AKB0048

I hate it when people write reviews for shows before a series ends as much as anyone (especially ones that dub a show godly after one episode), but the rating of this show in comparison to the ass-load of complete garbage airing right now (whose names I won't mention), combined with the average user's apparent misconceptions about it (comparing it to Symphogear? lolno), combined with its low popularity, made me decide that I have to say SOMETHING.

In short: I don't get it. I don't get why this is so lowly rated when, even after just the first episode, it's proven to be superior to ... the vast majority of the other shows airing this season. Maybe it's the idol/music genre? Maybe it's the atrocious CGI rendering of the idols during concert sequences? Maybe it's the character designs—with HEART outlines in the girls' eyes and, sometimes, hair?

Those are the only problems I can really think of.

I'll admit, none of those things thrilled me at first. But when you think about it, none of these complaints really hold water. First of all, the show may be centered around idols, but the show has SUBSTANCE to go with it (I'll talk more about this in a bit). Second, yeah, the CGI for the girls during concerts is bad, but you shouldn't let a simple fluke with visuals detract your experience of the rest of the show. And thirdly, I lol'd at the hearts at first, but then I used my brain, and considered the contrast between the characters and their surroundings.

It's obvious that the girls offer a massive contrast with the world around them: their bright, shiny, hopeful colors compared to the dull, dreary, depressing ones of the planets and interiors of ships. When you think about it, it's simple but brilliant: the hopes and dreams of naive, innocent girls thrown against the rocks of a cold, unforgiving universe where entertainment is banned on many planets.

The animation used to portray these differences is quite spectacular (sans the CGI idols, of course). There is a great level of detail in landscapes that creates a perfect atmosphere for the premise of the show to play on. This includes the bright and colorful cityscapes. Character motions are fluid, with a good number of frames. Facial expressions are done really well, too.

Characterization is surprisingly good—even in the first episode alone. Nagisa is, quite frankly, a great character: she has a level head on her shoulders; she isn't too idealistic, but not too down-to-earth either; she has spirit, but isn't too eager; she is hopeful, but not overly confident in her abilities. The dynamic between her and her father, who is an Entertainment Administration official on a planet where the entertainment ban is still in effect, paints the perfect picture of just how much the situation affects the lives of citizens. Conversely, her relationship with her mother shows how she still loves and cares for her parents, even though her desire to be in AKB0048 pits her against their authority from the get-go.

The show made me get all misty-eyed in the FIRST EPISODE—and the two following it. Do you know what's required for that to happen? A vested interest in the characters and their plights. If I don't care about the characters at all, I don't care period. I'm looking forward to seeing what becomes of Nagisa in future episodes.

Currently, the other girls mostly show their characterization in their actions, making it easy to figure out their basic personality traits. Some are getting developed and having back stories revealed bit by bit, with more undoubtedly on the way. It's cool easy to see how they're reacting to their situation in a variety of ways—having second thoughts, remaining hopeful, complaining, being afraid, showing resolve, etc. It's also interesting to see some varying reasons for wanting to take this path in the first place.

In the end, the great music is just icing, really.

This show is NOT Symphogear. (It also is NOT Macross Frontier, though it is more similar to AKB0048 than Symphogear is.) In this show, music is just music: something people listen to to help them get through life, to be entertained by, to be moved by. (That's what the premise of the show operates on.) It is NOT a plot device. It is not some super-mystical force that gives you superpowers or stops murderous aliens. There *is* fanservice, unfortunately, but it is mild; not to the degree of Symphogear—no stupid, revealing outfits; no watermelon-sized tits, tasteless cleavage, or shameful pantsu shoved in your face. Nothing is contrived. And the characters are actually good.

After the superb first three episodes, I became kind of scared that the quality might change in the future; and though that fear turned out to be correct, the "worst" episode this show has aired so far is still better than the majority of other crap episodes flooding this season that you could have wasted 24 minutes of your life on.

Many will look at my score and ask "You praise it so much, yet you only give it a 7?" Well, look at my mean score. 7 is great coming from me (especially so early on). I hope that it continues to deserve it; maybe it'll even get promoted in the future. Who can say? Let's watch and find out.

In short: Look past your trivial gripes and see that AKB0048 has heart (no pun intended), and it has *substance*—a crucial thing the current cesspool of shallow, soulless anime lacks.

Whether or not you should watch AKB0048 can pretty much be answered with two questions...

1. Do you like AKB48?

2. Does the dream to become a seifuku-clad guerilla idol that zips about on floating platform bravely fighting anti-entertainment mechas with weaponized stage props all while nailing the group choreography and keeping a tune sound like story-telling genius? (OR, more succinctly, could you really care less about a show's plot as long as you get to watch some moe chicks?)

If you answered "no" to either of these questions, AKB0048 is just not for you. When push comes to shove, it really doesn't matter how good ... the animation or the voice acting is, if you want something with a solid (non-ridiculous) story, save yourself the time. AKB0048 is a gimmick to capitalize on the popularity of the Japanese army (scratch that) pop idols, AKB48, and the writer's never let you forget that. In all honesty, they don't NEED you to like this show; all they need for you to do is like AKB48. If you do, you'll watch it. If you don't, well they don't really need you to watch in order to ride this one all the way to the bank. AKB48 has enough fans that will watch this just because of the title, and considering that they are based in Akihabara, the cross-over connection between their fans and anime is already there. They aren't winning any new people over with this show. Heck, they aren't even trying to.

Now if you answered "yes" to either or both of those questions, AKB0048 will probably pleasantly surprise you. The animation is solid and blissfully free of still-frames like many moe/harem shows. The cutesy pastel character designs fit the overall feel of the show nicely, and surprisingly detailed and well-drawn backgrounds are perfectly executed and lend themselves to the mood with ease. The voice-acting cast is chock full of veterans and fan-favorites. While it's not going to be the performance of a career for anyone, you won't walk away wanting to stick a needle through your eardrum either. Surprise, suprise... the little gimmick of adding the AKB48 girls to the cast actually paid off nicely as well; they do a pretty stellar job for their first time around the seiyuu block. If you like AKB48's songs, the soundtrack is full of them. The opening and endings are sung by the AKB48 girls in the seiyuu cast and will undoubtedly sell through the roof just like any other AKB48 songs. Compared to other shows of similar genres (not that 'hardcore idol show' is a genre yet, but think along the lines of moe shows like this season's Saki Side-A or Upotte!, etc.), AKB0048 excels in the animation, music and sound departments. The story is never going to blow anybody away and will probably seem a bit silly to even the most die-hard AKB48 fans, but I sincerely doubt anyone is picking this up for the plot. Yes, the question above is more-or-less a general summary of the show's plot. And, yes, you will probably have to keep an eyeroll or two in check while listening to the characters' woes of cruelly being denied permission to wear a rockin' hairbow or declarations of undying love for the titular idols (apparently a love much deeper than that of friends, family or neighbors.. who knew?). Perhaps the successful concept of an idol anime might have an impact on the market or spark debates, but the show's actual material won't.

AKB0048 is a successful effort to cash in on the AKB48 phenomenon. Despite the obvious gimmick of the show, it doesn't offend its audience. The studio and producers have created a quality product that the fans will enjoy, even though they could have easily put in a fraction of the cost and effort and still have walked away with the weight of all 48 gajillion AKB48 girls in gold. Just like the idol group itself, AKB0048 is fluffy, entertaining and completely benign... and anyone who's already into that sort of thing will eat it up.

Final Rating: Totally relative to how much you like AKB48 already.

AKB0048 first impression : "AKB0048 got anime"
But when I saw first episode : "Hah? Cyborg, sci-fi?" but Ihad survive, maybe next episode will be "Awesome""
Next episode :"Eeeee?? terorist, Naniii?? Spasu Aidolu? Joudan janai..!! , its very disappointing....

THE IDOLM@STER FAR better than this.

AKB0048 is a mouthful to say much like how bloated this idol anime is!

AKB0048 is a futuristic idol anime that focuses on the Old and New "generations" of AKB0048 or "00" as they fight against the anti-entertainment bans thrghout the galaxy through guerilla concerts, but there's something deeper of being a 00 as well. Now a group of girls by the names of Nagisa Motomiya voiced by Karen Iwata, Chieri Sono voiced by Mayu Watanabe, Sonata Shinonme voiced by Kumi Yagami, Suzuko Kanzaki voiced by Sawako Hata, Makoto Yokomizo voiced by Mao Mita, Kanata Shinonome voiced by Haruka Ishida, Mimori Kishida voiced by Sumire Sato, ... Yuuka Ichijou voiced by Amina Sato and Orine Aida voiced by Sayaka Nakaya as they become the understudies of the current generation of AKB0048. Add to that but each of the characters have stakes in wanting to become successors and be a member of 00, some relational clashes from their current generations as well as old, something about Kirara's, the Center Nova, Sensei-sensei and you already get what one of the glaringly flaws to AKB0048 and that AKB0048 has....well at bit too much going for it in ALL it's elements.

From the already HUGE cast of characters, that spans two or three generations of girls, their support staff and the minor supporting characters to it's many MANY MANY plotlines it has going for it. As much as the character development helps flesh out the cast especially from a huge cast as it is, gets absolutely bogged down by it's world building of the 00 right down to the core, from the support staff especially Tsubasa Katagiri voiced by Yumi Kakazu, the debacle with the Center Nova that heavily concerns Shiori Arisawa and Tsubasa, what the entire deal with Sensei-sensei, the head of the 00, to the Kirara allowing people to recognize people in showing that their true idols that concerns Nagisa....like that just at the top of LA's head and there's more what with Chieri's father tied to the DES (the anti-entertainment ban people) and Yuuko's romantic love interest to Mamoru but MAN that's ALOT of plot points and half of it doesn't addressed or have resolutions.

For the character themselves, they get episodes in the limelight now and again but with it's huge cast and how many of those core cast have plot points major or minor that swallows any development into the mist...well to this end it's bloated with a somewhat narrow focus isn't a good sign. If LA will say this, LA's favourite character at least was Suzuko Kanzaki as her airheadedness was funny and helped lift the mood with her wacky personality alot of time....LA likes alot of megane idols *cough* Makino Yagami *cough*.

So yeah saying AKB0048 is bloated is a freakin' understatement.

In terms of animation done by Satelight, well LA will say one thing, Satelight SHINED when it came to the character designs giving them all "exotic" looking color palettes with some literal shine to them but they also have consistency to them (what does LA mean?...majority of the 00 members and understudies...ALWAYS have lovehearts in their irises as well as love hearts on their hair one way or another). As for the "battle lives", well it's use of 3DCGI is ehhh blatant, not as jank but just ehhh blatant, the few mecha times have some grace, but the choreography mainly the concerts were a bit janky at times, though at least the concerts used the 3DCGI sparingly on the characters. At least the space setting was decent and the planets they go to are schizo-futuristic to dystopian dilapidated landscapes depending if the planet has the ban or not (get it dystopian if ban in place, thriving if ban not in place). All in all, Satelight's animation was mixed from ehhh to decent...kinda expected from the bombastic Shoji Kawamori.

Now, here we go...the voice cast.....yeah what do you expect when the REAL life AKB48 members actually transition into voice acting with NO experience and this is their first?. Yeah "some" of the AKB members sound it, like Mao Mita, Karen Iwata and Sayaka Nakaya where LA can't explain it but they have this stilted non-pop filtered sound whenever they speak. Nonetheless there was some AKB48 members that did fine, from Mayu Watanabe as Chieri, Sumire Sato as Mimori and Amina Sato as Yuuka. Coincidence that some of the current AKB0048 members are actually voiced by veteran voice actors like Mai Nakahara as Youko Asamiya, Ayako Kawasumi as Akira Igarashi, Kana Ueda as Tomoyo Itano, Yui Horie as Ayako Kuroki, Miyuki Sawashiro as Atsuko Maeda the 13th, Mamiko Noto as Chiharu Sakuragi and Yukari Tamura as Mayu...YEAH. Much like the animation and even with some amazing veteran voice actors in the backline...the voice cast was mixed to say the least.

For an anime that's focused on AKB48, well has some "real life writes the plot" mainly with the understudies and trainees based on the VA's actual lives. Like Sayaka Nakaya droppin gout of school to makes ends meet is an example. Weirdly enough one episode has a bit of weird clairvoyance that's to do with *ahem* "I won't let anyone tarnish Sashiko's name"...yeahhhhh considering what happened to the real life Sashiko...just errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr art imitates life...

As much as LA has been somewhat HARSH to this anime, LA will give some graces to this anime and what this first season does, as much of bloated mess it tried to set up it's characters and settings, ven with some of the one off episodes, they did give us some small development to the characters in question, as for the major plots, it at LEAST dealt with some (not all) but some of them and what resolutions we did get was a bit satisfying in some ways, mainly with Nagisa. Finally for an anime that has is stuck with a brand as famous as AKB, this anime is militant about it's brand and shows itself well, almost like it's projecting what an AKB48 would be in an a wacky anime setting and GOES ALL OUT WITH IT showing how great they are, by extension making us curious one way or another about the AKB48 brand. If there's ONE thing Japan is great in doing is advertisement and branding and with anime it damn well shows it!

AKB0048 is a hodgepodge of bogged down ideas with the AKB48 brand implanted into it. Sure the production value is...eh to decent but man with it's tons of multiple active plot points, be it world building or the characters and their relationships to the mix of genres AKB0048 had on being a slice of life in the daily lives of an idol to an idol anime looking at how AKB0048 trains, to a dystopian entertainment ban trying to eliminate the 00 to a slightly yuri anime with it's characters to a mecha anime fighting the DES while doing a guerilla concert. This anime is ALL OVER THE PLACE. While this doesn't mean AKB0048 isn't outright horrible, more like an unfocused bloated mess, but not horrible...per say....but it's flaws are not only detrimental but blatant at what AKB0048 wanted to do but failed in it's execution but to this it tries to leverage itself with what resolutions were taken place in this season and was satisfying, it tried to world build, tried to develop and flesh out the HUGE cast of characters...it tried.

Maybe...maybe AKB0048 might finish up it's many many loose plot threads with it's second season, but for a first season's first impression, AKB0048 if anything in "meh" territory with all it's strengths and weakness accounted for.

If there was a comparison LA could make to AKB0048 anime, it would be that AKB0048 is what AKB48, as Idolmaster Xenoglossia is to the Idolmaster franchise.