Shounen Hollywood: Holly Stage for 49

(BASED IMO)

Hey, Uta no Prince-sama fans, this may be the right anime for you. Like idols singing and dancing? Idols with beautiful faces? We'll you have come to the right anime. Shounen Hollywood: Holly Stage for 49 is right for you! You'll be experiencing songs, and dances in some of the episodes!


STORY:
It's about boys trying to be idols so they'll be known worldwide. So far, each episode is telling their lives before they joined the idol group "SHONEN HOLLYWOOD" and random stuffs happen each episode.

ART:
The art is a bit realistic. But there are mistakes or other drawings that I don't like because it doesn't ... seem to fit the background perfectly. And their faces look like weird, I haven't seen an anime that has the drawing like this, but the character designer has done a good job.

SOUND:
The seiyuus used in each characters are just perfect, except for Amaki, Daisuke Ono would be perfect, Kakihara-san is not fitted with Amaki. The background song fits with the atmosphere of the anime, happy and joyful songs are perfect! The OP song & ED song are okay to me.

CHARACTER:
Their attitudes are like high school boys having their time of their lives dancing and singing happily, not like us otakus spending our time in front of the computer/laptop watching anime and stuffs. I really enjoyed some of the characters.

ENJOYMENT:
It's a bit dull. And the hell, it will also have a season two. I laughed.. because of their faces(no offense to the fans). Well, there are times that I copy them while dancing.
It was okay.

OVERALL:
In the end... Meh. Just meh.

Well this summer season of anime had some really good shows and some really big disappointments. 'Shounen Hollywood: Holly Stage for 49' though was the biggest surprise for me. A nice slice of life with a lot of J-Pop 6/10

I'm genuinely impressed with the show, it doesn't mind telling you straight out some of the negative aspects of show business (especially how Japan produces their Idols) they have some profound lines here and there...I'm not a big fan of J-Pop so the music isn't really why I enjoyed watching this (and I'm sure with less of it I would have given it a higher score), ... there's also no yaoi even if you would assume that by having an all male cast!
We follow our characters in what they're doing in their everyday life as well as their training to become Idols. Kakeru is a high-school student that was scouted, Ikuma the oldest member used to be a delinquent, Kira has always been in show business as child actor, Shun wants to become a musician, Daiki is an orphan and fan of the original Shounen Hollywood...so a colorful bunch that got together under 'Shachou' (former member of Shonen Hollywood) who manages the guys. We find out more about each ones backgrounds and dreams later on.
What I appreciate is, that you don't only see those characters having the time of their lives and saying things like 'This is great, I'll fulfill my dream of becoming an Idol...blah blah' sunshine and rainbows. No. They actually say things like 'I don't want to do this' or 'this is ridiculous and embarrassing'. They are holding a mirror on male Idols and what they have to go through. This show is more realistic and less melodramatic than other anime in the same genre, and partly responsible for that is the experienced manager, who tells Kakeru how it's going to be for him in the future. His friends won't be his friends anymore once he's famous, they'll probably sell private story's about him (whether they are true or not), the media is merciless and you won't make it with just talent or just hard work, and getting a fan base takes time. The manager already went through that, so he knows show business is never a save career. All those uncomfortable subjects are processed and I think 'Shounen Hollywood: Holly Stage for 49' is refreshingly different. So even if you don't like J-pop like me, this show has a lot more to offer than just hot guys and music. The members want to accomplish something out of the ordinary (maybe you have dreamed of performing on a big stage one day too), they're still young and inexperienced and many times lose hope and want to quit. The character development is well done, and so are the dialogs, and the pace of the anime is relatively slow, which I always prefer in slice of life.

Now what I don't like so much is the animation, compared to other anime it's really nothing special. The bands performances weren't spectacular, sometimes it was rather cringe worthy. And some moments were simply dull. But I was always waiting for the next episode because I wanted to know if they will become successful Idols, and if in the end that was what the boys really wanted. The journey of them becoming the next big thing looks pretty exiting.

- Edit
Season two for 2015 confirmed ^^

"Shounen Hollywood" is a heartwarming tale of teen idols.

When first coming across this anime, I instantly chose to watch it for its attractive men, and idol theme. Falsely thinking it would be a story resembling Uta-Pri’s, I spent this summer slaving over each episode, hopelessly waiting to see the boys actually perform as idols.

Kakihara (Natsu [Fairy Tail]) captures Amaki’s fiery spirit with his thin, but strong voice. He brings the boy to life, not doing a bad job at singing either. Likewise, Ohsaka’s (Staz [Blood Lad]) airy voice is perfect for the calm and insecure Kakeru. Ono (Kuroko [Kuroko no Basket]) also did a nice ... job with Shun, continuing to amaze me with how his voice can switch from thin to rich and thick. His voice is very pleasant on the ear. Moving onto Aoi (Mikaze Ai [Uta-Pri]), it surprised me how his voice changed. Aoi has not been in a lot of animes, but being a singer, his voice floated across the notes. Lastly, Yamashita (Hiro [Glasslip]) was brilliant in his role of Kira. Having fewer roles than some of the previous actors, he made himself sound like one of the pros. Kudos to all.

As previously mentioned, I was excited to learn that there was to be an anime about music this Summer 2014. I patiently waited for the series to get through the character development and onto treating me with some actual idol scenes, but I was not rewarded for my efforts. It seems that the next season of the series is when the boys are actually shown in their idol career. Nevertheless, this was a very disappointing part of my watch. Now, the art style is very hard to get used to a first, for it is very realistic, and very unique. I did not like it, but now it’s warmed up to me. The music in the anime is very average. There were no one hit wonders or breathtaking OSTs. Overall, I felt that this piece was extremely typical.

If you found this anime and watch to watch it because of sexy idols, stop right there. This season of the show is purely character development, with a side of music. I suggest you go searching for another anime. However, if you are patient enough to wait through the first season on the whim that the second might actually have some action in it, then I say you should watch it. It is not a bad anime, though it's not that good either.

-

Story - 6
The story, be centered around five boys trying to become idols, is very good, but it would have been nice if more could have been explained.

Art - 7
The art is very weird at first, and takes a moment to get used to -- alright, maybe more than a moment. Even having gotten used to it and making through all twelve episodes, it's still a bit much for me. The art style is very realistic, but in the most odd and unique way.

Music - 6
The music is so-so. There are a few catchy tunes the characters sing, but nothing awe inspiring or jaw dropping.

Character - 8
The characters were actually developed. I got to see why each one wanted to become an idol, all that was hindering them from growing, and watching them overcome challenges they were faced with. I would have liked more background on the old SHOUNEN HOLLYWOOD, but it is what it is.

Enjoyment - 6
What started out as amusing just became mundane by the time I reached episode twelve. "Shounen Hollywood" had a lot of potential, but it didn't use much of it.

Overall - 6.4
Overall, "Shounen Hollywood" was a charming story that gave me an inside look to all the characters' minds, but it was missing several important elements like background development, and most importantly -- actually showing the boy dance and sing on a real live stage in front of a large crowd.

Reason for watching: Music genre animes are kind of my thing, and the characters here look good.

TL;DR: Story plot and character designs are VERY weak, Character Art is pretty and distinct, Songs are pretty catchy too. Watchable.

Overall, a 6 for this show, thanks to the Art and Sound(music/ songs).

Story-wise, it has a very weak plot, trying to tell the story from a first person narrative, yet at the same time having storylines that occur on a wider perspective which includes the narrator(main MC). The story flow is not smooth, but it isn't all that confusing either. There are no build-ups to "climaxes", only when the ... scene started playing then I realize: "Oh, this is the main event of this story line". Even for a "slice of life" overall concept with little exciting events occurring, the story isn't executed well enough to relay that "regular things happening in my daily life as an idol trainee" feel. The events that happens throughout the show just happened, the transitions done for them are too rough.

Art and Sound aspect are good enough for me to finish watching the show. There were some inconsistencies with the Animation and Voice Acting though.

Character design is also one of the fatal points of this show. For someone who watches a lot of shonen, I would say I am quite acceptable of a wide range of mediocre character designs~ haahaha, well Shonen shows usually have a lot of support characters that are very lack luster, and most MCs in shonen are similar too. But the character designs here are just as interesting as a potato. The show does some basic focus on each character to showcase their persona, but that's as far as it goes. I know that there is a Baked potato (Kakeru), a Mash potato (Tomii), a Potato Wedge (Kira), a French Fry (Shun), and a Potato Salad (Amaki). But I don't know how they taste, or how they were made. The characters past were so lightly introduced they might as well scrap those stories. The development of the characters were also very very minuscule, especially when the story doesn't even showed those development in progress nor focus on their eventual character after their development. The worst character would have to be the Shachou/ God. 90percent of what he says doesn't even make sense. Th story introduced him as a person whose words are "difficult to comprehend immediately", as though his words are deep. NOPE. Do not doubt yourself when you can't understand his POV and guidance, because they are definitely words spout to fulfill the word count on an essay. Socrates words are easier to understand than this Shachou. The way ShaChou try to guide thiese young , impressionable teenagers are also really dodgy. Is fine if he doesn't understand these kiddos feelings and environment, but is not fine when he try to force his own POV onto them. *Sigh* I am only glad to see the Shachou on screen because I like the VA...