Best movies like The Files of Young Kindaichi: Legend of the Shanghai Mermaid

A girl mysteriously receives advice from her future self and as a result her group of friends, along with a newly arrived, troubled classmate, learn how to be better friends and a better community.

The last of the Masutatsu Oyama trilogy. Oyama takes a job as a professional wrestler in Okinawa, but when he discovers that he is expected to take a dive, he quits in disgust. However, when a friend finds herself in desperate need of medical supplies, Oyama steps back in the ring to raise the money—but will he be able to follow the script this time?

Utsumi and Seto's daily routine is to spend their afterschool hours just jabbering with one another along a riverbed. Getting excited over trivial word play, agonizing over the content of an email to be sent to a girl, and, at times, talking about a serious problem, the two endlessly engage in meaningless idle talk as if it were meaningful.

Rin, Yuu, Koyomi and Keita are friends in high school who live in the same apartment building. Rin and Yuu like each other, but they don’t tell each other, until Kazuma shows up.

Mouri Kogoro is called to a special case in the ancient capital of Kyoto. There, Conan meets Heiji and they team up once again to solve the case, recover the stolen Healing Buddha statue, and even discover the identity of Heiji's first love.

Bombing case at Nichiuri TV in autumn. The Satsuki Cup, which crowns the winner of Japan's Hyakunin Isshu, is currently being filmed inside the facility. The incident results in a big commotion and, while the building is burning to ashes, the only people left inside are Hattori and Toyama Kazuha. They get rescued just in time by Conan , who rushes to the scene. Both the identity and purposes of the bomber are unknown.

Yuna has a crush on Haru. She sees him on the train every morning when she goes to school. She doesn't know anything about him and he goes to a different school from her. One morning, she wakes up and finds Haru sleeping right next to her.

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.

It is 1980. Sadatomo is at a secondary school in a small town. His parents barely take any notice of him. The strict teacher Kobayashi has hung up a 'humanity index' in the classroom, divided into the categories 'delinquents', 'scum' and 'people'. In each category he has hung name-cards of pupils. One day Kobayashi finds out that Sadatomo and his friends have stolen some things from a shop for fun. Their fathers are informed and as punishment, the children have to write a 'self-critical' essay of no less than thirty pages. For the first time, Sadatomo is beaten by his father. Shocked, he writes a piece entitled 'I am an onion', in which the teacher thinks he can detect a first sign of humanity. That is the start of a confusing situation in which it gets hard to distinguish lies, truth, justified self-criticism and opportunist wheeler dealing, even for the boys.

A fear-obsessed freelance cameraman investigates an urban legend involving mysterious spirits that haunt the subways of Tokyo.

People from Saitama Prefecture are persecuted and, because of this, they hide the fact that they are from there. In Tokyo, Momomi Hakuhodo is a male high school student and the son of the Tokyo governor. Physically, Momomi Hakuhodo looks like a girl. One day, he meets mysterious male transfer student Rei Asami. They are attracted to each other, but Rei Asami is from Saitama Prefecture.

Min, a Korean boy, moves to Japan with his father who is a potter. One day at a local shrine, he meets Nanae, a beautiful Japanese girl with stunning eyes who is aspiring to be a painter. Min falls in love at first sight and finds out that Nanae attends the school to which he has just transferred. Their friendship develops fast despite their cultural and language difference. When Min's grandmother falls ill, Min returns to Korea and Nanae is nowhere to be found. Had his true feelings for Nanae not been apparent to her? Why has Nanae disappeared without a word?

Jun is a girl whose words have been sealed away so that she cannot hurt anyone with them. But, one day, she is nominated to become an executive member of the "community outreach council." On top of that, Jun is also appointed to play the main lead in their musical...

Hikaru Tsutsui is a high school student. He enjoys animation and video games in the virtual world, but he doesn't enjoy his real life. People at his school don't even know he exists. One day, he cleans up the pool at his school with beautiful Iroha Ikarashi. Iroha approaches Hikaru and confesses that she likes him.

A salaryman debates selling his grandfather's land to pay off his father's debt.

Aoi Nishimori's parents moved to another city for work, but Aoi didn't want to transfer to a new high school. She stays behind and lives in an apartment by herself. Shūsei Kugayama moves in next to Aoi's apartment. Shūsei is a very popular student at their high school. Due to a mistake, Aoi makes the sprinkler go off in his room. Until Shūsei's room is fixed, he stays with Aoi.

High school senior Saimon is headed for college, and his buddy Tada Takashi will take over his family's factory. Takashi is fed up with being surrounded by guys and heads off with Saimon on a journey to find the love of his life. Takashi goes all out with guitar in hand, whereas Saimon harbors feelings that he can't express. They each have their own motivations for a trip that heads toward an unexpected conclusion.

The movie Tokyo Shutter Girl, based on the comic series by Kenichi Kiriki, consists of three separate works by three separate directors, each set in Tokyo. It is about three Japanese schoolgirls in a photo club.

Kae is a fat high school girl who is a 'fujoshi', which is girls who enjoy reading homosexual romance novels. She is dismayed when her favourite character is killed off. She is unwell and refuses to eat. She loses weight. As a side-effect she is thin and suddenly popular at school. Boys begin to pursue her. She has a choice of suitors and can pick a boy of her liking. They are all pretty.

Remake of a hit film from 1990, "The Cherry Orchard" which Nakahara himself directed, based on a popular comic book from Akimi Yoshida. The story takes place at a prestigious girls high school where everyone is oppressed with rules. One girl who just transferred to this school finds a long lost script of Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" which was banned from school 11 years ago. Breaking strict school rules and boundaries, she and her friends decide to perform the play. With sentiment, love and passion, the girls cherish the moment of their life before taking the next step towards adulthood.

Story takes place 2 years after "Chihayafuru Part 2" and Chihaya is now a high school senior.

Problem student Haru Yoshida sits next to the cold and studious Shizuku Mizutani in class. Without any other friends to turn to, both of them start to get to know each other and grow closer. Haru eventually develop feelings for Shizuku and confesses his feelings to her. Will Haru and Shizuku get their happily ever after?

Hatori Matsuzaki is a female high school student. She has a crush on her childhood friend Rita Terasaka and believes he will eventually choose her as her heroine, but Rita Terasaka begins dating Miho Adachi. Meanwhile, the most popular male student, Kosuke Hiromitsu takes an interest in Hatori Matsuzaki.

A stern young girl who yearns for romance, finds herself involved with a celebrity whose image reveals a hidden persona.

Obayashi's take on the famous Kosuke Kindaichi series, made popular partly thanks to the numerous movie-adaptions by Kon Ichikawa, the most known being The Inugami Family. Kosuke Kindaichi is the most famous detective in Japan. Kindaichi gets a new case to figure out who has beheaded a valuable statue and made off with its head.

Toji Seryo is a popular first year high school student. It's well known that Toji Seryo will date anyone that confesses their affection for him on a Monday, but he will break up with that person by Sunday. Yuzuru Shino is a third year student at the same high school. He looks pretty, but all of his former girlfriends end up dumping him. Yuzuru Shino becomes curious about Toji Seryo. On a whim, half serious & half joking, Yuzuru Shino asks Toji Seryo to date. The film is based on a comic. Part 1 follows Monday to Thursday. Part 2 follows Friday to Sunday.

Under the influence of his delinquent friend, a former model student eschews schoolwork and joins a gang of school kids who do nothing but fight.

Kudo Shinichi and Mori Ran are invited to the set of a jidaigeki in Kyoto. On their airplane ride to Kyoto, a murder mystery arises. As well, when they finally reach the set in Kyoto, they become involved in another murder mystery. Will Kudo Shinichi be able to solve the mystery?…

Via the New York Times: "The solemn, intent faces of the Japanese schoolboys playing video games in Jun Ichikawa's "No Life King" bespeak a new type of modern horror. Addicted to their favorite new game (from which the film takes its title), these children have become seriously estranged from the real world. The film's constant emphasis is on the ways in which this has been allowed to happen, and on how emblematic it is of larger attitudes in a technological society. When a young boy trying to converse with his mother must compete with a home computer for her attention, it's not hard to see why the boy has retreated into his own computer-dominated world."

Hajime finds it difficult to graduate to the next grade at school. His friend Miyuki tells Hajime to study at a private school which is famous for its strictness. At that school, Hajime uncovers a death caused by non-natural reasons. He's challenged by a genius crime producer. ~~ Based on the manga series "Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo Gokumon Juku Satsujin Jiken" by Seimaru Amagi and Fumiya Sato.

Invited for a anniversary celebration, Kindaichi, Miyuki and inspector Kenmochi re-visit the Opera House. There they discover that a play of The Phantom of the Opera is being rehearsed again. However, it doesn't take long when members of the acting troupe are killed by the Phantom. Kindaichi will once again have to solve a murder series in the Opera House.

Miyuki receives an invitation from her friend Hikune Youhei to the themed inn called "Ruins", located in a virtual ghost town haunted by the legend of a vampire. However, what Kindaichi had originally dismissed as spooky rumours with no basis became horribly real when their fellow guests staying at the inn are found dead one by one, with their bodies drained of blood and wounds in their necks that resembled vampire bites

Ryujo Hoshiko (Goriki Ayame) comes to detective Kindaichi Kosuke’s (Yamashita Tomohisa) office with a request. She would like him to investigate an attempt to poison her father, Baron Ryujo Kiyohisa (Tsukayama Masane).

A ghost man with his face hidden entirely by bandages is killing beautiful nude models. Detective Kindaichi investigates.

Katherine Turner initially accompanied her father, Vice President of the United States, on his official trip to Japan but decided to stay longer to study the Japanese art of flower arrangement for her business back in the States. Yukio Hamaguchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and also a very good friend of Katherine’s father, assigns his nephew Ichiro to escort Katherine during her stay. Ichiro is halfhearted at first but when Katherine’s old friend Maiko becomes the victim of a murder case, Katherine and Ichiro start to reveal their talent as brilliant detectives by untangling clues and solving the case together.