If youre clicking on this Anilist page randomly or coming here from my profile youre probably seeing this weird cheaplooking anime named Devidol that youve never heard of before regardless of context theres probably one thing on your mind: What the hell is Devidol? Well Ill tell you right now: Its an ad. Specifically its for Island a pachinko parlor in Akihabara. Yes Its an ad for gambling The three main girls Aira Hana and Shima are the mascots of the parlor. You can see in the relations tab under this anime a TV short named KochinPa Those are commercials. Literal commercials. A set of 15 second ads a few of them are on Vimeo I think? There are some weird things listed on Anilist sometimes. Dont be put off by that though I actually want to try convincing people to give Devidol a shot with this review here. Yes seriously Even though it has crappy animation a low average score and is obscure enough to not even get a Wikipedia entry I think Devidol is honestly worth a shot. For starters I want to talk about the staff. Some seasoned anime fans may have recognized a few of the voice actors in this show specifically for the idols Id be surprised if you recognized Ryou Fukawa but thats not impossible I guess. This cast is pretty stacked but before them the director. One thing you might notice about Devidol is that it looks like it was animated in MMD. Theres a good reason for this: It was. Coming off his work on gdgd Fairies and SeHa Girls this is a director familiar with the technology hes working with and has a unique vision. Hes also multitalented having done music stuff in the past. A renaissance man There are some more seminotable names like SunaP on composing and MasatakaP as producer. Both of them are in familiar territory I think they do Vtuber stuff now. Now onto the voice actors whom I really want to talk about. Our main girl/Island mascot Aira is voiced by Suzuko Mimori. Taking over the role previously done by Pile in KochinPa Guess she had better stuff to do? Lol Mimorin is the premier character singer of the 2010s save for maybe Yoko Hikasa. You could make a good argument for Yui Horie but I associate her more with the 2000s. And Mimorin of course does a great job here too. I hardly think she needs an introduction but just in case you dont know the name youve likely heard her in Love Live as Umi Hikari in RevStar Cure Earth in Healin Good Precure Nanami in Kamisama Kiss Kanae in Teekyuu or one of her other few hundred roles. She does a lot so its interesting to see her in a lowkey project like this. Our other two idols have some big names attached to them too Kana Hanazawa as Hana and Yuka Iguchi as Shima. Both are pretty wellknown for their roles in the Monogatari series and being in that show youre gonna be prompted to do some character singing eventually. Theyve got some other pretty big roles too. Finally theres the enigmatic Rocketsensei done by comedian Ryou Fukawa or Rocketman. This touches on an aspect of the show Id like to get into: Devidol doesnt really adhere to the structure of a typical anime. Each episode is split into three sections: Theres a skit with the three girls slice of life stuff. Then they have a lecture from Rocketsensei about some aspect of idols. Sometimes it feels like Rocketsensei isnt an amazing teacher but his heart is definitely in the right place. This transitions into the final part which is closer to a variety show than it is a scripted anime. Seriously Im pretty sure that a good amount of this show is improv done with the VAs and then animated over with some basic model movements/lip flaps. It sounds weird but its real and really great to watch. Its the main reason Id like to know more about how/why this show was made this is such a bizarre and unique concept and its where the show really shines. A bit of honesty here for a sec I dont go out of my way to watch many comedy anime. Anilist might SAY I watch a lot of comedy anime but its lying it puts that tag on anything. Some of those shows are NOT comedies. Anyway I feel like a lot of comedy anime just arent very funny. When I think back on them there are one or two jokes I pinpoint as good jokes that I laughed at. Not the case with Devidol Not a moment of rest in this show its always throwing something new at you. Its an aspect the shitty animation kind of helps with the bit wouldnt work as well if this was a normallooking show with stilted frames of generic character faces holding for minutes at a time. Yes this show is very uniquelooking to say the least. The 3d is choppy and the environments are just weird. Clashing neon colors with the only cohesion being that they dont match each other at all. Even the MCs arent safe if you look at their hair from an angle it looks irritating too. Yes I try not to give too much shade to bad animation but make exceptions in that regard when it legit hurts to look at. It helps watching this show on low brightness. Weirdly I think the first episode in particular is worse than the others? I went back and looked for this review and the hair colors of the girls are a bit washed out after episode 2. They might have heard the criticism and altered the show midway through with such a lowcost show it would definitely be possible too. This all transitions into well I guess my thesis. Devidol is weird even for anime. Like I said its a very unique show it stands out amongst its peers other idol shows music shows web shows CG shows its unforgivably bizarre cheaplooking and unique. Its identity is so strong it seriously is oneofakind. And I think a lot more people need to experience something this unique. I think its a pretty popular opinion now that anime is a tired medium manga adaptations isekai animators getting worked to death. Devidol while I wouldnt consider it brave or anything is its own thing unabashedly. People need more variety in the things they consume even anime Its easy to have your first impressions when you see what Devidol looks like but personally Ive seen a lot of shows that have great animation and still suck. Thats why I implore you to watch Devidol. Its weird yeah but it has its charm. Funny characters a catchy opening. I can guarantee you at least one thing: Youve never seen anything like it. If you noticed this review and clicked on it please feel free to give this review a like or thumbs up or whatever its called. I seriously doubt anyone is gonna pay any attention to this show so just knowing people visited this would be great. If you gave Devidol a shot because of me let me know Especially if you had a good time with it. i seriously had that good of a time one of my favorite from the year its from. Its weird to call Devidol a hidden gem but thats kinda how I feel about it Semispoilers here but in the final episode Our main girl Aira actually has a twitter account but its inactive. Do not despair though You can still follow her antics on the official Akiba Island account https://x.com/akibaisland