DESCRIPTION

CAST

SPECIAL ComedyIdolm@ster Xenoglossia Specials
ANIME ComedyTHE IDOLM@STER
MANGA MechaIdolmaster XENOGLOSSIA

REVIEWS

• 

  flavortown

  60/100
  A hard sell even to the most dedicated IDOLM@STER fans.

  Background plot details for this anime as well as elements of The Idol Master (2011) follow.

  You're probably here because the premise of this anime was too absurd not to check out: a mecha spinoff of an otherwise grounded idol franchise. The execution that follows is a hard sell even to the most dedicated IDOLM@STER fans.

  Characters

  107 years prior to the story, the moon broke into three asteroid belts ("Konpeito") that now orbit the Earth. The asteroids themselves are referred to as Drops, classified by size with names like Lemon. The Drops that fall to earth are so frequent and deadly that the nations of the world have formed an organization called Mondenkind to destroy them before they make impact. Japan is forbidden from arming themselves with missiles to destroy the asteroids like the other countries, so they instead rely on giant mecha known as iDOLs to break the Drops into harmless fragments by punching them.

  

  Immortal Defender of Legortee(?)

  The main character is Haruka Amami, a teenager who attends what she thinks is an idol audition and is soon introduced to the iDOLs, becoming an... iDOL Master.

  The supporting cast includes Haruka's best friend Yayoi who works as an actual idol and is oblivious of Haruka's new job, fellow Masters Iori, Makoto, and Yukiho, iDOL technician Ritsuko, and the vice-director Azusa. Meanwhile, another organization known as Turiavita works in the shadows towards some unknown end.

  The iDOLs have minds of their own, and the Masters are selected based on their potential to resonate well with them. They don't speak, communicating by playing back recordings on their pilot interface or even moving on their own or refusing to move. This usually just means their eyes light up as a positive response. Regardless, a large focus is put on the characters' relationships with iDOLs, with Haruka and her partner iDOL Imber taking centre stage.

  If you're wondering if this is a good place to jump into the Idolmaster franchise, it's probably the worst way to start. Xenoglossia came out as the very first IM@S anime four years before The Idol Master and only two years after the franchise began, so the cast of 765 Production hadn't yet come into their own in terms of personality or design. Three characters from 765 Pro (Miki, Hibiki, and Takane) didn't exist at production time, so you won't be seeing them at all.

  As a result, the anime develops the cast in its own way with characterization that diverges both from what the source material was at the time and what it's grown to become today. Yukiho's quirk is falling asleep mid-conversation, while Makoto is an aloof prodigy with no concerns over her tomboyish appearance. Chihaya and Azusa are both markedly older and taller than the rest of the cast. On the other hand, Haruka is as clumsy as ever and jokes about Iori's forehead are rampant. It's easy to imagine this is another of the in-universe movies they show trailers for on their variety show.

  

  A maybe callback from the 2011 anime

  Xenoglossia also began production without Namco's oversight, so the voice cast is completely distinct from the cast that voices these characters in every other IM@S property from the later anime to the many, many albums.

  Plot

  The first half of Xenoglossia has the other characters slowly warm up to Haruka and find their place in the team. The anime ends up somewhat repetitive towards this, with certain elements of each character surfacing over and over without any developments. A large portion of that time is spent on Haruka getting closer to her iDOL Imber, even taking him on dates. And unlike the 2011 anime or similar light-hearted shows, there's an overarching plot that's being sidelined for this. Turiavita shows up in the first episode, indicating something is going on behind the scenes, but they only appear again twice in the first half which puts a bit of a damper on the character interactions and asteroid destruction going on in the meantime. All in all, asteroids being positioned as the primary threat leaves the stakes incredibly low for a mecha anime.

  That said, the anime picks up markedly just after the second half, and it's even marked by a late switch in the opening theme. The focus shifts to Turiavita and intrigue within Mondenkind, and it all comes to a head with engaging character moments and plot developments.

  Caring about these characters relies on your interaction with the source material at first, while the effectiveness of the climax depends on how invested you are the versions of the characters you've seen up to that point. Unfortunately, both the beginning and the end fall short more than a few times. Xenoglossia's original characters and even some of the source characters get much less screen time than those with ties to Haruka, which left me wanting much more for the secondary antagonists in particular.

  Other

  For the animation, mecha action and launch sequences suffer from their close shots and subdued spectacle as they only use their fists on their missions to destroy Drops. While this changes in the latter half and even sprinkles in a few CG animated scenes, the initial impression of the mecha is incredibly subdued. The many close-ups don't do justice to the already not-particularly-striking designs.

  

  Ultimately, it's hard to recommend this anime no matter what you're looking for. It stands on its own by the end - and even then there's a lot to be desired - but what precedes that leaves viewers wanting something more, something different. Watch for the novelty, stay for the penguins.

  
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• 

  NorthernMeepo

  75/100
  Idolm@ster Xenoglossia is weird

  It's kinda hard to explain what I felt watching this show because, as I said, it's really weird (both in positive and negative ways).

  First of all, I'm not an Idolm@ster fan, for long time I've not been interested in idols anime. Then I found out about "Idolm@ster Xenoglossia" and I was kinda intrigued. I mean, something like idols with big badass robots in an action anime? Who wouldn't be interested in? Also, I've never heard anyone talking about this series, and that made me even more curious. Lastly, Yuka Iguchi is the main protagonist's voice actress, so I just couldn't not check this one out.

  What is an idol?

  Actually, this show is not about idols, it's about iDOLs, which are battle mechas, not cute girls singing and dancing. Our protagonist, Amami Haruka, wanted to become a normal, regular idol. She is instead hired as mecha pilot by the Mondenkind agency, which is protecting earth using iDOLs.

  ~~Boy, these things are mad ugly~~ # What actually is an iDOL? Now, this is a harder question. Yeah, at first sight they look like giant battle robots, but... __iDOLs do have feelings__ (they can't talk tho). This is one of the most important thing in this series, because depending on their feelings they can stop working and even reject their own pilot. If you want to be their pilot, their _Idolmaster_, being skilled is not enough: you have to understand them, __you have to give them love and respect__. ~~They're totally ugly~~ # Why is this show weird? This show starts with a giant iDOL out of nowhere, named Imber, choosing his own pilot (that is our protagonist Amami Haruka). These two rapidly grow feelings toward each other... in a weird way, indeed. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but Haruka and Imber literally have a love story and it feels weird. Haruka totally starts to think about him like a boyfriend, to love everything about him. They have intimate moments definitely like a regular couple, with lot of sweetness. Haruka literally shows herself in a swimsuit for the first time to Imber and not to her friends, talking about lovely dovey relationships Yeah, Imber takes pictures of Haruka and saves them in his memory. When Haruka finds out about this she actually blushes. # Slow start and other issues It's not just about this weird (but sweet) relationship, this show starts _reeeeeally_ slow: episodes 1~16 are dull as hell. I understand, there are lot of things the viewer needs to know, so it just can't go on with our protagonists fighting villains, but this is really boring. In short, iDOLs have to destroy big rocks coming from outer space before they fall on the earth, so we're just watching lot of episodes about robots giving literally one punch to a rock and that's it, that's the "action" content. Even when we get to see some proper mecha fights it's just punching and kicking _very slowly_. Animations aren't great either, so it's not really satisfying to _watch_. There are lot of slice of life moment, mostly Haruka bonding with other characters but, even though characters do have proper stories and backgrounds, I found these episodes pretty boring.

  _First opening is totally fire tho, I won't lie it helped me a lot to continue watching this show._ # A sudden improvement __Episodes 17~26 are actually great__, I liked them so much I couldn't believe myself. At this point I was thinking it would ended like some trash anime, I didn't have any hope about Xenoglossia getting better, but suddenly it actually got better, a lot better. There's a plot twist in episode 17 which I could never have predicted, everything changed and we even got some better animations. It's hard to explain without spoilers, but somehow those 16 episodes pay off. Our protagonists finally have to face harder difficults, stronger enemies and personal developments. That weird romance between Haruka and Imber got deeper, but surprisingly in a good way: they support each other, they fight until the end together, they both improve themselves. Before I could realize it Xenoglossia really got all of my attention, I was totally into this show and I was even worried about characters' lifes.

  _Xenoglossia's ending theme is the only thing I can't say absolutely anything bad about, I love it_ # Verdict I don't know what I expected, but boy for sure I wasn't expecting this. I mean, I was on the verge of dropping Xenoglossia, I continued expecting a trash series and it actually ended in a great way. I always give scores according to my personal feelings, but even though I loved the last part I just can't say it's a great show. If it had improved before I would say even a 85/100 or 90/100, but sadly this is what we had. Do I recommend it? I'm not sure, if you really have lot of patience give it a try, but this is just an opinion of mine. Should you get bored and stop watching it I won't blame you, nobody would.
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• 

  AprilDruid

  14/100
  The horniest robot show that somehow also includes idols?

  I'm not sure who decided "This Idol game needs a mecha series!", but I do hope they were fired after, because this was terrible. I'm not really into idols, but I came into this thinking it would be similar to Macross or AKB0048, instead it was some weird convoluted plot that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The robots are weirdly sentient and seemingly have a sexual attraction to their pilots? But on the inverse, the girls are weirdly sexually attracted to their robots as well, leading to some....interesting scenes in an otherwise mediocre anime.

  The character designs are nothing special, one of our bad guys is a knockoff version of Misato from Evangelion,while the other is a loli who dresses in classic lolita, while she's taunting the good guys. Our main girls are cute, but that's about it, Haruka has the personality of wet cardboard, Makoto is the angsty one who thinks the robots are just robots, while Iori at least develops a personality as it goes on, compared to the others who stay about the same. The story doesn't really make any sense, asteroids threaten earth and instead of using missiles, Japan uses robots, but these iDOLs and their IdolMasters are somehow special, which creates conflict with another secret evil organization.

  As for the robot designs, they're pretty generic, there's nothing special about them at all. They all fight using their fists, but even that looks boring, because of how little attention is paid to this. It's more of a character drama with robots thrown in and not a very good drama either. It feels like early in development they couldn't decide as to whether this would be an idol anime or a robot anime and when the coin landed on its side they decided to make it a robot idol anime. I know the budget was slashed midway through, but any semblance of a plot is just not there and I want to know what the writers were smoking at the time. Have I mentioned how horny this show is? Because that's a big thing. Haruka is attracted to her robot Imber, but so is Chiaya who is Imber's ex and still horny for him, but Imber still has a thing for his ex, while having a roboner for Haruka. Essentially this devolves into relationship drama, but with giant robots instead of people. And it's fucking weird as a result. This is by far the horniest robot show I've seen and I've watched Darling in the Franxx!

  I'm really not sure who this was made for, because I can't see how it appeals to the otaku who love idols, or the otaku who buy the model kits, this appeals to no one and as a result it's just bad. Not even worth a watch out of curiosity honestly, just skip this one all together and be done with it. If you're an Idolmaster fan, this is not the show for you, it takes the characters you already know and probably love and just kind of gives them new personalities and makes them point weapons at each other. There's no real sense of competency in this writing and if you really need that Mecha Idol itch scratched for some reason, you're better off watching AKB0048, which manages to deliver good action and a gateway into idols.

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