Idols have saved schools from closing. Idols have brought attention to local communities. Idols have saved earth from a meteor shower by playing crane based game. Idols have saved the world with space age inner planetary rebel concerts. Who am I kidding, Crane Game Girls are clearly more bad ass then AKB0048. Idol Incidents is the newest and hippest show in the “idol gimmick” series. Unlike shows such as Love Live and Idolmaster that thrive on being full on idol based series, Idol Incidents is one of those “what can we put idols into next?” type things. The idea of this show…idols in the office.
Natsuki is a girl from the country. In her small town she cheers on rice farmers with happy songs and powers her power. One day by complete chance a producer happens to be driving by and scouts Natsuki. She’s invited to an audition where contenders must run up a big hill to test their strength, this show is focused on idols being in great physical shape. Natsuki is the only one who makes it to the top and bam she’s part of the Idol Diet Women now. Basically she’s now running for office. Okay let me explain…well I would if the show explained things a bit better. But to my understanding there are multiple parties running for office, one is the Heroine Party fronted by idols. The other, normal boring politics, the Rougai party. So Natsuki is running for office, straight out of the rice fields…to the office. She meets her partner, Onimaru Shizuka, a popular idol with an overwhelming aura. Making her a big star but a hard person to work with. She’s to do a show with Natsuki and begins her idol training. “This is your Mother’s mini skirt, she wanted you to have this when you where old enough”.
Naturally Natsuki is not great and Shizuka is like, screw off you suck. After what was apparently days worth of training Natsuki goes to do the show alone. It’s a trainwreck until Shizuka arrives and they team up for beautiful idol magic. They charm the crowd and aim for the office together, meanwhile the baddies won’t stand for it! Okay this was basically 2-3 episodes worth of content in one go, my word this was way too fast paced. It’s basically a silly story where idols can run for office and I suppose deal with political affairs…this episode was just focused on getting the characters in place. There is a lot to set-up however and much is comprised in development and explanation to jam content in the premier.
We start setting up Natsuki as a country girl and there is a loose element of home town sentiment by one boy who cheers her on at the concert. Still it moves way too fast and there doesn’t feel like much of a connection between Natsuki and her town. From snap to snap Natsuki becomes an idol in no time, all she had to do was run up a hill. The way she was recruited was all to easy as well. A producer happened to notice her, and Natsuki doesn’t even have to think. She’s down with the idea right off the bat. She’s the typical center type character, cheerful, happy and passionate. She loves rice so much she has clips of it in her hair…
Shizuka is a bit cold and trains Natsuki hard before deeming the partnership impossible. There is a compelling dynamic with her issues of overshadowing others and it’s all resolved so quickly. The first time she goes onstage with Natsuki they just click together, even though they where struggling in rehearsal. It was like the show resolved an entire character arc in mere minutes. This show clearly has better things to do and just wanted to get things in place fast to move onto the main point. Still this would be like if all the girls in Love Live came together in 2 episodes instead of…more then half of the season.
Not enough was really explained but again, it’s only the first episode. We get kind of hints of what the show is about with the rival party semi introduced. The idea of idols running for office is quite amusing, especially if they’re running against actually politics. One has to wonder how this will be interesting or fun to watch but who knows. This first episode was just too quick as a set-up, wasting no time getting to the point. Artwise it’s a rather okay series. The artstyle is…fine. It’s not quite as kiddy as Aikatsu or as pretty as the Idolmaster. I actually thought Natsuki’s voice acting was weak, she had a bit of a flat tone. The songs where also very genetic and stock. The dance scene was typical as well with a bit of CGI for far shots. It was about on par with Love Live Sunshine’s CG, so it still looks different but it’s not terrible. In the dance scene the two characters clash auras and massive flowery graphics overpower everybody. The production is fine here.
Overall the first episode of Idol Incidents was far too fast paced. Although it could turn out fun it introduces it’s characters in a clumsy and rushed manner, speeding up development to pack everything in one quick lead off. It seems like it’ll be yet another lazy idol show, the idol genre really doesn’t have all that many good shows. Some series turn out half assed and end up not trying to do anything with themselves. I hope this isn’t Idol Incidents but I don’t harbor a ton of hope right now. We’ll see where it goes, I’ll watch more but I’m unsure how it will be after how rushed this first episode was.
Kanttila
The Manimal Live! 
I was probably going to pass on this anyway because I can’t think of an idol show I’ve ever liked but after reading this I’m definitely passing (unless I get really desperate).
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Love Live is a great show. The only reeeeally good idol show I’ve seen. The cast is awesome as well as the fun and even the drama. There is great effort put into that series. The Idolmaster is tonally messy but can be good at times. Locodol was good at being a show with that small town sentiment. Otherwise the idol genre is not as good as it could be. I like idols, mostly anti-idols like Seiko Oomori and BiS, but I just find the whole idol culture odd and fasinating.
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I’ve not tried Love Live at this point. It’s one of those titles that’s been forever buried on my watch list.
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Ha ha, Love Live takes place in it’s own little world really. It lacks scope but focuses more on this kind of underdog story. The first season takes some time to build but by season 2 the fun really begins. I feel like a lot goes into the series and the spin-off Love Live Sunshine, which features a different cast, was also quite good.
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