Best friends Hoshimiya Ichigo and Kiriya Aoi enroll in Starlight Academy, a prestigious school famous for creating the next generation of idols. Each day at Starlight Academy is an adventure where Ichigo and Aoi meet other idols, make new friends, learn new things, and study how to become the best idol in Japan. With their handy Aikatsu! Phone, dedication, and a ton of imagination, the two budding idols scale mountains, swim across oceans, skydive, sing and dance so they can be the idols people look up to.

The Autumn Sports Festival in Budokan episode 4 was a fun change of pace and it’s one of those rare instances where we see ChamJam doing things other than singing by doing various activities to either help promote their idol group, or as a means to increase an idol’s popularity in the polls. Polls such as these determine the position of the idols during concerts—the most popular idols in ChamJam are positioned up front, while the least popular ones are at the back. These events give the other idols the chance to gain new fans and rank up in the polls.

If you’re looking for more of these activities, then Aikatsu! is entirely like that: Idol Activities. Every idol in Starlight Academy has their own unique personality with their own unique way of promoting themselves through idol activities. Ichigo, Aoi, Ran, and Otome earn fans and support by doing things like mountain climbing, going to the forest in winter to chop down a pine tree, skydiving, selling lunch boxes, and even create their own dresses for their concerts. Each idol is their own producer and their popularity and rank are all dependent on the idol’s dedication. And the best part is, Aikatsu! is a colorful and cheerful kids idol anime, so you’ll have more fun watching the idols do silly things rather than worry about politics in the entertainment business. 300+ episodes of fun, if you’re wondering! Oh and give the CGI a chance! It starts improving around the episode 6 mark!

Sendai-based talent company Green Leaves Entertainment is in trouble because all of their talent has left (maybe you should’ve been a bit nicer to people, Junko-san). But, there’s hope, though—idols! Idols are popular in Japan and they bring in money, a prospect that is very enticing, especially to a talent company that is completely broke. Wasting no time, Green Leaves Entertainment president Tange Junko barks an order at her only employee Matsuda Kouhei: Find a bunch of girls and turn them into idols!

Wake Up, Girls! is perhaps the most similar anime to Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu because the shows portray idols in a more realistic light and both stories share the theme of idol groups composed of normal people wanting to make a difference in their lives. ChamJam is made up of mostly newbie idols led by one veteran idol. The idols aren’t popular with only a few dedicated fans following them in their underground gigs, but Reo, the veteran idol, wants ChamJam to rise to the top and sing in Budokan, the biggest stage for any idol. The idol group Wake Up, Girls! is also made up of talented newbies and a veteran idol starting from nothing and slowly climbing their way up. Though the only main difference between Budokan and WUG is WUG digs deep into the shady and dark side of the idol industry in Japan. If you want to know more about Japanese idols, then WUG will definitely show you whether it’s good or bad.

Typical, normal, nothing-out-of-the-ordinary high school girl Usami Nanako wants to buy a new swimsuit for the remodeled public pool in her hometown of Nagarekawa, but she doesn’t have the money to buy one. Thankfully, her uncle offers her a very simple job at the reopening of the public pool, and to sweeten the deal, Nanako gets paid in advance. What her uncle didn’t tell her is that he wants Nanako to go up on stage and promote the public pool as an idol. Nanako is paired up with the beautiful Kohinata Yukari and the two become locodols, local idols of the quaint little town of Nagarekawa.

But what if you want your next idol anime to be free of the dark side of the idol industry and just want a laid back idol anime with a similar tone and atmosphere as Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu? Look no further than Locodol, and idol anime with great characters and a grounded idol experience. Nanako and Yukari are idols but they're like the local celebrities promoting businesses from their community by singing, dancing, doing interviews, etc. on TV. Maina and the rest of ChamJam from Budokan are underground idols, so they’re hardly on any news, but they’re supported by a small community of dedicated fans following the group wherever they go.

Japan has a ton of idols and a lot of them will never reach the national stage and or be in anyone’s social media feed, but these small-time idols thrive in their local towns or even prefectures doing their own little things. They may not be mainstream, but if an idol can bring happiness and joy to the people around them, then that’s all that matters.

With the dropping numbers of new students enrolling every year, Otonokizaka High School is on the brink of closing down. The only way to save the school is to have more students enroll, but with no history or reputation, Otonokizaka High School is doomed… Until Kousaka Honoka, a second-year student of Otonokizaka High School, steps in and tries to save her school by creating a school idol group to bring in more students by boosting the school’s popularity. Honoka and her childhood friends Umi and Honoka create school idol group μ's (muse) to take on the world of idols and save their school!

Characters drive the show and without a good cast of characters, well, the show, regardless of how great the art style and animations are, will be crap. Love Live! is loved by many simply because the characters are great, and it’s fun seeing Honoka bringing positivity to her classmates, seeing Umi scolding Honoka for being too extreme, or even watching Maki going into tsundere mode to cover up her embarrassment. These clashes of personalities make the cast of Love Live! very amusing to watch, and the best part? Love Live! is huge with a second season, a movie, and a spin-off sequel! You’ll be very, very busy with this one.

Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu’s main character isn’t an idol, but the anime does dedicate half of every episode to the behind-the-stage lives of Maina and the rest of idol group ChamJam. Maina isn’t good at expressing her emotions, especially around her number one fan Eripiyo. Reo is very cheerful and loves everyone, but behind that smiling face lies a girl with big dreams, and so on. If there’s a huge reason why you should watch an idol anime, it’s definitely for the cast of idols.

Minamoto Sakura’s dreams of becoming an idol come to a complete stop when she gets killed in a truck accident. But for some strange reason, Sakura wakes up as a zombie with no recollection of who she is, why she’s inside this rundown mansion, or why there are other zombie girls in the room. It turns out someone reanimated them and this someone wants these undead girls to be idols. Oh wait, Sakura’s dream of becoming an idol isn’t over! Seriously though, what kind of idiot drives a vehicle around a suburban neighborhood at highway speeds?

Basically an idol anime with literal undead idols, the story is mad bonkers but it’s also quite entertaining, dealing with some crazy loudmouth with a horrible fashion sense who takes his time digging bodies out of their graves, reanimating them, and forcing them to become idols. Since the idol group Franchouchou is completely unknown, Koutarou acts as the producer to get his zombies to join events to gain exposure and some traction among the local community of Saga Prefecture. ChamJam from Budokan also participates in various events in order to get the word out, and like Franchouchou, ChamJam is also a budding idol group slowly rising to the top by also participating in similar events like fashion shows, photo ops, and sports events. ChamJam aren’t undead idols, but hey, idols are still idols, no matter their pulse rates (or lack thereof).

What’s this? An idol anime with a production company that isn't financially in trouble and the idols are experienced professionals? Wow, not bad. Anyway, 765 Production Studio and its 13 idols are working their way up to the top, but not all is perfect. The idols must strike a balance between work, family, and play in order to stay competitive and maintain their relationship with their peers, and with 13 idols with varying personalities, beliefs and quirks, that’s going to be a challenge.

The Idolm@ster has a cast of professional idols, so they’re well-known compared to the idols from Oshi ga Budokan Ittekuretara Shinu, who are mainly composed of idols starting out. But idols are idols and they do one main thing: entertain the audience through singing, dancing and doing other things like talk shows or acting. Other than providing entertainment, idols from both shows maintain their relationships with other idols, their families, and fans. Each episode, The Idolm@ster focuses on one or two idols struggling with their shortcomings and eventually overcoming them and becoming better idols.

The idols in ChamJam maintain a delicate balancing act to keep their relationships as idols together because an uncooperative idol group will result in crappy performances and may create gossip among their fans that may hurt their reputation. For example, in episode 7 of Budoukan, Sorane’s ranking fell after rumors of her having a boyfriend spread across social media and Sorane felt it when none of her fans (other than Motoi, of course) showed up to shake her hand. Sorane kept her cool until the rumor was debunked and, so far, everything fixed itself. If she didn’t keep her cool and didn’t handle the situation properly, Sorane may have lost her position as one of the three front-runners of ChamJam and she may have been forced to resign because her presence alone is affecting her fellow idols.