Idols, now with less giant robots
So far each episode of this show has left me digging for what I want to see, which is annoying, but not entirely bad, because the standard moe tropes that are presented can be passed off as garbage easily and put aside. It’s almost like getting two episodes in one.
Every episode holds a little treasure for me due to personal experience, but what didn’t work for me in episode three was playing with cows, or Yukiho’s fear of men/dogs; things we’ve all seen before. This tends to pale with the rest of the episode, which was a pure joy for me.
Personal experience in live sound, recording, and even helping my wife attempt to get into the “business” as a singer, leaves me almost squealing with joy at the rest of the episode.
This episode has 765 pro on their first live gig at a festival. Expectations are high with all the girls as they think they’re about to be treated extravagantly, and they’re expectations are tempered when they arrive after the really long drive to the venue. The venue is small, the equipment old, and the clientele is a very small town.
Peppered between the silliness is the entire idol crew pitching in to make the gig work. They work the PA system, the lighting, the decorations, the stands for the festival, and all the background prep needed to pull off the show.
So what’s shiny is the team work, and the depiction of the setup for the gig. Watching the girls figure out how to put the old system together to make the PA work, was like a flashback to my days running live sound in a field with nothing but a tiny generator. But what sold me was overcoming what you expect to become what you need to be by working from the very bottom of the chain when you’re handed practically nothing.
The girls have a dream, and aside from Iori’s outward ojou-sama attitude, the rest understand what they need to do to attain those dreams, even if means performing in a backwater venue that no one will notice.
To be honest this works so well on the business aspect of the show, that the part about Yukiho overcoming her fears was just secondary. I really don’t care that it was secondary, because the background prep is done so well.
The goodness extends to the previous episodes also, even if the entire first half of episode one was chasing the hamster all over the office, the second half where the girls were interviewed about why they wanted to be idols was so well done, you didn’t realize that half an episode was wasted. Episode two gave us the promo photo shoot, which through a few snapshots gave more insight into the personalities of the group than any intro could. Two episodes in, and you know what each individual’s personality is, and what they believe the idol business is.
I was so ready to dismiss this, but I’ve found something that I’m really enjoying, even if I need to push some things aside and roll my eyes a few times to find it.
