the canonical version of this post now lives on tumblr

here is my attempt to create a complete record of comics, shows, and movies about girls that are in a band. i have seen or read all of these. i have also added editorialization with my opinions of them. each section is vaguely in a "most-to-least liked" order, but i tried not to think about it too hard.

my criteria is vague and ephemeral. but generally it is along the lines of: there is at least one girl, and preferably at least two, performing with a physical instrument of any kind with a group of people. see also: The Formula

please recommend me anything ive missed! i will always watch/read more

tv

we are lady parts: the only non anime entry in this section of the list, surprisingly! but a pinnacle of the form. i LOVE this show, it's incredible. and only twelve ~20 minute episodes total! the canonical girls in a band television show. it's funny, it's heartfelt, it's got hella band content. it's about a UK muslin girlpunk band trying to recruit an insanely anxious guitar player into their band while navigating family and relationships, like you do. this is one of my favorite early scenes in case you want more convincing: https://youtu.be/tzAGqmdOBzE

sound euphonium: this time, its a wind ensemble! the sports anime of girls in a band. incredible yuri. the first season is about Competition (guys we gotta rehearse real good and try and get past the prefectural competition!). and then the second season is about Trauma (band-wise, family-wise, relationship-wise, and more!). an adaptation of a bunch of light novels that are unfortunately mostly not translated into english (or not translated very well)

girls band cry: a truly fantastic show. as you can tell from the name, it knows exactly what its about. girl moves to tokyo to escape her family and then gets swept off her feet by an ex-member of a band she likes. this one is mostly about girls being pieces of shit. basically all of the characters are kinda a dick in a fun way, and it makes for great storytelling. going in, the main girl is sorta setting up to be a cute and demure, but it turns out she's a huge asshole to everyone around her. the band (togenashi togeari) is also a real life band that is performed by the voice actresses, and has great music and a 10-song album already! their music is very good. also the show is cg animation but it REALLY goes wild with it and makes the characters super expressive. literally no caveats on the style here like you normally get with cg, it's fantastic animation

bocchi the rock (adaptation of the comic): you've probably heard about this one. girl so anxious her animation is constantly melting gets roped into joining a band. takes the sorta ok 4koma and goes crazy with the adaptation, making use of animation to elevate the sorta basic 4koma gags into full-ass comedy scenes. awesome performances and music.

scott pilgrim takes off: reimagining of the scott pilgrim comic. even more great band content. it's good

k-on (adaptation): pure fluff girls in a band. very cute. kinda like spooning sugar directly into your mouth. it's fun. i wouldn't call it "plotless" but it's basically just about having fun with your friends in a band. oh my god as im writing this i just remembered this is an adaptation of a 4koma that i havent read yet, so i need to do that i have done this now

bang dream its mygo: yep, it's a bang dream! i havent played the gatcha games, but this is a perfectly good standalone show. sticks to the girls in a band formula. stop me if you've heard this one before: a girl wants to form a band, and tries to rope an anxious girl into joining. the cg animation is pretty good in my opinion, but it's still definitely that kind of thing where you might have to get over it

jellyfish can't swim in the night: this more or less slides into this list on technicalities (they have a guitar player and a pianist! and...a producer! and also an artist. they also do perform on a stage. thats a band, right? probably). an artist, who became disillusioned with drawing when her middle school friends mocked a drawing she was proud of, is swept off her feet by an ex-idol (sound familiar?) that's in love with that art piece she is now ashamed of. they form essentially an online artist collective, producing music and music videos with artist girl's art and ex-idol girl's singing. it's about being a Creator online and dealing with all that entails (online identities, shitty randos). the characters all have some Trauma from their respective middle school experiences, and they are working through it. the show started out very strong, but fell apart in the second half and now that it's finished i dont really recommend watching it. very unfortunate

carole and tuesday: directed by the cowboy bebop guy! very up and down. two girls living on Future Mars playing guitar and keyboard form a duo together. the first half was pretty good! it's about them forming their group and gradually getting more famous. the second half is horrible and has insane stupid liberal politics. (what if trump wasn't actually a bad guy he was just being blackmailed by an evil ai or some shit like that. ive pushed it out of my mind. just watch the first half if you want to see it)

whisper me a love song (adaptation): this sure is an adaptation of the manga! i think the manga is only ok and this adaptation is pretty cheap and brings nothing new to the table. also still airing at the time of writing

bang dream: yep, it's a bang dream! this is the only anime on this list i actively made the decision to stop watching because i hated it so much. i finished season 1, but then season 2 had awful cg and made it clear that i was missing things from not having played the gatcha. don't bother with this and watch mygo instead if you want an actual television show

movies

linda linda linda: my favorite movie and one of my favorite things ever. after a girl band lost two members before their big school festival performance, they ask the first girl they see to join their band as a vocalist, who happens to be a korean exchange student who doesn't speak much japanese. teenage shenanigans ensue as they scramble to figure out their new performance in just a few days. the story is portrayed in a kinda dreamy, meandering way, and is very much about high school girls being high school girls. they know they need to do something important but they keep getting distracted by other things in their lives

liz and the blue bird: my second favorite movie and also one of my favorite things ever. a spinoff of sound euphonium, set after the events of the first two seasons of the show, but very much a standalone thing that can be watched in isolation. two girls (a flutist and an oboist) are playing a duet in this year's show, but a fallout in their relationship in the years prior is still interfering with their performance. they need to resolve their differences and their love and their futures in order to ensure the success of the entire ensemble in the competition. everything about it is gorgeous. i don't know what else to say. a movie where just watching a performance can make you cry

swing girls: movie about teenage chaos. a brass band is going to perform in a baseball game. but then basically everyone gets sick. so they need to try and put together a new band! i gotta rewatch this one it's been a while my memory is hazy

sound euphonium our promise a brand new day (sequel): and now the direct sequel to season 2 of the anime! this is definitely not a standalone thing. remember liz and the blue bird? this takes place during that same year! you get to see the full performance of that piece! but this time it's about the girls from the show and in the show's art style

the runaways: kristen stewart plays joan jett in this one and she's so hot that it basically has ruined my ability to have any coherent thoughts about the movie. if that sounds like a pitch to you then you should watch it

k-on (sequel): sequel to the anime! the girls take a trip to london. not really a standalone thing but i guess you could watch it on its own if you really wanted to. just a great compression of the fun of the show into movie form. girls having a good time

scott pilgrim vs the world (adaptation): you already know this one. i like the story of the comic more but the character performances are great

josie and the pussycats: goofy in that disney channel movie kinda way. the government is secretly trying to use subliminal messaging in music to mind control people into buying things. and the girls' band is brought into this evil world. and only they can stop it....

we are the best: swedish film about some 13 year old girls trying to form a punk band even though they don't actually know how to play any instruments. it's fine! definitely girls in a band but it didn't do much for me

jem and the holograms: i really wanted to find a contrarian viewpoint on this movie to be like "everyone says its bad but i dunno i think its fun!" but no, it just is actually bad. four sisters rocket to fame after uploading one of the sisters singing to youtube. and also there is...a....robot? made by one of the girls' father, that uhhh beatboxes and leads them on a scavenger hunt? i only watched this like four days ago and it's already rolling off my mind. dumb in the "bad disney channel original movie" way (unlike josie and the pussycats which has a goofy camp charm going for it)

comics

how do we relationship: yuri about two college students who are in their school's band club. more focused on their relationship than the bands, but there still is a lot of band content and performances

scott pilgrim: what more can be said

bocchi the rock gaiden: hiroi kikuri no fukazake nikki: the better version of the bocchi the rock comic, since it's not a 4koma. follows a mostly drunken hiroi around, which is something we all want and need

k-on: a great 4koma! unlike the bocchi manga, this really stands on its own as a well-done comic beyond the (also excellent) adaptation. sticks to the format really well and has some truly hilarious gags that i think would only work in 4koma form. lots of fun. also holy hell mugi is really gay in it. im glad the high school sequel comic gave ui and azusa got their own volume to be in the spotlight, they deserve it

beat & motion: wow, jellyfish can't swim in the night really is just doing the same plot as this, huh. and it makes it into this list on an even more tenuous technicality than jellyfish did. an artist, who became disillusioned with drawing when her his middle school friends mocked a drawing she he was proud of, is swept off her feet by a ex-idol musician he's a fan of that's in love with that art piece she is now ashamed of an animation he posted online. this is DEFINITELY "boys in a band". and its KINDA "girls in a band"? im allowing this in the list because it's absolutely got the vibes and two women do play instruments together in it like once or twice. i am enjoying it so far, curious to see where it goes

nana: i stopped reading this after 9 volumes (out of 21) because it got kinda bad and boring. but i enjoyed everything before that! and there is also an anime adaptation and two live action movies i need to watch. two girls named nana, one of whom is/used to be in a band run into each other randomly and end up living together. sort of in the "how do we relationship genre" of girls in a band where it's more about the relationships inside and out of the band. but nana is very much in the band and performs a lot! this is the most heterosexual yuri ive ever seen. they say the most romantic things about each other and talk about kissing all the time and then will be like "damn all this romantic talk about my roommate is really making me hanker for a boyfriend"

whisper me a love song: bloom into you-kind yuri about one of the girls falling in love with the other girl's performance in a band. very basic yuri stuff

bocchi the rock: the manga that spawned the anime! it's a 4koma. and believe it or not, it's not actually very good. the anime did a lot to tighten up the jokes and storytelling

k-on shuffle: it's k-on again! but with different girls. as of writing only one volume is out. it's...fine! i dont care about the characters as much as the original show which is a pretty big knock against it

hello melancholic: also yuri, but didn't leave as much of an impression on me. girl gets pressured into joining a band because she's too gay to say no

kuuden noise no himegimi / kuuden no himegimi: less explicitly yuri, but, you know, girls. also didn't leave too much of an impression on me. guitar girl with an ex-rocker dad meets a girl with a beautiful singing voice. and then joins a band with some of her dad's rocker buddies, then tries to get singer girl to join. its kinda slow and very elemental to this genre in the sense that its mostly just people talking about the band and band related things (practicing, how hard it is to compose music, etc). also one of the few of these that lets its band be properly bad and disliked by people

things that I will add once i read/watch them:

• shiori experience
• super sonico
• show by rock
• her smell
• miss granny

and that's all i got! let me know what ive missed. i (obviously) love this genre so i'll consume most anything in it

it was a very productive weekend