The Idol M@ster Cinderella Girls

Episode 8

Fear not, fans of girls who haven't gotten a spotlight yet – it looks like The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls is going to give everyone their chance in the sun. Or moon, as the case may be with this week's episode, which features Goth Loli Ranko in the starring role. The time has come for the next wave of Cinderella debuts, and it has been decided that Ranko gets the next slot with a solo album. One of the best parts about this is that even though previous troublemakers Miku and Rika are vocally disappointed that they don't get to cut their single yet, both take the news with relatively good grace: they register their unhappiness and move right on. This evolution of character is nice to see not just in the fact that it renders them significantly less annoying, but also in that it shows that not just Uzuki, Rin, and Mio are getting attention from the writers – everyone is a character and gets to be taken beyond their obvious traits and stereotypes.

To a degree, that's what's at the core of this episode. The Producer, now affectionately known as “P-chan,” has decided that Ranko's debut should be horror-themed. This comes from both a basic misunderstanding that “Goth(ic)” and “Horror” are not the same genre, but also from not quite getting where Ranko herself is coming from. In large part this is because Ranko speaks in her own particular flowery language, couching everything in metaphors and similes that make little sense to anyone else – in fact, we see that the Producer has a notebook of what appears to be Ranko translations that he uses to attempt to understand what she's telling him. It is a work in progress, however, as it can't help him to get to know her on a personal level or to actually interpret what she's saying correctly.

This is really where this episode stumbled for me. As a man who works in pop culture, I really felt that the Producer should know the nuances of Goth culture, given that such an understanding would make his work both more fruitful and easier. (It's a parasol, man, not an umbrella!) Also his attempts to get to know Ranko, encouraged by Rin and, to a degree, Mio, felt a bit too much like a game mechanic. It was as if he had a menu of choices for topics of conversation, and he had to go through trial and error to figure out the right one to get the answer he needed. I had not felt that way with either his initial attempts to convince Rin to join the project nor with his frenzy to figure out what went wrong with Mio; something about this just felt a bit too textbook. On the other hand, while it was at times annoying, Ranko's dedication to her character and refusal to just say anything straight out felt, once again, like very real teen girl behavior, particularly for the subculture she identifies with.

While Ranko's issue can't quite carry a full episode – a debate about whether or not the girls should be allowed to personalize their room at the studio is less than thrilling and takes up the first too many minutes of the episode – it is a nice change to shift the focus to her. The clip from her song and music video at the end are significantly different from the others we've seen, and the way her style is adapted into something more salable is interesting. There's a lack of good choreography this time around, which is too bad, as well as detailed animation of the girls' physical quirks, apart from the usual “melting Anzu” images. It would have been very nice, to say nothing of helpful, to have on-screen translations of the Producer's notebook, although that is not, perhaps, a reasonable request of a streaming title; hopefully if this gets a physical release down the line, that will be added in.

This isn't the most thrilling episode of Cinderella Girls, but it still is pleasant to watch. The Producer really is trying, and that alone makes this worth following each week. The title of next week's episode seems to imply that Kanako will be featured, and as long as it isn't a weight loss storyline, that should be something to look forward to.

Rating: B

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

Rebecca Silverman is ANN's senior manga critic.