Idol /ˈʌɪd(ə)l/ n. a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered.
What does it mean to be an idol? That's a question the A-1 pictures' series The Idolm@ster tries to answer. It's based on the Xbox 360 game with the same name and follows thirteen idols and their producers as they all try to overcome trials of varying sizes and severity in their quest to reach the top in the Japanese entertainment industry.
The show kicks off with a mockumentary style first episode, which really surprised me. It fools you into thinking that this actually might turn out to become something interesting direction-wise, as
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I've never heard of an anime of this genre being made before. Never fear! All the subsequent episodes are good ol' slice-of-life. As usual, each episode focuses on one character that is in some sort of pinch, and then the pinch resolves itself somehow and everyone is happy and smiling. Sometimes there is more than one character in focus, and sometimes there is no pinch at all, but the core plot-model doesn't really change a lot during the series. This doesn't really matter that much to me, as I'm a fan of mindless slice-of-life. I also found most of the girls to be likeable and every viewer will probably find at least one girl they like in the large cast.
Some people might want to check out this even if they don't usually like this kind story. I'll get back to that later.
The main antagonists, Jupiter and their producer, are introduced in the latter half of the story. I didn't really like them a lot in the beginning, as they felt unnecessary to the plot (if you could call it that.) But they acted as the catalyst for some surprisingly well executed drama; and I guess they grew on me eventually.
Drama is often the bane of slice-of-life stories. Writers who don't know what they’re doing tries to force in a contrived, sloppy sob-story in the last two episodes for no apparent reason and the whole show is ruined in 50 minutes. That is not the case for Im@s though, the drama arcs are properly implied from the start and they feels like a natural development of the story, I’d even say that it’s the high point of the series. Characters get to be properly fleshed out in a satisfying way and it also explores themes that, while not original, are interesting. For example the downsides of fame and how friends with the same ambition ironically get torn apart while chasing it. Im@s is not exactly a tear-jerker, but that wouldn't have clicked with the light-hearted tone anyway. Series like this one and Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru show us that it actually is possible to have drama in a slice-of-life show without it having to feel incredibly forced and out of place.
I have no problem with light-hearted stories, but the first episode and the drama-centric episodes show us a "what could have been" Idolm@ster. A more raw and gritty take on the idol industry, a scathing social commentary. But it's not that, and that's fine. With nothing more than a regular-sized budget and averagely skilled staff, Im@s could very well have turned out to be something relatively mediocre, bad even. So let's have a look at what it is that really makes this series shine.
Do you know what sakuga is? It's a term reserved for describing unusually fluent and exciting animation. It's not something commonly seen in series aired on television, but Im@s has buckets of it. I mean seriously, watching this show almost makes me wish they’d use all that money on something worthwhile, like fixing world hunger. Almost. The series routinely utilizes jaw-dropping animation and routinely makes animation nerds like me giggle like retarded, sugar-high children. Im@s really reminds us of why A-1 is such a highly regarded studio. Actually, I've been seeing a lot of sakuga lately. Fate/Zero and Mawaru Penguindrum have a lot of it too, though Ufotable seems more interested in design consistency than fluency with F/Z, and Penguindrum's strength mostly lies in its excellent scene composition and art. While Im@s just has brute, raw sakuga. Which show you’d prefer, visually speaking, mostly depends on what you value the most when looking at animation; it's a question of personal taste.
Of course, animation is only one half of the presentation. Im@s is all about idols, so the music is a vital part of the whole package. The Idolm@ster series already boasts a rather large catalogue of songs and the staff has taken full advantage of this. The result is a new ED for every episode and many, oh so many insert songs. The viewer really is getting spoiled here. Whether you like the songs or not, again, comes down to taste. The songs are pop, but pop is a very wide and diffuse genre and Im@s has songs from every side of the spectre. You have both slow, pompous ballads and hyperactive J-pop. If you only listen to black metal or gabber you might feel a bit stumped, though most people should probably find the song catalogue listenable.
On the seiyuu side, while some of the voices might be a bit grating, Im@s has an overall strong cast. I wouldn't consider all of them to be good singers, or singers… Some have great voices though, Asami Imai (Chihaya) especially stands out as a really talented singer throughout the show and Hiromi Hirata (Makoto) was also a favourite of mine with her cute, tomboyish voice.
Despite all the praise I've been singing up until now, Im@s does suffer from a few problems. For example, some characters didn't have enough screentime (Takane) and some were subjected to mediocre writing (Takane). Some fans of the original games might also feel a little unhappy about the minor changes made when adapting the series to television. Finally, the direction and writing is very fluctuating, a common problem with episodic series lacking overarching plot and also Im@s's greatest. The episodes typically range from mediocre to so-cheesy-it's-awesome, ultimately it's the character interactions and presentation that'll keep you watching, not cleverly constructed stories and witty writing.
These are only minor hiccups, at the end of the day The Idolm@ster is a very strong show. It goes for a scattershot approach, trying to appeal to as many as possible at once. Of course you can’t please anyone 100% like that, but Im@s succeeded fairly well. I’d say it pleased me about 80%. The show doesn't take many chances, but it has lots and lots of money and a very skilled staff. If you're only watching one show this year, make it Penguindrum, but if you're watching two, The Idolm@ster would be a good candidate.
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Dec 23, 2011
The iDOLM@STER
(Anime)
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Idol /ˈʌɪd(ə)l/ n. a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered.
What does it mean to be an idol? That's a question the A-1 pictures' series The Idolm@ster tries to answer. It's based on the Xbox 360 game with the same name and follows thirteen idols and their producers as they all try to overcome trials of varying sizes and severity in their quest to reach the top in the Japanese entertainment industry. The show kicks off with a mockumentary style first episode, which really surprised me. It fools you into thinking that this actually might turn out to become something interesting direction-wise, as ... 
Apr 9, 2011
Voynich Hotel
(Manga)
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Hotel Voynich is a story about the titular hotel, the island it's located on and its inhabitants. The story follows a bunch of different characters, ranging from a trio of female drug dealers, competing assassins, a suicidal chef and the hotel manager who supposedly bested Chuck Norris in combat. The main focus rests on a Japanese guy named Taizou though, a man with a past. As you may have noticed, the cast is pretty colorful, and combined with the varying points of view it conveys the basic set-up for a slice-of-life. At least I thought it was a slice-of-life at first, albeit a quirky one.
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Dec 24, 2010
Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru
(Anime)
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To be honest, I didn't know what to expect from this adaption. I was familiar with the source material, but since the production was in the hands of Shaft, yeah. For the unitiated: If Japan's anime industry was a party, and the studios were the invited, Shaft would be the high guy smoking joints on your favourite couch while eating all your snacks. They're just completely unpredictable. Some times they'll create excellent animation and sharply delivered dialogue, other times they'll churn out something that looks more like a slideshow and the boring, endless monologues which are associated with them.
I was pleasantly surprised. The plot of ... 
Jul 2, 2010
This is my first review so please be gentle, take it easy, etc. etc etc.
From the director of both Sketchbook, Kaleido Star and Aria comes Working!!, a story about a relatively normal dude named Takanashi and the crazy shenanigans of his equally crazy co-workers playing out at the family restaurant Wagnaria. Other than that there's not much to say about the story of this anime; yup, it's just another light-hearted slice-of-life, again. Presentation-wise Working!! is excellent, A-1 has done a great job with both animation and sound. The music of the show fits like a glove, and the OP is incredibly catchy (WAN WAN), the ED... not ... |
