Shounen Hollywood: Holly Stage for 49

I watched both seasons of Shounen Hollywood.

Most important: this anime is really underrated and I recommend it.

This is not a generic anime and should not be judged before viewing.

This anime is dripping with metaphor and depth. This anime is bittersweet. I found this anime both depressing and joyful at times. I found this anime emotionally engaging.

The passage of time and one's youth is a predominant theme in this artistic work.

... If the above doesn't appeal to you, then if you're interested in the entertainment industry then you'll find Shounen Hollywood entertaining.

I really could feel the artistic vision here. It's difficult to put into words but this was definitely a ‘passion project.’ There was a ton of potential here but I'm forced to give it a 7/10 for technical reasons. I still strongly recommend it.

The bad: production quality is mediocre at best. It is arguably poorly directed. My greatest criticism is that 26 episodes is a lot of time and that time could have been used more effectively. There was so much potential for greatness and some of it was squandered.

I expected to drop this on episode 1 but it completely blew away my expectations. Just give it a chance.

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...

Reason for me writing this review is to help people make a decision if its worth their time watching the most cringey boyband in the anime world.

The story well i cant say its bad but i cant say its fun. Lets revive the former idols and become better sound like interesting thing but most of it is spendt learning uninteresting character stories and a random president who says strange things and does stranger things. I felt like it moved at a snail pace and and thats saying something. Its one thing about having a relaxing and chill atmosphere that everyone can enjoy like some ... other anime got but when you only have watched 10 min it feels like you have sat there looking at the series in slow motion.

Its an idol anime with the most cheesy and boring songs in idol anime history. If you want nostalgia of how old boybands were then yes this anime fits you on the money but if you atleast want decent songs there are others.

The characters are like the story and sound uninteresting and cheesy to bot although some of the tries to pass themselves of as more serious its not that fun cheesy thing that many other idol anime has but its that feeling there you feel every bone in your body cribbling and you wonder what in gods name have i watched. To summarise you got 1 uninspired idol , one over the top idol whos happy about everything , 1 who actually just wants to sing , one who wonder what he even does there and one with an inferior complex which i dont understand.

I didnt enjoy this at all quite simply i just watched it full through cause thats the kind of person i am. I have watched bad anime full through because i want to review them properly although if its on going i cant do that. And this anime wasnt enjoyable at all it was just push through and hope something good happens but that didnt happen.

Overall if you like cute , cringey and uinteresting idol guys whos all random then this is the anime for you but if you want an anime with idols that makes you laugh , like and want to know more about then my advice is pick any other and you will hit better. I know i sound harsh on this anime but when i see it i cant give this anything good.