Lemon Angel Project

[mangatron]

hmm, something got me thinking....Lemon Angel Project Demonstration....LAPD

err my mangatronism's aside, this is a 13 episode series, airs Fridays on KBS, scheduled to end broadcast run on March 31st of 2006. Nearly 25 minutes long per episode.

According to the website, this series was at first a hit OAV that aired on TV around 1987. So I would say this is a remake, but....

The story is basically, in the year 2016, the Beautiful idol group Lemon Angel suddenly without warning close the curtains and disbanded. Ten months later, in a project to revive the Lemon Angels, the team behind the original Lemon Angels holds an audition. Here we have Tomo Minaguchi, the aqua haired girl who seems clumsy, but isn't. Well, she act more like a cute shy girl. Basically episode 1 introduces us to the previous Lemon angels, their sudden disconnection off the air, and the dawn of a futuristic looking world. Well, for one thing, they have cell phones that make the ipod Nano cry in shame Hey look, they can even have holographic video playback ehem, anyways, we follow Tomo's days of life, and how much the Lemon angels mean to everyone in town.

Now I'd like to warn everyone, before they go on saying "oh I'll give episode 1 a try" only to return saying "crap", "wasted time downloading" or "my ISP has my bw capped, utter waste of resources" . This series, LAP, isn't really ground breaking, ja, and I advise when watching this, if you even want to, I advise that you do not expect anything more than the minutes that you gradually watch throughout the episodes. Only then will you not think LAP is a waste of your time. I'll be the first to admit, I set out to watch this series for the girls, but after watching episode 1 I find the story very interesting and I want to watch more into the business of female Idols .

Interesting notes:
-Takehito Koyasu, voice of Mwu La FLaga from Gundam Seed, has a part in this series as Shinya Himuro, who I believe is the head of the Lemon Angel group. Hearing this guy's voice sorta made me laugh, I mean, it's so recognizeable...
-Tomo-chan may seem like a runner of the mouth, so to say. Well, she talks quite alot, even in times when she's alone or, maybe I'm just thinking too much into this lol
-I love it when there's the English language in anime, and LAP is no exemption. "Lemon Angel actu 2, tha Laaaaaauust AAAuu dition!" and "Let's Enjoy it" to name the best....
-I also love Tomo's Pani Poni Dash style antennae piece of hair on her head, something about that makes me laugh. I mean, of course, if one watches PPD before this, then ja, you'll know what I mean ...

Ahh as if 2005 had alot of bishoujo, 2006 is making me melt faster than a ice cream scoop on the surface of the Sun

My take: I enjoyed this episode 1. It was, how shall we say....Tomo-chan goodness?

[Maceart]

Interesting. I'll be sure to hunt down the chinese subs for this.

Hope it doesn't degenerate into a fanservice fest.

[Lina Inverse]

Looks interesting, esp. that shower pic... hope we'll see much more fanservice in the anime!

Originally Posted by Maceart

Hope it doesn't degenerate into a fanservice fest.

Hey, don't bash them! Fanservice fests are fine!

[mangatron]

Originally Posted by Lina Inverse

Hey, don't bash them! Fanservice fests are fine!

Yeah, let's hear it from the 2 post'ers in this thread with sigs that define fanservice

Uhm...go shower scene? LOL .........

[bluemist]

Tomo is a ridiculous loudmouth. Anyone would be annoyed in the same way Suwa-sempai was. That piano scene took the cake... one entire minute of worthless blabbering!!! That's like the longest annoyance scene of all!

So far, I see nothing special in LAP, but I'll stick to it. Idol-themed shows are hard to come by.

One thing I don't like about these kinds of shows is that whenever they sing something jumpy or dance-like, the animation never keeps up. Characters always stand static, relatively no movement at all. It seems kinda hard to portray song-and-dance performances in 2D.

[Greenish Growth]

Originally Posted by bluemist

That piano scene took the cake... one entire minute of worthless blabbering!!! That's like the longest annoyance scene of all!

Heh...I was thinking the same thing.

I kept thinking that they had already made their point and that she was about to stop talking, but she kept going on and on. Wow...that was something. I really felt for Suwa-sempai there.

[Omniscient]

For me, this show was supposed to be all about the music. If it had good music, then I definitely would be sticking with it...but it doesn't. For a series about finding girls and making an idol group, I really didn't like any of the songs from the first episode. On top of that, Shihono Ryou's voicing of Tomo just got on my nerves.
Having said that, I may watch a few more eps to see if the music improves, but I'm not keeping my hopes up.

[mangatron]

Originally Posted by bluemist

One thing I don't like about these kinds of shows is that whenever they sing something jumpy or dance-like, the animation never keeps up. Characters always stand static, relatively no movement at all. It seems kinda hard to portray song-and-dance performances in 2D.

Hmm, I really think if they were to do a full motion sing and dance sequence that scene alone just may cost as much as a Gundam episode

Really, take into account how many singing related anime are out there (Chance Pop Session and MMPPP just stick in my mind right now) I can't say it's easy to do....And I don't want to imagine a 3D-ized scene

Originally Posted by Omniscient

For me, this show was supposed to be all about the music. If it had good music, then I definitely would be sticking with it...but it doesn't. For a series about finding girls and making an idol group, I really didn't like any of the songs from the first episode.

Hmm, I don't know. This is, after all, the first episode only, and if I remember correctly there wasn't even one song completed in the entire ep...that coupled with the fact that the Music Video was cut off there really isn't much to say about the music, is there?

I have a good example. Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (MMPPP). We know how long this series is as much as how short LAP is, but think about this one fact: I can only recall one song that was ever sang in the first episode, at least one that ended in a perfect note. And it took all of the MMPPP series to finish to show just about how many great songs that series has, not to mention that all the characters gradually made their appearances as well as their respective songs as the series went on. So, I'll take that kind of approach for LAP and just take each episode as they are, as they are air. Unless this series has a different view of the song world, then yeah,.....

Hey, I do believe they took that Motorola Razr and made it a ipod as well

[bluemist]

Originally Posted by mangatron

Hmm, I really think if they were to do a full motion sing and dance sequence that scene alone just may cost as much as a Gundam episode

Really, take into account how many singing related anime are out there (Chance Pop Session and MMPPP just stick in my mind right now) I can't say it's easy to do....And I don't want to imagine a 3D-ized scene

If you had watched Love Hina, remember the episode where Naru was a singing idol? That so far was the best rendition of a singing idol I've seen yet. I do agree though that it may be a bit more pricey.

At the very least, multiple camera angles (such as in MMPPP) would have been nicer. In the very first scenes of the ep, those Lemon Angel girls in hologram were just "standing" there singing, and minimal camera changes were made. All that in a dance song... it looked lame really.

[mangatron]

Originally Posted by bluemist

If you had watched Love Hina, remember the episode where Naru was a singing idol? That so far was the best rendition of a singing idol I've seen yet. I do agree though that it may be a bit more pricey.

Oh I forgot about that, although if I remember correctly she was looping at some point I'm still wondering why Motoko and Shinobu didn't get the same love

And yeah, that hologram singing scene in episode 1 was quite odd, but I'll admit, I didn't think it was a music video. You see, if you watch Japanese girls in real life singing they don't move that much, at least from what I watch. Maybe,...that carries onto anime as well?

[Kaoru Chujo]

Episode one had a good feeling for me. I disagree with all the criticisms. I liked the music. I loved the voicing of Tomo: her awkward energy had a very personal feeling. The piano scene worked great for me. I kept thinking: how long can she keep this up? For me, it was quite a special scene. I like the animation of Tomo's face, and the overall look. Whether the story can sustain itself I don't know yet, but I like it so far. And the fanservice is clean and pretty.

[mangatron]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

Episode one had a good feeling for me. I disagree with all the criticisms. I liked the music. I loved the voicing of Tomo: her awkward energy had a very personal feeling. The piano scene worked great for me. I kept thinking: how long can she keep this up? For me, it was quite a special scene. I like the animation of Tomo's face, and the overall look. Whether the story can sustain itself I don't know yet, but I like it so far. And the fanservice is clean and pretty.

I'll admit the fanservice didn't fase me, you'll not in my first post not a single mention of any of it, and here's looking at a bishoujo-con in me

And I actually like Tomo and the way she talks, well after all I can relate to her: my mother always tells me how I talk too much and how I too, run off at the mouth That's also part of the reason why, when Mahoraba was still fresh on the air, my summaries went from non spoiling to just plain nosebleedfully insane

And, I can't wait for any soundtrack CD or image CD that this series may spawn; after all I do find Japanese music videos very interesting

[Secca]

The music was ok. Story might be interesting too. But I just cannot seem to like the main character. Mainly because she just.... talks way too much. Specially when she kept talking and interupted Suwa playing piano. Such a bad impression there. It kinda remind me of an anoying brother that keep talking while I'm trying to watch TV. >_<;;

[ForeverGoNe]

Oh man, 1st episode wasn't that bad. Good storyline and I love the OP and ED for this.

It's gonna be an interesting season for sure. LAP is one of the highlight titles for the winter line-up.

EDIT: This should be moved into fan-subs soon. Mahousekai-Fansubs is picking this one up, I think.

[Omniscient]

Spoiler for second episode:

I liked the second better than the first. Was a bit surprised when they changed up the OP sequence and I wonder if they'll do that every week. Overall, everything I complained about for the first episode bothered me less this week and I'm warming up to the music little by little.

[Dark Lord Zenigame]

I rather like the music, but one thing just gets at me...
The girl with the white hair looks like Loran from Turn A Gundam. o_o


Probably just my fanboyness bleeding through to other things, but that's what I think every time I see her. ^_^;;

[mintyfresh]

Originally Posted by Omniscient

Spoiler for second episode:

I liked the second better than the first. Was a bit surprised when they changed up the OP sequence and I wonder if they'll do that every week. Overall, everything I complained about for the first episode bothered me less this week and I'm warming up to the music little by little.

Well, the first sequence we got were just scenes from within the first episode. Seeing as the op sequence that debuted this episode seemed better done and synched with the music more, I'm guessing this might be the official one.

Perhaps they didn't use it the first episode because they were afraid of giving away minor spoilers..? *shrug*

[Kaoru Chujo]

ep2. Still enjoyable. Maybe it's the music. Maybe it's the bishoujo. Maybe it's the dependable plot, and how quickly it seems to be developing. Maybe it's how nice the main protagonist and some of the other girls seem. In any case, I plan to keep watching and enjoying. I do begin to get a hint of why some people are annoyed by Shihono Ryou's voice, but the personality she projects more than makes up for it for me.

Shihono Ryou しほの 涼, who plays Tomo (and is one of three singers on the OP) is a long-legged young idol who is now 14 years old. Picture-albums of her have been selling for the past year or so, and she is also on TV and will appear in a film. Here is a relatively recent pic:

[Lina Inverse]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

Shihono Ryou しほの 涼, who plays Tomo (and is one of three singers on the OP) is a long-legged young idol who is now 14 years old. Picture-albums of her have been selling for the past year or so, and she is also on TV and will appear in a film. Here is a relatively recent pic:

Certainly cute, I'll have to say that...

[Kyaa the Catlord]

With an acronym like LAP, I'd surprised there isn't yuri jokes.