Best movies & TV Shows like Heroines Run the Show

Energy-conservative high school student Houtarou Oreki ends up with more than he bargained for when he signs up for the Classics Club at his sister's behest—especially when he realizes how deep-rooted the club's history really is. Begrudgingly, Oreki is dragged into an investigation concerning the 45-year-old mystery that surrounds the club room. Accompanied by his fellow club members, the knowledgeable Satoshi Fukube, the stern but benign Mayaka Ibara, and the ever-curious Eru Chitanda, Oreki must combat deadlines and lack of information with resourcefulness and hidden talent, in order to not only find the truth buried beneath the dust of works created years before them, but of other small side cases as well.

Although μ's, the defending champions of the school idol tournament, plans to dissolve their group after the graduation of their senior members, they receive news that leads them to holding a concert event! The 9 girls continue to learn and grow in this new and unfamiliar world. What is the last thing that these girls can do as school idols? With the clock ticking, what kind of meaning will the μ's members find in performing the most exciting live performance?

The OVA of Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club set to premiere in theaters in 2023.

Yukari is a typical high-school student who listens to her parents and attends school everyday. As she starts to question her way of life, she encounters a group of fashion design students who has a clothing label known as "Paradise Kiss". The group needs to find a model to showcase their designs in an up-coming fashion show and decides to pick Yukari instead. Initially, Yukari was reluctant to be associated with this seemingly eccentric group, but eventually, she realises that they are really nice people. Furthermore, their passion and enthusiasm to follow their ideals and dreams make Yukari realise that she has not been enjoying her life and this motivated her to pursue her own dreams.

Chihaya Ayase has spent most of her life supporting her sister’s model career. When she meets a boy named Arata Wataya, he thinks Chihaya has potential to become a great karuta player. As Chihaya dreams of becoming Japan's best karuta player, she is soon separated from her karuta playing friends. Now in high school, Chihaya still plays karuta in the hope that she will one day meet her friends again.

The Sakuragoaka Girls' Academy curriculum traditionally focuses on the three "R"s of reading, writing and arithmetic, but Ritsu Tainaka wants to add two more "R"s: Rock and Roll! To do that, however, Ritsu has to save the Light Music Club from being shut down due to little problems like not having any other members or a faculty advisor. After strong-arming her best friend Mio into joining and convincing Tsumugi Kotobuki to make it a trio, Ritsu's would-be rockers are soon only one talented guitarist short of the quartet they need for school approval. What they get, unfortunately, is Yui Hirasawa, who's never held a guitar in her life, but she's determined to learn! Will the school halls come alive with the sound of music?

Follow the adventures of three ordinary girls as they make life’s awkward moments a thousand times worse. Along with a colorful bunch of classmates, they learn their most important lessons the hard way. Meanwhile down the street, a pocket-sized professor makes life difficult for a robot who just wants to be normal. But normal is the last thing you can expect in a town where salmon falls from the sky. In fact, the only thing you can count on is your friends, but even they are totally weird.

Sporting designer clothes, make-up, and nails, Ran Kotobuki is the very picture of a trendy, young Shibuya girl, but don't let that fool you. This girl comes from a family of cops, and she’s ready to lay you out flat if you even think about causing trouble in her town! At least, she will... when she’s not distracted with karaoke, shopping, and dodging her homework. Join Ran and her friends as they defend the streets of Shibuya and attempt to shop their way into the history books as the most famous Gals ever!

Oreki Houtarou is a minimalistic high school boy. One day, he joins the Classic Literature Club at his elder sister's request. There he meets Chitanda Eru, Fukube Satoshi, and Ibara Mayaka. Chitanda is a calm beautiful girl but she turns into an embodiment of curiosity once she says, "I'm curious." Fukube is a smiling boy with a fantastic memory who calls himself a database. Ibara is a short girl and is strict with others and herself. They begin to investigate a case that occurred 45 years ago. Hints of the mystery are buried in an old collection of works of the former members of Classics Club. The collection is titled "Hyouka."

The series follows the hilarious everyday routines of four girls in the Kameido High tennis club who, on occasion, actually play some tennis.

Aoi prefers indoor hobbies and is afraid of heights, but her childhood friend Hinata loves to show off her passion for mountain climbing. As young children they once watched the sunrise from the top of a mountain, and now they've decided to take up mountain climbing in hopes of seeing that sunrise again. They have cooking battles with mountaineering gear, climb small hills in their neighborhood, and meet new mountaineering friends as they learn the ropes of the hobby. When will they finally see that sunrise again?

Otonokizaka High School is planning to close within three years. However, nine female students come together with one thing in mind—form a pop idol group to revive the school’s popularity and keep it from shutting down. 'In order to protect our beloved school, there’s only one thing we can do...become pop stars!'

Naru is a high school girl who is average in every way. She loves fairy tale heroines, though she’s never had the courage to escape her ordinary life. One day, she sees Hannah, a transfer student, dancing in the moonlit and becomes inspired to learn Yosakoi dancing.

Buntarou doesn't know what he wants to do in the future. He does not have any kind of dream that he wants to pursue, so currently he just spends his days hanging around with his friends. One day, his classmate Sayuki asks him if he wants to help with development of a gal game. She says that she had become interested in his help after she read one of his works intended for the drama club. Buntarou doesn't know anything about gal games, but Sayuki claims that she has the ability to make it a success. Can they make the game, and will it be a success like she claims it will be? This is the story of youths taking a daring step into the unknown...

"Stride," is an extreme sport that involves six people on one team who run relay races through towns. Hōnan Academy and other schools compete to win eastern Japan's top Stride competition, "End of Summer." However, Hōnan's team has shut down. First-year high school students Takeru Fujiwara and Nana Sakurai attempt to restart the club, but they must recruit six members for the team. They ask Riku Yagami to join, but he turns them down by saying that Stride is the one thing he doesn't want to do.

Three high school girls with different perspectives discuss the kinds of secrets you can't tell boys.

The hyperactive teenage scuba diver, Hikari Kohinata, lives in a small town near the sea. On her first day of high school she meets the shy transfer student, Futaba Oki, who is struggling to find a place after moving away from Tokyo. Hikari takes the lead, dragging Futaba into her hijinx, and the two soon become close friends

Uranohoshi Girls’ High School, a private school in the seaside neighborhood of Uchiura at Numazu city, Shizuoka prefecture. A small high school in a corner of Suruga Bay, it is home to nine teens, led by second-year student Chika Takami, driven by one seriously big dream: To become the next generation of bright, sparkling “school idols”! As long as we don’t give up, any dream can come true... All we have to do now is keep pushing hard for fame and glory! Now their “School Idol Project” begins to make their dreams come true!

Since she was very young, Kasumi Toyama has always been searching for the "Star Beat", a sparkling and exciting sound she heard while looking up at the night sky. Just after getting into high school, Kasumi comes across a "star-shaped guitar" in the storage area of an old pawn shop. Feeling a rush and excitement she has never felt before, Kasumi teams up with four other girls and embarks on a journey to seek out the shiny place. We promise to perform a live here!

Nadeshiko, a high school student who had moved from Shizuoka to Yamanashi, decides to see the famous, 1000 yen-bill-featured Mount Fuji. Even though she manages to bike all the way to Motosu, she's forced to turn back because of worsening weather. Unable to set her eyes on her goal, she faints partway to her destination. When she wakes up, it's night, in a place she's never been before, with no way of knowing how to get home. Nadeshiko is saved when she encounters Rin, a girl who is out camping by herself. This outdoorsy girls story begins with this first encounter between Nadeshiko and Rin.

Working at an agency owned by your father, seven new idols await. They are all part of an idol unit IDOLiSH7, and each of them have unique personalities. It is your task to manage them. In order to achieve the same goals, as manager and idols together, you gather the seven ununified hearts and aim for the top.

Hibiki Sakura is your average high school girl, with a voracious appetite. Noticing her clothes tightening in lieu of her slowly expanding waistline she decides to look into enrolling in the nearby gym. There she runs into a girl from her grade named Souryuuin Akemi. Akemi, who has a muscle fetish tries to get Hibiki to enroll in the gym despite its high ratio of macho men. Thankfully a beautiful trainer, Machio, appears and unknowingly convinces her to enroll and start her quest to a great body.

The girls in a high school literature club do a little icebreaker to get to know each other: answering the question, "What's one thing you want to do before you die?" One of the girls blurts out, "Sex." Little do they know, the whirlwind unleashed by that word pushes each of these girls, with different backgrounds and personalities, onto their own clumsy, funny, painful, and emotional paths toward adulthood.

The story centers around the first-year student Mana Shikimiya as she pursue her dreams of winning at the Prism Stage, the competition that determines the top middle-school idol.

A stout, weak, yet highly passionate Sora Kurumatani enters Kuzuryuu High School with hopes that he’ll fulfill his mother’s wishes to dominate his first high school tournament. However, the basketball club—turned den for delinquents—does anything but play basketball! Its club members, Momoharu Hanazono, a skilled blocker who can do power jumps but is horrible at shooting, and his twin brother Chiaki, a talented point guard, has also lost interest in the sport. With just one game overwhelmed with adrenaline rush and excitement, and Sora’s pure love for the game, the youth’s burning out spirit for basketball rekindles.

Mitsugu Bamba is a high school girl who is crazy about donating her blood, to the point that she feels compelled to visit a local blood bank despite the unfriendly nurse. One day, Mitsugu encounters a beautiful girl there who looks like she has come from overseas. The girl is so pale that she appears ready to faint. Instead, she suddenly starts trashing the blood bank. The girl then loses consciousness and so Mitsugu takes her home...

First year high school student and occultist, Nene Yashiro summons "Hanako-san of the Toilet" to grant her romantic wishes. She ends up Hanako's spiritual assistant, helping him destroy supernatural beings and change rumors to balance the spirit and human worlds. Along the way, Nene learns about her connection to the spirit world and the dark secrets regarding Hanako's past.

Years ago, many magical "Artifacts" were stolen and scattered throughout the world. They fell into the hands of people who were not supposed to know of their existence. The Hoshisato family of magicians has special access to the Artifacts, and they take it upon themselves to return them to their rightful place. Despite her inexperience, Kana wishes to aid her parents, doing her best to improve. Meanwhile, her childhood friend Makoto has come to their mansion to study magic under her father's tutelage. Hatena is excited to see her friend again, only to be utterly disappointed when the person she thought to be a girl all these years turns out to be a boy. Before long, Makoto comes to know of the Artifacts. Unfazed, he continues to strive to fulfill his promises and stay true to why he learns magic - to ease the sadness of people around him and, most importantly, to become a person worthy of being Hatena's partner.

Nijigasaki High School is located in Odaiba, Tokyo. The school is popular due to its free school style and diverse majors. The story centers on the members of school idol club in Nijigasaki, and their attempt to prevent the club from being abolished.

Rinku Aimoto, who has a habit of saying "Happy Around!", has returned to Japan from abroad and enrolls at Yoba Academy where DJing is popular. She is deeply moved by a DJ concert she sees there and decides to form a unit of her own with DJ Maho Akashi, VJ Muni Ohnaruto and keyboardist Rei Togetsu. While interacting with other DJ units like Peaky P-key and Photon Maiden, Rinku and her friends aim for the high stage!

Kimichika Haijima was a strong junior high school volleyball team member. After getting into trouble with the team, he moved to his mother's hometown and reunites with his childhood friend, Yuni Kuroba. The two become an ace pair at volleyball, but in their last tournament, get into a big fight. Will they ever play volleyball together again?

Robai Private Academy is a well-known girls’ junior high school in the countryside. Komichi Akebi is a girl who, for a certain reason, has dreamed of wearing a Robai Academy sailor uniform. Her dream comes true, and her heart races as the day of the school entrance ceremony arrives. With her heart set on her new sailor uniform, Komichi embarks on the junior high school life of her dreams. Komichi dashes headlong through days full of “firsts”—classmates, school lunches, club activities, and more—in this sparkling diary of girlhood. “I hope I can make a lot of friends.”

Yuigaoka Girls High School is a newly established school that lies between the Omotesando, Harajuku, and Aoyama neighborhoods of Tokyo. The story centers on its first batch of students. With no history, no upperclassmen or alumni, and no reputation, it is a school full of unknowns. Five girls, among them Kanon Shibuya, have a fateful encounter with school idols. Kanon decides, "I love singing. I want to make something come true with song!" Many feelings converge upon a star that has only started to grow. The future is blank and full of possibility for these girls, and their story that everyone will make possible has only just begun. Soar with your wings, our Love Live!

Minato is a boy who stopped playing water polo due to a certain incident in the winter of his third middle school year. He picks the sport back up again with a new team when he starts in high school, but the fledgling team runs into many problems.

Ashito Aoi is a young, aspiring soccer player from a backwater town in Japan. His hopes of getting into a high school with a good soccer club are dashed when he causes an incident during a critical match for his team, which results in their loss and elimination from the tournament. Nevertheless, he catches the eye of someone important who happened to be visiting from Tokyo. How will things turn out for Ashito?

Wakana Gojo is a high school boy who wants to become a kashirashi--a master craftsman who makes traditional Japanese Hina dolls. Though he's gung-ho about the craft, he knows nothing about the latest trends, and has a hard time fitting in with his class. The popular kids--especially one girl, Marin Kitagawa--seem like they live in a completely different world. That all changes one day, when she shares an unexpected secret with him, and their completely different worlds collide.

Iwakura Mitsumi, a tenacious country girl, prepares for high school in the big city. She meets the handsome Shima Sousuke, whose easygoing ways help her adapt in the real world.

Yuya is part of the idol duo ZINGS, but his laziness and disdain for fans puts him in danger of getting blacklisted. That is, until he meets Asahi, the ghost of a former idol who’s eager to stage her own comeback by possessing Yuya's willing body!

Hitori Gotoh, a shy, awkward, and lonely high school student dreams of being in a band despite her doubts and worries, but when she is recruited to be the guitarist of a group looking to make it big, she realises her dream may be able to be fulfilled and come true.

The story is set in the future, not long after the present day. Hyper Sports, which use extreme gear as support items, have become popular hobby competitions among both children and adults. Hiyori Hayama is a high school singer who has nothing to do with Hyper Sports, but a certain incident sets the story in motion.

After one last tournament and an embarrassing loss in the final round, Michi decides to call it quits on the sport of judo. Between high school social activities and entrance exams, she’ll have no time to compete in the martial art she loves most, but putting aside old hobbies is a normal part of growing up. Still, the love of judo lingers—and it comes back full force when she meets her new classmate Towa, the girl who bested Michi in her final match! Towa wants to form a judo club at their school, but she’ll need new members to get it up and running. United by their love of judo, they’ll throw in their passions into the ring together and score ippon again!

Worried about her reputation, Hime covers shifts for a cafe manager she accidentally injures to maintain her picture-perfect princess image. But this cafe has a peculiar theme—private school. To put on her best barista schoolgirl act, she’ll be trained by the most graceful girl there, Mitsuki. Under her guidance, Hime’s feelings start to brew, but there’s just one problem—Mitsuki can’t stand her!

Tomboy Tomo couldn't have picked a more awkward high school crush 'cause it’s on her childhood friend, Junichiro, but he only sees her as one of the guys. Despite her pretty looks and signals, nothing gets through to this meathead! Will Junichiro ever realize Tomo's into him and see her for the cutesy girl she actually is?!

Yuuta Asamura gets a new stepsister after his father remarries, Saki Ayase, who happens to be the number one beauty of the school year. They promise each other not to be too close, not to be too opposing, and to simply keep a vague and comfortable distance, having learned important values about men and women relationships from their parents' previous ones. Saki, who has worked alone for the sake of her family, doesn't know how to properly rely on others, whereas Yuuta is unsure of how to truly treat her. Standing on fairly equal ground, these two gradually learn the comfort of living together. Their relationship progresses from strangers to friends as the days pass. This is a story that may one day lead to love.

Snowflakes aren’t the only things dropping in Hokkaido—so are jaws, thanks to the super adorable gals who are turning the icy north into a hotbed of fashion and fun. Brace yourself for a winter storm of laughs, love, and killer outfits as these gals prove that being cute is an all-season affair. Here, frostbite meets fashionista!

Umika is a sweet yet shy high school girl. She has trouble speaking to others and dreams of having a friend from another planet. But her lonely school life takes a cosmic turn when she meets transfer student Yu, an alien with telepathic powers! The two become close and promise to go to space one day. So, they decide to build a rocket and shoot for the stars, making new friends along the way.

Takuya and Rika are coworkers in a travel agency in Tokyo. They're both single, but they don't mind, since they're introverts with fulfilling lives at home. Unfortunately, now their job is looking to staff an office in Siberia, and non-married employees are the first to be considered. Rika is desperate to avoid the transfer and goes to Takuya with an idea: if they pretend they're getting married in a year, they can stay in Tokyo. The only problem is the two of them barely know each other! If these two quiet coworkers “fake” a relationship, will it turn into something real?

Star pitcher Haruka Kiyomine and skilled catcher Kei Kaname were an unstoppable duo—until Kei was hit with a curveball: amnesia. Now they have a second chance to play at a no-name high school with a team of past rivals. Can they overcome Kei’s memory loss and rekindle their baseball dreams? With hilarious hijinks and fierce competition, get ready for a strikeout.