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17 of 25 people found this review helpful
| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
So far the only full-fledged story that deals with the life of Anime
voice actors, or, Seiyuus (There is REC, but not as dedicated as this one). Despite
the fact that the artwork of this series is of average quality, and that
filler romance takes up too much time, it does present a lot of
realistic aspects of the Anime voice acting industry. Highly
recommended to Seiyuu fans yet do not expect super intelligent
storyline other than how up-and-coming actors(actresses to be accurate)
struggle through their green days.
Story: 8/10
Mixed with somewhat cliche comedy and romance, what's good about the
storyline is that it faces the true problems of the industry such as commercialization
of voice acting and more emphasis on the look of the actors/actresses.
Professionals have to move to front stage to cater to the enthusiastic
fans curious about other aspects of them that they don't necessarily
excel at, e.g. singing. The experience of humiliating interview, the
heart-pressing training school days, and the embarrassing first-job,
etc. all depict the hurting truth in this career: Here talented+diligent people
take pain with little gain other than small niche popularity. Yet as in most
Shounen works, the protagonists managed to find their own positions
eventually and started to take off with their childhood fantasy.
Comedy elements mostly center around the #1 protagonist Momoko, a
mindlessly ambitious girl that you saw a lot. Her ignorance of life style
of Seiyuu conveniently serves as most audience's perspective; that gives
you a bit of RPG flavor.
The romance (a love triangle) between two actresses and a young Anime
art designer is kinda filler material and I understand that romance is
a must for stories like this. Fortunately, the boy in love also provided enough
inspiration to our girls in focus.
With a luxurious 25 episodes, the story is at first pretty episodic, then when
the romance sets in, it becomes a little draggy,
but over the course a lot of character introspection enables us to realize
the "3D" Seiyuu's fear and joy, often obscured by the happy shinny 2D characters
that they give life to. The ending is very creative in my opinion in that it tries to
demonstrate the power of voice acting in a visual fantasy and surely was a lot of fun
to me. Overall the story works for what it is.
An interesting setting: the agency that the protagonists work for is
called Lamda 8, while in reality, some of the cast of the series
are signed to the famous agency called Sigma 7. So apparently a
semi-pun.
Art: 6/10
You will see typical Shounen style drawing but the number of colors used
are fairly limited. Good things is given that Seiyuus often work indoors, there
are a fairly elaborated outdoor settings as well. Character faces and body
figures are nothing special. You still see the typical big eyes, slim body
for example.
Sound: 8/10
What can I say? Given that this is about voice acting, you get
to hear quite a few top-notch actors doing what they do and they
really mean themselves here! Most of the five female protagonists are
newbies but I really enjoyed 高本めぐみ(Takamoto Megumi)'s performance;
it was passionate, cheerful, and sentimental at times. Check out
her voice samples on Sigma 7 homepage
(http://www.sigma7.co.jp/profile/w_51.html), and you'll probably be
surprised how this young girl can be multi-facet in
styles as a lot of the older big names can. I'm really looking forward
to her further output (There will be one in which she leads again
early 2009). Veterans such as 三石琴乃, 榎本温子, 若本規夫, 緑川光, all played their
part properly, as true veterans in the field XD.
Speaking of music, there is nothing to "wow" for, though OP would be
anther reason to applause Takamoto's talent, where she
proves herself a capable vocalist with incredible energy, voice
quality, and vocal range. Another chorus version presented by all 5 protagonists gets
put on in the latter half to support the plot and is equally nice.
Character: 6/10
I get the feeling that this story is more of a showcase of the
industry; a lot of character development should be left with a
question mark. The #1 protagonist Momoko received much more effort
than the other four, and thus gets to stand out. 落合祐里香 (Ochiai
Yurika), though received much more attention than Takamoto in real
life, falls flat in her part, and disappeared almost entirely in the
later half. Relatively veteran 山本麻里安, 高橋直純, 新谷良子,
こやまきみこ all did well, though no screamer. The other new star
坂本梓馬, who has a boyish girl voice, showed extraordinary vocal
talent in the OP version 2, but her acting still has a lot of space to
grow.
Enjoyment: 10/10
Well, as a hardcore Seiyuu fanatics.. I ENJOYED it BIG TIME because
you don't really have a lot of choice in the entire Anime history that
deals with the subject. It's self-contained, fun, and somehow
realistic in the sense of career path in general. I've watched it
twice and strongly feels that I will come back to it again.
Overall: 9/10
In short, don't get fooled by the art or technical issues. It's a
must-have for Seiyuu fans and general audience will learn fairly a lot
about Seiyuu, voice acting, and voice production from this series. I
do hope that there will be more of this kind in the future. But I
doubt it. So cherish the opportunity!
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