Best movies & TV Shows like Saru Lock

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Saru Lock Starring Hayato Ichihara, Sei Ashina, Gota Watabe, Sousuke Takaoka, and more. If you liked Saru Lock then you may also like: Napping Princess, Stop the Bitch Campaign: Hell Version, Tokyo University Story, Kanazawa Shutter Girl, Asakusa Kid and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

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Yataro Sarumaru, nicknamed "Saru" is an average high school boy who daydreams about idols but otherwise has no luck with girls. While working with his father, a locksmith in Asakusa, Tokyo, he has gained exceptional skills to pick just about any lock. Using his exceptional skills, Yataro then finds himself solving various mysterious cases, while also trying his luck with the girls.

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Napping Princess

Japan, 2020, a few days before the opening of the Tokyo Olympics. Although she should be studying for her final exams, Kokone, a schoolgirl who lives in a small town with her widowed father, a mysterious and talented mechanic, falls asleep often, anywhere, anytime, entering, over and over, a dream-world where a squad of fantastic motorized contraptions fights against magic, a world close to reality where she will find out the keys of her true past.

Stop the Bitch Campaign: Hell Version

In Tokyo, prostitution in the name of "Enjo Kosai" is in fashion among some high school girls. A mysterious man Kuni lament such girls but cannot deny a strong desire for them. He punish the girls by having sex with them without paying them. He calls this operation "Stop the Bitch Campaign" for public justice. Working in a sex trade shop where abnormal people are satisfied with their lust. Aoi tries to find out the man who raped her desperately in the past. One day, Aoi meets Kuni.

Tokyo University Story

Murakami Naoki is the most intelligent student at his high school, but he can't stop obsessing over a girl named Mizuno Haruka. He finally asks her out, and to his surprise, she accepts. After several months of a loving yet obviously doomed romance, it comes time for them to take the entrance exams for Tokyo University. What will happen to their relationship if only one of them is accepted?

Kanazawa Shutter Girl

The girls are good friends at junior high school. Three of them seem to adjust and move forward upon entering high school, but the fourth of them is not having a seamless time of it. High school is not comfortable and the transition is full of memories, nostalgia and yearning. This is the story of a sixteen-year-old girl and also a camera. Kanazawa Shutter Girl picks up inspiration from the manga, and the subsequent movie, called Tokyo Shutter Girl and is helmed by one of its predecessor's's directors.

Asakusa Kid

Before he hit it big, Takeshi Kitano got his start apprenticing with comedy legend Fukami of Asakusa. But as his star rises, his mentor's declines.

Hibiki

A high school girl with overwhelming literary talent shakes up the lives of those around her with her brilliant spontaneity.

Tokyo Idols

This exploration of Japan's fascination with girl bands and their music follows an aspiring pop singer and her fans, delving into the cultural obsession with young female sexuality and the growing disconnect between men and women in hypermodern societies.

Chichi to Musuko no Chika Idol

A high school teacher, struggling to keep up with today's youth and estranged from his only son, receives the news about a terrible accident that left his son in a coma. Wanting to know more about his son's life, he finds out that he's been working as a producer for a new underground idol group who are now left without a guiding hand.

The Locksmith

A thief fresh out of prison, tries to work his way back into the life of his daughter and ex-fiancé. Determined, he is forced to use the skills he has as a gifted locksmith. Things take a tumultuous turn after an unexpected disappearance.

Blue Giant

Dai Miyamoto's life is turned upside down the day he discovers jazz. A former high school basketball player, Dai picks up a saxophone and begins practicing day and night, determined to become one of the greatest of all time. He leaves his sleepy hometown for the bustling nightclubs of Tokyo, but soon finds the life of a professional musician is not for the faint of heart. His passion eventually wins over the cocky but talented pianist Yukinori, and after Dai convinces his friend Shunji to learn the drums, they launch a new jazz trio whose rough sound contains a raw energy that quickly wins attention from local audiences. But what does it take to truly be great?

Honey Flappers

A female university graduate is searching for a job in Tokyo, but her lack of interviewing skills is failing her. A friend introduces her to a cabaret club in Roppongi, Tokyo called Club Honey. She undergoes a work trial there. There are many women working there and many have personal problems and challenges. The girl begins working there and finds out the job is not exactly as she had first imagined. She then receives a letter from a company at which she had interviewed.

Angela's Eyes

FBI agent Angela Clinton has the exceptional gift of knowing when someone is lying. She discovered this skill at age 14, when she learned her "average" American parents were actually spies. Attempting to right her parents' wrong, Angela is now working with the same agency that brought her parents down.

Case Closed

The son of a world famous mystery writer, Jimmy Kudo, has achieved his own notoriety by assisting the local police as a student detective. He has always been able to solve the most difficult of criminal cases using his wits and power of reason.

Sailor Suit and Machine Gun

High school student Hoshi Izumi loses her father suddenly in an accident. One day, Sakuma, the waka gashira of a small and weak Yakuza gang in Asakusa - the Medaka Gumi - pays Izumi a visit along with the gang members. The death of their former kumicho (Boss) puts Medaka Gumi on the verge of a breakup. Therefore, Sakuma begs Izumi, the former boss's only distant relative left, to succeed to the kumicho position. Izumi is taken by surprise and keeps refusing at first. However, she ends up becoming the 8th kumicho of the Medaka Gumi! The police tell her that her father's death may possibly be a homicide case. There's also Mayumi, a mysterious woman staring closely at Izumi's father's photograph at his funeral. The situation becomes complicated when the drug-dealing vicious yakuza, Hamaguchi Gumi, comes into the picture as well as Sandaiji Hajime, a politician whose public stance is to eliminate drugs.

Lemon Angel Project

Lemon Angel was once the greatest girl band of Japan, but then it broke up and most of its members vanished. When a music producer decides to put together a new Lemon Angel, average high schooler Tomo Minaguchi is approached to audition for the group. Little does she know of the mystery behind the original Lemon Angel...

Tokyo Mew Mew

On her first date with the cutest boy in school, Ichigo is zapped by a mysterious ray that scrambles her DNA with that of the endangered Iriomote wildcat. The next day, Ichigo discovers that she has developed the agility (and occasionally the ears and tail) of a cat, as well as the power to transform into a pink-haired superheroine, Mew Ichigo. She and four other girls, each endowed with the genes of a different "Red Data" animal, have been selected for the top-secret Mew Project, which aims to protect the Earth from an alien menace known as Deep Blue.

Teppan Girl

Kagura Akane is the only daughter of a family who runs a teppanyaki place in downtown Tokyo. Akane had always been proud of her father Tetsuma, who was called the "No.1 teppanyaki chef in Japan." Growing up in such an environment, she naturally acquired "teppanyaki skills." However, when her mother died of illness, her father lost his energy to work and disappeared. Since then, Akane has managed and protected the restaurant all by herself. One day, out of the blue, she is visited by Erena, the rich daughter of a major food company, who orders Akane to move out at once because her father had borrowed money against his restaurant. Though feeling disappointed, Akane makes up her mind to close the store. But when her father's friend, Kurogane, shows her "Ittetsu," a grilling plate that Akane's father cherished, it reignites her passion towards teppanyaki.

Assemble Insert

A criminal group known as Demon Seed terrorizes Tokyo with its vast armies of mecha. The local police is afraid to confront them, but one person stands in their way: Maron Namikaze, a 13-year-old idol singer with a catchy voice and unbelievable superhuman strength.

Kamisama Kiss

Nanami was just a normal high school girl down on her luck until a stranger’s lips marked her as the new Land God and turned her world upside down. Now, she’s figuring out the duties of a deity with the help of Tomoe, a reformed fox demon who reluctantly becomes her familiar in a contract sealed with a kiss. The new responsibilities—and boys—are a lot to handle, like the crow demon masquerading as a gorgeous pop idol and the adorable snake spirit who’s chosen the newly minted god to be his bride. As the headstrong Tomoe tries to whip her into shape, Nanami finds that love just might have cute, pointed fox ears. With romance in the air, will the human deity be able to prove herself worthy of her new title?

Love Live! School Idol Project

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!'

Amachan

Amachan is the 88th 2013 NHK asadora written by Kankuro Kudo (Tiger and Dragon, Unobore Deka). It's about Amano Aki (Nounen Rena), a 16 year old girl from Tokyo who goes to her mother's former home in Sodegahama, a fishing village in Kitasanriku, Iwate prefecture for the summer break. She falls in love with the sea and its people, and decides to stay on to become an Ama (women divers who fetch clams and sea urchins for tourists) just like her grandmother, Natsu (Miyamoto Nobuko). Her decision is welcomed wholeheartedly by Natsu and the other locals. However, her mother Haruko (Koizumi Kyoko) does not like the idea at first. She has a strained relationship with Natsu, and her extreme dislike of the sea, diving and the countryside is one of the reasons why she left her hometown 24 years ago. Eventually, she decides to stay in Sodegahama with Aki, considering that she is contemplating on getting a divorce anyway and does not want to go back to her husband in Tokyo. She also notices that it might be good for Aki for she seems livelier and happier in Kitasanriku than in Tokyo. The road towards becoming a full-fledged Ama-san is tough for Aki as she encounters tests and hurdles. One day, a video of her as an Ama gets uploaded in the city's tourism website, transforming an ordinary high school girl into an overnight Internet sensation. Suddenly she is called upon to use this opportunity to attract tourists to a city suffering from depopulation.

Strange Love

Yoshida Chizuru is the sexiest co-ed in her class. Secretly, she's been appearing in TV commercials - despite the fact that students are forbidden from working. But one of her professors has uncovered her secret and hopes to use this information to his advantage. Yoshida's got plans of her own and has no intention of giving up her acting career...

Chousoku Spinner

Shunichi Domoto is a talented sportive 5th-grade boy who is used to helping sports teams in his school. He enters a Yoyo duel against a bully boy called Benkei to help his friend, Beso, to get back his Yoyo which was stolen by the bully. He beat him up, but after that, he meets the exceptionally gifted Yoyoer, Seito Hojoin who beat him up because he ridiculed the Yoyo game. So, Shunichi enters Japan`s Yoyo championship to get his revenge from Seito. Throughout This Championship, He earns new Yoyoing Skills and meets powerful rivals.

Fuuka

Yuu Haruna, a loner and an avid Twitter user, has just transferred to a new school in Tokyo. He ends up befriending a unique high school girl named Fuuka Akitsuki, despite some initial conflict, and the two wind up forming a band together with their classmates. Their relationship becomes strained however when Koyuki Hinashi, Yuu's childhood friend who has become a popular idol, contacts Yuu on Twitter and attempts to rekindle long lost feelings.

Magical Girl Ore

"Love makes a girl stronger." Saki Uno is working hard as part of the new idol unit, Magical Twin. The one she admires most is Mohiro Mikage, who’s the older brother of her idol unit partner Sakuyo, and he’s also a member of the top idol unit STAR☆PRINCE. She would be willing to do anything for him, and one day, those feelings brought on a miracle. Saki ended up turning into a magical girl when she strongly wished to protect someone... But what she turned into wasn’t exactly what she was expecting...

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

It is the Taisho Period in Japan. Tanjiro, a kindhearted boy who sells charcoal for a living, finds his family slaughtered by a demon. To make matters worse, his younger sister Nezuko, the sole survivor, has been transformed into a demon herself. Though devastated by this grim reality, Tanjiro resolves to become a “demon slayer” so that he can turn his sister back into a human, and kill the demon that massacred his family.

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

First-year high schooler Midori Asakusa loves anime so much, she insists that "concept is everything" in animation. While she spends her time doodling endless ideas and settings in her sketchbook, she hasn't taken the first step to creating anime, insisting that she can't do it alone. After Asakusa's money-loving best friend Sayaka Kanamori notices her genius and drive – and when it becomes clear that their classmate and charismatic fashion model Tsubame Mizusaki wants to be an animator – the energetic trio start an animation club. Together, the three aim to realize the "ultimate world" that exists in their minds, as they come to see the power that fiction and imagination have on their lives and the world around them.

Alice in Borderland

With his two friends, a video-game-obsessed young man finds himself in a strange version of Tokyo where they must compete in dangerous games to win.

Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club

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.

Tokyo Mew Mew New

The scientists of the μ(Mew) Project use DNA of endangered species to create a team of heroines imbued with amazing abilities. Armed with the skills of an Iriomote cat, Ichigo must band together with other Mew Mew girls to repel an alien incursion.

Love Live! Superstar!!

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!

The aquatope on white sand

Kukuru Misakino, an 18-year-old high school girl working in an aquarium, meets Fuuka Miyazawa, a former idol who lost her place in Tokyo and escaped. Fuuka will spend her days in the aquarium with her own thoughts in mind. However, the crisis of closing is approaching for the aquarium, as the girls explore their dreams and reality, loneliness and friends, bonds and conflicts.

Heroines Run the Show

What would you do to pursue your passion? For Hiyori Suzumi, it’s leaving her simple rural hometown for the bustling city of Tokyo to join Sakuragaoka High School’s track team. Between being a manager-in-training for two cutthroat schoolboy idols, track, and friends, Hiyori shows no signs of slowing down.

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