Gekidol – Episode 1

What’s it about? An unknown calamity has destroyed cities around the world, but that doesn’t matter because Morino Seria dreams of becoming an idol and hopes to bring joy around the world through her performance with the Alice in Theater troupe.

If you’re an idol fan then the winter 2021 season is going to be especially kind to you, but I hope those shows turn out to be better than Gekidol.  I was a bit hopeful this was going to be good since Ueda Shigeru directed a couple of episodes of Ascendance of a Bookworm and while the chief script writer Ōchi Keiichirō worked on Adachi and Shimamura with mixed results, I thought with their powers combined something adequate could be created. 

Unfortunately, Gekidol’s premiere feels so devoid of any meaning that it’s hard to get invested in the show’s underlying story about why there are black holes that have caused the disappearance of several cities around the world. Instead of creating a good balance between the mysteries of this phenomenon and Morino Seria’s journey into becoming an idol, the story ultimately treats that global devastation as an afterthought.  Granted, life must go on, but this episode could’ve done a better job establishing the state of the world and how we got here.  

Seria’s a bit of an air-head and clumsy, but while she’s earnest in wanting to become an idol, she isn’t all that interesting and I’m not sure if her journey is worth following.  It doesn’t help that Seria’s friends aren’t very encouraging of her goals, but at least she’s forced to realize how much work it takes to become an idol.  Aside from meeting up with her eventual teammates and hinting there is more to the troupe than meets the eye, nothing much really happens in this episode. 

I’m almost grateful that Funimation released Episode 1 together with the Alice in Deadly School special, because I’m struggling to find anything noteworthy to talk about for this premiere…but even the special is a bit difficult to talk about, because it was boring.

Alice in Deadly School is a zombie story created within Gekidol, and according to the troupe members it’s their best selling show.  If this production was meant to showcase the acting of the troupe members then it definitely showed how emotionless their performances are, and I honestly doubt it’s going to get better for the rest of the series.  It also made watching this premiere unbearably long, just saying. Even the Power of Friendship felt forced.

I don’t want to be so harsh on this series, but idol fans deserve a better story than this.  I’d give this one a strong pass.