Anime: Kirarin Revolution

I must admit...I like this show. A lot. Because I love shoujo so much. XD But already people are giving a bad rep because they shallowly analyze the whole thing from the first episode.-_-

Animation:

It's....cute. That's the best word for it. The colors are bright and cheery and the character designs are what attracted me to it in the first place. This is a shoujo anime, therefore, the bigger the eyes and longer the bangs, the better. Some of the characters' appearances are superior to that of the manga (particulary the boys). Of course this is only based on personal taste.
The CGI Naa-san at the end of each episode is particularly ADORABLE.

Sound:

Heh, well Full Moon Wo Sagashite, this is not. At first I disliked the opening and ending because of Koharu's vocals but these songs are the kind that grow on you and pretty soon you won't be able to get them out of your head. The OP is quite catchy and the ED is nice and slow. A good formula for your standard OP and ED, no?

The background music is all right. It doesn't really stand out that much but it fits great with all the situations that are happening.

Seiyuu: The seiyuu are chosen quite well. Again, I didn't like Koharu's performace as Kirari at first because she didn't sound girly enough (and she's even a little annoying sometimes) but her acting is good for a newcomer. I do like Hiroto's seiyuu a lot-he's perfect for the brash kind of guy Hiroto is and Erina's seiyuu is so good at sounding truely evil and enraged that you'll probably laugh out loud.

Characters:

They're not exactly that original but somehow very likable anyway. Kirari is sort of like Usagi crossed with Kouyama Mitsuki. She sort of has a one-track mind: boys and food but she's no wimp nor very clumsy (that much), and she doesn't give up easily. She's not really a crybaby either. When she does cry, it's usually a moving situation dealing with friends or family.

One thing that makes Kirari stand out from standard shoujo girls is that she's the prettiest girl around and everyone admires her. Her gluttony isn't particularly disgusting, if anything it's for comic relief. The anime uses this to its advantage-in the ED, we get a mass of images of a minature Kirari dressed in cute clothes sitting on top of different desserts. This makes for a very cute and slightly humorous sequence. In the eyecatches, it's plain funny because she holds a crepe and looks downright possessed. XD

Seiji and Hiroto are as stereotypical as you can get: "the nice one and the mean one (who's actually not so mean)". What I really like though, is that Seiji is just "nice" while Hiroto shows that he cares about Kirari in more than just the "nice" way-it's usually he who comes to Kirari's rescue while Seiji does nothing but watch. I think this is going to work really well for the story later on for teaching Kirari what falling in love is really about.

Naa-san must be the only cat with an IQ of 400. This cat can do ANYTHING. XD Yes, he's the "mascot" but he's not really annoying-for one thing, he doesn't talk (just says "Naa" a lot like cats tend to do.) And he is USEFUL; I'm thinking if it weren't for Naa-san, Kirari would be a total disaster 24/7 XD. Magically, she can understand all of his "Naa"s. O_o;

Are the other characters worth mentioning? Not really. They're just there-the nice protective dad who's the grade A chef, the evil girl rival, the childhood fiancee, and the idol-loving chipmunk granny. Yes, that sums them up entirely.

Story:

Again, as you can guess, this show is shoujo cliche after another. What I can say about it is, it's the only singing-idol show without magic or transformation. And it's fluffy. Oh my goodness is it fluffy. But this is a kid's show-you cannot expect too much from it. At least not in the first nine episodes. But I'm curious to see where it goes. One piece of originality is KIRARI IS TALENTLESS. Her singing is just bad and this is quite funny.

Value:

It's not really new stuff but a shoujo manga fan will probably dig it. It does have little twists here and there; both of the heroine's love interests are in a band and she joins in later on and like I said, there's no magical girl stuff. There is one great scene where Kirari walks in on the boys' changing room and fangirls who are so tired of seeing it the other way around will most definitely squeal with glee. XD

Enjoyment:

Kirarin Revolution is a series that can prove that cliches aren't always bad and even if it's been done a bunch of times, it can still be very enjoyable. I'm addicted to it. I love Kirari and Hiroto and Naa-san and all the fluffy shoujo cuteness. Yes, watch this if you like cute. The cute level is right up there with Pita-Ten and Fushigiboshi No Futago Hime.