Now for the review itself after wrapping up yesterday on Christmas Eve, I have been holding up on this for weeks where there were discussions and memes about this being compared to Idoly Pride because of how many similar plot points and the whole plot itself to each other.
So I started on episode 1 where I got introduced to a legendary idol named Amasawa Akari and as a Hayamin fan(seen some of her works and heard some of her songs), I want to pay attention to her character but the problem is she only got like around 2 minutes of screentime on that episode then her character is already dead on a car crash similar to Nagase Mana from Idoly Pride. I never have such a feeling like this on an idol anime before why I felt vibes from another idol anime and this is just the beginning.
Later on, 9-Tie(atleast not officially at the early episodes) was introduced where we get introduced to this reality show similar to Big Brother and some other reality shows in idol format where okay this is a bit different. One of the main girls is Miyama Suzune, who is a frail and sickly girl who almost got kicked out of the show but the winner talked to her and decided to withdraw from the competition. The third episode is where things started to get vicious with the Idoly Pride comparisons as we get introduced more to a girl named Rena who guess what, happened to be the sister of the dead idol much like Kotono being the sister of Mana in IP.
So the girls were split into units which okay lets see what they have to offer where SplashSoda and GapsCaps are fine but we will get to other problems later on the review.
Halfway through the anime, the drama started to get really serious with the swimsuit performance where Suzune doesn't want to see her chest scar which Rena saw and covered up for her. This is where people including myself have a feeling that she got a heart transplant from someone and nailed it on episode 8 with a big plot reveal. "Ah shit, here we go again." is my reaction to that scene and even made a meme about it. This is one of the points that escalated the comparisons to Idoly Pride like seriously, why you have to pull out an Idoly Pride plot on who Suzune got an heart transplant from Akari of all people like why go that route instead of another donor that has nothing to do with Akari or a different organ. This gets really worse to the point that I feel like I'm watching a pirated copy of Idoly Pride much like the bootlegs you see around the street markets. I find this really difficult to take the anime seriously because of too much similarities with Idoly Pride and this is absolutely terrible.
Episode 10 and 11 was their chance to redeem itself and breakaway from the Idoly Pride copy label with the girls trying to make name for themselves after an incident in the reality show that disqualified all of them thus the official formation of the group 9-Tie. Unfortunately, this was reversed on episode 12 where we went back to the heart issue drama BS again on Suzune but this time Rena took care of her and the reveal of the staff's true nature including Jun and the Dorm Mother.
Now regarding Akari, she get some appearance like on Rena's dream and later Suzune's when she was fighting for her life but I have to question how she become a legendary idol and to be frank, this a huge plot hole where it's not good enough to say "Amasawa Akari is a legendary idol" after the car crash when we barely know anything about her like what did she achieve as an idol instead of just some story telling from Rena or Dorm Mother especially to Suzune. Its basically impossible at this point to avoid thinking about Mana when it comes to Akari much like Sakura and Kotono to Suzune and Rena which is atrocious writing.
Regarding the other 7 girls, sure they have their own quirks and stuff but they are stuck to their shticks and gimmicks especially Nodoka who mostly put into scenes that have anything to do with food while getting overshadowed by SuzuRena. Speaking of those two, obviously they are so similar to Sakura and Kotono.
On the final episode on the anime, I got lots of "uhh" moments and I was like "what the hell happened to this anime!?" with lots of nonsense going on with Akari talking to Suzune and gives her a hug in the dream then she wakes up and be like "Hurrah! lets go to the stage where everyone's waiting" which doesn't make any sense like what kind of incompetent doctor would clear Suzune that fast unless you sneak her out of the hospital or something? Just after the last performance of other 9-Tie members, Suzune and Rena appeared out of nowhere just like something out of WWE with the hurt wrestler getting back to the fight. 9-Tie so far got half of the votes but how the hell they get the rest of the required votes is way beyond me.
Guess what's the final song for the series? A new song? I wish but nope! Its the OP of the entire anime like seriously why they couldn't make a new song to make the ending special and of course we still get the same ending credits with the same song Only One Yell that's been played since Day 1.
You have the characters that have potential to be unique even Akari only to be overshadowed by Sakura and Kotono 2.0 a.k.a Suzune and Rena and this is really terrible because the other girls didn't have enough room to develop their own characters instead of this whole SuzuRena drama the entire time. I'm going to bring down the hammer on this and I have to give this score. I wish the lessons for other idol anime would be learned from this mistake considering how hard it is to stand out for the genre especially if you are not iM@S or Love Live, even those two giants have to learn the lessons too and I'm looking at you Million Live anime and I have hopes to not commit the same mistakes from Selection Project.
