As many other reviews are quick to point out, Idolmaster: Xenoglossia has quite a lot of stuff working against it. In fact, I think it has a lot *more* going against it than people seem to give it credit for. I would almost call it cursed! For starters, the show aired on Mondays from April 03, 2007 to September 25, 2007... At 02:30 in the morning JST. Are you joking? We're talking about a timeslot where, if you were already into the whole 'mecha' thing, you would have to wake up at 08:30 AM on Sundays to catch the new Gurren Lagann, then set your alarmfor 02:30 AM Monday to turn on the DVR so you could see whatever this new Idolmaster-meets-Eva thing was all about. Not to mention that if you were more into the cute girls side of the cute-girls-meets-mecha amalgam, then you were already staying up until midnight to catch the new Lucky Star!

Of course, none of that really matters now in the age of streaming. I just find it funny that, for one, a lot of young mecha fans probably experienced some very sleepy Tuesdays during the first term of their 2007 school year, but secondly, that it seems that this show has been fighting an uphill battle for survival since the moment it debuted — poor timeslot atop strange adaptation atop stranger romantic pretense atop the fact that the writers were pretty unashamedly cribbing off Evangelion's homework for a few of the finer points... and to top it all off, the show has the unfortunate distinction of also being released during the final phase of the transition from analogue to digital animation, giving it a certain style that it seems not many are particularly fond of and certainly didn't help in the all-too-easy Eva comparisons. So if any of the strangeness you've probably already read from other reviews is a turn off for you, then this is probably not a show you're going to care about in the least. There's a lot wrong with this show, and it would certainly be hard to argue that those things are "good, actually" in the way so many re-evaluations of older franchises seem to do. But if what you've seen elsewhere (romance? Eva-iM@S?) has peaked your interest enough to read another review but not enough to just go watch the show, let me be the one to humbily point you in that direction. This show is actually really, shockingly good despite what other people seem to think.

So if you *are* interested, then I do need to make one very important disclaimer. I've never seen an Idolmaster series before this one, nor have I played any of the games. That seems to be where at least a part of animosity toward this show stems from -> people saying that X or Y character "wouldn't act this or that way in this situation". I can't speak to that. I'll probably watch a season of Idolmaster now that I'm done with this, but if anything, that feels like the more appropriate way to do things, considering that the first season of Idolmaster proper didn't air until 2011 (which is another thing this show has going against it — could you imagine being an Idolmaster fan in the mid-2000s and the first time you get to really see these characters shine on screen is while they're piloting giant robots? I can only imagine it would be like if the first Project DIVA game ended up being a first person shooter or something! — hilarious and fascinating in its own way, but probably not in the least what you were hoping for).

My familiarity with the series aside, what I can say is that 1.) there is an unflinching sincerity to the setting which was both hilarious and engaging, and 2.) that whatever the distance between the characters in this show and their alternate selves from other Idolmaster parallel universes, the characters are good and while tropey and occasionally a bit contrived, gave the show that most important quality of a giant robot show: that I cared a lot more about the individual characters than I did about whatever was going on with the moon or the battles or whatever. Which is for the best, because those fight scenes are not good! But that's okay ; it's not really what the show's focusing on.

The setting and set-up to the show are endearing to a fault in my eyes. No spoilers here unless you care particularly deeply about experiencing the first 10 minutes for yourself —> Girl goes to an idol audition, flubs it, ends up getting an offer anyway, moves to Tokyo to join the agency, then lo and behold the audition wasn't for BEING an *idol*, it was for PILOTING an *iDOL* - the exceptionally contrived and silly name that they have given to the giant robots which no one in-universe seems to think is the least bit hokey. If you stopped right here for want of a show less -- well, hokey, then I could forgive that. For me, however, it lends an extremely strange sincerity to the show that endows it with this very disjointed sense of humor that permiates through every episode. It is at times a very profound show, asking questions about love and consciousness and what it means to be alive in the world, at times a very strange and silly show where teenage girls get jealous and angry at each other over very superficial things while trying to maintain a normal life and reach their dreams, and at times it is a bewilderingly written show which occasionally throws its hands up, gets bored with itself, and tries to contrive some reason for a girl to put on a sexy outfit. It all feels very goofy and human when it's not trying to be serious, and for better or for worse the all-over-the-placeness of the tone (and the tone IS all over the place) makes it feel human and interesting. I felt like I was seeing the world through the girls' eyes, not really understanding what the potential consequences and stakes of a given action really are -- things swing wildly between a "fun and games" sense of abandon and then suddenly crash down to reality and recontextualize everything before it. It's weirdly engaging!

I can't say too much about the characters or arcs without giving away more than I'm comfortable with, but I will note that, if you're anything like me, the first thing that caught your eye about this series was probably the mysterious "Romance" tag which seems to accompany this series on some websites but not others. So do be aware: this IS a romance show. The romance element of the show is more important than any of the fights or tragedies, because all those other things just dance around the romance which keeps the rest of the plot orbiting around it with its massive, bizzare gravitational pull. You should watch this show. You should watch it as a romance show -- albeit an unconventional one -- not as a mecha show or an idol show or an idolmaster spinoff. It's a weirdly executed, weirdly human, weirdly directed romance show written by people who were really, really into Evangelion and clearly wanted to make something LIKE Eva while exploring some of the other crevaces and possibilities left unexplored by Eva. And it's really, really good! Don't get me wrong, there's plenty wrong with it, but going into that stuff kind ruins the fun and surprise that the series has.

Ultimately, after watching a lot of other, newer, better animated, more cleanly written, and -- let's be honest -- more forgettable stuff this summer, I came across this weird little show by chance and watched it very hestantly because everyone seemed to hate it. The only positive reviews I could find seem to talk about it like it was a bag of potato chips -> fun in the moment, but ultimately just a cute little snack between heartier meals. I disagree completely! The show is great and completely worth a watch on its own. There's plenty bad stuff in there, but good, bad, in between, none of it is boring and I certainly don't think I'll forget it any time soon barring some unforeseen blunt force trauma.

Go watch it, go talk about the good parts and talk about the bad parts, go have a nice time watching a weird, goofy, inscrutable, and deeply human show. And have a good day while you're at it!