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Well the Artiswitch picture drama is less a standalone story, and more an excuse to fill the in the blanks of these rushed stories. It was mildly entertaining, though it couldn't shake the corporate feel of the original Artiswitch.
I neglected to look into it in my review for the original anime, however I knew that I had far less to say about the picture drama and I wanted to do a little digging. What exactly is Artiswitch? Both the picture drama and the anime feel strikingly corporate to me. The music sounds like gacha game compositions. The art style feels focus group tested. And the stories are - at least, they're intended to be - edgeless calls to action. Be yourself! Be kind! Is this really all the anime wanted to be?
Well, yes. Artiswitch is an advertisement.
While looking for any history, I found this which mentions that Artiswitch is a collaboration between Sunrise (which is clearly listed) and a company called ASOBISYSTEM. ASOBISYSTEM is a talent agency, even planning company, and media management group. They have a good few musicians, youtubers, and other personalities under their wing. And their whole shtick is advertising Harajuku brands, culture, and music.
I don't bring this up as a condemnation, more as an explanation. Companies partnering with animation studios to create anime is nothing new. But, it does explain why Artiswitch (and the picture drama) are the way that they are. They're vessels for company talent.
Yes, though its more accurate to say that the Artiswitch picture drama is so safe and toothless that it can't mess anything up.
Firstly, the production quality is bare-bones. It's essentially a five six-minute clips of a visual novel on auto play. Again, I don't want to hold that against the show, but its jarring for the first episode or two.
Beyond that, each episode acts as a partial follow-up to their respective episodes. How related the story is to the plot, however, varies dramatically. Episode one - the best one in my opinion - is a direct continuation of the anime's narrative. While episode three is character background, giving the fashion designer a bit more personality and history.
And that's...kind of it. I don't have much praise or much critique. I thought they handled the one girl's gender nonconformity better this time around, and while I still don't like how the lesbian couple was handled, they did the least offensive continuation possible from it.
Artiswitch exists as a means to advertise Harajuku to you, and beyond the flashy character designs, there's only the most shallow character motivations and characterization. Which is a problem, as the picture drama really only carries any weight if you already liked the characters. If you weren't fiending to know about the daily life of cardboard cutout #23, then their episode will fall flat.
But this all may be an advertisement, that comes with some good. It's smooth. It's seamless. It's easy to watch, even with the stunted visuals and low production. The character designs are forgettable, but they're easy on the eyes. The environments are still renders, but they're pretty renders.
The Artiswitch picture drama is the anime equivalent of baby sensory videos playing underneath an episode of a 90's sitcom. The plot may be non-existent, but you can tune out, watch the fruit dance and have a nice couple minutes. As a piece of entertainment, it's a failure. But it's not a frustrating, bigoted, or obnoxious failure. Just a failure.
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