Okay, finished the first season.
The studio understandably didn't have the budget necessary to do much of anything, which is the eternal downfall of Yamakan's ambitions, and boy was he ambitious. While most of the time, you're looking at sub-par animation, sometimes out of seemingly nowhere you get certain moments, or entire scenes if you're lucky, of detailed and skillfully crafted art. At times, Yamakan also puts in his distinctive tryhard flavor in the storyboarding that I just love to eat up, like I'm watching budget Idol Eva. I miss his direction.
Something I admired along with the fact that it wasn't all CG dancing, most of which was well-done, was the fact that when they all jumped, it wasn't in sync. They all rose and fell at different paces if you go through it frame by frame. Also, when all the girls were on screen, they all were doing different things, regardless of what's going on in the foreground. They all seemed to be alive, and we could have seen more of this if they had the budget to keep animating non-critical things. When they cried at the end, they all broke down separately and you could see different emotions flashing before them individually. This is the mark of a director who really cares for his characters, because he autistically calculated how each character would cry in this situation, who would cry first, etc. so that it would fit with their characters.
Although, I can't keep praising it. There's so much wrong with it but I just want to keep cheering it on because I know how difficult it was for the studio, and how passionate Yamakan was.
But then there's stupid fucking things that happen like HOW THE FUCK was there a cable just lying around on a stage that the top idols in the country were going to be performing on in a minute? This whole thing was a time waster, added literally nothing but pointless 20 second drama, lasted through a cliff hanger, made no sense, and was at the end of the show, leaving a foul taste in your mouth right before the big final dance, which was very well executed. When Yamakan wants to shine, he shines, but when he makes dumb decisions, god damn are they dumb. And why the hell was the scene of Yoppi tripping animated so damn well? The sound, too, was on point. God damn, if only the entire show was like that. I miss the movie.
On that note, on to the movies.