OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Idol Project

Having nothing to do with Love Live, this 4-part OVA series was an original creation premiered during the mid-90's by Studio Ox. Idol Project wasn't the first anime to highlight the concept of Japanese idols, but it was one that specialized in them, not only on idol singers, but actresses, dancers, and musicians. Instead of it seeming like an anime version of a talent show, the OVA is a madcap sci-fi fantasy done in the spirit of the 90's anything goes genre where Japan would just go with whatever they thought might stick to the wall. This mainly worked well in Japan with the impressive list of voice actors they had working in it, the downside to which is that didn't really translate well to the American market. Media Blasters first released it on a pair of separate DVDS, and then later on a single collected DVD which is what it should have done in the first place as American's just weren't up to buying an anime with only half of a mini-series on it.

Set sometime in the future, Earth is now a utopia when the hit idol Yuri united the world through her charisma and talent, all the way to becoming president of the planet. While she's now in office, she set up a new generation called the Excellent Idols to fill in the different aspects of her message of peace. An audition for a new member of the Idols is being held, and the ambitious teenager Mimu wants her shot as the stars. This would be fine, except Mimu and the other six idols all get captured by aliens from another universe to take part in a survival course of idol tryouts featuring other idols from all over the cosmos. The story gets even weirder when after the competition, the idols each have to get new jobs to earn enough bread to make the trip back to Earth, which is made even more bizarre as a black hole to a different dimension opens swallowing up most of the other idol-bearing planets. The OVA carries on with this by just going into numerous insane scenarios.

Idol Project is not intended for American otaku, even ones hardcore into Japanese voice actresses. You would think that an anime focusing on idols would have more musical sequences in it, but the wannabe Mimu only gets to perform in the last few minutes of the series finale. The whole anime is primarily a sequence of brainless vignettes with no real direction or meaning to it. It mostly just goes from one weird character to another as they try to adapt to their constantly shifting alien environments. The idols are barely even characters instead more being like character stereotypes: the tough girl, the cute girl, the uptight girl, etc. You might find some of its spastic comedy attractive, but this is just a device used to stretch this 4-episode series that could have been at least only two episodes long.