Impression
Today, I swung dangerously close towards the Mika camp.
No! No… I mustn’t! That’s right, I still have to marry Shiburin.
Anyway, the concert was great! The girls had a wonderful first experience, and I had lots of fun watching it too! I’m trying to think of the last idol series I watched before Cinderella Girls, and I can’t think of anything more recent than AKB0048, which wasn’t recent at all. It’s been a while for me then, but the feel-good factor with these concerts is just as strong as ever. It might just be the bright lights, colours and the cheering, but there’s also a bit of a thrill in it all – and the added spice of tension disappeared the very moment Uzuki, Rin and Mio appeared on stage for real. They were nervous beforehand, and rightly so – those sombre moments were realistic given that they had practically zero experience. And someone like Rin went from never having entertained thoughts of being an idol to appearing on stage as a backup dancer for a successful Mika. With performing, I don’t think nerves ever fully go away – at least, they don’t for me. They in fact vary depending on the scale of the event. What experience does is help you to deal with those nerves, which may not even cross your mind until right before you’re due to perform – of the three of them, Mio was one you’d least expect to go oddly quiet. As Producer said though, this experience was a good one for them, and I’m glad it was a happy one. I didn’t miss the pride in his voice when he complimented them. Also, they had great outfits, which made me partially forgive the drop in animation quality.
Many of the other Cinderella Girls made an appearance as well. I’m not sure how Eva feels about them, but for my part I think they’ll take a bit of getting used to. I’ve gotten used to Producer, but I really liked the 765 Pro girls and I’m not sure I can say the same for the current batch. Of course, we know nothing about them for now, but I’m worried that they’re relying too much on tropes to characterise these girls. For example, with 765 Pro Chihaya was a reserved girl with a wonderful voice, whilst Hibiki was sporty and energetic – these are personality aspects. In contrast, right now they seem to be selling some of the 346 Pro girls based on a single trope – Miku is the cat girl who says nyaa all the time, Anya is the foreign girl, Ranko is the chuuni and Anzu is the loli who looks far too loli to be here. So far, the better characters have been the ones who have more to their personalities than that, like the Jougasaki sisters or Mio, Shimamu and Shiburin. They’ve admittedly had the most screen time though, and we still have many episodes to go. Lots of time to learn to like them.
I wonder where we’ll go from here? There’s still lots of career-building for our main trio to do, and at the same time I’d like a shift towards more development for the other girls. Hopefully I can start trying to actually learn their names. Oh, and rivals would be nice too! Actually no, I take that back. The rivals in the other iDOLM@STER didn’t do themselves any favours. Lets stick with these girls for now.
The only comment I can make, since I’m not (currently) watching this series (I’m still making up my mind) is that if it’s been a long time since you’ve seen AKB0048, you probably should go and watch it again. Just because it is a good series and worth watching. Perpetually.
I have both seasons somewhere on my hard drive! I may do so when I have some free time 😀
You should definitely watch this, it’s such a happy and positive show. None of the cold, hard bitterness I’ve heard about in Wake Up Girls!
They developed the tension pretty well since I quickly became anxious for them as you can see their nerves starting to get to them just moments before the performance. I am glad they were able to pull it off without a hitch.
As of right now, it’s hard for me to know what I truly think of the rest of the Cinderella Project team. I find they are all lacking presence because of the lack of screentime, not to mention- they really don’t stand out that much. In fact, compared to the previous series’ cast, this group blends right into the background (except for the Russian Girl and the Gothic/Vampire Lover Girl (whatever her theme is)). If we were to compare with the first Idolm@aster series, we can remember they spent more time introducing the members and then formed them in small groups, allowing them to have their own special arc in the story. Hopefully they will do the same because these girls seriously need to be fleshed out.
I agree. At the moment, the rest of the Cinderella Girls feel like they’re part of the supporting cast, with the main roles given to our trio. With 765 Pro they kept it all fairly equal, with episodes devoted to each girl. Haruka, Chihaya and Miki only stood out later on because of the increased conflict in their arcs.
I- I think that was my favourite episode of all this entire week. Among all the conflict of interest, monster fighting, mech battles, it was refreshing to see a genuine struggle accompanied by intense emotion lead into clear progression and success! :’) It WAS a good concert.
When Anya said “Spasiba”, then turned to saying “Arigato” and I was pleased to have learned a new word. THEN my mind flashed to Hibiki from Kantai Collection and I remembered a word to express my joy… “Horosho” :3
As soon as I saw “spice” in your coverage and considering all the purple, I immediately thought: I’d like to see Tsukiyama add his own “spice” to the concerts! Of course, it’s probably for the best that such a thing is impossible.
ESSENTIAL! I WANT TO EAT HIM – THE MORE, MORE SPICY KANEKI-KUN!!!!!!111!!!Yeah, let’s keep the suffering that is Tokyo Ghoul far, far away from the light fluffiness of the Cinderella Girls. iDOLM@STER should be a tragedy-free zone!