English Dub Season Review: If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die

Based on the Ongoing Manga series by Auri Hirao, the show itself follows the antics of a rabid Idol fan by the name of Eripiyo who’s also she’s a huge idol otaku, specifically she follows a young aspiring pop idol named Maina from the singing 7-member underground idol group known as Chamjam. Maina doesn’t have many fans and is generally overshadowed by the other six idols within her group, however, Eripiyo works multiple jobs with enough money to make her purchases of Maina’s idol merchandise matter to the point that it somehow keeps Maina working which comes across as well-intentioned yet unhealthy and obsessive. Eripiyo alongside some other idol otaku fans often spends their days working hard to earn money to buy idol merch, following their every performance, and engaging in extremely embarrassing behavior just to get their respective idols’ attention in the hope of helping them achieve mainstream success.

Apart from most of the anime shows that took a break during the early portion of the Covid19 pandemic, we get this overly sugarcoated mess of a show that tries to put rabid fandoms in a positive and sympathetic light while attempting to spotlight both sides of the idol/otaku cultures. It’s also a celebration of this particular culture, and at times, an ugly exposé where obsession and greed become a prevalent part of the business model. It also does not shy away from the fact that idol otakus are grotesquely stereotyped as troubled maladjusted people who are manipulated and exploited by performers whose entire business model is bleeding dry a small group of obsessed lunatics who blindly worship them like big-time celebrities, and yet it does not diminish the fact that idol fans do indeed find meaning, and at some level, personal fulfillment by voting with their wallets to show as they actually pay for the tangible value they wouldn’t be getting elsewhere. Jokingly, it’s like having an Onlyfans account but with extra steps…

The show tries to convey a positive message about how one special fan in your heart can change your entire life but there are other ways it could’ve handled it than comedic wacky mean-spirited jokes that often happen at Eripiyo’s expense and her rabid obsession overshadowing the focus. The series has some LGBT undertones, but it never goes all the way since the idols themselves have an image of purity to follow and Eripiyo is completely unaware that Maina actually likes her, in fact, Eripiyo throughout the entire show gets this delusional mentality that Maina is completely disgusted by her behavior as she should be but strangely remains naive which is supposed to come off as “innocent” or “pure” but it’s easy to notice her lack of care or concern for her one and only fan Eripiyo as all she could think about was why did Eripyo would get only one ticket for her handshake but never considered if she had a pretty shitty day which during the course of the series has happened quite often. While you can make the argument that comedy comes from some form of misery, it can also be painfully unfunny if catching on to the repetition of this show’s cringy mean-spirited humor.

From an artistic standpoint, while the animation of the well-animated dance scenes, catchy music, and the detailed backgrounds were easily the highlights of this superficial series, they deserved better. If anything this will probably make the animation team come off as unsung heroes because that’s the only redeeming quality this show seemingly has when it isn’t trying to be as cringy and badly-written as a Happy Madison comedy.