Alien Stage

The general first impression of this show is probably: Hunger Games but as a single-elimination singing tournament set in a human/alien society.

In every round, two singers are forced to compete onstage 1v1, their lives on the line as they sing to the alien audience members who view the humans as pets and the competition as popcorn entertainment. The winner moves on to the next round, while the loser dies on the spot. At the end of each tournament, only one winner will remain. Alien Stage tells the story through a series of animated music videos - each featuring at least one of the six main ... characters and not only depicting what occurs on stage, but also giving a glimpse of the characters' background, past, and relationship with other characters. Every video offers twists and turns, highlighting the unpredictability and complexity of the characters as they act based on their individual values and motivations. At the center of many of these motivations are varying forms of love - pure love, tragic love, toxic love, and unrequited love. With the show tagged as "psychological," there are inevitably some dark topics touched on and actions made by the characters themselves that may be uncomfortable to the viewers, but it's important to keep an open mind and remember these characters are raised in an abnormal society - by aliens, not by human parents - and grew up with warped perceptions of what's right or wrong.

The Alien Stage music videos aren't the kind where you can understand with just one simple viewing. With each video being at most 5 minutes long, each requires a few rewatches to understand what's happening and even more to peel past the surface. It's no exaggeration to say every single frame is important as even some snapshots, which are only a split second long, offer hidden details. But the multiple pauses, rewinding, and rewatching that are inevitably required to obtain a better understanding of the story, characters, and lore are very rewarding.

The art, animation, music, and cinematography are nothing short of captivating. Clearly, the staff has thrown a lot of passion and love into this project. From the beads of sweat forming on the female singer onstage just before tragedy hits, to the light reflecting on the characters' pupils while looking at a loved one, to the flower symbolisms, to the color of the clothes the characters wear onstage - everything was crafted with a clearly intended purpose. The songs and lyrics themselves are just as important to understand the story, each one conveying the thoughts and emotions of the characters. However, with no narration or dialogue offered in-between, some scenes are left ambiguous and open to interpretation. It's up to the viewers to form their own theories and fill in the gaps.

Overall, Alien Stage is a must-watch for any fan of the psychological and suspense genre, as well as those who enjoy digging through layers of a video and forming/reading through theories/analyses to gain a bigger picture of the story and lore.

Don't waste your time reading this review. Watch it. It's amazing! With only a few minutes per episode, you'll be caught up in less than an hour and we can talk about how amazing it is!
But if you reallly want to read a review before watching it, here you go

This is a dystopian indie music show. If I were to create this using an anime math equation, it's as if you combined Oshi No Ko with something like Deadman wonderland. Sorta.
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synopsis
As I'm sure you're aware by reading the synopsis, the basic series idea is "What if aliens took over the planet and ... made them sing and compete in a tournament, where if you lose you die.

I think this is a nice idea, though already I'm a bit wary. With short episodes, it'll need to do a really good job developing characters and make me get attached to them in only a few minutes so I'll care if they die. The music also needs to fit the characters as well as the tone of the show to properly feel like a "music show". It's still a really strong concept though, and I thought that even if it wasn't done super well I would at least entertain myself.
I'd give the idea a 7.5/10 (Good-great)

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Animation/Visuals

Now one thing you'll notice about this is that the animation isn't exactly smooth, although it's still very impressive coming from the amount of people working on it. It still conveys plenty of emotion, and the love and care put in each frame is crazy, even if there are less frames then your average million dollar anime.

Meanwhile, the visuals are stunning. The art style is unique but not in a way that's hard to look at. The lighting is done amazingly, and they don't overuse it to the point where it gets annoying. One thing I enjoyed is seeing the different art styles from one character to the next, but not in such a way where they look like they're from completely different shows. I also liked the alien designs. I thought some of them were well done, and while not the most unique, they weren't exactly standard either. They certainly did what they needed to do. The visuals overall I would say were great-amazing.
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Plot

Look, I can't talk too much about the plot here as I don't want to spoil anything. However simply looking at the synopsis should tell you there is a LOT to be spoiled. I will say this show had me smiling like a buffoon, to actually crying. (Those who watched round 6, you know 😭) The amount that they were able to convey with such a short period of time was always stunning to me. The plot is marvelously well done.
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Characters

It's not a stretch at all to say that this could be a character driven show. It's not in the end, but that doesn't mean that the characters aren't some of the best, most well developed characters, that feel like they have actually EMOTIONS in a while. All without A. SINGLE. LINE. OF. DIALOGUE. (Minus that one time in episode one when Mizi gives a brief explanation) the amount of connection you feel with these characters, or at least the amount I felt. Every gesture that they do adds and builds onto their character. It's masterfully done. You can tell what they care about, what their dislikes are, even what they might do in other scenarios just by watching them sing on stage, with brief flashbacks.
The songs (We'll get to the music in a second I'll tell you-) also masterfully capture the characters emotions and personality. Like for instance the opening theme, "My Clematis" does a great job of representing the tone and mood, as well as the characters Mizi and Sua's personalities.
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Music
It's finally here guys!
One of my favorite parts of this whole series is the music. While not all these songs are the type I listen to, they're all so captivating. From the slow haunting melody of "Black Sorrow" to the fast paced rock of "Unknown (Till the end)" each song I felt captured what was happening very well and added so much depth to the characters, their relationships and the mood of the show. Also, can we just mention how much of a banger some of these songs are? "Ruler of my heart" has been stuck in my head ALL DAY, and I love it! I've added all of these songs to my playlist, and I just want to reiterate, even if you for some reason don't like the plot you at least have to like these absolute bops.
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Welp, that's all for my review. If you're still here, you probably spent more time reading this then just watching the first few episodes. But enough said. Just watch it. I personally would recommend watching until round 6, especially because it won't take too much of your time. Just please give it a shot!