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The Idolm@aster (25 Episodes – Summer 2011)
So when I was a younger lad I was totally into the Japanese idol group Morning Musume. Once one of the members finally graduated though my interest mostly waned because I felt she was the only piece left of the major glory days of the group. That matter is not that important however and obviously was used as a minor intro blurb to this anime The idolm@ster! From what I know this is based on a video game of sorts I haven’t played it before so I can’t correlate any of the video game events to the anime events if you were looking for that.
Plots and things! The arduous struggle of the 13 girls from Talent Production 765 who dream of one day becoming idols in the competitive Japanese entertainment industry. (Source: ANN) Well, that was a rather short one, but more or less what can you expect from an idol based anime, right?
As the synopsis states, the story follows the girls as they try to succeed by trying to get cast for acting jobs, or performing on stage or anything that idols do. Each episode covers multiple facets of idol life and you are just along for the ride. There is an overall story following the new manager of the group and how he grows as well but there isn’t really a “main character” to get behind aside from you cheer for the hardworking girls and dislike the villain of the series.
If you know anything about idol groups at all, be it from Korean music, Japanese music or whatever you know that generally there are different archetypes that each group tries to hit to obtain the largest fanbase possible. For example you have the girl who has the tomboy look or like a prince sort of look to get a girl audience.
With that in mind there is really nothing else to say about the characters, idols are chosen to play a role and they play that role. It’s unreasonable for someone like me to harp on the super generic personas of members of an idol group in an anime because they are doing their job. Granted, in the behind the scenes they can display traits that are not of their idol type (which they actually hit on many times) in public they act a certain way as they’ve been paid to do so.
So in actuality as you read here, it’s rather hard to describe an anime like this because if you’ve followed idols before you kind of know what this entails. Those who really have no interest in idols or the like probably won’t care for this anime either way. Sure, there are songs and I suppose some people will like the series for that but this anime is hard to find a new audience for.
Verdict: If you enjoy idols of any sort I think you’ll find some enjoyment out of this. So if you fall in that category I can recommend this for you, if you do not fall in this category, you can probably pass on it.
What else I would recommend: Keeping in theme with idols and what not, Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream is something that falls sort of in the same category. Idols and happy music all the way.