Sae Iwata, a slightly tougher-than-average girl, falls for the gentle smile of Koki Kamishiro, a delicate boy, back in elementary school. By the time they enter junior high school, Koki has grown into a charming and popular teen who now feels out of reach. When they are assigned to the sports festival committee together, Sae’s long-hidden first love begins to stir once more.
Created by Yasuhiro Nakanishi
Written by Yasuhiro Nakanishi, Kazune Kawahara
Produced by Yoko Shiraishi, Nobuya Nakazawa, Yoshinori Hasegawa
friendshiphigh schoolromanceslice of lifeschoolbased on mangashoujoanimecomplexplayfullightheartedcomforting
About A Star Brighter than the Sun
A Star Brighter than the Sun is a animation, comedy, drama series that first aired in 2025 exploring themes of friendship, high school, romance, slice of life, school, based on manga. Created by Yasuhiro Nakanishi, it stars Minori Fujidera, Yuki Ono, Hina Youmiya. Sae Iwata, a slightly tougher-than-average girl, falls for the gentle smile of Koki Kamishiro, a delicate boy, back in elementary school. By the time they enter junior high school, Koki has grown into a charming and popular teen who now feels out of reach. When they are assigned to the sports festival committee together, Sae’s long-hidden first love begins to stir once more.
Shows Similar to A Star Brighter than the Sun
Discover shows like A Star Brighter than the Sun — ranked by similarity and community votes
We found 15 shows similar to A Star Brighter than the Sun
If you enjoyed A Star Brighter than the Sun, you'll love these handpicked recommendations. Each title below shares similar themes, tone, and storytelling style. Our algorithm analyzes genres, keywords, creator filmography, and cast connections to find the closest matches. Whether you're looking for the same emotional depth, narrative structure, or visual style, these picks are curated to deliver the best viewing experience for fans of A Star Brighter than the Sun.
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.
At the end of her first year of high school, Futaba Yoshioka suddenly has a chance encounter with her first love, Kou Tanaka. Three years ago, he transferred schools before she was able to say how she felt about him. After meeting each other again, Futaba realizes that he has gone through many changes. He acts more cool and even had his last name changed to Mabuchi. Gradually the two rekindle their love while piecing together what had happened in the time that they were apart.
Taiki Inomata loves badminton, but he has a long way to go before he can reach nationals. When Taiki sees upperclassman Chinatsu Kano practicing her heart out on the girls’ basketball team, he falls for her hard. After an unexpected turn of events brings the two closer together, sports might not be the first thing on their minds anymore!
High schooler Wakana Gojo 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.
It’s Ryuji’s first day as a junior in high school and it seems as if things are looking up. He gets to sit in between his only friend, Yusaku, and, more importantly, the girl he’s secretly crushing on, Minori Kushieda. But just when he thinks the stars are aligned in his favor, he unwittingly crosses the most feared girl in school, Taiga Aisaku, making her onto his arch enemy. To top it off, Taiga has moved in right next door to Ryuji and happens to be Minori’s best friend! Can this school year possibly get any worse?!
Takemoto Yuuta, Mayama Takumi, and Morita Shinobu are college students who share the small apartment. Even though they live in poverty, the three of them are able to obtain pleasure through small things in life. The story follows these characters' life stories as poor college students, as well as their love lives when a short but talented 18 year old girl called Hanamoto Hagumi appears.
Kyotaro Ichikawa, a boy barely clinging to the bottom rung of his school's social ladder, secretly believes he’s the tortured lead in some psychological thriller. He spends his days dreaming up ways to disrupt his classmates' peaceful lives and pining after Anna Yamada, the class idol. But Kyotaro's not nearly the troubled teen he pretends to be…and it turns out Anna's a bit odd herself!
A new anime project that adapts popular side stories that were left out of the main anime series
As the graduation ceremony at Katagiri High School comes to an end, Kyouko Hori, her boyfriend Izumi Miyamura, and their friends begin to look back on their time as students. The moments they shared together may be fleeting, but each one is a colorful piece of their precious memories.
Tsutsui Hikari (a.k.a "Tsuttsun") is a high school student who is content with his virtual life of anime and video games. One day, he gets stuck cleaning the pool with Iroha, a real live girl who is stylish, sassy and known to be easy with boys ... and she aggressively approaches him! Tsuttsun, who has few friends and lives in his own world, finds himself smitten by the confident and wild Iroha ... and his whole world is turned upside down!! It's the awkward and pure love story of a boy who experiences relationship for the first time.
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.
So exactly what’s going to happen when Hachiman Hikigaya, an isolated high school student with no friends, no interest in making any and a belief that everyone else’s supposedly great high school experiences are either delusions or outright lies, is coerced by a well meaning faculty member into joining the one member “Volunteer Services Club” run by Yukino Yukinoshita, who’s smart, attractive and generally considers everyone in her school to be her complete inferior?
Love is unusual for Koizumi Risa and Ootani Atsushi, who are both striving to find their ideal partner in high school—172 cm tall Koizumi is much taller than the average girl, and Ootani is much shorter than the average guy at 156 cm.
Did Wataru's intentions slip by Aika because she was getting impatient?! This is the start of a romcom revolving around two people who just can't get their feelings across and both think their love is unrequited!