Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA - 01 March 23
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Summary:
Amami Haruka attends an Idolmaster Project audition in January and receives a letter the following month notifying her that she passed. Included with the letter is a shiny key-like object, but she accidentally loses it in a train station on her way to Tokyo. Fortunately, another girl picks it up and returns it to her on the train. Coincidentally, this girl - named Hagiwara Yukiho - is also someone who passed an audition, has the same shiny object, and is going to live at the same company dormitory. When they arrive at Tokyo, they end up not waiting to get picked up and instead get lost. Haruka remains upbeat and then gets to witness the launch of an iDOL into space from the middle of the city. However, the strong wind that blows back causes one of the kids nearby to notice that Haruka is wearing penguin panties. She gets so embarrassed by this that she hides behind Yukiho until they manage to find their way closer to the dormitory. Meanwhile, in space, Kikuchi Makoto pilots the Nebula iDOL to punch and destroy a large meteoroid. Each of the small fragments then fall to Earth, causing a beautiful meteor shower that Haruka and Yukiho are able to view from the Tokyo waterfront.
Haruka then notices that the object she’s carrying is shining again, but she turns her attention back to how cool that iDOL was. Unbeknownst to her, everything she says is being monitored by an iDOL that suddenly springs to life on that last comment. At the same time, a young girl jumps onto the railing in front of the two girls. She claims to know where Haruka is going and insists that Haruka go with her. Before Haruka can react, this young girl grabs her and jumps down towards the water, but a large iDOL emerges from the ground and sends them flying back into the air. A long, dark-haired woman nearby recognizes this iDOL as the Imber. She also has one of the shiny objects and when she clutches it, another iDOL - the Nubilum - activates from underwater. While this is going on, the Imber’s eyes glow red, and it allows Haruka to fall into its cockpit where she sees video of herself played back on the many monitors in front of her. The Nubilum soon arrives, and after it knocks down the Imber, the woman named Chihaya who called it out gets on board.
ED Sequence:
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ED: 「悠久の旅人~Dear boy」 (Yuukyuu no Tabibito~Dear boy) by Snow*
Watch the ED! Mirror 1
The ending feels rather plain to me in all respects (song and the animation that went with it), so my initial impression is that it’s nothing really special.
First things first: For those of you who may not know, The Idolm@ster is a popular game about raising a pop idol. What XENOGLOSSIA does it is that it takes those characters and makes them mecha pilots - the mecha are known as iDOLs and their pilots are Idolmasters. Add to that the fact that Sunrise’s Mai-HiME/Otome team is working on this, and I think you have a fairly good recipe for success. Or so I thought…
Officially, Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA doesn’t start airing until April 2nd. However, the Japanese website @nifty is holding a special web preview of the first episode for 1000 lucky people, and that became available today. I could only find the low quality version, so that’s what’s reflected in the screenshots - in other words, the raw was pretty bad. If you download the ED I uploaded, you’ll notice that it’s a higher quality, and that’s because it was ripped by someone off 2ch.
As for the episode itself, I was a bit disappointed because it ended up being a bit on the boring side. We get introduced to several of the characters, including the ones voiced by Yukana (R.I.F.F.A.), Horie Yui (Yukiho), Tamura Yukari (Iori), Koshimizu Ami (Yayoi), and Noto Mamiko (Naze). The voice talent is thus top notch and I felt that they fit their respective characters very well, though I do admit that Iguchi Yuka voicing Haruka had to take a little getting used to.
But anyway, I think the problem was that the episode didn’t really get going until the final few minutes when the R.I.F.F.A and the iDOLs show up. In comparison to Sunrise’s other recent popular works, this was had relatively less action than both the first episode of CODE GEASS and the first episode of Mai-Otome. Still, I can see a lot of potential in the series, so it’s way too early to write this show off. Plus, it’s very possible that the low quality raw soured me on the other aspects like the story, meaning that my feelings might change when I see a higher quality version of the first episode come April 2nd when it officially starts airing.
Shiro at 9:18 pm on March 23rd, 2007
So this hasn’t aired yet on Japanese TV? Interesting what they did with the first episode and the website — i wonder if thats a sign of things to come in the future.
jaalin at 9:49 pm on March 23rd, 2007
stay tuned for sanity graph #2, where i mercilessly and shamelessly ridicule omni’s choice for best anime of 2007
Chanin at 10:13 pm on March 23rd, 2007
OMG It’s Code geass season 2!!!!
kigg at 10:14 pm on March 23rd, 2007
I like cheese
Darr3n at 10:18 pm on March 23rd, 2007
It’s more like Code Geass + Mai Otome.
psychohare at 10:28 pm on March 23rd, 2007
looks interesting… too soon to conclude whether it’s good or not… will stay tuned to more of Omni’s reviews!
Rednights at 10:45 pm on March 23rd, 2007
Damn …. I honestly thought when I saw the title on first impression …
Xenogears ……. if you don’t know what that is … oh well … /cry
Shokkeru at 10:59 pm on March 23rd, 2007
Looks promising…
I wonder if they will make any references to the game at all (other than the characters).
Well at least it’s a mecha show and so I shall watch it. ^^
GStrike- at 11:11 pm on March 23rd, 2007
this looks aright i’m going to watch a couple episodes before deciding to keep watching or not…
shuffee at 11:58 pm on March 23rd, 2007
..I want it so bad!!! I do hope it turns out to be as good as (or better) than Mai-HiME
Hopefully the second episode will turn out better.
Gil at 12:35 am on March 24th, 2007
Never a fan of the Mai-Otome style character drawings.
Tokki at 12:58 am on March 24th, 2007
Awesome, if it’s by the Mai-Hime staff then I might keep up with it.But if a hot guy is involved then I will without a dobut. I knew the character designs look fimilar. XD
Zzz... at 1:06 am on March 24th, 2007
…um…hey…that train seems to be going a little too fast…shouldn’t it be slowing…
…wha…
…
…OMG…ITS GOING TO CRASH!!!
…RUNNNN!!!!!!!
kaplan at 2:44 am on March 24th, 2007
code geass+mai otome ? dont make me laugh. geass far better kind than this crap. this somethin like mai otome mobile suit edition. i hate girl heroes it makes me sick. idiotic girl pilots. go and save the world from bad guys. hah ! there is a line in my book:bleach+geass and the others.
Sakabato at 2:57 am on March 24th, 2007
Kaplan, if you don’t like it, just don’t watch, where is the problem?
bd_ at 3:05 am on March 24th, 2007
No insert songs
Though, I loled when I saw the laser hacksaw.
Mutio at 5:03 am on March 24th, 2007
Ah remembers me a bit of good old Suzumiya:
http://randomc.animeblogger.net/image/Idolmaster%20XENOGLOSSIA/Idolmaster%20XENOGLOSSIA%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2014.jpg
Don’t know if I’ll watch it. I’m a big Mai Otome fan but I had far enough from Mecha stuff. After Code Geass I don’t want to see mechas for at least 6 months..
@Omni: Low quality version can do a huge difference. I remember myself watching Kanon on DVD yesterday and god, that’s a another dimension O_o.
Baka-Kun at 6:53 am on March 24th, 2007
Which ones the lesbian? ’cause every Sunrise show has at least one lesbian in it.
Which is cool don’t get me wrong.
kaplan
“i hate girl heroes it makes me sick”
I love girl heros, can’t get enough of them, would rather watch girls than some stick-like over-emoing bishounen any day.
In fact if I ruled the world, I’d outlaw men and ugly people from appearing on any visual medium period, but that’s probably ’cause I’m a heterosexual man.
kaplan at 9:14 am on March 24th, 2007
@sakabato
of course i dont watch this. problem is someone says this shows smiliar with geass omg. come on
we r talking about GEASS .
tyllon at 10:25 am on March 24th, 2007
kinda like eva - shinji + KAWAII shoujo(s)… the more the merrier
by the way, the iDOL audition is looking for pilot or idol? or both???