Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. It’s time for the second installment of the Idol arc. As you all know last week I reviewed AKB0048, the anime based off the popular pop group AKB48. I praised the anime for its excellent story, songs, and characters and even gave it the covenant must watch stamp of approval. Since I liked it so much I was excited for the next season and couldn’t wait until summer for the anime to come. Well, it turns out the anime came out early and premiered at the very beginning of 2013. So in honor of the Idol arc I think it only seems fitting to continue the story of AKB0048 with the second season. Let’s get ready for an encore season, this is AKB0048 Next Stage.
Opening and Ending theme
The opening for this season is Aruji Naki Sono Koe sung by No Name which is a very good and upbeat song. If I had to choose between this song and the 1st season I would have to say I like this one more. It’s got more of an upbeat feel to it, it starts right off with energy unlike the 1st one and the singers sound a lot more confident and energetic. The ending for this season is Kono Namida wo Kimi ni Sasagu sung by you guessed it, No Name and once again I actually like this one more than last season’s ending. It’s beautiful, it talks about how their road to being idols started off as a dream or a small seed and now that seed is blooming into a beautiful flower that everyone is admiring and it continues to shine bright for the whole galaxy to see them.
Episodes 1-4
We start off this season appropriately enough with a concert featuring the understudies who after the Lancastar concert have been making a splash throughout the galaxy. Right from the start we see that the girls have matured in the short time since their debut concert. Their radiance is glowing brighter; the confidence is building within them as they perform, and their starting to act more professional. At the concert they perform two songs, the first song is Shonichi (full song and performance here:) and Niji no ressha which coincidently was used as the ending song for the last episode in season 1 (full song here, sorry, no performance this time: ). After the concert Tsubasa comes out and announces that AKB (yeah I’m still calling them that) are bringing back the general elections, a special event in which the fans vote for their favorite members of the group in which the top 10 get to be a part of the new single (why not top 11, because they’re too lazy to go one step beyond) and that the center nova position is coming back which excites everyone especially Yuuko who has dreams of one day becoming the center nova like Acchan. At the hotel that the group is staying at Yuuko makes the announcement to everyone that she will be a center nova and that everyone there is her rival. Later on we get a bath scene where Sonata, Cheiri and some successor who plays a minor role so why mention her name gets captured by a DES mech (it’s a perverted gundam). The group receives intel that says Cheiri and the others have been taken to Kasumigastar where they’ll appear before a court and have a public trial (not to worry, we’ll get Phoenix Wright down there immediately). Cheiri makes the claim in court that AKB is all about love and dreams (and music) and how they’re not terrorist but the judge isn’t listening to her and finds them all guilty but right before he sentences them AKB comes in and saves them while doing a performance of one of their songs Pioneer where the crowd conveniently has glow sticks (full song and live performance here: ). Actually I gotta ask, where did all the glow sticks come from in the audience outside the building, did they just have them on hand in case a concert were to like happen or something? (1st guy): Hey what’s with the glow stick in your pocket? (2nd guy): Oh, I have this just in case AKB throws a concert here. (1st): Oh come on, this is one of the most heavily guarded planets in the galaxy I highly doubt they’ll host a concert here. *Music and singing begins to play and 2nd guy pulls out glow stick while looking at 1st guy* (2ndguy): See? (1st guy): Blow me! (Nitsuj): They invade the court room and rescue Cheiri and the others and make their escape. We end the episode by going to the headquarters of Zodiac where we meet Cheiri’s dad voiced by Shō Hayami (Wolfwood from Trigun) who is the CEO of Zodiac and has plans to use Chieri to meet his own goals which is to gain control of the Kirara’s and control their power.
We start off episode 2 by seeing that because of the speech Chieri made at the trial her popularity has sky rocketed and she’s getting more solo work to do. As for the others, they get to go on a variety show where they take part in ridiculous and dangerous stunts such as silly face duels, talk shows, bungee jumping (just be glad it wasn’t leaps of faith), and a cooking show where Mimori makes us some suggestive jello pudding while wearing a revealing outfit (man those sure do look tasty, I wouldn’t mind tasting those. I bet they taste like sweet red apples with a side of milk) (Isis): You’re talking about the jello right? (Nitsuj): No. I mean yes! I mean . . . I like Humming Urban Stereo!). The girls do a half-ass job on the shows until they do some research and find out that their shows are being shown to planets that have the strictest Entertainment ban grip meaning that the chances of them getting a live concert are slim to none and decide to start giving it their all. At the end of the episode after the girls perform a concert Tsubasa comes out and announces the current rankings in the general elections in which Chieri is in 9th place and Yuuko is in 2nd (the others I have no idea).
In episode 3 the group has another handshaking event (the innuendo kid returns, this time without the haters). Only this time around each girl has their own line of fans ready to meet them instead of them all being in one booth together. It’s also at the event that Chieri discovers the reason for all her solo work as of late; it turns out her father has been supporting her from behind the scenes by promoting her in the company’s ads for noodles by using her image and videos of her without her permission and since she’s part of a group that’s been labeled terrorists she can’t take legal actions. Later on Chieri goes to a café where she meets Yasunaga a servant of her family where she receives a message from her father via Skype. In the message he proclaims that Zodiac will continue to support her which causes distress in Chieri so much that she begins to resent her popularity because she didn’t earn it on her own and tells Tsubasa that if she gets elected she’ll graduate from the group (that’s going a little bit extreme. Even if your dad did push you in commercials and such without your knowledge it doesn’t matter because the fans are still gonna vote for you because they like you). The next day the general elections are about to be announced and everyone gathers at the AKB stadium to hear the results.
Throughout episode 4 we hear the results of the general election and as you would expect there’s a lot of crying, speeches, disappointment, and emotional crap. Forget all that, I’m just going to name the important girls that made the list and the ones everyone cares about. Mimori comes in 10th place despite being an understudy and shocking a lot of people, Chieri comes in at 6th place (impressive madam) and decides to continue staying after seeing all the many fans she has, Takamina comes in 2nd and Yuuko comes in 1st thanking her fans, says that she’ll become the next center nova and that she won’t disappear like Acchan (ha, you have no idea how ironic that’s gonna be in the near future. In fact, Isis, save this scene because this is going to come back to bite her later on). As the credits roll we see the aftermath of the elections where emotions are still running wild and Nagisa tells Chieri that they’re rivals now and that she won’t lose to her next time.
Episodes 5-10
Episode 5 centers on Makoto (the whining girl who’s always negative). AKB is holding a concert on a planet called Baltistar and the elected members are set to perform while the girls from the 77th generation infiltrate a D.G.T.O military base in space to confirm reports of high officials coming and going from the base. They take out a transporter carrying forced laborers and disguise themselves as boys and infiltrate the base (how the soldiers didn’t recognize they were girls is beyond me I mean you can just tell their girls right off the bat). At the base they find out that it’s being used as an illegal gambling casino for wealthy businessmen who place bets on how long AKB can hold a concert before DES stops them. Upon discovering this they decide to shut the place down by stopping the main reactor. Along the way they keep running into obstacles and Makoto continues to doubt herself because she keeps messing up and feels that she doesn’t belong with the group (I think we may have found the female equivalent of Shinji from Evangelion. Huh, I feel strangely empty inside). On their way there Makoto gets separated and saved by a lowly worker named Higashino who is in actuality a fan of Makoto because despite her coward-ness and constant failure she never tried to hide it (I guess what he’s trying to say is that she never tried to act like somebody else, she remained true to herself despite the fact that she was constantly failing and stuck with the group. And. . .he’s right. I admit I’ve only been focusing on the negatives of Makoto and never really looked at her positives which she has some. She never gave up, especially when she had so many chances to quit, anybody else with her personality would have probably quit and went back home but instead she still stuck around with the group all for the purpose of being with her friends and pursuing her dreams. That’s actually very admirable and inspiring. Man, I never thought the day would come when a janitor would change my opinion about something. Let alone an anime janitor). Makoto and Higashino reach the pit where the leaver for turning off the reactor is at the bottom (interesting place to put it. Not the best spot in case of emergencies but still effective against intruders). Makoto does a bungee jump of faith from the balcony into the pit where she swings a lead pipe at the leaver and misses but does a flip in the air and drops kick the leaver shutting down the power to the base and they escape via airlock to end the episode.
Episode 6 is kind of a boring episode. In this episode Mikako becomes the official camerawoman of the group and tells Tsubasa that she’s on board with the whole center nova thing now. Yuuko believes that either Nagisa or Chieri will become the next Acchan and tries to find clues into which one it will be. Mimori catches a fever and can’t perform in tomorrow’s concert so Nagisa is chosen to take her spot. During the performance emotions overwhelm Nagisa and she announces that she’ll become a center nova one day (well said and good luck with that but ANNOUNCE IT AFTER THE PERFORMANCE).
Episode 7 opens up with the group finding out that the next concert will be the debut of Mimori as the new successor of AKB. Everyone is excited for her but can’t help but feel scared that when Mimori becomes a successor she’ll cease being the Mimori they all know and love because she’ll inherit the name of someone else. The day of the concert rolls around and they announce that Mimori has inherited the name Mariko Shinoda the name that was previously held by Tsubasa when she was an idol. They celebrate her debut by singing Ue kara Mariko. After the performance Mimori (I mean Mariko) pulls Kanata out on stage and tells her to be a bit more selfish otherwise she’ll never become a successor and that she better keep her promise and become a successor by Christmas as her gift to her (Mariko seems to have a sadistic personality. I like that). The episode ends with Kanata announcing that she’ll become a successor (geez there’s been a lot of promises being made this season; they better deliver by the end).
In episode 8 the successors start to notice a change in Yuuko, they feel that’s sees becoming more unapproachable as of lately (must be her time of the month) but all of that will have to wait because DES is about to launch a full assault on Akibastar to get their dualium and capture the center nova. Chieri’s dad (okay from now on I’m calling him Wolfman, I’m sure he has a name but we never hear it) has discovered all the ingredients needed to produce a center nova thanks to Mikako who is acting as a double agent and working with Wolfman (Judas!). In order for a center nova phenomenon to appear a stormy concert must take place on Akibastar, during stormy weather, and the concert must be a life or death situation. So DES invades Akibastar and all the successors and understudies deploy to fight them off. They partake in a decent action sequence against DES but the gang is outnumbered and Tsubasa tells them to retreat from Akibastar to save themselves and the citizens. Yuuko refuses to retreat with the others and attempts to achieve center nova potential where she creates a large amount of energy that opens up the gate to where the other center novas are at (I like to call it Nova Heaven) and she disappears into the gate right before everyone’s eyes (what did she say at the general elections again? “I won’t disappear” well if you count going into an alternate dimension where all the other center novas are disappearing than you are fucking liar).
In episode 9 Mikako is confronted for her betrayal by Nagisa, Chieri, Kanata, Mariko and Takamina where she reveals that she once had the potential to be a center nova but at the last minute got scared and graduated because she felt that was going to disappear like the others. Wolfman convinced her to join him so that they could reopen the gate to where the center novas are and Mikako saw this as an opportunity to rescue the other center novas that had disappeared but was double-crossed before she could make her move. Meanwhile the girls start to fear that AKB might be done since most of the group is stuck on Akibastar, their lost in space, and all of the fan sites have been shut down but Nagisa still holds on to hope and pledges that she’ll become a center nova and rescue Yuuko. After that announcement, the ship is attacked by DES. They try to escape but the hyperdrive needs time to charge up before launching and since they have no supplies and are low on ammo they have no means to fight back. But, Mikako escapes from her prison hold and everyone thinks she’s running away but it turns she’s gone out to fight DES and by the crew sometime to escape. She takes out a few but quickly runs out of ammo and gets taken out but Takamina shows up and saves her just in time. They get back to the ship and it goes into hyperdrive where they land on some unknown planet to end the episode.
In episode 10 the group is stuck on the planet while repairs are being made to the ship. On the planet they meet a strange group of creatures known as Funghi a monsterous group of rabbit like creatures who hate humans because Zodiac uses the planet for one of their mining operations in finding dualium and because of this the Funghi get attacked and killed by them whenever they get in their way. The girls try to convince the Funghi that they’re friendly and want to save them from Zodiac but the Funghi are hesitant to trust them (appease them with a human sacrifice. Do it~). So they come up with the idea that by singing they can convince the Funghi their friendly and the plan works, the Funghi accept them as their friends and they stop Zodiac from attacking them (Yes! Music is the key to solving the galaxy’s problems and don’t you forget it). As a token of their friendship the Funghi give the group a dualium crystal shard and Tsubasa comes to the conclusion that the resonance between the idols and dualium will generate the power they need to reclaim Akibastar from DES since when the group were singing the dualium responded to their radiance and helped shut down the Zodiac mechs. After all of this is done Chieri sneaks on to one of Zodiac’s ship with Nagisa and decides to go back to her home planet and confront her father face to face (are ya mad woman!? Last I check the bastard was trying to kill ya!).
Episodes 11-13
In episode 11 Chieri and Nagisa arrive on Chieri’s home planet Sagittariusstar (yeah try saying that 3 times) where they get picked up by Yasunaga who takes them to Chieri’s house where they wait to meet her father. While they wait Chieri tells Nagisa about how she came to know about AKB, their first meeting, and how after she saw the concert on Lancastar she pleaded with her father to let her join AKB but her request was completely ignored. When she found out Zodiac was making weapons to harm AKB she couldn’t take it anymore and ran away from home to join AKB which led to the events in episode 2 of season 1. After the story, soldiers come in and arrest both Chieri and Nagisa and take them to Zodiac headquarters where Cheiri goes to meet with her father alone while Nagisa is being held captive by security. While on her way there Chieri passes Nagisa’s father who was meeting with Wolfman about lifting the Entertainment ban. They make small talk with him saying that even though he doesn’t approve of Nagisa joining AKB he still loves her and respects her decision. Wow, that’s actually a good lesson, you don’t have to like a decision a family member makes but you have to respect it, it’s their decision. They finish their talk and Chieri continues without telling him Nagisa is here and being held prisoner and go their own separate ways (ahh no, let’s try this scene again. (Chieri): Holy shit! Your Nagisa’s dad, your daughter is here and being held capture! Go see her! Rescue her! Do something father like! Oh, and how’s this weather?). Chieri finally reaches her father’s office door and begins to sing in front of the door as her radiance begins to shine through the door and Wolfman approaches the door to bask in its greatness (you know I just thought of something, why does Wolfman want to control the center nova radiance so much, we never get a clear explanation why he wants it? I mean, I know DES and D.G.T.O want to use the center nova radiance for military purpose but what does he get out of it, how does this benefit him? He doesn’t act or seem like the kind of guy interested in military power so what’s his aim? Hell, in an earlier episode he said he could have bought Chieri back home by force anytime but he chose not to. Is he trying to use the radiance to bring his dead wife back cause if so I got news for ya it’s not gonna work. Evangelion tried that and the world got left in the hands of some dumbass emo-kid who screwed us over). After she finishes her song a gunshot is heard and Chieri and Yasunaga discover that Wolfman has been shot (poor Hayami-san, he always seems to be dying in animes. Also, where the hell did that come from!? There’s was no build up for it or nothing it just happens, boom headshot ftw). Actually this does beg the question of who shot him and why? Was it DES, the D.G.T.O if so why would they get rid of their biggest supporter it doesn’t make a lick of sense? It’s like Nintendo selling the rights to the Mario and Zelda series to Disney, Sega killing off Sonic in a game, or Capcom destroying Megaman (oh wait they already did that, fuck them) you get the idea, it’s just something that wouldn’t make any sense and would just be stupid on their part. The episode ends with Chieri and Nagisa escaping the planet and reuniting with the group.
In episode 12 the girls minus Chieri who is still traumatized over the death of Wolfman begin training to reach center-nova radiance because Tsubasa believes it’ll cause another dualium reaction on Akibastar which will catch DES by surprise and force them to retreat from its radiance. Speaking of Akibastar we get a scene of Mamoru and a few other resistant members from Lancastar infiltrate Akibastar and reunite with the remaining members in the underground temple. We also see that DES has completely occupied Akibastar turning it into a desolate city with depressing skies and leaving its citizens in a state of depression and weak-will for the D.G.T.O to inflict their influence on them (almost sounds like Seattle if you ask me). The girls continue to practice but they just can’t reach center-nova potential until Tsubasa shows them how it should be done which gets them motivated (she’s still got it). As they continue practicing a light glows which knocks them out. They have a dream where they’re riding a mysterious train that transports them to an Akibastar filled with light. On the other hand Nagisa and Chieri continue riding the train where they find Yuuko collapsed and struggling to climb a broken staircase to the original AKB Theater where Acchan and the other center novas are. Before they can grab Yuuko they wake up and inform Tsubasa of what they saw in which she suspects that Yuuko wasn’t able to fully obtain center nova status because of the way she disappeared and thus collapsed from the overwhelming pressure of it. The group arrives back in Akibastar where they receive a message from Sensei-sensei that tells them the key to taking back Akibastar will be the ones with No Name (really? Well thanks Sensei-sensei, that tells me ABSOLUTE SHIT! Be more specific lives are at risk man). They begin the concert with the successors but the crowd is not supporting them because they believe AKB betrayed them by retreating (did you not see DES try to capture them and ignoring you in the process? What the hell is wrong with you people?). The crowd begins throwing trash at them, flame bottles and telling them to leave (assholes, all of them you hear me, assholes). This in turn discourages the girls and begins to scare them to end the episode.
In the final episode the understudies do their performance while having faith that the fans will come around. While the concert is going on Acchan appears before the struggling Yuuko and tells her that the collective unconscious formed through dualium resonance transported the center nova to a space to keep on providing hope and light to humanity’s unconscious with their entertainment (https://youtu.be/2-WPlvZguZ4. Yes, I agree, what the hell is she talking about?). Okay, from what I can understand basically the center novas are in this alternate dimension where time doesn’t exist, free from DES’s reach where they sing so that the depths of humanity’s unconscious won’t be lost in despair saying that if entertainment does die, the hearts of people will be swallowed by despair and darkness. In other words, they’ll become like the people under the Entertainment Ban (or the assholes throwing fire at girls). In short, entertainment brings joy and light into the hearts of humanity whether its music, art, video games, a movie, etc. anything that brings joy into your life is a form of entertainment and you should cherish it no matter what, never losing or forgetting it. Going back to the concert the crowd still refuses to be swayed but Nagisa takes a stand saying that they can hate her all they want but don’t hate entertainment and music. After saying that she temporarily glows with the resonance that reminds the crowd of Acchan and begins developing a fever but chooses to continue performing. The concert continues with DES forces finally showing up but Yuuko also makes her return and joins the understudies in the concert. They begin to show pictures of Akibastar reminding the crowd of how much AKB loved and cared for them which turns the crowd around and they all unanimously agree that Nagisa is the next Acchan (hell yeah). DES begins attacking the group once again but they fight back; one of them tackles Suzuko to the ground in the rape position (I’m not kidding, it seriously looks like he’s about to rape her) but Chieri comes from behind to stop the assault and is about to kill the guy (https://youtu.be/qFYO43UCMYE) but after seeing the scared look in his face she withdraws her saber and begins to sing encouraging the others to fight DES with their music to show that even they have hearts (there’s still good within them. I can feel it). They continue to sing and their radiance continues to glow brighter. Hell, Chieri even stops a DES soldier dead in his tracks with her singing, that’s pretty cool and she finally becomes a center nova through her radiance (Chieri has unlock the Dues Ex Machina ability). A battleship shows up prepared to capture Chieri but with the combined radiance of Nagisa and everyone in the galaxy they get the DES fleet surrounding the planet to retreat and reclaim Akibastar for themselves proving once in for all that the galaxy is ruled by love and entertainment. Oh and the No Name that Sensei-sensei was going on about was actually nameless emotions across the galaxy gathered together to create one awesome radiance (he could of just said that from the beginning but you know what I’m not even mad about it, this concert was just freaking awesome I’ll let it slide). As the credits roll we see Akibastar getting rebuild and a special concert being held announcing Nagisa as the new Acchan and Chieri as the new center nova of AKB to end the season. It’s also hinted that the understudies have become the group No Name in the anime just like in real life.
Final Thoughts
YEAAAAHHHHHHHH! One of the best anime sequels to an anime I have ever seen! Everything feels so much bigger, well-written and organized; there is no wasted minute in the anime whatsoever. We see clearly how much everyone has grown from the first season, how their radiance is growing and becoming stronger and how they’re destined to become successors one day. The anime made a lot of promises this season and they delivered on all of them by having Nagisa become Acchan, Chieri become the center nova, and Mimori (a personal favorite character of mine) become a successor. The ending was great as well. This was the ending I was expecting in season 1, all the cards on the table, everyone turned against them, the fate of the galaxy in their hands, and in the end they pull it off with no bullshit whatsoever, this was all believable and I was on the edge of my seat wondering how it would end. The animation is good nothing all that different from the first season, the songs are roughly the same with a few new songs that are good to listen to and while the combat might have been a little less in this season the combat is rather more intense and the story and plot have taken a big leap forward this time around as well.
If I had to name one complaint it would have to be Wolfman, why did he want to find the center nova so much and why was he shot I really don’t understand the motive behind that. Other than that I really have no big complaints or problems with the anime. Not even the fact that we still have no idea what Sensei-sensei is or where he comes from I’m completely over it.
Is it better than the first season?
Did you not read my final thoughts; of course it’s better than the first season! If you liked the first season you’re definitely gonna love the second season.
Final score
The final score for AKB0048 Next Stage is 8.5/10 with an obvious must watch stamp of approval. This season saw the few mistakes the first season made, corrected them and became better than the first season. People of Japan, if you are reading this, please make one more season to end this series on a high note by having AKB and D.G.T.O have one big final showdown to decide the fate of the galaxy. If not, than I think the series ended off on a good note here but trust me, make one more season and you will have cemented this anime as being one of the best idol animes in the years to come. Alright, I think I need to take a break here. Thanks for reading, stay tune for more Idol arc, and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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