The Best Idolm@ster Panel Material

There have been a splatter of fan panels in North American anime cons on the IDOLM@STER franchise. Of the few that I have attended over the past few years none of them were as good as NHK’s take. Granted it’s a bit cringe-y but it’s not like some of these panels aren’t either…

You can watch it here for the next few hours or see it ripped on youtube.

Here’s why I think it’s the best take so far:

• It’s meant for a general audience. Different panelists may disagree and I would agree why their takes meant for a con audience is sometimes superior, but a general critique I have is that most of those takes are still too “general.” Why not this one?
• It’s really concise and to the point. This earned massive prop from my end.
• For the most part it is also very accurate. It’s not 100.00% spot on but more so than pretty much any other panel (except maybe Chuck’s).
• It even talks about the seiyuu stuff.
• Of course it’s also unfair that it has interviews with key creative people behind the scenes.

But just for the lead-in portion of the video where they go over the history and some of the well-known aspects of the franchise it’s such a precise and to-the-point thing that I wish all panels covered this much material, this closely, in this little time.

I had a similar problem, if you recall, doing the IM@S 10th panel. Because the 10th documentary in the Blu-ray was pretty much the same thing…