The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls Anime Discussion

[DeviantProtagonist]

... We got a gangwar's worth of chuunibyou who never got out of pretending to be cats, psychics, immortal aliens, ninjas, commandos, curse-bound vampire fallen angel... things, no less than two mad scientists, a mushroom mania psychopath, and a real life Santa complete with raindeer in tow, and people are complaining about realism?

I gotta be doin' this wrong, guys. I was sure there was supposed to be some humor factor in the Liberation of Cafe Mishiro. ^_^;;

NO! EVERYTHING MUST BE DARK AND GRITTY AND DEPRESSING. >:C

But in total seriousness, it was less that and more musings toward how disjointed these work ethics are. Even the original iM@S anime kept things reasonable despite how off the wall it was sometimes.

[Jerrymouse23]

That is true, though.

While I was surfing on the internet, I found something interesting. These are the full lyrics of "Star!!" and "Yuubae Present" respectively.
They came from this Twittter user. Not sure where he/she got got them from, so give this a grain of salt. They somehow look like the real deal, but that'll wait until the 18th.

I think full version of those songs have already been performed in live concerts / events previously.
Full-size "Star!!": http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm25526886

[MetalPredat0r]

A minor error I just caught myself in CG EP5. In this shot, Yuko looks taller than Sanae despite Yuko being 140cm and Sanae being 152cm.

[DeviantProtagonist]

Another thing for the list of errors the Blu-ray to fix, I guess.

Looking back on earlier skits, its like they know what I want! *3*

[Cael K.]

... Maybe it's Sanae leaning to the side, and being a little further away from the camera, with Yuko standing up straight?

[ChocoCats]

I'm not sure if anyone's aware, but Nippon Columbia is releasing videos featuring the main actresses in a 13-day countdown to 'hype' up the release of the "Star!!" CD.

List:
13. Ayaka Fukuhara (Rin Shibuya's VA)
12. Rei Matsuzaki (Kirari Moroboshi's VA)
11. Hiromi Igarashi (Anzu Futaba's VA)
10. Ruriko Aoki (Riina Tada's VA)
9. Sayuri Hara (Mio Honda's VA)
8. Natsumi Takamori (Miku Maekawa's VA)
7. Aya Suzaki (Minami Nitta's VA)
6. Nozomi Yamamoto (Rika Jougasaki's VA)
5. Naomi Oozora (Chieri Ogata's VA)
4. Sumire Uesaka (Anastasia's VA)
3. Tomoyo Kurosawa (Miria Akagi's VA)
2. Maaya Uchida (Ranko Kanzaki's VA)
1. Yuka Ohtsubo (Kanako Mimura's VA)
Release!: Ayaka Ohashi (Uzuki Shimamura's VA)

[Maka]

This week's episode... Damn. Just. Damn.

never imagined that the trio getting their big break at Mika's concert would backfire so spectacularly. But it's really to be expected... If your prior experience is a big stage with thousands of cheering fans, a small performance in a mall with maybe... two or three dozen people at most watching probably feels like rock bottom?

People are probably going to jump on Mio for "overreacting" though... Poor Mio.

Memories is a really good song too. Really glad that the single was announced right after the episode aired lol

[ChocoCats]

It's more like it's due to Mio's over-expectation with the amount of people coming to watch the concert in her part, though the lack of excitement from the audience plays a part of that, too. Gotta say, while I'm not much a fan of the "I'm going to quit as an idol" drama, I wasn't expect to see this early in the series and it's Mio of all things. Also, I wasn't expect to see Mio as NG's leader.

Memories was pretty good so far, though できたてEvo! Revo! Generation! (Dekitate Evo! Revo! Generation!) doesn't impress me yet.

[Nargrakhan]

Well I figured they had to bring *something* back for the drama factor, seeing how they resolved the jealously thing. What occurred wasn't something I expected, but I'll wait and see how it goes before making judgement on the timing and delivery. Mio's reaction struck me as out of character though... at least from what we've been exposed to of her character with past CD's and drama skits. It's also very selfish, given the Producer has already revealed the Cinderella Girls Project requires many moving parts to function in successful coordination, for the whole machine to be a a success for everyone. That kind of behavior I expect out of Miku or Anzu. Mio? Not so much.

Hopefully the situation can be resolved, or the Producer can modify his plans to omit as necessary. I'd be upset to see the others suffer because of the folly of a single person.

I WANT MY RANKO EPISODE!!!!

TBH... the Producer really needs to get his people skills up to speed. He's like a thematic opposite of the 756 Producer. 756 Producer-san had the social skills to keep it together, but initially lacked the resources and entertainment experience to make things happen. 346 Producer-san has the resources and entertainment experience to make things happen, but lacks the social skills to keep it together.

That all being said...

Fans of Anya x Minami should be chomping at the bit.

Also that scene with Anzu on Kirari's phone is a GIF goldmine.

[Nargrakhan]

At first I was having trouble putting my finger on the problems these last few episodes have been showing... but now that I think about it more, the issue isn't that the Producer has difficulty with socializing or expressing his intentions...

...the issue is that these idols don't trust or have faith in the Producer. As the montage in episode 6 shows, and his quick conversation with the oh-so-lovely Chihiro, P-san really busts his ass to get things done for his idols. However they seem to be under the impression he doesn't have their best interests in mind and/or doesn't want to see them become super stars. I'm having trouble understanding why this is so. Sure... he's not expressive... but that shouldn't obscure the amount of work he puts into the project.

There's also this weird idea that they can become superstars over night... which is totally unrealistic. Just because I was the backup singer/dancer for a S+ Rank entertainer, doesn't make me an S+ Rank entertainer. Mio's ego needs to be put in check. She got lucky with that first break. Even if 345 gave her a real stadium concert, she doesn't have her own fan base (outside of her classmates). What she got was exposure to Mika's fan base. The company would have been forced to give tickets away for free, or have her tagged to an S+ Rank idol's performance, to fill the seats. She's supposed to earn her own success... not leech of another's.

Lastly... while I don't think it will happen, this would be the PERFECT opportunity for the anime to stop being centered around the New Generations and move on to the other idols. Yes, eventually Mio would return, but I think they could milk this drama further if Mio was on the sidelines as a not-idol and watch as the rest of the Cinderella Girls rise to fame without her (Shiburin and Shimamu could go solo act for the time being).

If this series had used more of the cast, this would have been a great time to bring Triad Primus into the spotlight... but that's totally not going to happen, until the end of the show. I'm thinking a Triad Primus will be the second season... assuming the anime become successful enough for such a thing.

[seibo]

Am I the only one who thought it was weird that Mio was the leader? I could have sworn in an earlier episode they made Uzuki the leader. It's totally fine for that to change (it's kind of a minor thing) but it seems weird to just be unexplained. It might have been a choice for the narrative to work, but I really wish it had gotten a bit of dialogue as to why.

As for the main plot point I honestly thought it was going to go in a different direction. There were a couple of shots of the NG girls performing where they weren't smiling so I thought it was trying to show that NG didn't do as good of a job as Love Laika (cause I wanna say Trainer mentioned something about smiling during the practice sessions). I was also totally sure Uzuki was gonna trip in the heels on that part she always messed up on. The fact that Mio's hangup was about the audience makes me a little :/ She's obviously a little naive about the whole idol business, but it seems so overblown that I dare say it's a bit OOC.

[MetalPredat0r]

I swear if Mio gets fat........

Anyway, one thing that is interesting to consider is this post I found on /@/ that may or may not give some sort of clarity on this whole debacle as to whether or not Mio's moment was OOC.

Jokes on you guys. The CG girls barely had any character in the first place. Other than scratching in a little extra depth with special events, there are little to no in-depth introspections on the characters.

Is this optimal? Well admittedly, the flow was clunky. And I'm a little mad how they intersparsed LL's sakuga with NG fucking up. But this episode really did its work to establish Mio further as a character. At least now, I can say that Mio finally broke free from being Uzuki's shadow of being a relatively unmemorable.

The episode drove it home that Mio is a very juvenille character. That is to say, she sets very unrealistic expectations and when things don't go her way, she throws tantrums. Mio is the kind of girl who brags to her friends and shows off. Her friend made it to the mini live and despite the low audience, probably thought no less of Mio. After all, its their friend out there. However, Mio already established a level of deluded grandeur for herself after having a taste of the big stage courtesy of Mika. And things just fell apart for her thanks to her immaturity.

It's not done perfectly, but it's nowhere near as bad as you people are making it to be. Personally, I think it's a good development considering that a.) It places more character to Mio, who has had the stigma of Shitty Uzuki Clone 2.0: Genki Edition and b.) It shows a lead in towards further development of NG as a group and P-san finally flexing his emotions to the idols; which in turn leads to opening up the character arcs of the others. (i.e. Do you honestly think Chieri will open up and grow attatched to the stonefaced TakeP? The guy needs to into commu events and emotions first.)

In the end, both sides were wrong and there's neither a good or bad guy here. Just an incredibly ambiguous gray area.

On a happier note, Memories is absolutely fantastic and solidifies Love Laika as one of, if not my all-time, favorite iM@S units.

[Maka]

You have to admit, even if you hate her actions, Mio isn't nearly as slappable as Honoka was during Love Live's drama sequences. I don't want to grab Mio by the shoulders and yell at her at least.

http://imas-cinderella.com/package/01.html
Oh yeah, the DVD section of the anime site lists 9 bundles of 2 or more episodes, so I think it's safe to say 26 episodes or more confirmed?

[Nargrakhan]

Anyway, one thing that is interesting to consider is this post I found on /@/ that may or may not give some sort of clarity on this whole debacle as to whether or not Mio's moment was OOC.

See, I have to disagree with that person. He sounds like someone who's never heard the drama CD's, read the manga, seen the in-game quotes, or listened to the radio show. Mio has a character. Granted it's not in depth as the original iM@S idols, but she DOES have a developed persona that forms the basis of her identity. What Mio did seems OC from what we've known of her. Now I'm not passing final judgement, because the story arc has yet to finish, but I can see why Mio fans are upset about this happening to her. This isn't something expected -- and having the unexpected in a story is not always a good thing.

Again... Miku or Anzu doing this would be completely within their personality to have done. They are more selfish and egotistical than the norm, but the selection of Mio for it is jarring. It almost changes the dynamic of her... as if she has elements of a "Stepford Smiler" lurking in her... which goes against the grain of what "Genki Girl" fans find adorable (and we already have "Stepford Idols" in Hotaru Shiragiku and Miyu Mifune).

I'm not against change or expanding character -- hence me holding off about bad mouthing the writers -- I'm just wondering if this moment will be remembered as a new definitive personality trait for Mio... or just a random thing that occurred to make plot. The first would be true character development, and the second would be OOC.

[ZetaFlare]

After hearing Memories, I think I've found a potential keyboard cover song in the future (after edeN).