Content Warning: None Intro While I disliked Artiswitch quite a lothttps://anilist.co/review/25468 the picture drama intrigued me. The stories within Artiswitch felt complete. There were no loose threads from which you could weave a side story. There were hardly any loose ends only two quite honestly. I didnt know what they could do for a side project thats nearly the same length as the original. And with no other reviews I felt that I might as well give it a look. Well the Artiswitch picture drama is less a standalone story and more an excuse to fill the in the blanks of these rushed stories. It was mildly entertaining though it couldnt shake the corporate feel of the original Artiswitch. Real quick what even is Artiswitch? I neglected to look into it in my review for the original anime however I knew that I had far less to say about the picture drama and I wanted to do a little digging. What exactly is Artiswitch? Both the picture drama and the anime feel strikingly corporate to me. The music sounds like gacha game compositions. The art style feels focus group tested. And the stories are at least theyre intended to be edgeless calls to action. Be yourself Be kind Is this really all the anime wanted to be? Well yes. Artiswitch is an advertisement. While looking for any history I found thishttp://artiswitch.com/news/detail.php?id=18654 which mentions that Artiswitch is a collaboration between Sunrise which is clearly listed and a company called ASOBISYSTEM. ASOBISYSTEM is a talent agency even planning company and media management group. They have a good few musicians rs and other personalities under their wing. And their whole shtick is advertising Harajuku brands culture and music. I dont bring this up as a condemnation more as an explanation. Companies partnering with animation studios to create anime is nothing new. But it does explain why Artiswitch and the picture drama are the way that they are. Theyre vessels for company talent. Does the picture drama fix the shortcomings of the anime? Yes though its more accurate to say that the Artiswitch picture drama is so safe and toothless that it cant mess anything up. Firstly the production quality is barebones. Its essentially a five sixminute clips of a visual novel on auto play. Again I dont want to hold that against the show but its jarring for the first episode or two. Beyond that each episode acts as a partial followup to their respective episodes. How related the story is to the plot however varies dramatically. Episode one the best one in my opinion is a direct continuation of the animes narrative. While episode three is character background giving the fashion designer a bit more personality and history. And thats...kind of it. I dont have much praise or much critique. I thought they handled the one girls gender nonconformity better this time around and while I still dont like how the lesbian couple was handled they did the least offensive continuation possible from it. Final Thoughts Artiswitch exists as a means to advertise Harajuku to you and beyond the flashy character designs theres only the most shallow character motivations and characterization. Which is a problem as the picture drama really only carries any weight if you already liked the characters. If you werent fiending to know about the daily life of cardboard cutout 23 then their episode will fall flat. But this all may be an advertisement that comes with some good. Its smooth. Its seamless. Its easy to watch even with the stunted visuals and low production. The character designs are forgettable but theyre easy on the eyes. The environments are still renders but theyre pretty renders. The Artiswitch picture drama is the anime equivalent of baby sensory videos playing underneath an episode of a 90s sitcom. The plot may be nonexistent but you can tune out watch the fruit dance and have a nice couple minutes. As a piece of entertainment its a failure. But its not a frustrating bigoted or obnoxious failure. Just a failure.