And so, If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die, streaming on Funimation, has wrapped up and I thought I ought to share a few thoughts about it.
This story, of the life of an idol group fan; a fan of the least popular girl in a small, not well-known, provincial idol group was, in turns frustrating and hopeful. The anime had the advantage of being short, and extremely well-voiced. So folks who watch the anime were able to skip some of the more prolonged agony of the manga. I’m pleased for you. ^_^
I’ve written in my manga reviews about how miserable this series has made me feel about the exploitation of the idol industry on all sides. I always felt that the idols were exploited, but I never understood how exploited the fans were, as well. I find it hard to enjoy any real -life group, when I read about the sentimentality porn of “graduations” and the endless number of young women and men leaving for health reasons. There’s no other conclusion to draw but that the entire industry is a “family friendly” form of human trafficking. And this series made me question it even further, when it uncovers the kind of obsessive indentured servitude fans are presupposed to engage in.
Surely I *cannot* be the only one in the world who thinks not being allowed to like (or let your fave know you like) more than one person or group is bat shit crazy? Fans, like whomever the fuck you want! Your oshi does not own you! You do not own them! This is not a life, it isn’t even a virtual life…it’s a job and fans are paying for the pleasure of working. That’s not healthy. The whole thing is a shared delusion and no one but their production companies win.
And, so, most of you will have watched this series with hearts in your eyes, hoping that Eri will finally be able to communicate with Maina, and that Maki and Yumeri will be happy together. I can’t tell you if they will, only that 6 volumes into this series, they haven’t yet… As the entire series is about lives in suspended animation, that seems fitting.
At least the anime left us with hope, with tears, with gambaru, and with teamwork. Because that’s what it is (supposed to be ) all about, right? We’ll keep trying hard and someday…!!!
And so we’ll keep following our faves and hoping that they make it to the Budokan. Rawr!
Ratings:
Art – 8
Story – Shockingly positive 7
Character – Likeable 8
Yuri – 10 and 0 as only Hirao-sensei can manage it.
Service – Overall, 5 tiresome more than offensive
Overall – I still don’t know, really. If I watched the anime with no knowledge of the manga, 7, 8, maybe?
Ai Farouz deserves a fucking trophy for her portrayal of Eripyo. She was the reason I kept watching.
Well, this title is at least yuri or wants to seem like that. If it was about the prospect of a straight romance, rather than a lesbian one, which otaku considered “pure and not serious”, then everything could look even more problematic.
In any case, I usually don’t like open-end romance, but reading your reviews on manga and anime has quite intrigued me about this work.
I’m with you on this. Idol culture has always creeped me the fuck out, and I find it exhausting from both a fan and performer perspective. Not to mention the overwhelming stench of loli-ness from all the AKB-48 (or 84 or 144 or whatever they ended up at) type groups. I remember reading years and years ago about what went on at Johnnyz before I knew anything at all about idol culture and was stunned.
I can’t get into any of the anime about idol groups, the music, none of that. The whole weird farce of it all just… ugh. I imagine there is a good sociocultural explanation out there for the phenomenon but I honestly don’t care enough to delve into it. I also may be off-base about this, but I kind of feel like Western anime and manga fans have embraced idol stuff because it seems like a thing they should do, following the “I like Japanese pop culture, this is popular in Japan, ergo I should like this too” postulate. I feel like most of them haven’t thought critically at all about the idol industry and what it does to the performers and the hapless otaku.
Sorry for the rant, idols are just a huge sore spot for me. For the life of me I just can’t see the appeal. Like, at all. Even a little.
Rant away! I am 100% percent with you.