Analysis: Legendary Idol Eriko v/s Magical Angel Creamy Mami

August 12, 2007 on 7:55 am | In Articles, General |

‘TV Setouchi + Big West + Ashi Productions = My fav trio’ had said a friend of mine, and indeed these three make the best shows when they join. Legendary Idol Eriko is the proof. If you’re familiar with the shoujo anime series, Magical Angel Creamy Mami, you should be able to follow us here. These two shows were made for the same purpose: to promote the singer who did the vocals for the main character. With Legendary Idol Eriko, this was Eriko Tamura as herself and with Creamy Mami it was Takako Ohta as Mami (and Yuu Morisawa). While Magical Angel Creamy Mami was a commercial success, Studio Pierrot failed in various ways where Ashi Productions simply aced.

While subbing the last seven episodes of the Creamy Mami for L-E, we got a decently good impression regarding how the subbers and viewers felt about the show. While most of the viewers loved it, for us subbers, it was no less than a curse. There was one thing that bothered most: Yuu/Mami (and especially Yuu!) had an annoying pitchy voice which was not only a pain to the ear but frustrating to time subtitles to as well (well… one reason for the ‘curse’).

While I understand these two series are not fully comparable due to the stories and nature of shows being different, and especially because one is mahou shoujo while other is down-to-earth slice of life story, some comparison still applies. First of all, let us look at how voice actors were chosen. In Creamy Mami, Yuu/Mami’s voice was done by Takako Ohta herself who was not only new a emerging idol singer but new in the industry herself. She was not a professional voice actress, not even an amateur one. She had had no previous experience with voice acting. The result: a singer with no voice acting background doing the voice of a show’s main character. Having her do the voice of the main character was also Studio Pierrot’s way of ‘promoting’ her songs. In using the same person for both the voices and vocals, Pierrot was not exactly successful. Technically speaking, fans did love Ohta, but a large number did detest Yuu’s voice.

Ohta’s official website (which no longer exists) had some interesting content regarding Ohta’s stance on Creamy Mami. While she did remember having worked on the show, she made a mistake while saying the title. She said ‘Magical Girl Creamy Mami’ (or something along those lines) not on purpose, but simply because she did not remember it. Not much of a surprise though; she hated the show and wanted to forget about it. I am not sure if she ever did voice acting after that but once she did sing as Mami on TV, although half against her will. The reason was simple; she knew if was not her whom the fans loved, but Mami.

This is where Ashi’s approach made a substantial difference. Legendary Idol Eriko had a total of four idol characters and each character’s voice was done by a professional voice actor, not a singer. Of course, each voice actor had to alter their voice to make it sound as close to that of the respective singer’s as possible — especially because of raw vocals — and most of them did succeed at that, as they had the expertise. The result was fabulous. Rei’s voice actress, Naoko Matsui, did an excellent job in making her voice match with the singing voice of Maiko Hashimoto, the vocalist for Rei’s songs. Akiko Yajima did a decently good job with Eriko’s voice, except her voice had a higher pitch compared to the singing voice of Eriko Tamura. Yet, the difference between the raw vocals in the anime and the voice in the actual songs is not easily spotted unless you know they are being done by two different people.

Of course, the other point is that although Legendary Idol Eriko is mostly a fictional story, the main character was Eriko Tamura herself and not a fictional name. So, by doing this, they introduced and promoted Eriko Tamura, the idol— not just her songs.

Nevertheless, it must be mentioned that Studio Pierrot’s approach was not bad for the show, just not exactly great for the purpose (at least in the 80s). The same approach was used for Full Moon wo Sagashite in 2002 — fictional character becoming idol singer via magic, voice and songs done by the vocalist — yet the show was done extremely well and went onto becoming a superhit amongst anime lovers, enjoying extremely high ratings. The vocalist and voice actress for Full Moon’s songs - Myco from Changin’ My Life- did an excellent job with both.

Idol Angel Welcome Yoko was a similar show created by the same trio and featured Yoko Tanaka, while her voice was done by the famous voice actress, Mika Kanai. While the similarities between these two Ashi Productions shows are obvious, many believe this particular show lacks substance and are not overly impressed by it. In fact, Ashi created Idol Angel Welcome Yoko as a ‘lite’ version, or a less serious ’sequal’, of Legendary Idol Eriko. While Legendary Idol Eriko is most true to real-life as it shows the dark sides and struggling that do not exist in Idol Angel Welcome Yoko, the latter was intended to be that way for the audience who preferred lighter and emotionally less intensive/exaggerated plots.

There will be more on the different ways in which Ashi combined reality with the fictional world of the series in the days to come. Keep checking back from time to time!

Disclaimer: We have not done any research work to arrive at the information written above. Nor have we verified the authenticity of some of the more obscure details. The information above is simply a personal analysis based on well-known facts. Part of the content may be inaccurate. If you are planning to post the content elsewhere or use it for research purposes, use it at your own risk.

NOTE: This article simply analyses the approaches of two production houses on the same goal. It is in no way a personal judegment on either of the shows. Magical Angel Creamy Mami is a famous classic shoujo anime and there are many fans around the world who loved it. You may read further to know more about the impact and influence of the show on viewers. If you are a shoujo anime and mahou shoujo fan, especially fluff loving, you may want to consider trying it out. Do remember, fansubbers can be biased by the fact they are subbing it/having to sub it/have had to sub it.

If you would like to add to the information above or found any content of the article to be inaccurate/ambiguous, please leave a comment or make a thread in the ‘blip’s tech garage’ board in our forums. It will be appreciated.