Idolmaster Xenoglossia - Anime - AniDB (2024)

Overall
Despite the numbers you see to the side,

is definitely my favourite anime from the year 2007, surpassing fan favourites such as

,

,

, and carryovers from 2006 such as

and

. This petty underrated Sunrise production will probably forever be remembered as the absurdly contrived mecha X pop-idol spin-off stuck between

and

, or even as the unofficial third "

" series, but below this wrongly labeled veil is a great love story between a girl and her robot in an epic struggle to save the world.

Before you step away from the previous sentence, let me remind you that love can take shape in any form, whether it's between the common theme of man and woman, or between man and an inanimate object.

doesn't tread on uncharted territory, but it makes the concept work like how the

series had with the characters and their Childs, or even my previous fear of the

series. Strengthening the bonds are the introduction of some of the cutest characters I've seen. Originally pop-idols for the popular XBOX game, Sunrise kept most of their personalities intact and scripted their way with them to create a wonderful love story by involving them with robots instead of being a generic rise-to-fame story.

With most of the writers being part of the

series fame, it's no surprise

is similar to the franchise in terms of storytelling and character interaction. However, it wouldn't be fair to say that

is a carbon copy - it takes the best aspects of both

and

and puts them at work: funny and cute character moments, a rising plot shadow in the midst of all things normal, and revealing pasts that creates a simple yet complex character web. And as the second half comes, the world suddenly tumbles into disarray and everything is put to the test for the final showdowns. Unlike

and

,

is without any absurd mess, whether it's too dramatic or too light-hearted, and is a great mixture of both emotional as well as action-packed battles.

Apparently, Japan doesn't think much of this series, but Sunrise really put heart into retaining the characters' personalities to the original game and making a good story out of it. Most, if not all, the characters have different voice actors than the original, and after watching some videos of the original game, I'd say who does what fits their intended roles: the game voices are good for the game, and the anime voices are good for the anime; whoever is more professional, it doesn't matter.

Alongside their voices are the personalities. Haruka is very much my favourite cutest character of this year, even surpassing my favourite from Lucky Star, Tsukasa. She's got that extra spunk of determination and spirit asides from her cute design and voice. Iori is a great rival, and Yukiho... came from the left field as a great and perhaps deep friend. Yayoi brings lots of life to these characters, too, even in the deepest of pits of their lives. Development of characters are great in the span of 26 episodes, as I have already began to sympathize with most of them by episode 9.

The concept could turn people off, but if you accept it, you'll be in for a great ride. I voucher this the best recent Sunrise production in years; something done right, for once.

Animation
Some of the best animation this year is featured in Sunrise's latest, eventually surpassed by

, right after

ended its run. Clean crisp animation, great character designs, and lots of detail in both foregrounds and backgrounds (sweat in space, vending machine logos, etc.). The transition to DVD had relatively few changes than other shows, proving Sunrise animators poured their souls into making this a high-quality production, even with its non-popularity. A few ugly CG areas and battles (they got lazy in the battles with lots of RIFFAs getting taken down by hax) (this does not include the Drop destruction sequences and such, as I thought they were pretty good since they were in space) down this one point from 9 to 8, though.

Sound
A great set of OPs and ED reflect the changing mood of the series without being spoilerific in the sequences that follow them. I wished they used one of the other songs off the singles for their insert songs, though, as hearing the first OP again in the final episode shifts the mood too much. Also, a great voice cast and BGM usage makes the show even more enjoyable.

Story
There are certain scenes that detract the series from being good, and some cringing moments (episode 8, in particular, was disturbing for me, but I got converted the episode after). As with pretty much all recent Sunrise series, the background of the plot isn't explained very well and thus makes some of the sci-fi stuff a little unbelievable. However, the storytelling is still great relative to past series like

and

.

Value
Serin is the only group that has completed the project... but sometimes they can be as worse as the speed-group Your-Mom - full of QUALITY moments such as useless translation notes, WHY-WOULD-THEY-DO-THAT translator's notes, and tidbits that will make you rip your hair out. They think of viewers as idiots, even translating the word "debris", which shouldn't be necessary as it isn't a JAPANESE WORD THAT WE DON'T KNOW.

As for rewatch value, I plan to rewatch this. The question is, would you?