Being a veteran DJ myself as well as a long time Anime fan, I just had to give this series a watch out of sheer curiosity as it combines 2 of my biggest hobbies. To my surprise this series absolutely exceeded all expectations I had for it to the point I'd consider it the biggest sleeper of the Fall 2020 season. To be honest, Episode 1 airing during Week 5 or 6 (don't quote me on this) didn't exactly do it any favors.
Story: 7/10
The story is fairly simple. It starts off with Rinku, our MC and big music fan, attending a new school called Yoba
...
Academy which is apparently a pretty prestigious music academy. There she meets Maho, who introduces her to one of the school's specialties, DJing, which Rinku immediately falls in love with. Almost immediately they decide to form a new DJ group and recruit fellow students Muni & Rei and perform to become one of the top DJ groups in the school. In their way are Peaky P-Key, the hard working senpais everyone looks up to, and Photon Maiden, a new super group formed by a big time corporation. While they don't attempt to break from conventional story writing structure the series does what it does at a fairly solid level, however there are a couple episodes that exceed that like in Episode 7 that realistically follows Maho's impressive display of mental gymnastics after mishearing Rinku's conversation with the leader of Peaky P-Key leading her to overthink Rinku is leaving to join the other group.
Art: 8/10
Perhaps the biggest aspect of the show that exceeded my expectations was the art style. The use of 3DCG was a big gamble as it can be a massive hit, or a massive miss, with rarely anything in between. In this case I would consider it a hit, and even put it up in the same grouping as Land of the Lustrous and Beastars, although in a more Moe styling. What blew me away was how they used this format to make the characters expressions and movements stand out, in a way i don't think could have been replicated in a hand drawn style without being overly ridiculous. Perhaps the only one thing i didn't like about the art style is their over usage of <Insert Generic CG Extra> in a lot of shots, specifically the performances. This gave the otherwise strong performance scenes a rather bitter taste whenever it would pan to the crowds.
*As an interesting aside they decided to animate the workers in the Café where they hold their team meetings in a very clean, traditional hand drawn art style. The reason for this, I have no clue.
Sound: 10/10
Being a DJ myself this is the aspect where I was coming into watching the series expecting to be the most critical, but as soon as I saw and heard the OP it put my concerns almost immediately to rest. The OP is catchy and features a solid mix of Idol Pop with a lot of EDM techniques and influences, and sets the tone for the rest of the series. However the biggest part that impressed me was how distinct in style they decided to make the music for each group; Happy Around!'s music is as expected the same upbeat blend of Idol-Pop and EDM you hear in the OP, Peaky P-Key's music is a high BPM blend of Eurodance, Hip Hop and J-Pop, and Photon Maiden has a perfectly suited ethereal blend of Trance, Progressive and Electro. There is another group, Merm4id, which has yet to be introduced that has an even stronger EDM presence of Big Room, Electro and Progressive.
Characters: 8/10
Right off the bat you are introduced to Rinku's extremely outgoing and bubbly personality which thankfully just sits on the line between engaging and annoying. Maho perfectly balances out Rinku's high energy with a more serious, think-first-act-second personality to the point where she has a bad habit of over thinking her productions and relationships with the crew. Muni, the VJ and Designer of the group, is both pretty loud in dress and attitude but is pushing herself to improve her relationships with other thanks to Rinku. Rei is a shy, reserved, music geek that comes from a strict family but wants to spread her wings despite knowing her family would likely disapprove. Impressively, the side characters from Peaky P-Key and Photon Maiden are almost as fleshed out as Happy Around! and almost each of them get their chance to have character development of their own which is a sign of strong character writers.
Overall: 8/10
While D4DJ: First Mix is definitely part of the Idol/Music genre that isn't as popular out West, if you are in any way a fan of Pop or EDM music this is definitely something easy to watch and get in to. I'm not the biggest Idol/Music fan myself but I gave the show a chance and I do not regret a second of it. Do not let the 3DCG art style discourage you watching this series either. Impressively there really isn't really anything negative to say about this series.
Just give it a shot and enjoy!
Jan 15, 2021
D4DJ First Mix
(Anime)
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Being a veteran DJ myself as well as a long time Anime fan, I just had to give this series a watch out of sheer curiosity as it combines 2 of my biggest hobbies. To my surprise this series absolutely exceeded all expectations I had for it to the point I'd consider it the biggest sleeper of the Fall 2020 season. To be honest, Episode 1 airing during Week 5 or 6 (don't quote me on this) didn't exactly do it any favors.
Story: 7/10 The story is fairly simple. It starts off with Rinku, our MC and big music fan, attending a new school called Yoba ... |
