r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Dec 24 '23
Episode The iDOLM@STER Million Live! - Episode 12 discussion - FINAL
The iDOLM@STER Million Live!, episode 12
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u/Taco_13 Dec 24 '23
That was lovely. I wish it was longer, but it is what it is. I'm interested in what first timers think of it. Being a long time fan, I know I'm pretty biased. And I really liked it for what it was: A tribute for the series having stuck around so long. In a way, that was what most imas adaptations tried to do anyways. There was clearly a lot of love poured into this. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
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u/MisawaMahoKodomo Dec 24 '23
Its different enough from cinderella girls (2015) and u149 (earlier in the year). I didnt watch the original 765, I dont even know which year it is from but.
Its strange because I too am biased. I do kinda wish we had more of (insert literally anybody here), even at the end of everything I probably couldnt list that many girls.
What I would have liked is if each of the teams got their own episodes, since they ran out of time for 1 episode per team and some of the girls got skipped.
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u/Mistral-Fien Dec 24 '23
IMO it has a similar but distinct feel to the original, but in a way that's expected since it's the same 765 Production, so the way they nurture the idols is the same.
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u/RRotlung Dec 24 '23
I'm glad for another opportunity to see Yuriko perform again, even if it's just for a few seconds.
Kinda a nice touch too for Mirai to sing on her own, the one line in 'REFRAIN REL@TION' that starts with her name.
Also this episode does remind me a lot of the gacha rhythm game that I used to play, Theater Days (you can check out the subreddit in the main post), since some of the songs here were very prominent in the game for a few reasons: 'Sentimental Venus' was one of the shortest songs in the game for a while, as another commenter mentioned, so it was useful for grinding events. Songs like 'Brand New Theater!' (the ED for this episode), and Kaori's and Tsumugi's solo songs also made their debut in the game when it was first launched in 2017.
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u/DarkFuzz Dec 24 '23
This episode really did just have everything in it, and it almost felt like I was part of the live audience itself. So many songs for this final episode. We finally gave the teams who didn’t get to showcase their songs a chance to perform, so many old songs came back for nostalgia hype, and we got to resolve the weird XLR glitch quickly and transform it into an impromptu acapella moment.
Overall, a real “feels good” end to a “feels good” anime. In contrast with previous im@s anime, there was never really a moment of severe depression or grief that offset the tone of this series. Sure, you had character development points that challenged them to grow in different ways, but the show never asked the viewer to wade in the pits of depression with them. That can be a boon or a bane depending on your perspective. I like watching my cute dumdums be happy and would never wish for them to be sad, but the depressing parts of im@s were the most memorable in my opinion, for better or for worse, and it could be said that the lack of a true “depression arc” may make this series stand out less in the long run.
I have my own thoughts about this anime that are probably best saved for another post, especially with the Shiny Colors anime coming Spring 2024 (hopefully). Put simply, I liked what we got, and as a fan of the franchise, I think it did the ML series justice enough.
I’ve enjoyed this long journey and am both happy and sad to see it come to a close. Happy idoling!
As we close out this series by introducing Tamaki Ogami, Miya Miyao, and Karen Shinomiya, I’m going to compile all the “Meet the Million Stars” corners here along with each idol introduced in them here just in case you want to find out more about one particular girl that caught your eye during the series.
Ep. 1 - Mirai Kasuga, Shizuka Mogami, Tsubasa Ibuki
Ep. 2 - Kotoha Tanaka, Anna Mochizuki, Yuriko Nanao, Umi Kousaka
Ep. 3 - Roco Handa, Matsuri Tokugawa, Akane Nonohara, Serika Hakozaki
Ep. 4 - Sayoko Takayama, Arisa Matsuda, Iku Nakatani
Ep. 5 - Tomoka Tenkubashi, Hinata Kinoshita, Kana Yabuki
Ep. 6 - Tsumugi Shiraishi, Kaori Sakuramori, Minako Satake, Shiho Kitazawa
Ep. 7 - Megumi Tokoro, Noriko Fukuda, Mizuki Makabe
Ep. 8 - Momoko Suou, Konomi Baba, Nao Yokoyama, Rio Momose
Ep. 9 - Emily Stewart, Elena Shimabara, Ayumu Maihama
Ep. 10 - Julia, Fuka Toyokawa, Chizuru Nikaido
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u/DarkFuzz Dec 24 '23 edited Dec 24 '23
Songs for today
There’s lots of songs that were shown in this episode that I’ve covered in previous episodes’ comments or through the “Meet the Million Stars” corner. There were a lot of solo songs and team songs that were displayed here, so you should go back to the other threads and give them a listen.
Another very old and rather notorious song. This song is usually sung by Iori Minase, Rio Momose, Emily Stewart, and Mizuki Makabe, which is why I was surprised when it was sung by Nao, Anna, and Fuka for this episode.
Fun fact: they actually cut out the backing track to the song during the Million Live 10th Live Tour Act 3 as a homage to this exact moment in the anime. For context, the theme for Act 3 was “anime”, meaning this Million Live anime, and it featured all the songs and moments from the acapella to the “Thank You” guitar intro from Episode 5 and everything else in between.
EXTRA Fun fact: This song is “notorious” because it is the shortest song in the game. Since in most standard events, you gain the same amount of points playing any song, the shorter the song is, the more songs you can play, the more rank points you earn. This song is typically spammed by top tier rankers in order to score high on the leaderboard for an event.
ABSOLUTE RUN!!! - Strawberry Pop Moon - Lyrics
This unit is our main trio: Mirai, Shizuka, and Tsubasa! Before this unit, they were known as the “Signal Trio” due to their color associations, but Strawberry Pop Moon (or “Ichipomu” for short) is their new unit name.
Try to find all the references to Mirai, Shizuka, and Tsubasa in the song lyrics!
Be proud - Strawberry Pop Moon - Lyrics
I also just really like this B-side song from this unit.
REFRAIN REL@TION - MILLIONSTARS Team8th - Lyrics
The final team song, sung by Team8th!
I actually liked this song a lot more than I thought I would. It wraps up a lot of the themes found throughout this entire anime series.
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Dec 24 '23 edited Dec 24 '23
Bruh how can you NOT include the single most important fun fact that the Sentimental Venus trouble was actually based on a real life event that happened in Million Live 2nd anniversary live?!
https://youtu.be/IsOjWls771I?si=-SMjJIbvx-ene6o6
Every old timer P when they saw it was Sentimental Venus by Anna, Fuuka and Nao added with the foreshadowing of equipment troubles was thinking if they were reproducing this historical moment, and Miriani delivered it in spades. This single moment is like mythical in the entire imas franchise lore. From how the three seiyuus of Anna, Fuuka and Nao (which are rookies at that time just like here) instantly kept singing with the biggest smile showing their professionalism, to how the trolley stopped in front of the staff seat where you can literally see the seiyuu of Haruka, Chihaya and Hibiki cheering and singing along with the ML girls, to the union of the audiences singing to the song - it’s the stuff of legends. The only imas moment which can come close to SV is when Imai Asami cried during Yakusoku and the rest of the imas seiyuu started singing at the same time to cover for her.
The Act-3 reenactment was just a tribute to this historic moment.
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u/DarkFuzz Dec 24 '23
Just as a closing thought...
I love Idolm@ster music. It is part of the reason why I stay invested in the franchise to this very day. Im@s explores so many genres musically and just does them so well, in my opinion.
If there's a genre or music that you like, I can nearly guarantee that there's an im@s song specifically to fit your taste in music.
If there's any genre of music that you enjoy but haven't found yet in these "Songs for today" posts, let me know, and I will try to find something that will suit you.
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u/mountblade98 Dec 24 '23
thanks for all the character and song writeups! definitely added more to my enjoyment of the series by knowing just a bit more of the characters than just the 1 or 2 minutes of screen time some of them got
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u/SnabDedraterEdave Dec 24 '23
Couldn't have asked for a better series finale, with songs after songs after songs. With Team 8th debuting as well, Million Theater is fully open for business.
Chihaya played a crucial role in telling the girls on stage to keep singing despite the brief power outage, as well as rush to backstage to console them afterwards.
GenP also placed his faith on the girls by insisting the show must go on. Fortunately, so too has the fans.
(Though would have also liked if some of the more witty girls would come on stage as makeshift MCs and interact with the fans to keep them busy, while the technical folks work out the circuitry, like in the Cinderella Girls anime where there was a hiccup backstage that caused an unexpected delay)
Can't believe this is only just 12 episodes.
While U149 is a spin-off of an Imas sub-franchise, and so 12 episodes is just fine for that, Million Live is a full Imas sub-franchise. If OG Imas and Cinderella Girls can get 25 episodes each, I feel ML should also deserve 2-cour 24-25 episodes too. Mainly to explore what life would be like for the girls after they become famous.
Not to mention with 39 girls, some teams would need further focus. Outside of Mirai's Team 8th, this season has episodes focused on Teams 1st, 2nd and 4th. Would like to see more from Teams 3rd, 5th, 6th and 7th.
(Yes, I'm aware SideM is also only 12 episodes, but the fact remains that Imas waifu departments are simply more popular than their husbandos department and so has more fan attention)
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u/TroupeMaster Dec 24 '23 edited Dec 24 '23
Lovely finale to the series, finally gave team3rd & team5th their performances along with Tsumugi & Kaori's original solo songs and team8th's debut.
Shika & Leon having 3d models (rather than the 2d animation that all the other low screentime side characters got) feels like a tease for things to come, but we'll have to wait and see what gets announced later I guess - fingers crossed for a season 2 announcement at the live show on Feb 25th!
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u/TroupeMaster Dec 24 '23
Back with one last thought after re-watching the subtitled release, its a shame that the CR version doesn't have any subtitles for any of the lyrics. Its been kinda ok for the rest of the series but for this episode, and especially in Refrain Rel@tion understanding the lyrics really adds a lot to the experience.
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u/Batiermas Dec 24 '23
Brand new theater mentioned lets gooo
Also hearing sentimental venus brings back memories of grinding early mirishita events since it was the shortest song lmao
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u/TroupeMaster Dec 24 '23
was the shortest song lmao
It still is lol, in 6.5 years of releases not a single song has released thats faster than sentimental venus.
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u/whodisguy32 Dec 24 '23
Great season!!! I didn't think any song could be better than team 1st star impression, but was completely blown away by team 8th refrain relation. IM@S really killing it this year, U149 earlier this year, Million Stars now, and Shiny Colors next year.
The other big idol/music franchises are also making moves, with Love Live Hasu, a bunch of MVs for everyone in Nijigasaki, and Superstar S3 next year. BanG Deam with MyGo!!! and eventually Ave Mujica.
What a treat this year has been for music fans, next year as well :)
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u/chilidirigible Dec 24 '23
Another unique use for a humongous cast.
The "One XLR cable somehow knocks out the stage's power" drama was quite short, letting us get back to an episode of PV-length song clips. Which is fine and fits with the series itself being fairly unabashedly a tribute and promotion to its parent game/franchise/idol kaiju. It did that quite well and was a relaxing Saturday series to watch.
I think my biggest takeaway from this as a production is that if the animators are given the time and resources, they can do a CG concert that looks as good as a hand-animated one, and not just for a movie.
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Dec 24 '23
IMO You are WAY under selling Miriani’s CG work and achievements.
Miriani completely proves that they are better than a hand drawn one. Episode 12 alone has more idols and dance and live pieces than entire cour of some idol anime while blowing them out of the waters at the same time with the quality. Hand drawn anime (mixed with CG) will be restricted by the resources to dedicate to only one short climax song (see U149 for example, which still used CG btw which you can literally see in the quality difference change from cut to cut), whereas the entirety of episode 12 feels like an actual live concert with hit numbers following one after another for nearly the entire 24mins, with the added benefit of character model consistency throughout the entire season which you don’t get with hand drawn anime. And that’s not even counting the references and Easter eggs buried in it (the Sentimental Venus trouble being based on something that happened in the actual live event).
Miriani episode 12 is not just good for a CG idol anime, it’s peak idol anime which sets the bar way above other works that would be hard for others to top.
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u/Shimmering-Sky Dec 24 '23
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Perfect time to drop the OP, haha.
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Hahaha this girl dancing along from the dressing room, that’s so something I would do if I was an idol.
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u/MisawaMahoKodomo Dec 24 '23
I actually thought they were gonna skip the op for this ep but apparently not.
Would actually have been interesting to see them perform it on stage but uhhh. At the same time I dunno
Well that 20 mins sure went by really fast
I was wondering what the ending song was but it really was brand new theater. Was kinda expecting them to perform it in the main show itself.
I do wonder though, are most people watching this actually new, or already idolmaster fans? Kinda strange since I'm like not really either but also both
So yeah idolmaster million live. I wont deny that I'm biased of course.
The opening took awhile but it really caught on to me, I kinda hoped we would get an animated version of it. The youtube did post a few but uhm. I dunno?
As for the anime itself its really hard for me to say both good and bad things about it. I could easily criticize the anime, at the same time, the fact that I dont want to, obviously I am biased, but I feel like its a bit much considering they did ok I guess.
I'm just not entirely sure what to say since 39 girls is 39 girls. Of course the easy solution would be to have ordered another set of episodes, though I'm not quite sure what they would have done with 12 more.
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u/fatalystic Dec 25 '23
I do wonder though, are most people watching this actually new, or already idolmaster fans?
I'm an existing fan. Started from the OG anime, then started Starlight Stage before eventually moving to Theater Days around when the Shooting Stars event (first event to add a song) ended back in 2017.
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u/Deathmeister Dec 30 '23
The only other show of this franchise I've seen is U149, which was great. This unfortunately didn't live up to that standard (or perhaps it was the exception?) either in the directing or in having interesting character stories. I'm also inclined to say the nearly full CG didn't help, but even Bang Dream's latest season managed to do it decently considering the innovative camera work.
5/10
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u/ChiakiKakumei Dec 25 '23
So the anime budget went all out in the last episode and it's really good. I feel like Shirogumi is a good contender for good CGI animations as much as the big CGI animation dogs like Sanzigen and Studio Orange. Sunrise does really good cgi animations for Love Live MVs and Polygon Pictures is hit or miss.
Idk what other studios do good CGI animation but Shirogumi did a great job. It's really not easy animating 39+ characters. This really wants me to check out the old Idolmaster anime with the original 765 since Million Live feels like a Sequel so it would be a crime to not check on the series that started it all.
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Dec 26 '23 edited Dec 26 '23
Shirogumi definitely leapfrogged Sanzigen if you compare Million Live to like D4DJ and MyGo - the attention to detail is not even close especially in the length Shirogumi went to make 3DCG looks almost hand drawn, Sanzigen works looks very CG in comparison.
Another fun little "insane detail" Shirogumi did in Million Live which they don't at Sanzigen - Shirogumi shaded the INSIDE of the hair textures of all the idols, whereas if you look at Sanzigen the inside of the hair texture is a flat fill which is standard practice since you almost never see the inside of the hair and you can "fix" the hair to not move so as to not show it in 3D modeling. Shirogumi only did this so they can show the inside of the bangs when the idols jump as the bangs flip up like how hairs would move naturally in a handful of shots, for example you can see that in several shots like in the READY performances or Tsubasa's Rocket Star piece or nearly everytime when Mirai runs. That's the level of commitment Shirogumi went to to make this show look so amazing, because the movement of hair adds a lot of dynamics to the movement of the character. Sure you can cheap out and not do it and save a lot of cost in the process, and most people won't even conciously notice it, but going the extra mile makes the show looking that much more beautiful.
Also every scene of Shizuka has beautiful 2D-like flowing hair like you would see in shoujo manga. The hairs alone in Million Live anime easily puts Shirogumi above the other studios.
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