So right off the bat, this premier has two major strikes against it.
- Strike One: It dropped after we thought we were done with this shit until January.
- Strike Two: It’s an idol anime.
Now, it’s by the same company as BanG Dream! which I enjoyed (for one season, at least) so there is at least some initial hope it could be moderately entertaining, but I don’t want to watch another premier, and I especially do not want to watch the premier of an idol anime. So as unfair as it is, I’m going into this fully intending to hate it. Good luck!
Have I ever mentioned that I hate 3D animated anime? Because I fucking hate 3D animated anime. Aside from rare exceptions like Nyanbo! or that new Lupin movie, the characters in 3D anime look like marionettes wearing those creepy anime masks, which I suppose is fine if that’s what you’re going for, so unless you’re doing something like Nyanbo! where the characters are supposed to look and move unnaturally, or have the budget to make it look really, really good like Lupin III, then stop trying to make 3D anime happen. It’s ugly and creepy and bad and even the people who claim to like it can’t seem to do so without a whole list of caveats.
And nothing draws attention to how bad 3D anime looks quite like inexplicably starting your episode with more traditional (and good!) looking 2D animation. Because the 2D animation at the beginning is nice! And the 2D animation in the first season of BanG Dream! was nice! The switch to 3D had almost nothing to do with why I wasn’t able to get into the second season of the anime despite loving the first and thoroughly enjoying the game (though it would also be better served if they’d just use 2D portraits instead of the somewhat janky 3D ones), but it sure as shit didn’t help.
I’m not trying to use this review to complain about 3D anime and BanG Dream! but I doubt I’ll get another chance to do the latter and it might be a long time before I get to do the former and aside from the animation and connection to the only idol franchise I like, D4DJ First Mix has absolutely nothing going for it. It’s an idol anime. Have you seen an idol anime? Congratulations, you’ve seen D4DJ First Mix. More specifically, if you’ve seen the first episode of BanG Dream! you’ve seen the first episode of D4DJ First Mix, because they’re beat for beat the same damn episode, except with DJs instead of girl bands (the BanG Dream! band with the DJ isn’t in the first season of the anime).
As I’ve said once and a million times, me reviewing idol anime is a waste of both my time and yours because they’re all the same. It’s part of the appeal. They do show a little bit of the technical side of DJing, so if that’s the sort of thing that interests you you might get a kick out of it. I’m not going to keep watching it because I already watched BanG Dream!, but that should be obvious by this point. The show is relatively inoffensive and the designs of the girls are cute so if idol anime is your thing and you don’t hate 3D anime you’ll probably enjoy this one. While you do that, I’m going to go watch something entertaining, like Akudama Drive.
Ace Anime Reviews 
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