This is another idol show, along the lines of “AKB0048” and “Long Live Project” and it follow more or less the same arc, although presentation is a bit different. The full title is actually “Wake Up, Girls – Seven Idols”, but, like them, we’ll truncate it to WUG.

We have to start with not the girls, but the group that supports them, which are the two ‘adults’ (I’ll explain later).

Green Leaves Entertainment is a tiny production company on the verge of going out of business. It is located in Sendai, the biggest city in Japan’s northeastern Tohoku region, in a rather questionable office building that could double as an auto repair shop. Not particularly inspiring. The agency once managed the careers of magicians, photo idols, fortune-tellers, and other entertainers, but its last remaining client finally quit. In danger of having zero talent (literally and actually), the president, Juynko Tange, (she’s at the end there) hatches an idea of producing an idol group. On the brash president’s orders, the dissatisfied manager Kouhei Matsuda heads out to scout raw talent. (more…)

“Miss Monochrome” is another short-pull series. At four minutes, it’s short enough, but one of those minutes is taken up with the ending credits, so it runs even shorter than that.

Miss Monochrome is a caliber of robot, her best friend being that Roomba. She somehow was worth 19.2 Billion yen, but her rapacious private secretary took everything and left her destitute. She has a dream of being the best pop idol in Japan, but has no method or manner to do this. She gets a manager, who happens to be the shift manager at the convenience store she works at, to try and get her all kinds of gigs and public meetings to get her face and talent out there. A manager is a manager, right? Get the gigs.

But she is an absolute klutz when it comes to things and the episodes end where they started: with her no closer to her dream of being a pop idol. (more…)

OK, how many people remember what happened at the end of “Senki Zesshō Symphogear”? Did anyone do the homework assignments over the break? Anyone? Fine, I want two scrolls on my desk by tomorrow morning. To recap, the Noise was defeated, but we blew a crater in the moon the size of Texas, which now makes the moon look like Saturn.

“Senki Zesshō Symphogear G” starts up about three months after that climatic battle. The good guys (or gals, in this grouping) are, from right to left:

Tsubasa Kazanari. Half of the group Zwei Wing, her partner, Kanade, died but passed her relic on.
Chris Yukine. A bit of a loose cannon, she was an enemy who became an ally.
Hibiki Tachibana. She is trying her best to be a good fighter, but she has merely a shard in her, not a full relic.

They are supposed to protect Dr. Ver (a mad scientist type) and (more…)

A kind of sister show to “AKB0048” (although more like a distant cousin) is “Love Live! School Idol Project”. This tells the story of nine girls who are trying to save their school from shuttering its doors. Otonokizaka Academy has had declining enrollment for years and will not accept new students after this year, allowing those who remain behind to complete their education there, then turning into a Senior Center or a giant fighting robot assembly plant or a Pokemon hospital. Honoka Kōsaka (far left) will do whatever it takes to save the school. But what? What can be done to increase enrollment enough?

She notices that other schools have Idol Clubs and they are both very popular and very successful, the biggest being UTX Academy with A-Rise. WE could do this! She petitions the Student Council to start this club. Alas, the president of the Council, Eri Ayase (the person next to Honoka) is dead set against such a debasement of the school and its standards and will not allow it, even if it could save everything. However, there is a tiny, tiny loophole: Niko Yazawa (number three position; red ribbons in her hair) has an Idol Fan Club on campus and that one is established. It is decided to join her club and slightly change the charter for it, thus allowing them to rehearse. The initial members of the group are Honoka, Umi Sonoda (dead center) and Kotori Minami (gray hair, white ribbon) and they call themselves “μ’s” (pronounced ‘muse’, so you can see why it has to be a nontet), but initially it is a trio. They give a great performance in front of practically no one, but the word gets out and others want to join the group and help the cause. (more…)

It is the future (not again! Why is it always the future? Why not have something a tad closer to us in time?) At the start of the 21st Century, an interplanetary war broke out. Earth’s ecosystem was severely damaged, and humanity was forced to flee the planet. In several planets of this new society, things that “disturb the heart” like music and art are forbidden. 48 years later, the legendary idol group AKB48 (and this is a REAL J-Pop group, OK?) is resurrected as the interplanetary troupe AKB0048, made up of girls who carry on the title and spirit of the original members. Held as heroines by some and labeled as terrorists by others, they must take up arms to bring their music to their fans wherever they are. The story follows a group of young hopefuls as they train to become the next generation of AKB0048. (And you though Simon Cowell was a big jerk. Well, he is, but I never saw him come to the shows armed to the teeth to shoot the contestants.)

Now, since they are recruiting all the time, we see the efforts of the 77^th Generation (implying this fight has been going on for 77 years), plus those that have gone on before. It is a rather capacious cast, but we will focus on those we see up in the splash panel.

From left to right:

Suzuko Kanzaki, a quiet fourteen-year-old girl with glasses who knows a lot about the history of AKB0048. She is met on the talent ship

Makoto Yozomizo, a timid and easily scared sixteen-year-old girl, who often worries and thinks negatively. She is also met on the talent ship.

Sonata Shinonome, a ten-year-old girl, who failed the first round of auditions for AKB. She sneaks aboard the talent ship heading towards the second round to try again. She is very supportive of her older sister, Kanata.

Mimori Kishima, a sexy seventeen-year-old who loves to boast about her rich lifestyle, proportions and height. She and Kanata share a connection as part of the 75^th Generation (more…)

Is this photo too risqué? Then you haven’t seen this OVA at all! The show makes this snap look like ‘Mary Poppins’.

Now, the plot of ‘Ladies vs. Butlers’ was a young man wants to better himself, but has a hard time of it, as he is surrounded by luscious ladies. The point of this OVA is letting you see them naked, as they coo on ‘I’m so embarrassed’. More like ‘I’m so bare-assed’.

Not a single ‘episode’ gets to four minutes, but I will tell you that there is something unsettling about seeing them gyrate about and lose their clothes and pose about and…..why are their butts so shiny?

I mean, since a lot of these girls come from rich families, I assume there is a servant has polishes up their derrieres. I would love to have that job: pulling out the Butt Buffer and running it over their fine, soft skin until it veritably shines in the sunlight and……..but I digress (or do I?)

You have to understand my take on these things. I really do not need anime to fuel my fantasies. Fan service is something that is meant as a treat, not as the whole dinner, so when you get something like this, I don’t know how to take it. It’s not goofy enough to be funny, but it’s too overt to be honestly sexy. I actually feel for them when they say they are embarrassed. It is like being at a strip club, for all that it’s worth. (more…)

There are several music animes out there (with “Nana” and “Beck” coming to mind first), but what about a musical anime, where the characters burst into song for no apparent reason. It may be that “Nerima Daikon Brothers” could be that first one. For your information:

Nerima – a ward inTokyo.
Daikon – the famous ‘white radish’.
Brothers – Well, brothers in arms.

It tells the story of Hideki (the big guy in the middle). Sure, he’s merely a daikon farmer, but he has dreams, big dreams and they do not involve farming implements. One day, he’ll build the world-famous Daikon Dome and his little entourage will play to packed houses of screaming, frenzied fans every night, rockin’ the house with some rockin’ music. But, until that time, he farms and rehearses every chance he gets, as they have a makeshift stage in the field. The neighbors do not take kindly to those musical intrusions, and hurl both bottles and epithets to get them to shut up.

The band consists of Hideki, his brother Ichiro and cousin Mako (plus some random pandas; don’t ask). Any resemblance to the “Blues Brothers” is strictly intentional. Alas and alackaday, big dreams cost big bucks and our little singing trio are badly skint in that area. In fact, Ichiro has a real job working at a host club, where not only is he a most popular draw, he also comes across a lot of help and information. Too bad they are spending most of their time fending off rapacious agents, devious psychics, duplicitous nurses and questionable auditions.

Adding to their woes, whatever money they are able to obtain is quickly siphoned off to repair for damages incurred during their latest escapades or balance off a massive debt imposed on them so they at least pull even. No one said being an overnight star was easy. (more…)