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Cinderella Girls |OT| A perfect fit for anime
- Thread starter BGBW
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Azure Phoenix
Member
I'm not sure I exactly understand what was happening by the end of the episode. So... all of the girls from Cinderella Project have moved on and the groups are disbanded, Project Krone is still going, some idols are in their existing groups (eg. Rock The Beat), others aren't (eg. Kirari and Anzu), poor old Ranko is still solo and they are talking about of a new set of girls for the Cinderella Project (hello third season). Yet then at the end Cinderella Project has all come back together for a Spring event with everyone grouping up again and there is no sign of these "new girls" anywhere.
Like, what? So... I don't even understand what the current status is for each idol now. Are we going to be getting more New Generations songs in future, or Triad Primus? Asterisk or Rock The Beat? Love Laika or solo Anastasia and whatever the hell that group is that Minami, Fumika and that other girl are in?
Like, what? So... I don't even understand what the current status is for each idol now. Are we going to be getting more New Generations songs in future, or Triad Primus? Asterisk or Rock The Beat? Love Laika or solo Anastasia and whatever the hell that group is that Minami, Fumika and that other girl are in?
Cinderella Girls End
Hmmm not really sure what to make of the ending to this. I think the word unfocused would best describe it. I've said before but while this show is entertaining, it didn't quite reach the heights of the original iM@S and this ending slightly cemented that fact. I actually watched the final episode (not counting the extra episode) of the original to compare and that has a much better and focused ending.
The show ends with the final performance of course, because that's the rule for every idol show ever animated and Cindy is no different. But funnily enough the concerts from Cindy and iM@S reflect my complaint of focus. In iM@S there was one stage with one performance; 765Pro. In Cindy there were multiple stages with multiple performances going on simultaneously made up of different units who sometimes even mixed themselves up. The show had to jump from one thing to another so we never really feel the story bringing everything we've experienced up to that point together.
Well, to be fair on them, they did try and bring things together by the end of the episode. In four different ways! First a where are they now scene, showing how they've grown, then a scene showing them all together with Producer-san, then a scene harking back to a scene at the beginning of episode one and then finally a scene where the main cast are the Cinderella Girls giving the Cinderella Girl performance seen in ep 1 to work as a kind of book end. Jump jump jump. It's like they couldn't decide how to end it so they just took all ideas on the table and put them together. That may have worked with DKC's Island Swing (little trivia: that was three different music demos joined together) but it doesn't work here and like I said, comes off unfocused.
And since we're on the topic of focus, it didn't help that all focus was almost all on New Generation. Now I have joked that iM@S is the Haruka show, but honestly, I think it did a good job of handling the complete cast and the final episode gaves each girl their fair share of attention. Oh no not here. If your favourite wasn't New Generation (like me) then tough luck buddy cos they may as well have been just an extra that only appeared in one episode previous since they got about the same amount of screen time as the extras. This is the final to celebrate the journey of the cast, yet it failed so badly to show the whole cast. This I feel is the biggest failure of it. Some of the story elements should have been tied up in previous episodes (heck I though we dealt with the New Gen drama in the last one) so this episode could focus on what it needed to be, an ending.
Basically, this episode didn't really feel like a good send off.
Also, a general point to end. The colour palette in the original is much brighter, with bold colours, whereas Cindy is actually quite drab/down to Earth. It kind of reflects that iM@S is a more fun show than Cindy and that's probably one of the reasons why I think it's overall the better of the two.
All in all, I was rather disappointed. I remember saying that if this was the only iDOM@STER anime Id likely not have become a fan of the series and I stick by that. Don't get me wrong, you can easily watch it and enjoy it even if you're not familiar with the property, I mean technically I wasn't familiar with the Cindy Gal side of things before watching this, but iM@S is the better of the two at drawing people in, which, in some ways, is the job of an anime.
Oh yeah and the music isnt as great, but I guess they naturally want to keep all the best tunes for the main series and not the spinoff. Though luckily they didnt include a lot of the image songs theyve released for some of the girls. Ive played the new Cindy Gal rhythm game and boy are some of them bad.
Also I guess you want an idol ranking as thats kind of a tradition. First is Miku and then its the rest. Funny how after the first episode I thought, boy, a girl who says nya all the time, that sure wont get tiring after a while(!). Amazing what a varied personality and expressions can do to turn your opinion around.
So all in all, wheres my final episode that actually rounds things up?
And all in all, where was Kate?
Hmmm not really sure what to make of the ending to this. I think the word unfocused would best describe it. I've said before but while this show is entertaining, it didn't quite reach the heights of the original iM@S and this ending slightly cemented that fact. I actually watched the final episode (not counting the extra episode) of the original to compare and that has a much better and focused ending.
The show ends with the final performance of course, because that's the rule for every idol show ever animated and Cindy is no different. But funnily enough the concerts from Cindy and iM@S reflect my complaint of focus. In iM@S there was one stage with one performance; 765Pro. In Cindy there were multiple stages with multiple performances going on simultaneously made up of different units who sometimes even mixed themselves up. The show had to jump from one thing to another so we never really feel the story bringing everything we've experienced up to that point together.
Well, to be fair on them, they did try and bring things together by the end of the episode. In four different ways! First a where are they now scene, showing how they've grown, then a scene showing them all together with Producer-san, then a scene harking back to a scene at the beginning of episode one and then finally a scene where the main cast are the Cinderella Girls giving the Cinderella Girl performance seen in ep 1 to work as a kind of book end. Jump jump jump. It's like they couldn't decide how to end it so they just took all ideas on the table and put them together. That may have worked with DKC's Island Swing (little trivia: that was three different music demos joined together) but it doesn't work here and like I said, comes off unfocused.
And since we're on the topic of focus, it didn't help that all focus was almost all on New Generation. Now I have joked that iM@S is the Haruka show, but honestly, I think it did a good job of handling the complete cast and the final episode gaves each girl their fair share of attention. Oh no not here. If your favourite wasn't New Generation (like me) then tough luck buddy cos they may as well have been just an extra that only appeared in one episode previous since they got about the same amount of screen time as the extras. This is the final to celebrate the journey of the cast, yet it failed so badly to show the whole cast. This I feel is the biggest failure of it. Some of the story elements should have been tied up in previous episodes (heck I though we dealt with the New Gen drama in the last one) so this episode could focus on what it needed to be, an ending.
Basically, this episode didn't really feel like a good send off.
Also, a general point to end. The colour palette in the original is much brighter, with bold colours, whereas Cindy is actually quite drab/down to Earth. It kind of reflects that iM@S is a more fun show than Cindy and that's probably one of the reasons why I think it's overall the better of the two.
All in all, I was rather disappointed. I remember saying that if this was the only iDOM@STER anime Id likely not have become a fan of the series and I stick by that. Don't get me wrong, you can easily watch it and enjoy it even if you're not familiar with the property, I mean technically I wasn't familiar with the Cindy Gal side of things before watching this, but iM@S is the better of the two at drawing people in, which, in some ways, is the job of an anime.
Oh yeah and the music isnt as great, but I guess they naturally want to keep all the best tunes for the main series and not the spinoff. Though luckily they didnt include a lot of the image songs theyve released for some of the girls. Ive played the new Cindy Gal rhythm game and boy are some of them bad.
Also I guess you want an idol ranking as thats kind of a tradition. First is Miku and then its the rest. Funny how after the first episode I thought, boy, a girl who says nya all the time, that sure wont get tiring after a while(!). Amazing what a varied personality and expressions can do to turn your opinion around.
So all in all, wheres my final episode that actually rounds things up?
And all in all, where was Kate?
The characters are in multiple groups. You can think of it as everyone going off to do what Rin and Anya did. They were still in their original units, but also participated in other things.
MetroidPrimeRib
Banned
Really odd (bad) decision to have that New Generations song's visuals just be a bunch of flashbacks. I didn't like that at all.
Overall I mostly agree with what BGBW said - too much going on. I didn't really feel resolution when everyone got skipped besides New Gens and the show didn't know how to end it so it just ended up kind of confusing. The show was good at handling all these characters before so to drop the ball (no pun intended) right here when it matters most? Sad. This really should've been a two parter or an extended length episode...but we all know how BBB turned out so guess not. Overall though I did like the show quite a bit, enough for me to eventually watch the original Im@s and Love Live. HERETICAL, I KNOW.
Anastasia and Ranko were my favorites. Ranko is like, the only chuunifuck I actually have ever liked.
Overall I mostly agree with what BGBW said - too much going on. I didn't really feel resolution when everyone got skipped besides New Gens and the show didn't know how to end it so it just ended up kind of confusing. The show was good at handling all these characters before so to drop the ball (no pun intended) right here when it matters most? Sad. This really should've been a two parter or an extended length episode...but we all know how BBB turned out so guess not. Overall though I did like the show quite a bit, enough for me to eventually watch the original Im@s and Love Live. HERETICAL, I KNOW.
Anastasia and Ranko were my favorites. Ranko is like, the only chuunifuck I actually have ever liked.
ThatChairMan
Member
That episode was weird. After the ending of the last one, this just seemed kind of anticlimactic. It was a feel-good ending concert, but didn't really do much else. Can't say the NG or CG ending song were that great either, so that's kind of a let down. The best part of this episode was the after-concert part, with the individual scenes of just how each member has grown and changed.
Overall though, I did think CG was better than the original. The main difference was how it's taken for granted that the 765 idols are already friends and already idols, so there really wasn't much growth and personality clashes and instead just seemed to shove them into wacky situations. Which was fun for most of the first half, but the drama in the second half just seemed ham-handed in comparison (pushing idols off cliffs, making them compete with a male idol group, sabotaging their performances). Pretty much handled most of the drama pretty badly, which really sucks when an idol's only episode is filled with this terrible drama.
Compared to the CG anime, where the much heavier focus on idol drama left little room for fun, endearing episodes (the only one off the top of my head is the Producer stalking episode), but better development overall. Also, a better Producer character. I guess it comes down to fun vs. drama, and I give more points to CG for having at least decent drama and no fun, instead of good fun and bad drama. Or maybe I'm biased because the first episode of this was my first exposure to IM@S, even if I started watching the 765 anime right after?
As for idol rankings, I'm biased towards Uzuki since she made the biggest splash in episode 1 and that was my first IM@S experience, and her arc, while it did drag on a bit, ended fantastically. Then Miku and Mio because of how much focus and growth they got. Ranko, Anya, and Kirari who deserved more focus, but I still liked despite that. Everyone else was alright.
Overall though, I did think CG was better than the original. The main difference was how it's taken for granted that the 765 idols are already friends and already idols, so there really wasn't much growth and personality clashes and instead just seemed to shove them into wacky situations. Which was fun for most of the first half, but the drama in the second half just seemed ham-handed in comparison (pushing idols off cliffs, making them compete with a male idol group, sabotaging their performances). Pretty much handled most of the drama pretty badly, which really sucks when an idol's only episode is filled with this terrible drama.
Compared to the CG anime, where the much heavier focus on idol drama left little room for fun, endearing episodes (the only one off the top of my head is the Producer stalking episode), but better development overall. Also, a better Producer character. I guess it comes down to fun vs. drama, and I give more points to CG for having at least decent drama and no fun, instead of good fun and bad drama. Or maybe I'm biased because the first episode of this was my first exposure to IM@S, even if I started watching the 765 anime right after?
As for idol rankings, I'm biased towards Uzuki since she made the biggest splash in episode 1 and that was my first IM@S experience, and her arc, while it did drag on a bit, ended fantastically. Then Miku and Mio because of how much focus and growth they got. Ranko, Anya, and Kirari who deserved more focus, but I still liked despite that. Everyone else was alright.
this is actually my favorite passion song i've unlocked yet, but I guess I do tend to gravitate towards really. pop-y songs.
Regarding the caravan though, I have like 6 Honokas now and NO Syokos and It's driving me insane.
Azure Phoenix
Member
Boy, Nation Blue on Master is tough but fun. It combines my two biggest weakness so far (swipes and alternating single/double notes) and yet I still got a B rank due to knowing the song off by heart. It's going to be a fun learning experience trying to conquer this song.
Also SSR Minami is now in the gacha, I'll be eternally jealous of anyone that gets it.
Also SSR Minami is now in the gacha, I'll be eternally jealous of anyone that gets it.
Oh wait, it's a song-centered event? Nice to see a new Cool song, I'll check it out later.
Yep, like Ponkatsu Android, but Cool (blue) this time. I will just be grinding pro (17 stars). Master is 26 stars and while I'm finally good enough at this game to combo/score well on the easier Master songs, I'm not comfortable at that level yet...
At least on the bright side if this plays out like last time where I was a stone's throw from top 50k, getting top 100k should be easy enough and at least I get an SR Ranko (10,000 event point reward) and Kaede (ranking) from that which will help my blue team a lot.
Notable event point grind rewards (cumulative):
5000 - small snack table furniture
10000 - SR Ranko
13000 - Blue Tiara (do people still even need these?)
15000 - SR Ranko
8 level 3 trainers available, at the 9000, 14000, 18000, 22000, 28000, 36000, 44000, and 48000 point marks
Notable ranking rewards (not cumulative):
Top 2000
10 star SR Kaede + 1 star SR Kaede + Jewels and trainer
2001~10000
8 star SR Kaede + 1 star SR Kaede + Jewels and trainer
10001~20000
5 star SR Kaede + 1 star SR Kaede + Jewels and trainer
20001~50000
1 star SR Kaede + 1 star SR Kaede + Jewels and trainer
50001~100000
1 star SR Kaede + Jewels and trainer
Azure Phoenix
Member
I've got two, total. Drowning in red tiaras but blue ones refuse to drop.
Welp.
Went for a despair draw in hopes of boosting the Blue team and was not disappointed. If only μ's loved me as much as the Cinderella Girls did... T^T
Azure Phoenix
Member
Sigh. By comparison my 10 draw and daily pull today was literally 8 Ema/Asuka, 2 Yukimi and a Miku SR. There really should be something in place to stop you getting more than 2 dupes of a particular idol in a 10 draw.
ThatChairMan
Member
Now that the anime is over, should we move to the general im@s community thread?
Well I asked in the LINE group if we should make a new OT for the game on gaming side, but we could just move to the general community thread if you wish.
Should. I almost ranked top 50k (got pushed to around 53k range on last day) doing only pro songs during the last event.
Azure Phoenix
Member
If you mean the Nation Blue song, Master with an S or A is the most efficient with Pro on S rank being almost identical to Master A rank.
Holy check dat draw. A UR + 3 SRs just might be the record here so far.
My first 10 draw. Wanted that swimsuit girl but bleh.
Speaking of swimsuit girl, recently got her idolized:
It would be nice to have a gaming OT for it but that depends if you want more traffic in the community thread or worry if derestage would bury other discussion.
I too think we should move to the community thread
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=965541
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=965541
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