Streaming: HIDIVE
Episodes: 10
Source: Manga
Episode Summary: Yuya Niyodo is one half of the male idol group ZINGS, though the effort he brings to the table is probably more around 5%. As an attractive man who got into the industry in order to make “easy money,” the fact that his manager, fans, and group member Yoshino expect him to put in some effort is making Yuya rethink his choices.
As he sits on the cusp of being fired, he notices a young woman sitting next to him on a bench. But this isn’t just any young woman – her name is Asahi Mogami, a famous idol who died a year ago in a tragic accident. As a ghost she can no longer perform for her adoring fans, but perhaps with the help of Yuya, who has a very alive body, Asahi can relive her performing days one last time. When Asahi’s influence causes Yuya and ZINGS to have their most successful performance to date, Yuya invites Asahi to keep their arrangement in place indefinitely.
Impressions: While I think that many jobs in this world can be adequately taught and learned, there are just some that rely heavily on personality and temperament, and being a performance artist is one of them. I used to play the flute – I was in a concert band at my high school and also did solo competitions for a while, and no matter how much I built my skills and practiced my music, I never, ever got over the anxiety and dread of being up in front of an audience. My teacher scolded me, saying it was because I didn’t practice enough, but now that I’m much older I realize that it just takes a certain mindset to deal with those nerves that I’ll likely never have, and that’s fine.
What’s not fine is assuming that the performance industry, which does to some extent rely on attractiveness in addition to skill, is a way toward making easy money. Yet, this is an assumption I see repeated all over the place almost all the time. While we might not necessarily agree that “Instagram famous” people really deserve their fame and fortune, the reality is that cultivating that kind of image is a lot of work in-and-of-itself (it’s just not the kind of work that society tends to respect for various reasons I won’t go into here). In any case, while the idol industry itself is an ethical mud pit, you’d have to be a real tool bag to seriously claim that being an idol is easy work.
The juxtaposition between Yuya’s jerkiness and Asahi’s devotion to her work as an idol serves this episode well, providing a lot of conflict and humor while also proving the point that embodying a fantasy for other people requires the right mindset and a devotion to the job. While I think it’s harmful to assume that an idol should be “on” all the time (they’re real people who should be allowed to live their real lives), it’s also harmful to assume it’s a job that anyone could do, because it minimizes the emotional labor that goes into it.
Anyway, this episode was a lot of fun; like many series with one main gag like this I wonder about the longevity of the joke. However, if Yuya shows some character development over time and manages to become less of a jerk, I think this could be a really pleasant, fun series.
Pros: I like that there’s some focus on ZINGS’ fans throughout the episode. Yuya, despite having no personality, has still managed to garner a small group on admirers, and their reaction to the transformation in his attitude is definitely a high point in the episode. I also think it’s very true-to-life in that, to quote the folks over at Discotek Media from one of their recent presentations, “ever anime is someone’s favorite” and so it must be the same with every idol (even the very weird ones).
Cons: There’s a long segment after the credits involving those very same fans, and while it’s fun to spend some time with them I think the segment goes on for much too long.
The idol performances are portrayed using very below-average CG. Not the worst, but definitely not very pleasant to look at. Because this is sort of a parody series I suppose the performances aren’t necessarily meant to be the focal points of the episodes.
Content Warnings: Brief description of a fatal car accident.
Would I Watch More? – This is definitely more on the “maybe” pile, though I definitely don’t feel like my time was wasted with this episode. It’s fun, but with a central gag that I’m not sure has a lot of longevity.