Shounen Hollywood continues to chug merrily along as the sleeper flop of the season. Would this show be more popular if its central cast were girls, instead? Probably? I guess its current incarnation just doesn’t really give anyone what they want – it’s too idol-indebted to appeal to people who’d like its cynical edge, but too melancholy and understated to appeal to standard idol/cute boy fans. It’s a shame! I’m really enjoying this show – it’s earnest without being blindly optimistic. It’s a nice thing.
Most overlooked show of the season, really, and I’ve been enjoying your writeups on ANN, in part because nobody else is talking about this show.
While it can be a bit cheesy and a bit campy, neither of which are bad things in my book, I have to agree that it’s the show’s earnest qualities which have kept me watching.
imho, the type of people who appreciate that sort of thing, (embracing both ends of the spectrums of optimism-cynicism, manufactured-authentic, and sincere-twofaced, not so much contradictions of each other as a reflection of the complexities of real life) tend to prefer eschew 2D for 3D idols, or the rest of the Jpop industry, in which many “legitimate” artists still follow a good deal of idol marketting tactics. Real-life idolling and its contextual celebrity culture has yet more complexities that have never been presented in a comprehensive way by narrative media, and they never will be, by the very necessity of good narrative media to focus on a limited number of things, and thematic and/or structural cohesion.
For those people, Shounen Hollywood isn’t telling us anything we don’t already know, in more depth with real-life examples that we already have an emotional attachment to, who will exist for us to follow for far longer than the show will. (more data…)
That said, I am planning on binge-watching the show when it finishes.