Not Tired of Idols Yet? Check out Ongaku Shoujo!

You should check out Ongaku Shoujo!

One fun genre to explore is idol anime, which has been a thing ever since university buddies Kawamori Shouji and Mikimoto Haruhiko brought their personal obsession of Japanese idols Matsuda Seiko and Nakamori Akina to life in anime form with Macross’ Lynn Minmei. From this point, and undying 2D idol was a thing, and it would go on become to become the backbone of the modern anime industry. The latest idol anime—some might argue it’s a cute-girls-doing-cute-things series with an idol theme—is called Ongaku Shoujo

It’s interesting to see the way the idol anime genre has grown and evolved over the years. It started out as an extension of 80s idol culture, with mostly male fans idolizing hyper-stylized 2D anime idols and being forced to buy products that featured their favorite idol on the box. Themes like Hatsune Miku-esque “virtual idols” was explored in Megazone 23 (a great series, which helped inspire The Matrix). The genre took a back seat to magical girls in the 90s, but when the game-and-anime crossover profit model was invented (later giving way to mobile gacha games), the genre exploded with 2005’s Idolmaster, setting the stage for big changes. Despite the usual Rule 34 sexualizing by male fans (ahem), plenty of girls become fans of idol anime, including my daughter and all three of J-List’s artbook buyer’s daughters. These are the kinds of fans Ongaku Shoujo is aimed at.

Ongaku Shoujo is the story of Hanako, a girl (presumably of Japanese descent, from her name and convenient ability to speak the language) who travels from America to Japan, where she encounters an idol unit called Ongaku Shoujo (Music Girls). She falls in love with the group and wants to help out some way, so she joins as a staff member, assisting with scheduling and clerical work. Most interestingly to me is the way the main character doesn’t want to become an idol herself, but a staffer assisting the other idols, which must appeal to some female fans who would secretly like to be involved with an idol group but remain in the background.

Should you watch the new Ongaku Shoujo? If you like the CGDCT genre shows like Slow Start and Is The Order a Rabbit? then by all means, give Ongaku Shoujo a watch!

J-List always stocks the best doujinshi from Japan, with new offerings from your favorite artists and doujin circles in stock. We made another big update recently, so browse the new books here. We especially love the new Fate/Grand Order book by Haruhisky.