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Title Info
- seen: 1 of 1
- type: OAV
- grade: flawed
- source: fansub
- form: sub
- dur: 50
- made: 1987
- Review created: Tue May 29 11:45:43 EST 2001
- mod: none
Yeah, yeah, yeah....the music will never die. Even when the record companies hate the cool sounds, the true music'll break free... yeah, yeah, yeah. And if you feel a resonance with this then you just might enjoy this anime.
Synopsis
It's not a terribly complex story however. Basically To-y is the attractive, and properly `cool' lead singer for the band gasp. And it looks like they're pretty popular, because they've got a very solid fan-base...although one decidedly on the alternative (very alternative) side of the fence. They've also got a reputation for being pretty rough and aggressive, something largely confirmed when the lead singer slugs a smug looking audience member who refuses to `get' the music.
Naturally it turns out that this guy is no random member of the public. Indeed he's a famous, but somewhat manufactured, pop star with slick moves and the correct fan-base demographic. And his manager / producer, whose mastered the full evil record business mogul act, is also looking on. And, whether to revenge her star or out of anger that To-y will not play the game her way, she's determined to make sure that gasp never get their chance to be heard. But are the fans or the band going to stand for that?
Review
I've been careful not to give many spoilers there...but if you can't guess how it plays out then I'm honestly surprised. In all honestly to call the story simplistic is probably being overly generous. Even considering that it only runs for a bit less than an hour there still doesn't seem to be much content to keep you busy.
Does it make up for the lack of story in depth of character? Well, no it doesn't. All of the rock-stars are properly quiet, sombre and cool and fit comfortably into recognised rocker stereotypes. What's more there's not much dialogue in which we get to learn more about them. There's an attractive female, a recording star and To-y's cousin (and lover?) who acts as a link to get the story started (she mentioned gasp to the record exec) and then acts as a provider of fan service. And, for no logical reason I could determine, there's a hyper-active androgynous cat-girl who steals an awful lot of scenes. I suspect she was required to give some movement to what would have otherwise been a very static and silent anime.
In fact what takes up the time is lots of carefully staged, arty shots and sequences. There's also some `video-clip' like sequences, both when the bands are playing and at other times. In others words it's an anime with the sort of over-aggressive style and visual techniques seen in video clips. And this includes using this video clip derived style to do music video clips during the show. It's charmingly recursive, and at times there are some pretty nice scenes.
However there's also some problems. As mentioned the story is fairly basic and the characters pretty `cool' but not very interesting. Add into this the fact that the overly dramatic style shots can seem a bit artificial and you've got a problem. However even more serious is the curious lack of energy or pace that develops as a result. There's so much time spent on atmosphere that by and large very little happens. And it happens with such long gaps that the show feels either dreamy or slow moving depending on how generous you are. But the final blow comes from the music. Hey, it's a video about good music defeating bad music and it really wants to express the atmosphere and energy of the band. However the music is pretty abysmal mass-produced synth heavy stuff. So in the end both gasp and the idol end up sounding pretty similar...and neither of them sound that good.
Still, those who like looking at posing rock-stars (or barely dressed females I suppose) might also enjoy it. And some of the set piece scenes are actually quite attractive. It does some nice things with atmosphere, including ambient effects like rain, wind and such. Meanwhile the subtle linework and gentle coloring produce some attractive visual moments, there's even some clever camera-work and visual tricks. It's just a shame that so much attention is paid to this at the expense of the other elements that might have made this a much better anime. Especially considering that the `rock' segments should have been the heart of the show...but are instead the weakest parts. I saw it subbed and the voices were largely forgettable, the music ranges from average to bad.
Other Reviews
I found one review of this title, but it was only a couple of lines. It did mention that the manga was far superior. Barring that none of my regular sources have a review of this title.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:26 WST 2009