AKB0048 is a futuristic idol anime that focuses on the Old and New "generations" of AKB0048 or "00" as they fight against the anti-entertainment bans thrghout the galaxy through guerilla concerts, but there's something deeper of being a 00 as well. Now a group of girls by the names of Nagisa Motomiya voiced by Karen Iwata, Chieri Sono voiced by Mayu Watanabe, Sonata Shinonme voiced by Kumi Yagami, Suzuko Kanzaki voiced by Sawako Hata, Makoto Yokomizo voiced by Mao Mita, Kanata Shinonome voiced by Haruka Ishida, Mimori Kishida voiced by Sumire Sato, Yuuka Ichijou voiced by Amina Sato and Orine Aida voiced by Sayaka Nakaya as they become the understudies of the current generation of AKB0048. Add to that but each of the characters have stakes in wanting to become successors and be a member of 00, some relational clashes from their current generations as well as old, something about Kirara's, the Center Nova, Sensei-sensei and you already get what one of the glaringly flaws to AKB0048 and that AKB0048 has....well at bit too much going for it in ALL it's elements.
From the already HUGE cast of characters, that spans two or three generations of girls, their support staff and the minor supporting characters to it's many MANY MANY plotlines it has going for it. As much as the character development helps flesh out the cast especially from a huge cast as it is, gets absolutely bogged down by it's world building of the 00 right down to the core, from the support staff especially Tsubasa Katagiri voiced by Yumi Kakazu, the debacle with the Center Nova that heavily concerns Shiori Arisawa and Tsubasa, what the entire deal with Sensei-sensei, the head of the 00, to the Kirara allowing people to recognize people in showing that their true idols that concerns Nagisa....like that just at the top of LA's head and there's more what with Chieri's father tied to the DES (the anti-entertainment ban people) and Yuuko's romantic love interest to Mamoru but MAN that's ALOT of plot points and half of it doesn't addressed or have resolutions.
For the character themselves, they get episodes in the limelight now and again but with it's huge cast and how many of those core cast have plot points major or minor that swallows any development into the mist...well to this end it's bloated with a somewhat narrow focus isn't a good sign. If LA will say this, LA's favourite character at least was Suzuko Kanzaki as her airheadedness was funny and helped lift the mood with her wacky personality alot of time....LA likes alot of megane idols *cough* Makino Yagami *cough*.
So yeah saying AKB0048 is bloated is a freakin' understatement.
In terms of animation done by Satelight, well LA will say one thing, Satelight SHINED when it came to the character designs giving them all "exotic" looking color palettes with some literal shine to them but they also have consistency to them (what does LA mean?...majority of the 00 members and understudies...ALWAYS have lovehearts in their irises as well as love hearts on their hair one way or another). As for the "battle lives", well it's use of 3DCGI is ehhh blatant, not as jank but just ehhh blatant, the few mecha times have some grace, but the choreography mainly the concerts were a bit janky at times, though at least the concerts used the 3DCGI sparingly on the characters. At least the space setting was decent and the planets they go to are schizo-futuristic to dystopian dilapidated landscapes depending if the planet has the ban or not (get it dystopian if ban in place, thriving if ban not in place). All in all, Satelight's animation was mixed from ehhh to decent...kinda expected from the bombastic Shoji Kawamori.
Now, here we go...the voice cast.....yeah what do you expect when the REAL life AKB48 members actually transition into voice acting with NO experience and this is their first?. Yeah "some" of the AKB members sound it, like Mao Mita, Karen Iwata and Sayaka Nakaya where LA can't explain it but they have this stilted non-pop filtered sound whenever they speak. Nonetheless there was some AKB48 members that did fine, from Mayu Watanabe as Chieri, Sumire Sato as Mimori and Amina Sato as Yuuka. Coincidence that some of the current AKB0048 members are actually voiced by veteran voice actors like Mai Nakahara as Youko Asamiya, Ayako Kawasumi as Akira Igarashi, Kana Ueda as Tomoyo Itano, Yui Horie as Ayako Kuroki, Miyuki Sawashiro as Atsuko Maeda the 13th, Mamiko Noto as Chiharu Sakuragi and Yukari Tamura as Mayu...YEAH. Much like the animation and even with some amazing veteran voice actors in the backline...the voice cast was mixed to say the least.
For an anime that's focused on AKB48, well has some "real life writes the plot" mainly with the understudies and trainees based on the VA's actual lives. Like Sayaka Nakaya droppin gout of school to makes ends meet is an example. Weirdly enough one episode has a bit of weird clairvoyance that's to do with *ahem* "I won't let anyone tarnish Sashiko's name"...yeahhhhh considering what happened to the real life Sashiko...just errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr art imitates life...
As much as LA has been somewhat HARSH to this anime, LA will give some graces to this anime and what this first season does, as much of bloated mess it tried to set up it's characters and settings, ven with some of the one off episodes, they did give us some small development to the characters in question, as for the major plots, it at LEAST dealt with some (not all) but some of them and what resolutions we did get was a bit satisfying in some ways, mainly with Nagisa. Finally for an anime that has is stuck with a brand as famous as AKB, this anime is militant about it's brand and shows itself well, almost like it's projecting what an AKB48 would be in an a wacky anime setting and GOES ALL OUT WITH IT showing how great they are, by extension making us curious one way or another about the AKB48 brand. If there's ONE thing Japan is great in doing is advertisement and branding and with anime it damn well shows it!
AKB0048 is a hodgepodge of bogged down ideas with the AKB48 brand implanted into it. Sure the production value is...eh to decent but man with it's tons of multiple active plot points, be it world building or the characters and their relationships to the mix of genres AKB0048 had on being a slice of life in the daily lives of an idol to an idol anime looking at how AKB0048 trains, to a dystopian entertainment ban trying to eliminate the 00 to a slightly yuri anime with it's characters to a mecha anime fighting the DES while doing a guerilla concert. This anime is ALL OVER THE PLACE. While this doesn't mean AKB0048 isn't outright horrible, more like an unfocused bloated mess, but not horrible...per say....but it's flaws are not only detrimental but blatant at what AKB0048 wanted to do but failed in it's execution but to this it tries to leverage itself with what resolutions were taken place in this season and was satisfying, it tried to world build, tried to develop and flesh out the HUGE cast of characters...it tried.
Maybe...maybe AKB0048 might finish up it's many many loose plot threads with it's second season, but for a first season's first impression, AKB0048 if anything in "meh" territory with all it's strengths and weakness accounted for.
If there was a comparison LA could make to AKB0048 anime, it would be that AKB0048 is what AKB48, as Idolmaster Xenoglossia is to the Idolmaster franchise.
