johnpaul.renner - 2016-07-24 05:55:30

The plot is simply about bunch of girls under the name of 765 Pro—765 Production Studio. They want to reach the top of Japan music industry as an idol. You don't need to frown your forehead or heavily withstand with the troublesome issues on your mind.
[SPOILER] The series does have problems like when few of their friends went debut first while the others still need to improve their skills, the burden of main heroine—Haruka Amami—who wants to spend time with their friends but none of them can make it so they can't be together after long time separately do their own jobs, and shed-tears moment when one of the member's scandal goes public.

    The amount of problems they have there taste like a spicy flavour in a crispy fried chicken. The  slice of life characters and humours mixed with the matters are a good combination as if tickles flavour yet savory, tempting, from freshly fried chicken. It has its main story, the goal they set as the self-conceptualization to be top idols, this undeniable resolve become the benchmark for the whole laughing nor sad matters and actions unlike the chicken fillet which is boneless and easy to chop. (Uh huh I'm hungry, don't you agree the parable of chicken usage here is easy to understand? lol)

​
    I'm glad to comment about the visuals. Since the show is about slice of life, there's no action such as fighting and chanting magic spells like any other action and supranatural anime series. All of the impressive visuals then replaced by the idol performances on stages. Still it is not an action but the graphic there is so beautiful, accompanied by melodic songs angel-like voices in this show, also nice character designs. I am not into 3D animation at the time when musical groups in anime series perform, so this show offers the best idol group performance on stage, it's not so 3D, at least The iDOLM@STER is less 3D than Love Live! or AKB0048 or PriPara.

    The characters development is not comprehensive, looking at mammoth amounts of characters, it's not questionable. I'd rather pick this story as it is than wanting it to change for thoroughgoing characterization. See it as a whole and it would be near perfect, the bond of every characters as 765 Pro is the best. Alongside Amami Haruka and her idol friends, there are a producer, ex-idol like a manager, and an assistant whose later known as an outstanding soloist in a Café. Focusing on few major characters, the characterization does well here.

     No need to ask the theme songs, basically as a layman—who haven't watched the series yet—will assume the theme songs aspect is the key here. And happily it happens to be true. The show offers so many theme songs, insert songs, character songs, tons of songs will surely fill your playlist (*☌ᴗ☌) Most of them likeable and very likely to be listed on your favorite songs list. Thumping heart rhythm, elegant songs, even rip your heart off melodies and lyrics are available to listen. 申し訳ありません, I can't listed all of the theme songs, especially the ED theme because it all too much. Two OP themes, "READY!!" by 765PRO ALLSTARS and "CHANGE!!!!" by 765PRO ALLSTARS will be uploaded to my mp3 storage publicly immediately, find it there as instances for the nice songs I mentioned.

I rate iM@S series 9! and waiting for The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls which is airing on this season (Winter 2015) お楽しみに ! !
Pros:

• Nice visual, especially when they're performing
• Theme songs are awesome~
• The characters are charming and have unique characteristics

luis.crooks - 2016-04-23 01:12:23

For this special review, I'm going to be talking about the ups and downs on both halves of this anime (not like A Certain Scientific Railgun where I talked about the story arcs since I don't believe this show has any) since the two separate halves are different from one another. With that said, I hope you enjoy this~

Story [First Half]: THE IDOLMASTER follows 13 girls from the 765 Production Studio, whose sole goals is to become the top idols in the Japanese entertainment industry. However, they appear to be struggling to make names and get well known in the world, so the team hires a producer (who was also the mute camera guy in the first episode named... producer I think? Pretty lazy if you ask me) to help make the young girls names in Japan. Can they do it?

So yeah, as you can imagine in the description, it sounds very similar to another review I've done Wake Up Girls as well as Love Live in a way(if you've actually paid attention to it, but for those who haven't that show is also having to do with a group of idols trying to make a way with itself and slowly be more recognized by the world as an idol group), but honestly, I think Idolmaster does this concept the best. There's no getting the new members in contrived and forced situations, no idiot male perverts (aside from the host guy I think but I've seen worse?) or rivals to mess with the idols, no stupid melodrama, just girls trying to work together to achieve a good status and bring happiness and music to all. I'm so glad they decided to do that cause I get so sick and tired of those lame clichés you'd see in anime, and while they don't necessarily avoid all of them, the ones they have are done pretty well actually.

The first episode does a surprisingly good job at introducing all of the 14 (13 of them are idols, but the opening says so otherwise) girls and showcasing their different personalities, how they sometimes interact, and hear some of their motivations (don't worry, its not like Koi-Ken where their motivations are stupid and weird, there's some actual legit reasons for why they want to become idols, thankfully). I honestly wouldn't mind if the whole show was like this or if it was a one-shot (but then I'd be sad that there isn't anymore to this).

The rest of the episodes in the first half mainly showcase a specific girl (or girls) as they start off in character archetypes but slowly develop out of those clichés and act more dimensional than those who have similar traits. And these are simple developments and aren't too forced or sappy, heck some episodes are even pretty funny and engaging (I really like episodes 8 in particular), but some balance with dramatic elements are also there and is nicely handled. Even the most dramatic ones are done well and showcase the faults and flaws certain characters have and how they try to develop out of them, which is nice.

In fact, of the episodes in the first half, the only one I truly didn't like was episode 10. It's basically a pointless sports episode with nothing new added to the characters aside from their loyalty I suppose, but they seemed to have gotten along so well in the past and them suddenly fight in the beginning came completely out of nowhere with no build up and it was hard to watch. Also not helping was this jerk-ish 'rival idol' group who are so unlikeable and are only there to make the main girls look good in comparison.

I use the term 'rival' loosely cause this is the only time they show up in and are NEVER mentioned or seen again! Why put them there at all in the first place!? At least the ending was somewhat satisfying, be it a total nonsensical cop out, but hey, it was something! I actually looked it up on Wikipedia to see how it would end mainly cause the episode was THAT painful to sit through and I was thinking of skipping it! That's how painful it was! Thankfully that's the only episode where I felt like that in the whole show...

The last few episodes of the first half did a great job in showcasing some of the characters emotions and struggles, as well as some good development for them, which we've yet to see in the runtime thus far. Sure, there's a sappy speech in there somewhere, but the execution was handled nicely, and the girls got their chance to shine on the spotlight (literally) good end to this first half. How's the second half of the show?

Story [Second Half]: 765Pro is getting more popular than ever, and have to disguise themselves in public now (for the most part I feel?). But trouble arises when they find out that this evil douche head President of 961 Production and Jupiter (their new rival band)'s manager, Takao Kuroi gets jealous of their success and wants to bring them down alongside the girl's president of the music industry for... no reason whatsoever I believe. So the idols and producers and heads all try to do their best (again) as they try to become more successful and keep a watchful on the douche even though he's not a threat at all and everything he does only makes him a bigger moron and the girls more prominent and awesome-

ah who the hell cares you don't care about this guy do you? NOBODY DOES! But enough about that, let's talk about what's right and wrong with this second half...

Ok so even though we never find out about this asshole, what he looks like, or what his motives are, or who was before (in fact they just TELL us which really pisses me off), I do love the fact that he unintentionally keeps making the girls look better in comparison and that if he had just left them alone, nothing would have changed in the long run... for the most part.

Speaking of, once again the episodes focus on specific girls but we also see some more development and sides to their already established characteristics, instead of rehashing them from the first half, which I liked. The emotions and dilemma's are very well handled for the girls (in fact, its even better than the first half), you can tell they've come a long way and they all have a great comraderie, one such example being in one of my favorite episodes, episode 15, mainly cause the show takes a break and lets the characters breathe all while partaking in funny jokes and skits. 22 is also a good example showcasing this. And I genuinely wanted to see the girls up top, mainly to hear that fucker's upset reactions :)

Although one thing that pisses me off is that ending, I mean it has the girls getting a happy ending, but nothing bad happens to the douche, and he gets the last laugh!? WHAT? Why must shows always have this big corporate douche that gets away with everything (and trust me, I'll get into reviewing another show down the line that has a similar problem)? Oh well, at least everyone else is looking toward the future with a smile, Ha, suck on that Kuroi!

The drama has been upped and is a lot better than last time, in fact it can be downright shocking at points. I was worried about certain scenes when I looked them up on Wikipedia, but thankfully upon watching them they turned out to be better than I could ever imagine. You can feel and see why certain characters act this way and it doesn't feel melodramatic or OOC, even the music fits the moods better than in the first season. And the voice acting and singing... oh wait I'm getting ahead of myself :P

And hey, even that Jupiter boy band gets more screentime, and yea they're dicks, but they get better as the show progresses (but they're no ShinganCrimsonz (from Show By Rock))

So yea, there may have been more moments I despised in this half, but there were also more satisfying scenes as well, so I guess its a win-win all around right?

Animation: The animation is pretty natural. Outside of the dancing, the characters move fine, its not stilted but its not over the top unrealistically goofy either. The closest we get to something like that is in the first episode, but I really thought it wasn't that bad and it also did a good job introducing the characters and showing what each of them are like on a short note minus the development and other hidden traits (I'll get to the characters later on).

Lip syncing is also very well done, especially when they sing, and hey, NO CGI MODELS! Yea, the dancing and singing is all in 2D, and I'm so happy for that cause I can't imagine them looking that good in 3D, maybe I'll be proven wrong or something? The dances look kind of creative, and there was no problem with the lip syncing like I said before!

Character designs on the main girls are all different from one another (with exception of the eyes, they're just copy pasted and given a different eye color and sometimes slanted slightly different) while the guys again, look either bland or ugly (why do shows always do that?)... and those two guys who we never see, which is lazy but at the same time I don't want to know what they look like cause chances are they'd be clichéd looking as all hell :S

Backgrounds aren't anything special and are kind of bland and forgettable, but the opening and ending themes look nice and fun at the very least... so yeah that's something.

Sound: The first opening song is actually pretty memorable, especially with the way they start the song and end it. The second one isn't bad, but its not as good as the first one in my opinion. Background music and songs inside the show are also nice, but after a while they'll probably leave your head as almost none truly sick out like with other idol anime such as AKB0048, Mermaid Melody, and even Full Moon Wo Sagashite.

There's also multiple ending songs in this, which I find all to be interesting. I like how its given/about a specific character [and lyrics change] depending on what the episode had centered around, and none of them are mood whiplashes either (aside from one but it wasn't really that bad a shifting tone change and it stays true to what the episode was standing for without ruining anything or hammering the themes down your throat via a random musical number). So I may not find the music to be all that memorable, but that certainly doesn't mean that I dislike any of the songs either, and I can also see someone enjoying it a whole lot more than me c:

Characters: At the start, each of the idol girls have a single character trait that makes them stand out from the other members until they get their good development, and the traits are nicely well handled, not to mention the girls have some great chemistry and a swell bond with one another. Also, the girls have different and believable reasons for wanting to become idols which is a nice plus (unlike Koi-Ken where girls desires and reasons were stupid like one wanted to get a stuffed bear for instance)

Haruka is the main center/character in the bunch, and because she is, she's got to be the plucky, optimistic, hard worker with no special talents other than to give speeches and try to help out in anyway she can. Though what I like is that it doesn't always work and she sometimes needs some guidance from others too, and she can get unhappy at points so she's not a Mary sue incarnate nor is she a tad bit annoying like Honoka in Love Live season 1. A simple love of music and entertaining together with others drove her to become an idol.

Chihaya is a very talented and serious secondary who became an idol in order to improve her singing. She isn't really thrilled by the flashier aspects of her career, nor is she fond of any extracurricular activity that doesn't involve it, hates doing promotional work, and spends her free time listening to classical music and training her voice. and is rather fond of classical music. She's not always serious as Chihaya has a habit of laughing at bad jokes (which is starting to become a cliché for some reason).

Yukiho is a painfully shy girl from a traditional household who's prone to frequently bursting out in tears, even the producer and Chihuahuas scare her to no end, and sometimes Yukiho feels she should bury herself with a shovel, and its played for laughs I think. She became an idol hoping to shed her fragile persona.

Yayoi is a genki girl who comes from a poor family and is the eldest of six children. Making a living for her family was part of the reason she joined 765. She loves to eat and tries to go to great lengths to scrounge up a few bucks, even searching under vending machines for loose change, even though she's not a very greedy person either.

Azusa is an easygoing, hopeless romantic, and is the oldest of the idols. She became an idol hoping to gain more attention and ultimately find her "destined one." Innocent and ditz (oblivious to her beauty all round her and has no sense of direction), but she can be 'aggressive' when she gets upset at something. Azusa acts like a cool big sis to the other girls.

Iori is a rich spoiled daughter of a corporation CEO acquainted with 765 Production's president. She is sickeningly sweet towards complete strangers, but incredibly sharp-tongued to everyone else (i.e., the staff, her fellow idols, and even the Producer). She became an idol to prove to her father that she could become successful on her own terms. Iori likes to pull pranks, telling horror stories, and carries around a stuffed bunny with her at all times.

Makoto was raised as a boy by her father, who always wanted a son. As such, she uses masculine pronouns and is good at sports and karate, and gets more attention from girls than boys. Ultimately she came to resent it, wishing she could be more feminine and get more attention from boys, so she became an idol to try to reinvent herself. She's very panicky and tomboyish compared to Iori and Yukiho. She does eventually accept her role thanks to the help of the producer who treated her for who she was.

Ami and Mami are a pair of hyperactive twins, and are the youngest of the bunch, who became idols because it sounded fun, as they take turns to perform under the name Ami. They're tag team tricksters, loving to pull pranks on others and had a similar single mind. The story does develop them as the show progresses to prevent them from being one dimensional.

Miki is laid back thinks she can breeze through the idol ladder, given that she already gets good grades without much effort, and manages to stay in shape in spite of sleeping a lot. Miki is so effortlessly, ridiculously excellent at everything she ever tries that she never had to put any effort into anything, causing her to grow up into a lazy, unmotivated, somewhat selfish person with little ability to maturely confront failure, It takes a lot of trauma to finally get her to realize that really making your dreams come true takes work, but when she's done, she ends up arguably the best idol of 765 Pro (in terms of both skill and popularity). So for the most part she's self engaged and brilliant but is also very lazy.

Hibiki is energetic and loves to dance and sing. She became an idol to make people happy, and has a ridiculous number of pets ranging from the mundane to the bizarrely exotic. While she speaks to animals in a cutesy fashion, in the anime, she can understand what her pets are saying. She's not a good judge of character and takes her rivalries seriously.

Takane is an elegant and majestic rich girl from an unstated far-off land. Her distance can be mistaken for haughtiness, but she's very polite to everyone, even her rivals. She's so airheaded, weird, and mystic at times, one has to wonder whether she has some kind of condition... however Takane turns out to speak nearly a dozen languages (which is even more impressive in the overwhelmingly monolingual Japan), is a judo master, and possess a mind-boggling wealth of the oddest trivial knowledge.

Lastly, Ritsuko is a focused, industrious girl who originally joined 765 as an intern, but became an idol due to shortage of talents (halfway into the show anyway). Even as an idol she still handles the business side of her career. She can be harsh to the idols sometimes, but she has a good heart, and is usually the only sane one in dire situations, at least compared to the other girls. It's also hinted that maybe she had feelings for the producer but its never really brought up.

The other characters are barely even worth a mention, there all forgettable at best and aggravating at worst, and this includes the producer. There's the stock rival bands, manager, male lead with no personality and is the center of... something, even the idols family members that only show or get mentioned once in a blue moon as well as big bad with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, the list goes on or it could go on until I said so... ok I'll stop at that category.

Enjoyment: Aside from that ending, episode 10 (minus the ending), and pretty much any scene with Kuroi and Jupiter Ascendng (I know that's not what their called but I don't care about them so I'm making it up, they don't deserve to be looked up on the internet as they're not worth my time), this was a very enjoyable show.

The interactions and songs are great and I feel there's a lot to learn from this show that some other shows try to replicate but for the most part, don't succeed as well (oh wait there's also Love Live, but that one is more clichéd and the second season doesn't count).

Overall: Might not be a master in the making, but its still an enjoyable and thought-provoking show about girls rising up to fame. If you like idols and music genre (as well as this sort of plot) and won't get bothered by its ending, then I think this is a good watch, especially if you wanna see some good development between a lot of characters.

Pros: Main characters and their developments, the idols have actual legit reasons to become idols, episode 1, the music is good, animation on dancing is great, no cg models, main idols look cute, lip syncing is well done, the drama, especially in the second half, music is very fitting especially in certain scenes

Cons: Episode 10, the villain and rival band are horrible, some songs are more memorable than others

Also Recommend: Love Live School Idol Project (both seasons), K-on (all seasons including movie), Sound Euphonium, AKB0048 (both seasons), Mermaid Melody (only the first season), Idol Project, Locodol, Puchimas Petite Idolmaster

Thanks so much for reading my 100th/ONE HUNDREDTH REVIEW~ :D

obogisich - 2014-12-19 08:05:36

Approaching this review, let's look at what idol anime really are. You have a collection of young girls gathered together to perform music, and sometimes other means of entertainment, under one cause. Now being a real idol in Japan asks for a lot more than any idol anime displays, but series like Wake Up,Girls (I hate that comma), Love Live: School Idol Project, AKB0048, and the anime of this review, THE iDOLM@STER have unique aspects to offer.

Wake Up, Girls starts off a little dark subverted within the genre, gets brighter as it goes, and even allows us to see things from the perspective of the fanbase as well. Seeing idols in a more competitive, sports-like way is what made Wake Up, Girls stand out for me. Love Live: School Idol Project is far more “slice of life”-like, and it warrants the fun times and humor because they're high school girls within a setting and story not revolving around anything more than that school. And AKB0048 is an exaggeration of what idols mean to people by having them literally fight for the sake of spreading joy and merry feelings in a depressing time. There's definitely more that I'm missing here, a few come to mind, but I'm not interested in listing them, let alone watching most of them.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Yes, it's nice and encouraging to see deeper and unique aspects in anything you're viewing, but this is still a market. I've always referred to idol anime as “waifu simulators.”

Doesn't get much better than seeing actual characters in wedding attire.

Seriously though, it should make sense, idolizing anyone is to put them on the brink of perfection; and let's not deny that that's how we most often select our best girls: who's perfect for us. Even THE iDOLM@STER (I'm typing it like that because it's fun) has its girls fit every cliché you can imagine. There's the usual themes of unity, hard work, and their lives are certainly glorified, but what THE iDOLM@STER really does have to offer is, in one word, character.

That's honestly what you'll be watching Idolmaster (I'm done XD) for. The story of Idolmaster isn't much more than to be, as they call it, “Top Idol” (kind of makes you think “idol master” is just flavor text for the title when they have an in-canon alternative), and that's it: just looking for success. And some will find it faster than others, through the various methods that work for them.

^ an album commercial within the series

Idolmaster will include singing (as is the norm), hosting a TV show (in which one episode is just the said show itself), starring in movies and plays, attending publicity events, and interviews. The diversity really lets you see what makes each idol sell to the in-series audience, as well as us.

Any other idol show I've seen has more or less made the group one character in and of itself, but Idolmaster is about the girls being individuals. The varying success of each one is something stressed from the very beginning of the series. It's in the dialogue and all the girls getting an episode or two dedicated to them helps this notion, but it all really becomes clear when their producer (just named Producer) starts struggling to get these girls work. The fact that these girls have strengths and weaknesses that haven't been played up to this point really turns Producer into a character, as he has to learn about them for his own sake, and the girls because we're seeing them for who they want to be as compared to how they are at the start. It makes the show jump dramatically in quality.

Yes, I said “jump.” I won't deny that I hated this show for most of the first quarter, but I eventually got to thinking that perhaps those episodes were bad on purpose. To say I found everyone annoying is the least of it, but once I understood the characters became the way they are due to not being utilized properly, it shined a brand new light on the series.

From there, amidst the episodic character episodes, comes a story being shaped. A character-based story about the girls uniting to overcome their challenges, told through explicitly three arcs. All the girls do get episodes dedicated to them, but all either exist to fill time, please fans, or transition into the actual meat of the three arcs. It's the arcs of Miki Hoshii,

Chihaya Kisaragi,

and Haruka Amami

that make up the story of Idolmaster.

Miki, who is a girl prone to being extremely lazy and selfish (probably due to the natural talent she exhibits), will have her arc basically cover her jealousy of the idol group Ryuugu Komachi, and explore how she'll be losing herself to her own reasons for being an idol. It's also, might I add, the most subtle of the three arcs in my opinion. Chihaya's arc takes the record for being easily the darkest, comprised of mournful tragedy, meanwhile having to fight her own cold personality, obsession with needing to sing, and sabotage from the paparazzi.

Haruka is easily the friendliest and most likable of the entire cast, and her arc takes on the depression she's thrust into as the group divides due to their successes. It sounds the most shallow of the three arcs at first glance, but the majority of Idolmaster's morals actually come to light at this point in the series.

It's helped by the best part about all three arcs being that they don't even really end when the focus jumps to someone else. The lasting effects on each character stay all the way to the finale, and still delivers on its own set of self-discoveries for them along the way. Miki, Chihaya, and Haruka, with the rest of the cast behind them, don't stop growing and it's what makes Idolmaster's narrative as impressive as it is.

There's no original meaning or themes here, but Idolmaster has the definitive narrative structure that no idol anime has beaten for me.

Idolmaster has its fair share of silly stuff about it too though. Despite the great characters, it isn't always the most grounded. Every producer in the series is just “Producer,” this isn't just unique to our self insert protagonist; every company president has no face;

and there's even other silly stuff about the girls like implications that Takane is an alien, Hibiki can talk to animals, and Makoto's boyish charm is probably gonna turn just about 50% of all girls into lesbians.

One of my favorite episodes is even episode 8, which features an extremely funny city-wide adventure where several characters are running around town for various purposes causing all sorts of havoc until the explosive final point of the episode.

Idolmaster's unique blend of quirky comedy with personable and ever growing drama is what makes it a worth while experience. Humor, character-based story telling, and tonal shifts can be subjective, but I suggest you remember that at the very least that Idolmaster is an anime that rewards patience more than anything else.

Idolmaster's flaws do stand out though, especially on the technical side of things. First of all, this anime was produced by A-1 Pictures, and although I have a bad history with them, Idolmaster turned out looking very well. It accomplished as much as I assume the director wanted, but I can think of few things needing improvement; such as us never getting to see one particular flashback that I very much would of liked to, some characters losing out on necessary development for room for the main three (especially Yukiho), and the inconsistent quality of the concert audiences can be especially hilarious and remove you from the moment.

It looks great and consistent everywhere else otherwise, with full 2D animation for every concert, music video, and dance scene (a rarity, I know).

As for the music... It's decent. I find myself having to search outside all idol series to find the music I actually enjoy, and I think it has something to do with ditching the irritating moe crap that's needed to sell the show. I didn't have nearly as bad as a case with Idolmaster though. I'll pass on the majority, but a few songs really stand out to me for once in an anime. Some things to take note of however is that each song title, as well as other information, is displayed before each song starts... And there's a lot of them.

Every episode, with exception to the premiere, is going to have a new insert song at some point in the episode as well as a new ending song and animation. That's about 50 songs there to choose from, not including the additional amount of tracks for episodes featuring concerts, the movie, and OVAs. Plus, a special mentioning of Asami Imai, the voice of Chihaya, for having the most beautiful and breath taking voice of the entire cast. I may have accused Idolmaster's music of being average overall, but her vocals and music are god tier.

So now that I've praised the series enough, I'll wrap it up. I wouldn't suggest you get too hyped if you're taking what I've been saying to heart, it is still a “waifu simulator,” just the best of its kind willing to deliver on character development and narrative more than any other in this day and age.

Also, I recommend you watch the movie to get a fuller Idolmaster experience. It's primarily Haruka's film and helps wrap up on any loose ends her arc could have left with her character.

Drake Chandler, exiting stage left.

raynor.kadin - 2014-08-19 15:23:15

thalia.konopelski - 2014-06-25 20:41:13

review is short and spoiler free

This show came highly recommended to me, and although I've never played the games I most certainly see the appeal. If I had a current console I most certainly would have snapped up a copy (right next to project Diva haha), but enough of the games, this is about the show.

Story;
10/10
With so many characters its difficult to pin down a central plot, or rather that is to say if you do it sounds very generic. Each character will get their own arc at some point in the show (some arcs are shared, and some characters get several arcs). Most of these like the bulk of the show follow the slice of life comedic procedure, but more than one break from this so suddenly that the shock alone is enough to pull you to the edge of your seat. Despite the overall theme of the show be prepared for some very emotional, very deep, and in some cases tear worthy moments. I have to admit I got a little teared up a few times.

Animation;
8/10
Well done, entirely satisfying animation, great to look at. Nothing particularly special regarding the art style (for me anyway) so it gets an 8, perfectly fine need not be better, but not mind blowing either.

Sound;
10/10
Being a big vocaloid fan (and having watched/heard a fair bit of the songs from the games) the music was really an important part of the show for me. Blew me out of the park, lovely job on each and every soundtrack. Kept me coming back to hear the songs again and again.

Character;
10/10
This is the part I have to be real vague on if I want to avoid spoilers, since so much of the plot is directly character influenced. The variety of characters is something that really helps keep the show moving.

Enjoyment;
10/10
I haven't had so much fun in a long time. It has its emotional ups and downs, but even when it gets you down there will be another bit of witty dialogue or perfect awkward moment to brighten your face once again just around the corner.

Overall;
10/10
Certainly not the kind of show for everyone, but if you like slice of life comedy this is the show for you.

annetta.becker - 2013-07-24 03:57:29

Time to get a better look at one of the anime of 2011 that ended up being unexpectedly good. Now I am aware of the cover of this show having over a dozen girls on it and the idea connected with this is a giant harem. Luckily, I never managed to connect the two and took a look at the show anyways. What I primarily expected/hoped for was a GOOD music moe anime. After all, one of the most popular anime which incorporate these two parts is K-ON!, a show that pretty much revolves around a group of high school girls screwing around in a club room ._______. which just wasn't my cup of tea (get it? cuz all they did was drink tea? q-q). With this, let's dive into the world of idols with The iDOLM@STER.In my opinion, there are three things that help generalize a show on if it is good or not. First the audience must feel welcome in the setting: this pretty much is how interesting our surroundings are, the animation/sound, and/or the characters in it. Second we need to get emotionally/mentally invested; we need to be stimulated in some way so that we do not get bored. This could mean making us laugh from a gag, get intellectually invested from a deeper meaning, cry from an emotional scene, or just give you an adrenalin rush from watching an amazing fight scene. The third is if the show can follow through with the rules that they create for themselves in the plot; in other words, if you are a show about music, DO NOT stray from music so far that we are watching something completely irrelevant. All of these must be kept in mind when reading what I am about to present and we will see by the end how good the show actually is.So The iDOLM@STER revolves around 12 musical idols and their climb to fame. We are taken through their struggles with the business and all of the personal problems that they each have to overcome, whether it has to do with issues they have involving work or problems at home.Animation: The animation behind iDOLM@STER is very well done. Everything looks fluid and in place, not to mention that the concert scenes are incredibly well designed and show every little detail. For 2011, this is amazingly well done animation and the only complaint that I have about it is that the incredibly detailed animation of the characters on stage did not carry on off stage. This lack of detail could be due to either not having the budget to support it or to make the concert scenes more effective. Now there is something that might turn off some, which is the moe. iDOLM@STER is a show which uses the moe style, but this isn't a bad thing if it is done well and doesn't distract the viewer and personally, I had no qualms with the style even though some might. I bestow a 9.5 on iDOLM@STER for animation and the only way I could see it being better is if it was consistently detailed.Sound: So did you know that this show is about music? Well as you can expect, the music is done quite well considering that's the shows genre. It was very nice to hear a different ending theme every episode done by the character that the episode revolves around. Also, the background soundtrack was well done and very fitting. Both the OPs are good (the first is better in my opinion) and are performed in a concert at some time in the show. However, I can only consider putting one or two songs from the show on my iPod. As far as the dub goes, I feel that if the dub was not outstanding or horrible, then there isn't much point in talking about it. All the VAs performed well, but other than Asami Imai (who played Chihaya and did a great job), I didn't feel like looking into any of the other cast. They were pretty average, they fit the characters but weren't outstanding to me. I give the show an 8.5 in sound, I only wish that they would have had more memorable pieces for a music anime.Characters: iDOLM@STER handles its episodes by having a different character for the main focus for almost every episode, which leads to having a massive main cast. By having such a large cast, everyone will have several favorites that they hope to see as the central point in an episode. Having a show that provides everyone is great and all but what about all the characters that you don't like? Well your gonna be outa luck because most characters only get one episode so if you only like a couple characters and hate the rest then you better hope that one of the characters that you like is one of the big three that get more than one episode. I give the characters an 8 since I luckily liked most of the cast.Plot: Well damn, this is the one part that people really do not want a show to be poor in and there you go... iDOLM@STER goes and gives you only a slightly above average story. As I said earlier, the show deals with different characters each episode and due to this, sometimes goes off track and doesn't focus on the musical aspect of the show in any way. I actually think that they could have cut almost ten of the episodes out and it wouldn't have made the enjoyment or plot any worse but probably better. Yes everyone wants their favorite idol to get an episode but why couldn't those episodes have stuck to the genre of music? Now I'm not saying that every episode needs a concert but they could have shown more on the struggles with work. I will give plot a 6 because despite irrelevant episodes deriving from the focal point of being an idol, some of the character arcs were very well done, sadly they do not make up for the rest of the show to upgrade its score anymore.Enjoyment: The show was pretty enjoyable. The final episodes of the first and second half of the show are great and the other episodes on the individual characters were somewhat entertaining as well. iDOLM@STER was a 7.5 in my eyes as far as entertainment goes.Okay, so now to get back to the three points that decide if a show is good or not. Firstly, the show brings you into the world of these idols incredibly well with the first episode. The styling of how it was done plus the animation and music drew me in instantly. As for how well it played with my emotions; it played with them to the extent that the show needed to. The final episodes of each half had me in anticipation of what would happen next and left me wanting more. As far as how well it stuck with the rules it set... ugh, not so well. It stuck with the rule of giving each character an episode but that isn't what the first episode presented, which was the idea of the business behind being an idol and what it meant to them. So how good is iDOLM@STER? Well the show is pretty good, not fully meeting each of the three points shows that it could have been better.Now before I give you my final verdict, I'd like to give you a viewing recommendation. I suggest that you only watch episodes 1, 3-6, 10-14, and 19-25. What this will do is skip unimportant episodes to the plot and keep some of the best developmental points. After watching these episodes, then you should watch the remaining like they are an extension of the show. That way you will be able to watch for the story and true main characters first and if you liked it and want to see the remaining characters you can watch them as if they were an extra. Overall the show receives a 7.9.

marge.little - 2013-06-29 02:36:39

The iDOLM@STER at first glance looks like it should be a complete mess of an anime. It has no central character, and a team of 13+ idols and the Producer to share the spotlight. The "story" if you want to call it that is the transformation of the idols and their studio, 765 Pro, into nationally known (and sometimes internationally) super powers in the industry and how the changes have affected their day to day. This does not really hit in full force until the very late episodes, but you can see changes through out the entire series. Most episodes are only related in the sense that they involve the same characters. There is a "rival" group and studio that is introduced too, just to keep things a little interesting. Because the connectivity of a story is very loose the series presents a very slice of life feel at times. I will say that the show, as far as each episode goes, is inconsistent. It can go through stages of incredibly boring episodes, and then really touching ones. It is much stronger in the latter stages though, which makes up for what I'd call a slow start. As I've mentioned idol has 13+ idols and even more characters that need to get some focus. With so many characters you'd think that some of them don't get touched on, and you'd be right...kinda. While not every character really gets a large amount of development most of them do get their own episode, or a shared one, and come to have a recognizable character trait(s). There are shows with less characters that don't development them as much as Idolmaster.Most of the characters are pretty enjoyable too. They have a large range of personalities, family situations, and even views on life. All of these are shown throughout the entirety of the series. Yes, a few of them are cardboard cutouts, but even they can be enjoyable. I would never expect a 25 episode show to fully develop a team of like 15 characters, the fact that they do such a good job with so many is really something. Still, it is apparent at times that they stretched themselves thin.I have to say I was surprised how emotional the latter episodes got. They really pulled the right strings and made you care for what's going on, unlike the early ones when you really struggled to grasp the show. The series is obviously packed with music. Each episode has its own ED with animation focusing on what character the episode has in focus. There are also songs dotted throughout the series. The more I write about this the more I kind of want to raise my score of 7, however, despite everything Idolmaster had going for it it just did not cash in on some of the strength early on. In a way the series got stronger as it went on, sort of like the idols themselves.