I woke up at the beginning of last weekend with a high fever, not really being able to do anything I just lay on the couch watching Netflix for the first hafe of saturday. ( not to different from my normal saturday ) After 2 season of law & order I went online to see if I could just download some new anime off nyaa torrents, didn't see anything that I really wanted to watch. Unfortunately it was then that my eye was trapped by a name i've been avoiding for 3 years. ( I hate to admit this but from 2007 to 2009 I was a AKB48 junkie ) Crazy thing about this however was the title "AKB0048" and it was a anime. I'd known that AKB48 had a anime but part of the recovery process is avoiding anything AKB48, that includes when Nana Mizuki dose tv shows with them.
I fully blame my high fever for my next actions, I downloaded the first 13 episodes of the show. Not being up to date with the newest AKB news ( not including the newest scandal with Sashihara Rino and her demotions to HKT48 ) Oh god am off the wagon! Yes I watched all 13 episodes in one day. As the show started I soon released why so many people hate this show, it's for hard core fans of AKB48. The idea behind the show is a mix of Macross Frontier and the movie Footloose starring Kevin Bacon.
Yes, just made a Footloose reference. In the future the human race is split in 2 groups, those who live in happy sunshine land with freedom and all that jazz and those who live under the"entertainment ban" they live under gray skys of death or complete urban shit holes. The difference between the two is so drastic it's funny.
As you can see crazy difference between the 2. So some 70 years in the future the Idol group AKB48 is not only still together but is now holding illegal concerts on the entertainment ban worlds. The group is now cald AKB0048 and all members inherited the names of past original members, in some cases names of some members have been inherited 13 times. Like all animes it focus around a group of happy young girls and bla bla. In the case of AKB0048 the 4 main girls attended a AKB0048 concert held on there home planet of Lancaster where entertainment is banned. As the 4 small girls watch the show there so moved that they make a promise that all 4 of them will someday become members of the idol group.
And 4 years later the 4 girls make there dream come true, ok not that quickly they first get shoot at and have missiles fired at theme, than only to become junior members and not part of Team A ( hopefully no one knows what Team A is ) So they become the 77th group of understudies. Am not going to summarize the entire show just beginning.
I found my self actually really liking the show even if in some parts the cheese factor was at max. As a former fan of AKB48 the main part that got me was the music, plus all the fan-boy name dropping ( stop kidding my self am still a fan). The music in the show ranges from old favorites to new stuff, like the song "beginner". Also all the understudies are voiced by actual members of AKB48 and the main members of AKB0048 are voiced by veteran voices actress. By veteran I mean some of the biggest names in the industry, Yukari Tamura and Yui Horie just to name 2.
Senbatsu Members (Successors)
Yūko Ōshima the 9th
Voiced by: Akemi Kanda
Minami Takahashi the 5th
Voiced by: Ryoko Shiraishi
Sayaka Akimoto the 10th
Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi
Tomomi Itano the 11th
Voiced by: Kana Ueda
Yuki Kashiwagi the 6th
Voiced by: Yui Horie
Haruna Kojima the 8th
Voiced by: Mamiko Noto
Sae Miyazawa the 10th
Voiced by: Mai Nakahara
Mayu Watanabe Mark 3
Voiced by: Yukari Tamura
Atsuko Maeda the 13th
Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro
Kenkyūsei (Understudies)
( All voiced by members of the Real AKB48 and her sister groups )
Nagisa Motomiya
Voiced by: Karen Iwata ( AKB48's Team 4 )
Chieri Sono
Voiced by: Mayu Watanabe ( AKB48's Team A )
Orine Aida
Voiced by: Sayaka Nakaya ( AKB48's Team A )
Yūka Ichijō
Voiced by: Amina Sato ( AKB48's Team K )
Suzuko Kanzaki
Voiced by: Sawako Hata ( SKE48's Team KII )
Sonata Shinonome
Voiced by: Kumi Yagami ( SKE48's Team S )
Makoto Yokomizo
Voiced by: Mao Mita ( NMB48's Team M )
Kanata Shinonome
Voiced by: Haruka Ishida ( AKB48's Team B )
Mimori Kishida
Voiced by: Sumire Sato ( AKB48's Team B )
Megumi Wanibuchi
Voiced by: Momoka Kinoshita ( NMB48's Team M )
OK, Am more then sure am off the wagon.
Also in the show is the future WOTA, yes AKB's crazy fans are there with there chanting and there missile glow sticks and Itasha robots !
After reading other blogs, the show has a massive wave of negative reviews. Am not surprised this is a show almost completely amid at WOTA and other hard core AKB fans. The show is not friendly to the anime fan who dose not have a almost stocker knowledge of the crazy culture of AKB48, Also at times the show my have taken a few ideas from Macross Frontier. ( by that I mean it seems like AKB jumped Ranka and stole her phone ) don't take my word for it just look.
the alien / stage lighting "Kirara" is the first pic the 2nd is Ranka Lee's phone.
So yah kinda a ripoff, but hay what's not this days. There's other examples of it's similarities to Macross F Like the over done CG concerts parts and the power of song to change the hearts of the people. The main point of this post was to get my opinion of the anime across and as a fan ( yes am probably going to start buying there stuff again ) I don't think I can give a fare opinion but all the people who said the show sucks also say they don't like idol culture to start with. In closing, If your a fan of AKB48 you'll probably love the show and the overly used characters types and if your not a fan you'll see the show as a steaming bag of shit. Love it or hate it, your choice but give it a chance.
Also my next post will have my updated torrents.
