Kirarin Revolution review

I posted this originally at MyAnimeList, but thought I'd stick it here as well:

Allow me to admit outright that the only reason I started watching this show was because the main character, Kirari, is voiced by a member of one of my favorite music groups, Morning Musume. Because I'm a huge fan of shoujo, this was just chocolate frosting on the cake.

Unfortunately, Kirarin Revolution is full of cliches and predictablity. The only things "unique" about it that I can tell is that you basically watch an idol's day-to-day workload, with a tiny smidge of reality cushioned by the usual anime antics. Kirari does not become an idol because of a magical interference (think shows like Fancy La La or the manga Cyber Idol Mink), and she is not simply tossed into the world of celebrity with little or no problems. She actually has to work at it and overcome obstacles on pretty much a daily basis.

There is very little development in this story, and for every "useful" episode you will find several fillers. Every now and then you'll also get a "conflict" that takes 2 or 3 episodes to resolve. I know you should expect it to be that way for a series that's over 100 episodes and climbing (with no signs of stopping at that!), but this makes it very slow going. For instance, I have never seen a romance stretched out for this long before. It's enough to make even the most patient hopeless romantic scream "Just get together already!" (for the sake of spoilers, I won't tell you anything else).

The music in the show is catchy, but Kirari is indeed a very bad singer, and has a habit of putting emphasis on every syllable in every word. Prepare yourself.

As far as the animation, the quality might have you shaking your head at times because of how OFF the characters can look. I've also heard that later episodes adopt a computerized 3D look - however, I haven't gotten that far and thus can't comment on it yet.

It's definitely a cute and fun show, and I do get enjoyment out of it (I am a firm believer in Hiroto's powers of awesome), but it's mostly a light, fluffy romp with not much else to it. I'm sure the young girls it's aimed at adore it (how else would it still be in production?), but if you're looking for something with more substance (and half the length), look elsewhere. If you love to give all shoujo a chance, need something to kill time, and/or you just want to find a harmless guilty pleasure, however, jump right in.