Dangit idol shows.
While I can usually keep myself from watching a show just because it has cute outfits that doesn't mean I won't try out a few episodes juuuuust in case. Which is why I tried out the main Idolm@ster series this year but, there just wasn't a lot of actual idoling going on in it! A friend of mine, who knew exactly what I meant, suggested that I try Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls but I've only had time to watch one episode so I don't even know how I feel about that series or not yet!
At least I kept myself from watching Love Live Sunshine, watching the sequel to a series I didn't like (and never saw the second season) just because of some cute characters would be silly right?
Showing posts with label idol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label idol. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Monday, November 10, 2014
Anime Review: HaNaYaMaTa
During my Summer 2014 Anime Round-UP I mentioned that this was a show I hadn't tried out yet but was on my short-list to try if I found myself with some free time and that's exactly what ended up happening. I don't remember why but I found myself with a lack of colorful, cute shows in my viewing schedule and this seemed like a natural addition and a good way to fill those lunches at work where nothing else was airing that day.
HaNaYaMaTa
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Anime Review: Love Live! School Idol Project
Yep I'm switching up these reviews too, I didn't realize until this morning that my viewing schedule had been thrown off just enough that I didn't have anything for today. Thankfully since I know that even a 13 episode anime series takes a me a while to get through I plan those out quite a while in advance so I can talk about that! And in case anyone is wondering if there is any methodology or reasoning about what, previous season shows I choose to review, no not really at this point. Initially I was actually going to watch Sankarea but since I needed something new to watch starting the day I got my wisdom teeth out and after that operation I wasn't in the mood for anything involving death/possible blood and gore so I went for something I knew was going to be sweet and safe. Besides, a friend and I had already checked out one episode of the show and I knew a lot of people who liked it so that meant I stood a good chance of liking it as well, right?
Love Live! School Idol Project
Summary: Honoka and her friends love their high school and are crushed to hear that starting next year it won't be accepting new students due to low application numbers and will shut down after three years. After brainstorming about ways to save the school Honoka takes an odd approach, why don't they become School Idols, a popular new fad, and use the popularity they generate to help attract people to the school so it wont' shut down!
The Good: Aside from the fact that one character has the rather out of place character quirk of grabbing other girl's chests (note to male writers, while girls may discuss boobs in real life we generally employ a "look don't touch" policy unless it escalates to something else and this is not a yuri show) this was a pretty squeaky clean show that I'd have no problem showing a middle schooler. I doubt many American middle school kids would have an interest in the show, these kinds of idols are pretty different from American Idol after all, but I wouldn't have any qualms about showing it to my little sister. And the show ended in a much better place than I expected it to, for a while it seemed like it was waffeling around about what to make into it's ending but I think in the end the show figured that out and ended well.
The Bad: This was a bit of a dull show, some of the side characters got more development than others but I think just about everyone needed more than they had (lead character Honoka certainly needed it, I know that the genki, upbeat female lead is to shojo as the hot blooded, gung-ho boy is to shonen but that doesn't mean there's no room for character development). I'll admit that with 13 episodes, a central cast of nine characters, some of whom don't even join the group until around the 9th episode (which was utterly frustrating considering how the OP and ED made it clear this was happening*), is going to be hard to develop but I'm sure they could have pulled it off and with a show that's more character driven than plot driven you have to do it. So with no characters I was especially invested in and a relatively uncomplicated plot there just wasn't much for me here other than the cute outfits I'm sure I'll see cosplayed at cons for several years.
The Production Values: My favorite parts of the show were by far the musical numbers and, while I don't feel the need to buy any of the singles, the songs were all competently sung and thankfully translated. I'll admit it, the main reason my friend and I initially tried this show was because the outfits looked like they would be cute to cosplay, hey that's one of the main reasons I tried Revolutionary Girl Utena as well, being attracted to a show in a stylized, visual medium, is hardly as shallow as it first sounds. And the show looks good, it's funny to see people talking (read: complaining) about the CG used in the dance sequences after AKB0048 since it's much subtler and less-often used here. Here the CG shots are of no more than three girls at a time, short, and interspersed among the traditionally animated shots so while noticeable that really shouldn't be a deal breaker for anyone.
With all of that in mind I'm giving the show a 2.5 out of 5 and will not be either buying NISA's wonderful box set or trying out the second season which was announced today. However, if anyone does want to try the show it's streaming on crunchyroll and as I mentioned earlier they were even able to translate all of the songs which was fantastic.
*as I've said before, mostly in book reviews, but I adhere to the school of thought that your readers/viewers are going to figure out the plot "twists" and therefore you should try to delay revealing them as little as possible after that moment or else there's little point in having a "twist".
Love Live! School Idol Project
Summary: Honoka and her friends love their high school and are crushed to hear that starting next year it won't be accepting new students due to low application numbers and will shut down after three years. After brainstorming about ways to save the school Honoka takes an odd approach, why don't they become School Idols, a popular new fad, and use the popularity they generate to help attract people to the school so it wont' shut down!
The Good: Aside from the fact that one character has the rather out of place character quirk of grabbing other girl's chests (note to male writers, while girls may discuss boobs in real life we generally employ a "look don't touch" policy unless it escalates to something else and this is not a yuri show) this was a pretty squeaky clean show that I'd have no problem showing a middle schooler. I doubt many American middle school kids would have an interest in the show, these kinds of idols are pretty different from American Idol after all, but I wouldn't have any qualms about showing it to my little sister. And the show ended in a much better place than I expected it to, for a while it seemed like it was waffeling around about what to make into it's ending but I think in the end the show figured that out and ended well.
The Bad: This was a bit of a dull show, some of the side characters got more development than others but I think just about everyone needed more than they had (lead character Honoka certainly needed it, I know that the genki, upbeat female lead is to shojo as the hot blooded, gung-ho boy is to shonen but that doesn't mean there's no room for character development). I'll admit that with 13 episodes, a central cast of nine characters, some of whom don't even join the group until around the 9th episode (which was utterly frustrating considering how the OP and ED made it clear this was happening*), is going to be hard to develop but I'm sure they could have pulled it off and with a show that's more character driven than plot driven you have to do it. So with no characters I was especially invested in and a relatively uncomplicated plot there just wasn't much for me here other than the cute outfits I'm sure I'll see cosplayed at cons for several years.
The Production Values: My favorite parts of the show were by far the musical numbers and, while I don't feel the need to buy any of the singles, the songs were all competently sung and thankfully translated. I'll admit it, the main reason my friend and I initially tried this show was because the outfits looked like they would be cute to cosplay, hey that's one of the main reasons I tried Revolutionary Girl Utena as well, being attracted to a show in a stylized, visual medium, is hardly as shallow as it first sounds. And the show looks good, it's funny to see people talking (read: complaining) about the CG used in the dance sequences after AKB0048 since it's much subtler and less-often used here. Here the CG shots are of no more than three girls at a time, short, and interspersed among the traditionally animated shots so while noticeable that really shouldn't be a deal breaker for anyone.
With all of that in mind I'm giving the show a 2.5 out of 5 and will not be either buying NISA's wonderful box set or trying out the second season which was announced today. However, if anyone does want to try the show it's streaming on crunchyroll and as I mentioned earlier they were even able to translate all of the songs which was fantastic.
*as I've said before, mostly in book reviews, but I adhere to the school of thought that your readers/viewers are going to figure out the plot "twists" and therefore you should try to delay revealing them as little as possible after that moment or else there's little point in having a "twist".
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Anime Review: AKB0048 Next Stage
Sorry about the delay again guys, moving took a bit more out of me than I expected but at least with that done there shouldn't be any more missed posts for at least a couple of months. Saying that I feel like I should find some wood to knock on....
As some people might remember back from my winter 2013 anime round-up I said I was interested in the AKB0048 anime since I had heard some good stuff about it but hadn't pursued it until the new season started and then once I started watching episodes the show got licensed, although it wasn't until well after I had caught up with the first season (via fansubs) and moved onto this one that crunchyroll got all the first season's episodes up. But both seasons are up now and let me talk about the second one and see if I can convince a few more people to pick up the latest thing to come out of Shoji Kawamori's mind.
ABK0048 Next Stage
As some people might remember back from my winter 2013 anime round-up I said I was interested in the AKB0048 anime since I had heard some good stuff about it but hadn't pursued it until the new season started and then once I started watching episodes the show got licensed, although it wasn't until well after I had caught up with the first season (via fansubs) and moved onto this one that crunchyroll got all the first season's episodes up. But both seasons are up now and let me talk about the second one and see if I can convince a few more people to pick up the latest thing to come out of Shoji Kawamori's mind.
ABK0048 Next Stage
Summary: The 77th generation understudies (as well as the 75th) continue to train as idols perfecting their singing and dancing in hopes that they can become successors soon and learn about some of the other strange things idols need to do like tv appearances to become more popular. And in the background the DES are still around and while some of them are looking for a way to defeat the girls others, such as Chieri's family's company Zodiac, think that they've found a way to use the girls to their own advantage.
The Good: I was a bit afraid that this season was going to be simply a copy of the first season and thankfully it's different enough that it didn't feel that way. The basic story, girls try to become idols and fight the anti-fun police in the process, stays the same but a number of the details are different and the girls do continue to develop and the story certainly doesn't end with everything being the same as it started. It was still fun, although I had forgotten just how much I dislike Japanese variety shows until they showed up here, yet even though it wasn't a copy of the first season it just wasn't as strong.
The Bad: This is going to sound a little odd but bear with me; not every story is structured such that it needs a villain for it to have a plot. The first season didn't really need one because it was focusing more on the girls and their goals and dreams and the setting was just another challenge to work with. This season however the show acted as if it had a villain in the DES and tried to use that to move the plot along, but the DES made for a really weak villain and that just made some parts really awkward. Look, if you spend two seasons showing me how basically the anti-fun police can't seem to succeed against a bunch of space idols then I just can't believe they're a threat, sorry! The other reason I feel like this season is the weaker of the two is how the ending comes off a bit rushed, I'm honestly curious if they planned to wrap up the entire show in a second season from the start or if they were toying with the idea of a third season, that would at least explain why things had to wrap up so fast and why there are a couple of subplots left unresolved at the very end.
The Audio/Visuals: Like I said previously I'm going to start combining these two categories since I rarely have enough to say about both, although this is one of the cases where I probably would. Sadly the crunchyroll stream did not sub the opening and ending songs but, unless I'm misremembering, both of them appeared in the actual show subbed and I just didn't like them as much as the ones from the first season. Actually, even disregarding the actual lyrics and just listening to them I still don't like them as much as the previous ones, they just didn't sound as interesting to me, oh well. The show doesn't introduce any major new characters so there's nothing new voice actor wise for me to talk about, except that I had forgotten until I was outlining this review in my mind that the majority of the cast aren't professional voice actors and I'm amazed, they sound very sure of themselves by now and I hope I hear at least some of them in future shows. As for the visuals again not much has changed from the first season, it's still amazingly colorful and looked fairly solid animation wise. Now I'll admit that I'm not as put off by the CGI dancers as some people seem to be* but it is jarring whenever they cut between the identically smiling CGI dancers and the hand animated parts where the characters have different facial expressions, usually ones of determination or exhaustion which look pretty different. If they could just make the models match that a little better then I'd have no complaints at all, this was a pretty good looking show.
So, just 3 out of 5 stars, since I feel like I rated the first season more highly, but yet I would still like to buy both seasons of this when Sentai puts it out (hopefully on BR since I wasn't kidding about how colorful this show is, I want all of that in high definition). For those still curious about the show, and hopefully people are since it's by no means a bad one, just one with more problems than it should with the writing later on, it's streaming in it's entirety on crunchryroll, Sentai's site theanimenetwork, and on hulu.
*I blame the fact that I watched some of the very earliest CGI shorts for fun as a kid, stuff so old I've never been able to figure out the titles and stuff so old it was kinda terrifying for an eight year old.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Anime Review: AKB0048
Okay, getting close to getting back on schedule, for the rest of this semester anime reviews are moving to Tuesdays instead of Mondays (since I ended up with more school work on Monday's than I initially expected, oops) and I'll try to stick to that schedule as closely as I can, sorry about all of this weirdness folks!
Speaking of weirdness, I had heard about this show when it was first airing and saw a lot of people talking about it and then again it popped up on people's end-of-year lists where people all seemed to be saying the same thing, this was way better than they ever expected. I had been put off by the premise (gurellia idol singers in a world where entertainment isn't allowed? Please....) but then I reminded myself that if I could sit through Shoji Kawamori's other recent work, Aquarion Evol, which requires a serious suspension of disbelife and weird sense of humor (or at least a strong tolerance for puns) then hell I think I could put up with this show.
AKB0048
Summary: Sometime in the near future humanity fled Earth and colonized other worlds and, sometime after that, many of the worlds banned all kinds of entertainment with harsh punishments for those found participating or supporting it. Not that this is going to stop some people and the mega idol group AKB0048 sees it as their job to go to these worlds and hold highly illegal (and dangerous) concerts to give the people there at least one chance to experience real entertainment. Nagisa and her friends saw an AKB concert when they were young and ever since it's been their dream to join the group themselves, something that proves to be much harder than they ever expected.
The Good: Yep, this was much better than what you would expect from a crazy premise like that and I think it's partially because the show (/the staff) know how crazy it is and just how far they can push people's suspension of disbelief. The show actually spends a lot of time showing the girls training to become idols and connecting with one another (which I think helps since all of that seems quite believable) and apparently a lot of the little details about the girl's lives are based on their real life voice actresses, something I didn't know until I did some research but thought was really neat. The show has a pretty large cast and while it doesn't give everyone equal amounts of screen-time most of the characters have enough, although weirdly enough there wasn't as much character development as I would have expected out of this show (one or two individuals got a fair amount but by and large most of the characters were static, I guess this is what happens when the majority of your cast is supposed to be around 13?).
The Bad: There was one episode I really had a problem with, the one with the hater (one of the girls gets a message from a hater saying she should kill herself and will never be good enough to be the successor to the girl she wants, which understandably shakes her) and the show ends with "hater just make you do better and should be thanked for it!" No, cut the crap writers, there is a big difference between criticism and a vile-spewing hater, even with mean, unwarranted criticism there's still a rather large line separating the two. Honestly the "sex scandal" about AKB that just broke (in short, one of the real life idols, with no ties to the show, had a boyfriend which violated the rules and had to shave her head and post an apology video for it) reminds me a lot of this episode, the idea that the fans are so important that you have to please all of them, even the messed up ones (which in the real world case insist on everyone being "pure," as if romance and sex are somehow dirty things). So, oddly enough considering how different the show is from it's real-world counterpart, the worst part of the show mirrors the idol industry quite a bit and sadly it's not of one of it's better aspects.
The Audio: As far as I can tell, the nine trainees (the nine girls in the promo piece above) are all voiced by girls from the various groups within the real AKB48 and the actual successors in the show are voiced by regular voice actors which is a bit of an interesting choice. Honestly I can't tell whose singing any of the songs and since the group members do sound alright as voice actors (not as polished but they also sound a bit more "real" than your standard anime voices) and certainly never drew me out of the experience I think the casting was done well. I also liked how well both the opening and ending song worked with the show, as I was watching I thought the lyrics worked really well and then both of the songs made appearances within the show itself later on (told you I couldn't tell who was singing or this wouldn't have surprised me as much as it did). So, thankfully for a show that's based more than partially around a group of singers the audio holds up here, I'm curious if they'll even try to dub the show in the US though (that and I still don't know how they managed to license this show and presumably most or all of it's music rights as well).
The Visuals: Quite honestly what first caught my eye about this show was just how colorful it was, then again I don't think I've seen a show from Studio Satelight that wasn't crazy colorful (even Croisee made good use of color, although I've only seen about half of the shows they've produced). The art looks good throughout although some people will probably be frustrated with the CGI used for the big dance scenes. The way I see it is that with CGI we're able to have scenes which would be far too complex to be well-animated by hand (that is, it's cheaper to do it this way, plus with all the constantly changing angles I have to wonder how on-model all the characters could stay) plus the dances look like real, choreographed performances, I wouldn't be surprised if they were based off some of the actual shows. So just, well, deal with it and know that you're forewarned if this isn't your thing.
So I'm giving this show a solid 3.5 out of 5, going to watch the second season when I have a chance (since I am swaaaamped with stuff to watch right now, curse you school!) and since Sentai has licensed this I'll probably pick it up sometime. Crunchyroll finally announced earlier today that their going to start putting the first season up on Sundays as well as the new episodes so unlike me you can avoid fansubs and head over there this Sunday to give it a whirl yourself.
Speaking of weirdness, I had heard about this show when it was first airing and saw a lot of people talking about it and then again it popped up on people's end-of-year lists where people all seemed to be saying the same thing, this was way better than they ever expected. I had been put off by the premise (gurellia idol singers in a world where entertainment isn't allowed? Please....) but then I reminded myself that if I could sit through Shoji Kawamori's other recent work, Aquarion Evol, which requires a serious suspension of disbelife and weird sense of humor (or at least a strong tolerance for puns) then hell I think I could put up with this show.
AKB0048
Summary: Sometime in the near future humanity fled Earth and colonized other worlds and, sometime after that, many of the worlds banned all kinds of entertainment with harsh punishments for those found participating or supporting it. Not that this is going to stop some people and the mega idol group AKB0048 sees it as their job to go to these worlds and hold highly illegal (and dangerous) concerts to give the people there at least one chance to experience real entertainment. Nagisa and her friends saw an AKB concert when they were young and ever since it's been their dream to join the group themselves, something that proves to be much harder than they ever expected.
The Good: Yep, this was much better than what you would expect from a crazy premise like that and I think it's partially because the show (/the staff) know how crazy it is and just how far they can push people's suspension of disbelief. The show actually spends a lot of time showing the girls training to become idols and connecting with one another (which I think helps since all of that seems quite believable) and apparently a lot of the little details about the girl's lives are based on their real life voice actresses, something I didn't know until I did some research but thought was really neat. The show has a pretty large cast and while it doesn't give everyone equal amounts of screen-time most of the characters have enough, although weirdly enough there wasn't as much character development as I would have expected out of this show (one or two individuals got a fair amount but by and large most of the characters were static, I guess this is what happens when the majority of your cast is supposed to be around 13?).
The Bad: There was one episode I really had a problem with, the one with the hater (one of the girls gets a message from a hater saying she should kill herself and will never be good enough to be the successor to the girl she wants, which understandably shakes her) and the show ends with "hater just make you do better and should be thanked for it!" No, cut the crap writers, there is a big difference between criticism and a vile-spewing hater, even with mean, unwarranted criticism there's still a rather large line separating the two. Honestly the "sex scandal" about AKB that just broke (in short, one of the real life idols, with no ties to the show, had a boyfriend which violated the rules and had to shave her head and post an apology video for it) reminds me a lot of this episode, the idea that the fans are so important that you have to please all of them, even the messed up ones (which in the real world case insist on everyone being "pure," as if romance and sex are somehow dirty things). So, oddly enough considering how different the show is from it's real-world counterpart, the worst part of the show mirrors the idol industry quite a bit and sadly it's not of one of it's better aspects.
The Audio: As far as I can tell, the nine trainees (the nine girls in the promo piece above) are all voiced by girls from the various groups within the real AKB48 and the actual successors in the show are voiced by regular voice actors which is a bit of an interesting choice. Honestly I can't tell whose singing any of the songs and since the group members do sound alright as voice actors (not as polished but they also sound a bit more "real" than your standard anime voices) and certainly never drew me out of the experience I think the casting was done well. I also liked how well both the opening and ending song worked with the show, as I was watching I thought the lyrics worked really well and then both of the songs made appearances within the show itself later on (told you I couldn't tell who was singing or this wouldn't have surprised me as much as it did). So, thankfully for a show that's based more than partially around a group of singers the audio holds up here, I'm curious if they'll even try to dub the show in the US though (that and I still don't know how they managed to license this show and presumably most or all of it's music rights as well).
The Visuals: Quite honestly what first caught my eye about this show was just how colorful it was, then again I don't think I've seen a show from Studio Satelight that wasn't crazy colorful (even Croisee made good use of color, although I've only seen about half of the shows they've produced). The art looks good throughout although some people will probably be frustrated with the CGI used for the big dance scenes. The way I see it is that with CGI we're able to have scenes which would be far too complex to be well-animated by hand (that is, it's cheaper to do it this way, plus with all the constantly changing angles I have to wonder how on-model all the characters could stay) plus the dances look like real, choreographed performances, I wouldn't be surprised if they were based off some of the actual shows. So just, well, deal with it and know that you're forewarned if this isn't your thing.
So I'm giving this show a solid 3.5 out of 5, going to watch the second season when I have a chance (since I am swaaaamped with stuff to watch right now, curse you school!) and since Sentai has licensed this I'll probably pick it up sometime. Crunchyroll finally announced earlier today that their going to start putting the first season up on Sundays as well as the new episodes so unlike me you can avoid fansubs and head over there this Sunday to give it a whirl yourself.
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