AKB0048

After an interplanetary war at the beginning of the 21st century, planet Earth has been left in ruins, with much of its ecosystem completely destroyed. Because it was no longer possible to live a normal life on this planet, the inhabitants are forced to move on to other planets where life will, hopefully, be more comfortable.

The Deep Galactic Trade Organization, a totalitarian government that affects many of the newly inhabited planets, has somehow come to the conclusion that music is a source of evil, and that it must be banned and destroyed for good. The talent group AKB0048 is soon formed, based on the original AKB48 members that once lived on Earth. Even though their music is now considered universally illegal, they make it their mission to bring their music back to life by travelling from one planet to another and holding as many concerts as they possibly can. They must undergo a whole new set of training methods in order to become the best that they can possibly be, while also avoiding the constant danger of being arrested because of their music. Join interplanetary popstars AKB0048 as they try to save the world－with music!

Motomiya, Nagisa Main

Iwata, Karen Japanese

Sono, Chieri Main

Watanabe, Mayu Japanese

Shinonome, Sonata Main

Yagami, Kumi Japanese

Shinonome, Kanata Main

Ishida, Haruka Japanese

Kishida, Mimori Main

Satou, Sumire Japanese

Kanzaki, Suzuko Main

Hata, Sawako Japanese

Yokomizo, Makoto Main

Mita, Mao Japanese

Aida, Orine Main

Nakaya, Sayaka Japanese

Ichijou, Yuuka Main

Satou, Amina Japanese

Kimishima, Hikari Supporting

Kanda, Akemi Japanese

Kawando, Kenjirou Producer

Kawamori, Shouji Director, Storyboard, Original Creator, Mechanical Design

Hiraike, Yoshimasa Director

Aketagawa, Jin Sound Director

Reviews

Aug 5, 2022

La_Caro

Recommended

Watched it bc I'm an AKB48 fan :) it really touched my heart in certain moments cause I've wanted to join 48G since I was 15 and seeing the girls leave their homes, being nervous on the selection process, practice along with the other members, having their first handshake event and their own concert made me tear eyed :') I may not be able to acomplish this dream of mine but seeing them do it really filled me with joy. Love all of the details, big and small, from the inclusion of the wotas to the Mayuyu cyborg xD at first I wondered why they ... couldn't have used the original AKB to voice "themselves" but thinking about it now I'm happy they gave exposure to lesser popular members from 48G
All of the chacacters were memorable one way or another (Sonata you just stood up for being annoying sorry not sorry)
Wasn't expecting this anime to be as good as it was, fully recomend if you'd like to see thestruggles an idol has to face to fulfill her dreams + space blasters

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by La_Caro (2)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jan 18, 2020

LegendAqua

Mixed Feelings

AKB0048 is a mouthful to say much like how bloated this idol anime is!

AKB0048 is a futuristic idol anime that focuses on the Old and New "generations" of AKB0048 or "00" as they fight against the anti-entertainment bans thrghout the galaxy through guerilla concerts, but there's something deeper of being a 00 as well. Now a group of girls by the names of Nagisa Motomiya voiced by Karen Iwata, Chieri Sono voiced by Mayu Watanabe, Sonata Shinonme voiced by Kumi Yagami, Suzuko Kanzaki voiced by Sawako Hata, Makoto Yokomizo voiced by Mao Mita, Kanata Shinonome voiced by Haruka Ishida, Mimori Kishida voiced by Sumire Sato, ... Yuuka Ichijou voiced by Amina Sato and Orine Aida voiced by Sayaka Nakaya as they become the understudies of the current generation of AKB0048. Add to that but each of the characters have stakes in wanting to become successors and be a member of 00, some relational clashes from their current generations as well as old, something about Kirara's, the Center Nova, Sensei-sensei and you already get what one of the glaringly flaws to AKB0048 and that AKB0048 has....well at bit too much going for it in ALL it's elements.

From the already HUGE cast of characters, that spans two or three generations of girls, their support staff and the minor supporting characters to it's many MANY MANY plotlines it has going for it. As much as the character development helps flesh out the cast especially from a huge cast as it is, gets absolutely bogged down by it's world building of the 00 right down to the core, from the support staff especially Tsubasa Katagiri voiced by Yumi Kakazu, the debacle with the Center Nova that heavily concerns Shiori Arisawa and Tsubasa, what the entire deal with Sensei-sensei, the head of the 00, to the Kirara allowing people to recognize people in showing that their true idols that concerns Nagisa....like that just at the top of LA's head and there's more what with Chieri's father tied to the DES (the anti-entertainment ban people) and Yuuko's romantic love interest to Mamoru but MAN that's ALOT of plot points and half of it doesn't addressed or have resolutions.

For the character themselves, they get episodes in the limelight now and again but with it's huge cast and how many of those core cast have plot points major or minor that swallows any development into the mist...well to this end it's bloated with a somewhat narrow focus isn't a good sign. If LA will say this, LA's favourite character at least was Suzuko Kanzaki as her airheadedness was funny and helped lift the mood with her wacky personality alot of time....LA likes alot of megane idols *cough* Makino Yagami *cough*.

So yeah saying AKB0048 is bloated is a freakin' understatement.

In terms of animation done by Satelight, well LA will say one thing, Satelight SHINED when it came to the character designs giving them all "exotic" looking color palettes with some literal shine to them but they also have consistency to them (what does LA mean?...majority of the 00 members and understudies...ALWAYS have lovehearts in their irises as well as love hearts on their hair one way or another). As for the "battle lives", well it's use of 3DCGI is ehhh blatant, not as jank but just ehhh blatant, the few mecha times have some grace, but the choreography mainly the concerts were a bit janky at times, though at least the concerts used the 3DCGI sparingly on the characters. At least the space setting was decent and the planets they go to are schizo-futuristic to dystopian dilapidated landscapes depending if the planet has the ban or not (get it dystopian if ban in place, thriving if ban not in place). All in all, Satelight's animation was mixed from ehhh to decent...kinda expected from the bombastic Shoji Kawamori.

Now, here we go...the voice cast.....yeah what do you expect when the REAL life AKB48 members actually transition into voice acting with NO experience and this is their first?. Yeah "some" of the AKB members sound it, like Mao Mita, Karen Iwata and Sayaka Nakaya where LA can't explain it but they have this stilted non-pop filtered sound whenever they speak. Nonetheless there was some AKB48 members that did fine, from Mayu Watanabe as Chieri, Sumire Sato as Mimori and Amina Sato as Yuuka. Coincidence that some of the current AKB0048 members are actually voiced by veteran voice actors like Mai Nakahara as Youko Asamiya, Ayako Kawasumi as Akira Igarashi, Kana Ueda as Tomoyo Itano, Yui Horie as Ayako Kuroki, Miyuki Sawashiro as Atsuko Maeda the 13th, Mamiko Noto as Chiharu Sakuragi and Yukari Tamura as Mayu...YEAH. Much like the animation and even with some amazing veteran voice actors in the backline...the voice cast was mixed to say the least.

For an anime that's focused on AKB48, well has some "real life writes the plot" mainly with the understudies and trainees based on the VA's actual lives. Like Sayaka Nakaya droppin gout of school to makes ends meet is an example. Weirdly enough one episode has a bit of weird clairvoyance that's to do with *ahem* "I won't let anyone tarnish Sashiko's name"...yeahhhhh considering what happened to the real life Sashiko...just errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr art imitates life...

As much as LA has been somewhat HARSH to this anime, LA will give some graces to this anime and what this first season does, as much of bloated mess it tried to set up it's characters and settings, ven with some of the one off episodes, they did give us some small development to the characters in question, as for the major plots, it at LEAST dealt with some (not all) but some of them and what resolutions we did get was a bit satisfying in some ways, mainly with Nagisa. Finally for an anime that has is stuck with a brand as famous as AKB, this anime is militant about it's brand and shows itself well, almost like it's projecting what an AKB48 would be in an a wacky anime setting and GOES ALL OUT WITH IT showing how great they are, by extension making us curious one way or another about the AKB48 brand. If there's ONE thing Japan is great in doing is advertisement and branding and with anime it damn well shows it!

AKB0048 is a hodgepodge of bogged down ideas with the AKB48 brand implanted into it. Sure the production value is...eh to decent but man with it's tons of multiple active plot points, be it world building or the characters and their relationships to the mix of genres AKB0048 had on being a slice of life in the daily lives of an idol to an idol anime looking at how AKB0048 trains, to a dystopian entertainment ban trying to eliminate the 00 to a slightly yuri anime with it's characters to a mecha anime fighting the DES while doing a guerilla concert. This anime is ALL OVER THE PLACE. While this doesn't mean AKB0048 isn't outright horrible, more like an unfocused bloated mess, but not horrible...per say....but it's flaws are not only detrimental but blatant at what AKB0048 wanted to do but failed in it's execution but to this it tries to leverage itself with what resolutions were taken place in this season and was satisfying, it tried to world build, tried to develop and flesh out the HUGE cast of characters...it tried.

Maybe...maybe AKB0048 might finish up it's many many loose plot threads with it's second season, but for a first season's first impression, AKB0048 if anything in "meh" territory with all it's strengths and weakness accounted for.

If there was a comparison LA could make to AKB0048 anime, it would be that AKB0048 is what AKB48, as Idolmaster Xenoglossia is to the Idolmaster franchise.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by LegendAqua (531)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Feb 20, 2023

ThatAnimeSnobRE

Not Recommended

The season before this show aired, there was Black Rock Shooter, (BRS) an infomercial aiming to sell via name to its established audience. AKB0048 (AKB) was doing the same thing, made to cater the fans of the homonymous teen idol group. Another thing both of them had in common was how they were trying to have a pseudo-serious premise for attracting the unsuspected.

The story is of course completely retarded and no more than a piss-poor excuse for some conflict, other than cute girls doing cute singing, to exist. No matter how much they tried to spice it up by making the pop-idols a resistance group ... waging war against an intergalactic oppressive government that hates entertainment, it still plays out as your typical moe-flick where nothing of importance ever happens … even when it is supposed to.

Normally, I would have liked this show more than your typical pop-idol garbage because the stakes are higher than “Oh no, people didn’t like my singing, I guess I will have to find a different job now”. And yet I like it even less because everything is an afterthought. There is no actual tension since nothing dangerous ever happens to them, thus the dark setting is going to waste, and the premise becomes pretentious.

It’s the same problem I have with other titles such as Idol Master Xenoglossia and Bodacious Space Pirates. I love space adventures and giant robots blowing up shit, but when they become background decoration for generic moeblobs, I am angered by this disservice. There was so much they could have done with the premise. What if some of them where occasionally getting injured or killed? What if the girls realized they are sacrificing everything without an actual pay-off?

And none of that happens, it’s the same old coming of age nonsense where they spend most of the time training how to dance and sing about love, than trying to liberate the universe from the dystopian government. All you get is a bunch of cutely dressed pretty girls hovering in the air and singing J-pop songs, while the army is trying to capture them with nets and firework missiles.

Do I even need to point out how this is dealing with an industry that thrives on the dreams and hopes of young people by making it look like they are the saviors of the universe? Just look how they treat the girls in the show as if they are spare parts in a huge emotionless machine. They are not allowed to sing their own songs; they must learn the established songs of the past pop idols and they must dance in the exact same way as they did. They are not even allowed to have their own personality and name, the goal is to replace the older generation of AKB instead of being individuals. Not to mention that mysterious leader figure of their planet. It looks like a demon who has absolute control over everybody’s lives. For all we know pop idols could have been banned to prevent the demon from taking over the galaxy by brainwashing people with cute girls.

That is what I loved in Looking for the Full Moon; the heroine there refused to sing the cheesy lyrics others wrote for her and was dead set on doing her own song. She had only one pop idol and yet she had a million times more characterization than these 47 cardboards. She was being active and was trying to change things. There is none of that here, it’s just girls singing shallow music before turning 30 and are kicked out for fresh blood. Or in the sleazy context of the show, they mysteriously disappear.

And it’s not like I hate everything about pop-idols; you can have a good dark story about the perils of escapism. Perfect Blue, and Millennium Actress are great with the theme. Hell, the very director of AKB is the same guy who directed the original Macross. The way he mixed singing with giant robots and space battles was amazing. Unfortunately he then sold out to the otaku industry and made this garbage, before moving to completely killing the Macross franchise with Delta. It’s sci-fi first and j-pop second, not the other way around. How hard is that to understand?

Anyways, this is not a show of mass appeal despite trying to make it seem like the fans of space adventures will like it as much as fans of coming of age. It was made specifically for people who dig pop idols; most won’t even give it a second glance because of the stupid story, and no amount of good visuals can change that.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by ThatAnimeSnobRE (188)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Female Rivalries

by Ienjoyblueice

19 Entries · 19 Restacks

Battle-Singing Anime (Or battle-musicals)

by Bonny2132

22 Entries · 27 Restacks

Idols Doing Things that Aren't Very Idol-y

by O_T_T

9 Entries · 43 Restacks

	Poll: AKB0048 Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Yumekichi11 - May 13, 2012	74 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Dec 1, 10:52 AM
	Poll: AKB0048 Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Blackbird - May 6, 2012	62 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Nov 30, 9:38 PM
	Poll: AKB0048 Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Yumekichi11 - Apr 29, 2012	123 replies	by RGreatDanton »» Nov 30, 12:43 PM
	Poll: AKB0048 Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Yumekichi11 - Jul 22, 2012	107 replies	by e_diane04 »» May 13, 8:45 AM
	Poll: AKB0048 Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) akbfan - Jun 24, 2012	80 replies	by povsuduvolosy »» Sep 3, 2022 2:49 PM

Six Foreigners Who've Worked in the Anime Industry

Have you ever wanted to make anime in Japan? These six gaijin actually went ahead and actually managed to get jobs in Japan's animation industry. Some have thrived, others have suffered.

by removed_user

34,854 views

Japanese LifeStudiosTrivia

Top 15 Best Idol Anime of All Time

Anime idols are exceptionally popular in the world of anime. The characters' charm, competitiveness and great music are not only fun to watch, but also fun to passionately root for!

by Aiwin

662,963 views

RecommendationCollectionCute GirlsMusicVideo