Idol Jihen

No show this season screamed "Wasted Potential" more than Idol Jihen. Wait!.. A show about idol politicians has wasted potential? Believe it or not yes it does. In fact, I'd say Idol Jihen had all of the ingredients to make it great. However, it had neither the talent nor the drive to actually get there. Like most people when I read the premise of the show I wasn't hopeful. It seemed like a shallow idea made purely to make a "unique" idols show when really it was just going to be another idol show. Why would idols become politicians? What sense did that make? And episode1 did nothing to change my opinion. There was way too much telling instead of showing, and the characters and its setup just didn't seem that interesting. As it was it was nothing special. But then Episode 2 happened and I saw hope. In that episode Natsuki sees the trash during her skydive, which was admittedly sorta pointless and silly, and has a vision of it being art. And so the unwanted and unasked for trash site was now turned into a place for the villagers and whomever to decorate and turn into art. And I was actually amazed. Here they provided a solution that improved everyone's quality of life while also keeping in line with the inspirations and characterization of Natsuki. I would find it hard to believe a politician would see the beauty in a dump site. However, a young idealistic idol could see that same trash and see something greater from it. See the potential of entertainment and joy that could be gathered even from something unlikely like that. I then could see the good that Idol Jihens could do. They were entertainers, moulded with a different mindset. They were out to listen to the cries of the people and give them joy and happiness. They might not have been the most political savvy, but they had the heart and a unique perspective, one that could make great things happen. They could bring a populist message to a diet that clearly needed one. However, there were some flaws in this. Politics is a nuanced field. As much as we'd all like to say that we have the answers there are pros and cons to every solution. There are few things which are slam dunks. While I am fine with the treatment of the Ryogai Party as corrupt I feel they are often too corrupt and not believable enough. Some of the plots are assinine what they try to do. Sometimes it's not even for profit but because of they got slighted. It makes it very hard to see the Idols as anything but 100% correct, which is detrimental to the story. Still as a feelgood story where we see the Idol's win and create positive change it worked. It wasn't well written but it was pleasant. At least was. Then they introduced the climatic plot. And here is where the show really fell apart. The problem was all of the nice changes and progress that the Idols made in the earlier episodes were nonexistent in the later episodes. Rather they were focused on strife. Now while strife is important in a character arc, the problem was the characters were never the strong point of Idol Jihen. They were passable when being used to make a point, but failed when being stood up on their own. They certainly weren't worth five episodes worth of heavy plot. To make it worse the plot was terribly constructed. It feels like someone looked up how a traditional narrative should work and forced Idol Jihen to fit into that structure without checking to see if it worked or not. Some of the plot points that come up in that section are ridiculous and unbelievable. They technically work under normal narrative rules but just don't fit in with the show and its structure what so ever. Not to mention the plot arc goes on for way too long, especially for something they're not particularly good at writing. The other big issue I find is this plot feels like a stark difference from the beginning. Before they seemed untouchable while in this later plot they're always on the defensive, and are more in a position of peril. To me, these two moods don't go together well. If this show was supposed to be more balanced and more of a struggle that struggle should have appeared earlier on with more nuance. If it's supposed to be a happy show, then that should have held through for longer, and had the climactic plot shortened with less hinting or chances towards strife. I feel like either of these decisions would have helped the show, but rather since they went halfway it feels like it has less of a place, and fits too close to a boring cliche narrative when it could have been so much more. The art style of the show is pretty nice but the CGI in it is pretty bad. Being an idol show the music is pretty good. That said neither are strong enough to carry the show, but they do both help add to the mood. Idol Jihen's lack of nuance and unsupported faith in conventional narrative structure helped turn what could have been a great show into a bad one. They gambled away their unique traits for their characters and story, but neither of which were worth helping. Had they done it the other way around, I think this would have been so much better. This show never had the best characters but it didn't need to have them. Natsuki was a perfectly fine tool to promote populist change and invoke interesting methods of getting that change. However, as a vocal point she fails. The show had some unique charm that could have sold it, but instead it sold those charms to make a crappy narrative.

STORY: Dialogue: Contains politics and music coming together into one plot. Each episode involves the main characters travelling all over Japan to help others and have a performance in the end. They also meet various members of Idol Dietwomen along the way. Relationships: Idol Dietwomen -- (aka women politicans/idols) small idol groups are affilated with each other. They have different ideologies and came from all walks of life, but they are working towards the same goal. Their connection to the people from various cities and fans are important to them because they are passionate to help them and bring smiles to them. However; when it comes toRougai Party... it's an ongoing battle that will never end... Design: It involves an Idol group called The Idol Dietwomen. They are constantly trying to prove themselves to the opposition (Rougai Party). By the looks of it... It is a battle of the sexes. The members of the Rougai Party mostly have males while the Idols are female-oriented. CHARACTERS: Hoshina Natsuki: to some she is known as the village idol. She lives with her grandmother. Energetic, happy and full of life. Onimaru Shizuka - previous member of the Sunlight party. Standoffish and distant on the outside. But on the inside she is happy and wants to continue pursuing her dream as an idol dietwoman. Sachie: Blond hair, soft spoken, funny, admires Natsuki's positivity, idol, & chairwoman of Heroine Party. OVERALL: The term Dietwomen is weird... This is the first time that I've watched a political theme anime. Plus, what I love about this anime is due to the fact that I can relate to it. The social/world issues such as poverty and inequality are relevant today in our society. I'm majoring in Interdisciplinary Social Science and my program consists of critiquing these aspects because we believe that we can implement change. And change is what the Idol Dietwomen are trying to do. They are using their brand as an Idol and politician to change the world for everyone.

I only watched it because the idea was so strange but at the same time is something that is already happening. Celebrities don't hold an political power cause they don't need to, just become famous and get twitter someone will listen to you. This anime takes the idea of idols and politics to a new level making it just fun. If you take it too seriously you're not going to enjoy it. Its a very cliche Japan try and make everyone into friends working together in a cute way. Once weird thing is that they are trying to hard to make each idol unique. Giving eachcharacter a faction and core belief, all different doesn't seem very realistic. They probably did that so they could have more eps.

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