• AKB0048 is literally a sci-fi fanfiction about the members of the actual AKB48 idol group. Where their fans are horrifying CG men with glow-sticks and their favorite cute idols have licenses to carry a revolver, to satiate the average military otaku, while their real weapons is actually their… voice? That's right, what better to fight an Orwellian mecha army than singing at them. Memories of Macross are surfacing.
• I know I'm being really harsh on this show, which is supposed to be some kind of galactic nerd parody, but it still felt like an excruciating otaku pandering onahole: sometimes cheap and eternally hollow. You can't really like any of the characters, unless you like the actual member of the idol group. There’s a huge cast of characters, so none of them get much screen time.
• I mean, Chieri kind of does, but it's mostly her being the stereotypical ice queen that eventually warms up to the other girls. I hated the character designs as well; the characters have weird, creepy shapes things in their pupils.
• To my American mind, the weird focus on idol purity took me out of the experience. I mean, I know about the not having a boyfriend and only being in a relationship with fans thing that idols do, but it seems overdone in this show. Love Live looks dirty in comparison to the innocence meter of this show, but in the middle of a war against 1984-esque, entertainment hating replica enemiesーthe contrast between worlds is uncomfortable, to say the least.
• The characters don't seem human. One girl gets a death threat from one of her fans in one episode, and then is able to calmly talk to him during the signing. That seems unrealistic to me. Idols aren't these perfect girls who will cater to our every psycho demand, they're people, too… I think? Most of the girls in the show have two or less character traits that differentiate them from the rest.
• As much as I'm wrecking this show, I did appreciate the platonic friendships among the girls. It's like Natsume Yuujincho, where it's kind of gay but romantic tension doesn’t exist, and you're never caught up in interpersonal struggles.
• The lack of tension between characters or development, leaves world building and story to be the only conceivable factors left, but that doesn’t amount to much. The backgrounds for each planet and the scenery designs are gorgeous, but we're never able to see what's under the veneer.
• The kind of subtlety about what's going on behind the scenes can be well executed in some series, but in this one, since the world is the crutch… leaves everything feeling empty and lifeless.
• I wish they had gone more into the strange surreality with the idol succession and the possiblly Lovecraftian dimension that devours girls who perform in a certain area. I thought THAT was fascinating, but it is never explores it in-depth. I think adding a Cthulhu deity to an idol show would have been amazing. There is nothing about it though; it's mere fan speculation for the most part.
• If there was one more layer that explained why all of the generations of Tomoyo's family are bred to look and act the same. If there was just one piece of fabric to connect the random fridge horror moments, than this series may have tied together very nicely.
• The show chooses to add tons of otaku references and fanservice instead of actually making a solid effort towards anything else. If I wanted a contrived throwback, I would have watched Magical Shopping Arcade again or anything that relies heavily on referential humor.
• This series is incredibly niche and I only recommend if you are a fan of actual idols or you want something filled to the brim with references. Or if you're a diehard fan of Shoji Kawamori. Other than that, I personally don't think there's any other reason to watch this show. Kawamori was already rolling down the hill with Macross Delta, and now here's something else that I'm not a huge fan of. I give the first season of AKB0048 a 3/10 and the second season a 4/10.
