Gekidol: Actidol Project

Five years ago, a mysterious phenomenon known as the Global Synchronic Urban Disappearance caused a large chunk of Ikebukuro to disappear overnight. Following the catastrophe, the inhabitants found themselves thrown into a state of disorder, and unexplained electromagnetic anomalies called "Auroras" began to be sighted.

Awed by the performance of idol Izumi Hinazaki at a play utilizing the "Super Material Theater," a stage designed to revitalize Ikebukuro through hologram-enhanced plays, high school student Seria Morino is inspired to become an idol. Shortly afterward, she is scouted by a young woman named Kaoru Sakakibara, who turns out to be the director of Alice in Theater—the troupe that Izumi used to be a part of.

Aiming to pursue her dreams, Seria decides to follow Kaoru and joins Alice in Theater. Upon arriving at their establishment, she is cordially welcomed by a group of young and friendly girls who are all very passionate about acting. However, something seems to be amiss.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kagami, Airi Main

Mochida, Chihira Japanese

Morino, Seria Main

Akao, Hikaru Japanese

Sakakibara, Kaoru Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Asagi, Akira Main

Yamamoto, Nozomi Japanese

Nakamura, Mayuri Main

Satou, Amina Japanese

Yamamoto, Kazuharu Main

Akiyoshi, Aya Japanese

Doll Main

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Hinasaki, Izumi Main

Suwa, Ayaka Japanese

Fujita, Manami Main

Takano, Asami Japanese

Higuchi, Makoto Supporting

Yashima, Sarara Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Nagai, Masaru Producer, Planning

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Ueda, Shigeru Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Animation Check, Key Animation

Reviews

Dec 4, 2023

Sailormoonwins

Recommended

Gekidol is genuinely a good show, having it rated 5/10 is just underestimating its talent.

The story is pretty good thinking it's just a idol show but turns into something much more is more than enough to be good storytelling and pacing.

The characters, development, pacing and storytelling were pretty good, so good that a 5/10 is insulting, the strong point is its characters and their development and the pacing of said characters and storytelling are good also.

The art style is pretty good too, nothing off or to flashy.

The main characters had complexity to them in a way they had struggles and tried to either change or ... accept their past mistakes.

Overall 8/10 would recommend for fellow anime watchers.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 18, 2021

whoisashleigh

Mixed Feelings

Sigh. When trying to create an alternative idol series, it's important to put idols at the centre - and this series fails to do that. Repeatedly.

STORY: 5

This story has, essentially, multiple "major" plots with little to join them and even less to make you care.

The main character wants to act, not sing, so there's really no incentive to want her to succeed as an idol. It feels more like a means to an end, rather than her actual goal, which made me uninterested in what should have been the main plotline.

The secondary main plot is a sci-fi lovers' ... nightmare? Honestly, it's so ill-thought ... out, and feels so irrelevant and messy. It's supposed to be added motivation for the entire cast, but just feels shoved in as an attempt to appeal to a wider audience.

CHARACTER: 7

They've managed to make the characters entertaining and interesting enough that I managed to complete the series.

Our MC Seria is alone in Japan, and her loneliness - and denial of it - make for great motivators in her friendships, and for the viewer. Her softness is gentle, rather than annoying, and I quite liked her on the whole.

Her friends are equally interesting; from those who've failed to be idols, to those who succeed, each has an interesting perspective on the whole thing and make decisions that are as in-character as they are surprising. It's nice to see a show where becoming an idol, or remaining one, is far from a guarantee, and brings real stakes to the Seria's journey.

SOUND: 6

You can't get much more "generic idol pop balad" than this. No, really, you can't. It's nowhere near the level of Aikatsu or Love Live, but any of their many knockoffs could happily pinch the songs of Genkidol and you'd be none the wiser. That is to say, they aren't in any way bad, certainly they match the series, but they're just not worth listening to a second time. Or several times, given they're repeated across the episodes.

ART: 5

WTF is with the art??? It randomly inserts real people in the background photos, but the anime girls other times. The foreground and characters designs are painfully flat, and the dancing is also not great. It doesn't help that it's clearly all very inconsistent across the series.

The fact all the characters look like clones is bothersome, and is real proof that anime does better with different hair colours - or at least different cuts!

There's a few moments of glory, like the Holos

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 20, 2021

KANLen09

Not Recommended

This show is a classic case of the "golden rule" of "Show, don't Tell" gone horribly wrong, and trying to salvage any further predicament will only harm your brain cells, much less your eyes. I know I did.

But first, a crash course on "Show, don't Tell":
‘Show, don’t tell’ is a classic advice for writers – something like a ‘golden rule’, delivered with complete surety and an authoritative tone by the last generation of authors to the next. This ‘set in stone’ approach drives many authors to try and pick it apart, but it’s survived so long for a reason: it is good advice, most of ... the time. Learning how to ‘show’, and when to do so, is an important skill to have as a writer, and perfecting it can mean the difference between rich, immersive writing and flat, dull prose.

Now look at Gekidol. It shows us things, tells us things, but somehow it couldn't find the OOMPH factor to stay relevant, and proceed to butcher like it was nothing. If anything, I will say this now: SKIP this show and the "Alice in Deadly School" OVA tie-in, both shows are definitely NOT worth your time. And yes, you're not reading it wrong, those are extremely BOLD words of confidence.

Lightning round for what this show is (but honestly I don't care):
- A theater act disguised as a systematic approach to the postmortem setting, yet the BTS (behind-the-scenes) paints a graphic picture of confronting past mistakes and attempts to resolve whatever conflict that may come and fly by. SHIT.
- A love story for the post-apocalyptic setting that just doesn't click up with even power fantasy terminologies, and only has them because it's a requirement in name only. SHIT.
- Characters that are gathered together for the love of acting, but yet most character development is just as worse of the generic kind, from a large-girl cast of theater + idol (that's how you get Geki-dol by the Japanese Hiragana annotation) to emitting pure distasteful Yuri and fraudulent ass-pulls for friendship conflicts. SHIT.
- For an idol show that calls itself "Gekidol", music should be central, but it seems that the Gekijou theatre act is overplayed against the music being overshadowed for the most part. At least, the first OP was what I've liked at the start, but that's about it. SHIT.
- Getting some of the worst low-budget studios like Hoods Entertainment to help back up in the visual department? GOOD, because it seems that no other studio is willing to do this batshit of a job premise, good on them. It's also SHIT.
- P.S. DO NOT let the production committee have a say in the series composition (and scriptwriting for that matter), their tendency to flout ideas back and forth is just so wack that the story doesn't make any sense. SHIT story, SHIT enjoyment.

In a nutshell, this show is SHIT-tier levels of BS, because it can't do anything right, much less give a resolution that also sucks, even with such a simple premise. I wish I hadn't spent my brain cells racking on this, but here I am, talking about BS shows like this that seems to be "The Usual Suspects" that people just don't care about, but rather getting every penny of its worth regardless of its low-ball quality. Again, another classic case of quantity over quality.

If at this point you still don't get what I'm trying to say, I'm speechless. Just save your time by not watching this show (and the OVA), I beg you, PLEASE.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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