Air Dates: February 6 to March 26, 2016 for eight episodes on Fuji-TV
Air Time: Saturdays at 11:40 pm, average rating was 2.73%
In this drama Next You is a struggling Idol group which has had so-so success to date. They have a single which I presume is "Next Is You" and that song hit #15 on the charts though their managers are a bit disappointed with that showing. The group's goal is to one day headline a show at Budokan, they have a long way to go before that goal can be attained. There are five members in the group, in this drama none of them use their real names and here are the starlets, their second screenshot gives a little info about the character. The "Next Is You" song was their single current single when the show aired and you hear it twice an episode.
Will use that above paragraph for all of the posts along with these pics for all of the main characters, for this second episode we didn't meet any new ones.
Akari Uemura as Aoi Dogakiuchi
Yuka Miyazaki as Rurika Tsurui
Sayuki Takagi as Mayu Adachi
Tomoko Kanazawa as Hana Sakamoto
Karin Miyamoto as Aiko Hidaka
These are the other main characters who have appeared in both episodes.
Seiji Rokkaku as 'Professor' Hakase, a fan of the group who often posts about them on the internet and attends all of their shows, also this show's narrator.
Keisuke Koide as Jun Natsume, the group's producer and songwriter.
Houka Kinoshita as Yoichi Nomura
Yuta Takahata as Haruki Maeda.... both of them are the group's managers though Nomura is the senior and seems to know everything about the Idol industry.
Ryo Yoshizawa as Daichi Mizushima, Aiko's best friend who lives upstairs from her.
Here's what the DVD cover looks like.
Down to the last two recaps, going to miss posting about this series as it's a nice break from recapping episodes that are 45-60 minutes long. The length of these shows may be my only complaint, they're 19+ minutes long but it would have better if they were about 25 minutes.
Episode six finished up on a bit of a cliffhanger as Aiko and her best friend Daichi had a picture of them taken holding hands by their classmate Eri. All kinds of relationships are taboo if you're an Idol and Next You is about to experience two of them. More on Aiko's scandal in a bit but as her's was overshadowed by one that involved Aoi who is the most popular member of the group. Not positive but also think she may be the most popular member of Juice=Juice, that's Akari.
When the group made their first appearance on a TV show Aoi's hair was done by a man named Kanno. He changed her style around a bit, she wasn't too fond of it but kept it. Can't call the pair an item but they have met up twice and if they're not stopped things could get spiral out of control. There was a pic of Aoi in a tabloid, luckily Kanno wasn't in it but he would have been soon as Aoi had been waiting for him at a beach.
No other member had been aware of Aoi seeing Kanno, naturally they were a bit upset as it seems their dream of performing at Budokan won't happen then.. That beach pic plus one other one of Aoi and Kanno were published in a tabloid mag, things could have been much worse. Their main manager Nomura really looks out for the gals and is able to refute the allegations with some very believable excuses. He does make Aoi do a public apology via video, looks like the scandal has blown over quickly. Aiko's scandal doesn't come out until the final episode and it's ramifications are much more damaging.
Things cool down a bit and it appears as though Aoi has been forgiven by the other members but they all need to watch their actions much more closely. Though only seven episodes time has flown by, it started in February 2015, now it's February 2016 and the group is preparing for their Valentine's Day concert. While they were rehearsing they received some tremendous news from their producer Natsume.
The group's third anniversary is coming up, what better way to celebrate than to make their debut at Budokan! Yes, the group is finally going to appear at the famed auditorium on April 1st and it appears as though nothing can deflate the elation they're feeling. Well, as has been the case there was one thing that could put a damper on their success.
At the April 1st concert the group's captain Hana will be announcing her graduation, it'll be her last performance with Next You. That announcement came out of nowhere and of course the other members are shocked but there's no changing Hana's mind, she tells them she'd rather work behind the scenes and be a songwriter.
Aoi's scandal has blown back a bit as another pic was posted in a tabloid, this time the other members weren't as understanding and now it looks as though it's serious enough to get their Budokan show cancelled. Once again Nomura comes to the rescue, don't know if real life Idol managers are like him but even though he's strict he does truly care about the members.
Once again Nomura was able to make the scandal go away quickly, however how will he handle Aiko's scandal which comes out in the next episode? That final recap is the next one, least for now the Budokan concert will still take place. Surprised the age difference between Aoi and Kanno wasn't mentioned, she's 18 in the show while he's at least 25 years old.
Have watched four H!P dramas now and all have been quite good, does help when you're a fan of the groups or singer. Need to find out if there's more of them, actually even if they're not H!P shows like these kinds of dramas wouldn't mind checking them out. You would think a show like this would be a bit fluffy but it isn't at all, it's 100% serious and think that's because they're trying to portray what it's like being an Idol.
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