Ongaku Shoujo (TV)

First I have seen many different idol aime's and this one threw me for a curve. Right off the bat some of the characters have opposing characters to their look. Something you don't see everyday. The music like most idol shows was catchy and fun but they have variety not the same song all 12 eps. as for the performances i don't like the 3d dancing very much but the music made me forget about that animation for the most part. You definitely see all the characters grow in some way very typical focus on one character each ep but continue the many theme.

Despite ... the have people have for this show I really enjoyed it and plan to watch the movie. I also hope for a season 2.

This anime is a bog standard idol anime, with a twist. A girl group called "music girls" is in an airport performing, and a girl from... Germany, I think? ends up in the same airport. She's a prodigy at dancing, and can't sing a lick. So, the idol group being desperate for help in whatever form, Hanako gets added to the staff.

We spend the next 12 episodes watching Hanako be an *extraordinarily* effective member of the staff, helping all the girls out with their problems and winning over even the most stubborn of members with her charm, competency, and empathy. ... And never once learning to sing (even though she has perfect pitch).

All fine and good. it's an interesting take on the genre. Until the last few minutes.

I don't know how to say this without spoiling, so... let me see... the last few minutes dragged down the anime by at least one point. The events that occurred, without describing them, strain credulity, came out of nowhere, and, quite frankly, seemed like the producers didn't care at all how it ended. It was almost like one of those plays in Victorian England that Queen Victoria didn't like the ending to, so she proclaimed it changed by royal decree, or when PDQ Bach, at the end of "Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice" just has everyone suddenly come back to life and sing "Happy Ending". It was that unsubtle. I don't know how I can say this any more definitively - I have only once seen a worse ending to an anime. I wish I could say what I really hated about it, but... you'll see.

Technically, this wasn't a very good anime either. The music was not at all interesting, the CGI was, well, CGI and obviously so, and the animation, well, who cares about animation? At one point, they actually made fun of themselves for the bad animation quality! It's not that the animation was blocky or choppy or anything, it's more that they just didn't bother animating half the time. Think all the girls in a line, not even blinking, just the mouths moving. That kinda thing.

The characters weren't bad, though. I'm not going to say they were all likable, but they were well written, and that's pretty much the only truly positive thing I have to say about the anime. But good characters are a big thing, so... I don't understand, though, why Hanako never bothered to learn to sing. It's not like she was never going to improve... but she just never tried. That really bothered me, because if she had at least the ending would have made more sense. and she was so competent at everything else, including having perfect pitch, the fact that she never bothered to learn to sing was inexplicable.

Mixed feelings from me. An average anime till the very end, then it fell off a cliff. But is a few minutes of awfulness enough to not watch the whole thing? I guess you be the judge.

Maybe I'll write a blog post with the spoilers...

If you wanted to see this show because of Ongaku Shoujo circle... forget it. Just forget it. This one is a regular idol anime and nothing other than that. Watch the "movie" version instead, it's much better, shorter, and contains a semblance of Taishi works.

If you came here because you expected an idol anime... I guess it's ok? Can't complain about art, can't complain about music if you can handle the regular jpop. The storyline is just as bad as everywhere else in this genre. Honestly, the show itself is rather boring.

I highly recommend the original Ongaku Shoujo circle all of this originated from, however. ... Myself, I'd never expect to like electronic rock/pop/progressive trance. This one is really good though.