(Isis): Is it done yet? Please say it’s done. (Nitsuj): Patience girl, you can’t rush art. (Isis): And you shouldn’t keep a lovely lady waiting. (Nitsuj): Oh, hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Things got a little exciting last week so I decided to take some days to relax, catch-up on some video games and design some new outfits for Isis since she’s been complaining that her Tron Legacy look is out of style. (Isis): It is out of style and you said you were going to make a long range rifle for me as well. (Nitsuj): You just wanna snipe me from a distance in case I piss you off. (Isis): And what is wrong with that? (Nitsuj): There, all done, give them a try Isis. *Isis tries on the first outfit which is a Chinese dress* (Isis): Well, this is quite lovely, although I feel it shows off my legs a little too much. *Tries on the maid outfit next which has a mini skirt* (Isis): Would you me like to fill you with holes master? (Nitsuj): Hey that maid outfit is a classic look plus I think it brings out your curves. *Isis tries on the final outfit which is the Velvet Room outfit from the Persona series* (Isis): Ohh, this one is very nice; I see that you favored Elizabeth’s attire and added your own personal touch to it. *Looks for more clothes* is that it, what happen to the Vocaloid outfit I requested? (Nitsuj): The Vocaloid outfit is gonna take a little more time to make so I figured these could hold you over until then. (Isis): You had 7 days! 7 days! How could you not have time to finish that outfit *puffs out her cheeks*? (Nitsuj): Now, now, don’t give me that look, Rome wasn’t built in a day you know and besides good things comes to those who wait. Speaking of waiting, I think it’s time we ended the Idol arc with a bang and finished the Idolm@ster anime.
Opening theme
After episode 13 we get a new opening called Change once again sung by the idols. I actually like this opening more than the first opening. While the first opening started off slow and started to speed up as the sung went on this opening starts off quick and lets you feel energetic the minute you hear it. The animation is also a lot better in this opening as we see the girls appear on shows and radio stations to show that they’re growing more and more popular. However, there is one scene in this opening that does piss me off. In the opening for a few seconds they show Hibiki, Miki, and Takane in an interview in vampire girl costumes. In the games these three form a group called Project: Fairy and the costumes they wear are for their song “Kyun! Vampire Girl” which is a very good song. Why am I upset by this? Well it’s because this group never forms in the anime and is just there to tease us. And it is a shame because it’s a waste; it’s a waste because this group would have been a great rival group for Jupiter you’ll be seeing in the second part of the anime.
Episodes 14- 18
In episode 14 we see that summer has gone and past (wake me up when September ends) and fall is upon them. We see that thanks to the success of their concert the girls have become popular and are getting all kinds of jobs to appear on TV, radio shows, magazines, concerts, and merchandise. Hell, they’ve become so popular that they have to wear disguises out in public so not to attract attention. We also see that Miki has developed feelings for the Producer as she’s constantly talking to him, asking for his opinion and calling him Honey because he’s special to her (well if you got the honey stop acting funny). After finishing up a photo shoot of them dressed up as fruit for a magazine (looks like The Fruit Guys for Fruit of the Loom are being replaced) they go off to do their own jobs and return to the office where Iori comes barging in pissed off (oh God, is it her time of the month again). Actually, the reason she’s pissed off is because the magazine that they were supposed to appear on the cover of dropped them and replaced them with Jupiter the boy band that we saw in episode 10. They try calling the office to get an explanation for this but they wave them off and Junjiro comes in and informs them that he thinks this is the work of Kuroi the president of 961 Pro which is the huge rival studio of 765 Pro and the producer of Jupiter. He’s voiced by Takehito Koyasu (Raiser from High School DxD). Junjiro explains that a long time ago he and Kuroi use to be friends but they had an argument about how to promote their idol and went their own separate ways in which Kuroi vowed that he would crush Junjiro’s company by any means necessary. These two guys are like yin and yang; Kuroi believes that you should do anything legally or illegally to promote your idols and spread lies about your opponents to make them look bad. He also tends to look at his idols as tools focusing only on their appeal and talent rather than their abilities. He also seems to have an obsession with the color black and X’s, everytime we see him in his office he’s always playing a board game by himself (i.e Othello and chess) and making a black X in the middle of the board with the pieces. Junjiro is the exact opposite, he believes and puts his trust in his idols promoting them as themselves, not using underhanded tactics and focusing on their talents and abilities to pull them through. Because of this he does his best not to interfere with them and only help out when he needs to. His philosophy is that an idol is at their best when they’re happy. Also, just like Junjiro we never see Kuroi’s face. The girls are pissed off by this and attempt to confront Kuroi but the Producer, Ritsuko, and Junjiro calm them down and tell them to beat him fair and square (take the bat and hit the ball and not his head).
In episode 15 we break that dark tone of the previous episode by having the girls star in a Sunday comedy variety show called “Are We Live?”. In the show Haruka, Chihaya, and Miki are the MCs while the other idols do segments throughout the show such as the Hibiki challenge where Hibiki tries to run a marathon to the studio before it ends and winds up getting lost in the mountain (they didn’t have the camera crew show her where to go? Assholes). Iori, Yayoi and Azusa go to a kindergarten where they sing with the kindergartners, Makoto tries to wear girly clothes to show off her feminine side but Yukiko quickly fixes that, Takane goes ramen tasting with Ami and Mami, they show a trailer for an upcoming mecha movie that stars the idols (no doubt a joke at the Xenoglossia anime) and probably the most funniest moment in the episode is when Haruka is trying to open a box and the lid just smacks her right in the face and we see Chihaya hold her laughter in throughout the show after it happened (scene here: https://youtu.be/QaI6gpz-1YQ). All in all this episode is full of laughs and is probably the most light-hearted episode in the series.
Episode 16 centers around Hibiki who’s having an argument with her dog about the food she and the rest of the animals are being fed (yeah, Hibiki can understand animals; she’s like Eliza from the Wild Thornberry’s. Man, talk about old school, I bet a majority of you have no idea what I’m talking about). Because of her busy schedule Hibiki has been feeding her animal dried food instead of cooking them food which has made them upset so her dog Inumi confronts her about the issue in the office (and surprisingly everyone is not questioning their argument). After their argument is over Inumi stays within the office corner while Hibiki goes off to star in a show that clearly rips-off the Crocodile Hunter. As she makes her way to the show Kuroi hatches a plan to get Hibiki kicked off by having her pair up with a disgusting untrained dog and having one of the crew members leave Hibiki stranded on the side of a cliff so that Jupiter can take her spot on the show (*shakes fist in the air* Kuroi~). While stranded on the cliff Hamuzo runs back to 765 Pro to get help from Inumi and Hibiki realizes how she hasn’t been taking good care of her animals due to her busy schedule and vows to apologize to her friends when she gets back. Hamuzo returns with the other animals and they rescue Hibiki (how, I have no idea, but if they can all travel to a cliff unnoticed by the public eye and not get captured by animal control I’ll believe anything). They make it back to the set in time to film the show and Kuroi leaves the place along with Jupiter who are convince that 765 Pro did that on purpose to mock them and are being deceived by Kuroi into believing that 765 Pro is using dirty tricks to get to the top (betrayed by the ones closest to them).
Episode 17 centers on Makoto who has become quite popular because of her handsome and prince-like looks that drives the girls wild (we’ll I suppose it’s better than girls swooning over bland boy idols like Justin Beiber and One Direction. Seriously, what do girls see in those guys, they’re so bland that they make the low-budget store-owned cardboard cereal look good). While she appreciates the fame and her female fans she wishes that they would admire her as a girl instead of a boy (and I wish America had a channel that shows anime both past and present 24/7 but you don’t see me whining about it). After appearing on a talk show and getting into a fight with one of the members from Jupiter and Kuroi who insults her tomboyish looks she decides to let off some steam (oh God no) by going on a date with the Producer (meh, we’re kinda in the middle of right and wrong here). On the date Makoto reveals that she became an idol behind her father’s back to break free of her tomboy image and become a princess because her father raised her as a boy instead of a girl. So wait, she became an idol behind her father’s back and the guy hasn’t found out yet. How is that possible, he must have seen his daughter on TV or in the news by now or at least wonder where she goes after school? On the date a group of thugs harass two girls and Makoto comes to their rescue. One of the thugs throws a punch at her but the Producer takes the hit for her. After settling down the Producer explains to Makoto that she’s fulfilling the wish of her fangirls by playing the role of the princely idol and should do her best with that role. Understanding all of this they ride on the merry go round and the episode ends with Makoto rubbing it into everyone that she had a date with the Producer. In episode 18 Ritsuko comes out of retirement to perform on stage with Iori and Ami while Azusa is out sick with the mumps. Throughout the episode Ritsuko goes through intense training to get back into her idol shape and on the day on the performance she gets stage fright but after Iori and Ami show a prerecorded message from Azusa thanking her for being their producer and believing in them and seeing a surprise appearance from Petit Bellpepper (a big time fan of Ritsuko) and her fan club in the audience, her stage fright vanishes and she’s able to perform on stage with Iori and Ami.
Episodes 19-22
Episode 19 centers around Takane who is the most mysterious out of all the idols because we know so little about her. We’re never told where she comes from, why she’s an idol and why Takane is Takane. In the episode Kuroi hires a photographer to follow Takane around to find her hidden secrets. When he’s following her, he takes a picture of her having lunch with the owner of another production company and the media along with everyone at 765 think she’s joining that studio. Takane and the Producer explain that it’s all a lie and opt to not comment on the issue until the owner of the studio returns from a business trip. While the girls are relieved that the story is false they decide to keep an eye on Takane because she’s been acting weird as of late (like, really weird even for Takane). At an event where Takane is named Police chief for a day (God help us all) the photographer shows up and the Producer tries to take him down but gets taken down instead (wow, fail. Actually, to be fair, the photographer does know karate) but Takane takes him down and the owner of the other production company shows up and puts the rumors to rest. As we end the episode we see a cover story centering on Chihaya and how she is responsible for her younger brother’s death that was submitted by Kuroi (*shakes fist in air* Kuroi~).
We open episode 20 with Junjiro explaining that when Chihaya was 8 her younger brother Yu, died in a car accident as he was crossing the street to meet up with Chihaya. While nobody blames Chihaya for what happened she still feels guilty and blames herself for not being able to save him. In the article they slander her by suggesting that Chihaya just stood there and watch her brother die while doing nothing and that she was responsible for her parent’s divorce (what the hell is wrong with this guy, the girl lost her younger brother right in front of her eyes and you slander her by saying she wanted to kill him. You are scum). Because of this entire trauma she becomes unable to sing and goes on hiatus where she reveals to Haruka that the reason she became an idol was to sing in the memory of Yu who loved to hear her sing. While all of this is going on Jupiter finally learns about Kuroi’s sneaking tactics and tells him to stop saying they don’t need to resort to such low tactics and that they can beat the idols themselves (woah, whole new respect for Jupiter right here but I don’t think you guys could win. Sure you’ll get the females but the idols will bring in the males and since they have Makoto I think you can expect to lose about 1/3 female of your female fans to her). As a few days past Chiyaya remains locked her apartment where she lives alone and Haruka tries her best to help her but Chihaya snaps at her and tells her to leave her alone and mind her own business. As she’s walking away from the apartment Haruka runs into Chihaya’s mom who hands her a sketchbook that belonged to Yu and just vanishes (no, I’m serious she just vanishes. Or was she even there to begin with). Haruka takes a look inside the book and sees drawings (bad drawings but still) of Chihaya singing and smiling. She shows this to the others who are all surprised to see Chihaya smiling since for the time she’s been with the group she barely smiled. They all come to the conclusion that Yu just wanted to hear her sing because he wanted to see his big sister happy (what a thoughtful little brother). They decide to write a song expressing their feelings for Chihaya (I hope their writing about their friendship and not any secret romantic feelings) hoping that she’ll show up and sing it for an upcoming autumn concert. The day of the concert arrives and Chihaya shows up apologizing to Haruka for her harsh words and going on stage alone to sing the song. At first she’s unable to sing but when Haruka and the others come out and begin singing for her and she sees ghost of herself and Yu she overcomes her trauma and finishes the song herself (many tears were shed during this song and scene: https://youtu.be/vHyv7cJRvYE). I have to admit when I first watch the series I was astonished by this episode at how they were able to pull off such a touching and emotional story in it. Usually these kinds of scenarios take like 2 or 3 episodes to accomplish but they did it in just one, that’s very impressive.
In episode 21 thanks to a magazine article written by Yoshizawa (a friend of Junjiro) the rumors about Chihaya end and in good time as the girls are preparing for another concert called Idol Jam where Jupiter is performing as well. Kuroi stilled pissed that his plans failed decides to sabotage them at Idol Jam by tricking their hair and makeup stylish into not coming and force the sound technicians not to play their music (*shakes fist in the air* Kuroi~). But the girls aren’t fazed by this and decide to do the makeup and hair themselves and when Chihaya goes on stage to sing she sings the song acapella style with the crowd being mesmerized by her singing that the sound technicians put the music back on. While all of this is going on Jupiter confront Kuroi and say they’ve had enough of his dirty tactics and quit 961 Pro (scene here: https://youtu.be/OG08ekpb3ms). The concert is successful and in order to celebrate Jinjuro takes them to a restaurant where not only is Kuroi there having a drink but Kotori comes out on stage and begins to sing. While she’s singing we see that Kotori was once an idol under the production of Kuroi and Junjiro when they were still friends. After talking about the past Kuroi leaves and we end the episode with everyone talking about how amazing Kotori was on stage and how she’s happy just singing every once and a while.
In episode 22 its Christmas time and even during this season our idols are busy doing mini-concerts, variety shows and specials. Haruka wants to celebrate a Christmas Eve party with everyone but with their new fame it might not be possible. However, Haruka still holds on to hope that everyone will be free for the party. As she finishes up her dance lessons Haruka accepts that not everyone will be able to make it and decides to make the best of it by buying a cake and the Producer a new wallet since his old one is falling apart. She arrives back at the office with Chihaya and much to their surprise everyone managed to make it because the Producer rescheduled their gigs. With Miki and the Producer showing up late together (looks like somebody got an early Christmas present) Junjiro announces that Miki won the Shining Idol New Artist Award. As the party continues they eat cake, Junjiro does magic tricks and they also celebrate Yukiko’s birthday.
Episodes 23-26
In episode 23 we take a walk on the sad side with everything going bad (from a certain perspective) for the group. In the episode Haruka is looking forward to a dance rehearsal with everyone as they prepare for their New Year’s concert but everyone is too busy which upsets Haruka and makes her start to feel lonely and depressed as she’s unable to practice and be with her friends. To make matter worse their “Are We Live!” show is being canceled to free up the Sunday timeslot for other programs (no doubt something stupid and mind-numbingly boring that you wonder how it passes for entertainment). At a play audition where Haruka and Miki are trying out for the starring role, the Producer arrives and gives them a snack where he notices that Haruka seems to be troubled and tells her that if anything is on her mind she should come to talk to him but Miki comes in and interrupts their talk. As Haruka is walking away she’s about to fall into a hole in the stage but the Producer manages to pull her to safety however he falls in the hole and becomes seriously injured and is rushed to the emergency room where Junjiro, Ritsuko, Kotori, Miki and Haruka wait sadly (https://youtu.be/DeaIjUUSBDU, I couldn’t resist).
We open episode 24 where the previous episode left with them finding out that the Producer will live but he’ll be hospitalized for a while (he was saved. . . by SCIENCE). Haruka returns to the rehearsal the next day where she channels all her grief into her role and manages to land the leading role over Miki. But she’s unhappy about it and pleads with Ritsuko to rearrange or cancel her current gigs so that she can practice for the New Year’s concert with everyone but Miki comes in and tells Haruka to stop being selfish and asks Haruka why she wanted to be an idol in the first place to which Haruka can’t remember, loses what little confidence she had left and has a mental break down (if you could see the scene of her breakdown you probably send her to a mental ward). Because of this breakdown she takes a leave of absence to settle down and rest. One day, when she goes to run an errand for her mother she runs into a group of kindergartners who look like younger versions of the idols and begins to sing with them until she sees a younger version of herself (and she’s seriously lost it). Her younger self takes her to the stadium where they had the Thank-You concert in episode 13 (ahh good times right there) and she finally remembers why she became an idol. . . oh, you want me tell you, sure. She became an idol because she enjoys singing and dancing and that it’s something she’s always wanted to do. While this is all going on Chihaya goes to consult the injured Producer about Haruka and when she gets everyone together she expresses that the reason Haruka was trying so hard to get everyone together was because she was trying to reunite the bonds they all shared because they’ve all been busy with work. As Haruka is walking back to the office she sees a live broadcast of the idols announcing their New Year’s concert and apologizing to Haruka for not realizing what she was doing. The episode ends with her reuniting with everyone right in front of the office and getting ready for the concert.
In the final episode the day of the concert comes and Producer has managed to sneak out of the hospital and go to the concert to give the girls words of encouragement for the concert. The concert begins with the girls singing a combination of the 2 openings (scene here: https://youtu.be/KEAoe5ktmD8). After that they have a short talk with the audience where they announce their about to sing a new song called Watashi-tachi wa Zutto… Deshou? (translation: We would much. . .?) and they invite Ritusko to come out and join them which she does (scene here: https://youtu.be/mdi4aUeXxf0). During the song we get a montage of the series and Junjiro, Kotori, and the Proudcer being proud at how much the girls have grown. Once the concert is all over we cut to the beginning of spring where the Producer is all well, they find out that “Are We Live?” has been renewed and they’re moving into a bigger office building using the company’s earnings. But they get a nasty surprise when they find out that the building where the new office is going to be is owned by Kuroi but it has also declared bankruptcy (do it with me everyone *shakes fist in the air* Kuroi~). Despite this setback the group looks to the future with confidence and they end the series celebrating Hanami (flower viewing).
Episode 26 is an ova episode that aired 6 months after the original anime ended. The episode is basically a collection of short stories of the day to day activities of the group such as the girls going Karaoke (scene here: https://youtu.be/yeLgO91pP24), Azusa starring in a movie, some more clips from “Are We Live?” and probably the most epic of them all is the dreaded battle over the rotating sushi between Takane and Toma (scene here: https://youtu.be/xrFFqhrx9VY).
Final Thoughts
This anime is fantastic, this anime has truly set the bar for how an idol anime should be done correctly and can be considered the reason why we’re seeing so many idol animes as of late. The story is great, it keeps processing while also introducing the characters without taking a detour or stopping to introduce new characters since they’re already establish characters. The animation is nice, while not having as many aspects as the previous animes I’ve reviewed this month this animation seems a bit more lively and real to me. Once again the characters are the real highlight of this anime; each character is unique, has their personality that when you see them you don’t even think of them as animated characters you see them and think “yeah, that’s a real-life girl; I could see her existing in the real world”. When you see a tomboy like Makoto you don’t just see someone pretending to be this character you actually see Makoto. Chances are you are or probably know someone like Makoto who’s a total tomboy but can still act like a girl. I liked what they did with Haruka in this anime as well. For a while now fans have complained that Haruka was a 1-dimensonal character who always had this “everything is wonderful” attitude; it was nice to see her go through things that were too much for her and suffer through them to show that she does struggle, she does have problems, and that she can have a breakdown from them like a real person does. This adds to her character and shows that she’s not always the happy optimistic girl we always but instead a teenage girl who has a way of dealing with things in her own ways and when they become too much for her it shows.
The side characters are also great; the Producer as I said before is a representation of you the viewer he has little personality but not to the point where he’s an empty dull character and his character is at the point where can say “if I was in his position I would have done the same thing or something like that”. Kotori while not getting enough screen time as she deserves manages to get a few laughs out of you when she’s seen, sort of acts like a big sister to the group with Ritsuko and keeps you wanting to know more about her. In fact, in episode 21 she practically stole the show when she appeared on stage and began to sing. Junjiro is good, he fills in the role as president nicely and acts like the father of the group by believing in the group’s abilities and being there whenever they need him without trying to force himself on them or try to change them from being who they really are. Kuroi is a good antagonist in this anime, you will seriously come to hate this guy for what he does to the idols espically to Chihaya just because he has pent up anger against Junjiro. He wants to promote his idols more and has the best of intentions for them but the way he shows them is just wrong and the way he thinks of his idols as just tools shows that he lacks trust from them because he’s been hurt in the past and doesn’t want to experience that pain again. Jupiter was alright, we never really got a chance to know them a lot but I do applaud them for standing up to Kuroi and wanting to face the girls on even ground and not rely on tricks or under-handed tactics to win.
The songs are amazing and fun to listen to. There are a ton of songs used throughout this anime that I didn’t even name half of them, I just focused on the big ones that left the most impact and had a performance to go along with them. I think in each episode we got like one insertion song if not more to go into the episode and we got a different ending theme song for each episode so counting the openings that’s already 54 songs right there and there are many more songs that the anime never used.
My only complaint for the anime is that there is clearly favoritism being shown in the anime mostly around Haruka, Chihaya and Miki which I sort of understand because these 3 are considered to be the main idols in the games and are often considered the main heroines of the franchise. Also, some of the personal episodes that centered on a certain idol didn’t do a good job at making us know who they are or why they act the way they do. A majority of them are done correctly but there are 3 or 4 episodes that fail hard. For example in Takane and Hibiki’s episode we focused more on the story around them and other characters instead of on them who we know so little about, this would have been a good chance to go a little more in-depth of who they are and why they became idols in the first place. Another example is Yukiho, why is she afraid of men so much, was there some sort of bad experience she had with them that traumatize her or something? We never get an answer to that question, it would have been good to finally see and hear the backstory of why Yukiho has this fear. That kind of fear had to be something she learned because the only fear we as human-beings are born with is the fear of death everything else that we fear is learned. And Iori didn’t even get a personal episode that centered on her unless you consider episode 2 to be her episode in which case it did a poor job centering around her because we still don’t know a thing about her.
Final Score
The Idolm@ster anime scores a very enthusiastic and well-earned 8.5/10 with a must watch stamp of approval. If they would have done a better job on a few of the personal episodes and explore the past of the girls a little more in those episodes I would have ranked it 9 or 9.5 even. But believe me, this anime is worth checking out and is what I consider to be the best idol anime out there right now and the reason why we’ve been seeing so many idol animes as of lately. I hope in the future we see more animes like Idolm@ster that do a good job at balancing out the characters while also advancing the story/plot and not having to stop to focus on something or fall into your typical anime clichés. I also hope we see another anime around the franchise because there are a lot of alternative stories and settings that they could use to develop animes that center on the idols or the side characters that I’m sure the fans and myself would enjoy seeing. Until then, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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Thanks for reading, as always feel free to leave a comment, feedback, or request in the comment section below or send them to iamprojectnitsuj@gmail.com