This series comes to an end with the idol festival, and while the girls of Cham Jam are excited to be in an event this huge, there’s still some looming nervousness and inner conflict.
Man that girl from the Maple group is a huge bitch but thankfully Cham Jam are a wonderful group of girls that support each other. There was absolutely no reason for the Maple girl to tell Reo that her group is going to perform at the Budoukan other than to hurt her and make her feel bad, which is exactly what happened. We see from a flashback that this girl always had a huge chip on her shoulder so of course I sensed bad things from that “innocent” smile of hers. But like I said, Cham Jam is a great group and it was nice to see Maina speak up with her true feelings since she’s usually so quiet. In fact, Maina impressed me this time around more than once. She was able to give Reo her true thoughts and she was able to do the same for Eripiyo at the end. When it comes to Cham Jam, even though Reo found herself in a more less popular group, she was able to at least find girls that are sweet and genuine. Reo has a lot of pressure on her shoulders as the center, and she also doesn’t think she’s good enough still. It is true that sometimes in life, hard work quite isn’t enough. But if working hard is the only thing you can do, then do it dammit! And Maina is right in saying that even if your hard work only pays off a little, it’s still some progress and there’s still a chance to take that small percentage and make it something more. Basically, never give up. That’s good stuff to hear, and honestly pretty inspiring because I’ve felt down on certain things before and hearing these kinds of words is really heartwarming. Cham Jam is great~
The rest of the episode was typical. The girls perform, Eripiyo and gang freak out, buy stuff, then do the handshake stuff. One thing I found a little interesting was while Maina was sort of freaking out when seeing Eripiyo watch Maple, Sorane said that they kind of have to believe what their fans tell them even Sorane pointed out that fans usually don’t follow up on what they say. It’s kind of a crummy thing for idols since they rely on dedicated fans, so they basically have to take what they can get. And hopefully those fans do make a turnaround and focus on them, not really something I’ve thought about.
The end with Maina and Eripiyo was pretty cute. The fact that it was Maina that started the conversation with Eripiyo, then proceeded to say so much without screwing up. It took 12 episodes but…I guess it’s better late than never. Though the journey to reach this moment was frustrating. I’m also glad that Eripiyo didn’t screw up this nice moment because she easily could have done that, but thankfully they both were able to share a warm and nice moment, taking their little relationship a little bit further. Even the photo op shows that with them both being closer and Eripiyo looking incredibly happy, Maina smiling and blushing. Nothing silly, nothing getting in the way, just a cute moment. This was a warm episode overall because even Cham Jam’s staff was being overly enthusiastic and making sure people remember them. Oh, and Kumasa is still the best. He’s just a very honest and genuine dude.
Because even though they’re cute and had a nice performance, it was mostly the Cham Jam fans that paid attention to them. There were some possible new fans in the end, but at least the show kept it realistic in that they still need a long way to go to ever make it to the Budoukan. But it was still pretty huge of them to perform at such a grand idol festival, so hopefully they do gain some traction. All in all, this was a fine episode.
FINAL IMPRESSION
The episode ended with a The End?, making it seem like there might be a second season possibly in the future? Would I sit down to watch it, though? I don’t think so. I’ve already said what I said many times, but I felt frustrated by this show a lot. It was fun and funny in the beginning, but eventually the same formula of the million misunderstandings and little of anything else happening got stale very quickly and it made the show way less fun to watch.
Eripiyo was funny at first, but then I got sick of her quick. Because of her insane fangirl ways, it led her to do and say dumb things and it caused all these misunderstandings with Maina, who also contributed said misunderstandings. The wonky communication stopped being funny real fast and just got straight up annoying. It was pretty fun seeing the fandom side of the idol community, though some things were cringe and other things I could relate to to a certain extent. Some scenes were legit funny so I’ll give it that. So it leaves the characters, and for the most part I like all the girls from Cham Jam, though Maina for most of the show was very boring. Which, again, is frustrating since most of the focus goes to Maina because we’re seeing some things from Eripiyo’s point of view. It’s hard to understand why Eripiyo loves Maina so much when Maina herself is bland.
The other girls of Cham Jam however are full of personality and I really like them. I feel like I’d be more inclined to watch a second season just for the Cham girls because they’re all so cute and nice, but since I’d have to deal with Eripiyo’s insanity, it’s a hard pass from me. Reo and Aya are definitely my favorites from Cham Jam, and Kumasa from the fans’ side. I still can’t believe that Motoi never said shit about the stupid rumor stuff, god I hate him. Kumasa is the only good one and his support and love for Reo is pretty genuine and nice. It’s fun seeing Cham Jam’s journey and I’d like to see them get more popular and make it to the Budoukan because they totally deserve it. I’ll always root for them.
All in all, the show was a little disappointing to me. While there were some things and characters I liked, there were other things that bogged this show a lot. It got to the point where watching this show was a little frustrating. So taking that frustration and some of the good, it ended up being pretty average. I’m not sure if I would recommend this show. On one hand I wouldn’t because of the problems I listed, but on the other I kind of would because I can’t really think of any other idol anime that focused on the fans. There are anime that take place in the fans’ perspectives, but not much when it comes to idols. So I’d say, check it out if you want, but it personally wasn’t my favorite. Reo and Aya are still awesome.
5.5/10
