Lemon Angel

レモンエンジェル

Aired: 1987 - 1988

A late-night anime born from a media mix project with the idol unit 'Lemon Angel.' Broadcast as a five-minute program on the Fuji Television network, it attracted attention at the time as an idol-direct anime in which the actual members voiced their own characters. Its style of capturing the daily lives and faint romances of somewhat precocious high school girls through sharp cel animation and refreshing pop songs epitomizes the honeymoon between idol culture and late-night anime in the latter half of the 1980s. The first season's opening 'Tasogare Lonely' was sung by Tomoko Sakurai (in the role of Erika Shima), with lyrics by Kaoru Asakura and music composed by Hiroyuki Kozu. As a pioneering presence that presented a new development model directly linking idols and anime, it went on to influence subsequent media mix projects.