Well, so much for an amazing debut for New Generation! Who would have thought it would end up in flames?
I feel like I should have seen it coming, they were foreshadowing the outcome the entire episode. Love Lavia and New Generation performed their debut today on a beautiful stage. Anya and Minami managed to pull off their performance without a hitch and were happy with the overall results, New Generation however… or rather, Mio in particularly was absolutely livid about the results. Her sky high expectations of a full packed audience were ruthlessly crush, along with her spirit when she stepped out onto the stage only to be greeted with a small audience. While all her friends from school have come to support her with the banner they had promised to make, that wasn’t good enough for her- she was ashamed of performing in front of such a meager turnout. Mio had set herself up for disappointment by assuming that they were going to have a jammed packed audience like Mika had for her concert. So when the Producer tells her it was only natural to have that kind of turn out, and she took a bitch-fit claiming she’s going to quit being an idol!
And you know what? I don’t feel sorry for her one bit. Instead I am angry at her for not appreciating what the Producer had done for them. They were the last three members to be added to the Cinderella Project, and they are the first ones along with Anya and Minami to make their debut. But because the turnout wasn’t what Mio expected, she decides to quit? Talk about a slap in the face to everyone else who have been busting their ass off in hopes to make their debut as soon as possible!
Why? Because the reality is common sense. It is funny because when Mika had requested their participation in her concert, I didn’t like the idea. It felt like it was too soon… and while there weren’t any problems then, the consequence finally came around. It was not the Producer fault, it is Mio’s alone. Could he have given them a tip in advance of what to expect for a promo debut performance? Absolutely! But he didn’t think they had such expectations, so it didn’t cross his mind to bring it up. Let’s be real here, I can’t imagine any gentler way for Producer to break the truth to Mio. He said what had to be said in the nicest way possible. Mio says the results were cruel? No sweetie, this is reality, this is how everyone starts. Time to come back to Earth and undergo a reality-check.
I don’t know what Uzuki and Rin were expecting, but they too having a sloppy performance. I couldn’t tell if they were more distracted by Mio (because she made it so obvious that she was falling apart) or the lack of audience. Nevertheless, I more or less expected Rin to be rational about the low turnouts, but when the Producer gave her Mio reality-check, Rin turns her anger to him, so now we have another one who’s angry. I don’t know how Uzuki is going to respond, but I pray that she can at least speak some wisdom of truth because she appears to be the only one who hasn’t jumped sides yet.
While it is nice to finally have some conflict in the story, I can’t say it’s a good one. Right now I either care very little about the characters, or straight up dislike them. Unfortunately Mio has been added to the roaster of characters I dislike. While I have no doubt she will grow from this experience, she is going to have to bust her ass off to appeal to me – which I imagine will be difficult since I didn’t particularly care about her to begin with.
On the more brighter note, Mio’s outburst delivered us a surprising reveal. It appears that the Producer has a trauma regarding idols that he had taken under his wing to suddenly wants to quit. Mio’s words cut him like a knife and you can tell he fell into a dark place. Something had happened in the past, and it appears he is slowly attempting to make a recovery effort from that as the Manager had indicated earlier in the episode: “I hope this project becomes a positive turning point for you, too.”. I have no doubt in my mind that the manager knows well of what had happened, so now it’s only a matter of when we will hear the Producer’s back-story- which at the moment is the only thing that I am looking forward to.
Hnnngg Rin’s outfit was too adorable.Producer was in the right. Maybe it’s just the cynic in me speaking, but I fully supported his decision to pour a harsh, cold bucket of truth over Mio. That took balls, and it’s a shame that he’ll probably end up taking it back next episode as he tries to pick up the pieces.
The fact is, what happened with Mika and what happened here are two completely different things. Mika is presumably a long-established idol, and there is no way she achieved success overnight. It took 765 Pro an entire season of episodes featuring their odd jobs and small-scale events before their breakout concert happened, and even then it featured every single idol across multiple performances in a proper concert hall with paid entry. This was a shopping-mall debut event for idols that were previously unknown. Mika’s fans were into her concert because they were Mika’s fans. Mio set her expectations far too high in expecting that sort of reaction from an audience who didn’t know who she was, and came across the mini-concert whilst doing their shopping. Actually, this is the kind of attitude I would have expected of Miku.
In a way, the entire ‘Cinderella Project’ label is pretty misleading, because that implies that the girls will instantly go from rags to riches, which is exactly what Mio anticipated. It’s a real shame, because I didn’t expect her to be thinking like this under such a fun and happy exterior. And I don’t want Producer to have to apologize, because this is something all of the girls will have to accept. He did nothing wrong. No-one should be getting angry at him.
Ahhh, I don’t know how I’m feeling about this. I was so looking forward to getting to know a new cast, and yet every episode I keep thinking back to 765 Pro. Even after partially giving up on the supporting characters they now throw us this curveball with Mio. Now I only really care about Shiburin, and to a lesser extent Mika and Uzuki. Minami and Anya did a wonderful job this episode as well, I’ve got nothing against them. And Producer is a solid guy. But every single other character has me shaking my head in disappointment.
They are doing a real crappy job of making characters appeal to us. We are almost ten episodes in and today, I have come around to care even less about every single of one them. Either hate them or feel neutral about them.
The Producer has no reason to apologize, it should be Mio- and honestly, I hope it’s her because I don’t know who I will react if he ends up apologizing. And like I said, HE SAID IT AS GENTLY AS POSSIBLE, HE COULD HAVE BEEN BRUTALLY COLD.
I feel like Mio is completely justified, she has been living the fairy tale dream, things have been working out for her, so she thought that’s how it worked. So she thought she would get a big auidence and could tell it to her school friends…now she looks like a laughing stock, there was no big auidence, and yet she made her friends go t othe second floor because of a misunderstanding. This episode was simple, it was to teach Mio that Dreams are not the same as reality, but that doesn’t mean she has to accept it. And to her point of view, the Producer was a cruel ass bastard. I know what he’s saying, but to her it sounds like he’s saying “You didn’t get many people because your the leader” or “You didn’t get many people cause your not good enough” How were they meant to know what he meant?
Producer was only doing his job. In a way, it really is true that they didn’t get many people because it was ‘Mio’ performing – because she is a greenhorn idol, not someone like Mika. Being the backup dancers for Mika’s concert was supposed to show them what it was like at the top – what they could potentially get if they keep working hard and achieve success. It should not have become the immediate expectation, and neither Shiburin nor Uzuki reacted that way even though they’ve been walking down the same path as Mio all this time. They were fine with there being no big audience – of course there would be no big audience. Of course. Producer said these would be their first steps as debuting idols, not them at the peak of their popularity. Minami and Anya were positively happy with theirs. Everyone watching was happy. Mio’s friends were happy. Mio has been taking being a ‘Cinderella Girl’ a bit too literally, and the only fault Producer is at is not dealing with that beforehand. And how was he supposed to know what she was thinking?