Here we go! A new idol anime for the season! This time we start off with three girls who make up the group TINGS: Haru, Rio, and Kyouka. All of which are pretty unique from each other and form a tragically unsuccessful idol group. So unsuccessful that if they don’t manage to fill up a venue of just 2000 seats, they will be disbanded. But luckily Naoki Hinase, a man with supernatural abilities is here to help out.
Since this is only the premier episode, we have so much more to learn about each of these characters, but overall I think I like the direction each of them are going. Usually, I’m able to call out who is going to be my ‘best girl’ early on, but all three of them make it difficult. First we have Haru, who seems to be the center of this group and truly a “Glass Half Full” type of person. So far she seems incredibly positive and genuinely just excited to be an idol and to essentially spread the love of idols across the world. A valid goal! Now, my biggest critique about Haru is that… I wish she could keep the braids and glasses!! Sorry everyone, I am a glasses fan and whenever they make characters take them off I get so bummed. Let these characters see !!! Give them their glasses!! Next we have Rio, or Rio-sama who has a little bit of the chuni vibe going for her and that can always be fun! She’s not quite at a Yohane (Love Live! Sunshine!!) level, but I am personally choosing to believe that she is still working on getting into this persona that she’s made for herself. Recently, I’ve been enjoying these types of characters a lot more, so I am excited to see how she develops. And then lastly, we have Kyouka, who takes the quieter and seemingly more level headed approach to things. But she has her own quirks as well! She’s a prankster who… can’t really land her pranks. But genuinely I think things like that can be quite fun to watch – especially when people take her too seriously because they can’t tell if she is joking. So, all in all, I’m excited to get to know all these girls!
Now, as for the manager… I’m not going to get too far into him only because I don’t think I’m going to give him a fighting chance. Quite frankly after this episode, I almost find him bland, boring, and would much rather not have him around. And that’s really harsh after a single episode! And I think the girls from TINGS just have so much more personality, that when he arrived it was quite a shock. I know over time he’ll become very important to the group and get them all to achieve their dreams, but this episode didn’t display his drive to do so. Yeah, we got the flashback that he happens to share the same dream as Haru, but then stuff happened and he’s pulled away from that. I hope we get to see energy and passion from him in helping these girls grow. Otherwise, the only other thing of note is that he has special eyes. And what do these special eyes do? Well… they are basically a lie detector. People glow gold when they lie. And as of right now, I don’t know how that is going to come in handy… well aside from the fact that when asked why the girls want to be idols, Haru is the only one who didn’t glow. Honestly, I thought we were going to throw a Penguin Revolution style vibe where the glowing actually indicated their level of talent. In short… I got my hopes up. But! It is only episode 1 so I will have to be patient and wait and see.
Overall, I wouldn’t say there has been anything particularly stand out with the episode. I think it’s a pretty standard premier. The animation is fairly good and the characters seem to be a loveable group. And the overall premise / goal is pretty simple to get behind. So, I’m looking forward to seeing how things develop and learning more about everyone’s motivations. TINGS has some loyal fans already, but I can’t wait for their fanbase to grow. I believe in you TINGS! I’m hoping for the best!
Possibility of Watching: Moderate
Possibility of Blogging: High
