9 July 2014: I was going to give this Puchimas!! post a clickbait title, but what happened next was I didn't
Raglan shirt.
One of my favorite shows from the spring 2014 season—not necessarily reflected in its "objective" score—is Puchimas!! Petit Petit iDOLM@STER, the second season of a gag anime (presumably non-canonically) based on the iDOLM@STER franchise. Curiously, the blobby little puchis themselves are probably my least favorite part of the show.
Harukasan doesn't live by your rules.
Well, I guess I do sort of like Harukasan, mostly because of that "KA-KA" sound she makes. Likewise, I sort of like Yayo because she also makes funny noises. Plus she's really orange. In fact, the silly noises the puchidols make turn out to be more important to me than their particular attributes. Not that I don't enjoy Io's destructive forehead energy beams or Miurasan's haphazard teleportation, but they seem less remarkable after 74 episodes, even three-minute ones.
The ephemeral exuberance of youth.
I think the reason why I like Yayo (and Puchimas Yayoi) more than I like iDOLM@STER proper Yayoi is because I've never been able to take Yayoi seriously as an idol. Honestly, it would make a lot more sense to me if Yayoi were a part-time office flunkie or intern instead of an idol. (Japanese compulsory education ends after ninth grade, right?) Correspondingly, this would allow moving Ritsuko entirely into her veteran idol/part-time producer side (like when Charlie Hustle was a player/manager for the Reds) and eliminating all of her administrative office duties.
Needs more kyun!
Really, though, anything iDOLM@STER-related would likely have fared rather well in my rankings (another sign you shouldn't take these figures or positions too seriously). Honestly, they could cobble together a season comprised solely of all-singing, all-dancing performances ripped straight from the games and bookended by a couple idols yammering back and forth at each other like the do in radio shows and I'd watch it forever. We're there.
