Prior to watching this I was able to read all of the chapters this adaptation managed to cover and I'm mixed on how I felt about this. I felt a mix of disappointment in what I saw, but part of me still wanted to keep watching because early on this adaptation seemingly deviates from the exact path taken in the manhwa while the outcome remains the same.
Take my first issue: I think the biggest issue comes from the means of storytelling on various fronts. The pacing of this whole show moves way too fast with all 13 episodes covering about 60 chapters of the manhwa.
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I don't feel like they give the viewer enough time to sit and process things as they happen before jumping right into new issues and had I not read the manhwa even I might've cared less about things. It's a drama but there's not enough time to breathe and take in the problems the characters face. For instance, Jugyeong, the main character, is a victim of bullying and falls to doing makeup as a way to give herself confidence socially and uses it to start from scratch in a new school. You don't get to see her through the process of learning how to do it to grasp how she becomes experienced in it, you're just told she learned how to do it and roll with it. It also just moves too fast from scene to scene. They don't let the drama simmer enough. Sometimes I feel like even the conversations ought to slow down and the transitions could be timed better without feeling abrupt or premature.
Even though I read this I still somehow managed to get lost in the narrative sequences because this adaptation takes some liberties and tweaks the order certain events happen as well as the outcome of some events in some cases. It's not always an improvement or better than what happens in the original, but very few cases I felt were good enough. I won't spoil anything, but it doesn't really help characters good good at times.
The characters are a bit of a mixed bag too. The main girl the most of the time feels like she can rely on the 2 love interests & even her 2 friends as a crutch when needed. She felt very safe a lot of the time because the majority of her problems minus the initial bulling experiences at the start + the tension of keeping up appearances from those close to her are quickly resolved and she's kinda the most boring character of the bunch but not someone that I dislike. The 1st love interest Suho feels like himself from the manhwa, but feels more like a kuudere prince type character initially, though maybe that's the presentation of the anime aiding that. The 2nd love interest Seojun isn't far off either but here he starts off rougher around the edges. Then her 2 friends felt the most different because they seem to be more involved with the main character here than in the manhwa and I seemingly cared more about them here than I did during the chapters this covered from the manhwa.
Onto more aesthetic elements, the anime isn't quite impressive there. AT times it feels like there's a lack of background music to accompany scenes that would've benefitted more from it and I also felt like they could've omitted or better used some of the whimsical gag elements. You're probably going to have seen a lot of complaints about the voice acting. I watched this in the Korean voice-over available at the start before English & Japanese dubs were made and at times it felt a bit awkward because the some voices took a minute to get used too sounding...fresh-faced to be nice and I'd get distracted a little with the audio quality too because the voices feel like got recorded with budgeted microphones. Each episode spans about 18 minutes seemingly, but about 4 of that is taken up by the duration of the OP + ED combined both of which are fine songs. I don't have much to say about them because they were alright.
The art was also just fine. Looks like at the time this has released this is their first outing with an animated TV series. There's visible kinks from background characters at times appearing slightly off and all models looking a bit stiff, but I wasn't bothered by it.
I'm not entirely sure how I felt about it because I cut it some slack in my mind because I wanted to like it, BUT I felt that had I not read the manhwa and wanted to give this more of a chance I'd probably think less of it. This adaptation didn't feel recommendable because the quality of it doesn't stand up well in comparison to other romance anime out there that outperform it in almost every way. If you want to give this a chance you'd be best off with the manhwa, and though I can't yet vouch for it the K-drama has gotten praise from other fans as well.
Dec 27, 2024
Yeosin Gangnim
(Anime)
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Prior to watching this I was able to read all of the chapters this adaptation managed to cover and I'm mixed on how I felt about this. I felt a mix of disappointment in what I saw, but part of me still wanted to keep watching because early on this adaptation seemingly deviates from the exact path taken in the manhwa while the outcome remains the same.
Take my first issue: I think the biggest issue comes from the means of storytelling on various fronts. The pacing of this whole show moves way too fast with all 13 episodes covering about 60 chapters of the manhwa. ... 
Oct 18, 2023
Filter-goshi no Kanojo
(Manga)
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This seems like it'll be another one of those anime plots where nobody acts like real people but maybe it doesn't hurt to just go along with it. Quiet loner boy wants a quiet high school life, but by chance he gets lucky and girl who loves the attention she gets from posting anonymous candid photography of herself online just so happens to fall right on top of him.
The girl has a glowing personality to play off of the boy's aloof character and they find themselves partaking in saucy scenarios. It's very much like what you get in every standard rom-com like it. Only ... 
Oct 5, 2023
Spider-Man: Octopus Girl
(Manga)
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This manga is somewhat strange. I'd think I was reading a quirky fan made doujin if I wasn't seeing Shounen Jump+ listed as the company serializing it.
So this story revolves around Otto pulling stunts in a last ditch effort to save his life after a mishap during a fight with Spider-Man in New York, and in the process he ends up sending his consciousness into the body of a girl. A middle schooler. In Japan. This is basically isekai no matter how you stretch it. And a lot about this manga won't make sense so you should probably view this manga with the same ... 
Aug 11, 2023
From what I've seen of the iDOLM@STER anime series so far I quite like the whole series overall. The TV series was generally a fun watch and this movie basically feels like more of the show. While I liked this overall, I'd be lying if I didn't say it was kinda lackluster. And I'll keep this spoiler-free as can be.
The movie starts off pretty well introducing us to the girls following the end of the show. They're all accomplished, experienced, and established idols to the point where they're basically superstars landing all sorts of big gigs. The beginning of this movie has everyone unite once ... 
Jun 25, 2023
Puchimas!: Petit iDOLM@STER
(Anime)
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PUCHM@S is iDOLM@STER's take on the theme of chibi styled spin-off routes that a number of series like to explore. In most cases they consist of simple fluff that we really have no reason to overthink or be too serious in critiquing; just watch and enjoy for the moment, but PUCHIM@S, while treading in that same territory was fairly more enjoyable than the majority of the other spin-off shows like it.
Rather than just turning the whole cast into cute blobs, they keep the girls in their normal forms and instead find themselves discovering the existences of these doll-like entities resembling every girl affliated with ... 
Jun 20, 2023
This is the prequel episode to iDOLM@STER's chibi spinoff. This episode has the main girls introducing us to the chibi versions of themselves as well as showcasing their talents and quirks. They're all cute and the gimmicks seem like they'll enhance the viewing experience of the Puchimas show. This kind of thing is something most people will skip on given it's just extra fluff content with no ties to the main series, but remember that the episodes won't run long so it should be a quick, fun, and easy watch. I'm anticipating the usual slapstick style of comedy from this with the show firing off
...
Jun 19, 2023
The iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa
(Anime)
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So Shiny Festa is a three episode OVA that depicts the girls being selected to participate in a music festival, but festival itself is a separate instance, so this OVA works like a linear visual novel in a sense where the beginning & end are the exact same for each episode, but the girls are broken into different groups for each episode and go about their performances in their own way. All main members of 765 receive a moderate & justifiable amount of exposure through each episode as well.
There's not quite much to note about this as it all plays out like a standard ... 
Mar 27, 2023
The iDOLM@STER
(Anime)
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Prior to finally watching this & making this review, I'd been dying to dip my toes into this. Feel like I've seen stuff from every other idol/music franchise except for the one with "iDOL" in the title. This shares various similarities with those other shows I've seen but something about this drew me in.
There isn't really a long term objective at play here. The show is basically a slice of life anime looking at the lives of idols work towards simply gaining exposure and make their mark in the idol world under their studio 765 Production, and as idols they find themselves eventually taking up ... 
Feb 1, 2023
The iDOLM@STER Live For You!
(Anime)
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Not too much to say but I'm tempted to make a review for this regardless. Unlike most I'm coming from this after Xenoglossia then going to the main series after this. It's nice to see the visual changes from Xenoglossia that better resemble the older iDOLM@STER games and get this last look at the older style before they get the visual upgrade seen in the A-1 pictures adaptation.
This 17 minute OVA plays out like a rushed high school theater play with the actors all playing themselves. 3 of the girls get involved in a flurry of scenarios and are ultimately trying to hurry to ... 
Feb 1, 2023
iDOLM@STER Xenoglossia Specials
(Anime)
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These specials consist of 9 episodes with varying runtimes between 2-7 minutes each and in total last for about the duration of 2 normal anime episodes. These episodes are all slice of life moments based on different points in time during the show, but also consist of a good amount of character interactions and traces of lore from events in the show. The girls come in pairs of 2 each and they engage in casual banter as well as further fleshing out some relationships and individual character stories seen in the show.
The visuals for the most part consist of photographs and a few seconds long ... |
