Reviews

Recently watched after buying it on a lark from Rightstuf for super c heap. The cover art on the DVD insert is way WAY more ecchi than the show itself, which was a bit of a disappointment. The one thing that made this show worth watching were the characters and for me personally, the English voice cast from ADV Films. The 3 main heroines are voiced by Kelli Cousins, Hilary Haag & Monica Rial. The story is melodramatic to the point of silly, which is unintentionally funny. It's very much like a an American soap opera plot. The bones of a good story are here, and this series would make excellent fodder for a re-make. It just needs more music, more conflict, more sexiness, etc. The original here is pretty mediocre and bland but a thoughtful remake could be potentially great. The core story could've been told in a 6 episode OVA. A full 13 episodes just feels bloated and unnecessary for what we're given.

The artwork has a few moments that are really great (mostly the impromptu music video scenes serving as a plot montage to show passage of time or character growth) but mostly it's pretty bland, even by 1990s standards. Some of the characters' facial expressions fall into unnatural, creepy "uncanny valley" territory during some of the dance sequences. Also, I get that music licensing can be very expensive but WOW did the main R3 song get repetitive and boring...seeing the girls rehearse other songs or even try writing their own lyrics would've improved the story 100%; also it would've been better showing them doing all the other things performers typically do in Japan such as being interviewed on radio stations, or doing work on tv commercials, dealing with obsessive fans & paparazzi, etc...these aspects of idol careers are hand-waved away or dealt with for only a few seconds at a time. The best that can be said is this show was the forerunner of much better idol stories yet to come. I guess tween & young teen women are the intended audience for a show like this, not male Gen Xers like me.