"Welcome to The Idols of Anime, where we talk about every idol anime...EVER!"
Idols of Anime is a YouTube series by VigaLovesComics, reviewing Idol Singer anime in roughly chronological order, and talking about the history of the genre. To qualify, the series' main focus must be the idols (which disqualifies shows such as the Macross franchiseWhy?, as well as Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi PitchWhy?). Viga also makes a distinction between idol anime and band anime (such as K-On) - the latter do not qualify, either.
Episode list
- Sasurai no Taiyou
- Pink Lady Monogatari: Eien no Tenshi-tachi and Sue Cat
- Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel (and other 80s Studio Pierrot Magic Idol Singer shows)
- Idol Densetsu Eriko and Assemble Insert
- Idol Angel Yokoso Yoko and Kimama ni Idol
- Idol Defense Force Hummingbird
- Chou Kuse ni Narisou
- Idol Project, Kidnapp'n Idol, and Birth ~ Debut
- Perfect Blue
- Fancy Lala and Kira Kira Melody Gakuen
- Chance Pop Session
- Full Moon
- Wandaba Style
- Lovedol and Lemon Angel Project
- Kirarin☆Revolution
- Introduction to The Idolmaster, and The Idolmaster: Live For You (OVA)
- Spellbound! Magical Princess Lil'Pri
- Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream
- Pretty Rhythm: Dear My Future
- The Idolmaster
- Uta No Prince-sama
- Koi-Ken!
- Idol Sister (hentai)
- AKB0048
- Aikatsu! (seasons 1-2)
- Sex Beast: Idol of Darkness (hentai)
- The World God Only Knows: Magical Star Kanon 100%' (OVA)
- My Little Idolmaster (April Fools)
- The Idolmaster: Shiny Festa/The Movie/Puchim@s
- Wanna Be the Strongest in the World!
- Love Live!
- Miss Monochrome
- Pretty Rhythm: Rainbow Live
- Wake Up, Girls!
- Minarai Diva
- Shounen Hollywood
Idols of Anime contains examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: In the Aikatsu episode, Viga "accidentally" calls the main character Ichigo Kurosaki instead of Ichigo Hoshimiya.
- Adults Are Useless: In the Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live episode, Viga talks about how all the adults in the show are shitty people.
- April Fools' Day: Nico nico ni! Nico ni, nico nico, nico nico niii. Nico nico. Niiiii!!!!!!
- For 2017, the Idolmaster: The Movie/Shiny Festa/Puchimas review uses footage from My Little Pony.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In the Pretty Rhythym Rainbow Live review, Viga calls out Norizuki for "Blackmail, manipulation, crushing the dreams of children, and wearing a white cravat after Labor Day".
- Author Filibuster: Downplayed - in the AKB0048 review, she touches on some of the negative aspects of the RL idol industry, such as idols not being allowed to have boyfriends. She also hints that there's more to come on this when she gets to Wake Up, Girls!.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: A moment that actually involves alligators is discussed. One Chou Kuse ni Narisou episode is a Very Special Episode (or a parody of one) about discarded alligators, which leaves Viga confused:Viga: Is this a PSA for keeping alligators as pets? Was this ever a problem in Japan? What? There's a message about discarding idols as well? Old waifu pushed away for your new waifu? Remember, keep your idols spayed and neutered.
- Brother–Sister Incest: While Idol Sister does have this, the title is extremely misleading as it includes two other girls with no realtionship.
- Break the Cutie: Invoked Trope. Viga describes Legendary Idol Eriko as "Break the Cutie: The Anime".
- Contractual Purity: Discussed. While she is an idol Otaku, Viga does feel like the Jimoshu system is pretty unfair.
- Distracted by the Sexy: In the Uta No Prince-sama review, Viga loses track of what she was talking about due to the anime... hot... men... asses... asses...
- Dreadful Musician: Viga compares Fancy Lala's singing voice to a cat being strangled.
- Expy: The titular Idol Sister is very visually similar to Kirino Kousaka.
- Eye Beams: In the Love Live! episode, Viga claims that Nico has laser eyes.
- Genre Turning Point: The development of sophisticated CGI that allowed elaborate dance sequences to be created on a TV budget, which led to the boom in the genre from the late 2000s to present.
- Flat Character: While she discusses each of the cast members of The Idolmaster, the only comments about Ami and Mami Futami are the words "Twins" repeated over and over. Not even Miki and Haruka whom she regards as
Scrappies got such harsh descriptions. - Happily Married: Viga is married with Linkara of Atop the Fourth Wall.
- Harem Genre: Discussed with Lovedol and in more detail in Uta No Prince-sama. She mentions while she used to be on the bandwagon of hating the entire genre, the latter is proof that not all of them are necessarily bad shows even if there's still a little bit of Sturgeon's Law.
- Long List: In the AKB0048 episode, she lists all of AKB48's spinoff groups while making a MLP pun with FlutterSHY48 and with OJ Simpson with OJS48.
- Magic Idol Singer: Quite a few of them are this with the earliest example being Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel.
- Merchandise-Driven: Mentions how shows such as Pretty Rhythm and Aikatsu! are very much "Buy our toys!" shows.
- Moe: Discussed Trope. Viga talks about the rise of Moe during the mid-2000s in episode 14.
- No Export for You: Discussed Trope, again. Viga is frustrated by many series (especially ones made pre-2000) either not being translated, or the translations ending halfway through the show.
- "No. Just… No" Reaction: In the first episode, Viga reacts this way to Show by Rock!!.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Invoked Trope. Theorizes that part of the reason for Fancy Lala's poor ratings and early cancellation was that Cardcaptor Sakura was airing at the same time (and in fact premiered just two days after Fancy Lala), and was a much better Magical Girl show.
- Running Gag: In the Uta No Prince-sama review, Viga Squeeing over Otoya every time he is brought up.
- Using footage from Shirobako to recreate the "planning sessions" of various shows.
- Schoolgirl Series: She felt guilty for calling The Idolmaster a "talking series" at first because they have way more character development than most shows like this such as Lucky Star. This is also briefly discussed with her introduction on Moe in Lovedol.Viga: Because why tell a story when you could just have a bunch of girls with a lack of tits in a room and have them talk about bullshit?
- Self-Deprecation: In the Aikatsu! episode, she mentions that fans of the show are either little girls or weirdos on the internet, then cuts to a picture of herself.
- Serious Business: In the AKB0048 episode:Viga: The year is 2012. It's been two years since the big idol boom began, and the Mayan prophecy is true: It was the end of the world. (Cut to a clip of Acchan announcing her graduation from AKB48)
- Shadow Archetype: In the AKB0048 episode, guest Jed Blue provides extensive commentary on DES' role as the AKB's shadow.
- Shared Universe: Because of Viga's frequent cameos on Atop the Fourth Wall (in-universe as Linkara's roommate), she's part of the Reviewaverse.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: In the Koi-Ken! episode, Viga runs out of things to talk about and starts gushing about Symphogear instead, despite admitting it doesn't count as an idol show.
- Squee: In the Uta No Prince-sama review, Viga squees over her husbando, Otoya.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Viga says that the Magic Idol Singer elements of Fancy Lala felt tacked on, and it could have worked much better as a Cute Witch show with Lala solving problems with her drawing magic.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Prior to episode 9, Viga had made it clear that she really didn't like Fancy Lala.
- Lovedol had a similar reaction, only it was so bad that she suggested skipping to the second half of the video, watching the Perfect Blue episode instead, or trying to replace the episode with a picture of a cat.
- And then there's Idol Sister, which turns out to be as bad as expected for a hentai anime.
- Vocal Dissonance: Viga points out shows where a character's speaking and singing voices don't match up well.
