

Heroines Run the Show: The Unpopular Girl and the Secret Task
ヒロインたるもの!〜嫌われヒロインと内緒のお仕事〜
Freshly graduating middle school, energetic 15-year-old Hiyori Suzumi moves from her coastal hometown to Tokyo, pursuing her dream of being a track and field runner. Unfortunately, as soon as her first high school year begins, she faces an imminent problem that ultimately causes her to find a part-time job to cover living costs. After searching through countless prospective workplaces, Hiyori stumbles upon a posting looking for event staff, to which she gets accepted against all odds. It is revealed that she will be working as a manager-in-training for LIPxLIP, a rising male idol group composed of Yuujirou Someya and Aizou Shibasaki—both of whom are coincidentally her classmates. Despite this shocking revelation, Hiyori is resolved to do her best with balancing her studies, her ambition, and most importantly, her role as LIPxLIP's attendant. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
Freshly graduating middle school, energetic 15-year-old Hiyori Suzumi moves from her coastal hometown to Tokyo, pursuing her dream of being a track and field runner. Unfortunately, as soon as her first high school year begins, she faces an imminent problem that ultimately causes her to find a part-time job to cover living costs. After searching through countless prospective workplaces, Hiyori stumbles upon a posting looking for event staff, to which she gets accepted against all odds. It is revealed that she will be working as a manager-in-training for LIPxLIP, a rising male idol group composed of Yuujirou Someya and Aizou Shibasaki—both of whom are coincidentally her classmates. Despite this shocking revelation, Hiyori is resolved to do her best with balancing her studies, her ambition, and most importantly, her role as LIPxLIP's attendant. [Written by MAL Rewrite]
ILove2Gaming
June 23, 2022
While a 9 might be a little high I chose to score it as such because I was genuinely surprised by my own enjoyment of it. I am so used to trashy romances where some protagonist has a harem of horned-up women so this was a severe change of pace for me and I enjoyed it very much. The protagonist is bubbly and very likable and the two male leads are also likable characters in their own ways. What really sold me was the way the two male leads actually come together and a realistic fashion, it's not your usual anime with a lazy "andthey lived happily ever after" ending but instead these two characters both grow to become better people in a realistic way. People have mentioned that this show should have mentioned how obsessed people really are with idols but I do think that it was addressed in a good way and I personally have no issues with this story. Even with the betrayal as some people are more forgiving than others and I believe that Hiyori is the type of person who would forgive someone like that. The show is a good watch and I stand by my high rating
bufi_
June 23, 2022
Ah… it happened again. Yet another good anime ruined by its last episodes. What can I even say? It is a shame indeed. Heroine Tarumono! is about a boyish, straightforward girl that goes to the city to pursue her dream, track and field. It just so happens that two of her classmates are actually a very popular idol group, LIPXLIP. She doesn't even know them, as she isn't interested in idols; but she needs money, so when she sees some agency's hiring announcement, she immediately applies for the post. Turns out, it was a recruitment for the manager-in-training for LIPXLIP! And, surprisingly, she was hired, dueto her ability to supervise them as their classmate. That marks the beginning of a tiresome, frustrating, but fun journey, during which new friendships blossom and new experiences are gained. Heroine Tarumono! showed potential in the beginning. It doesn't have the best characters nor the greatest story, but it has its own charm that makes everything else work. It feels innocent, relaxing, and warm. Well, that goes away quickly, starting from episode 10, when utterly unnecessary drama unfolds, and it is a pretty damn shitty one as well. It got slightly better in the last episode, but… it wasn't enough, at all. The conclusion to the events that took place in episodes 10 & 11 felt very rushed and shallow, just like the rest of episode 12, honestly. :spoilers start: Of course, we really needed some obsessed fangirl being a psychopath, harassing people just "for her bias", right? Because it seems like the writers wanted drama and an entertaining plot, but they couldn't think of another way. Well, spoiler incoming, they ridiculously failed. Ah, and the characters all act like some broken toys without a brain in those episodes as well. One of them gives some real shitty advice, like?? "Oh, well you have to think about the harasser's feelings, it doesn't matter what fucked up things they did they surely have a reason, you have to understand them". Oh my god… and the protagonist actually listened to that stupid advice, are you for real… Yeah, it is just that awful. :spoilers end: Well, aside from those atrocious episodes, I do have another bone to pick with this series: its misogyny. Specifically, the way it portrays women. They just had to draw the heroine's brows in a really weird manner just to show how "ugly" she is, didn't they? The idol main characters are also fine with her being their manager-in-training because they "can't see her as a girl" (because she is "ugly", energetic, and doesn't really care about her appearance). Like… oh my god it's 2022 do we really have to go through this? They don't seem to regard her as a girl for the whole anime (except for one episode). Aizou is openly misogynistic as well (and doesn't really have any character development when it comes to that).. The show does try to make him a backstory for it, basically to gain the sympathy of viewers and make them overlook this fact, but it just falls flat anyway. The characters work pretty well together. We have the competitive, hard-working, and sassy duo, paired up with the equally hard-working, righteous, and straightforward girl manager. Aizou looks like a playboy, yet hates girls; Yuujirou has the appearance of a gentle, timid teenager, yet has a very sharp tongue and doesn't really care about anyone. And the most important thing, they don't even like each other. This makes them always compete with each other, and scowl when they accidentally see each other in their free time. The saving grace in this situation is the heroine, Hiyori, who makes them closer thanks to her becoming their friend (though they are too stubborn to admit it). The girl's perseverance, energetic self, and kind nature manage to make them warm up to her, and that's pretty heart-warming to see. Though, the best character is Hiyori herself. Very average art. Not bad, though. As for the voice acting, I personally loved Hiyori's voice. The songs were pretty nice as well. For the most part, this anime is quite enjoyable. If we ignore the last 3 episodes, at least. If we don't, well... enjoyable until that point, and a big "why?" after. I recommend the first 9 episodes, especially if you are into idol anime (obviously). (Ratings: story: 6; art: 5.5; sound: 7; character: 6; enjoyment: 6.5; overall: 5.7)
KANLen09
June 23, 2022
In the AniManga scene, there have been many musical labels and groups that have built their reputation on the musical repertoires which hardcore fans in Japan have crazed for them: popular franchises like Love Live!, BanG Dream! and the like. But if there's one group that stands out for the endless features that they can expand to that makes their repertoire so versatile, it's the Vocaloid music group HoneyWorks that has their famed song project that puts them on the worldwide map: the Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai: Ren'ai a.k.a Confession Executive Committee: Love Series that spans films, songs and now anime adaptations like this show. So first,to give you an idea of how this show came about: this is based off of the song of the same name (Heroine Tarumono! / 1% no Koibito) that was released on August 26, 2020 as a single from Inori Minase (which also is the VA for the central Heroine in this show: Hiyori Suzumi) and Toshiyuki Toyonaga (which his character is also friends with the central male idol group duo LIP×LIP), that tells the story of the New First Year student group that's separate from the 2 anime films produced by Qualia Animation in 2016 that features the Third Year students (Zutto Mae Kara Suki Deshita a.k.a I've Always Liked You and Suki ni Naru Sono Shunkan o a.k.a The Moment You Fall in Love), and the TV series produced by Lay-duce in 2017 featuring the First Year students in Itsu Datte Bokura no Koi wa 10 Senchi Datta. a.k.a Our love has always been 10 centimeters apart. The whole HoneyWorks ordeal is that everything and everyone is linked in one way or another, yet can be taken in its own universe altogether. Looks and sounds confusing? Because it is meant to be taken that way as part of an eclipsed project. However, if you're just talking about Heroine Tarumono! alone, this is much easier to digest and understand it as its very own source material (just as is with any other HoneyWorks project), with the only thing linking to it being the main song and the songs released on YouTube that come in at certain points thereafter explaining the background details portrayed in the once again Lay-duce produced anime. And as someone whom have watched the entire series (and yes, that includes the 2020 project film Kono Sekai no Tanoshimikata: Secret Story Film that features LIP×LIP's Yujiro Someya (VA Koki Uchiyama) and Aizo Shibasaki (VA Nobunaga Shimazaki) that's made to commemorate HoneyWorks's 10th Anniversary), I can safely say that the HoneyWorks's "Love Confession" series is still going strong with its new generation of the character cast being able to make its own splash to appeal to existing fans and some whom are new to the large universe. In Heroine Tarumono!, it's the case with the central Heroine Hiyori "Hiyoko" Suzumi who's a countryside girl, who then moves to Tokyo to pursue her dream of being an athlete in track and field despite her lackluster familial circumstances of being a well-knitted but poor family. And just to survive another day by taking odd jobs that would help her family to live better days ahead, one offer came up as the most lucrative: a manager-in-training job that pays handsomely, but the role is dealing with up-and-coming male idol duo LIP×LIP. So being a nobody in school that's surrounded by the idol duo Yujiro and Aizo to the extent of hatred for their nonchalant behaviour and not knowing anything about the life of idols, what's there to lose for Hiyori while supporting her athletic dream? And so, together with her friends of Juri Hattori and Chizuru Nakamura, picking up this apprentice manager will start to change Hiyori's life of her perception of idols, what it means to be one and how far the extent will she go to be treated like an actual Heroine in their lives. If you know anything about the life of idols, they're not a smooth-sailing bed of roses, harbingering from concerts to private lives (say, in school) that even their presence will cause hype-levels of commotion just by being physically "close" to them. And especially for the staff of people managing these high-profile idols, they have it bad when there's bad press ranging from publicity issues to the worst of the bunch: extreme cases of stalking. And being a manager-in-training, Hiyori has to master all of these while keeping this work as a secret, lest that people find out and start to publish propaganda about her converging with popular idols and make this the stereotypical overblown drama that is so prevalent in Japan. The steadfast Hiyori being frenemies with the LIP×LIP duo Yujiro and Aizo, while juggling between the athletic dream she's been chasing, and being the unpopular girl running the secret task, it's a great fit for Hiyori's character being the Heroine of this story that Runs the Show all by herself, that no matter the endless melodrama adversaries beating her down like strong currents of rain and thunder, she would always find a way to press on through and turn the situations around, even when it seems tough. A hardcore girl that can be air-headed and clumsy, but protects her friends and does her best what she can do, that to me, is the mark of a Heroine. Having staff members like producer Shunsuke Saito, scriptwriter-cum-series composer Yoshimi Narita and music composer Moe Hyuuga on this since they have the expertise on the HoneyWorks song project franchise is almost a given if the source needs to stay true to its origins, and for the most part, Heroine Tarumono! did what it was advertised to be: the HoneyWorks song project tie-in series that in all honesty, was not great, but good as the adaptations come in delivering the romantic youth aspect of things. And it should be said that Lay-duce is often the representative studio that most idol-related shows nowadays reside in to get produced by, that the presentation is certainly as good as it looks for being an idol show that focuses on the glitz and glamour of its premise. Even the songs ranging from the OST, insert and special ED songs are what you would expect of a HoneyWorks Vocaloid project that's good and memorable for the most hardcore of fans. It's this aspect that helps keep HoneyWorks relevant to the masses, no matter what it may come up in this huge musical project in the future. Sure enough, I'd doubt that this show would be the last of the HoneyWorks universe, but if it is, it definitely went out with a good bang.
PixelB
June 23, 2022
Wow. Two anime based off of music videos this season. Both of terrible quality. Plus, both adaptations are from creators that create Vocaloid songs. Which is also the only reason I watched them both. Honeyworks is pretty good at creating songs, but that doesn't really translate into making good anime. Everything is half baked in this show. Think to yourself for a moment here: what exactly was the focus here? Characters? Barely enough. Maybe a deep social commentary on stalkers? Not really, more like a passing theme and shallow plot point entice the viewers. Maybe the struggles of the idols? Yeah...not really that too. This show doesexactly what I hate about showbiz shows. First of all, despite being still emerging in the scene, there's basically no focus at all on the two idols roadblocks in the showbiz industry. I guess you sometimes will see training montages of them, but other than that, the only problem the idol duo face are external. Oh no, the manger messed up so I have to cover for her. Oh no, I'm pissed at having to go to the school my CEO forced me to go. Oh no, I'm being bullied by industry experts :(. Despite showbiz being only trait about Aizou and Yuujirou that makes them different from a generic high schooler, the show really doesn't do a good job at honing in on that attribute. Despite the entire premise of the show being about idols and being in showbiz industry, with even the female lead, Hiyori, being their manager, you get basically no info on the projects that they're working on or the struggles they could be potentially going on. This is a recurring theme. Hiyori's personality and character profile fits a comedy more than a more serious melodramatic show. Like wow, I'm used to high voices in anime, but Hiyori has an annoyingly high voice. And I just looked through Inori Minase's VA roles, and while I don't really have any recollection or care for any of the characters she voices, the producers of this show deliberately made her voice as annoying as possible. Plus, Hiyori just fits the personality of someone from a comedy like Ika Musume. She's naïve to the point of being a child sometimes. When Yuujirou and Hiyori first meet, his complaint of her is very valid. Why the hell would you say out loud in a classroom that he's been involved with the police? Or like, Hiyori will cry at the slightest thing. Can't find first year classroom? Cry, and act like she's just been saved from a fire when someone randomly gives her directions. Haha, isn't it so funny when she's screaming "NO FIGHTING," and she trips? haha wow, I'm definitely not going to get tired of that shit. Oh, but let's also give this character with the personality of a 12 year old kid straight out of a comedy show sad circumstances. She's like, so tough, having to work her living expenses. Damn, it's so endearing when the idols take pity on her since she's struggling with school. Except that too, isn't a recurring theme. It just passes and goes, the problems of her living circumstances getting less and less important as the show goes on. Don't forget Hiyori loves running! Since that's half her personality, we're totally going to be seeing her run a lot, practice with her teammates, and all that jazz, right? It's totally not going to be tucked in a forgotten corner in favor of melodramatic stuff, right? Lastly, the whole stalker situation. Do people think that this is how accurately a stalker is shown? It reminds me of someone like Sarutobi Ayame from Gintama, or Sanae from Ika Musume for how trivial it actually is. There's no confrontation from the actual idols themselves, which is interesting. There's no consequences. There's no actual creepy atmosphere about the stalker. There's nothing crazy. It's as if the only reason a stalker was introduced to the story was to make yet another forced melodramatic situation on Hiyori. For the lack of consequences and the easy wrap-up of the entire stalker situation, I imagine that this encourages stalker behavior more than anything. Well, since the only thing that happens to a stalker is a slap on a wrist, then why don't I do it too? Like haha, what the hell, do people actually think this does anything? It doesn't make the viewer uncomfortable, it's not creepy or disgusting nearly to the degree that it should be. There's a load of passing themes, plot points, and character development that it's no surprise most of the things mentioned in this show are shallow and lack any substance.
thebluedash
June 24, 2022
This final impression will spoilers. I'm hiding the name of someone on purpose. The last 3 episodes of “Heroines Run the Show: The Unpopular Girl and the Secret Task” completely ruined the show for me. I used to have the show at a 7/10, I enjoyed it for the most part. I loved seeing Hiyori slowly develop with Aizo and Someya. However, in the last 3 episodes, they introduced the whole stalker arc which isn’t bad on its own, but the way it’s handled is absolutely abysmal. Essentially they victim-blame Hiyori for getting stalked, having her privacy invaded and reward the stalker. The stalker has shown nosympathy towards Hiyori, even when they seemingly felt bad, they felt bad for harming their precious idol group, not their friend. The whole speech about trusting your fans and not finding the culprit was also incredibly stupid. Stalking is a crime and the way they handled the issue is inherently messed up. A stalker is genuinely a horrible person and the treatment of her sends the message that this type of behavior is okay when it’s absolutely not.
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