This Week in Anime

What the Heck is Going on in 22/7?

Micchy
THE WALL

The Wall is enigma, The Wall is omniscient, The Wall knows what you've been doing and may as well be God.

Gotta say though, of all the things to crib from AKB0048, I wasn't expecting the menacing non-human producer calling the shots from the shadows to be it. Yasushi Akimoto went from ominous voice in space to an architectural structure spitting out instructions via business card and I don't know how to feel about it. Seriously, though, the WALL

I imagine a good portion of 22/7's international audience came in because bilingual idol and memelord icon Sally Amaki was attached to it, but honestly this show is way compelling even without that tidbit. It's weird and sometimes oddly ambitious for one of those seiyuu idol projects that mostly exist to promote a real-life group. But lest I understate Sally's achievements, I'd like everyone to note that Sakura Fujima is a dabbing VTuber.

It's an impressively well-crafted show, so carefully designed that sometimes I forget it's supposed to be a tie-in thing for an idol group. Like usually they either try to sell us a shiny fantasy or go off about why The Industry Is Bad, Actually (which it kind of is, but I'm not gonna go into that too much). Here the idol stuff is almost incidental to the characters' stories; their conflicts are broad enough that the show could be about a secret magic school without changing the emotional beats much at all.

The only thing better than a fluffy unkempt anime girl is a fluffy unkempt anime girl who boops.

Not everyone is receptive of boops though.

Her dad kind of sucks though, for the record.

22/7's at its best when it ties together the girls' backstories with their current lives and at its worst when discarding the melancholy to go "actually whatever, here's a beach episode" (with an extra dose of "get in the bikini, Reika"). Like y'all, "everyone does it" isn't nearly the foolproof argument you seem to think it is. It might be normal in showbiz, but that's really something you should examine if you're gonna have a focus episode on a girl's discomfort with being a teenage sex symbol.

22/7 is uninterested in the actual workings of show business, for better or for worse. On one hand, it lets the characters live lives outside their work and explore emotions unrelated to their jobs as idols. On the other hand, when it does go full idol mode, it just shrugs and says "oh yeah, that's a thing" before moving on. For the most part, 22/7 doesn't try to sell us a fantasy that showbiz is great, nor does it trash a phenomenon that it itself perpetuates. I can appreciate that! But I do have to question why an episode centered around someone's relationship with celebrity and the norms surrounding idol culture is so determined not to challenge any of them.

And it's not like I'm asking for a full-scale takedown of the idol industry. In fact, I'd argue that it's disingenuous to go on about how it's bad while also profiting off it (looking at you, Yamakan). Being an idol is a job—one with its own unique challenges, but a job nonetheless. And for most of the girls in the show, the job's not much more than a means to an end. But here 22/7 is trying to argue that Reika's not cut out to be an idol if she's not down for everything her management throws at her. She can't just work as an idol and accept jobs on her own terms. She has to be the platonic ideal of an idol. That just doesn't sit well with me.

"It was my fault for having reasonable boundaries. Here is my butt, by way of apology."

Jun is such a little shit. I love her.

Absolutely unfair that the goofy episode about the asthmatic comic relief gremlin broke my heart like this.

She goofs off because she's seen death firsthand and doesn't want to let life go to waste, and because she's a tiny trash gremlin with a powerful impression game.

Oh yeah, 22/7 radiates some real gay energy, I'm sorry but it's the truth.

One thing I do find interesting is how the characters were tweaked to better fit with their actresses' backgrounds. Early in the project, Nicole was described as the one who was born overseas; Sakura only spent a few years in America. But in the show Sakura's American-born and a native English speaker. Incidentally, Sally Amaki yells pretty often about cute girls on Twitter, and while I don't have proof that Sakura's incessant flirting is a reference to that, I gotta wonder a little.

Sakura's not even the character she auditioned for! It wasn't until Sally went viral that Sakura's bilingualism became a major part of her character.

Lol, I'm nowhere near wota; I just happen to watch 22/7 streams sometimes. Their in-character Let's Plays are also pretty fun! They're the only reason I remember any of the characters' names.

I actually forgot her name and missed when it flashed on-screen, so I spent almost eight whole episodes waiting for someone to mention it. It took eight episodes for someone to address her by name, that's how underused and underwritten she is.

I mean, Miyako is pretty powerful too.

I really like how they took her initial shtick of "speaks Kansai-ben" and turned her into a real whopper of a gremlin mom friend?

Single moms, raised by grandma, and then there's Miu's mom who might as well be already dead

Not the only great anime tradition 22/7 pays respect to. Consider: the Misato beer milk chug.

Who knows, maybe The Wall is telling them to develop solo careers? Maybe that's where the ending songs are coming from.

It's a neat show! As long as it doesn't take Sakura's advice in addressing the big questions.