“You and I have different goals.”
Impression
Hayami Saori’s voice is angelic, so I was happy to learn that Kaede, too, is an angel.
So basically, what we’ve learned this week is that Mishiro is heartless. In the sense that she wants to prioritize the idols’ career and produce results for 346 Pro, at the expense of the feelings of everyone else – and she’s in a high enough position to be able to do that. To think of their ‘smile’ really is a vague concept, I have to admit, but I fully agree with how each unit should have its own aims and goals – that’s why there are so many Producers there to manage each project within the company. What’s the point of them being there if Mishiro just walks in one day and starts micro-managing every idol? I guess she ultimately is doing it for the idols’ sake in some weird, twisted way, but it’s also a really inconsiderate one. In planning to select some idols and nurturing them, she’s also implying that some will fail to make the cut, like how Karen and Nao have had their CD debuts cancelled – and instead, she wants to focus more resources towards top idols like Kaede. So it’s like she wants to make the already fortunate even more fortunate, instead of kick-starting the careers of new idols – this kind of goes against what the entire Cinderella Project is supposed to be about, so it’s not surprising that good old Broducer was against it.
It’s also a really good thing that Kaede herself is against it – they seemed to try to emphasize that, at least in shounen terms, Kaede is supposed to be really overpowered. She’s worked her way to the top, and is a stunning success. Hopefully so much so to the point that she’s a big money-maker for 346 Pro, and so there becomes a limit to the extent they can piss her off. In contrast, rookie idols like Miku or Mio are nowhere close to being in that sort of position, so I was really, really glad neither of them ultimately chose to stomp over there and throw a hissy fit. Both of them have a track record of doing that sort of thing, and I’m sure Mishiro won’t be anywhere near as understanding as Producer was.
Other than the stuff with Kaede, it was a surprisingly slow episode on the whole. Not much really happened other than the girls moping and eventually deciding to help in whatever way they could – here’s hoping that Mishiro properly looks through Producer’s ‘Power of Smile’ proposal and gives a positive response.