Trivia / Idol Angel Yokoso Yoko

• Actor-Shared Background: The main two characters are idols-in-training, and voiced by Real Life prominent Japanese idols.
• The Cast Showoff: Mika Kanai and Megumi Hayashibara provide the singing voices for Yoko and Saki, respectively.
• Channel Hop: In Italy, it aired on Canale 5, but low ratings pushed it to Italia 1 on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
• Completely Different Title:
  • In Italy, the series is known as Diventeremo famose (We Will Be Famous).
  • In Spanish, the series is called Las aventuras de Yoko y Saki (The Adventures of Yoko and Saki).
• Creator Breakdown: The work stress Takeshi Shudō endured during production was so severe that one day he downed a bottle of whiskey on impulse and woke up with organ damage. His girlfriend's mother hauled him into a taxi and sent him to a hospital in Kurama. From there, he completed his work on the anime.
• Follow the Leader: It was made to ride off the success of Idol Densetsu Eriko. It even occupied it's time slot after it finished airing.
• He Also Did: Takeshi Shudō is best known for being the scriptwriter for Pokémon, GoShogun and Magical Princess Minky Momo. Momo even uses storylines that were originally planned for this anime.
• No Dub for You: It was only dubbed in Italian and Spanish.
• No Export for You: It was only broadcast in Italy and Spain outside of Japan. Oddly, it was never exported to the Arab World either even though the prior series Idol Densetsu Eriko was huge there.
• Romance on the Set: Mika Kanai and Kōichi Yamadera began dating after co-starring in this anime. They eventually married two years later, though the marriage was short-lived.
• Star-Making Role: For Mika Kanai who voices the main character.
• Troubled Production: The series suffered a lot of production issues due to Takeshi Shudō's Creator Breakdowns, budget cuts and the tug of war game with the sponsors.
  • The show was produced in 1990, with scripts written by Takeshi Shudō (of Pokémon, GoShogun and Magical Princess Minky Momo: Hold on to Your Dreams.) Shudo was busy at the time: he had to constantly commute between his hometown of Odawara and his job in Tokyo. He wanted a Darker and Edgier tone for the series, exploring such themes as war, past and psychological trauma despite its cutesy aesthetic, but because of his busy schedule, Shudo commissioned outside writers to work on Yokoso Yoko's scripts. However, he never gave them any guidelines, causing the episodes to come out with an inconsistent tone, and it didn't help that Shudo wanted each episode to star a different character, which only served to alienate audiences.
  • Like Shudo's previous work Idol Densetsu Eriko, Idol Angel Yokoso Yoko was planned to be a musical — but producing original songs was out of the already-stretched budget. The solution was to commission background music that could also double as vocal music while reusing some songs from Eriko.
  • The sponsors of Yoko believed that much like Idol Densetsu Eriko, merchandise of the main character Yoko Tanaka would fly off the shelves — but the show really flew off the handle when deuteragonist Saki Yamamori overshadowed her in popularity. While Shudo disputed this, claiming that Yoko and Saki were equally liked by audiences, the sponsors demanded that Saki's role be reduced for the sake of Yoko. Shudo refused and defended Saki as important to the show's story. Director Tetsuro Amino tried to convince Shudo to play along with the sponsors, even presenting different ways to write Saki out, but Shudo refused all of them; he later called this incident the "Saki Yamamori assassination plot".
    
    Looking back, it's easier to see that Saki got so popular because she was voiced by the well-known idol Megumi Hayashibara, who also sang her image songs. Meanwhile, protagonist Yoko Tanaka was based on a real idol with the same name, who retired prematurely due to burnout.
  • Shortly after the "Saki" incident, Shudo had to be admitted to the hospital. As he recounts in his memoirs, his alcoholism, overworking and other health issues were catching up to him. Despite this, he brought his work equipment to the hospital, and would use the hospital phone to communicate with Amino. At times, he was late to mailing his manuscripts.
  • By 1991, the ratings of Idol Angel Yokoso Yoko were low and toy sales were poor. The sponsors deemed the show a lost cause and cut funding. Idol Angel Yokoso Yoko was scheduled to end in March, but ended in February. Getter Robo Go was scheduled to take it's place in the timeslot in April. Because it was Cut Short, Getter Robo Go was able to air earlier on February 11, 1991.
  • The scripts for episodes 42-50 went unused. The script for episodes 42 and 43 (the two partner finale) were actually originally planned for episodes 51 and 52. This is because the number of episodes were originally cut down from 60 to 52, and then cut again to 43.
  • As a result of Shudo's stubbornness, the sponsors contacted the higher ups of Ashi Productions and began demanding that they compensate them for all the money spent on funding the anime. When they refused to, they kept demanding it and swarmed them with calls and messages.
  • Hilariously, the troubles don't end in the Japanese version - even the Italian edition had a lot of issues with the anime. When Episode 18 aired (February 4, 1992), the network forgot to air the first nine minutes, while Episode 34 didn't air at all, despite being given permission by the censorship board.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The anime was originally called You Love Yuuko. Later, Yuuko's name would be changed to Yoko.
  • It was originally set in London (where Shudo had lived before), but since most of the staff were unfamiliar with London this was changed to Japan.
  • In Shudo's draft for the finale, the future has brought on a Crapsack World and Yoko's friends are losing their will to live. Just as they're about to cross the Despair Event Horizon, Yoko appears on-screen and tells them not to give up, being a Hope Bringer for everyone.