Akb0048
 

I did a search and was surprised I couldn't find anything

http://i39.tinypic.com/15wzdxs.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/qy5xsg.png

From ANN:


As for the staff here it is:

Chief Director: Shoji Kawamori (Macross Frontier, Aquarion)
Director: Yoshimasa Hiraike (Amagami SS, Working!!)
Series Composition: Mari Okada (Ano Hana, Hanasaku Iroha)
Script: Mari Okada
Original creator: Shoji Kawamori
Character Design: Risa Ebata (Macross Frontier, Prism Ark)

Animation Production: Satelight

And here's your cast:

Mayu Watanabe (AKB48 Team B)
Mao Mita (NMB48 trainee)
Haruka Ishida (AKB48 Team B)
Sumire Satō (AKB48 Team B)
Sawako Hata (SKE48 Team KII)
Sayaka Nakaya (AKB48 Team A)
Kumi Yagami (SKE48 Team S)
Karen Iwata (AKB48 trainee)
Amina Satō (AKB48 Team B)

And we've now got a plot synopsis

I thought they should animate AKB49 Ren'ai Kinshi Jourei first. The story had plenty of substance.

^ what's the difference between AKB49 and 48?
another idol anime?

Oh Okada what the hell are you doing hahahahaha.

Lately, whatever the f*** she wants :heh:.

Nonetheless, she's the only reason why I'll be watching this, but I'm not expecting anything but possible (not guaranteed) lols.

Are you serious right now Japan? Just cause something can be made doesn't mean it should. :eyebrow:

Mari Okada I'm not even concerned about, I frankly never felt she was anything approaching good and talented as a writer and lately have realized that the one series I thought she did that was any decent in Ano Hana was actually the result of the director saving it from her mediocre ideas. So yeah nuts to Okada, it's Kawamori that is fastly getting concerning. Lately I'm sensing something of a death knell for Kawamori's relevance as a creator. The guy that gave us Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Macross Plus and The Vision of Escaflowne and worked on many series with broad appeal like Cowboy Bebop, Patlabor and Gundam as a mecha designer or writer has clearly started to make the full transition to the other side of the equation as yet another otaku friendly/pandering director. Basquash and Macross Frontier were where he kind of started morphing (as those were kind of where I noticed his shows coming more with the flavor of an otaku series while hiding behind the mask of something more ambitious) and I clearly saw it coming too and this will all but certainly complete his metamorphosis. Shame that lately he's been dragging Yoko Kanno down with him as well since her new music is nothing like the old stuff and now I'm kind of starting to piece together why. :( Fortunately she should have absolutely nothing to do with this...I hope.

Better keep enjoying this season, cause with what's been announced so far for next year it's looking like all the otaku pandering trends with TV series are only getting that much worse from here on out and that it is just indeed brief resurgence of decent animated fair....possibly the last hurrah.

I saw the premise, and I was like, 'Okay, so it's AKB48 cashing in on the anime market. It won't be anything special...'

Then I saw Shoji Kawamori, and I was like, 'wuuuuuut?!'

Then someone pointed my attention to Mari Okada, and I was like, 'Oh what the...'

Now I have to follow this, if only to see just what the fuck they're up to with this one. :heh:

EDIT: Then again, if anyone in Japan knows how to say Listen To My Song and make people respond with YAKK DECULTURE, it would be Kawamori, if he can get Yoko Kanno on this one. So that well might be an inspired choice, but eh.

@Kaioshin
lol how hyperbolical are you
Idolm@ster the animation share same premise as this one n being one of finest show this year, even the moe critical like it.

I don't have much hope for this one can achieve what Im@s get though, n like I'm saying in other thread, the chara design is very bleh to me. Let hope at least the sakuga n concert is orgasmic, this is Satelight top front anime afterall.

Listen to My Song isn't even initially from Macross Frontier. Learn your Macross lore son. :eyebrow:

Hey man, you watch one of your favorite old time creators consistently go down the path into an over saturated market you are completely and utterly against as a solution to TV anime's woes and see how well you come out of it. He's clearly capable of better than what he's been doing lately, but seems content to just go with cash cow type solutions these days and looks like he's given up on being a pure creator much like the majority of TV anime directors, writers and concept designers seem to have. I'm not even objecting to moe stuff, I don't know why people even think it's always about that topic. I don't even mind moe stuff when it's not the dominant draw for a series, I'm personally more against outright pandering and boring premises with little to no potential beyond a certain audience and this looks like the very definition of that. This sort of show that Japan is currently obsessed with isn't going to help grow anime, it's just another patch to try and stop the bleeding and increasing lack of relevance it has overseas these days cause nobody can seem to make something that will appeal to Western audiences outside of movies and OVA's. Tiger and Bunny is like the only show that came out this year that I think has a good chance of landing itself on North American TV or in the public consciousness at some point.

Power to the people that love this sort of thing and can get consistently excited over cute girls doing cute things and well animated concert scenes no matter how much anime relies on these two factors of late, but I'm heading right back to OVA's and Movies as my sole consumption of anime if Akb0048 ends up being a defining example of what I have to look forward to from TV anime over the next year or two. That said, this season right now...still pretty good overall.

I know 'Listen To My Song' is a homage to Macross 7's Basara Nekki of Fire Bomber.

Keep the jumping to conclusions in check, grump, I've done my homework. Why don't you go over there and enjoy your nice, delicious pineapple salad? :cool:

Having read a lot about the eccentricities of some anime directors before, and with an A-list staff going into this project, I think I'll wait and see.

Even the denizens of 2ch were bouncing off the walls once they heard the news, as witnessed by one of my close friends, a veteran translator, who ventured there:
As we were discussing this at another forum, some of us thought it was the craziest thing Kawamori had dived into (as if playing with ecological themes weren't enough), which spells "career suicide", but then me and some buddies figured that he'd been tinkering with enough stories involving pop songstresses and dogfights since 1982 that the idea of directing a show of this magnitude (and thus the huge risk) is too damn hard for him to refuse.

At any rate, Kawamori's gonna have his hands full within the next two years, with this, EVOL, and the 30th anniversary of Macross.

One persons "A-List Staff" is another persons bundle of upstarts, misfits and nobodies. As far as I can tell this series has very little going for it so yeah...I'm basically here to lament what appears to be the career suicide for Shoji Kawamori. Even if it's "successful" (which I'm sure it will be with a popular name like AKB48....you know cause god forbid anybody can make anything for TV anymore without relying on some established big name to carry them) it's kind of really easy to see how this is going to go right from the get go just by looking at said "A-List Staff".

Cute girls doing cute things, lots of high pitched voices, stock scenarios that we've seen done in these types of shows many times before....probably one breakout character that helps to carry it into the second half (bet it's the bossy/busty chick archetype yet again), a big concert scene every time it looks like people are getting a little bored with the shows lackadaisical pacing and a sentimental ending to cap it all off. I've seen this show when it was called K-On and swapping out popular name for popular name for popular name as they've been doing since is unlikely to change a damn thing. For that you'd need a premise shift or genre-shift and I just don't see that happening. Japan is clearly to afraid to mix it up with what they see as a winning formula, and while it's not exactly fair to be this cynical and this decided on what a show is going to be like cause of the formulas you've seen in the past, this particular one has made it really easy.

Again huge shame as I could not see myself typing the above about TV anime even 5 years ago, but it kind of looks like it's hit a brick wall of creativity and experimentation that it just can't seem to get past cause nobody wants to take even the slightest bit of a risk anymore. It's the sort of thing that is plaguing Japan's video game industry too and has driven people like Megaman Creator (yes that repetitive formulaic milestone) Keiji Inafune literally out of the country in search of work. When the guy that created that franchise loses hope you know things are at a standstill over there, and while I don't subscribe to the total doom theory that 2ch does (though it's funny that there's a faction that finds these current trends as predictable and cynical as I have of late) it for certain is the continuation and acceleration of a disturbing beholdence by anime producers to whatever is popular in other scenes of Japanese sub-cultures these days. There was a time when TV anime was it's own thing and created it's own cultures and sub-cultures, but it seems that that era is all but over now.

Offtopic: As much as I don't want to say this, but it appears that you're trying to convince some that "the old days are the better days" kind of thing, and then you're expecting the whole sky to fall down on the whole anime industry (reminds me of the fierce debate over the relevancy of moe at the General Anime section) just because of decadent fan pandering.

Unfortunately, these are very hard times, and a studio has to make a profit in any way it could for the sake of survival, considering how expensive anime production can be (and still is), so I can't blame most studios taking gambles (except for the big old ones).

Ontopic: To be frank, this project has a lot of risk and money riding on it, a massive gamble. We can't be sure if this'll fly or crash and burn. Anyone has to wait and see, even the bitterest of critics, as this is clear the project can be very well thought of as the Titanic of anime (referring to James Cameron's high-risk hit of 1998, of course).

As long its actually involving the singing, dancing, n concert.. this kind of anime is fine for me.


And I think people should not worry this is the new "thing" in anime, because this kind of anime is hard to pull. Its need big budget and most likely established franchise to back it up (Im@s, AKB48, Maybe they gonna try make legit Vocaloid anime next time) and actually involving thing that's rare in anime : animation. :heh:

Not at all, I'm simply stating that there was a time when when it came to coming up with ideas for a TV anime the first inclination that producers had didn't seem to be to check for what was currently popular in Light Novel scenes (mostly because Light Novels weren't even around back then, though you'd honestly think the way things are now with anime being so beholden to whatever is a hit in the Light Novel scene nowadays that Light Novels came around before anime ever did), idol culture and 2ch (something anime also predates) so much as trying to make their own splash.

Sure a lot of these shows "failed" and are long forgotten (kind of like the "successes" of today are quickly forgotten for whatever is currently popular or for the next big otaku/LN fan friendly show), but at least they failed at being their own thing as opposed to someone else's.

So yeah if anything these posts are more a cry for more original in-house produced TV series (preferably ones that aren't like Guilty Crown :heh:). Again not everything has to revolve around pro-moe/anti-moe and old vs. new. This is purely an issue of creativity and pride in ones work versus copy/pasting whatever is popular onto the formula that is least likely to backfire with a volatile audience. And yes this is indeed a volatile audience in AKB48 fanboys and there is indeed the chance of failure, but that is also precisely the problem as well cause it pressures writers and creators to not do anything that could conceivably offend said audience, which is yet another trend I kind of fault for making these series often turn out so cookie cutter and bland.

In these types of shows any sort of extended drama is a risk cause it could result in offending a particular sensibility towards the fans concerning one or more of the AKB48 idols. In these types of shows any sort of character conflict also runs the same risk as nothing is really allowed to come at the expense of the AKB48 crew or it might offend the hardcore fans that are going to supply the profit margin. In these types of shows you have to tread very lightly and carefully for what they are, and that usually results in the aforementioned formula of cute girls doing cute things, everyone being perfect and without character flaw (arguably read without character intrigue) so as not to unintentionally make offense of the idol and thus the fandom, and this usually results in all the drama (if there is any) being pushed towards the very end after the series has already made it's profit margin where it can be converted to pure sentimentality regarding the fact that the project is now over in what have become sort of meta-referential scenes that masquerade as the characters being emotional and conflicted when in reality it's just one last play on the audience that has just witnessed 12-25 episodes of something they've actually already seen done borderline verbatim, albeit with a different skin like say....Idolmaster or K-On.

With each series like this that anime studios do, the better they seem to get at playing the otaku/idol audience. Kyoani in particular used to get credited with being the genius company that had figured out how to work this audience around their little fingers, but frankly other companies have now made it look really easy too by doing what appears to be little more than what I've mentioned above. Also good promotion and holding of community events have helped as well (something Kyoani surprisingly lacked, but seems to have proven to be a key piece of the puzzle in the long run), but yeah it's all very cynical looking to me and comes off as pure pandering. Maybe if I gave anything approaching a damn about AKB48 I could potentially be hooked, but again it's just something that is so localized and I'm trying to understand why creators seem to think they can keep doing all this localized stuff and niche stuff and still expect to grow anime as a medium.

My only conclusion is that they are still just thinking short term and are unconcerned with growing anime at all and merely just trying to survive since as you put it these are tough times, but I'll add just one counter to that. Why does it seem like OVA and Movie creators are consistently able to put out intriguing and variable types of experiences while TV anime lags behind and struggles so much on the creativity front? Maybe it's cause those that are capable of affording OVA's and Movies are just capable of more, but then I look and see people like Makoto Shinkai, Takeshi Koike or Mamoru Nagano who are basically funding and developing ambitious movie projects out of their own pockets almost singlehandedly and it makes it look like it's really not all that hard as long as you just have the will. Have TV anime creators merely lost the will? It's an interesting question, but indeed this is going off topic and should probably be turned into it's own in the General anime thread.

Yeah like I said some people can get into these things really easily, and I'm sure it would be especially easy if you're into the idol scene or just stage performances in general (I'm more of a theater/opera guy myself but have no love for pop-idols), but for those that aren't into that sort of thing and are starting to wonder if this isn't actually the next big thing (cause lately it's kind of looking like it is) I have to ask....what is here for us if indeed the next market being mined after Light Novels is the idol scene? I will also ask, why does something like an idol series even need a big budget or established franchise or even any established thing to back it up? Is it simply not possible anymore to just do an interesting original story about somebody struggling to make it as an idol or coming off the peak of their career or something and to just do it with good old-fashioned character drama and storytelling? Will that just not work at all anymore in your estimation? Does everything need a gimmick or hook to be at the forefront of a production like TV anime producers seem to think they do today?

I refuse to believe that making any given idol show is as challenging as you are making it out to be considering what I've seen from the ones made so far and how easy it looks to play the audience for them by following the cute girls doing cute things formula, and certainly the way you are putting it doesn't sound like much of a creative challenge so much as a manufactured financial one. Basically if we follow that formula, the sole key to TV anime success in the Japanese market can be summed up by paraphrasing from Scarface:

In this country, you gotta get the big names first. Then when you get the big names, you get the cute girls. Then when you get the big names and the cute girls, then you get the fanboys attention, and then when you get the fanboys attention, then you get the money!

Oh for fuck sake...

So where is she going to find males to emasculate in this premise, I wonder?

Well its just simply due its need more animation than usual (There is reason why most anime only have mouth clapping all the time on its animation), popularity to sell its CDs. etc.
Simple Idol anime with lack of budget and sugary animation that need lot of budget won't cut it IMO. Established franchise back-up at least make the project have target to shoot, put less risk after all the budget spending.

So in other words no room for any real experimentation.

^
Okay, what do you really want us to see?

Before I sleep, I leave a quote here:
And an article about "selling out".

must check this out

This idea of this anime really irks me. I'm open to idol-focused anime at the moment (I plan to watch The Idolm@ster myself), but this anime being an advertisement for a current real life idol group smells like it will be extremely restrictive character-wise and story-wise, much more than K-On and The Idolm@ster could ever be since at least those were based off fictional characters. Here they will have to flatter real idols and make them look good at the expense of character flaws and drama which help drive storytelling. I'm afraid, very afraid.

As an anime fan who has only recently come into the anime scene (2008), and as a person who enjoys "cute girls doing cute things" anime, I must agree with you that we don't need an already popular franchise to make an idol anime.

Why not make an original anime about fictional idols that follow the story examples you gave? I think it could be done, even in an otaku-dominated market. Make the story dramatic, but keep the characters "cute" by giving them popular endearing qualities that otaku buy into, without sacrificing the story and the humanism.

AKB48 is a popular Japanese idol group and AKB49 is a manga about said group.

It's the other way around. AKB48 is more popular than anime, so it's more that they're using the group to push anime sales. And it makes sense too - Satelight has been in a lot of trouble over the last few years, and a hit can get them enough cash to rebuild and to make more original works.

He's a pretty natural choice. Kawamori practically pioneered the anime idol industry.

That's if they don't decide to anime the dance moves using 3DCG! :p

Yeah, the character designs are pretty terrible. Then again, I didn't like the character designs for Idolm@ster either.

I'll wait until the PV or first episode airs before make any judgments on the story. I've read the AKB49 manga, and that turned out fairly well.

However, the designs do not look very appealing at all.

So can someone summarize to me, about what i should know about AKB48? SO if i follow this anime,i won't have to go "wtf are they talking about"

I know that they are an idol group (sing, act, theater performances?) . And having 48 members? I heard that their 48 members changes through the years or something,isn't it?

I really doubt that you're going to have to know anything about AKB48 prior to watching the anime. But for the curious, you can either check out Wikipedia or the official AKB48 website.

ohh finally a thread! can't wait for this one Idol animes FTW

In some ways, it's a natural progression from idol drama that Kawamori has been doing for a while. Cautiously optimistic, and that includes the part of me that likes Sketchbook full color's (you're not the only one).

Was secretly hoping for an AKB fan to open the proceedings; anyhow as long as the staff have sufficient like/love for the franchise it'll be fine.

Lurk the forums and love his translation work. And his dedication to the idol culture.

In its own way, does idol idealism well with some poking at itself/others while maintaining heavy references in and out of the franchise throughout.
EDIT: (Anyhoo, further talk on that shall be directed to official thread - http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=108800)

I enjoyed reading the manga AKB49 because of the brilliant storytelling premise and the event layout. The only thing I didn't like is that the reading demographic consists of fujoshis.

Nonetheless, this feels like a success riding, over-invested business plan. I think I'll check out on them on EH after Fuyucomi this year.

Oh no it's soapbox time.

You do know he didn't really have much to do with Basquash apart from creating the concept? If you want to blame people for basquash try Tatsuo Sato, Shin Itagaki and Eiichi Sato instead of blaming Kawamori because it fits this dumb ass agenda you're pushing. Also how is MF now because of Kawamori when before you were blaming Yoshino for those parts of it? Considering Guilty Crown I think we know who to blame for the weaker parts of MF and CG....

Macross Frontier's score is leaps and bounds better than her prior work in Darker than Black, something which didn't even get a second OST release which is quite telling... It's also hilarious how you keep acting like Frontier was the start of Kanno's downfall when it's the last thing she has actually worked on. Also lol @ you not getting the MF reference to M7 when Ascaloth said Listen to my song, and you have the gall to tell him to learn his Macross?

O'rly? Than why did you just say this in another thread for an anime due next year.

Which one is it?

And before you say it, Yes I followed you into this thread even though me and a few others were discussing this show with Thomas Romain in the Symphogear thread.

Ok first of all:

http://i43.tinypic.com/qy5xsg.png

This image makes the anime look more like an Insterstella 5555 type of project than a k-on type of project :heh:

Or will it be post apocalyptic cyberpunk anime?



More images here: http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/photo/2004668/2/

Also the 9 castmembers have been announced

Mayu Watanabe (AKB48 Team B)
Mao Mita (NMB48 trainee)
Haruka Ishida (AKB48 Team B)
Sumire Satō (AKB48 Team B)
Sawako Hata (SKE48 Team KII)
Sayaka Nakaya (AKB48 Team A)
Kumi Yagami (SKE48 Team S)
Karen Iwata (AKB48 trainee)
Amina Satō (AKB48 Team B)

I know nothing about them so I'll let more knowledgable people comment on the cast.

Honestly even as someone who follows AKB48 news closely, I barely know these names. :heh: They're giving the less popular members a chance to get some work, I suppose. Watanabe Mayu (aka Mayuyu) was a given, she's actually a very popular member and known to be a huge anime lover (she often posts about late-night shows on her blog, even claiming certain characters as her waifu - whether she really loves it or does it to gain otaku sympathy is another debate altogether, of course, but it seems fairly genuine to me).
Nakaya Sayaka is the only one in the group with an actual seiyuu background, I believe. Satou Amina is also sort of popular but that's about it, the rest have mostly never been in a senbatsu single.

The images leave me speechless. I thought this would be a cutesy Saturday morning show in spite of the Kawamori involvement... :heh:

There are a few anime series the suddenly pop in my head when I saw the set design: Fractale and iDOLM@STER: Xenoglossia.

More Xenoglossia's okay with me.

ok, now I got something to look up at for next year.

if this anime does well, will that have any impact at all in new macross?

Synopsis is revealed!

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/inte...story-revealed

Behold! The power of idol music!

Yamakan needs to officially announce his new project already then that will fight this title for the top dog of the year.

The responses to the announcement distracted me for a good half an hour with all the laughter they provided. Highly recommend reading that synopsis just for comedy.

Things I want to be in this anime:
Mechs
Mechs that can transform
Aliens as final bosses
Producer-san (or any male lead for maximum troll effect).

Oh man, this is ... wow.

There are also 4 spin off manga coming out of this.

This is written by Okada,what you just listed is the minimum I'd expect from her,she's going to have a field trip with this premise.
I can't wait :D


*insert obligatory crossdressing joke here*

Now if only this were a NoitaminA show I'd be able to enjoy the massive amount of rage that would ensue.

That synopsis sounds like something I would write. I mean this as the highest of compliments.

The synopsis really make me dying... I want some of what they're smoking.

And I must said this again, the chara design is fecking ugly.