English Dub Review: If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die “The Closest Miracle to Me”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

With the advancements of social media making everyone, a step ahead in terms of leaking information to upcoming Idol events before they happen, (And everything else in general) the Cham Jam Idol group faces the challenge of subverting their audience’s and by-extension the expectations of their fanbase when announcing that they made it to the “Idol festival” with actual news coverage on the event, while also facing the challenge of another Idol Group called “Maple” that at one point one of their own Idol members had a past history with…

Meanwhile, Eripiyo comes across as a creep as usual reflecting about how she wasn’t a fan of Maina during her early years but is determined to express her feelings about Maina on the fictional site, “Twittan”.


Our Take

Aside from the subplot of social media playing an indirect and influential role of how people get their information in advance, this was rather a simple episode by itself and doesn’t really have much to show. Eripyo finally took it to social media through an obvious parody of “Twitter” for the first time, Still, the tension before even making a tweet was quite palpable.

While the “Tweeting” scenes try to be charming and heartfelt, it does hit some very uncomfortable places in terms of storytelling such as Eripiyo knowing semi-personal details about Maina such as her having a mole behind her neck. As for the Idol subplot, there’s a small sense of urgency as well with all the Idol groups competing to achieve mainstream success as well since the titular “Budokan” is Japan’s equivalent to the “Apollo Theatre” where entertainment matters and everyone needs to step their game up.

Despite how lackluster this mostly was, I’m at least really hoping this finale next week will bring this show’s title across, that would be the best way to end this!