The monster Winter 2021 anime season rages on, giving fans more anime than they could possibly hope to watch… while anime bloggers like me are here to help you separate the wheat from the chaff. We’ve got five idol anime series this season — Idolls, Wixoss Diva(A)Live, I★Chu: Halfway Through the Idol, Gekidol and Idoly Pride. Which idol anime series is worth your valuable time? Keep reading to find out!
Your 2021 Idol Anime Scorecard! The Bad!
Let’s get this party started with Idolls: IDOL Survival. It’s a 100% CGI-based anime about idols who sit around their room talking about how hard it is to make it in the idol world… with a talking Tiki doll that gives them advice for some reason. I assume the “anime” is based on a mobile game, but the name is so generic I can’t find information on it using Google.
As you can guess from my frequent ranting about trying to replace hand-drawn character animation with “cell-look CGI” to save money — because those animators just make so much money, you know — I’m not a fan of this approach. I don’t know why I’m perfectly okay watching a Vtuber or characters in a video game rendered with CGI, but when it’s sold to us as anime, it trips my “uncanny valley” trigger.
Peter’s CGI Hate-o-Meter Score: 5 stars. Kill it with fire.
Your 2021 Idol Anime Scorecard: the Pretty Good
Next up is Wixoss Diva(A)Live, the fifth anime series in the Wixoss card game series. It’s sort of an idol and magical girl anime hybrid, based around the card game.
When watching a new anime, I try to guess whether it’s an original work, based on a manga or light novel series, or if it’s connected to a popular social game. In the final case, you can usually tell right away because the budget is super-high, as the creators lavish money on the anime project to thank existing fans of the game and draw in new players, as well as to lower their taxes from all the money pouring in from the game. If you’ve watched the previous Wixoss series, you might enjoy this one.
Peter‘s CGI Hate-o-Meter Score: 0 stars. The animation is bright and colorful, the characters are cute, and the brief musical “performances” (which are part battles) are not low-quality CGI.
Next up we have I★Chu: Halfway Through the Idol, a male idol series that’s also based on a mobile game.
Are these kinds of idols, and the games they’re based on, popular in the West? Because the games aren’t available in English, and the anime series like these never seem to make much of a splash with fandom. Maybe the anime, which is full of quality husbandos for girls to obsess over, will become a surprise hit like Hamefura: My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! was.
Idol Anime Scorecard: The Good!
Next up is Gekidol, a high-quality idol anime that tricks us into thinking it’s about girls trying to become stage actresses. It’s a pretty fresh concept, following the story of Seria, a girl who is enthralled by a holographic stage performance she sees, causing her to join the Alice in Theater troupe. While it’s a show about stage acting, in the second episode they pivot to become more traditional idols in order to literally keep the lights on at their theatre.
Writing an overview of all the idol shows this season. Which are you following?
This is #Gekidol, a fresh idea about girls wanting to become stage actresses (and later, more traditional idols), which has an interesting approach…and surprise zombie episode, #AliceinDeadlySchool pic.twitter.com/jF4oeARj4N
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) January 20, 2021
I love it when studios go the extra mile to show their dedication to a project. The first episode is double-length, the second half being a bonus “play” the girls have made called Alice in Deadly School, about zombies invading the school. I thought it was a fun and fresh approach and helps this “idol anime” stand out from the crowd.
Peter‘s CGI Hate-o-Meter Score: 0 stars. The one performance we’ve seen has been properly hand-animated.
Finally, we’ve got… Idoly Pride, the series I’m personally enjoying the most. It follows Kohei, a Japanese high school boy who sits next to the ultra-cute Mana in class. One day Mana tells him her secret, that she wants to become an idol. She gets picked up by an agency but tells them that the only way she’ll work for them is if they hire Kohei to be her manager. Mana’s career progresses, and she’s ready to become the top idol in Japan!
And… that’s it. I can’t write anymore because of major spoilers. Trust me that this is a fun and charming show with a twist, and cute girls who will charm your heart. It’s also the most yuri-tastic show of the season so far, which is an instant win with me.
Peter‘s CGI Hate-o-Meter Score: 0 stars. The brief performances we’ve seen so far have been hand-animated and quality.
Thanks for reading this post on the best idol anime to watch in the Winter 2021 anime season. Got any feedback for us on this post? Tell us below or ask us on Twitter!
We love Japanese illustrator Kantoku, and carry all of his doujinshi, artbooks, and figures. We’re happy to report that his newest doujinshi, “SUKI” My Sister 2, is up and available for purchase on the J-List site now. You can also read a blog post about the book here!
