Subculture Anime Blog

OP: “Shinai (深愛)” by Nana Mizuki – Um, what? The animation is boriiiiiing……wait. OMG OMG NANA MIZUKI OMG……

Summary:

A boy named Fujii Touya wakes from a dream where he could not hear his girlfriend Morikawa Yuki over noise being projected from a nearby rock band. In the end, Yuki had left him in order to perform in front of the large crowd that was previously listening to the band’s act. When Touya wakes, he watches the TV to see Yuki talking about her experience with a more experienced idol named Ogata Rina. Touya soon realizes that he has waken up late, however, leaving his apartment before he can listen to any more. Touya eventually meets Yuki in the city, but he cannot get her attention as she is excited about the things she had just talked about on TV. Her manager Shinozuka Yayoi appears soon after to take her away too, leaving Touya without the ability to have a proper talk with Yuki.

Upon reaching his university, Touya meets his friends Nanase Akira and Sawakura Misaki. Misaki offers Touya a book to help him with his reports, and as she gets into a conversation with him afterwards, makes him realize that he needs to catch Yuki before they are able to see each other even less. While walking with Akira to help find his new workplace later, Touya brings up his obvious realization that Akira has been unable to express the feelings he has for Misaki for quite some time. The two meet a girl named Kawashima Haruka next, who wishes to spend some time with Touya. When Akira brings up a comment about playing tennis with him instead though, she takes off on her bike. Touya catches up, but only to hear from Haruka that it was thanks to her that he was able to meet Yuki earlier. When Akira meets back up with Touya, the two recall that Haruka had lost her sports playing brother some time ago.

On the train together later that afternoon, Touya mentions to Akira that Yuki had already moved to a new apartment decided by the agency, and that she is currently unable to make phone calls from it. With this, Akira obviously sees that she has truly entered the idol life. Elsewhere, Rina enters a dressing room before a performance to see that a group of idols had spilled coffee on Yuki’s dress. She offers her help, but Yuki decides to take care of the problem herself. Touya spends time at his new workplace with Akira, but when a man named Ogata Eiji enters and exits, he quickly follows him. After being unable to catch him, Akira tells Touya that they have been let off early. He also makes him realize that Yuki couldn’t have possibly been with Eiji just because of his position at the agency.

Touya watches Yuki and Rina’s performance on the TV that night, surprisingly getting a call from Yuki while it airs. As the two discuss what has happening with each other recently, it is revealed that Yuki had solved her earlier problem by transforming her dress into something that had a completely different image. Rina interrupts Yuki during her phone call, and when she learns that Yuki was talking to her boyfriend, she requests to meet him.

ED: “Maiochiru Yuki no Youni (舞い落ちる雪のように)” by Suara – I usually don’t have much of an opinion about Suara’s stuff, but I will say that this reminds me a lot of the ED that was used for Kimikiss. But eh, like that one, this song really isn’t something I can become attached to.

Impression:

So, what I found the most hilarious about this show by the end of this episode was that Nana Mizuki performed the OP, but Aya Hirano’s singing was nowhere to be found. I guess being a riot girl just wasn’t enough for the studio! I also love how this show is bound to become a hit for the season, even though it is just Lovely Idol 2 with more ridiculous drama and maybe slightly less terrible voice acting (thanks Nana-chan). Everything about this episode seemed to be from a badly stereotyped shoujo anime, and since we’ve all already been spoiled about Touya and Rina from the preview descriptions of the show themselves, I can only see more and more bad cliches emerging from here on out. Am I going to blog this? Not a chance. Besides, there are plenty of other people who will probably be more enthusiastic about covering this by saying, “OMG OMG AYA HIRANO SHE IS SO GUD. DID U KNO SHE WAS IN HAYROOHI???”

Next please.