The biggest surprise of 2022, Bocchi the Rock! tells a funny and wholesome story following a girl, her love for guitar, and her band. Music anime is a must if you like deep and emotional anime. Seeing the characters’ growth and thoughts transmitted by their music is so beautiful and satisfactory that it’s hard to explain. Prepare yourself to feel touched by the impassioned songs and get the urge to buy a new instrument with our list of best music anime.
Bocchi the Rock! and Other Must-Watch Music Anime
Besides Bocchi the Rock!, we’ll present 10 other music anime that’ll make you laugh, cry, cheer, scream, and want to start your own band.
Bocchi the Rock!
Another great pick not only for the list of best Fall 2022 anime but also for best of the year, Bocchi the Rock! sees Hitori Gotou, a lonely introvert who decides to start playing the guitar to get popular and have many friends… but years pass, and she has no friends or a band. It’s a great anime that abuses every creative and technical element, mainly animation, to make you laugh about Hitori’s delusions and timidity while getting you emotional with every one of her and her friends (yes, she manages to make some) achievements.
Nana
A very mature Shoujo anime, it follows the fateful encounter between Nana Osaki and Nana Komatsu. They couldn’t be more different but quickly develop a close friendship and start living together and depending on each other. The soundtrack, filled with rock and punk songs, combines perfectly with the anime atmosphere and everyone’s characterization.
Your Lie in April
Put your guitar away for a second and get some tissues because fans aren’t joking when they say this is one of the saddest shows ever. Kousei Arima is a child prodigy that gave up on playing the piano, as a trauma made him unable to hear the sound of it, only being able to produce a disjointed melody that hurt the listeners’ ears and his heart. But Kaori Miyazono, an eccentric violinist, drags him back to competitions as her accompanist and fills his world with beautiful sounds again. There are no words to express how dazzling the music and the romance are in Your Lie in April.
K-On!
Probably the most classic music anime. It’s hard to watch anime and not have heard anything about K-On! at least once. The wholesome Light Music Club convinces Yui Hirasawa, a girl who doesn’t know how to play any instruments, to join them so the club won’t be disbanded. From then, we get two seasons and a movie about the girls’ cute, funny, and silly daily lives.
Sound! Euphonium
We follow Kumiko and her school’s band club growing as people and as a group while trying to turn winning the national competition, which seems more like a fantasy, into reality. And as a musician or someone very interested in music, you’ll appreciate the attention to detail in the musical side of things. They feel like a real high school band, all the more technical aspects are explained in a way you won’t get confused, and everything else is expressed so clearly with gestures and their songs that it doesn’t need to be told through words. Not to mention, the characters and their dramas are all very relatable.
Zombieland Saga
Another option for you who want a plain fun anime. Koutarou Tatsumi resurrects seven zombie girls to turn them into idols that will save the Saga prefecture. Idol group is another popular theme in Japan, and Zombie Land Saga is a great take on the genre. Every episode focuses on a different girl, and we explore her past and what being an idol means to her.
Carole & Tuesday
By the same director of the famous Cowboy Bebop, this anime follows two girls pursuing their dreams and performing together on the streets of a futuristic Mars. Set in a world where AI singers took over the industry, Carole & Tuesday is a story about how we can and should follow our dreams because we all have the potential to turn them into reality.
Given
Mafuyu Satou begs Ritsuka Uenoyama, a student he met by accident in his high school, to fix his guitar and teach him how to play it. Uenoyama realizes Satou has a great voice and asks him to join his band. Besides being an anime with good characterization that gives backstories and motivations to all band members, it’s a sweet and realistic romance.
Kids on the Slope
A coming-of-age about two boys who love jazz creating their own music and developing a strong friendship in the process. Besides the two boys, the anime also focuses on their friendship with Ritsuko Mukae, their classmate, and how the love for jazz, and music in general, unites people.
Detroit Metal City
While some people pursue their dreams and do their best to achieve them, others, like Souichi Negishi, who has always dreamt of being a pop idol, have to become the front-man of death metal bands to pay their bills. Seeing Souichi, a very laid-back boy, having to deal with and please his maniacal fans who believe him to be a kind of demonic being who loves metal.
Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad
Different from other main characters who dream of pursuing music or becoming stars, Yukio is introduced as a dispassioned boy. But he grows to become someone motivated by music who still strives to achieve his dreams, even with all the struggle his band goes through to make it big in Japan and America.
