The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls Anime Discussion

[MetalPredat0r]

Tbh I'm glad it's onlyl 14. Can you imagine an anime focusing on 30+ girls? The original anime still had some girls get little to no focus with 14...

But I'm confused as to why Rika's in the main cast and Mika isn't. Mika's much more popular, for one.

I totally agree. My biggest concern when I saw promotional material was "30 main characters!? How this gonna work!?" and I am satisfied with only half being main characters. Plus the choices here are what one would expect.

Really? I heard Rika was the more popular one and I took that as the reason she's there. Plus, I think they want to have Mika be a veteran idol and Rika as a newcomer, since it looks like this is gonna be a "rising to the top" storyline like the first half of the 2011 anime was.

So, 346 is pronounced as 'mishiroku'. Not sure what that means. The new opening theme song is called 'Star!!', which is going to be debuted at the 2nd Cinderella Girls Live, PARTY M@GIC!! Live. It's written by Yuriko Mori and composed and arranged by Tanaka Hidekazu (MONACA).

In addition, set for release on January 21st, 2015, THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS ANIMATION PROJECT 00 ST@RTER BEST showcases songs from all members of CINDERELLA PROJECT along with a bonus track. It'll cost 2,800 yen and the tracklist is as follows:
01. 'Never say never' by Rin Shibuya
02. 'Anzu no Uta' by Futaba Anzu
03. 'Chocolat Tiara' by Kanako Mimura
04. 'DOKIDOKI Rhythm' by Rika Jougasaki
05. 'Tsubomi Yume Miru Rapsodia ~Alma no Michibiki~' by Ranko Kanzaki
06. 'Onedari Shall We~?' by Miku Maekawa
07. 'Marshmallow☆Kiss' by Kirari Moroboshi
08. 'S(mile)ING!' by Uzuki Shimamura
09. 'Twilight Sky' by Riina Tada
10. 'Mitsuboshi☆☆★' by Mio Honda
11. 'Romantic Now' by Miria Akagi
12. 'Venus Syndrome' by Minami Nitta
13. 'Kazeiro Melody' by Chieri Ogata
14. 'You’re stars shine on me' by Anastasia
15. 'Susume Otome ~jewel parade~' by CINDERELLA PROJECT (Bonus track)

Mishiroku Pro. I do wonder if this is gonna be the official production in the CG game. Also, first album being a compilation of the main girls' image songs makes sense for an introductory album. I just hope later albums give them new songs.

[Maka]

Rika was initially a lot more popular, but in the 2nd and 3rd elections that's been reversed. I dunno why? And that does make sense. I was wondering if they would have senior idols, since Ryuguu Komachi was pretty plot important in the original.

I'm pretty happy with the main cast. Hopefully, this way they can do what the original anime did and have an episode for each idol... I'd love to learn more about Anya, honestly.

Also, I'm hoping that we do get some new songs. A lot of the seiyuu have improved a ton... Just compare Never Say Never to Sokyuu.

[ChocoCats]

Here's the link to the main website for the anime.

EDIT: Uh take that back. 346 is pronounced as 'Mishiro'. The kanji for it is "美城" meaning "Beautiful Castle".

[DeviantProtagonist]

Anya is appreciated, but the lack of Kaede is deeply disconcerting. It feels wrong.

[Maka]

I'm really hoping that Kaede, Nana, and Sachiko pop in from time to time because I want to see their Antics.

[MetalPredat0r]

I found this from a message board:

Summary from interview with Aniplex producer:
-The show's story is focused on Mashiro Pro and the Cinderella Project
-Mashiro is a huge production company for which all the idols work.
-CG has a lot of girls so for the story to be more focused and less aimless they created the Cinderella Project to serve as main characters.
-But girls outside of Cinderella Project will have roles in the anime; family, mentors, friends, rivals... Nana and Mika are just a taste of all the girls that will appear.
-But they really had to narrow it down to 14 because the focus of Idolm@ster has always been character growth, specially since the main theme they're going for with Cinderella Girls is the Cinderella theme.
-346 = Mashiro = Beautiful Castle, and added to 765 it becomes 1111 which ties in with One for All
-The main focus of the story is growth and progress; it's about unknown girls aiming for stardom.
-For the main cast they're trying to expand the characters without losing sight of their heart. How many of these characters have siblings? How are their previously unrevealed family lives? What do they do when they aren't idoling? Things like that.
-They spend most of their time expanding on the characters and have a full document with all the little details.
-It takes place in the same world as the original anime (as shown in the movie ending) but 765 will probably not appear outside of maybe cameos.
-The first episode will be focused on explaining the setting and main characters.
-How were the Cinderella Project girls chosen? They're Noriko Takao's favorites (laughs). But really, they were picked because they had the most potential for growth because the drama and story of the show is about personal development.
-The New Generation girls are rather than main characters the vehicle for the audience; they're true rookies being introduced to the world of idoling. They're the center of the show but all 14 in Project Cinderella are the main characters.
-You don't need to have played the CG game or know the girls or even have seen the original anime to understand it. It's a show for everyone: fans and newcomers.
-Producer assures people that general elections or popularity don't influence anime plans. They won't make a girl stand out more just because she is popular.
-There are a lot of references and easter-eggs for game players but they're just that, they want everyone to be able to watch the anime.
-Lot of new songs, Sony Music and Columbia happy to cooperate.
-Watch the first three episodes to get a good idea of the world Noriko Takao has created.
-He seems pretty happy to say "Cinderella Girls is not a half-hearted work in any way; feel free to believe!"
-Live scenes will be similar to the old anime, minimal CG.

[zaitcev]

Honestly I'm concerned at having a whole of 14. Back when Uzupaka was announced to be an official main character for the new series, it was supposed to be different in composition from the iM@S TV series in large part of this character focus. So I could understand if we had 3 main characters. But if we have 14, the anime turns into a warmed-up rehash. Sort of like GBF TRY is not any better than GBF.

[AkuAkane]

I found this from a message board:

Summary from interview with Aniplex producer:
-The show's story is focused on Mashiro Pro and the Cinderella Project
-Mashiro is a huge production company for which all the idols work.
-CG has a lot of girls so for the story to be more focused and less aimless they created the Cinderella Project to serve as main characters.
-But girls outside of Cinderella Project will have roles in the anime; family, mentors, friends, rivals... Nana and Mika are just a taste of all the girls that will appear.
-But they really had to narrow it down to 14 because the focus of Idolm@ster has always been character growth, specially since the main theme they're going for with Cinderella Girls is the Cinderella theme.
-346 = Mashiro = Beautiful Castle, and added to 765 it becomes 1111 which ties in with One for All
-The main focus of the story is growth and progress; it's about unknown girls aiming for stardom.
-For the main cast they're trying to expand the characters without losing sight of their heart. How many of these characters have siblings? How are their previously unrevealed family lives? What do they do when they aren't idoling? Things like that.
-They spend most of their time expanding on the characters and have a full document with all the little details.
-It takes place in the same world as the original anime (as shown in the movie ending) but 765 will probably not appear outside of maybe cameos.
-The first episode will be focused on explaining the setting and main characters.
-How were the Cinderella Project girls chosen? They're Noriko Takao's favorites (laughs). But really, they were picked because they had the most potential for growth because the drama and story of the show is about personal development.
-The New Generation girls are rather than main characters the vehicle for the audience; they're true rookies being introduced to the world of idoling. They're the center of the show but all 14 in Project Cinderella are the main characters.
-You don't need to have played the CG game or know the girls or even have seen the original anime to understand it. It's a show for everyone: fans and newcomers.
-Producer assures people that general elections or popularity don't influence anime plans. They won't make a girl stand out more just because she is popular.
-There are a lot of references and easter-eggs for game players but they're just that, they want everyone to be able to watch the anime.
-Lot of new songs, Sony Music and Columbia happy to cooperate.
-Watch the first three episodes to get a good idea of the world Noriko Takao has created.
-He seems pretty happy to say "Cinderella Girls is not a half-hearted work in any way; feel free to believe!"
-Live scenes will be similar to the old anime, minimal CG.

Wow this has made me pretty excited actually. Sounds like the anime is going to be exactly what I hoped it would be.

[Nargrakhan]

Awwww... kinda disappointed there's no Syoko or Mayu. In fact I was really looking forward to having them interact with each other, seeing how they're the two mentally unstable girls, and a 4-koma shows them becoming fast friends because of the Producer's desk.

Still... it's all good. I got my Ranko and Miku~nya!

Waiting for that special OVA bad end, where Mayu goes killing everyone and Koume is the last survivor.

***EDIT***
I wonder if we'll get a new Producer-san in this show.

[AkuAkane]

I'm glad Kirari and Mio will be main characters (although I honestly never even considered Mio not being a main character since it was always obvious that Mio, Uzuki, and Rin would basically be the new Miki, Haruka, and Chihaya focus-wise). Rika is pretty good as well. The rest I do not care about in the least. Honestly wish the cast was more to my liking, but I guess three characters I like being main characters is better than none or just Mio. Honestly the only other girls from the original set of 30 I cared about being in the anime were Mika and Akane so I still made out pretty well I suppose. Although I don't care much for Riina on her own I'm hoping for some Riina and Natsuki interaction since they're really adorable together and I like Natsuki a lot. Mio and Akane interaction would be awesome as well. I don't think I even need to hope for Jougasaki sister interaction since I think thats pretty much guaranteed to happen. Not looking forward to Miku or Anzu at all, but oh well.

[MetalPredat0r]

I guess whether or not you like this cast depends on which idols you like. I personally love this cast, but that's mainly because I love Mio, Ranko, Kanako, Minami, and Miria. I can understand if other people either dislike or don't care for this casting. I can expect others to show up occasionally, but not as much as the Cinderella Project. I still feel that cutting the main cast to this amount was a smart move on A-1's part because, like I said before, 30 main characters would be a colossal clusterf**k.

[Nargrakhan]

Not looking forward to Miku or Anzu at all, but oh well.

Kinda surprised at that. Figured most Kirari fans liked Anzu, because of the comedic personality dynamics the duo enjoy together. These days it seems the two are inseparable.

I guess whether or not you like this cast depends on which idols you like. <snip> I still feel that cutting the main cast to this amount was a smart move on A-1's part because, like I said before, 30 main characters would be a colossal clusterf**k.

Agreed. I don't think fans will hate the show... just maybe a bit disappointed their favorites of the 30 voiced idols are not the mains. If you liked at least three or so girls, then there's a good chance at least one was chosen: A-1 picked a diverse group. If you're the type who only liked one girl... well... maybe you'll at least get to enjoy her "guest appearance" episode.

[Clear Blue]

First episode aired and it looks gorgeous!

I spy with my little eye...Jupiter!

[Maka]

^(Welcome back! Haven't seen you in a while...)

Looks like in addition to Mika, the other established idols are Airi, Akane, Koume, Mizuki, Kaede, Sachiko, Miho, and Mayu.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ed74b Here's the first episode OP...

[zaitcev]

I watched this on Daisuki just now. I live in America and Daisuki is the official streaming site. What a pain. I accidentially tabbed out trying to take a screencap and had to restart from the beginning, but rewinding takes minutes (literally).

But the episode delivers everything I wanted. Not to spoil, but as promised by the PV, it focuses on recruiting Rin (who is my favourite).

Just a couple of small things

 - Rin's dog Hanako is... ugh. I expected a Shibu at least, if not a Husky. But anime Hanako is some kind of lap-terrier.

 - Rin only says half of her recruitment line. Sounds very much like the game, but there's no "maa, warukunai".

Watch it for yourself, it's great. A very different feeling from the iM@S TV 01 though. Back then, you saw Haruka riding her bicycle, and you knew that everything is going to be allright. It was so amazingly comforting, and artistic in a way. But iM@S CG 01 feels very traditional, anime-anime. Fortunately, one of less painful recruiting sequences (some of Love Live was quite eye-rolling).