First Impressions: Gekidol

It’s been six years since the horrible disaster that wiped out huge swaths of land in the city of Ikebukuro. Still, science continues to advance, and the newest hit technology, the Theatrical Material System, promises to inject new life into the acting business with its 3D holograms and immersive special effects. Thanks to a friend, Seria Morino comes across tickets to attend one of these performances, featuring Izumi Hinazaki and her star acting troupe, SMT. The show thrills Seria, and on a whim, she decides that she wants to become a stage actor. Of course, such vain dreams are not so easily achieved, as Higuchi Makoto, the friend who gave Seria tickets to attend SMT‘s show, reminds her. But through the power of avant-garde recruitment techniques, Seria meets the cast of Alice in Theater, another troupe in which Izumi used to act. With the help of her new theater friends, Seria’s acting aspirations seem all the more attainable. But Alice in Theater isn’t the only group with eyes on Seria’s talent…

Well, I wasn’t expecting Gekidol‘s first episode to be as good as it was. When I was tracking the Winter 2021 shows on Livechart, I chalked this one up as just another one of the many idol shows coming out this season (seriously, there are so many idol shows). In hindsight, this wasn’t entirely fair. Gekidol feels like every other idol show in some ways; on first impressions, Seria’s just like every other aspiring actress. But the show fights against this mold, and the miniature plot twist at the end of this first episode shows that there’s more to Gekidol than cute girls acting. I really enjoyed the visuals of this first episode as well. The dance scenes were captivating and fluid, and the wonderful scenery took a toll on my Print Screen key. If Gekidol can shake off its generic idol-style garments and delve deeper into the mysteries of its world, this show might be a performance worth buying tickets for.

(For the sake of full disclosure, Gekidol‘s first episode premiered on January 4 with an OVA. This post focuses on the first episode alone, which aired today. The OVA only features a performance by Alice in Theater and isn’t intrinsic to the show’s story.)

Gekidol can be streamed through Funimation. Read our thoughts on all the new winter anime series, in addition to comments from our other writers, on our winter 2020 anime first impression master post.

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