Otome Animes: Summer 2016

In this post I'll be covering the 2 Otome Animes which are being showed this season: B-Project, and Tsukiuta. Both of them are Idol-type Otome Animes, and I've been eyeing the both of them, in hope that one day they'd be turned into anime, ever since I found out about them.

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B-PROJECT: Kodou＊Ambitious

B-project follows the point of view from the female led, who is a new employee appointed by the CEO himself for her to manage the group. She holds a very special talent for music, and is able to tell by hearing, despite not having gone through any education in that field.

The grouping follow the current idol trend in Japan - A huge group that is being divided into smaller groups. All together, we have 10 people.

So we have the first group called "MooNs" which consist of 5 of the members.

(from the right to left)

1. Tsuhiro Nome - V.A. Okawa Genki
2. Kzuna Masunaga (leader) - V.A. Uemura Yuto
3. Hikaru Ousari - V.A. Morikubo Showtaro
4. Mikado Sekimura - V.A. Masuda Toshiki
5. Momotarou Onzai - V.A. Kakihara Tetsuya

The 2nd group is a Duo called "Kitakore". (Idk if this was supposed to be a pun...) But I think they just joined the 'kita' from "kitakado" and the 'kore' from "korekuni" (man this is so suggestive).

And we have double 'Daisuke'.

(from the right to left)

1. Tomohisa Kitakado - V.A. Ono Daisuke
2. Ryuuji Korekuni - V.A. Kishio Daisuke

And the last group is a trio called "THRIVE".

(from the right to left)

1. Goushi Kaneshiro - V.A. Toyonaga Toshiyuki
2. Yuuta Ashuu - V.A. Hanae Natsuki
3. Kento Aizome - V.A. Kato Kazuki

There are some that most people would have already known from their pass history in Otome anime / Drama CDs (namely - Morikubo Showtaro, Masuda Toshiki, Kakihara Tetsuya, Ono Daisuke, Kishio Daisuke, Hanae Natsuki).

The one to look out for is definitely the double Daisukes (Kitakore duo), having one of the 2 most popular otome voice actors in a duo is a killer. When I first saw their album cover, it really caught my eye and I was seriously cursing why it wasn't an anime instead; especially because of the visuals. Now that it's an anime... I feel that I can rest is peace.

As for MooNs, most people would probably know Uemura Yuto as the voice actor who played Atsushi from Bungo Stray Dogs. He did a pretty good job in that anime, and I'll definitely be looking forward to his role in this anime, alongside Morikubo-san who will steal all the spot light where ever he is (and who is also in Uta no Prince).

In THRIVE, I definitely favor Goushi, mainly because Tosshi (Toyonaga Toshiyuki) is his voice actor. In most Otome or any anime-related roles, he is more known to play the feminine character due to his high-pitched voice. But as of recent, he has been getting more and more roles for the "rough" and "rebellious" type of characters, and boy does he sound super good in those roles. Definitely opening up my ears for this role.

As for Katto Kazuki, he is known to be as the person who had acted in one of the Kamen Rider series, and specialized more in stage plays, he doesn't have a lot of known anime roles, so I'm definitely curious as to how he would sound like.

I think the plot seems quite similar to Uta no Prince, with the main female lead having some sort of special talent that helps the idol groups in their activities and fame. But unlike Uta no Prince, this anime doesn't really have a proper plot line, and probably just follows the idea of it being a show about 'idols' and fan services.

Though I'd really like it if they went into deeper into the different technical terms and logic in the idol world, I feel that they would only be slightly touching the surface of it. And like all Otome animes, I won't be expecting much from this anime.

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TSUKIUTA. THE ANIMATION

Tsukiuta starts by introducing the characters performing their song, like a TV commercial. Tsukiuta uses 3D animation for their performance scenes.

So basically there are 2 separate groups (although they don't seem to be very separated), namely Six Gravity and Procellarum, and they both have 6 people in their groups.

The first and main group is called "Six Gravity"

(from the top right to bottom left)

1. Hajime Mutsuki (Leader) - V.A. Toriumi Kousuke
2. Haru Yayoi - V.A. Maeno Tomoaki
3. Arata Uzuki - V.A. Hosoya Hoshimasa
4. Aoi Satsuki - V.A. KENN
5. Koi Kisaragi - V.A. Masuda Toshiki
6. Kakeru Shiwasu - V.A. Kaji Yuki

The second group is called "Procellarum".

(from the top right to bottom left)

1. Shun "Demon Lord" Shimotsuki (Leader) - V.A. Kimura Ryouhei
2. Kai Fuzuki - V.A. Hatano Wataru
3. You Hazuki - V.A. Kakihara Tetsuya
4. Yoru Nagatsuki - V.A. Kondou Takashi
5. Iku Kannazuki - V.A. Ono Kensho
6. Rui Minazuki - V.A. Aoi Shouta

Other than Kakihara Tetsuya and Masuda Toshiki who are in both shows, their quite a different set of voice actors. On the whole, Tsukiuta has a more number of popular voice actors (pretty much most of them you would have seen or heard before somewhere).

In Six Gravity, we have Maeno who was in Uta no Prince, similarly to Morikubo, he was also in the "senpai" group in Uta no Prince, along side Aoi Shouta. Though the character he is playing in this show is a totally opposite character from the one he played in Uta no Prince.

We also have Toriumi Kousuke who was also in Uta no Prince's main team (although he only appeared in the 2nd season). This time round he is also projecting a different image.

Other than these 2, we also have Hosoya who is also projecting a very different image from his usual characters. While KENN, Masuda and kaji are about the same type of characters they usually play.

In Procellarum, we also have 2 voice actors who are pretty much the kings in the world of Drama CDs - Hatano Wataru and Kondou Takashi. Very versatile, and can pretty much pull off most characters.

Then we also have the all famous, and all rounder Kimura Ryouhei, who is in charge of the leader role, though I would like to see him in a more childish character some time.

I feel that in both anime, Kakihara plays the more quiet characters, though for B-project, his character is a little more emotionless-type, while in Tsukiuta, he plays the shy-type.

Ono Kensho is also starting to gain more popularity on the Otome-side, and is starting to get more hyper characters. I felt that he has improved a lot since the last time he did an hyper character. Definitely looking forward to his improved voice acting.

Last but not least, the main reason why I had my eyes on this, was because of Aoi Shouta. I really love his voice, and I'm definitely all in for his singing. He also played in Uta no Prince as an emotionless character, which is similar to this character (although this character is human, not robot). I'm probably just biased, but... HIS HAS BEEN REALLY CUTE SINCE THE FIRST SCENE GOD DAMN IT!!!

So this story, unlike most Otome story, doesn't have a female lead role (at least not yet). It starts out when a female fan had her younger brother go to their hand shake event for her, because she was sick in bed. After which he actually bumped into the idols in backstage, where he got lost at. He thought they were staff members, and was helped by them.

The 3 idols later than went to spend some time with him before the hand shake program started. Which only then did the young brother realize that they were idols. After this incident, he began to start liking them.

In terms of story line, even though they both suck (like how all otome animes all do) I feel that Tsukiuta had a lot more impact to it, and it felt like there was a more solid story line compared to B-Project, though I don't really like the 3D animation, Tsukiuta's song had a lot more impact.