AKB0048

AKB0048 is a 2012 Japanese anime television series based on the popular AKB48 idol group. The anime is produced by Satelight, with Shoji Kawamori as chief director and writer. It began airing on April 29, 2012.

The story: at the start of the 21st century, an interplanetary war broke out. Earth's ecosystem was damaged, and humanity was forced to flee the planet. In this new society, things that "disturb the heart" like music and art are forbidden. 48 years later, a legendary idol group is resurrected as AKB0048. Labeled as terrorists, they must take up arms to defend their careers and their fans.

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Tropes used in AKB0048 include:

• Ace Pilot: Sae is more or less this, given that she's almost always seen performing dogfighting in her mech.
• Autobots Rock Out: How Team 00 make their entrance in Episode 2.
• Big Damn Heroes: The AKB0048 save the passengers in general and the audience participants in particular from the DES Space Marines.
• Conspicuous CG: Used for the idol's performances and certain dance sequences.
• Cool Airship: That also serves as a mobile stage platform and an aircraft carrier!
• Culture Police: The DES. Anti-entertainment radicals are also mentioned.
• Crapsack World: When the Culture Police fires live ammo at idols and their audience, you know that the entire world has gone to the gutter. The titular group tries to change this, though.
  • Comparisons can be drawn between the government in this anime and totalitarian governments both real and fictional. Nagisa's father won't be out of place working for the Party in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
  • In fact, Nagisa's class has an off-color Union Jack on the front wall. Makes you wonder whether the people involved actually read the book.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Nagisa's father is a bit strict.
• Heart Symbol: Every member of the AKB0048 has a heart shaped shine in their hair.
  • Exotic Eye Designs: also in their eyes as well.
• Hero Secret Service: The Ota Brigade. Shall DES force raid an AKB0048 concert, they will fight back for their idols' sake. And they aren't some ragtag militia, they are armed with Humongous Mecha.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: both Real Life AKB48 members and trainees and professional Seiyuu are cast in the anime.
• Humongous Mecha: Both AKB0048 and the DES has mechs. Those mechs can fight in outer space.
  • And then episode 6 reveals that there's an otaku group that has their own colorfully decorated mechs, who assist Sae.
• Idol Singer
• Jerkass: Nagisa's dad and Yuka's ex-boyfriend and the DES.
• Laser Blade: The Micsaber.
• Legacy Character: Individual member names in Real Life AKB48 have become titles (which also doubles as Nom De Guerre).
• Macross Missile Massacre: Narmtacularly, the missile has the "No Idol" sign on their head. This is from a studio that animated Macross Frontier.
  • The ota brigade in episode 6 deploys this with fingerheld glowstick missiles.
• Mood Whiplash: Episode 3.
• Non-Actor Vehicle: Only a few of the main cast members have acted in anime before this
• Replacement Scrappy: Defying this is the crux of episode 6.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Kirara.
• Shout-Out: The katakana for the name of Nagisa's home planet can be rendered "Ranka Star", though it's officially spelled "Lancastar".
• Space Marine: The elite DES soldiers who comb the ship for AKB candidates. Clad in Power Armor, they are really rank and file above their planet-bound counterpart. They are prone to violence. They will open fire at little girls. Yes, that's as terrifying as it sounds.
• Training from Hell: Episode 3.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Astute audience might notice how Chieri is nowhere when the girls depart for the AKB audition, despite her being a big AKB fans. It's because Chieri is from another planet, and their little adventure happened when she was on vacation on Lancastar.
• World of Badass: Asskicking idols and their fans
  • World of Action Girls
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: The eponymous group, for the crime of "disturbing the heart". They really are armed fighters with a political message to broadcast, but they aren't firing at anyone unless they are attacked first.
  • Also, they aren't shooting to kill but disable; Sae uses her gatlings to intercept missile barrages, as well as using an energy weapon to disable DES mechs; the senbatsu and ota brigade also go for disabling attacks in melee, rather than for kill strikes.