Lovedol ~Lovely Idol~ (TV)

[DragoonKain3]

^
Mind elaborating a bit? Us non-japanese speakers aren't familiar at all with Avex et al. Why would they be spending so much money on a niche show? ^^;

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

^
Mind elaborating a bit? Us non-japanese speakers aren't familiar at all with Avex et al. Why would they be spending so much money on a niche show? ^^;

Well, to sell CDs, which an "idol" show with "big-name" seiyuu seems particularly suited to. Avex is huge independant record label based out of Japan. As with the whole "idol" scene itself (and, of course, true to the "bishoujo" genre), I fully expect this show to be all about showcasing and promoting the cute/beautiful characters with merchandise to follow. Sort of like "life imitating art imitating life".

[kct]

Not to mention, Avex have a lot of well-known Japanese singers under heir label.

[ashefatal]

Well, the raw's out for those interested

[relentlessflame]

Yeah, the first episode is very much a "setup" episode to introduce all the characters, the basic relationships, and the basic premise (manager struggles to lead his idol group to success, and finds love in the process). It's not really the type of episode that you can really say that much about (since it really is just a setup episode). They repeated the names for all the characters at least twice so you could try to get them all in your head.

The various idol songs were okay, but not particularly remarkable either. I liked the ED, but it did give away a lot of the plot (well, a lot was already given away anyway in promo material). The fact that the OP had a "loading bar" was funny. Animation was pretty passable (not that high budget, but not awful either), though the crowd in the concert was way too "on cue" in both action and sound. Of course, the character designs are cute, which everyone already knows. So all in all, it was an okay, if unremarkable, setup episode. Let's see where they go with it.

[kari-no-sugata]

Seems like this series is trying crowd-out next year's Saimoe contest

What our guitar-playing chick said at the end reminded me of Kyouko (main character of the Skip Beat! manga).

Spoiler for episode and Skip Beat spoilers:

What the girl said at the end is that she's playing the guitar for "revenge" - though how that works with her NOT wanting to reach a wide audiance I dunno.

To explain Skip Beat's setup, Kyouko is childhood friends with Shou, and they ran away together to Tokyo after completing mandatory education (middle school), so that Shou could become a star - a singer. Kyouko (at this point a "puts others' needs ahead of her own" type character) works on lots of part-time jobs to afford the rent/food etc for the apartment they live in. But, a year later (start of chapter 1) and Shou has become one of the top stars in Japan and Kyouko finds out what he really thinks of her... and she basically goes totaly ballistic and transforms from being a very "pure" person to a dark person (approximately - her personality isn't very easy to explain). She swears revenge on Shou and enters the show-biz world herself - her basic plan is to "overtake" Shou in popularity and use that power and crush him (Simply causing a scandal by running to the gossip magazines with her story is far too mild a revenge for her liking)

However, she doesn't try to take up singing... and ends up as an actress.

[dovac]

If anyone cares...the 1st song after the op is called: シアワセ革命 and the song after that is ココロの矢印は上向き, they were used in the ps2 game...

[SinsI]

My opinion after watching episode 1:
Girl characters designs were really bad, they are totally clones of that same nameless doll anime character, the only guy wasn't anything special either.
Half en hour(at least it seemed like that to me) of mediocre singing was not a good start.
Nothing spectacular during the concert - come on, that was a professional pop show, and it was far below the level of the school concert we saw in Suzumiya Haruhi. Meaning that the production value is very low here.
Seiyu work - average. Nothing good, nothing particulary bad.
Thus, the only thing that might turn out good in this is the plot - which we saw only a tiny glimpse of.
Unless they manage to add something worthwhile in the latter episodes, I don't see myself watching this show.

[Zhemos]

The OP scared me.

Loli? Art that looks nothing like what it's suppose to be? Ohhh no!
But anyways the OP was cute, and the ED is pretty good as well.

I can't comment too much about the 1st episode since I don't understand that much japanese, but this show looks promising to me.

Does anyone know how long this series is gonna be? There's quite a lot of characters, so maybe like 24-26?

[Shiroth]

Originally Posted by Zhemos

Does anyone know how long this series is gonna be? There's quite a lot of characters, so maybe like 24-26?

Nothing has been mentioned on ANN.. its got me wondering myself.

As for the first episode, i'll probably check it out tomorrow daytime~

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Zhemos

Does anyone know how long this series is gonna be? There's quite a lot of characters, so maybe like 24-26?

As Shiroth said, it hasn't been announced, but I'm thinking it might be 12/13 episodes. The reason I think that is because of the CD Blitz they have planned for November and December. If the series were going to last 24-26 episodes, why release the CDs in rapid succession like that (1 week apart)? That's really not conclusive, though, and the first episode's very introductory nature doesn't really give us any hints. We'll see.

[Shiroth]

I think you're probably onto something there. This has happened in the past with 12/13 episode shows.

In my opinion, that amount of episodes suits this show well.. i don't want the show to lose what i'll end up loving about it because of to many episodes.

[Srin Tuar]

Welp, I gave the first episode a shot but there doesnt seem to be anything special here.
i guess I dont understand the "idol" making phenomenon whatsoever...

[cynicalicious]

Damn, that's 24 minutes I'm not getting back. >_<

Apparently nobody over there has ever heard of harmony. Instead I got the 6-person-singing-in-unison-out-of-tune-while-all-moving-like-robots ear torture.

And here I was hoping that maybe something would blow up. I guess I just don't get the whole idol thing.

[Kaoru Chujo]

Lemon Angel Project must have worked for Avex Mode, so they decided to do a second version with more money: top seiyuus, better animation, more music. Sure it's hard to keep the characters straight. Sure we've seen this before. Sure there was faaar too much fairly average music right at the beginning (I thought: will anyone ever actually speak?) And more fanservice (especially crotch shots). And an imouto. And yet...I liked it.

Of course, I liked Lemon Angel Project, too, so that may not prove much. I must be beginning to understand the Japanese idol phenomenon. After all, I watch Kirarin Revolution, too. Anyway, I love any show with scenes on a pedestrian overpass, lol. Takes me right back to Japan.

Contrary to what someone else said, the seiyuus were good. I didn't really know Momoi Haruko before, and I liked her deep, soft voice. Chihara Minori (Yuki in SHnY, Erika in Lemon Angel Project). Gotou Yuuko (Mikuru in SHnY, Nanami in Lamune). Nogawa Sakura (Nemu, Hinaichigo, Ayumi in Magikano). Nakahara Mai (Nagisa in StoPani, Mai in Mai-HiME, Rena in Higurashi, etc.). Sakai Kanako (Aka in REC). Your basic fabulous line-up. They didn't get a chance to do much in this episode, but if they get some script, they have the ability to run with it.

Getting the script may be the problem, since the director and the main scriptwriter did Amenaideyo. But the main scriptwriter also did series composition for Utawarerumono, and the series composition guy worked on Galaxy Angel, Maburaho, and Mahoraba, so we'll see what happens -- or at least I will, since I'll be back next week, if no-one else will. Links to info about the staff/cast are in the fall anime calendar in my sig.

EDIT: And just to prove what a nutcase I am about seiyuus, here is a visual key to which character is voiced by which seiyuu.

EDIT 2: Yes, what relentlessflame says is right: the first throng of idols are bit players. The real stars are the four girls (plus two) that appear later.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

Contrary to what someone else said, the seiyuus were good.

I think it's just the concert with the other 12 idols; I have to admit, those songs weren't too great in my opinion either, and the animation that accompanied it was pretty low-budget. However, with the concert out of the way, things picked up. I really like the core cast, and that ED is still stuck in my head - much better harmony there. Anyway, yeah, I'll be back next week.

[Omniscient]

Episode 01 Screencaps and Summary

Spoiler:

The first episode was about what I expected, though the fact that they devoted a third of the episode to song surprised me a little. As has been said, the seiyuu work was pretty good, and that's the main reason I watched and will be watching (for the time being at least) this show.

[Kaioshin Sama]

TEH HAWT! No seriously I seem to recall me and this title having some history but it might have really just been a really late night. Or is this the game where you get creepy cell phone messages from the arcade machines in Japan, begging you to come see them (waste your money). Or maybe that's Teh IdolM@ster or whatever, they all blend together after a certain point.

Originally Posted by potatochobit

i think navel should renew their drawing style a bit. all the series are starting to mush together.

Mush Together! Starting To! ARE! Really, you sure.

[Li Jianliang]

I enjoyed the songs in the beginning because I'm the type to spontaneously karaoke horribly in elevators.

Episode 1 Screen Captures & Summary

I did find the character designs boring since all of the girls seem to be based off of one starting model and the Tomohiro had way too much pseudo-masacara going. Then again, the original Navel artist is responsible for the designs of the girls, and I think she's the worse of the two Navel artists (responsible for Shuffle!'s Kaede, Primula, Sia, Mayumi).

I don't think I'll watch any more episodes since the art is turning me off... I'll still listen to the music that comes out of it, though, since a few of the songs are kind of good.

[Deathkillz]

oki just watched the raw...
8-10 mins of song...imo that is overkill >.<
i didnt find anything special with this start and it just bored me to hell...could also be the fact that i didnt understand wht was going on...something about a contract?
anyways ended up fast forwarding some of the parts cause i nearly fell asleep...but still i think ill give it 2 or so more ep before deciding to carry on or not seen as the drawing is really pretty