The Idol M@ster Cinderella Girls

Episode 11

Before we discuss the actual episode of The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls, I would like to bring up something that has been bothering me since episode one: those costumes the girls wear during the opening theme. Am I alone in thinking that they are not only ugly, but remarkably unflattering? To say nothing of not being visually aligned with the rest of the show. I get that there's an effort being made to evoke “princess” in line with the Cinderella theme the series is going for, but these dress/shorts combos have been a blight on the show from day one.

“Alignment” is actually a major theme this week as Cinderella Girls pairs off its last aspiring idols and the combination couldn't be more mismatched: cat-girl Miku and rocker Riina have been put in a group together. Not only do the girls have totally different aspirations as far as being idols go, but their preferred visual and musical styles are completely disparate. They accuse the Producer of simply lumping them together because they are the last remaining Cinderella girls, but he vehemently denies it...a bit too vehemently, actually; it seems very possible that he simply had two remaining idols who didn't work anywhere else. If allowed to make separate, individual debuts, the schedule will have to be rearranged, with a gap between the CD releases, so it makes more fiscal sense to get them out together. But will this odd couple be able to resolve their differences?

Most of the episode is the girls bickering back and forth as they tout the merits of their preferred looks and styles, but it doesn't drag nearly as much as it might have. For one thing, this is the first time that this particular plot device has been used, which keeps it from feeling stale. What really saves the day, however, is that we've been watching Miku in particular struggle towards her debut from the beginning of the series. More than any of the other girls, Miku has fought to make her mark on the entertainment world, remaining devoted to her cat-girl character and trying hard to be noticed. That makes her successful release of a song and public performance much more of a goal for the viewers as well, regardless of whether or not she's your favorite character. She's invested in this succeeding, and we see her making an effort to apologize when she goes too far and to adapt (to a degree; no way she's giving up those cat ears and meow) as best she can to Riina's aesthetic. Riina also makes an effort, but to a lesser degree; her moment of major conceding is when Miku opens their debut concert by encouraging a less than enthused crowd to chant “nya” with them. Riina meows right along with Miku, even though just five minutes earlier (a day in show time) she was protesting that there was no way that she could meow with feeling. More than the other groups, these two have to learn to compromise and work together, which is perhaps why they alone write their own song lyrics. That leads to my chief issue with this week's simulcast – since the writing of the song lyrics was such a major component to their success as a duo, it would have been really nice to have those lyrics as subtitles while they were singing. Without an easy way for us to understand what they settled on for words, it feels as if a lot of the meaning of the exercise was lost, thus dropping the episode in terms of impact and effectiveness.

Another drag on the episode is the show's recent trend towards not animating the performances. When Love Laika and New Generations performed, we saw them dancing as they sang, making for not only some beautiful animation, but also the feeling that we were at the concert. With Asterisk (or more properly *), as with the groups who preceded them more recently, we hear the song over still shots. It's a disappointing development, and one I hope to see rectified, if not at the upcoming idol fest then at least in the second cour of the show.

As Cinderella Girls moves towards the conclusion of its first half, it has been trying to give everyone a moment in the sun. It works better in this episode than in some of the others, showing us that Miku doesn't always act like a cat-girl and showing the more human sides of both heroines as they struggle to make their partnership work. If nothing else it certainly shows us the level of work that these girls are willing to put in in order to make their Idol Dreams a reality. In some ways, that's really the appeal of the series as a whole.

Rating: B

The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls is currently streaming on Daisuki.

Rebecca Silverman is ANN's senior manga critic.