The iDOLM@STER

The iDOLM@STER - 5-6/10
(Picture album)

It's once again that time where I try something outside my normal interests and see how it goes.  A friend of mine once observed that it doesn't matter where you start as an anime viewer, it seems you end up at idols.  I thought she was just joking... but here I am, writing on The iDOLM@STER (iM@S) in between essays on impermanence in 5cm/sec and uninterpretable symbolism in Angel's Egg.  Apparently the theory's not so far fetched.

Going into this I feel like I need to make a short disclaimer: I tried my best to enjoy this show for what it was.  Me being me, I compulsively apply brain power to everything I encounter, and even here I can't help but pick it apart.  This post is less a review, then, than recounting the thoughts and impressions on which was, for me, a novel experience.  But I wanted to say up front before I get any further that I thought it was fun; its rating above is one without malice.  And without further ado...

Welcome to the iHK (idol Hell Kyokai)

I liked episode 26, the bonus comedy skits, more than episode 25, the dramatic finale where all the girls come together to sing their signature song after their journey.  This to me summarizes what I thought was best in worst in the show, and gives a good jumping off point for my thoughts.

The first thing that struck me about iM@S is that in the opening episode it managed to introduce me to eleven idols (the twins count as one) as well as two office workers... and I memorized them all effortlessly before the twenty minutes was up.  Not by name, but if presented with a lineup I could tell you what they were like as personalities.  It was, in its way, a rather remarkable feat.  Faced with the requirement that all the girls be both attractive as well as likable, because no idol can be otherwise, the iM@S team had nonetheless made them visually distinct and individually quirky without going to painful extremes.

It's like the heading picture to this segment.  Each girl is wearing a similar dress; she has to fit within this narrow mold or else the lineup won't work.  But each one has her own cut, style, and combination of colors that makes it her dress unique.  I won't call this great characterization, for it is not, but it was a skill in its own right.  Almost meta, really, as real idols are also crafted this same way - to be inoffensive yet stand out, and the production team mirrored this reality with some mastery in its own show.

Early on the series continues with this collective approach, giving us several episodes where each girl makes a showing while a subset provides a story.  Episode 2 is about the photoshoot for everybody, another obvious opportunity to give identifying attitudes to each, but has a particular subplot for Iori, Yayoi, and the twins.  Episode 3 has them putting on their first show in a Podunk village, a collective effort where even the girls have to pitch in with manual labor, while uniting it is Haruka, Makoto, and particularly Yukiho.  I thought these worked well, and found myself having more fun with the character interactions than I had expected.

Again, a recourse to a picture is helpful.  Above is a shot where Chihaya solemnly gives instructions to a panicked Mami, Azusa looks as lost as always, and the normally-unflappable Takane placed in a somewhat ridiculous position that you're not sure how it could have come about.  None of these gags are particularly funny in themselves, but none of them crowd the others out and when presented all at once have a multiplicative effect.  The chaos of the first show becomes the chaos of their first show, individualized and amusing.

On this point, I feel a special mention of episode 9, the twins' episode where they solve the pudding mystery, is in order.  This whole thing was really quite delightful, and remained my favorite for the entire series.  The pseudo-serious intro followed by the hijinks spiced with a bit of sincerity accomplished what I felt so many others later on failed to do, which was to entertain me while endearing me to the characters in the same step.

However, somewhere after the middle the series shifted toward doing the necessary, "Every girl gets her episode" structure.  When that happens, it starts to feel more mechanical and also reveals more clearly both the video game origin and the general lack of depth in the characters themselves when their problems are fixed in one episode.  Hibike's in particular was atrocious, because she had no real problem to solve by virtue of her personality; so the series invented a fatuous issue only so it could be worked out.  Mokoto was also a distinct disappointment for me, because I thought her conflict was one of the better ones ("I was always treated as a boy so I became an idol to be girly princess, but I've been type-cast into masculine roles anyway; why am I doing this, then?") but it was completely swept under the rug.

This weakness also becomes apparent when it tackles weightier subjects, particularly Chihaya's backstory.  The series just did not have the depth or fine touch to handle the subject of death of a family member.  Furthermore, even as I found the scene where she lost her singing voice on reading the exposé poignant, and her supported comeback at the concert sweet, we needed at least one more episode of her struggles for it to be really meaningful.  But it didn't have time to do that, because it had to give all the girls their turn rather than openly admitting that Chihaya, Haruka, and Miki were really the ones running the show (quite literally in some cases).  The rest were variety acts.

In this way, I'm reminded of how well Shirobako handled its large cast.  Despite having a stereotypical setup with five main girls surrounded by a variety of secondary personalities it knew which were important and which were not.  It never fell into giving somebody an episode because they "deserved" it or even "needed" it.  It gave them episodes as was required for the primary drama of producing anime, nothing more.  In this way it made minor characters useful without feeling disappointingly neglected and avoided having the overall structure feel rote.

So coming to the end, that's really what the contrast between episode 25 and episode 26 is.  Episode 25 focuses on being emotional and in the processes it is forced into round after round of each girl saying her line, each girl dancing her part, each girl reviewing a memory, etc.  It gets tiresome, and a little jarring, this sort of make-believe that these characters are all equally dear when it's just pandering to make sure nobody's pet favorite is overshadowed (although I admit I liked their dance set to "READY!!", which I always enjoyed more than the second OP "CHANGE!!!!").  By comparison, episode 26 also focused on many characters, but it had fun with their interactions rather than trying to make them all feel equal.  Where Hibiki failed tremendously in her own episode, she did perfectly well being part of a multi-character gag.

It was humor like this that I thought the series did best.  It was genuinely good humor, too, because it went beyond prosaic slapstick or reactions to requiring the person in the joke to be part of it.  To remark on another from episode 26, I thought Chihaya cracking up at Producer's lame Sleeping Beauty joke was great.  The whole segment was a fake setup for what seems to be a Miki commentary, and the punchline is actually Chihaya just being a dork.  Like when Haruka hit herself in the face, what is most funny isn't the "joke" but Chihaya's uncontrollable reaction to it, and it reveals a bit of the simpleheartedness she keeps covered up.  These sorts of situations really worked for me, and made episode 26 one of my favorite in the series.

And the Winner Is...

Which I guess this brings us to the all-important question of Best Girl, and I have to give it to Miki.  I don't like her much as a person.  Her Blonde Bombshell style isn't to my taste, nor is her brash, selfish, immature personality.  However, she had character.

Initially I had pegged Iori as interesting, full of potential troubles with her princess attitude, but she went nowhere.  Similarly while I liked the twins, they were abandoned after the midpoint.  By comparison, Miki actually changed while remaining consistent, her initial selfish-laziness turning into selfish-ambition.  The way she starts calling Producer "honey" unbidden was also a good touch, an indelicate, adolescent primadonna behavior that was so her.

Then she outright stole Haruka's episode with her line about how her success was dependent on knowing she had support.  It was stronger than all the platitudes that had preceded it that scene because it rested on it being a reflection for Miki herself.  It was a second piece of genuine development that, like the first, I did not see coming.  Add on her pulling out all the stops to buy time for the other girls in episode 13, which was my favorite dramatic episode overall, and I thought she stood as best character iM@S had to offer.

However, if we're going for a far less cerebral choice, which is really the tradition, then I'm going to nominate Ritsuko.  I'm allowed to do this because even though she's a producer she danced a few times, and so sue me she looked mighty cute in her glasses and suit.

Anyway, wrapping this up, I just want to reiterate that although I spend plenty of time picking apart iM@S's weaknesses, it wasn't bad.  I wish it had focused more on its strengths of comedic interaction than trying to draw out emotional scenes, or at least shifted its emphasis to make those more meaningful, but in the end it was what it was, and I enjoyed it enough to enthusiastically talk with people about it and write this all out.  Now to avoid watching another idol anime ever again or risk being sucked into the quicksand.

p.s. The twins riding on a pachycephalosaurus, along with their whole ED, made my day.