Suko’s past explored!
What They Say:
Suko who has a special ability. She can make any idol popular just by writing about them on her blog! One day, while being forced to go to the supermarket by her sister, she happens to see a live performance from the Fukuoka based idol group “Iotrio”. Suko decides that she will do everything in her power to push them into stardom. Unfortunately, she has to compete with the charismatic otaku blogger Ryu-san who supports the underground idol Mariko!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
After getting some time exploring the music realm a bit and that of Ryuusuke, we get to see a bit more of Suko’s life. While it was hard to tell who she was before, we see here that she’s basically a high school student that stopped going to focus on being a musical tastemaker with her blog. Her home life is a bit dismissive of what she’s done and there’s the jab about how she should get a boyfriend to feel alive. That dredges up memories of school where she was teased a lot by the boys, which had her withdraw into herself. What got her out of the funk though was watching the videos recorded by idols that have them talking to the viewer. That brought her to life in a big way, which we see plain as day.
Her focus on Hinami as an up and coming idol definitely gave her what she needed to be motivated about something and that ties into how she’s doing her best to help others. With Itorio being her new favorite, it certainly makes sense since there’s a kind of connection between them all. We get a little bit of that with some time spent with Itorio where there’s posters of Hinami up and the obvious fact that there are those that admire her and what she’s done. It’s not done in-depth or anything, but the simple nods helps to nudge it all along in its awkward way with the kinds of quick cuts that we get.
In Summary:
Million Doll does a decent enough job of giving us some background on Suko and why she does what she does, but it’s still not provided anything to make me care. Admittedly, the idol world is largely overplayed within anime and manga these days so it’s hard to really feel attached to anything, especially with the poor direction going on here and the lack of compelling characters even within the constraints of the run time. The background is a plus and it at least provides a look at the differences between Suko and Ryu and how they approach the world they’re both familiar with but in different ways.
Grade: C
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
