Unnecessarily Long Marginal#4 Anime Post
Jul. 17th, 2023 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
venvenIs it good? No. Did I like it? Yeah.
I hesitate to call this a review because it's nowhere near objective or spoiler-free enough to be one, but you can view it as a collection of my thoughts on the show. Also, I really don't recommend reading this post if you're planning to watch it.
So, to start off, Marginal#4 (Marginal Number Four) is a 4-boy idol group under the agency Pythagoras Productions. The anime mainly revolves around the four guys in MG#4 while their labelmates Lagrange Point and Unicorn Jr. make frequent [1] appearances. They also have a kiss motif, especially MG#4 so that's why you'll see and hear a lot of them.
The game's protagonist and Marginal#4's manager, Yue, is unvoiced and does not make a full appearance in the anime. Instead, the guys receive work-related texts from her occasionally. Their boss Mai is a pretty lady that shows up from time to time.[2]
Now while this is meant to be an idol show, I'd say it's closer to a school slice of life. The first episode kicks off with Marginal#4 performing their iconic[3] song “100万回の愛革命(REVOLUTION)!” but that is one of the few performances you ever see in the anime, if not the only one. The vast majority of episodes focus on the guys' school lives and while that includes their idol activities, most of said activities are carried out off-screen.
Art-wise, I have to say I'm just a little impressed. Mind you, my expectations were very low so that wasn't exactly a challenge, but the animation is in no way as stiff as I thought it would be. The characters *are* drawn off-model quite often, [4] but the actual movements aren't too bad, and for some reason the animators are really good at drawing side profiles.
The direction is strangely decent at some parts, though it feels like the director gets too ambitious during song performance scenes.[5] The 3D models are just about average so I have no strong feelings about them, but surprisingly most of the dancing is animated in 2D. The anime only came out in 2017 and use of CGI was already common then, so I appreciate the effort. My only real problem with the dancing is their choreography which isn't my cup of tea.
The production quality remained fairly consistent throughout all 12 episodes, which was also pretty neat because I was expecting it to go downhill.
One part that stood out to me in the first episode was a scene where Atom, L, and R [6] are talking together without Rui as he was from a different school. It was a very light-hearted conversation but the shot changes in the middle to show their album cover in a convenient camera angle that conceals Rui. No sound effects were played and the tone didn't change; they silently snuck that part in and I really liked that.
That said, I don't think there was anything notable in the first episode beyond what I just mentioned. It brings up Rui's past and how he belonged to another group before, and after that it's the other three trying to create a school club for themselves except they need 4 people. Rui transfers to their school at the end of the episode, joins their club, and all is well.
It didn't feel like much of a first episode personally, and I'm not sure I like the way they immediately solved the main cause of conflict (different schools) but again, it's not really supposed to be serious.
The second episode however. I don't know what possessed them to make the second episode entirely about Atom's underwear but that sure is a choice I will remember. I don't even have an issue with whatever brand of comedy they want to indulge in, but isn't that kind of thing episode 7-8 material? Any person with enough braincells to rub together would've dropped the show there. Couldn't be me, though.
But really, I was warned about the second hand embarrassment especially from Atom, but I didn't think it would be like that… I did laugh a bit, though cringe is probably closer to what I was feeling. At the same time, those shenanigans [7] made me miss highschool a bit because that's the kind of crap teenagers would pull all the time. In fact I can probably remember an incident or two resembling the events of this episode but I'd rather not.
And speaking of highschool! This show is yet another proof that KENN excels in voicing highschoolers because I really liked his performance as L. A lot of his roles are on the sexier side because of his natural rasp but he also nails that boyish tone especially when a lot of guys have awkward voices at that age.
I would be derailing if I started to talk about how well he voices Tamaki, but basically his role as L is similar to that. It's also a little funny because both Idolish7 and Marginal#4 desperately want me to believe Riku and Rui are the best vocalists in their respective groups when KENN is right there like come on.
People love to bring up L and Tamaki sharing a voice but nobody says anything about Atom and Iori because they couldn't be any more different LOL I don't think I've ever seen Toshiki Masuda in a role like Atom before but he has a lot more energy here. He sounds like he's doing a little bit too much sometimes but I hope it's fun at least.
Moving on, I had my suspicions before but episode 3 made me certain this show could not survive a single episode without incest bait. I'm only addressing it this once, but it's a thing and it's there.
And yet that's not even the weirdest thing about that episode because… I can't even begin to describe it. The premise is that the twins had to shoot a pasta commercial, but L finds a cursed ring in the studio and when he wears it everything around them starts to fall apart. The direction becomes a mixture of horror and comedy then, and I don't know if it's the pacing or soundtrack or whatever but something about all of it felt very weird and not in the intended way. I think. Strange things were happening one after another but not in a "getting slapped in different directions" way. It made me question whether I was awake enough because wtf was going on. It's not even a strong feeling or shock, I just sat there. I'm struggling to find the words here especially if you haven't seen it, but basically what I'm saying is that it's both the best and worst episode of this show.
And by the way, the ring wasn't even cursed. It was an act to prank R, but after L tells him they decide to play along with it and the scenes that follow yielded a lot of misleading out of context screenshots.
The ending song for this episode also features the twins in adorable outfits. I never mentioned the endings until now, but they're all catchy with fun MVs. There's a different ending for each episode and that's where most of the idoling takes place. Sadly a few of them, including the ending for this episode, are not available on Spotify for one reason or another.
Episode 4 kind of just exists—they spend the first half deciding what to cook for the school festival and the second half cooking for the school festival.
I guess it's meant to be Lagrange Point's episode because they help out in the booth (they're not students) and perform the ending song. But I don't think I care about them enough no.
The only actual important thing was seeing their manager and immediately recognizing that he's voiced by Tsuda Kenjirou.
You know,
Anyway. You can see Rejet's mascot KumaD a lot in this episode, he's everywhere, and truth be told I really needed that reminder because I can't believe Rejet made something as benign as this. (Episode 3 notwithstanding.)
I don't have much else to say but they gave me R in a maid costume [8] and Rui played Romeo in their school play but it wasn't the focus at all. They attend an all boys' school (more on that in a sec) so idk why they didn't make him Juliet instead of giving that role to an NPC.
Then I got to episode 5 and realized. I only really liked Rui in ep 1. This is probably one of those things caused by limited anime context so I'm going to assume his character is more fleshed out in the game, but he was a lot gentler initially, I think. Doesn't help that they didn't expand on his relationship with his former group at all.
He's also essential for the kind of jokes they have going on because the other 3 are different flavours of stupid. They refuse to believe he has a plush toy in his room so they keep making up scenarios and prying until he explains, but then they *really* want to visit his room and uncover his secrets so they basically stalk him the entire episode. The transitions between operation names were pretty funny ngl.
If I had to explain their comedic dynamic I'd say they're two bokes, one tsukkomi, and just some guy. They tend to switch places often. I'm not a huge fan of comedy in general and like I said before, a lot of Marginal#4's hinges on second hand embarrassment but they can get the timing right, and jokes land sometimes. Sometimes.
Which leads us to episode 6 aka Unicorn's debut. [9] Long story short, Atom gets into a dating scandal for presumably being spotted with a girl, except that girl is actually just Unicorn's Teruma. [10]
The three of the new group's members were supposed to make their entry after that reveal but they kept messing it up and yeah sorry that was funny.
So, this leads to that, and MG#4 go against Unicorn in a series of silly games to prove who's best. Eventually they have this genius idea to act out a scene where they kiss a Pythagoras statue. Because Pythagoras Productions.
Idk man just.
Tsubasa's scene took me out because they had no reason to be so creative with these shots.
(He couldn't even do it eventually.)
While on the topic of Tsubasa did you know he's voiced by Aoi Shouta? His solo song "Ange Dêchu" is my personal favourite out of the character solos and the cover art is extra chic.
Episode 7 opens and closes with obligatory orientalism and is more or less about the twins, but most of it involves their school's radio show.
I won't bother explaining what's happening and it's not like I understand it either, but something that caught my attention was the way the guys are aware their boyfriend-idol image doesn't work that well in an all-boys school. I found that part interesting because it explains why their classmates don't treat them like celebrities. It also made me think because in, say, Love Live, the girls don't have a similar issue.[11]
Other than that I liked some shots in this episode.
The ending theme here is L's "コ･コ･ロ･ヒ･ト･ツ" and. I would usually put this in a footnote but I have a lot of feelings about this song and most of them are bad.
First of all it simply makes me nauseous; I play this song and it evokes a visceral disgust in me. And it's amazing how it gives me stomach cramps because absolutely nothing happens in those four (and a half!!) minutes. I swear it doesn't build up to anything and just starts then ends. And yet I listened to it a shameful amount of times. I think I gaslit myself into liking it by now but the nausea is still very much there.
L is the kind of character I thought I'd dislike except for some KENN privileges, but he turned out to be a lot more normal than I assumed. He's a fun guy really, and I love it when they make characters obsessed with something so random. I have only learned what a Marimo was a few hours ago as of this writing but now that I know. Yeah I'm kinda with it.[12]
Episode 8 changes things up a bit. It's a detective drama starring Atom and Rui with the rest of the cast acting as support characters. In this drama, Atom [13] is a detective who is determined to catch his colleague's murderer.
Shortly after the funeral, he meets Rui who claims to be the reincarnated form of said colleague (Okasabe) and says he doesn't remember the full details of his own death.
The two then team up to solve the mystery of Okasabe's last case involving a stolen painting of a reincarnated angel. It plays out the same way any other AU does, and it was a fun chance to let characters act completely different from usual.[14] Rui and Atom practically switched personalities and I guess that was the point here.
I can't say the production was anything special (it let me down if anything) but I somehow didn't see the twist coming. The murderer was actually Atom, and Rui lied about being reincarnated.[15] I don't like it when mysteries pull this "the killer was the main character all along!" but for some reason I didn't think this would happen at all, so the surprise factor worked. It was also a fictional story within a fictional story, so I fully believed he was reincarnated… [16]
Episode 9 is a flashback for the most part, where R reminisces about the formation of their group. I was glad he got an episode centring him because while I love him to death [17] I have to admit he had the personality and relevancy of a raisin that rolled under my grandma's fridge in the 80's. That said the episode wasn't exactly fun to me.
It was alright, and I guess I'm contradicting myself because this is the most idol-like episode in the anime, but I grew to like the school drama more by now LOL.
Anyway, we see how the guys didn't get along at all in the past and the way R tried to make things work between them even though he was extremely insecure about his singing and dancing, believing the group would be better off without him. Eventually they make him the leader for that reason, and he learns to recognize his role.
The most fun I've had in this episode was when Mai showed them their group logo and Atom in full confidence read it as maruginaru sharp four. The buildup for that joke was really good I'm not gonna lie.
Then there's episode 10, the training camp episode. [18] If you're familiar with other Rejet products you probably know what this implies, but basically it's just the guys struggling for 20 minutes. In all honesty the show was starting to lose me for the past two episodes but this brought things back in my opinion.
Our 12 Idols are sorted into shuffle groups through a draw like so:
Wonder Corona: Kira, Atom, Tsubasa [19]
My Milky Way: L, Teruma, R
Nebulas: Shy, Rui, Alto [20]
When their instructor falls ill, the guys decide to make him nagashi somen (with udon) so that he feels better, while working together as units. In all likelihood my humour is broken but the most I've ever laughed in this anime was at the scene with L's lucky charm marimo moving just a tiny bit to guide them to water. The little sound it made. I laughed for minutes I swear.
The dramatic reactions from the guys at the udon flowing were easily the highlight of this episode. It’s a bit of a classic, but still hilarious and especially when noodles are portrayed so majestically.
It was the cumulation of their collective efforts so maybe the way they treated it was a little warranted.
Something worth mentioning is that this wasn't the only time they'd done shuffle units. For their Spectacle Tour CD's, we got a new batch of shuffle groups and you should absolutely listen to the unit with Rui, R, and Tsubasa. Both songs are 👌
For episode 11 Marginal#4 and Unicorn Jr. go back to school after they spend summer training, and the rest of the episode plays out like your typical miscommunication plot. Tsubasa hears rumours saying Atom got an offer from Hollywood, and he did, but everyone assumes he will take it and leave the group behind. And as usual, they either can't ask him directly or he doesn't hear them when they do.
The whole thing was pretty cliché, but I wouldn't say it was a boring watch even though you could see the "twist" miles away which made the stakes very low. Rui's handling of the situation was especially interesting because I felt like this episode addressed a lot of my grievances regarding his character and his reactions proved to me that he is, in fact, a lot better in the actual game. So that's something. The same applies for the next episode, so I won’t repeat myself.
They also spoke English for an extended time in this episode because they wanted Atom to feel insecure about his language skills and then he wouldn't go to Hollywood, but that was hard to watch and didn't even work. The intention behind that scene was to make you laugh and laugh I did, so I’m not complaining. One plot point you were supposed to remember here is that the Marginal#4 boys sent one of their CD’s to outer space. Legally.
And so for the final episode, Atom realizes he actually sent Lagrange Point’s CD instead of their own, and travels alone to the agency they signed up with to get their own CD there. He safely finishes the task, but a typhoon hits the area the next day and he is unable to come back in time for their concert.
I was afraid episode 12 would make me feel the same way the first episode did, which is “Well that was nice but it didn’t feel like an important episode” but I’m glad I was wrong. This was clearly the season finale and the end of the game, I assume.
The boys try every possible way to get Atom back to no avail, and so their only remaining solution is to go fetch him themselves and then jump from a plane onto the stage at the final moment. It’s all sorts of idol-insane and I loved it because that’s the kind of whack things that can only happen in an honest to god idol show.
I can’t tell if this is something exclusive to the anime, but the story did seem to favor Atom in one way or another.[21] I’m not saying this like it’s a bad thing, but a lot of episodes focused on him so it made me wonder if they had to make those choices in the anime to move the events as seamlessly as possible, or if he’s also like that in the game regardless of the player’s choices because frankly he is more active (?) than the other characters in many ways. The anime character designer seems to adore him and still draws art for his birthday, so I found that cute as well.
And finally all 12 cast members perform a song together. I was happy to see another actual performance aside from the one in the first episode, and the song was catchy. But yeah that was Marginal#4 ladies and gentlemen!!!
Final Thoughts:
The very first line here says everything you need to know, but to expand, I would say the show was acceptable. I mean, the very first thing I did after watching the finale was say “that was awful” out loud but it wasn’t the kind of “awful” I’d hate, if that made sense. I wouldn’t really recommend Marginal#4 to anyone I know, but at the same time I wouldn’t deny ever knowing it which is, trust me, a first for a Rejet product.
The show itself represents a lot of what idol anime is, and that part was my favorite. It’s very classically idol that I can’t bring myself to hate it as a lover of the idol genre. Like maybe the word I’m looking for to describe it is “mid” but frankly those 12 episodes were something far more embarrassing than a 3 letter word could ever convey, and that’s a good thing. Be cringe be free, something like that.
I also liked how the three groups were under the same company, because it saved us a lot of (in my opinion, unnecessary) drama. The rivalry between them was so friendly and lighthearted which was really enjoyable. I’m talking about Unicorn Jr. in particular here and I have to say I didn’t think I would like them this much given that they’re only introduced in the second game and I’m not a fan of new characters being added, but they’re such a fun bunch. Unfortunately I still don’t get Lagrange Point.
Of course—and I stressed on this a lot—I don’t know how the games handle any of the events mentioned and I didn’t seek out info specifically because I wanted to see how the anime could hold on its own and so this was written based purely on what I have watched. I’m sure I would have very different opinions about the games and dramas, for better or worse. [22]
As for why I even decided to watch it. Well. Like I said, I simply love idols when they’re just being idols. There's a certain brand of unseriousness these shows have that I can't find anywhere else and I simply adore it. There's also the fact that I tried really hard to keep myself sane during finals season, but I'm the kind of person to listen to angsty music on regular days so I couldn't just do that when I was stressed. Instead, I thought I'd listen to something I couldn't take seriously and MG#4 music was right there. It somehow worked. Luckily I made it out of that year in one piece so it didn't turn into a bad memory or anything.
Mayuge (the Nomura twins' dog) is the best character in this whole thing though.
Notes:
[1] as frequent as a 12 episode anime can manage
[2] I do think this approach successfully avoided the age-old issue with otome adaptations, which is trying to make every love interest have chemistry with the MC without picking a specific "route" (or going with the poster boy's) and more often than not the result is 12 corny episodes that are all over the place in story and pacing. It's sad for people who wanted to see Yue's interactions with the guys, but we ended up with a more watchable show that also works as promotion for the game, where people can romance their faves to their hearts' content.
[3] in a good way and a bad way
[4] no really. I caught myself doing whatever with my phone as a distraction from some scenes because the art was too embarrassing to look at.
[5] but we don't have too many of those
[6] those aren't stage names btw their parents just hate them
[7] looking for your friend's missing undies which happen to be his lucky pair
[8] my favourite character before starting the anime based on vibes
[9] both their anime debut and their idol one
[10] Teruma is a guy I think, and I like how his voice isn't feminine at all. When I first listened to his solo "(Mr. MERMAID)" I had no idea he or the song would sound like that
[11] you can attribute this to genre differences and that's true in this case, but in general male idol groups feed into the romantic fantasy more than their female counterpart, huh. There's a lot more to say about this and part of it is on the audience, but you're much more likely to see a girl who's a fan of girl idols than the opposite. Interesting stuff
[12] and while I'm at it I must confess (with a heavy heart) that I am now a green hair truther. It was hard to accept but I think Sou Hiyori and Chikage gave me a very wrong impression about the hair colour. Forgive me.
[13] every character has their own name in the drama but I won't use those to avoid confusion. L was called Shion which is funny to me though
[14] and have guns
[15] Okasabe being his father figure who took care of him as a child which is why he could act so much like him
[16] also because rui was naked for an uncomfortably long time behind his freshly deceased father's grave and who would willingly put themself in that situation
[17] arguable. R-guable.
[18] they were on their way to the training camp in episode 9, which is what triggered the flashback
[19] yes this is an unfortunate name now get it out of your system
[20] they make the superior music
[21] i made it sound like it was all about the twins but yeah
[22] and I apologize if this sounded too negative, but that's not my intention at all. If I say something mean as a joke then I'm saying it with (some degree of) love. I think Marginal#4's anime is far from being a masterpiece, but if it was the standard for idol anime adaptations I wouldn't mind at all. You might have noticed a common sentiment in this review was "I don't know if this is good or if my standards are just too low" but that's because fans—myself included—have gotten so used to disappointment that the bare minimum is enough to impress. And I know there's little meaning to adaptations that are just there to promote a game or a drama, but I'm always happy to see this genre try and pick itself up. "Why is this a footnote and not the outro" it's sappy
I hesitate to call this a review because it's nowhere near objective or spoiler-free enough to be one, but you can view it as a collection of my thoughts on the show. Also, I really don't recommend reading this post if you're planning to watch it.
So, to start off, Marginal#4 (Marginal Number Four) is a 4-boy idol group under the agency Pythagoras Productions. The anime mainly revolves around the four guys in MG#4 while their labelmates Lagrange Point and Unicorn Jr. make frequent [1] appearances. They also have a kiss motif, especially MG#4 so that's why you'll see and hear a lot of them.
The game's protagonist and Marginal#4's manager, Yue, is unvoiced and does not make a full appearance in the anime. Instead, the guys receive work-related texts from her occasionally. Their boss Mai is a pretty lady that shows up from time to time.[2]
Now while this is meant to be an idol show, I'd say it's closer to a school slice of life. The first episode kicks off with Marginal#4 performing their iconic[3] song “100万回の愛革命(REVOLUTION)!” but that is one of the few performances you ever see in the anime, if not the only one. The vast majority of episodes focus on the guys' school lives and while that includes their idol activities, most of said activities are carried out off-screen.
Art-wise, I have to say I'm just a little impressed. Mind you, my expectations were very low so that wasn't exactly a challenge, but the animation is in no way as stiff as I thought it would be. The characters *are* drawn off-model quite often, [4] but the actual movements aren't too bad, and for some reason the animators are really good at drawing side profiles.
The direction is strangely decent at some parts, though it feels like the director gets too ambitious during song performance scenes.[5] The 3D models are just about average so I have no strong feelings about them, but surprisingly most of the dancing is animated in 2D. The anime only came out in 2017 and use of CGI was already common then, so I appreciate the effort. My only real problem with the dancing is their choreography which isn't my cup of tea.
The production quality remained fairly consistent throughout all 12 episodes, which was also pretty neat because I was expecting it to go downhill.
One part that stood out to me in the first episode was a scene where Atom, L, and R [6] are talking together without Rui as he was from a different school. It was a very light-hearted conversation but the shot changes in the middle to show their album cover in a convenient camera angle that conceals Rui. No sound effects were played and the tone didn't change; they silently snuck that part in and I really liked that.
That said, I don't think there was anything notable in the first episode beyond what I just mentioned. It brings up Rui's past and how he belonged to another group before, and after that it's the other three trying to create a school club for themselves except they need 4 people. Rui transfers to their school at the end of the episode, joins their club, and all is well.
It didn't feel like much of a first episode personally, and I'm not sure I like the way they immediately solved the main cause of conflict (different schools) but again, it's not really supposed to be serious.
The second episode however. I don't know what possessed them to make the second episode entirely about Atom's underwear but that sure is a choice I will remember. I don't even have an issue with whatever brand of comedy they want to indulge in, but isn't that kind of thing episode 7-8 material? Any person with enough braincells to rub together would've dropped the show there. Couldn't be me, though.
But really, I was warned about the second hand embarrassment especially from Atom, but I didn't think it would be like that… I did laugh a bit, though cringe is probably closer to what I was feeling. At the same time, those shenanigans [7] made me miss highschool a bit because that's the kind of crap teenagers would pull all the time. In fact I can probably remember an incident or two resembling the events of this episode but I'd rather not.
And speaking of highschool! This show is yet another proof that KENN excels in voicing highschoolers because I really liked his performance as L. A lot of his roles are on the sexier side because of his natural rasp but he also nails that boyish tone especially when a lot of guys have awkward voices at that age.
I would be derailing if I started to talk about how well he voices Tamaki, but basically his role as L is similar to that. It's also a little funny because both Idolish7 and Marginal#4 desperately want me to believe Riku and Rui are the best vocalists in their respective groups when KENN is right there like come on.
People love to bring up L and Tamaki sharing a voice but nobody says anything about Atom and Iori because they couldn't be any more different LOL I don't think I've ever seen Toshiki Masuda in a role like Atom before but he has a lot more energy here. He sounds like he's doing a little bit too much sometimes but I hope it's fun at least.
Moving on, I had my suspicions before but episode 3 made me certain this show could not survive a single episode without incest bait. I'm only addressing it this once, but it's a thing and it's there.
And yet that's not even the weirdest thing about that episode because… I can't even begin to describe it. The premise is that the twins had to shoot a pasta commercial, but L finds a cursed ring in the studio and when he wears it everything around them starts to fall apart. The direction becomes a mixture of horror and comedy then, and I don't know if it's the pacing or soundtrack or whatever but something about all of it felt very weird and not in the intended way. I think. Strange things were happening one after another but not in a "getting slapped in different directions" way. It made me question whether I was awake enough because wtf was going on. It's not even a strong feeling or shock, I just sat there. I'm struggling to find the words here especially if you haven't seen it, but basically what I'm saying is that it's both the best and worst episode of this show.
And by the way, the ring wasn't even cursed. It was an act to prank R, but after L tells him they decide to play along with it and the scenes that follow yielded a lot of misleading out of context screenshots.
The ending song for this episode also features the twins in adorable outfits. I never mentioned the endings until now, but they're all catchy with fun MVs. There's a different ending for each episode and that's where most of the idoling takes place. Sadly a few of them, including the ending for this episode, are not available on Spotify for one reason or another.
Episode 4 kind of just exists—they spend the first half deciding what to cook for the school festival and the second half cooking for the school festival.
I guess it's meant to be Lagrange Point's episode because they help out in the booth (they're not students) and perform the ending song. But I don't think I care about them enough no.
The only actual important thing was seeing their manager and immediately recognizing that he's voiced by Tsuda Kenjirou.
You know,
Anyway. You can see Rejet's mascot KumaD a lot in this episode, he's everywhere, and truth be told I really needed that reminder because I can't believe Rejet made something as benign as this. (Episode 3 notwithstanding.)
I don't have much else to say but they gave me R in a maid costume [8] and Rui played Romeo in their school play but it wasn't the focus at all. They attend an all boys' school (more on that in a sec) so idk why they didn't make him Juliet instead of giving that role to an NPC.
Then I got to episode 5 and realized. I only really liked Rui in ep 1. This is probably one of those things caused by limited anime context so I'm going to assume his character is more fleshed out in the game, but he was a lot gentler initially, I think. Doesn't help that they didn't expand on his relationship with his former group at all.
He's also essential for the kind of jokes they have going on because the other 3 are different flavours of stupid. They refuse to believe he has a plush toy in his room so they keep making up scenarios and prying until he explains, but then they *really* want to visit his room and uncover his secrets so they basically stalk him the entire episode. The transitions between operation names were pretty funny ngl.
If I had to explain their comedic dynamic I'd say they're two bokes, one tsukkomi, and just some guy. They tend to switch places often. I'm not a huge fan of comedy in general and like I said before, a lot of Marginal#4's hinges on second hand embarrassment but they can get the timing right, and jokes land sometimes. Sometimes.
Which leads us to episode 6 aka Unicorn's debut. [9] Long story short, Atom gets into a dating scandal for presumably being spotted with a girl, except that girl is actually just Unicorn's Teruma. [10]
The three of the new group's members were supposed to make their entry after that reveal but they kept messing it up and yeah sorry that was funny.
So, this leads to that, and MG#4 go against Unicorn in a series of silly games to prove who's best. Eventually they have this genius idea to act out a scene where they kiss a Pythagoras statue. Because Pythagoras Productions.
Idk man just.
Tsubasa's scene took me out because they had no reason to be so creative with these shots.
(He couldn't even do it eventually.)
While on the topic of Tsubasa did you know he's voiced by Aoi Shouta? His solo song "Ange Dêchu" is my personal favourite out of the character solos and the cover art is extra chic.
Episode 7 opens and closes with obligatory orientalism and is more or less about the twins, but most of it involves their school's radio show.
I won't bother explaining what's happening and it's not like I understand it either, but something that caught my attention was the way the guys are aware their boyfriend-idol image doesn't work that well in an all-boys school. I found that part interesting because it explains why their classmates don't treat them like celebrities. It also made me think because in, say, Love Live, the girls don't have a similar issue.[11]
Other than that I liked some shots in this episode.
The ending theme here is L's "コ･コ･ロ･ヒ･ト･ツ" and. I would usually put this in a footnote but I have a lot of feelings about this song and most of them are bad.
First of all it simply makes me nauseous; I play this song and it evokes a visceral disgust in me. And it's amazing how it gives me stomach cramps because absolutely nothing happens in those four (and a half!!) minutes. I swear it doesn't build up to anything and just starts then ends. And yet I listened to it a shameful amount of times. I think I gaslit myself into liking it by now but the nausea is still very much there.
L is the kind of character I thought I'd dislike except for some KENN privileges, but he turned out to be a lot more normal than I assumed. He's a fun guy really, and I love it when they make characters obsessed with something so random. I have only learned what a Marimo was a few hours ago as of this writing but now that I know. Yeah I'm kinda with it.[12]
Episode 8 changes things up a bit. It's a detective drama starring Atom and Rui with the rest of the cast acting as support characters. In this drama, Atom [13] is a detective who is determined to catch his colleague's murderer.
Shortly after the funeral, he meets Rui who claims to be the reincarnated form of said colleague (Okasabe) and says he doesn't remember the full details of his own death.
The two then team up to solve the mystery of Okasabe's last case involving a stolen painting of a reincarnated angel. It plays out the same way any other AU does, and it was a fun chance to let characters act completely different from usual.[14] Rui and Atom practically switched personalities and I guess that was the point here.
I can't say the production was anything special (it let me down if anything) but I somehow didn't see the twist coming. The murderer was actually Atom, and Rui lied about being reincarnated.[15] I don't like it when mysteries pull this "the killer was the main character all along!" but for some reason I didn't think this would happen at all, so the surprise factor worked. It was also a fictional story within a fictional story, so I fully believed he was reincarnated… [16]
Episode 9 is a flashback for the most part, where R reminisces about the formation of their group. I was glad he got an episode centring him because while I love him to death [17] I have to admit he had the personality and relevancy of a raisin that rolled under my grandma's fridge in the 80's. That said the episode wasn't exactly fun to me.
It was alright, and I guess I'm contradicting myself because this is the most idol-like episode in the anime, but I grew to like the school drama more by now LOL.
Anyway, we see how the guys didn't get along at all in the past and the way R tried to make things work between them even though he was extremely insecure about his singing and dancing, believing the group would be better off without him. Eventually they make him the leader for that reason, and he learns to recognize his role.
The most fun I've had in this episode was when Mai showed them their group logo and Atom in full confidence read it as maruginaru sharp four. The buildup for that joke was really good I'm not gonna lie.
Then there's episode 10, the training camp episode. [18] If you're familiar with other Rejet products you probably know what this implies, but basically it's just the guys struggling for 20 minutes. In all honesty the show was starting to lose me for the past two episodes but this brought things back in my opinion.
Our 12 Idols are sorted into shuffle groups through a draw like so:
Wonder Corona: Kira, Atom, Tsubasa [19]
My Milky Way: L, Teruma, R
Nebulas: Shy, Rui, Alto [20]
When their instructor falls ill, the guys decide to make him nagashi somen (with udon) so that he feels better, while working together as units. In all likelihood my humour is broken but the most I've ever laughed in this anime was at the scene with L's lucky charm marimo moving just a tiny bit to guide them to water. The little sound it made. I laughed for minutes I swear.
The dramatic reactions from the guys at the udon flowing were easily the highlight of this episode. It’s a bit of a classic, but still hilarious and especially when noodles are portrayed so majestically.
It was the cumulation of their collective efforts so maybe the way they treated it was a little warranted.
Something worth mentioning is that this wasn't the only time they'd done shuffle units. For their Spectacle Tour CD's, we got a new batch of shuffle groups and you should absolutely listen to the unit with Rui, R, and Tsubasa. Both songs are 👌
For episode 11 Marginal#4 and Unicorn Jr. go back to school after they spend summer training, and the rest of the episode plays out like your typical miscommunication plot. Tsubasa hears rumours saying Atom got an offer from Hollywood, and he did, but everyone assumes he will take it and leave the group behind. And as usual, they either can't ask him directly or he doesn't hear them when they do.
The whole thing was pretty cliché, but I wouldn't say it was a boring watch even though you could see the "twist" miles away which made the stakes very low. Rui's handling of the situation was especially interesting because I felt like this episode addressed a lot of my grievances regarding his character and his reactions proved to me that he is, in fact, a lot better in the actual game. So that's something. The same applies for the next episode, so I won’t repeat myself.
They also spoke English for an extended time in this episode because they wanted Atom to feel insecure about his language skills and then he wouldn't go to Hollywood, but that was hard to watch and didn't even work. The intention behind that scene was to make you laugh and laugh I did, so I’m not complaining. One plot point you were supposed to remember here is that the Marginal#4 boys sent one of their CD’s to outer space. Legally.
And so for the final episode, Atom realizes he actually sent Lagrange Point’s CD instead of their own, and travels alone to the agency they signed up with to get their own CD there. He safely finishes the task, but a typhoon hits the area the next day and he is unable to come back in time for their concert.
I was afraid episode 12 would make me feel the same way the first episode did, which is “Well that was nice but it didn’t feel like an important episode” but I’m glad I was wrong. This was clearly the season finale and the end of the game, I assume.
The boys try every possible way to get Atom back to no avail, and so their only remaining solution is to go fetch him themselves and then jump from a plane onto the stage at the final moment. It’s all sorts of idol-insane and I loved it because that’s the kind of whack things that can only happen in an honest to god idol show.
I can’t tell if this is something exclusive to the anime, but the story did seem to favor Atom in one way or another.[21] I’m not saying this like it’s a bad thing, but a lot of episodes focused on him so it made me wonder if they had to make those choices in the anime to move the events as seamlessly as possible, or if he’s also like that in the game regardless of the player’s choices because frankly he is more active (?) than the other characters in many ways. The anime character designer seems to adore him and still draws art for his birthday, so I found that cute as well.
And finally all 12 cast members perform a song together. I was happy to see another actual performance aside from the one in the first episode, and the song was catchy. But yeah that was Marginal#4 ladies and gentlemen!!!
Final Thoughts:
The very first line here says everything you need to know, but to expand, I would say the show was acceptable. I mean, the very first thing I did after watching the finale was say “that was awful” out loud but it wasn’t the kind of “awful” I’d hate, if that made sense. I wouldn’t really recommend Marginal#4 to anyone I know, but at the same time I wouldn’t deny ever knowing it which is, trust me, a first for a Rejet product.
The show itself represents a lot of what idol anime is, and that part was my favorite. It’s very classically idol that I can’t bring myself to hate it as a lover of the idol genre. Like maybe the word I’m looking for to describe it is “mid” but frankly those 12 episodes were something far more embarrassing than a 3 letter word could ever convey, and that’s a good thing. Be cringe be free, something like that.
I also liked how the three groups were under the same company, because it saved us a lot of (in my opinion, unnecessary) drama. The rivalry between them was so friendly and lighthearted which was really enjoyable. I’m talking about Unicorn Jr. in particular here and I have to say I didn’t think I would like them this much given that they’re only introduced in the second game and I’m not a fan of new characters being added, but they’re such a fun bunch. Unfortunately I still don’t get Lagrange Point.
Of course—and I stressed on this a lot—I don’t know how the games handle any of the events mentioned and I didn’t seek out info specifically because I wanted to see how the anime could hold on its own and so this was written based purely on what I have watched. I’m sure I would have very different opinions about the games and dramas, for better or worse. [22]
As for why I even decided to watch it. Well. Like I said, I simply love idols when they’re just being idols. There's a certain brand of unseriousness these shows have that I can't find anywhere else and I simply adore it. There's also the fact that I tried really hard to keep myself sane during finals season, but I'm the kind of person to listen to angsty music on regular days so I couldn't just do that when I was stressed. Instead, I thought I'd listen to something I couldn't take seriously and MG#4 music was right there. It somehow worked. Luckily I made it out of that year in one piece so it didn't turn into a bad memory or anything.
Mayuge (the Nomura twins' dog) is the best character in this whole thing though.
Notes:
[1] as frequent as a 12 episode anime can manage
[2] I do think this approach successfully avoided the age-old issue with otome adaptations, which is trying to make every love interest have chemistry with the MC without picking a specific "route" (or going with the poster boy's) and more often than not the result is 12 corny episodes that are all over the place in story and pacing. It's sad for people who wanted to see Yue's interactions with the guys, but we ended up with a more watchable show that also works as promotion for the game, where people can romance their faves to their hearts' content.
[3] in a good way and a bad way
[4] no really. I caught myself doing whatever with my phone as a distraction from some scenes because the art was too embarrassing to look at.
[5] but we don't have too many of those
[6] those aren't stage names btw their parents just hate them
[7] looking for your friend's missing undies which happen to be his lucky pair
[8] my favourite character before starting the anime based on vibes
[9] both their anime debut and their idol one
[10] Teruma is a guy I think, and I like how his voice isn't feminine at all. When I first listened to his solo "(Mr. MERMAID)" I had no idea he or the song would sound like that
[11] you can attribute this to genre differences and that's true in this case, but in general male idol groups feed into the romantic fantasy more than their female counterpart, huh. There's a lot more to say about this and part of it is on the audience, but you're much more likely to see a girl who's a fan of girl idols than the opposite. Interesting stuff
[12] and while I'm at it I must confess (with a heavy heart) that I am now a green hair truther. It was hard to accept but I think Sou Hiyori and Chikage gave me a very wrong impression about the hair colour. Forgive me.
[13] every character has their own name in the drama but I won't use those to avoid confusion. L was called Shion which is funny to me though
[14] and have guns
[15] Okasabe being his father figure who took care of him as a child which is why he could act so much like him
[16] also because rui was naked for an uncomfortably long time behind his freshly deceased father's grave and who would willingly put themself in that situation
[17] arguable. R-guable.
[18] they were on their way to the training camp in episode 9, which is what triggered the flashback
[19] yes this is an unfortunate name now get it out of your system
[20] they make the superior music
[21] i made it sound like it was all about the twins but yeah
[22] and I apologize if this sounded too negative, but that's not my intention at all. If I say something mean as a joke then I'm saying it with (some degree of) love. I think Marginal#4's anime is far from being a masterpiece, but if it was the standard for idol anime adaptations I wouldn't mind at all. You might have noticed a common sentiment in this review was "I don't know if this is good or if my standards are just too low" but that's because fans—myself included—have gotten so used to disappointment that the bare minimum is enough to impress. And I know there's little meaning to adaptations that are just there to promote a game or a drama, but I'm always happy to see this genre try and pick itself up. "Why is this a footnote and not the outro" it's sappy
