Review | Phantom of the Idol (Episode 2)

“Phantom of the Idol delivers another hilarious episode as the story takes an interesting turn.”

Last week, Phantom of the Idol delivered a good series premiere. What about this week’s episode?

WORKING TOGETHER

Right from the second episode, the partnership between Niyodo and Asahi takes a different turn. The first part of the episode shows them the way they were in the first episode. Asahi takes Niyodo’s body to train for the next concert and promote it. The contrast between the energetic Niyodo controlled by Asahi and the lazy Niyodo is hilarious. All the characters around him are so shocked.

Though, you cannot go with that storyline for twelve episodes. Things have to change at one point, otherwise it could get boring. And the change actually happens right now. Actually, I though they would have used that for a few more episodes. It is a surprising move but a smart one. In the second part of the episode, Niyodo has to do things on his own. We discover that he is very capable of doing things. In fact, he is quite talented. It is just that he is lazy. The reaction he gets from his fans motivates him to do better. So his partnership with Asahi becomes one where she is going to help him to be a better Idol. Which I think is going to be very interesting while still maintaining a good level of humor.

However, Yoshino is really a secondary character for the moment. I think he deserves more screentime. After all, he is the other part of ZINGS. I think the story should feature more the interactions between him and Niyodo and show us more what kind of duo they make. Especially now that Niyodo is more determined to succeed as an Idol.

CONCERT

ZINGS has a new concert in this episode. It features a different song. This one is just as good. It is catchy and what you would expect from an Idol group. However, they play on the same stage. And they wear the same costumes. It is a way to show that ZINGS is still at its beginning. They are still struggling at the moment. I suppose that as the story progresses so will their fame. The only problem I have with the concert scenes is like I said last week, it is not well animated

SUPER FANS

A trio of super fans of Niyodo appeared in the first episode. We continue to follow them in this episode. They are secondary characters but in each episode so far, they get two big scenes. One scene during the episode and one post credits scene at the restaurant. I hope the post credits scene remains a tradition for the rest of the series. It is simply so much fun to see these characters. Their conversations about the new version of Niyodo are priceless. They are exactly the type of super fans you would expect. This is me when I talk about Star Wars and Marvel.