Love dol ~ Lovely Idol

Title:Love dol ~ Lovely Idol
Lovely Idol
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , ,
Notables: CHIHARA Minori
MOMOI Haruko
NAKAHARA Mai
NOGAWA Sakura
OGIWARA Hideki
SAKAI Kanako
The Lovedols are a popular group of idol singers with two "generations" of performers already well established. A third generation of Lovedols is ready to make its debut, but right before they`re cued to go onstage, manager Tomohiro learns that the debut has been delayed by order of the company president. Unsure about the reasons behind this, Tomohiro starts to wonder what the third generation is lacking. Maybe they need another singer—and when he spots a street musician with a guitar, he may very well have found the answer. Recruiting her, however, could turn out to be harder than expected.
(synopsis stolen from ANN)

[TV series, 2006, 12 episodes, 24 min; Animation by AIC & TNK; based on a game from Princess Soft; English fansub by WIND, 7 episodes subbed as of 2007-01-31]
Episode Details 
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OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch Stretch [series:1448#628]
(All episodes watched):


Seeing as there is "Absolutely no info on this new series", the idea occured to me to watch the raw version of episode one and see what I could deduce from it. See episode 1 for details...


My first impression was that this show would probably be a rather airheaded glorification of the pop idol culture in Japan. Episode one opens with a lengthy performance by a team of girl idols who aren't even going to be the main characters of the series. Instead, the story revolves around four more girl recruits, the so-called "Third Batch", who thought they were going to join the team, but have been judged to be lacking something and have been put on hold. Their discouraged manager, Tomohiro, happens to run across a beautiful and talented girl, Sakaki Mizuki, who performs on streetcorners. The idea occurs to him that this performer might be just what the third batch needs--but she despises entertainment industry lapdogs, and wants nothing to do with him. It soon becme obvious that Mizuki would be persuaded to join Tomohiro's team of underdogs, and, through pluck, talent, and originality, they would earn some honestly deserved respect and fame. Sure enough, in episode three the girls of the third batch (joined by Mizuki and Tomohiro's little sister) get a chance to make an unscheduled debut. It was a little corny and predictable, but I got a definite thrill out of their performance, in part because they were singing my favorite song (see below). So sue me, I enjoyed this show; it's a feel-good series, with little angst. I was modestly intrigued, and looked forward to new episodes to see if the plot would really play out as I'd predicted. A bit of character development for the girls of the third batch would certainly have helped, though--especially Mizuki herself. She does a startling turnaround, considering how thoroughly she frowned on the entertainment industry early on. She doesn't undergo a gradual change of attitude, she just turns 180 degrees all at once--at least I thought so. Nor do we get much of a clue about what sort of unhappy memories are/were troubling her. We don't know all that much about Tomohiro either. To my surprise, neither does any serious romance develop between the two of them. Lovely Idol is more of a "Let's do our best!" sort of show; it's definitely second string, with a largely predictable plot and modest comedy, and will probably never be R1 licensed. But it does have a bit of charm to it, and it's worth a watch. One thing this show definitely has going for it is quite possibly my favorite piece of music of the fall 2006 season, namely the ED song. It is extremely perky and upbeat, and just flows beautifully.

Last updated Thursday, June 14 2007. Created Tuesday, October 03 2006.
Unevaluated Jan-Chan [series:1448#967]
I know absolutely nothing about this series other than (1) the RAW of the first episode has been posted and (2) it is based on a computer game from those people that brought us the Final Approach and W - Wish game and anime series.

Last updated Monday, October 02 2006. Created Monday, October 02 2006.

Other Sites
NameURL
Japanese Game & Anime Web Site http://www.project-navel.com/navel/lovelyidol/
Japanese Anime Web Site http://www.avexmovie.jp/lineup/lovedol/

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