Idoly Pride

The VENUS Program is an idol scoring system that is entirely impartial, using AI and data to rank candidates based on an array of factors. To determine the rising stars of the idol industry, the annual VENUS Grand Prix is held utilizing these algorithms. Among all the idols that have participated, none have been as outstanding as Mana Nagase. However, on the day of the tournament's finals, a tragic accident suddenly ends her career.

Kouhei Makino, who previously worked as Mana's manager, continues his career at Hoshimi Productions years after her death. Wanting to build a new team of idols, he accepts interviews from various girls. Unexpectedly, one of the interviewees is Kotono Nagase, Mana's younger sister, who is striving to carry on her sister's legacy under the tutelage of her former advisor. Also auditioning is Sakura Kawasaki, whose voice sounds astoundingly similar to that of Mana.

Both Kotono and Sakura pass the evaluations, joining a group of eight other aspiring young girls. Living in a shared dormitory, the 10 members work together to learn more about what it means to harmonize as a team. United by an ambitious endeavor, the girls compete their way to the top as they traverse through the unforgiving world of idols.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nagase, Mana Main

Kanda, Sayaka Japanese

Ichinose, Rei Main

Yuuki, Moeko Japanese

Nagase, Kotono Main

Tachibana, Mirai Japanese

Hayasaka, Mei Main

Hinata, Moka Japanese

Kawasaki, Sakura Main

Kanno, Mai Japanese

Hyoudou, Shizuku Main

Shutou, Yukina Japanese

Saeki, Haruko Main

Sasaki, Nao Japanese

Shiraishi, Chisa Main

Takao, Kanon Japanese

Narumiya, Suzu Main

Aikawa, Kanata Japanese

Shiraishi, Saki Main

Miyazawa, Koharu Japanese

Muramatsu, Yuuki Producer

Kinome, Yuu Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Iida, Satoki Sound Director

Nishouji, Yoshihito Episode Director

Reviews

Mar 28, 2021

Marinate1016

Recommended

Shingeki no Kyojin sundays? More like Idoly Pride Sundays. Idoly Pride was second only to Mushoku Tensei in terms of enjoyment for me this season, and it was pretty damn close. This was definitely the hidden gem of the season.

Idoly Pride was always going to get a high score for me. It’s really hard to mess up the idol formula. Cute girls, cute outfits, songs that are bops, etc. But, the show exceeded all expectations that I had and was such a pleasant surprise. The best way that I could describe the series is a mix between 22/7 and Love Live. It’s quite a bit ... darker than LL, but not quite as dark as 22/7.

The focus on Kotono’s self-discovery and individual development was great, and the conclusion that she and the other girls get was very satisfying. What I really loved about IP compared to other idol projects is the social commentary that it gives on the idol industry. At one point, a traditional LL-esque group go up against one of the show’s new gen idol groups and it does a great job highlighting society and the music industry’s preference for idol music. Why some groups get hot and others don’t. The more realistic approach that it takes compared to LL, Bandori, Lapis etc., is a welcome change of pace.

In any anime, one of the biggest factors in evaluating it is the performances. In Idoly Pride, I was honestly taken aback quite a bit by how well done and high quality the performances were. The CGI was amazing. At points I couldn’t distinguish between 2D and 3D CGI. I’d even argue it was better than LL Nijigaku. Music wise, the songs from the groups are all bops. Liznoir and Moon Tempest have no skips in their catalogs, and watching the show will introduce you to some amazing music.

Honestly, at this point I’m not sure which I like more as a multimedia project. LL or IP. Yes, to me this show and project are that damn good. If you’re a fan of idols, or want to try out the genre, I highly recommend Idoly Pride. It’s an enjoyable show full of diverse personalities that provides insight into the Japanese idol industry as well as a heart warming story of self-discovery and redemption after loss. Idoly Pride gets 10 mics out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jan 2, 2022

akshay1093

Mixed Feelings

CUTE ANIME GIRLS SING AND DANCE.

If that’s enough for you then this show is 10/10. Anything more and this story falls far short of capturing the magic idols bring to their audience. But let me preface this review with a disclaimer: I’m not into idols. My interest stops at mere curiosity at idol culture. That said, while I’m not an authority on idols, I do know at least the bare minimum to talk stories and anime. So here are my thoughts.

For a show about an idol group, its characters have absolutely nothing to endear them to. They also have absolutely no chemistry between them. ... That’s not a consequence of the group just being formed, it’s because the characters and their dynamics are written so poorly. I’d say the show is more like a fluff piece written by a fan and this is what he THINKS an idol, and becoming an idol, is all about. In fact, rather than being an idol anime, it’s more accurate to look at this as a generic cute-girls-being-friends anime and the idol aspect is just the setting. Hibike! Euphonium was another anime in this genre that I quite enjoyed, except it did its setting justice.

The characters are the same-old-same-old you see in every generic anime, so without further ado —

Presenting your next top idols:

s-s-su-super sh-sh-sh-shy girl,
…soft spoken girl,
!! HAPPY BUBBLY GIRL NYA !!,
Oh Ho Ho, I’m the rich ojou-san girl, oh ho ho,
Ara ara senpai girl,
Serious girl.
<3 <3 <3 I-came-here-because-my-heart-led-me-here girl <3 <3 <3

… there are more but you get the picture. That’s also the only line in their character development for the majority of the show.

For a show about idols who, through their performances, are supposed to touch the hearts of others, this anime is stunningly devoid of emotion. The characters are reduced to idol-fetishes — a simp’s wet dream of a lineup of kawaii girls. They constantly throw in cliche lines like “shine brightly” and “followed my heart” and “let’s do our best”. There’s also lots of hands clasped over chests, arms reaching for the stars, eyes closed in prayer, and peppy "Ganbare!" tossed around. Not only have I seen these in hundreds of shows, I lost count of the number of times I saw them in this show alone. There’s nothing to make these characters even human, let alone have them touch another human’s heart. In the entire show, I found only one moment with genuine emotion in the 2nd half, but can’t go into detail because it’ll spoil a major plot point.

Even more worrying than the characters however was the song and dance. I thought both were mid at best. More of it might have made this at least enjoyable, but the majority of the show focuses on the one-note characters and their superficial interactions. Worse, the 2nd half dropped the hand-drawn animations for the dance sequences altogether and adopted 3D models instead. The camera had more movement than the characters at times, and I quickly lost my only reason to keep watching the show. The pacing also got so slow that the show was only watchable at 1.5x the speed.

I won’t disparage those who did enjoy the show. I’m obviously not the target audience, but I was hoping this could still be an entertaining story and it wasn’t. The idol management side of it also didn’t give any real insight into the industry. Again, it was superficial at best. The best analogy for this anime is if you take a bunch of ready-made, staple ingredients, toss them between two slices of bread, and you call that sandwich cooking. Just a bunch of cliches, stereotypes, fan service, and no flavour.

And the end is the most predictable cop-out everyone was expecting (even though it literally has the line, “Nobody was expecting this”). It tries to force-fit the protagonist, who has had next to no contribution to the story so far, for a cheap tug at your heartstrings, and fails.

Not an enjoyable watch if you are looking for anything more than a very generic, sugary take on what being an idol is all about.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 28, 2021

Jaikeis

Not Recommended

In a word, disappointing. Idoly Pride had a fantastic opening episode that soon degenerated into a very by-the-numbers, predictable storyline. The principal issue with the show is that the characters are never meaningfully challenged and overcome every test without any difficulty. Our protagonists are going to be up against the biggest veteran idols in the industry? I can't wait to see how they'll work to prepare for this! Oh, they just did more of their usual barely coached training routines and won in their first face-off, okay. There is no reason to be invested in their struggles, because, aside from paying some minor lip service ... to a potential scandal or family conflict, the characters don't seem to have any they aren't able to immediately shrug off. No one has to grow because they're already perfect at what they do.

The majority of the cast is also severely underutilized. If you're not the ghost or directly related to the ghost, good luck getting more than a few lines each episode. For purportedly "main" characters, it's next to impossible to remember their names from week to week. The rival groups don't fare much better. They get very little screen time until it's their day to perform, at which point they get five or so minutes of a flashback for the audience to maybe feel sorry for them when they're summarily beaten. But it's okay; somehow, losing still won them the approval of their dad/producer or whatever, so we can count their character arcs as complete and realized.

The performances themselves are incredibly bland. The CG animation noticeably stutters when trying to render more than two people at a time on stage, and the 2D animation is few and far between, compensated heavily by stills. Every group that performs does little more than sing and dance, which might be fine for a small-time gig, but the competition at the center of Idoly Pride is advertised in-universe as one of the biggest events of the year. And yet, the performances at the finals are no different from the performances in the early rounds. I realize asking for a few explosions or fancy fireworks might be outside the realm of feasibility for the animation studio, but at least attempt some more inspired lighting effects. Is the audience happy to pay presumably over 10k yen a ticket and travel across the country just to see the occasional little puff of fire at the end of a song?

Though Idoly Pride might have enough cute girls to distract the less attentive viewer from its excessively formulaic storytelling, its problems will be readily apparent to anyone who has already seen their fair share of media. If you're interested in this show, by all means start watching it. I still enjoy the first episode as a stand-alone tale of a girl with big dreams that ended up getting cut short. But if you find yourself losing interest afterwards, go ahead and drop it. It won't get better from there.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Idoly Pride Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Mar 28, 2021	76 replies	by Viok »» Aug 25, 3:22 AM
	Poll: Idoly Pride Episode 10 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 14, 2021	31 replies	by Viok »» Aug 23, 10:20 AM
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	Poll: Idoly Pride Episode 11 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 21, 2021	31 replies	by CrazyButNot4U »» Nov 15, 2023 3:14 AM
	Poll: Idoly Pride Episode 9 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 7, 2021	35 replies	by CrazyButNot4U »» Nov 15, 2023 1:54 AM