No escaping it now, apparently. I’m stuck in idol hell, so I might as well document the whole process, to save future generations from this dire fate. This is a sprawling article, one that covers my experience at the Love Live! movie, my time spent with four separate idol anime, some thoughts on that whole Database, Database thing, and more besides. It’s a bit more of a personal reflection than the stuff I normally do, but I hope you enjoy it. This past year has definitely been quite a ride.
The Intoxicating Lure of Idol Anime
Nice post, but it feels incomplete without a mention of AKB0048 and Wake Up Girls. I think these two shows offer a perspective on idols you don’t often see in anime.
Having just finished up AKB0048, I think it’s definitely worth checking out for your next circle of Idol Hell. It sorta shifts unevenly between self-critical portrait of the idol industry and “fuck yeah idols with lightsaber microphones in outer-space!”, but it is certainly a unique combination of elements. It’s definitely not your average idol show, if such a show actually exists. The whole thing is up on CR, and I’m pretty sure there’s no tie-in rhythm game so you’re safe from that endless abyss.
“The me of a few years ago was “better” than idols – my tastes ran (and still run, on average) way more pretentious than that, towards shows like The Tatami Galaxy and Revolutionary Girl Utena.”
As an anime-fan, I have tried a few massively popular Idol Anime, such as Idol-master and Love-Live!. But I find myself (present as well as old me) still preferring The Tatami Galaxy and Revolutionary Girl Utena over those Idol Anime as I failed to see anything particularly interesting to me about those Idol anime. Nothing of those anime clicked me, none of them is beyond mediocre.
That being said, Is present-me (or my present taste) is better or pretentious??? But why? I don’t get it.
This was a very endearing article; perhaps one of the more honest articles I’ve seen written by you. Azuma may have a point – that pop culture is defined by an inclination towards tropes and capitalizing on it. But I feel he fails to grasp the sense of ownership that is born by the people who identify and engage with media, more so when it resonates with them to a certain extent.
I’m glad you found a reason to grow out of your pretentious shell to embrace idol fandom. In many ways, reading your blog for the past four months has also given me the humility to deny my own pretentiousness towards anime and embrace things I normally wouldn’t have appreciated. It’s a good feeling to try and understand what makes people enjoy the things they do, and to a certain extent, be content in knowing that the world is a very colorful place. Colorful enough to paint the streets a technicolor blaze of blue-haired hyenas and magenta bears and maybe even an amber llama or two.
I’m glad you enjoyed it! It’s certainly been a slow learning process, coming to embrace all different kinds of media. But I’m a lot happier for it!