Project #20: The Idolm@ster Part 1

Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Seeing as we’re nearing the end of the idol arc I would like to talk about one more anime that got me interested in idol animes, the main reason I started the idol arc and an anime I feel sets the bar for idol animes now and in the future. The anime I am talking about is Idolm@ster the anime. Based off the Japanese arcade/console game, Idolm@ster is an exclusive life stimulation arcade game for Japan created by Namco Bandai in 2005 and released on the Xbox in 2007 with two other ports for the Playstation Portable and Nintendo DS. In the game you take on the role of the producer for a small production studio called 765 Productions that produces idols whose job is to make your idol the best idol possible. What made this series so great and popular was the number of characters to choose from. Most games usually give you 3 girls to choose from and they usually have the same story with a few changes here and there but in this game you got to choose from 12 girls (technically 13) who each had their own story and they weren’t just your phone-in girls. No, each girl had their own realistic personality and story which provided you plenty of replays just to see each ending for each girl and a great list of songs to listen to and performances to watch. Next to Hatsune Miku, Idolm@ster is considered the most popular virtual idol group in Japan with multiple games, mangas, and live performances where the voice actors go on stage and sing the songs from the games. There were also multiple anime adaptions of the series. The first one came out in 2007 and has no relation to the games except for the characters; the second one (which I’ll be focusing on) came out in 2011 and was produced by A-1 pictures, the same studio that made Sword Art Online, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, and Space Brothers (damn, arguably the 3 best animes of 2012 came from the same studio. Impressive). There’s also a third anime but I’ll get to that at another time, for now, let’s focus our attention on the 2011 and second anime adaption of the series simply known as The Idolm@ster.

Opening Theme

For this anime I’ll be skipping the ending theme since each episode has a different song for the end and just focus on the opening theme which is “Ready!!” sung by the 13 voice actors of the idols themselves. This song is very energetic and you feel happy watching it. When I first watched this opening it was unlike any opening I’ve ever seen, there’s just so much energy going in the song, it’s catchy, and surprisingly you can tell the 13 voice actors apart at some parts of the song. There’s really no exposition going on in the song whatsoever all we see is everyone who will play a major role in the anime in the opening and the song is just setting the mood for what you’re about to watch.

Episode 1-4

In the first episode we see the episode told through the perspective of a cameraman who’s following the idols around. *Grabs phone and dials in a number* (???): Hello, this is the police. (Nitsuj): Yeah, there’s this weird man following a 16 year old girl with a camera please be on standby in case something happens *hangs up*. The cameraman follows the daily life of the 12 main idols while also giving us a short interview with each asking why they became idols, who they are, and what their goals are (to become world class idols what else would their goal be). While this is all going on we get introduced to the idols we’ll be following throughout the course of the anime as well as the staff of 765 Pro. We have Haruka the clumsy girl who maintains a positive attitude with a smile on her face, Chihaya the very serious and mature girl, Miki the lazy but naturally gifted girl with big breast, Makoto the reverse trap character (I swear, when I first saw her I thought she was a boy), Yukiko the shy and timid girl, Iori the rich spoiled loli-bitch who is actually a good person, Yayoi the poor but cheerful/bright girl who cares about her family, Ami and Mami the young twins who are always energetic and enjoy playing pranks on people, Azusa the ditsy but reliable big sister, Hibiki the sporty girl who is an animal lover, Takane the sophisticated and funny girl who we know little about, and finally Ritsuko the smart caretaker of the idols who used to be an idol herself but stepped down and became a producer for the studio. I would normally name the voice actors around this part but since we have so many characters I’ll name the voice actors later in a side blog however I will address the elephant in the room and say that the voice actor of Yukiko is not the original voice actor from the games. In a majority of the games Yukiko is voiced Yurika Ochiai but in the anime and Idolm@ster 2 game she is voiced by Azumi Asakura (Asia from Highschool DxD). Yurika quit from her role as Yukiko and went to work for a new company much to fans disappointment and I said they like Yurika more than Azumi as Yukiko. Personally, I think Azumi does a good job as Yukiko matching her innocence and shyness perfectly and I didn’t notice the difference in the voice actors until I looked them up. It’s like Chie and Teddie’s English voice actors from Persona 4 they sound so good and similar to the original that you barely notice the change in voices (though to be fair Teddie’s was obvious). So in short, I liked Yurika as Yukiko; I think Azumi does a good job voicing Yukiko and I think both deserved to be liked equally. We also get a short interview with the staff of 765 Pro. We have Kotori (fan favorite) who acts like the secretary of 765 Pro and is usually seen mending the office work and providing support for everyone whenever they need it and the president of 765 Pro Junjiro Takagi voiced by Houchu Ohtsuka (Jiraya from the Naruto series. He’s also the Dandy Man from Hellsing Ultimate). At the end, after interviewing everyone and showing them the video we see that the cameraman is actually the new producer of 765 Pro named Producer voiced by Kenji Akabane whose real name is unknown. Yeah, we never really hear his real name or get his backstory in the anime; basically he’s supposed to be a representation of you the viewer, there to help make each idol successful.

In episode 2 the Producer along with Iori, Yayoi, Ami and Mami return to the office where they find out that all the auditions they tried out for this month ended in failure. Wondering why they failed the Producer takes a look at their profile pictures which is basically them in silly costumes and poses and decides that the group needs to re-shoot their photos in order to get a better impression at auditions (it’s true, photos are everything. I once had a profile picture on Facebook which showed me fighting a hoard of demons like Dante with a sword in one hand and a gun in the other. Sure I look cool and badass but I also scared away the employers and for that matter girls). So they all get together to take their photos but the younger idols Iori (14), Yayoi (13), Ami and Mami (12) decide they want to look more adult and stand out from the older idols. So they go into a dressing room where they put on excessive amount of make-up, wear high-heel shoes and torn dress, and stuff their shirts with tennis balls to make it look like they have big breast (I will not tolerate fake breast especially on lolis; and why tennis balls? Use padding). They come out of the dressing room and as you would imagine they look ridiculous like low-budget monster movie ridiculous (kill them with fire). They have a wardrobe malfunction (oh God no) where a tennis balls fall out of their dress and they slip on the floor collapsing (see, fake boobs cause nothing but trouble). After they go back to their original clothing they have a sit down with the Producer who tries to explain to them individuality. He does this by having them watch the other idols as they each show off their own individuality. We see how even though Haruka trips and falls a lot she still maintains a positive attitude with a smile on her face and Yukiko doesn’t do any special poses but instead just stands there and smile with a bouquet of flowers in her hands because that’s who she is. With a little extra help from Azusa, Miki, and Ritsuko the girls learn to just be themselves and take the photos naturally. The photos turn out to be a success and the young girls learn a valuable lesson.

Episode 3 focuses around Yukiko and her overcoming her fears. The episode starts with all of them driving to a small town called Furusato where they’ll be performing a mini concert at the town’s Summer Festival. When they get there they’re helped by the local men club who cause Yukiko much discomfort because she’s afraid of men. You heard correctly folks, a girl who is an idol is afraid of men. Why become an idol in the first place if you’re afraid of men? Doesn’t she know that a large majority of an idol’s fanbase is male-oriented? In the anime we’re told that the reason she became an idol in the first place was because she wants to become a stronger person which is admirable I give her credit for admitting she’s a coward and wanting to fix it but still there’s other ways to fix it like take up marital arts that way in case a man does try to attack you can just go Bruce Lee on his ass. So throughout the course of the episode we see the men try to lend Yukiko a helping hand out of kindness but she keeps getting scared, runs away, and tries to bury herself in a hole to hide (oh yeah, this is kind of a running gag in the anime, whenever Yukiko becomes too scared and can’t bear it anymore she pulls out a shovel from nowhere and tries to dig a hole to bury herself). I have heard from fans and others that the anime exaggerates Yukiko’s fear of men to the point of ridiculousness and that her fear isn’t as bad as the anime displays but I don’t know, I’ve read a few of the mangas based off the series and from my perspective it seems like they matched her fear up perfectly. But then again I could be wrong, like I said this series is a Japan exclusive you can only get it in Japan and even if you were to go online and special order it, it wouldn’t work on your game systems because a code is imprinted on the disc that prohibits systems that weren’t made in Japan from working. Which means my only resources are the information I get from fans, wikis, and manga. But I digress, thanks to the help of Makoto and Haruka she’s able to overcome her fear of men by talking to her (I would have just locked her in a room with one of them, these guys don’t seem like the rape-type they seem more like the consensual dog-style type). Speaking of dogs when she sees a dog is in the audience she starts to panic again because she also has a fear of dogs (okay 3 episodes into this series and I already have a least favorite character didn’t take you long anime. I’m sorry, I know I’m sounding mean and I understand that there are people who really are afraid of dogs but this is a small dog that could sit on your lap and not bother you. If it was a big dog I would understand but a small dog, come on?). She runs off the stage but the Producer counsels her saying that he’ll make sure the dog doesn’t come anywhere near her. After that she gets the courage to go back on stage and after a quick wardrobe change she goes on stage with Makoto and Haurka and perform one of her songs “Alright” (scene here: https://youtu.be/F-vxBVQ5ZN4). The concert ends in a big success and when they get back to the office the Producer gets pickled plums as a souvenir from Yukiko.

In episode 4 Haruka partnered with Chihaya and Hibiki partnered with Takane appear on a TV cooking show battle hosted by a frog hand puppet (and just like that the cooking show became stupid. Couldn’t you get someone more dignified like Kermit the Frog to be host instead of the sock puppet). Chihaya doesn’t seem to like the show (can’t say I blame her) because it has nothing idol-related in it and because they threw out a part in the show where they would be singing. Throughout the first half of the program the sock puppet host makes fun (more like obnoxiously makes fun) of the girls’ mistakes (to the point where you just wanna grab the damn sock puppet and burn it over the stove) while the cameraman takes shots at lewd angles of the girls (yeah because showing up skirt shots of underage girls is going to increase your viewership; Lord forbid you focus on what the idols are actually cooking). Chihaya becomes fed up with the treatment and announces her displeasure while still live but luckily Haruka breaks the tension and the show resumes. During the break Chihaya goes off to sing to calm herself where the Producer finds her, apologizes for putting her in this situation, and promises that he’ll get her more singing jobs in the future. As the show is about to resume the other idols tell Chihaya who is having a hard time expressing her emotions to express herself more to the audience like she’s singing a song to them (or just imagine yourself strangling the neck of the puppeteer that usually gets the other contestants to smile). This advice helps Chihaya in the show as she starts to have fun and show a little more emotion. The show ends successfully with Hibiki and Takane winning in the end. There’s also a funny little side story where Takane is fascinated with the frog suits they had to wear at the beginning of the show and tries to take one with her but is stopped by the Producer. I know it serves no relevance to the episode but the only thing I keep imagining is Takane wearing that suit outside and trying to cross the street like in a Frogger game. As they walk home the Producer offers to buy them sweets for a job well done (I’m talking about cake and not the treat in his pants) but Chihaya declines and goes to her apartment where she lives by herself due to family circumstances. The episode ends with the Producer realizing he needs to become more familiar with the idols (again, not a sexual way but a safe way).

Episodes 5-9

Episode 5 is our classic fanservice episode (wow already, it’s only the fifth episode). Actually, it’s not hardcore fanservice it’s more of the girls in swimsuits and nothing else. The episode starts off on a hot summer day in the office with the air conditioner broken. Since nobody has any jobs they all decide to go to the beach and have fun. Hibiki and Makoto get into a swimming race, Miki gets hit on by the local boys and the Producer gets buried and left in the sand by Ami and Mami (scene here: https://youtu.be/dTj_Ds3BsvI). Later that night they have a barbeque and shoot off fireworks (not the fireworks in the Producers pants but actual fireworks). While this is all going on Kotori who is still at the office (where’s the love for Kotori) receives a call from Junjiro confirming his approval for a new idol group called Ryugu Komachi an idol group consisting of Iori, Azusa, and Ami with Ritsuko as their producer (this group forms in the game Idolm@ster 2).

Moving right along to episode 6 the new group called Ryugu Komachi makes their debut and become popular. Because of their successful debut they start to land big gigs and even land a spot on a television show where they’ll be performing. Worried about the popularity of the other idols and not wanting to fall behind Ritsuko the Producer starts booking gigs and auditions for the remaining idols but he puts them in gigs that just don’t match or suit the idol’s character or personality. For example, he sends Takane to a photo shoot where they dress her up in kid’s clothing (trust me if you knew anything about her personality you would find this weird and creepy), Yukiko goes to a promotion that is male dominated and digs a hole right in the center of the stage, and probably the worst mistake of all is that he double-books Hibiki for a concert with Makoto when she’s doing a show with Haruka. Luckily, however, Miki steps in for Hibiki for the concert which shocks everyone because she’s never really been motivated or energetic to try out for auditions all that much. In fact, up until this point all we’ve seen her do is lay around the office sleeping and eating (she’s like Garfield if he was a girl, hot, lost all that weight and had nice boobs). The reason for this sudden burst of energy and motivation is because she sees the costumes that Ryugu Komachi gets to wear and wants to join them (really, that’s all it took to motivate her? Girls) and after a misunderstanding between her and the Producer she gets the false idea that if she works hard enough Ritsuko will let her into Ryugu Komachi. She arrives at the concert and in a short amount of time learns all the dance steps from Makoto and the performance goes off flawlessly (*nothing happens*. . . I said flawlessly. . .*looks around the room*. . . oh I get it, I said flawlessly instead of flawless. (???): Absolutely flawless. (Nitsuj): There it is). Later that day when everyone is gathering in the office to watch the performance of Ryugu Komachi on television the Producer apologizes for his mistakes and panic over the idols and promises to do a better job in the future. The episode ends with them watching the performance of Ryugu Komachi’s new hit Smoky Thrill (scene here: https://youtu.be/NP2-PY6tnoA).

Episode 7 focuses on Yayoi the energetic girl who comes from a poor family but still manages to maintain a cheerful attitude. After Iori humiliates herself on live television when she forces an interviewer at her family estate to focus on her rather than talk about her father and older brothers she gets scolded by the Producer the next day and ignores his advice about asking him for help. While Iori and Hibiki talk about how their older siblings look down on them they ask Yayoi if she ever argues with her younger siblings since she’s the oldest out of them to which she replies no (oh come now, all siblings have a fight here and there especially sisters). Yayoi invites them over for dinner where they meet her 5 younger siblings and Iori gets to learn about the lifestyle of a commoner (it sucks). At dinner Chosuke the eldest next to Yayoi hits his little brother for trying to steal his food to which Yayoi tells him to apologize but he angrily refuses and runs away. Becoming worried about him Yayoi and Hibiki go to search for him around the town with the Producer who Iori calls up for help (it’s not like she did it because she relies on you). Iori finds Chosuke in the family toolshed (ha, toolshed) where he explains that he wants to help and support Yayoi but he keeps constantly getting into fights with her. Iori gives him advice that instead of running away to man up and tell Yayoi how he feels (become a man *punches nearby hardcover book*). He reunites with Yayoi and apologizes to her and the next morning Yayoi is surprised to see her brother up before her and goes to wake the younger siblings for her showing that he can be reliable and should rely on him more at home.

In episode 8 we center on Azusa who has dreams of one day meeting her destined one and getting married. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why she became an idol in the first place. Also, I like this episode a lot because it focuses on my 3 favorite idols in the game; Miki, Makoto and Azusa; if I had the game and formed a group these 3 would be the idols I choose with Miki as the center. In the episode the girls are modeling as a bride (Azusa), bridesmaid (Miki) and groom (Makoto) (this sounds like the beginning of a lame joke) for a magazine. While talking to one of her friends on her cellphone Azusa bumps into a runaway bride who drops her engagement ring and it gets picked up by Azusa. The bodyguards who were chasing the runaway bride (who look exactly like Jorgun and Balinbow Bakusa from Gurren Lagann) mistake Azusa for the runaway bride and kidnap her. Makoto sees all of this happens, informs the Producer and they go after them while Miki stays behind and keeps the cameraman busy. In the car the bodyguards realize they grabbed the wrong person (how the hell they did that is beyond me because Azusa and the runaway bride look nothing a like) and drop off Azusa on the sidewalk. As Azusa tries to find a taxi to get back to the photo shoot she keeps helping out other people and getting lost because she has no sense of direction (the female version of Zoro). While this is going on the bodyguards find the runaway bride and demand that she give back the engagement ring that Azusa still has in her possession. They try to find her and cross paths with Makoto in Chinatown who mistakes the runaway bride for Azusa (how! They look nothing alike! Azusa has short blue hair and the runaway bride has long red hair! How do you get those two mixed up, are you blind!?). Makoto fights them in two well-done fight scenes in which she beats them (you got your asses handed to you by a 16 year-old girl!? My God, how did you guys become bodyguards, this is ridiculous! You grab the wrong bride and lose to a girl who we’re not entirely sure has any martial arts background and yet you still have the balls to call yourself bodyguards!? No, I’m better off having the guards from the Mushroom Kingdom guard me and we all know how much those guys suck). They all finally find where Azusa is and immediately go to meet her followed by the shop owners whose shops were damaged in the fight and all the people Azusa helped out. Coincidently Miki and the photo crew have moved to where Azusa is and the photographer takes a picture of the wild mindfuck chase (trust me; there are no words to describe the sheer amount of craziness in this chase sequence). After all the misunderstandings are cleared Azusa returns the ring, the runaway bride meets the groom and falls for him (I would call her a shallow bitch but to be fair the groom is a nice and handsome fellow. No homo), he pays for all the damage caused by the misunderstanding, and the chase photo of Azusa becomes a major hit.

In episode 9 we get a nice thriller episode starring the devilish twins Ami and Mami. After filming a TV mini-drama, Ryugu Komachi along with Ritsuko return to the office to have some pudding Iori bought but when she opens the fridge the pudding is gone (you should have placed a note tag on them). Suspecting one of the other idols is the culprit Ami and Mami play detective interrogating the others with their silly antics. I have to admit it is quite funny seeing them take this case seriously while everyone else thinks they’re just playing around and trying to be funny. When Ami has to go out for a radio interview, Mami drags the Producer to a stakeout waiting to interrogate Hibiki where she reveals that she’s bored and lonely without Ami and that she hopes to become just as famous as her one day and be together again. After interrogating almost everyone they have everyone in the office pull a scary prank on Haruka, Chihaya, and Miki in which Miki reveals that she ate the pudding (yeah, I ate the pudding, what are you gonna do about it motherfucker). With the case solve Miki explains that the reason she ate it was because someone ate her jelly dessert in which the twins accidently say they ate it which angers everyone in the office and they begin to chase them. After the credits Miki explains further that when she went to get the pudding there was only one left instead of many. We then see unknown to everyone that it was actually Azusa who ate the pudding that morning despite being on a diet.

Episode 10 takes us for a change of pace where we see the girls attend an Idol sports competition (someone seriously poured money into this?) where idols from different agencies come together and compete in sports. Despite not coming in 1st in a majority of the events the girls maintain a positive attitude and win the favor of the audience with their charm. This episode also gives us a cameo appearance from the boy idol group Jupiter who will play a key role in the anime much later and an appearance from Ai, Eri and Ryo the idols from 876 Pro who are good friends with the idols from 765 Pro. The 876 Pro idols are new idols that make their debut and are the main heroines in the Nintendo DS game The Idolm@ster: Dearly Stars. This game was quite different from the others; in this game the player takes on the role of the idol rather than the producer. The other idols make an appearance as well but they’re just there for moral support. When Makoto and Iori participate in the three-legged race they get into a fight and Makoto injures her knee (I’m surprise it wasn’t the ankle. That’s what it usually is). They decide to drop Makoto from the relay race but once the girls find out that another idol group called Yayoi a burden to the agency (tell me who said that, I’ll find them and make them experience the 13th stage of Hell) they become more determined to win and Makoto decides to stay in the relay race. The race begins and through the power of teamwork (I’m sure friendship is somewhere in there as well) Yayoi regains her confidence and Makoto pulls an upset win for the group. At the end, 765 Pro wins the whole thing and they have a celebration back at the office with 876 Pro.

Episodes 11-13

In episode 11 the girls finally get their big break as the Producer announces that there’s going to be a big concert in which they’ll all be performing. Even though Ryugu Komachi is the main event the girls are pumped because they get to be on stage and perform a new song and dance routine. So throughout most of the episode we see the girls practice in which some of them (namely Yukiko) have trouble getting the dance routine down. Yukiko feels like quitting because she can’t keep up with the others (you coward! See, this is why she’s my least favorite idol, she makes a resolve to become stronger and never give up but yet she does stuff like this which just agitates me). After a quick pep-talk from Takane, Yukiko decides to stay and becomes more determine. Inspired by this Chihaya decides to help Haruka with her vocal training (oh that won’t be necessary we got Link training her: https://youtu.be/0GvtVsFHh9E, see, she’s in good hands). While all of this is going on the girls are also studying for their upcoming exams at school (you wanna talk about hell there’s your hell on earth right there). As a few days go by the girls ace their exams (I assume we never see the results) and through their hard-work and determination they perfect the routine for the new song. But all is not well in 765 Pro for when Miki goes to ask Ritsuko about joining Ryugu Komachi, Ritsuko explains that she’s not looking to add more members. On the day after exams as the girls prepare for practice the Producer receives a text message from Miki calling him a liar (Miki: You said you take my virginity first).

In episode 12 the Producer and the girls begin to worry about Miki since she hasn’t been coming to practice for the past few days and the concert is only days away. After a talk with Ritsuko the Producer realizes the mistake he made, calls her to get her to come back and stop being selfish but she refuses to come back and says that she’s done being an idol because she can’t join Ryugu Komachi. Angered by this, Kotori calms the Producer down by explaining to him that Miki is a teenage girl and should consider her feelings (I should rant about this but in Kotori’s defense she is right. A teenage girl is at her craziest in her teenage years, they won’t listen to reason or logic they’ll just listen to their emotions and according to Miki’s emotions she wants to join Ryugu Komachi).

Of course, if you were to ask me I think the reason Miki is taking this so hard is because for the first time in her life she’s tried really hard to get something and she can’t have it. In the games we’re told Miki is a natural, she’s been able to do everything very easily in life while everyone else has a tough time. Now let’s say you had this natural gift like Miki and through the course of your life you’ve done everything with ease (score high on test, great at sports, musically gifted, etc.) and for the first time you see something that you really wanna do or want so you work hard at getting it and then at the end you’re told no. So because of this you feel devastated and feel as if you’ve hit a wall and have no idea what to do next. This is how Miki feels; confused, shocked, sad and angry all at the same time and she doesn’t know how to handle them so the only logical way to deal with the situation from her perspective is to just remove the situation from her life all together and move on to something else.

The Producer decides to go out, find Miki who is walking around town going wherever she pleases and bring her back. He finally finds her and chases her down where he apologizes for his mistakes and asks her to come back which she refuses to do (typical teenage girl here folks). He continues to follow her around town trying to convince her to come back and they have what I guess you could consider a date until they come to lake in which Miki expresses herself by talking about how much she admires ducks because they always go with the flow of things moving at their own pace (suddenly Daffy Duck’s character is starting to make sense to me). She says that she’s going to quit becoming an idol because she can’t join Ryugu Komachi and wear their cool costumes (again with the costumes, if this is what it’s all about be a cosplayer) but the Producer convinces her that it’s her turn to have the spotlight and that he believes she can become more popular than them. After they promise each other that the Producer will never lie to her again, make her famous, and make her experience more exciting things (Alright boys move in! Take him down!) and she promises to maintain that enthusiasm she had when trying to join Ryugu Komachi they return to the office, she apologizes, tries on her costume for the concert and everything gets resolved.

The day of concert finally arrives in episode 13 but complications have a risen. First off is Ryugu Komachi being late to the show because they get caught in the middle of a typhoon and all transit trains are shut down so they’re force to drive to the concert only to be stuck in traffic. So because of this the concert gets push back in hour to stall for time and when they can’t stall anymore they change the lineup and have the idols that are there perform. At first they do a good job singing a majority of the songs we’ve heard from the past episodes (trust me there were a lot of them) but the audience starts to get bored and lose interest. More problems arise backstage when some of the girls start to panic and the Proudcer realizes that they mistakenly setup Miki to perform 2 consecutive performances that require intense dance performances and vocals. But despite this mistake Miki says she’ll do it and goes on stage to perform the two songs which are Day of the future and Heart of the Marionette which she sings both of them amazingly and gets the crowd pumped again (scene here: https://youtu.be/Qf16xr-DTno). After giving her a short rest the group goes back on stage to perform their newest song Rest@rt which is not only an awesome song but it happens in what I consider to be the greatest animated performance I’ve ever seen (performance here: https://youtu.be/G_8CK4fntAM). I mean it, I have no problems with this scene whatsoever, this scene captures the hype and energy that you see in almost every real life Japanese concert (if you’ve ever seen a real life Japanese concert you know what I’m talking about and you haven’t go to youtube and type in m-flo live or your favorite Japanese band live and you’ll see what I’m talking about); it literally feels as if I’m there watching a real life concert. I love the audience chanting (it’s contagious), the song, the dance, the animation anything within this scene I love it. Another cool thing imo is that the idols aren’t in 3-D animation throughout this entire scene like we see in AKB0048 and Love Live they still maintain that same animation they had throughout the anime so far. That is cool! Don’t get me wrong I like the 3-D animation in AKB and Love Live but to have the idols perform a realistic dance routine without having to turn the characters into 3-D models and have them stick to their original animation is something worth praising. As their finishing up the song Ryugu Komachi finally arrives and they take over the rest of the concert. But who wants to see them after that awesome performance the others just did. Oh man, this episode had a lot of energy and excitement in it. I need take a little break otherwise I’m gonna pass out. Okay, we’re gonna stop here for now, the final score will on hold and I’ll return next week to finish things up. I’ll see you next time.

To be continued. . .

*All videos, music, and pictures used in this blog do not belong to me and belong to their respect owners. All rights reserved*

Thanks for reading, as always feel free to leave a comment, feedback, or request in the comment section below or send themiamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com

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