Boxset comes with 4 keepcases containing 6 DVDs and 1 CD,
scenario/conte book, illustration book, and a novel titled "Lullaby."
That's 6 DVDs, 1 CD, and 3 books with a box.
Physical quality (paper, booklet printing, etc.) is top notch as
usual for an R2 release. Unfortunately, video quality is not very
good. I expected that though, since it's an older Pony Canyon title.
Bit rate is more than 2x of the R1 DVDs, so compression is not a
problem, but there's a severe case of old fields hanging around to
interfere with 3:2 pulldown. Interestingly, this problem is actually
worse in R2. With FLI2200, either version looks adequate, so it's
possible to watch the show without getting too distracted with the
video quality. If I had to pick one, I'd pick R2 still, but it's a
close call. Then again, R2 is some 5x more costly than R1 set.
Even though the video quality is very disappointing, this series is
very important to me, so I have no regrets buying it. Why is it so
important to me? Well, that brings up something I've been meaning to
write for a while. This is one of those shows that most people just
don't seem to understand. I can't understand how people who have seen
even the first two episodes can compare this to Pinocchio. How can
they think so shallowly? Heck, it doesn't even need much thinking to
figure out what it's about because it's right there in the title! Do
I have to spell it out? IDOL!
The question is, what is an idol? An idol is similar to a god. Yes,
I'm serious. Just as a god is created and maintained by believers, an
idol is created and maintained by fans. There is even an example of
this in the show. Remember the snake god and the "Prince?"
Dedications of the fans is what makes an idol. Perhaps "dedication"
isn't always the right word. I can think of other words like
"longings," "desires," "respect," and even "faith." One might prefer
to think of it as fans "protecting" the idol instead of "making" an
idol. In the show, the word "omoi" is used to describe whatever it is
that powers an idol. There isn't a direct translation for it, but
then "omoi" itself is used for convenience only, so having a direct
translation wouldn't mean much. Still, it's interesting to look at
all the possible translation for "omoi." Thought, mind, heart,
feelings, emotion, sentiment, love, affection, desire, wish, hope,
expectation, imagination, and experience. In the end, the word itself
isn't important, since "idol" is just a word, too. It's the concept
that matters. Long conversations in the later episodes describe a lot
of this. I actually didn't need to listen to all that to figure out
most of this. I bet a lot of people think those episodes with long
conversations are stupid and boring. Who's the stupid one?
There are certain qualities that are required by an idol. Ask
Tsurugi, or since that's impossible, watch him very carefully in the
show. You can even think of these qualities as "powers." Think Mima
family and their passed-down ability to focus and control the "souls"
of the "fans." It's not the shrine maiden that's making the dolls
move. It's the fans. This is explained in the show as well. Of
course, just having those qualities, as rare as they may be, doesn't
mean that you will become an idol. There's obviously a lot of luck
involved, too. Do you realize that Sakura could, or maybe even
should, have been an idol? Think carefully about the "should" part.
There are hints in the show that asserts that people who are meant to
be "idols" _should_ become "idols."
The show also deals with different kinds of relationships between an
"idol" and a "manager." An "idol" isn't something that can be
raised. Earlier relationship between Tsurugi and Miho is an
interesting example of this. Tsurugi has his own visions, but Miho
refuses to be his craftwork. Their relationship was never meant to
last. Is an idol nothing more than a doll to be manipulated by the
manager? This actually happens to Miho, at least according to Ouji.
How does the manager even go about promoting to "sell" the idol?
PPORs were never going to work. Ajou is an idiot for not figuring
this out because he should have noticed how he couldn't make any
progress with the PPORs even as he is successful in promoting Miho.
Miho is successful because fans make her successful. It doesn't even
matter if Miho is real or just a shell because the only thing that
matters is the fans. They go so far as to substitute Miho with
Beniko, although that didn't go too well. There's more to be said
about Beniko, too, but I won't go into it.
Even if Ajou were successful in collecting the "faith," it wouldn't
have worked to power the PPORs anyway because the "faith" isn't
transferrable.
And, don't forget. Most fans tend to see only a small part of an
idol. It may be because the idol in question is skillful or it may be
because the fan himself/herself chooses to. After all, an idol is
nothing without the fans. Some fans go far beyond this level of
relationship, but I think when that happens, the relationship seizes
being that of a fan and an idol. This is going off topic, though.
One last thing to think about is very serious and possibly even
depressing. Since fans make idols, bad fans promote bad idols. This
goes three ways among the fans, idols, and managers (or whoever is
promoting idols).
All images are lossless PNG files, so they're fairly large. I hope it doesn't kill my bandwidth.
