Kimama ni Idol

Kimama ni Idol (Free-Spirited Idols) is a 1990 dramedy OVA based on a manga by Kotani Kenichi. It tells the tale of three teenage girls who want to become idols but find out that the road to the top is rough. Sometimes it's like a screwball comedy from the 1930s, but at others, it's like a sordid expose of the perils of the Tokyo music industry. In either mode, it can't be taken seriously, and it's a lot of fun throughout.

The story opens when a typical high school girl, Haruka, wins a fabulous lottery prize - 90 million yen (a million dollars the time). She promptly invites her best friend, Natsuki, to run away from home with her and live the high life in Tokyo. There, they buy fabulous clothes, eat fabulous meals, stay in a fabulous hotel, buy a fabulous car (a Porsche) that they're too young to drive, and otherwise try to fritter their fortune away. However, things take a serious turn when they see a man named Tatsuya apparently accosting another teenage girl, only to find that he was actually preventing her from killing herself. The despondent girl, Fumika, wanted to become a singer but was nearly raped by an unscrupulous composer when she tried to break into the industry. On the spot, Haruka and Natsuki decide to team up with Fumika, form an idol group, the Celebrity Idol Team, and conquer the show biz world. They recruit another high school friend, Naoto, to be their manager and song writer, and record a song, "Free-Spirited Idols."

However, selling the song is difficult. No one in the music business is interested in a new group without professional representation. Worse yet, when the Celebrity Idols stage an outdoor concert, they run afoul of another idol group, the Black Cats, who have a reputation for violence. The Cats attack our heroines, but they get more than they bargained for. All three girls have some martial arts training, and they rout the Black Cats, infuriating the Cats' manager, Matsumoto Seiko. Then, the Idols stage a surprise concert in Shibuya, descending in a blimp to sing their songs. (They have to sell the Porsche to raise enough money.) This further infuriates Matsumoto, who had a similar idea, and she enlists composer Hiramatsu Shigeru to help her get revenge - the very composer who tried to rape Fumika. The two villains kidnap the Idols and spirit them off to an uninhabited island, where the girls will be forced to make porn movies with the "Super Brothers." But the villains and the Brothers reckoned without the fighting spirit of our heroines, who turn the tables and make their triumphant escape. All ends happily, if unbelievably.

The voice class includes prominent seiyuu as the Idols and in supporting roles:

• Hisakawa Aya (Natsuki) played the title roles in Mamono Hunter Youko, Voogie's Angel, and Iria: Zeiram, Skuld in the Ah! My Goddess franchise, Cerberus in Card Captor Sakura, Sailor Mercury in the Sailor Moon franchise, Yuki in Fruits Basket, Haruka in RahXephon, Youko in The Twelve Kingdoms, and Storm in X-Men. She played Marine in Nana Toshi Monogatari, Shizuka in Sotsugyou: Graduation, Mishima Misako in Yume Tsukai, Shana in Al Caral no Isan, Sonia in Ziggy Sore Yuke! R&R Band, Tomoko in Sensou Douwa: Boku no Boukuugou, and Koneko in Ear of the Golden Dragon, all Orphan releases.
• Hagimori Junko (Haruka) played Li Chang in Blue Gender, Haruka in Rokudenashi Blues, Junna in Chameleon, and a refugee in the third Sangokushi movie. The last two are Orphan releases.
• Shou Mayumi (Ayako) played Masao in Aoki Honoo, Gannet in Hoshi Neko Full House, Peggy in A Penguin's Memories, Yuko Kurita in the Oishinbo movie-length specials, and Baby Boar in Katte ni Shirokuma, all Orphan releases.
• Horikawa Ryou (Naoto) played Shutendou in Shuten Douji, Vegeta in Dragon Ball, Naoto in Slow Step, Anthony Brown in Candy Candy, Reinhard in Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Tadao in Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Kai in Kizuna, Shinya in Okama Report, and Andromeda in Saint Seiya. He also appeared in Nana Toshi Monogatari, Chameleon, Hi-Speed Jecy, Lunn no Kaze, and the first two Sangokushi movies, all Orphan releases.
• Yara Yuusaku (Tatsugorou) played the destroyer captain in Zipang. He had many featured roles, appearing in Hayou no Tsurugi, Eguchi Hisashi no Kotobuki Gorou Show, Eguchi Hisashi no Nantoko Narudesho, Next Senki Ehrgeiz, Eien no Filena, Hidamari no Ki, Nozomi Witches, both Sangokushi OVAs, Prime Rose, the second Sangokushi movie, and both What's Michael? OVAs, all Orphan releases.
  

The director, Satou Junichi, also directed Akuma-kun, Sailor Moon, Gatekeepers, Kaleido Star, Aria and its sequels, Phi Brain and its sequels, and many other renowned shows.

Iri translated the show. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset; there were a lot of signs. ImAWasteOfHair, Nemesis, and Topper3000 QCed. Intrepid encoded from a Japanese VHS tape. The show was never released on laserdisc or digital media. A 90 second promo for the CD is included in the release; it is not translated. It's all signs, so I've left it as an exercise for budding typesetters.

Kimama ni Idol can be a rollicking good time or a fraught melodrama, often in quick succession. (There's also one bit of gratuitous nudity.) You can get the show from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news in irc.rizon.net.