Ochikobore Fruit Tart – Episode 1 – Becoming Idols To Save the Dorm

At last, Ino decides to head for Tokyo to achieve her dream of becoming an idol. She finds out that the dorm she is staying at is in dire straits. Thankfully, Hoho has a plan to stop that.

Ino bids farewell to her mother as she heads to Tokyo become an idol, which she is super excited about.  It’s not too surprising since she is a country girl who dreamt of living in Tokyo. Kajino Hoho, the manager of Rat Production meets her after she arrives.

After arriving at the dormitory, it seems very ordinary. Ino meets the unpopular former child actor, Sekino Roko, the unpopular musician, Nukui Hayu, and lastly, the unpopular model, Maehara Nina.

As expected, Nina is is the tallest and also the most attractive. However, she is very introverted, which can explain why she isn’t a good model despite having a body of an ideal model. As expected, Roko is the shortest and Ino being at average height doesn’t help. Believe it or not, I am the same height as Ino.

Ino and Hoho finally arrives at the dormitory and she is surprised by how it looks. She runs into the other members who returned from shopping. Hoho recorded their introductions. Ino also hears Roko’s, Hayu’s and Nina’s dormitory song.

Yep, I guess Roko is not too unpopular after all. Ino is happy to see Roko since it reminds her of Broko. Yes, she stared in a commercial for broccoli and Ino seems to love that song. However, Roko becomes traumatized by her past work. It seems that Roko wanted to quit because she was sick of doing the same Broko act for years.

In a way, this kind of reminds me of Ooshiro Akari who also faced an embarrassing past over singing a song for a commercial just like Roko. As expected, she was also a child celebrity. The only difference is that Roko hasn’t grown at all in height. In other words, she had the agency fire her as a way of quitting. It can explain why she haven’t received any new acting gigs lately.

With that, Hoho finally reveals she is recording video and Hayu eventually asked about it. It’s for a new program to save the Mouse House from getting demolished. After all, the girls’ unpopularity is becoming a burden to Rat Productions. In other words, Hoho needs to find a way to raise a lot for money to prevent this. After all, without the house, Hoho will be living on the streets. Also, the girls would have to commute, which can become impossible given how far away their homes are.

In short, Hoho has a plan to have the girls become idols in a unit called Fruit Tart. Hoho will be recording 5-minute variety show every week for the whole year. Yes, it’s an offer they can’t refuse since they can earn an estimated 100,000,000 yen. With all that money, they don’t have to eat curry every day and live comfortably.

Still, it seems that the rest of the girls, besides Ino has confidence in this. Roko doesn’t seem interested in being an idol since she doesn’t want to become everyone’s clown. Also, Nina is introverted, thus she finds it embarrassing to wear swimsuits. I can understand why Nina feels this way, but as for Roko, she just doesn’t want to do it.

However, she doesn’t realize that being an idol is not just sinking and dancing, but also doing a variety of activities, including acting. After Hoho mentions the sweets and that idols can become great actors and sell their sexiness, she finally convinces them. Still, it’s obvious that Hoho understands how profitable idols are. On the other hand, she doesn’t realize how hard the idol industry can be given all the competition.

Either way, she is recording a documentary of the girls doing various activities. The first activity they receive is to pass out grocery fliers. Yep, it seems harder than expected. As expected, the girls’ idol outfits are cute and expensive. Sadly, they cut that part out from the manga after the girls find out after using it as a tip bucket.

Besides performing their dormitory song, which managed to net some money since everyone seemed to like it, they try to find ways to hand out fliers effectively. This range from Roko doing a pity act and Hayu having Nina use her assets. It’s obvious that besides Ino, everyone had a hard time passing all of them out. I guess keeping it simple and passing them out with a smile like Ino did is enough to accomplish this.

In the end, the girls managed to pass all the fliers. The ending of the variety show was nice with the girls smiling. Of course, the part that received the highest ratings is of course the scene with Nina. The part with the lowest rating is of course the girls smiling towards the end. I kind of expected this, but it’s not too surprising. Either way, it looks like Hoho will have the girls release a new CD. I wonder how the song will turn out.

As expected, the plot is pretty much the same with most idol anime. Like with becoming idols to save the school and a club, nobody expects them to have to become one to save the dorm. I guess the production company can’t afford the mortgage on the house they use as a dorm with their talent not bring in any money. Of course, there is a lot of pairings, especially with the 5^th member who develops a crush on Ino. I won’t spoil it, but it will eventually happen. ¶