With or Without AKB48, メン☆ドル (Mendol) is a Great Show!

I haven't been this excited about a television show since someone recommended PGSM to me last Spring.

 

I had completely forgotten that Mendol premiered last week until Max at #wotachat began describing the plot.  For those of you not familiar, Mendol is a new weekly television program starring three members of AKB48.  The plot...

*Three wannabe idol girls go to an audition.  One (Minegishi Minami) gets accepted, but it's obvious the producer only wants to get her into bed.  Outside the studio,  the other two girls (Kojima Haruna & Takahashi Minami) witness what seems to be a Yakuza kidnapping, and go on the run to escape the gangsters.  They hideout by dressing as male idols, and are discovered by a strange woman who signs them to be a new idol boy-band.  Eventually they are joined by the third girl after her dramatic suicide attempt during the group's live debut.  Since I haven't seen a subbed version I am probably missing out on little nuances of the plot.  But the show was easy to get the gist of.  The first episode is mainly setup and character introduction for the entire series.  And what a great ensemble of character actors it is.  My favorite is the girl playing their managers' overly peppy assistant.  Damn, she is hot!  And Kawano Naoki from the J-pop/rock band Dustz plays the photographer.  I'm nut sure, but I think they made reference to him working for Friday Magazine!  But the stars here are the AKB48 Girls...

Minegishi Minami (as Otawa Hinata~Kuu) was great in the first episode!  I loved the loli-outfit, and she had the most emotional role so far.  Sugar-sweet in the beginning, and sad/desperate during the attempted rape and attempted suicide scenes.  I was so impressed with the way she was shivering as she layed on the bed.

 

Kojima Haruna (as Wakamatsu Asahi~Riku) came across as the leader of the three girls, and that surprised me.  But she did a really good job.  My favorite scene of hers is when the Yakuza boss sticks the gun in her face.  Wow, she's really cute!  She totally reminds me of Maasa Sudo from Berryz Kobo.  I know I recently made a list of my favorite AKB48 members, but that has completely changed in one week.  And Haruna definitely makes my top 5 now!

 

Takahashi Minami (as Kawachi Nami~Kai) is in my opinion one of AKB48 Team A's best performers.  But I never realized how petite she was until I watched this episode!  So far she has been the "straight man" character.  She is always shocked and surprised by the other two girls' motivations and actions.  But the facial expressions she made throughout the show were priceless!  And was that a Yuke Yuke Monkey Dance costume she was wearing in the beginning?

 

 

This show has everything!  Yakuza, Sex, Girl on Girl Action, S&M (on next episode's previews), Skimpy Clothing, Couchcasting, Suicide and a great musical soundtrack.  The theme song is Relax by AKB48 sub-unit No Sleeves, which features the same three girls.  And AKB48's new single Oogoe Diamond plays over the ending credits.  But what I really like are the instrumentals playing under the entire show.  My favorite is the variation of "Popcorn", the 1972 hit by Hot Butter.  Popcorn automatically makes any scene funny!

 

Whether you like AKB48 or not, Mendol is a well-written and produced show.  The production values are great, the surrounding characters are all colorful and funny, and the three stars themselves do a terrific job!  I can't help but thinking if I was a member of Hello! Project I would be pretty pissed off.  Why don't we see UFA participating in more television programs like this?  Sure, we occasionally see them in stuff like Aku Yuu Monogatari, but mainly we are treated to Haromoni@ and the 3-minute long Yorosen!  I would love to see H!P do stuff like this.  Anyway, I can't wait to see next week's episode of Mendol.  Although there hasn't been a subbed version uploaded yet, the plot is easy to follow and the show is still enjoyable.  Thank You so much to Phantommorpheus6 and Lindaevil for uploading the first one to Veoh!  I will embed it here too...

CK in California