AKB0048 First Stage - Review

What happens when you take mecha battles, outer space idols, great music and freedom of speech?
Well, Macross II - Do You Remember Remember Love? but aside from that. AKB0048!!

The series is based around the highly successful girl group in AKB48, named for the city of Akihabara and the original roster consisting of 48 members. While they have been around in Japan since 2005, they made their world wide debut with the release of 2012's "Wreck-It Ralph" and the song "Sugar Rush".

Story:
At the Beginning of the 21st Century, Interplanetary War broke out, Earth's Economy becomes incredibly unstable and as mankind begins to flee Earth and spread out across the stars anything considered unnecessary for our survival, especially entertainment becomes illegal.
Imagine a world where almost all entertainment is banned, no music to listen to on the way to work, no TV shows or movies to enjoy in your free time.

On the small mining planet of Lancastar (an allegory for England (what... Don't believe me? look for the Union Flag in the background)), 4 young girls, Nagisa, Chieri, Orine and Yuuka, sneak out during riots in town to bear witness to the intergalactic Pop Idol group known as AKB0048. During the concert the girls see first hand just how much they have been missing and how brutal the anti-entertainment police can be. Inspired by the music and bravery by the members of AKB, each of the girls decide then and there that they will join AKB one day and fight for freedom of speech and to bring joy to the hearts of those oppressed.

Cut to years later and the girls are leading very different lives, Cheiri has returned to her home planet, Nagisa is attending school and constantly getting in to arguments with her father (an anti-entertainment minister), Orine has become orphaned due to attacks in the ongoing war and now works in a munitions factory and Yuuka attends school with Nagisa while trying to maintain a relationship with her boyfriend. Why scrolling through an illegal AKB0048 forum one day, the girls discover that AKB are holding auditions for their next batch of recruits to fight along side them and eventually succeed them.

Nagisa, Orine and Yuuka decide to leave their lives behind and follow their dreams, on the way to the auditions they come across others that share their dream including the now runaway Cheiri.

Their journey teaches them exactly what freedom means, having to fight side by side in the trenches, defending fans and the successors, realising just how hard  it is to stay in the limelight or even get there in the first place. Die hard fans and terrorist threats, heart pounding practice sessions and beautiful sights across the universe, a journey for the soul that test the girls to their limits and beyond.

Animation:
The animation is gorgeous throughout, using a mixture of 2D and 3D cell shaded models, each planet and setting gives off its own atmosphere that plays off everything well. Each character is well defined and easy to pick out in a lineup.

Acting:
Voice acting in both English and Japanese is solid. In Japanese, the entire main cast is played by actual members of AKB48 (known collectively as NO NAME). For those interested the AKB members and teams include:
Nagisa Motomiya - Karen Iwata (Team A)
Chieri Sono - Mayu Watanabe (Team B (also the inspiration for the character of the same name))
Orine Aidda - Sayaka Nakaya (Former Team K)
Yuuka Ichijou - Amina Sato (Former Team K)
Suzuko Kanzaki - Sawako Hata (Former SKE48 Team KII)
Sonata Shinonome - Kumi Yagami (Former SKE48 Team S)
Mokoto Yokomizo - Mao Mita (NMB48 Team M)
Kanata Shinonome - Haruka Ishida (Team K)
Mimori Kishida - Sumire Sato (SKE48 Team E)
Megumi Wanibuchi - Momoka Kinoshita (NMB48 Team M)

The Actresses for each of the Successors are all seasoned professionals and all do their jobs remarkably well.
The English cast are all fan favorites, featuring Luci Christian (Nagisa), Brittney Karbowski (Orine) and Monica Rial (Yuuka) all roles are well acted and during the occasional English translated song, all actresses preform admirably.
One a personal note, I originally saw this on its original Japanese run and when running through possible English cast in my head, I had Imagined Monica Rial as a member but was supprised to see to see her as Yuuka and not someone like Sonata. It took some getting used to on rewatch but in hind sight all cast members are well chosen.

If you have a gap in your watch schedule and feel like watching a modern day "Space Opera" (for lack of a better term) then check it out. It's become a bit of a guilty pleasure and It's because of this show that if I ever EVER get to pilot a mech I will be playing "Blue Rose" as load as possible and singing along.