Mendol
Posted on December 12th, 2009
Mendol
[Rating: 6.5/10]
Genre: Shoujo, Comedy
Mendol is the story of three teenage girls who have made many unsuccessful attempts at auditioning to become pop idols. One day they witness a crime and find themselves on the run for their lives. An eccentric producer agrees to help them but the catch is they have to hide their identities and debut as a boyband. How long can they keep their secret before they’re found out?
This show is nothing but teeny bopper cute, from the three girls to their relationships with the other people in their pop idols lives (strangely their families are never shown though, which would’ve been more interesting I reckon). Despite their life threatening situation, the main suspense was about the girls trying to keep their secret identities. Fans of genderbender type anime would probably like this as their is a bit of identity crisis going around the various characters, from the trio, to their interesting producer, to the so-called romantic entanglements they got into. One particular relationship reminded me alot of the movie starring Amanda Bynes, She’s the Man, as a young man falls in love with one of the trio and starts questioning his own sexual orientation. Sure, there’s other dorama such as Hana Kimi but at least HK had more plot and characterisation to it. I tell you that was a parody of shounen-ai type fan service if anything. The surprising bits were the references to f/f relationships. Like the producer and her assistant, why on earth was there unbashed bdsm reference in a teenager’s show I have no idea. I just cannot fathom out what kind of audience this show was catering to. There were plenty of this a certain group of audience would like and plenty of others the same people would find somewhat squicky… which is why I used the word spoof earlier, because it was just so random. I highly doubt it was meant to be serious in any way (although it was interesting going behind the scenes of how an idol group is debuted, it’s no walk in the park, they were practically busking at first). Even though I’m not a fan of yuri, I have to admit the cutest relationship was the one between Kai and Rei.
Still, it was an entertaining romp no less. Plus the songs were not bad, I like the one in the opening sequence. I think they’d have made a better girl band because their pseudo-masculine voices were rather strained. If there’s a special ‘x-years in the future’ ep I wouldn’t mind watching it just to see what happened.
Filed under: ** jdrama, romantic comedy, shoujo