From the veteran "Idol Master" to the new "WakeUp, Girls! From "LOVELIVE", which received a lot of male fanaticism, to "His Royal Highness the Prince of Song", which captured the hearts of countless female fans, and from "AKB0048" in the 2.5th dimension to "Idol Event" for girls, in just one or two years, we have seen a large number of anime works with the theme of "idol" appear on the screen. Considering the planning and production time of the animation, it seems that so many works with similar themes will be broadcast in a short period of time, but rather because of the inevitable result of the hero's vision.

The "idol" in Chinese is the object of worship, so the celebrities of film and television songs can be called idols regardless of men, women and children. Only when idols need to be distinguished between idols or powerful factions, will everyone classify a type of celebrity with a better appearance and image into the field of idols. In Japanese, idol refers to young people who are lively and cute, singing and dancing, and generally appear in groups. So there are occasional small misunderstandings when chatting with the Japanese, the Japanese think that idols are unique to Japan (although now Korea is more developed), which is rare in Chinese mainland, and Chinese think that we also have many idols, such as Andy Lau and Chen Daoming, which is a thousand miles away. The idol groups in Chinese mainland are probably SNH48, which just participated in China's Got Talent, as well as groups such as Supreme Lihe and MIC boy groups, and EXO-M can barely be counted as mainland.

After clarifying the concept of "idol", we will take a look at the idol animation that has been very popular in recent years, and introduce the development history of idol animation. In fact, "idol animation" is not a new thing that has just appeared, as a long-established animation theme, it has never disappeared from the screen, but it has become popular again in recent years.

The stage of the girls

"Idol Master Theatrical Version Towards a Glorious Future" was released in January this year, and the February issue of the anime information magazine "Monthly Newtype", which focuses on this work, was announced to be sold out after only 10 days of its release. The second season of "LOVELIVE", which will start airing in April, is selling well both on CDs and records, and it has spared no effort in terms of merchandise. Other people's peripherals are stationery, pendants, and figures, but the peripherals of "LOVELIVE" are actually Toyota cars for real tycoons. Based on the popular girl idol group AKB48 and dubbed by members such as Mayu Watanabe, "AKB0048" is not a stunning masterpiece, but thanks to the support of a strong fan base, it can still top various charts. There is also the comeback of the popular figure Hiroshi Yamamoto's "WakeUp, Girls! , which was just broadcast in January this year, caused a polarizing heated discussion on the Internet. Regardless of the quality of the animation,But in terms of attention alone,,It's undoubtedly the biggest focus of the winter new fan.。

The above works are all popular idol animations in recent years. It is worth mentioning that the production company of "LOVELIVE" is Sunrise Society, which is famous for original robot animations such as "Mobile Suit Gundam", and the supervision of "AKB0048" is Masahru Kawamori, the director of "Macross Fortress". These production companies and supervisors who seem to have nothing to do with the idol are all involved in this melee of beautiful girls, making the battle more and more exciting.

The reason for the sudden increase in idol animation may be inextricably linked to one of Kyoto Animation's masterpieces, "Light Girl", which aired in 2009. In terms of time, the major production companies saw the craze of "Light Girl" in 2009 among animation fans, and sensitively noticed the market trend, so they decided to keep up with the craze, and after two or three years of planning and production, they launched a follow-up work that was almost broadcast around 2012.

"Light Voice Girl" tells the story of 5 cute girls with different personalities forming a light voice department, although it is not a real idol animation, but it essentially embodies the essence of idol animation. There are young and cute beautiful girls, happy and joyful songs, relaxed and interesting daily life, and luxurious and beautiful live performances. In fact, the biggest difference between Sakuragaoka High School's light music club and idol groups is that there is no commercial debut. If the background of "Light Girl" is changed from a school to an entertainment company, then this is an idol animation.

The advent of "Light Girl" is not only to provide a pop vane, but most importantly, to create an environment that is more suitable for the development of idol animation. Because of the precedent of this successful work, coupled with the popularity trend of real-life idol groups such as AKB48, it is only when the planners submit their plans that the top executives of the company who look at the numbers to make decisions will nod. If it weren't for the success of "Light Girl", even if a planner who likes idol themes proposed a plan, the company that couldn't see the market prospect would not easily agree.

In addition to the changes in the general environment, the reason why idol animation has emerged in large numbers may also be because there is a group of producers who really like idols among the animation production staff. They have always wanted to make idol animations, and when they saw that the time was right, they took decisive and bold action, the most typical of which was Yamamoto Hiroshi. From the group dance of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" to the cheerleading dance of "Lucky Star", to the solo performance of "God Shaving", painting dance in the theme song has become a registered trademark of Yamamoto Kan, so much so that he said during the production of "God Shaving": "This is really the last time I have drawn a dance in the theme song." "Yes, he did, so in WakeUp, Girls! is simply drawn directly in the feature film.

Idol animation – 40 years of history

As mentioned in the preface, idol animation has never disappeared from the screen as a long-established animation genre, so what was the first idol animation in Japan? The answer is the semi-annual "Wandering Sun" broadcast in April 1971. The production company of this work is an insect production company founded by Osamu Tezuka.,4 of which are still performed by Yuki Tomino.。

The original work of "The Wandering Sun" is a manga work written by Keisuke Fujikawa and illustrated by Mayuki Suzuki, and serialized in "Weekly Shoujo COMIC" (Shogakukan). Here I must introduce you to the original author of Fujikawa Keisuke, who is a professional screenwriter and novelist, and later wrote several episodes of the script for "Space Battleship Yamato", or the series composition of "Six Gods Combined", so this determines that "The Wandering Sun" is not a simple shoujo manga.

"The Wandering Sun" is a little different from the current idol anime, strictly speaking, it should be said that it is an animation with a singer theme based on the popular singer Keiko Fuji at the time. However, because Bug Productions has always said that this is "the first idol animation to depict the showbiz", let's take it as the origin of idol animation.

I can't see this work in China, so here is a brief introduction to the plot. A lot of shoujo manga in the early '70s was a family drama, and "The Wandering Sun" also contains a little bit of this element. Two baby girls born in the same hospital were switched by nurses, and later one became the daughter of a wealthy family, Miki Kada, and the other was the daughter of an ordinary poor family, Nozomi Feng. Growing up, both girls loved to sing. Miki successfully became a singer with the support of her father's strong financial resources, while Nozomi is just a bar singer. Later, Nozomi became Miki's assistant, and when she saw Miki running around every day for work, she was so busy that she didn't even have time to train, and she couldn't help but wonder "can you still sing like this?" In search of "what is the real song", Nozomi began to wander around Japan and later became a famous wandering singer......

It can be seen from this that this work is a real reflection of the social phenomenon of the time, and it is not a glamorous idol animation with no appearance. The connotation is there, but the theme is a little deep. Later, in 1978, "The Angels of Pink Girl Story" appeared, which was based on the idol group "Pink Girl", which tells the story of the struggle of two heroines from their junior high school days to becoming popular idols. This story outline is closer to the current "LOVELIVE" and "Idol Master". In the early 80s, the emergence of "Macross Fortress" and "I Am Britney" finally formed the model of commercial idol animation.

Since then, idol animation has never left the screen, and familiar works such as "Idol Legend Miriko" (1990) and "Dream Lala" (1998) have appeared. However, the heroines of early idol animations were basically alone, and it wasn't until 2005 after the launch of the game "Idol Master" that idol-themed ACG works began to gradually develop in the direction of groups.

Nowadays, idol animation generally conveys to the audience the positive energy of the protagonists to move forward. Anime as a kind of mass entertainment, maybe this is the normal form, so when Yamamoto Kan proposed to "reflect the less glamorous side of idols", it was opposed by many people. 《WakeUp，Girls！ The connotation of "The Wandering Sun" is actually very close to 40 years ago, the idols have not yet debuted and encountered the unfortunate incident of the president's escape, and the producers, reporters, and composers they met after their debut are all old foxes with their own ghosts, and competitor companies are implementing brainwashing training. All of this makes WakeUp, Girls! It seems very realistic, and even the costumes and styling of the protagonists are the most simple of all idol animations now. In reality, everyone knows that the entertainment industry is very deep, but it will be deliberately ignored in the animation, as if it is an unspoken rule, but Yamamoto Kan has broken this model that has been established in 40 years. How success or failure may have to wait for the end of the animation to see.,But the author really wants to complain.,This animation screen really doesn't move at all! As a Chinese viewer, we are pleased that "it's okay, at least the subtitles are moving", but the Japanese audience who can't even read the subtitles...... Are you all right?

In addition, whether it is "The Wandering Sun" or "Pink Girl Story", the early idol animation was based on real idols in reality, and the current idol animation is all original except for "AKB0048". 《WakeUp，Girls！ is even more bold to use all new voice actors, and it has become a form of using two-dimensional to create three-dimensional idols. A similar format also appeared in the casting of the singer-themed manga turned live-action film "Butterfly in the Mist", and Sakurako Ohara, who played the heroine, was selected from 5,000 candidates. Today's idol animation is no longer a promotional product for idols in reality, but has become a novel star-making method, from which you can feel that the influence of animation is greater than before.

Singing in the plane battle

The 70s were the era of giant robot animation, and since "Space Battleship Yamato" ushered in the Matsumoto era of Zeroshi, robot space wars have begun to shift to space travel and air combat themes with lighter mechanical settings. "Macross Fortress", which aired in 1982, is a very typical work in this period of transition. From the perspective of mechanical settings, the fighters in Macross have three forms: fighter form, robot form, and half-fighter half-robot form. This setting is very flattering, and it integrates all the popular patterns of the time into his own work.

However, one of the most talked about things about "Macross Fortress" now is that it has created a novel model of "machine combat + singer". The addition of feminine and feminine singing in the brutal and fierce space war immediately makes this work stand out from many machine battle animations, and it looks fresh and fashionable.

Today, "Fighter + Singer" has become the selling point of this series, and it has continued to this day. In the latest work "Macross F", the singing performance of Lanka and Xuelu has become the highlight of the producer's efforts to make the audience shine just like the battle scenes. Interestingly, 30 years later, in 2012, Masaharu Kawamori, the superintendent of "Macross Fortress", actually brought the audience an idol animation "AKB0048" based on the real-life idol group AKB48.

The relationship between Macross and AKB0048 is the same as in the past and present lives, although the appearance and body have been completely changed, they have inherited the same soul. The biggest change is that the original "Macross Fortress" added idol elements to the machine battle animation, but 30 years later, "AKB0048" added machine battle elements to the idol animation.

Remember when it was first announced that the production of "AKB0048" would be made, many people, including the members of AKB48, did not understand, why did they have to add combat elements to their performances? This is not only because this work needs to use combat elements to distinguish it from other idol anime, or to make Kawamori's label more obvious, but also because the work of the idol group itself is a fierce battle without gunpowder. Singing and dancing are ostensibly literary and artistic activities, but in fact, they are very physically demanding, and even the members of "LOVELIVE" attach great importance to physical training when training.

During the production of "AKB0048", Masaharu Kawamori went to the theater in Akihabara with the series Mori Okada and Yoshimasa Hiraike, who co-supervised him, to participate in events such as the general election, the guessing contest, and the handshake party. When he saw the work behind the scenes of AKB48, he really felt that the physical strength and mental endurance of this group of teenage girls were unimaginable. I don't know much about the situation of AKB48, but Ahn Qihyun, a member of HOT, told his juniors in a TV show that "when HOT was the most popular, they could only sleep 3 hours a day", which shows how hard the idol group works. I still remember that last year EXO came to China to record a TV show, and fans tried their best to ask the driver what the members were doing in the car, but the driver's answer made the fans very distressed: "They didn't do anything, they were sleeping all the time." ”

Masaharu Kawamori said he often heard the staff say that AKB48 is "the closest thing to the battlefield in modern Japan." When you think about it, it makes perfect sense to include combat elements in AKB0048. All in all, the scene of the girls flying the flying machine while performing and fighting has become the most unique scenery in "AKB0048".

The rise of idol boy groups

In reality, idol groups are divided into men's and women's groups, and the two-dimensional world is the same. In addition to the above-mentioned popular idol animations, which are all made for male audiences, there is also a popular female-oriented work with the theme of idol boy groups in recent years, that is, "His Royal Highness the Prince of Songs", which aired two seasons of TV animation in 2011 and 2013. Now that it has been announced that the third season will be produced soon, it is scheduled to air in 2015, and it seems that this game will continue to be popular for a while.

There are very few anime works with the theme of idol boy groups, and it seems that only Shinjo Mayu's "Pleasure Paradise" and "NANA" by Ai Yazawa can barely be included in it, but they are all very different from typical idol boy group animations such as "His Royal Highness the Prince of Songs". Therefore, although "His Royal Highness the Prince of Song" is very popular now, at first glance it looks like a standout, and there is no scene of a hundred flowers blooming like the theme of a girl group. However, let's not forget that if you look at the essence beyond the appearance, in fact, all women have a very powerful idol boy group in their works. This phenomenon can be traced all the way back to the 1988 broadcast of "Demon God Altar Fighter".

"Demon God Altar Fighter" tells the story of 5 male protagonists wearing armor and battle clothes and fighting against the demon emperor. From the setting, it can be seen that this is a work born under the influence of "Saint Seiya". After the anime aired, the 5 male protagonists received enthusiastic support from female fans. Fans also transferred their love for the characters to the voice actors, and later the voice actors who voiced the five male protagonists formed the smash hit voice actor idol group "NG5".

After this model of "idol boy group" became popular, there were 1995's "New Mobile Warriors" Gundam W" and 1996's "Superman Letin". Everyone is familiar with the former, and the next volume of Blu-ray Disc BOX has just been released at the end of January this year. Although the latter is not popular in China, its presence is very strong, because its ambition to attract female fans is extremely obvious. The biggest attraction of this work is that the male characters often appear naked.,When you change from a human to a Lytin, your clothes will be torn.,Only the key parts between the legs will be blackened.,And after changing back into a human from Leytin, it's also completely naked.,You need to find new clothes to wear.。

After "Gundam W", the "Gundam" series also took the route of the idol boy group in 2007's "Mobile Suit Gundam 00". In addition, the "Gundam" series has also made a major contribution to the development of the female market, which is to create another model for attracting female audiences with 2002's "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED". If you want to occupy the female market, you don't need to spend so much effort to design 5 beautiful men, in fact, only two are enough, the key is to put them in two hostile camps to love and kill each other. Later works that inherited and carried forward this model include "Lelouch of the Rebellion" (2006) and "Revolutionary Machine" (2012).

In addition to the male idol animation and female idol animation introduced above, there is another type of idol animation, and that is children's idol animation for girls. The old one has "I Am Britney", and the new one has "Idol Activity". Most of the children's works produced now are in line with games, and "Idol Event" also has a game of the same name, so when watching this anime, I feel like watching a game tutorial. This style of work is also a force that has contributed to the flood of idol animation.

epilogue

Humans are visual creatures and get excited when they see something beautiful. In the animation where the beauty of the characters on the stage is much higher than that of the real world, idol animation is a product that improves the pleasing to the eye. However, the emergence of similar things in large numbers in a short period of time is easy to cause aesthetic fatigue among the audience. So while looking forward to the new work, we also hope that the producers will not blindly follow the trend, but make excellent works that can really bring surprises.