The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls 2nd Season

Idolmaster's most recent installment is yet another bummer of an idol show. Imagine a rocket launching through the air at full thrust: suddenly it starts tilting and then, out of nowhere, its engines also begin to die. It starts to fall faster and faster, spinning and spinning out of control, until finally it hits the ground and explodes into a massive ball of fire. This is pretty well what the transition between Cinderella Girls' first and second season feels like.

That is not to say that the second season is an absolutely abysmal, unwatchable mess, but it is sure one hell of a disappointing way ... to end a show with promise. Whereas the first season attempts to build towards something meaningful, to give you a reason to care for the characters, the second season takes all that away and presents you with a dull husk of a story. It wants to be dramatic, it wants to make you root for the characters in spite of their crappy situation, but it just doesn't quite understand how the structure of anime is supposed to work.

I was one of the four (maybe it was five?) fans of the first season, in spite of all its issues, because the show still carried some of the same charm and energy that the original TV series and the games had, which I have very much enjoyed spending my time with. It certainly delved into melodrama territory at times, but the conclusion of the first season still made me excited. It made me excited to see how the second season would finally develop the show's large cast of characters, and how it might deliver an emotional 'final concert' to send everything off.

The second season is like one boring, obnoxious episode stretched out to twelve. Everything is constantly bleak and depressing-- literally, since the weather is constantly either rainy or cloudy, and the animators apparently decided the show is now too cool for colour. I understand that weather can sometimes be an effective way to create atmosphere, but when it is non-stop for an entire season of anime it becomes a bit overbearing. Why can't it be sunny on a sad day or cloudy on a happy day? This may seem a silly thing to complain about, but after having seen so many anime attempt to pull off the whole 'my heart is dark and bleak like the rain' thing, I have lost some of my tolerance for it.

It might be a bit surprising, but most of the drama itself, at least in terms of its execution, is honestly pretty OK. Uzuki's voice actress, for example, does an excellent job at the end of episode 23 (or 10 if you count from the start of the season). You can feel the emotion in her voice, her sounding as if she's about to lose it and start crying at any moment, and it still manages to feel authentic--not cloying-- at the same time. There are several moments like this throughout the series; the problem, rather, is that they are out of place. We don't yet have a reason to care about these characters. They have not accomplished anything of significance as idols, and their friendship and their motives have scarcely been explored. Miku and Rina have a whole episode dedicated to their relationship with each other, and it's probably the best in the entire series. But what about all the other characters? Why could we not have more episodes like that focusing on them specifically: their motivations and the little quirks that make them tick? Take a look at Chieri, for example: her design immediately grabbed me at the start of the series, but absolutely nothing is done with her. I couldn't even tell you a single thing about her personality other than that she's shy all the time. And that's a bummer. A real, real bummer.

Contrast Cinderella Girls with Love Live, another popular idol show, and you'll see just how much of an effect strong characterisation can have. All the girls in Love Live (well, maybe excluding one or two) are developed and interesting. A few of them, like Nico or Maki, are among some of the best characters in the genre, and in Nico's case I may even argue for anime as a whole. And you know what? Nico's characterisation was largely developed in a single episode. It turned an adorable, entertaining character into one that genuinely felt human and even pushed the meaning of what being an idol is and can be. I did not feel anything even remotely similar with Cinderella Girls. They are worlds and galaxies apart. It's not just that Cinderella Girls doesn't try to do or say anything new-- it's that it does a poor job even at the generic.

The drama in Cinderella Girls is certainly not helped by the dialogue, which can at times be downright embarrassing to listen to. Most episodes end with juvenile "I'll do my best from now on!!" and "Nothing will ever stop us if we work together!!" dialogue, and will often devolve into nonsense about how they want to "shine" more. Nah, I'll pass on that stuff. Talk like actual human beings instead, OK?

I suppose the sound design can be quite nice from time to time, as the concerts sound like actual concerts with the audience roaring and clapping in the background, and the music itself sounds very much like it's coming from a microphone rather than being ripped straight from a CD like most insert songs in anime do. However, the performances can be pretty disappointing, as highlighted at the end of the first season where three of the songs are skipped over with an image of them playing (since when was this a slideshow?) and maybe five seconds of music in the background. The second season's final performance fares no better. Considering that the music in an idol anime is the single most important aspect after the characters, and when compared with other shows like Aikatsu, Love Live and even the original Idolmaster series, all of which have excellent performances and catchy tunes, Cinderella Girls fails completely at being an idol anime.

Cinderella Girls could have been far more than it is. I could not really recommend it to people on good conscience, even if they may be fans of the main Idolmaster series. It is more mediocre than it is terrible, but the label of "mediocrity" is not by any means a compliment. Maybe you'll come across a character design that interests you, but you'll inevitably find yourself disappointed when you watch the show and realise it doesn't actually give a damn about them. See, Chieri has twintails and, as far as I'm concerned, not giving twintailed goddesses the time of day is an absolute sin. There's a lot of things wrong with Cinderella Girls, but maybe that is the one that ticks me off the most. Screw you, Cinderella Girls.

Mika was a cutie, though. I'll give the show that. Her doujins are probably the one good thing this show has spawned.

It is difficult to list everything this show did wrong without giving spoilers, so this will be short.

The story is introduced with Mishiro, a manager who was displeased with the course things in the company were taking, so she proposed some huge changes. This changes lead to a series of individual episodes that tried to develop some characters.
But instead of development, they grew in annoyance or stayed the same, leaving their appearance as the only good thing about them (yeah at least they are waifu material, though not all of them). The drama was poorly executed, extremely forced with embarrassing dialogues, and it is not ... an exaggeration to say that the dialogues were almost at a Mexican soap-opera level of foolishness and melodrama.

Towards the final it started to show some signs that AT LEAST it was going to have a decent final but it finished just as dull as it started

The only merits I can find: The animation that tried to build an atmosphere that could have been interesting without all the flaws I mentioned above and the background music that was sometimes actually good but went to waste combined with the shitty dialogue.

To conclude, in the end this season leaves the spectator with an “absolutely nothing happened here” feeling and questioning “that’s all there is to Im@s CG??”

I have been pleasantly disappointed by this. Possibly spoilers incoming? I'll keep them to a minimum.

As if it's a stereotypical (and casual) occurrence, the second season of this show was awful. The standards were set at a decent bar from the first season, yet they under-performed in the worst way possible. It's not as bad as a 2 or a 3, since the animation, story, characters and songs aren't impossible to bear, but it could have been better.

The story! There's not many spoilers that can really affect the experience of the show, so here we go. After the first season finale, there was a ... small hint towards a 'villain' type of character. And this season starts off with the entire Cinderella Project being postponed until God knows when by said character. Not a bad plotline. I could argue with a lot of people about how this could be something unexpected, maybe even better than the first season. Only if that villain-type character wasn't a fucking moron.

Idols should be idols by themselves as well. It's only fair for group idols to have singles released, right? Well, individuality isn't a thing anymore, since throwing teams together randomly should increase the popularity, bring new fans over and clearly make profit for 346 Productions. This is, in my opinion, truly idiotic. Being individualized was fine; it was a good pretext for the market and a good way to evolve the idol as a person and, of course, as an idol. But suddenly, Rin and Anastasia are thrown in a band of 6 other idols (the project never gets any attention anyway in the show). Also, why not stress Rin with another idol team formed of 2 new idols (that nobody has heard about) just because while practicing, they sounded 'good' or 'they could gain success'? Mio Honda gets thrown around and starts an acting career (because why the fuck not) and Uzuki is the usual shitty non-protagonist she's ever been. I swear, I've heard the phrase "I'll do my best!" coming from her mouth more than lyrics sang my New Generations. I hate the fact that Uzuki Shimamura never got the 'protagonist' spot she deserved. After hyping her up so much in the first season in the beginning, she's overthrown by all the other idols (even new ones) again, and only cared about for a couple episodes. In the first season it was in the beginning, and now it was in the ending. I think the studio tried their best to make the show circular and seem as if it started where it ended, but why would you do this to an Idol show? You would want to see them grow better as Idols. And they're shown like this at the end of the last episode. So why bother going through the beginning of the show again for Uzuki's sake? The studio never bothered to place any attention on her in the first season, so why now? Honestly, it doesn't make any sense. The story is garbage because of the new shitty main character. Even Producer-san can't save this season.

The characters are... what they are. Bland. Simple. Boring. That's to say the least. New Generations as a whole is completely gone from the show. The only ways they mention the band is if they reminisce about it while boasting about progress in new teams. The other idol teams have dissipated as well. There's no more Love Laika and no more Asterisk. They've disbanded because of 'plot development' and 'character development'. Currently, they're all in different groups. It is for their growth, and their growth only. The new main thought about this being good and useful for the idol company. And yet, it ruined everything. Each idol from Cinderella Girls is worse than in the first season. I felt nothing for any of the characters. Producer-san was completely over-shadowed, and he no longer solves many issues in the idol group. Basically, the studio is trying to say 'they can handle their own problems and they don't need their Producer to handle everything anymore'. Then what is a Producer good for? Publicity and morale boosting? That's all? Producer was there for them in the first season. And in this one, he's probably just too overwhelmed with the pressure from the new main (I can't even call her by name, my God...). Did I say that the new main is absolutely hypocritical and braindead by the way? As for that, she's honestly just a filler episode. She ruins the entire show just by being present. I don't want to say anything else, since it wouldn't really change how you already think of her.

Animation was the same as first season. I've got nothing to add, except the fact that I hate when the only characters that seem alive are the Idols, cameramen and a bunch of glowsticks in the audience. Make the show feel more alive for God's sake. At some point, it felt like I was staring at a poorly made canvas of a city road and some characters waiting for a car to go over them. Making unnecessary people static in a shot is productive, but not imaginative. I hate it when shows do this basic shit. It throws the vibe of the episode off.

Sound was alright. The songs were no different than the rest. The intro kind of disappointed me, but you know how it is with A1. They make something good, and then they stomp on it like it was never supposed to actually exist. The first intro? Masterpiece. This second one? As mediocre as they come. Thoroughly disappointed.

The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls Season 2 clusterfuck was disappointing. I can't believe I expected something like this to be somewhat good. I don't recommend watching this season, as it will ruin your expectations for the rest of the Idolm@sters. But maybe! Just maybe... This season was made to be shitty as in to promote the movie and Idolm@ster Million Live! A great scheme, A1 Productions! Absolutely mental! Now I despise all of your unknown and unpopular works.

Story 5
Animation 3
Sound 6
Character 2
Enjoyment 3

Overall: 4

It was dreadful to sit through this. Don't watch this season if you're not ready to endure pain and agony. Good luck.