A little bit of background first... Ongaku Shouju started in 2015 with a 25 minute movie that was part of a bigger project (you should watch some of the other movies associated with it that are absolutely fantastic). One of those characters carry over and it throws in a nice reference, but overall doesn't really contribute much. I would much more recommend the movie, but even that didn't blow me away, just thought I'd put that information out there.
As far as this show goes, I saw many problems with it that just killed the show in a genre I love so much and usually give preferential treatment to. The most main of our main characters is Hanako, a girl with professional musicians as parents. She happens to notice this group of idols in the airport in the first episode as they put on a show. Although she has a slightly different idea of an idol, she still loves it. She decides she wants to help the group. What can she do to help you ask? Well the first episode leaves you with a very promising start and let me tell you why. She was an amazing dancer. She picked up what the group did after just one run. Sick, she has talent. Her parents are musicians, so she must be able to sing, right? Wrong. Her singing is awful and rather embarrassing. That, however, doesn't make the show bad. I would have LOVED to see her grow as a musician to help this group. So that's where the first episode leaves off. i'm invested, let's see her put in those hours. That wasn't it chief. Episode 2 essentially has her give up that dream and just sit on the sidelines as the manager for (almost) the entire rest of the show. Remember that for later. Also, Hanako's parents just kind of abandon her when they are on a trip in a foreign country. Umm, yeah, wtf. -10 points for bad parenting skills.
As far as characters overall, they weren't the worst I've seen by far. There were in fact some rather interesting and lovable characters (as to be expected from idol anime). They even have a cute lobster. Who doesn't love a cute lobster? Most of these characters get episodes with them getting over their own struggles, some more than others, and they weren't awful. There was actually one episode that made me tear up a little but that doesn't really make up for a garbage show. So characters, not awful, but not overly amazing either.
The art and animation was very subpar for an idol show. A lot of scenes looked really lazy and some looked pretty poorly drawn. Inconsistencies with main characters looking like background characters really turned me off from a visual standpoint. There just isn't much to say about this subject except very underwhelming.
For an idol show, the music throughout wasn't great. I have an entire section of my profile just for idol music and not a singular song from this show even came close to making it. The OST in the show was very forgettable on top of that. They created a show about music, and couldn't even deliver the music. That's saying something.
My enjoyment was affected by everything I wrote so far and my enjoyment score probably would have been a 1 if it weren't for that one episode that got me in the feels as it hit a subject a little closer to home. I'm ashamed but I can't deny it so it gets that. GGs.
Oh, you thought I was done talking about the story. Nah, I just needed a breather before I got too heated. It's a 1/10 for a reason. To wrap everything I have written about above has quadruped in awful quality in the last episode. A huge plot hole that was in the last episode is what caused me to rant about ep. 12 in that related discussion post. Read that for my full thoughts but I will keep it brief here and spoiler free since this part is at the end of the series. Essentially, episode 12 is just a land mine for a bad episode. One thing after another goes off in a pathetic attempt to close out the series. I have no idea how they were on time for the last episode, but it is very apparent that they did not put a lot of effort into it. It was incredibly hard to watch. The ending doesn't really make any sense at all and leaves an even more rotten taste in my mouth about the series as a whole despite just being one episode. I would have never thought that one episode could dish out such an effect, yet here we are.
Verdict: I would ABSOLUTELY NOT recommend this show to anyone ever. If you are thinking about watching this show after reading this, you are a masochist beyond myself and are just looking for a show to crap on.
