Miku doesn’t want to become a wallflower.
Impression
I’m travelling this weekend, so unfortunately you won’t be getting a gallery of screenshots for this episode. I’m sorry I couldn’t inundate you with lots of pictures of Shiburin. I know, I know. It’s such a shame. You would have loved them.
Okay, just one more. I promise.
I was always quite happy with our main trio in Cinderella Girls, and this episode in particular had me thinking that I’m glad our main trio are who they are. I also found myself thinking that it was great that the girls who got their CD debuts were who they were, because ultimately these were the girls I cared about. It follows that I don’t have the rest of the girls in particularly high regard, and this episode reminded me exactly why this was the case. Miku was probably the worst offender, and while I perfectly understand where she’s coming from, I grew tired of her attitude all too quickly. Maybe the girls who were chosen were perhaps… the least childish ones? I can’t imagine Shimamu, Shiburin, Mio, Anya or Minami raising any fuss at all if they lost out on this one – the main trio especially, as they’re new and had recently gotten lucky with Mika. It feels strange to be feeling what I’m feeling, actually. I’ve always thought of the iDOLM@STER franchise as being a feel-good, relatively hate-free sort of zone, so I do feel a bit guilty bitching on about Miku. But it was far too blatant this week, and she wasn’t very understanding at all.
I mean, I get her. It’s easy to see that it’s unfair, given that this is the second time the rest of the girls in the Cinderella Project have been passed over for the three newbies who only recently joined. But instead of organising boycotts and constantly pestering Producer, they could have used it as motivation to work even harder or something. At one point, I was actually afraid Miku might come in and gatecrash a recording session out of nowhere. Producer already has his hands full organising recording and promotion for the current five girls – the last thing he needs is even more work to do on top of that. To be honest, life as an idol is not smooth sailing, and the way iDOLM@STER presents it definitely glosses over some of the negatives and focuses on the positives, unlike other series like Wake Up Girls. The point is, a slight delay for your CD debut is not the greatest challenge Miku and the others will ever face, and I’m questioning whether she’s really up for it if she’s already showing signs of cracking at this stage. At least she actually wants to become an idol though. Unlike Anzu.
The trend is therefore staying consistent – I’m still not very fond of the supporting cast, although its true that by having our main trio win the career opportunity once more, the rest of the girls grow as wallflowers. I was disappointed in particular to see that Rika was one of the most ardent boycotters. I suppose it’s possible to interpret it as them being very passionate about their dreams, but it’s a very childish way to try and resolve things. I certainly don’t remember something like this happening when Ryuuguu Komachi was formed in the previous series. As they are now, they definitely wouldn’t react well if placed in the shoes of Chihaya or Haruka of 765 Pro, who had to deal with overwhelming negative publicity and loneliness as everyone at the company started drifting apart, and they had to learn to overcome those trials and fend for themselves.
It’s all well and good in the end, I guess. I’m not surprised that Producer decided to keep secret the fact that the current five girls are just the first wave of debuts – if something went wrong, or if the plans fell through, then the hopes of the rest of them would have been gotten up for nothing. Getting so close and missing the opportunity in the end might have been even worse for their morale.