced. However, after his grandfather’s death, he runs away from his small village and quits playing after his grandfather said he should never play if he was just going to imitate others. Fleeing to the city, Setsu slowly begins to become inspired to develop his own shamisen style, further aided when his eccentric mother forces him to enroll in the Umezono Academy.
Most obviously, the similarity between these two series is they are both about playing Japanese string instruments. Even more, they are both driven by character drama in a school atmosphere where the main character is pushed forward due to their family’s history with the instrument. The primary difference is the main character in Those Snow White Notes is already quite gifted at playing.
Chihayafuru
Growing up in the shadow of her older sister, Chihaya Ayase is strong-willed and a tomboy with no dreams of her own. However, after learning an outcast in her class, Arata Wataya, has incredible skill at karuta and his huge passion inspires her, she is pulled into the world of the poem-based card game along with her other childhood friend, Taichi Mashima. While Chihaya grew a passion for karuta with her two childhood friends, they grew distant when they were separated in middle school. Now a high schooler, Chihaya still aims to be the queen of karuta and wants to compete with Arata again to grow her skill.
In both series, you learn about a lesser known traditional Japanese hobby in a way that is made interesting because the plot is really more about the character relationships. However, Chihayafuru is a bit more frequently intense with its competitions, but they both still have their nice slice of life moments. If you enjoyed Stop This Sound because it also built potential romantic relationships, Chihayafuru does that very well too.
Kabuki-bu
Kurogu had a love of kabuki instilled in him from a young age by his grandfather. Now in high school, he seeks to create a kabuki club to bring an appreciation for it to a wider audience. However, hundreds of years of strict tradition are harder than these high schoolers expected to deal with, but Kurogu won’t be deterred.
Both series are about an art form traditional to Japan that people may know of, but probably know little about. Through the pleasant slice of life portrayal, they also slice some good information on the subject in there too. Furthermore, they both feature pretty rambunctious characters though Kabuki-bu has characters that are more diverse in their personalities.
March Comes in Like a Lion
Rei Kiriyama recently started to live alone in his last year of high school. He is able to financial support himself as a professional Shogi player, but while he officially became a pro in middle school, he is collapsing under the pressure to succeed. Burdened with his own problems, Rei has found solace among a kind family of three sisters, the Kawamotos. The oldest, Akari, likes to take in strays and Rei is the latest. While he feels conflicted about spending time with them, they provide accepting affection that he has gotten nowhere else.
Shogi is probably the least interesting thing to many viewers, but like Stop This Sound, the series isn’t all about shogi. Instead, March Comes in Like a Lion hides a lot of darker elements inside as it explores its characters. Both series feature main characters with tragic pasts and it explores these characters as they explore their hobby. However, while Stop This Sound is all about passion, March Comes in Like a Lion instead examines someone with severe depression who is struggling to find passion in anything.
Tsurune
Kyuudo is a modern martial art with a focus on archery. Minato used to be into the sport in middle school, enchanted by the “tsurune” sound made by a releasing bowstring, but gave it up after a certain incident left him with target panic. This phenomenon resulted in Minato missing every shot he took and crushing his confidence. Now forces conspire in high school to bring him into the newly founded Kyuudo club, but can Minato overcome his anxieties?
Both Tsrune and Stop This Sound flew deeply under people’s radar because koto or Japanese archery don’t sound particularly appealing, but again, that is not what either show is really about. These shows are about their characters and the problems that they have. It is the club activity that bonds them together and gives them the support and acceptance they need to address those problems.
For Fans of Deep Music Anime
Tari Tari
Each year, their school does a recital in which music students perform for their prestigious guests. Konatsu is in her third year and wants to perform her song, but after a screw up last year, she is barred from participating. In order to try and get around this, she decides to form her own singing club.
Both shows, obviously, focus on music. However, what really ties these two series together is the characters and the surprising depth of them. At a glance, you might see these series as rather light-hearted slice of life shows, but the characters have a tremendous amount of depth beneath the surface.
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.
While Stop This Sound has its drama, Your Lie in April goes above and beyond that to a point where it has become a very notorious tearjerker. However, that injection of emotion alongside its stunning classical sound track make this series one of the great music anime staples. Stop This Sound also features excellent character drama and romance, but it isn’t quite as piled as heavily.
Haruchika
In an effort to be seen as cuter, Chika joins the Wind Instrument Club to play the seemly feminine flute. It is there she is reunited with her childhood friend Haruta, who is her complete opposite. This causes them to butt heads, especially since they both have a crush on their instructor.
Both series feature, at first, two characters that are complete opposites in the same club. However, they come to understand each other and find friendship in the club. While both series are about drama and develop romantic elements, only Haruchika is about a love triangle.
Sound Euphonium
Swearing off music after a certain incident, euphonist Kumiko enter high school looking for a fresh start. However, it turns out she is surrounded by people with a passion for instruments that end up dragging her into a band aiming for nationals, and not a very good band at that.
Both shows are music shows that are driven especially by character drama, but that is almost all music anime plots. What Sound Euphonium and Stop This Sound have most in common is how realistic the characters are presented and how the drama is explored over the struggles of them aiming towards a national competition and stumbling along the way. The main difference is that Sound Euphonium has distinctly more women in its cast.
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.
Stop This Sound does well to explain how koto music is a form of non-verbal communication and how the songs communicate certain feelings. Carole and Tuesday is a music anime that accents that message as well. However, as Carole and Tuesday is about more pop music that often has lyrics, the message of the songs are more easily grasped. Regardless of that, they are both also music anime series about outcasts finding acceptance and their place in the world.
For Fans of Thug-Type Characters in Delicate Activities
Kids on the Slope
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.
Both Kids on the Slope and Stop This Sound feature bespectacled normal men who end up making music with blonde misunderstood thugs. This brings them together and forms a strong friendship that both characters, troubled by their own personal issues, strongly needed. They are also both music anime, but music is the catalyst for their relationship. Both series feature good music, but are amazing at building realistic, relatable drama for the characters as well as adding an interesting romantic element. However, the romance in Kids on the Slope is often just feeding the drama.
Dance Dance Danseur
After watching a gripping performance by a male ballet dancer as a kid, Junpei Murao fell in love with dance. However, after being pressured into finding it effeminate, he took up more manly sports like Jeet Kune Do and soccer, particularly after his father’s death made him the man of his house. One day after a female classmate witnesses him do a kick with the earmarks of ballet to it, she asks him to join her mother’s ballet studio. Although he resists at first, Junpei finds himself willing to make endless sacrifices for the euphoria that ballet elicits.
Both series feature rather abrasive young men that have a love for something that you don’t expect them to. In Stop This Sound, Chika loves the koto while Dance Dance Danseur is about Junpei’s love of dance. While Stop This Sound touches on how unexpected Chika’s dedication is, Dance Dance Danseur fully acknowledges the gender and sexuality stereotypes surrounding male dancers. While this fuels some of the character drama, like in Stop This Sound, all characters have their various issues and motivations that push them.
Blue Period
In his second year of high school, Yatora Yaguchi goofs off with his friends and studies hard enough to make good grades. However, neither makes him happy. Bound by normal activities, he wonders if there is something more. One day, he discovers the joy of drawing after becoming enchanted by a painting made by an art club member. Deciding he wants to do art as a living, Yatora faces a number challenges including his own hesitation on how far art can take him.
While about different art forms, both series follow blonde-haired characters that suddenly decide to break into their chosen art form. While Chika’s passion has been there since childhood, Blue Period is more of a sudden developed interest. Regardless, both series feature these characters essentially starting from zero, but showing how much a sense of passion can drive a person.
Opera Girl
After being forced out of her idol group due to a stalker fostering her discomfort with men, Ai Narata seeks to use her talents at the prestigious Kouka School of Musical and Theatrical Arts. This school has gained renown for producing the best actresses, and Ai fits their criteria even if her demeanor alienates her from her classmates. Upon entering school, Ai meets the tall and eccentric Sasara Watanabe who causes friction of her own with her classmates. Together, these girls find that they will need more than just talent to succeed at the school and earn their prestige.
While Opera Girl follows an all-female cast, it is a series that is driven by its character drama. Everyone has an issue that drives them, and that is further explored as they reach towards a goal in their pursued art form. Furthermore, like Chika appeared in the koto club like a storm, so too did Sarasa appear in her school. However, she is less aggressive and more just quirky.
My Dress Up Darling
Living with his grandfather who makes beautiful Hina Dolls, Wakana Gojo has loved them since he was a child. He aspires to one day make Hina Dolls as good as his grandfather, but his dedication has made him a bit of a loner in school after a girl in his childhood said that boys shouldn’t like dolls. After a run in with the beautiful and popular Marin Kitagawa, he discovers that she wants to cosplay a character from an eroge game. However, her sewing skills leave something to be desired, and after seeing her passion, Gojo agrees to help her make her costume.
Both Stop This Sound and My Dress Up Darling feature loners who have their whole world opened up by a wily blonde-haired person barging into their life. While My Dress Up Darling doesn’t really focus on much drama, it is, much like Stop This Sound, a show with a very solid message of not judging people by how they look.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Stop This Sound? Let fans know in the comments section below.
