Heroines Run the Show: The Unpopular Girl and the Secret Task

In the AniManga scene, there have been many musical labels and groups that have built their reputation on the musical repertoires which hardcore fans in Japan have crazed for them: popular franchises like Love Live!, BanG Dream! and the like. But if there's one group that stands out for the endless features that they can expand to that makes their repertoire so versatile, it's the Vocaloid music group HoneyWorks that has their famed song project that puts them on the worldwide map: the Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai: Ren'ai a.k.a Confession Executive Committee: Love Series that spans films, songs and now anime adaptations like this show. So first,to give you an idea of how this show came about: this is based off of the song of the same name (Heroine Tarumono! / 1% no Koibito) that was released on August 26, 2020 as a single from Inori Minase (which also is the VA for the central Heroine in this show: Hiyori Suzumi) and Toshiyuki Toyonaga (which his character is also friends with the central male idol group duo LIP×LIP), that tells the story of the New First Year student group that's separate from the 2 anime films produced by Qualia Animation in 2016 that features the Third Year students (Zutto Mae Kara Suki Deshita a.k.a I've Always Liked You and Suki ni Naru Sono Shunkan o a.k.a The Moment You Fall in Love), and the TV series produced by Lay-duce in 2017 featuring the First Year students in Itsu Datte Bokura no Koi wa 10 Senchi Datta. a.k.a Our love has always been 10 centimeters apart. The whole HoneyWorks ordeal is that everything and everyone is linked in one way or another, yet can be taken in its own universe altogether. Looks and sounds confusing? Because it is meant to be taken that way as part of an eclipsed project. However, if you're just talking about Heroine Tarumono! alone, this is much easier to digest and understand it as its very own source material (just as is with any other HoneyWorks project), with the only thing linking to it being the main song and the songs released on YouTube that come in at certain points thereafter explaining the background details portrayed in the once again Lay-duce produced anime. And as someone whom have watched the entire series (and yes, that includes the 2020 project film Kono Sekai no Tanoshimikata: Secret Story Film that features LIP×LIP's Yujiro Someya (VA Koki Uchiyama) and Aizo Shibasaki (VA Nobunaga Shimazaki) that's made to commemorate HoneyWorks's 10th Anniversary), I can safely say that the HoneyWorks's "Love Confession" series is still going strong with its new generation of the character cast being able to make its own splash to appeal to existing fans and some whom are new to the large universe. In Heroine Tarumono!, it's the case with the central Heroine Hiyori "Hiyoko" Suzumi who's a countryside girl, who then moves to Tokyo to pursue her dream of being an athlete in track and field despite her lackluster familial circumstances of being a well-knitted but poor family. And just to survive another day by taking odd jobs that would help her family to live better days ahead, one offer came up as the most lucrative: a manager-in-training job that pays handsomely, but the role is dealing with up-and-coming male idol duo LIP×LIP. So being a nobody in school that's surrounded by the idol duo Yujiro and Aizo to the extent of hatred for their nonchalant behaviour and not knowing anything about the life of idols, what's there to lose for Hiyori while supporting her athletic dream? And so, together with her friends of Juri Hattori and Chizuru Nakamura, picking up this apprentice manager will start to change Hiyori's life of her perception of idols, what it means to be one and how far the extent will she go to be treated like an actual Heroine in their lives. If you know anything about the life of idols, they're not a smooth-sailing bed of roses, harbingering from concerts to private lives (say, in school) that even their presence will cause hype-levels of commotion just by being physically "close" to them. And especially for the staff of people managing these high-profile idols, they have it bad when there's bad press ranging from publicity issues to the worst of the bunch: extreme cases of stalking. And being a manager-in-training, Hiyori has to master all of these while keeping this work as a secret, lest that people find out and start to publish propaganda about her converging with popular idols and make this the stereotypical overblown drama that is so prevalent in Japan. The steadfast Hiyori being frenemies with the LIP×LIP duo Yujiro and Aizo, while juggling between the athletic dream she's been chasing, and being the unpopular girl running the secret task, it's a great fit for Hiyori's character being the Heroine of this story that Runs the Show all by herself, that no matter the endless melodrama adversaries beating her down like strong currents of rain and thunder, she would always find a way to press on through and turn the situations around, even when it seems tough. A hardcore girl that can be air-headed and clumsy, but protects her friends and does her best what she can do, that to me, is the mark of a Heroine. Having staff members like producer Shunsuke Saito, scriptwriter-cum-series composer Yoshimi Narita and music composer Moe Hyuuga on this since they have the expertise on the HoneyWorks song project franchise is almost a given if the source needs to stay true to its origins, and for the most part, Heroine Tarumono! did what it was advertised to be: the HoneyWorks song project tie-in series that in all honesty, was not great, but good as the adaptations come in delivering the romantic youth aspect of things. And it should be said that Lay-duce is often the representative studio that most idol-related shows nowadays reside in to get produced by, that the presentation is certainly as good as it looks for being an idol show that focuses on the glitz and glamour of its premise. Even the songs ranging from the OST, insert and special ED songs are what you would expect of a HoneyWorks Vocaloid project that's good and memorable for the most hardcore of fans. It's this aspect that helps keep HoneyWorks relevant to the masses, no matter what it may come up in this huge musical project in the future. Sure enough, I'd doubt that this show would be the last of the HoneyWorks universe, but if it is, it definitely went out with a good bang.

Wow. Two anime based off of music videos this season. Both of terrible quality. Plus, both adaptations are from creators that create Vocaloid songs. Which is also the only reason I watched them both. Honeyworks is pretty good at creating songs, but that doesn't really translate into making good anime. Everything is half baked in this show. Think to yourself for a moment here: what exactly was the focus here? Characters? Barely enough. Maybe a deep social commentary on stalkers? Not really, more like a passing theme and shallow plot point entice the viewers. Maybe the struggles of the idols? Yeah...not really that too. This show doesexactly what I hate about showbiz shows. First of all, despite being still emerging in the scene, there's basically no focus at all on the two idols roadblocks in the showbiz industry. I guess you sometimes will see training montages of them, but other than that, the only problem the idol duo face are external. Oh no, the manger messed up so I have to cover for her. Oh no, I'm pissed at having to go to the school my CEO forced me to go. Oh no, I'm being bullied by industry experts :(. Despite showbiz being only trait about Aizou and Yuujirou that makes them different from a generic high schooler, the show really doesn't do a good job at honing in on that attribute. Despite the entire premise of the show being about idols and being in showbiz industry, with even the female lead, Hiyori, being their manager, you get basically no info on the projects that they're working on or the struggles they could be potentially going on. This is a recurring theme. Hiyori's personality and character profile fits a comedy more than a more serious melodramatic show. Like wow, I'm used to high voices in anime, but Hiyori has an annoyingly high voice. And I just looked through Inori Minase's VA roles, and while I don't really have any recollection or care for any of the characters she voices, the producers of this show deliberately made her voice as annoying as possible. Plus, Hiyori just fits the personality of someone from a comedy like Ika Musume. She's naïve to the point of being a child sometimes. When Yuujirou and Hiyori first meet, his complaint of her is very valid. Why the hell would you say out loud in a classroom that he's been involved with the police? Or like, Hiyori will cry at the slightest thing. Can't find first year classroom? Cry, and act like she's just been saved from a fire when someone randomly gives her directions. Haha, isn't it so funny when she's screaming "NO FIGHTING," and she trips? haha wow, I'm definitely not going to get tired of that shit. Oh, but let's also give this character with the personality of a 12 year old kid straight out of a comedy show sad circumstances. She's like, so tough, having to work her living expenses. Damn, it's so endearing when the idols take pity on her since she's struggling with school. Except that too, isn't a recurring theme. It just passes and goes, the problems of her living circumstances getting less and less important as the show goes on. Don't forget Hiyori loves running! Since that's half her personality, we're totally going to be seeing her run a lot, practice with her teammates, and all that jazz, right? It's totally not going to be tucked in a forgotten corner in favor of melodramatic stuff, right? Lastly, the whole stalker situation. Do people think that this is how accurately a stalker is shown? It reminds me of someone like Sarutobi Ayame from Gintama, or Sanae from Ika Musume for how trivial it actually is. There's no confrontation from the actual idols themselves, which is interesting. There's no consequences. There's no actual creepy atmosphere about the stalker. There's nothing crazy. It's as if the only reason a stalker was introduced to the story was to make yet another forced melodramatic situation on Hiyori. For the lack of consequences and the easy wrap-up of the entire stalker situation, I imagine that this encourages stalker behavior more than anything. Well, since the only thing that happens to a stalker is a slap on a wrist, then why don't I do it too? Like haha, what the hell, do people actually think this does anything? It doesn't make the viewer uncomfortable, it's not creepy or disgusting nearly to the degree that it should be. There's a load of passing themes, plot points, and character development that it's no surprise most of the things mentioned in this show are shallow and lack any substance.

This final impression will spoilers. I'm hiding the name of someone on purpose. The last 3 episodes of “Heroines Run the Show: The Unpopular Girl and the Secret Task” completely ruined the show for me. I used to have the show at a 7/10, I enjoyed it for the most part. I loved seeing Hiyori slowly develop with Aizo and Someya. However, in the last 3 episodes, they introduced the whole stalker arc which isn’t bad on its own, but the way it’s handled is absolutely abysmal. Essentially they victim-blame Hiyori for getting stalked, having her privacy invaded and reward the stalker. The stalker has shown nosympathy towards Hiyori, even when they seemingly felt bad, they felt bad for harming their precious idol group, not their friend. The whole speech about trusting your fans and not finding the culprit was also incredibly stupid. Stalking is a crime and the way they handled the issue is inherently messed up. A stalker is genuinely a horrible person and the treatment of her sends the message that this type of behavior is okay when it’s absolutely not.