Best movies & TV Shows like Slow Start

In His and Her Circumstances, like a drug, Yukino Miyazawa was addicted to admiration and praise from those around her. She worked hard to become the perfect student, the perfect girl. But that was before… him. Souichirou Arima. The instant she met him, she hated him. Without even trying, he snatched the very glory from her hands by easily acing the high school entrance exam that should have made her the class representative. To take back what is rightfully hers, Yukino is putting all her efforts into plotting her revenge – but was love part of the plan?

For years, Yuno has dreamed of attending Yamabuki Arts High School, but now that she's been accepted, it means the scary prospect of moving away from her home and family for the first time! Fortunately, Yuno quickly learns that if her new neighbors at the eclectic Hidamari (Sunshine) Apartments aren't technically family, at least the majority share the bond of being fellow art students. From second year students like Hiro and Sae, who try to behave like helpful older sisters (mostly successfully) to her hyperactive new neighbor, classmate and best friend Miyako (who has the scariest apartment ever) Yuno begins to build the support network she'll need for dealing with strange characters like her oddly masculine landlady, her cosplay obsessed home room teacher, her tooth-chattering principal and all of the other odd denizens who inhabit her chosen world of art.

Set in a family restaurant in Hokkaido, the northern prefecture of Japan, 16-year-old high school student Sōta Takanashi works part-time along with his strange co-workers: Popura Taneshima, a high school girl who—despite being a year older than Sōta—is easily mistaken for a elementary/middle schooler, and Kyoko Shirafuji, the 28-year-old store manager who does not bother to do any work at all.

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.

Kill Me Baby is the touching story of Yasuna, a normal (?) high school girl, and Sonya, her best friend who happens to be an assassin. Unfortunately, little Sonya's trained assassin instincts often work against her and others in her daily high school life, as Yasuna's often-broken wrist can attest to. She just wanted a hug, but she ended up with a broken neck. Isn't it sad? No, it's hilarious.

Sakamichi Onoda is a wimpy high school freshman who loves anime. He initially wants to enter the anime club, but winds up joining the cycling club after meeting two classmates who are already famous cyclists. He undertakes the grueling training to compete in races, and discovers his own hidden talent in cycling.

Shunsuke Aoba has just transferred to a new school and can’t wait to attend. Excitedly, he sprints to the school but, upon arrival, finds that no one is there. Unfortunately, Shunsuke didn’t know that his first day was a holiday, of all things. However, it seems that he is not the only one on campus. As he is about to eat his lunch, he meets a student named Natsumi. Shunsuke gives her some of his food, and the two strike up a conversation. Natsumi was born as a so-called SL girl, a particularly tall girl. She herself accepts her specialness but is rejected by many of her classmates. How will Shunsuke react to this? Will their initial friendship continue?

Asahi Kuromine is a high school student who supposedly cannot keep a secret. One day he spots his crush Yoko Shiragami, unfurling a large pair of wings from her back. She explains to him that she is a vampire and is only able to attend a normal school on the condition that no one discover her true identity. Asahi swears to keep her secret but finds it hard to maintain seeing as how Yoko herself is an airhead and Asahi's friend Mikan keeps bullying the two of them.

Haruta and Chika are members of their high school wind instrument club that is on the verge of being shut down. The two are childhood friends, and they spend their days practicing hard while also trying to recruit new members. When a certain incident happens within their school, they work together to solve it.

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

Futaba Odagiri is incredibly energetic but is also a glutton. Teru Hayama looks like an angel but she is really a demonic class president. Yoko Nishikawa is the daughter of family that used to be a member of the upper class, but after her father's company went bankrupt, they became poor. All three high school girls have the kanji for "leaf" in their name but could not be any different from one another.

Tanaka-kun is always in a state of blissful lethargy, with a desire to be as listless as possible. Now, if only his responsible classmate, Ohta, would leave him alone to laze in peace!

First-year high school student Tamaki Honda and her SNS club as they work together to create a self-published game. With Tamaki as the project’s illustrator, she works alongside the club’s other (rather peculiar) members, including Shiina (the club president and game programmer), Ayame (the scenario writer), Kayo (their music composer), and Yumine (the club’s boys’ love expert).

Set six years prior to the events of Barakamon, detailing the life of Seishuu Handa as a high school student—and a very interesting life it is. In Handa-kun, Seishuu Handa is admired by his peers as a calligraphy genius and given the utmost respect, but Handa-kun himself is under the mistaken impression that the deference and attention he receives from the other students is actually bullying. Handa just wants to live a quiet life, but hilarity ensues as one character after another challenges his position as the school idol, and somehow comes away as a fan all while Handa is horrified and clueless.

When Narumi, an office lady who hides the fact that she is a yaoi fangirl, changes jobs, she is reunited with Hirotaka, her childhood friend who is attractive and skilled but is a hardcore gaming otaku. They decide to start dating for now, but being otaku, both of them are awkward so a serious romantic relationship is rather difficult for them...

Considered a genius due to having the highest grades in the country, Miyuki Shirogane leads the prestigious Shuchiin Academy's student council as its president, working alongside the beautiful and wealthy vice president Kaguya Shinomiya. The two are often regarded as the perfect couple by students despite them not being in any sort of romantic relationship.

Nariyuki Yuiga is in his last and most painful year of high school. In order to gain the “special VIP recommendation” which would grant him a full scholarship to college, he must now tutor his classmates as they struggle to prepare for entrance exams. Among his pupils are “the sleeping beauty of the literary forest,” Fumino Furuhashi, and “the Thumbelina supercomputer,” Rizu Ogata–two of the most beautiful super-geniuses at the school! While these two were thought to be academically flawless, it turns out that they’re completely clueless outside of their pet subjects…!? As Nariyuki’s life is turned upside down by these quirky girls who just never learn, he must do everything he can to get them accepted into college! The stage is set for this romantic comedy featuring prodigies who never learn when it comes to studying and love!

At first glance Yukishiro Nanako seems like a normal high school girl, but she has a notable eccentricity: instead of speaking, she communicates only through written senryu poetry! This means she expresses herself only in 5-7-5 syllables. To most this might seem like an inconvenience, but for Nanako and her ex-delinquent bestie, Busujima Eiji, it adds to the experience of their high school lives as they run the Literature Club.

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.

Shuichi Kagaya is an ordinary high school kid in a boring little town. But when a beautiful classmate is caught in a warehouse fire, he discovers a mysterious power: he can transform into a furry dog with an oversized revolver and a zipper down his back. He saves the girl’s life, sharing his secret with her. But she’s searching for the sister who killed her family, and she doesn’t care how degrading it gets: she will use Shuichi to accomplish her mission…

On his way home from drinking his sorrows away after being rejected by his crush, 26 year old salaryman Yoshida finds a high school girl named Sayu sitting on the side of the road and ends up letting her stay at his place overnight. Not having the heart to put the runaway out on the streets, Yoshida allows her to stay at his place... And so began the awkward, irritable, and slightly heartwarming relationship between a runaway high school girl and a salaryman living together.

Koguma is a high school girl in Yamanashi. She has no parents, friends, or hobbies, and her daily life is empty. One day, Koguma gets a used Honda Super Cub motorcycle. This is her first time going to school on a motorcycle. Running out of gas and hitting detours become a small source of adventure in Koguma's life. She is satisfied with this strange transformation, but her classmate Reiko ends up talking to her about how she also goes to school by motorcycle. One Super Cub begins to open up a lonely girl's world, introducing her to a new everyday life and friendship.

Building furniture and friendships have a lot in common. Intention, effort, and hard work are needed for both crafts. This is a story of girls in a DIY club building both as they carve out their futures. None of it comes easy, but that doesn’t stop any of ’em. Furniture, friendships, and the future—they’re building it all with their own hands!

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.

Ganta Nakami is a high school student who suffers from insomnia. He meets Isaki Magari, a girl with the same condition. A relationship forms as they share a secret and catch up on their sleep in their school’s abandoned observatory.

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!

First year high schooler Junta Shiraishi is a mob character who goes unnoticed even when he's standing right next to you. But his classmate, "heroine-level beauty" Kubo, always notices him and is there to tease him. Anyone can become special to someone, but it might be a little too early to call these feelings "love." Perhaps this story is still two-steps from being a romantic comedy--let's call it a sweet comedy where a background character becomes visible!

The story centers on third-year high school student Jiro Yakuin, who gets saddled with his gyaru classmate Akari Watanabe for the class's "marriage training" project about practicing to be a married couple. Jiro is the complete opposite of Akari, but the two know that if they do well they will be able to switch partners to end up with their respective crushes, and so they force themselves to act like the perfect married couple.

The story follows the protagonist who wakes up one day transformed as Pochita, a pet dog of his cool and beautiful classmate Karen Inukai.

With her gloomy demeanor, Sawako has a hard time fitting in. But when an outgoing classmate approaches her, life takes a turn for the better.

“I want to be an ordinary person! Someone who's normal! I've already told you I don't have my power anymore!” Blade is a carefree transfer student whose only goal is to make friends with his classmates at Rosewood Academy, a school for heroes-in-training. On the surface, Blade seems like an ordinary boy, but he is hiding a miserable secret with seeds that start long ago, with the defeat of the Demon King at the hands of the Great Hero. Join this new class of friends as they unravel the mystery surrounding Blade, and journey toward becoming full-fledged Heroes!

Komura starts his school year with a new seat neighbor in homeroom—the bespectacled Mie. Before long, he's nursing a raging crush on his quirky classmate who's always forgetting her glasses! While this might be ideal for Komura to get to know Mie better, will his poor heart give out from the daily strain of being up close and personal with the girl he likes?!

After a long day, high schooler Shintaro Tokumitsu's plans for relaxing in his studio apartment take a turn when he discovers an angel on his balcony. The divine girl, Towa, reveals she's there to study humanity, and yet, despite his skepticism, he agrees to put her up. Prepare for the most heavenly and high jinks roommate experience of all time!

This is the story of a maid who is all alone in the world, but who finally finds a family. Told from young that her only worth is as a killer, Yuki had known nothing else except cold efficiency and following orders. Now that she has a chance to leave her past behind, she arrives at the doorstep of Hitoyoshi Yokoya, asking to be employed… as a maid?! Thus begins the journey of a former assassin learning what it means to be ‘normal’!