Dropout Idol Fruit Tart

You like fruits, love idols and enjoy listening to cheerful music? Then Ochikobore Fruit Tart (or in short OchiFuru) is the perfect anime for you! There is no question that the idol genre is booming at the moment. We could already watch in the summer season 2019 a wonderful CGDCT (Cute Girls Doing Cute Things) story with "Re: Stage! Dream Days ♪", where our girls gave everything to become successful idols and win the competition. At the end of 2019/beginning of this year we were able to experience a new creative idea with "22/7", how AI can also be used in the idol business. In thewarm summer season, we were able to see a wonderful light show from "Lapis Re: LiGHTs". Now at the end of an unusual year, "Love Live! Nijigasaki" and "Ochikobore Fruit Tart" showed us all the beautiful and happy sides of life again. The dream of becoming a successful idol requires hard work, only a few girls manage to pinch the top. Ino, a first-year high school student had always the dream becoming an idol one day. For this reason, she travels to Tokyo and moves into a dormitory-style house for entertainers known as "Nezumi House” (rat house). She meets other “dropout” girls there and become friends with them: We have Roko, a formerly popular child actress, Hayu, a musician, and Nina, a model. Later Hemo also joins the "Rat Production" and completes the five-girl idol group. Their manager Hoho never really knew how to handle money correctly, so the house is threatened with being torn down. To prevent this, our new idol unit "Fruit Tart" decides to join the entertainment industry in order to raise funds to protect their home. What makes this idol anime so special are the characters. While the last names of each character represent Koganei's (a city located in the western portion of Tokyo) districts, the first names each phonetically spell out the Japanese poem "Iroha". The first line of the poem “Iro ha nihoheto” can be found here as well: Ino, Roko, Hayu, Nina, Hoho, Hemo. Whoever sees Ino for the first time probably had the same thought as me: This is Nadeshiko from Yuru Camp! Based on the date, the manga OchiFuru appeared first in 2014 while Yuru Camp was published in 2015. Either way, both characters look similar and give you a comfy impression. Ino has a fairly level-headed temperament. Although coming from the country side, she was easily able to adapt to the fast-paced life in the city. She has a strong penchant for the MOE aesthetic as well, whenever something cute happens from other girls, she tends to drool and flush red with a certain delight. Ino always loved Roko for her cute broccoli commercials when Roko was a child. That’s why she is known by many TV viewers as "Brocco”. As an idol, Roko is very much popular among women in their 20's and older, they love her cuteness. Although already being a sixteen-year-old high school student, she is only 140 cm tall. With her experience she tries to make the best possible as the leader of the group. Whenever Roko is sad or just wants a hug, she finds place between Nina’s breasts. Nina stands out in one thing: her G-Cup size oppai. That is the reason why she is sometimes the biggest draw of Fruit Tart, owing mostly to her physical appearance and not necessarily because of her singing or dancing. Since she had been a fashion model before, she is in charge of the costumes. Coming from a wealthy family in, Hayu had decided to pursue becoming a musician against her father's wishes. As a result, she was forced to survive on her own at “Nezumi House”. Although she is a terrible singer, Hayu has the motivation about becoming an idol. With her love and understanding for music, especially Rock, she helps to write the group's song compositions. The last girl joining the group is Hemo. She is intensely devoted to Ino. Like her, Hemo had always dreamed of being an idol since childhood. Before joining the “Rat Productions”, she auditioned at “Cat Productions” and landed in first place. But after some strange encounters, she decided to stay in the “Nezumi House”. In addition to our main characters, we also see their manager Hoho, who loves beer and money above everything else; the best supporter in the world Tone, who is an excellent singer and could easily outshine each member in singing ability; and the members of the rival group "Cream Anmitsu" around Roko's younger sister Chiko and the twins Nua and Rua. They are much better known and more successful. Least but not last, without fans idols cannot be successful. They are supported by their family, friends, neighbourhood, everyone loves them! Every character is special and has a certain preference, which is rather unusual. But you can still feel the joy that our idols shine. It’s fun to watch their everyday life. Fruits are colorful, so is this anime. We experience many bright and happy colors. The girls are shown very cute and adorable as it is often the case in CGDCT idol anime. The "stick figure style" is special here and cannot be seen anywhere else. In a few scenes our girls are shown with only their head and a "triangle line" instead of the body. It's hard to imagine and explain, so you have to experience this for yourself! But this also makes everything seem much funnier and somehow livelier. The music is of course an important part for an idol anime. Certainly "Fruit Tart" can't keep up with the girls from “Love Live!” when it comes to this part, but there is something humorous about their music. It makes everything happier and a little funnier as well. Both OP and ED are a group performance, it's just fun to listen to their music. They put you in a good mood. As a huge idol fan, I was really looking forward to this anime. Even the cover picture shines with joy. Anyone who likes the genre CGDCT will feel comfortable here. We experience their everyday life, how they always give their best and of course hope that they will keep improving. This anime simply brings you happiness and joy. (And the fanservice is great, you will discover that point surely.) Finally, I really recommend this anime to everyone with the preference CGDCT plus idol-music combination. Relax, lay back and simply enjoy! Let's hope to see more of our “Fruit Idols” in the future!

Ochifuru was a thoroughly enjoyable experience throughout and gave Love Live Nijigaku a run for its money as the best idol show of the season. Coming into this season, I had never heard of the Ochifuru idol project before. Based on the character’s designs and the fact that I watch every show every season, I gave it a shot. I could not be happier that I did. Every single week I was blown away by how genuinely hilarious this show is. The girls are great and there’s a girl for every type of taste in the show. The antics that the girls get up to neverget old, and seemingly every week the ridiculousness was taken up a level. I can definitely say there was never a dull moment. I think the score that you see for the show on MAL is unfairly harsh and probably indicative of people who are not the target audience watching this show. Ochifuru is quite ecchi and does have some pretty overt Yuri themes. If those two things are not your cup of tea, please save your time, and watch something else. For me, that’s exactly what I’m looking for in an anime. I think the ecchi moments were really well done and added a lot of comedy to the anime. The Yuri moments were nice for me as well. It wouldn’t be an idol anime review if we didn’t talk about the music. I was actually really impressed with some of the performances by the girls in the show. I don’t think they were as good as Nijigaku from this season, but there were definitely some standout tracks that I listen to on a daily basis from this anime. Overall, I could not be more pleased with Ochifuru. I think it does everything it sets out to do. It’s funny, it’s got hot girls in cute outfits singing, it panders to the male otaku fantasy and it’s just plain fun. In that regard, I’m very happy with this show and hoping for a second season. Ochifuru gets 10 out of 10.

A show doesn’t have to be complex or meaningful to be good. Sometimes all you need are some endearing characters and a whole bunch of fun and silly setups and it can create an amazing show that’s a complete joy to watch. And that’s basically Fruit Tart. While Fruit Tart may not have the same level of development or depth that other top tier CGDCT have, it does make up for it by being unique and having a lot of fun. The premise of Fruit Tart is simple, you have a couple of rejects and put them together into an idol group. There they tryto make their mark on the world and rise up in the ranks. To do something they haven’t been able to do recently in their careers. Succeed! The start does a good job of showing their goal and their struggles and giving backstory into their characterization. While their characters aren’t very deep, the characterization they get early on gives a good baseline for who they are and why they would be fun and endearing. And they are set up well for that. The characters are well designed in their appeal, and most of them are given all of the things they need to succeed: distinct personalities, great character designs, and moe insecurities. With this set up we are treated to a lot of fun shenanigans between the cast and a lot of very fun interactions. The characters fit together quite well to create adorable and humorous interactions. Pretty much all of the main girls like each other, and have very selfish desires. And often they show case them more or less, whether they think they’re being subtle or not. And personally I find it adorable seeing them care so much about specific parts of each other, as well as the levels of denial they have about it. As dumb as their desires may be, they are consistent, cute, and match up well with their characterization which enhances the cuteness quite well. Take Ino for example. She loves idols so much that she wanted to be one and adores cute girls quite a lot. This matches up well because her interest in cute idols plays into her own motivation to become one. So the very same nature that leads her to covet Roko is the same nature that got her into this business and shaped her mindset. Another good example of this is Roko someone who wants to prove her own maturity due to her stinted growth and who ends up coveting Nina part due to her body which likely lines up with how Roko would like to be, but also because of her motherly demeanor which is a good balance to Roko’s immaturity. There is sort of a cycle through-out the cast of them both admiring and desiring each other and what each other has and the interactions that stem from them are great. Their behavoir and status also makes them so easy to root for in their goals. They really do live up their status as dropouts and even when they succeed it's through effort both on their parts and on those around them being won over by their loser charm. Their relations with the community around them is quite nice and it's great to see them grow and gain fans despite their limitations. It's very satisfying to see them climb the ranks together as losers especially since they never really lose that label even as they grow. They may still get fans but they're still the loveable endearing losers that they are. The visuals are pretty strong and do a good job of showcasing the cuteness of the characters. While the characters can be drawn very simply for scenes where they are not showcased, the show really knows to make the characters look adorable when it matters Giving very well drawn and adorable pictures that flesh out well whatever joke or emotion the character has for maximum cuteness. I don’t think the show would work as well without its art as it is a keep component in its success. The sound is also pretty strong and there are some nice idol tracks. The 2D animation for the idol sequences are also pretty cool and are a notable difference from other idol shows, and are one that really showcase the cuteness of the characters. While the art can be inconsistent it knows when to shine to give off maximum cuteness. I can’t say Fruit Tart was really deep but it was a whole lot of fun. Strong characters and character interactions are what makes a CGDCT good and Fruit Tart excels at both of them. Because while they may not have the depth they certainly are endearing and it’s hard not to enjoy their dumb choices and desires and their weaknesses and charm points. They truly embody the mouse house and I loved watching it. While it doesn’t hit the highest of high points, it is a high tier CGDCT for me, and one that is well worth a watch.