Anime Review: "Heroines Run the Show"

 

I started watching this when it was airing, but didn’t get around to finishing it until it’s already an entirely new year. Where did 2022 go? I regret putting this off. I wasn’t immediately grabbed by the premise, or how the plot got set up in the first few episodes, but it got so much better and better as things progressed. I don’t want to spoil anything in terms of actual events that take place in the series, but I think it’s OK to say a few things that were NOT in this show.

If you look at the genre tags and find “romance” missing, don’t worry, you’ve not made a mistake. When I saw this pop up in my feed initially I thought for sure it was going to turn into some weird romantic love triangle thing between the country girl and the two male idols, but I was very, very wrong.

Hopefully that’s not a spoiler, just a set of expectations.

“Heroine Tarumono!” is a unique slice-of-life, drama/comedy, and I suppose you’d call it an “Idol” anime, but I’m not too sure how it fits into that niche, since I haven’t watched many shows in that vein before.

What did I like about this show so much? Well, let me tell you…

A lot of it comes from the characters.

Hiyori, the protagonist, was incredibly loveable. I adored her character design, especially the bushy eyebrows. Her accent was great.

The male idols she becomes acquainted with Aizo and Yujiro started off pretty annoying, but they experience ACTUAL character development over the course of the show, just like the heroine does. I ended up liking both of them pretty equally by the end. I would have liked to see a bit more of them to be honest. Feels like there was more there than we got to see, especially with Yujiro and his family’s background.

The plot of the show is also really good. I won’t elaborate further to avoid spoilers. Just go with it.

I didn’t give it a 10/10 for a few reasons. For being an “Idol” anime, which features a lot of music, I found the songs to be the weakest point; especially the OP, which I ended up skipping most of the time. I guess good music and idols aren’t really synonymous… hmm. It also did take 4-5 episodes to really hook me in, which is kind of slow to be honest. Most people will drop something by episode 3 if they’re not all aboard by then.

All that said, definitely recommend this one. Solid stuff. 9/10

You can find the series on Crunchyroll!