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[series:4658#628] | ||||||
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(All episodes watched--twice): I began to wonder if I was actually watching a movie, rather than the first episode of a series, because it is over an hour long. It needs a good deal of time to lay out the complex premise. Aqua and Ruby retain their adult memories as they grow and show signs of talent themselves. But, at age 3, the stalker is back and he kills Ai. The actual assailant is soon dead, but Aqua vows to hunt down whoever revealed where Ai was hiding and take revenge on him. This may well be his own father. You might think that Aqua would aspire to be a doctor when he grows up--he basically already is--but the signs are that he and Ruby will become Idols themselves. It was a little difficult to believe that at age one Aqua could converse intelligently with adults and they would be nothing more than briefly surprised. Aqua and Ruby muse about the possibility that they may have known each other in their previous lives, but reach no final conclusion. The Idol industry isn't treated as the wonderful la-la land that some anime depict it as, but rather as a tough business based on serving people who want to be lied to. But, after almost an hour and a half we finally have a good idea of where this story is going and there was no doubt that I intended to watch episode two. It seems to me that it would have made more sense if Ai's killer was still alive and at large and this was the person that Aqua was pursuing with a passion, but the story is fun nevertheless. In episode two Aqua and Ruby enroll in their new high school and run into red-haired Kana Akima, a once famous child actress who Aqua once played a part beside (she felt he had upstaged her). The Strawberry talent agency, which had gotten out of the Idol business after Ai was killed, will form a new group to keep Ruby from drifting into unsavory company. Since his mother's murder Aqua has become a handsome boy who almost never smiles. In episode three Aqua (now a teenager) gets a lead about a person Ai once knew who might be the person he's looking for. This causes him to take up acting again after leaving it for a good while. The mystery is complex enough to be entertaining. This lead doesn't exactly pan out but it leads to another one. Personally, I find Aqua's career and friendships to be more fun than whether or not he'll ever catch this person. More than one girl would love to have him as a boyfriend, and again the entertainment industry is depicted in a gritty, realistic and intriguing manner. We see many different aspects of it, not just being an Idol. Aqua does some TV acting, then appears on a sort of reality dating show (which annoys Ruby). She really, really wants to be an Idol like Ai was, but forming a group for her isn't easy. Episode six was largely about Akane, a girl also on the same dating show. She doesn't fit in, and after committing a minor gaffe is mercilessly hounded by the internet crowd. Her last chance will probably be if Aqua gets involved, which would be a distraction from his quest but an intriguing one. As is so often the case, she basically snaps out of a very serious emotional disorder overnight, which is totally unrealistic and disappointing. In episode eight Aqua finds that Akane entrances him--is he in love, or is she just uncannily like his (second) mother, Ai? I was confused, and didn't see what the whole point of this was anyway. There was little mention of Akane in episode nine, which was mainly about the formation of an Idol group, 'B-Komachi', composed of Ruby, Arima, and MEM (an online celebrity who was in the reality dating show). Two of the three girls want to be the lead singer but it turns out that the one who doesn't is clearly the best. Aqua gets the tip he bargained for about Ai's past, but it is at best just a hint as to where he might find more info. There's an episode 7.5, which is sort of an ad for the rest of the series and includes interviews with cast members. Apparently this story was highly popular as a manga and the hour-and-a-half first episode was released in Japanese theaters before it was shown on TV, which was unprecedented. In episode 11 the new B-Komachi group gives its debut performance. Even if this show dispensed with Aqua's quest for the man behind Ai's fate, and concentrated on just his career and Ruby's, I'd gladly keep watching. I guess it could be argued that the only reason he has an entertainment career in the first place is to help him gather clues. Anyway, this story is clearly nowhere near complete after a mere 11 episodes, and I'll have to wait for the next season (there's already a page devoted to that at the ANN website). This show had a rare ability to fascinate and transfix us, or at least me. When I rewatched it I found that it was difficult to resist the temptation to rewatch an episode of this show rather than watch an all-new episode of another one. Last updated Saturday, December 28 2024. Created Monday, April 24 2023. | ||||||||
