Idols anime are a dime and a dozen, be it improvised local idols, zombie idols, virtual idols, magical girls that are also idols, male counterparts of an other idol show, etcetera etcetera.
So often in anime you’ve find parodies of idols and the showbiz surrounded within many shows not about idols. And in 2016 Kadokawa thought of making an original short anime series (later made into a manga) about a male idol group… composed by half-busts renassaince style statues of historic and mitological figures, with Medici, Mars, Hermes and Saint George, nickname collectively “The Rockies”. A new graduate from art school, Miki Hishimoto, find herself being recruited as their manager, and the titular Sekko Boys (lit. “Sculture Boys”) are definitely a handful to deal with.
You are probably thinking this series is built on one-note gag, but you’d mistaken.
Sure, the main joke is that the Rockies are sentient statues of deities, saints and florence nobles, while everyone else is a regular human, and of course people have to carry them around, because they’re just statues, not even full sized ones. That and their standing out because they the bust are renaissance styled (basically digitized photographs of the busts) while the rest has a regular anime aesthetic.
It would have been SO easy to screw this up by just abusing the hell out of the main gimmick, but this isn’t the case, for two simple reasons. First, it’s a short sized series, with twelve 7 minutes episodes (5/6 of actual show and then the opening/theme) with self contained plots, which is a smart, smart decision for this concept.
Secondly, it’s actually pretty funny. You’d think this would be a given for a comedy, but for a show that sold itself of the novelty of “idol boyband but they’re renaissance stone half-busts of historical and mitological figures”, this could have been exploited to hell and back without bothering to write some actual funny dialogues to go along with the main underlining gag.
But the personalities of the Rockies and their interactions are funny, spoofing the typical composition of male idols group aimed at tween girls, the showbiz surrounding idols and using the possibilites offered by each “Sekko Boy” being also the same figure of myth or history.
It’s short and sweet, the voice acting is great, the main theme is fitting and frankly kinda catchy, in both ironic and unironical sense, and animation (by Liden Film) is nice. I don’t think there’s much else to say, and in this case, it’s mostly for the better.
It’s available worlwide (expect for “Asia” ) to stream on Crunchyroll, it won’t take much of your time, and i recommend it. Good art supply fun. 🙂
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