Idolm@aster – 01

Categories: First Impressions | July 10th, 2011 | No Comment

Well, what can I say…the sole modus operandi of Idolm@ster seems to be to show off as many cute stereotype girls doing as much stereotype stuff as possible.

Idolm@aster is about 12 girls aspiring to be idol stars. They are part of the idol production company called 765 Production which seems to be the run by a faceless/headless president and a young producer who was once an idol herself. Since the company is short of people they’re hiring another producer. This guy uses the excuse of a documentary to get to know all the various girls.

The idea of using a mockymentary to introduce us to the different girls is interesting I must say and I certainly was one of the strongest points of the episode. Unfortunately, the result didn’t really catch me because of the lack of real content. Seeing cute girls hunting a hamster and see them talking about their dreams and what it takes to be an idol is nice and all but it didn’t feel satisfying at all to see this stuff. In fact I often had the urge to fast forward several scenes and it is never a good sign when I want to finally get it over with something in a movie or an episode.

To top things off, the cast – which should be the strongest point of a series about idols – is full of stereotypes I’ve seen hundreds of times already. There’s the clumsy girl, the tomboyish girl, the airhead, the extremely shy girl who cannot speak to boys, the mysterious queen who always uses “watakushi” and Rie Kugimiya who for once did not go “urusai, urusai, urusai” – but my ears did bleed nonetheless.

Perhaps this series might turn out okay for the fans but Idolm@ster definitely isn’t my cup of tea. It’s too generic, too boring and uses too many stereotypes without adding something of its own to the mix. Moreover, this series also feels too naive for my liking (if I were the producer I’d fire at least half of the girls).

Idolm@aster is a definite “pass” for me so I won’t blog or watch it.

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