Kizuna no Allele

TL;DR This show would have been great if they'd kept it to their youtube channel. Trying to appeal to a huge base right out the gate was the biggest mistake - most foreign anime watchers are shonen watchers (see the crunchyroll demon slayer awards) with a smattering of people who enjoy other more common genres. Kaigai vtuber fans are often cringe and toxic....don't read chat in English usually because it tends to make my blood pressure go up. The negative reviews make sense because the people leaving them are 1) anime watchers who aren't into vtubers or 2) toxic kaigai niki's who hate on whatevervtubers arent their oshi or oshis friends The closest "genre" for this show to fit into would be idol.....but 1 song, albeit with lyrical variation, in a season, is not really acceptable for that genre. Every episode should ideally have a song or at the minimum each character should, in order to stand up in the idol genre. It is kind of a school slice of life also but there isn't really much emphasis put into the school portion other than a location for things to happen. Technically a portal fantasy but the real world side is again not explored in any real depth..... The VA's are great, though it is somewhat obvious from the awkwardness from all but Noelle's, that they are a little new to doing it. Fine for youtube but comes off a bit weird in an anime. I think they all gave solid performances despite that, but solid is not necessarily professional. The music is good but held down by being musically the same song every episode, every time. It would be fine as a vsingers original but it couldnt be the only song they ever sang, let alone 5 vtubers.....all singing the same song just with varied lyrics. I enjoyed the show, I enjoyed my time with it well enough despite a few frustrations. I like the characters as vtuber characters...a little less in their anime form since they feel a little hollow without chat interaction, but still they were not terrible. I find it hard to recommend this show generally, but there are a few people I know who I think might enjoy it for what it is, like I did.

If there is one thing I love and hate about Japanese culture, it's the advent of Vtubers a.k.a virtual YouTubers. Poised out of the alternative ashes of the still-popular Vocaloid Hatsune Miku to this day, it's with the world No. 1 Vtuber Kizuna AI that set the world on fire, creating a new generation of Vtubers with numerous companies spawning out everywhere to the scene of iconic ones like Hololive (my personal favourite Gawr Gura) and such. But if there is that one avenue that the Vtuber scene should NOT have touched, is anime, and we get the long-awaited Kizuna no Allele. Courtesy of the collaborationbetween Wit Studio and Signal.MD., with an unknown director and the all-too-familiar series composer Hitomi Mieno a.k.a Deko Akao writing the scripts for the idol wannabe show, I sincerely hope that this show would be the first AND last venture of Vtubers taking the anime world by storm, because let's face it: even if Japan's reception is lukewarm, absolutely NO ONE cares for this show at all everywhere else, yours truly included. As if a wannabe nobody wants to become just like Kizuna AI because of her fame and popularity, I'm (not) sorry to say that the ADEN Academy central characters of Miracle, Chris, Noelle, Riz and Quan, even if as a massive Vtuber fan, it's obscenely boring to watch them go about on the usual idol wannabe shticks that are prevalent on almost EVERY other idol-like show, with all bark and no bite, no substance to show for it. And if you hate Vtubers, this show has no lack of the same 3DCG interspersed view that's all too alike with watching them on YouTube, it does not make a difference at all even if at the cusp of utilizing another medium to do so to sell its music, which is repetitive at best. Let's just put it this way: only a certain level of people love idol shows (which I can understand why), but when the narrative of the "unique, stand-out" ones breaks down, who would ever remember them again as nothing but a footnote in the anime industry's list of wasted resources trying to market to the niche, only to risk it all to get no rewards at all for a financial loss. I always often say: "Don't blame the studio, but the people", but it's not like the financially strapped Wit Studio had any other choice to not accept work, not after losing the big IPs to MAPPA and holding on to the small ones that don't do much for the studio either. But really, Wit Studio got themselves trapped in one small woo hah of a case, and this show is already an abject D.O.A failure before its arrival to appeal to everyone, that eventually appealed to no one. Easy pass. Nuff said.

A girl wants to become a kind of virtual idol and is met with some hardships on her way. Luckily, she finds other idol-in-training friends at her school to help her overcome her struggles! I liked this anime because it was easy to watch and just gives you a good feeling. The different performed songs are really good overall. There is character development which I really appreciate and the animations are nice to look at. Do recommend for people who enjoy watching idol animes in general or for those who are looking for something cute to watch from time to time!

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