Idol Jihen [Review]
“In a parallel world similar to ours, the nation of Japan is plagued with social problems, yet its government can do little or nothing. To save the nation from collapsing, seven idol parties become Diet members and, by their song and dance, will rescue the Japanese society from stagnation.” -ANN
As a sucker for idol genre, Idol Jihen grabbed my attention when they said it was about Idol AND politics! I never thought I would see that day that idols would run the government, but here we are. So if you’re interested in both idols and that are also politicians, you’re in the right place!
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Story:
The story follows a cliché idol anime story, we have Hoshina Natsuki our pure-hearted heroine who’s dream is to bring smiles to everyone’s faces! She is then invited to join the Heroine Party as an Idol Diet-woman! And along goes the happy charade until the Rougai Party, comprising of old men counters the idols Dietwomen. Natsuki is then sent into a sea of depression, questioning if she is doing the right thing. While the concept of Idol Jihen is very interesting, the story itself lacks originality.
Artwork & Animation:
If there was anything to take away from Idol Jihen, it’s the performance animation. Each performance is very flashy and showy, each idol has their own “aura” and when preforming together the “aura” combine and creating an even flashier show. The only downfall of these performances is that we didn’t see enough of them! The character designs are great, each one brings out the characters personality, which makes identifying characters much easier amidst a large cast.
Character(s):
Characters are lacking, besides the cliché character types, there are too many characters and too little screen time between them all. If Idol Jihen were a 2-cour anime rather than a 1-cour anime then there would’ve been time for the audience to get to know each character and party.
Sound (OST & Voice Acting):
All the insert songs, as well as the opening and ending themes, are happy and catchy songs. But there were very limited. The opening got pretty tiring after hearing it the entirety of episode 11, if there were more songs to fill in the gaps it would be a lot better.
Enjoyment:
Even though the story and characters are a bit lacking, I enjoyed the limited performances that were shown.
Overall: score 5
With an interesting concept but lack of originality, Idol Jihen is another experimental mishap. Although it had an excellent soundtrack, the value is lost with repetitive songs being played over and over again. Characters and animation both look great, but with only limited screen time for the character, you spend more time trying to figure out who is who rather than enjoying the show.
KiritoNarukami 