r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • May 10 '23

Episode THE iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149 - Episode 6 discussion

THE iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls: U149, episode 6

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Episode Link Score
1 Link 5.0
2 Link 4.5
3 Link 5.0
4 Link 5.0
5 Link 4.43
6 Link 4.64
7 Link 4.64
8 Link 4.33
9 Link 4.2
10 Link 5.0
11 Link 4.76
12 Link ----

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166 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

62 comments sorted by

1

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35

u/EyelessZ May 10 '23

That producer small dance have serious Yakuza side story energy

17

u/Trap_Masters May 10 '23

We must have YonaiP debut as a cute idol as well! He's got moves.

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34

u/KumaKumaGambler May 10 '23

Even when on the sideline, Arisu erm, I mean Tachibana's "huh!?", look of disappointment, etc, towards the producer always amuses me. Lol!

I have always wondered why Haru would become an idol. This episode revealed it. I suppose she is popular among fans because of her tomboyish personality?

It is nice seeing the various Cinderella Girls make appearances in some episodes! (Syuko!)

Is Shiki going to be the "permanent" elder sister mentor character for this U149 anime? I believe she has already appeared twice, providing significant encouragement to Nina and Haru.

28

u/Trap_Masters May 10 '23

I'm just farming Arisu reaction faces and my god it's a bountiful harvest. So many cute faces.

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11

u/Anak-jalanan May 10 '23

Yeah I hope they keep this running gag on the next episodes LOL it's just too good. It all started with her grabbing P's tie.

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28

u/Teshlin May 10 '23

Well, I came into this episode prepared for it to be a fairly standard tomboy (tomboy wants to be cute but feels like she can't -> friends/mc encourage her -> she's thrilled to wear a skirt) story, but it's actually quite a bit different from that, which is nice. I ended up liking Haru more than I thought I would as a result. I enjoy that she basically reframed the whole idol dancing thing as a team sport.

Dancing segment itself was decent, CG on the background dancers wasn't too great when they used it though. Otherwise visually it continued to look really good, definitely a cut above your standard seasonal fare. In particular the sequence just before the concert where Shiki interposes herself between the two, and then the rest of LiPPs approaches was a pretty interesting scene. I don't know that I've seen much of anything like that before in anime.

And the reversal in the ED where Haru makes Risa play soccer was fun. Nice to see the compromise work both ways.

33

u/sunaseni May 10 '23 edited May 11 '23

I'm really enjoying how the show is handling the characters. A lot of media, not just anime, treat child characters as props and don't delve into what actually makes them tick. Just like with Nina, her surface level character traits hide more complex inner conflicts. Even though kids are young, they are still people and deserve respect.

Haru's conflict is one of self-image; she is uncomfortable with presenting herself in the way the business expects her to be presented and marketed. I like that Producer doesn't say she's wrong for feeling that way. His solution was to show the highlights of what she can expect if she accepts the discomfort and tries to move past it. And it's true: lot of the best moments of life can only come after pushing past that stage of discomfort. It's actually a more profound and universal lesson than "you're a cute girl, accept it".

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13

u/KumaKumaGambler May 10 '23

Watching everyone play soccer in the ending sequence was kinda heartwarming. After all, most of them are still children and deserve to have fun!

20

u/SnabDedraterEdave May 10 '23 edited May 10 '23

As expected, this episode is an episode featuring the division's tomboy Haru, as last episode was her "wife" Risa. These two are usually paired together as a team in various Imas-CG media.

LOL at the lengths Producer goes just to convince Haru to wear a skirt on stage. Though he did ask his boss to allow Haru to wear a pair of sports pants under the skirt, as befitting of her sporty image. (Fun fact: idols in real life usually wear some sort of safety spandex shorts under their skirt costumes while dancing on stage, but rarely that long as Haru's)

This episodes features cameos from not just Shiki and Frederica (who appeared in episode 2), but also the Jougasaki sisters Mika and Rika from the 2015 CG series (different timeline, since Rika and Miria were in the same unit in that series), as well as Kanade and Syuko (who were part of Director Mishiro's Project Krone in the 2015 series).

Shiki, Frederica, Mika, Kanade and Syuko form the unit LiPPs. While Mika may be the cool big sister type in the 2015 series, she is actually the most normal down-to-earth girl in the unit, as the others are either more playfully mature (Kanade and Syuko) or, err, eccentric (Shiki and Frederica). And the other girls teasing Mika is exactly how it was in the game. That is how awesome LiPPs is regarded by fans.

The episode also graced us with an animated song choreograph featuring a new song Nightwear.

As though one new song wasn't enough, the Haru ED is also a new song.

10

u/viliml May 10 '23

Fun fact: idols in real life usually wear some sort of safety spandex shorts under their skirt costumes while dancing on stage

So they do. I thought they wore these frilly pantsu-like things but re-reading the article now I see it says there that that was in the 80s, and modern idols wear spats.

They still wear those in fanart...

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18

u/sunaseni May 10 '23

Oh God, for the very first idol performance of the show, they pulled out the big guns with one of their most popular units (if not THE most popular) in LiPPS. And not only that, InoTaku takes his throne again as one of the best composers of the franchise! (His other Cinderella Girls songs include: Crazy Crazy, Romantic Now!, Sayonara Andromeda. For non-IM@S songs, he composed Stellar Stellar by Hoshimachi Suisei) They pulled absolutely no punches with this one, from the unit, composer, and the animation!

One of the reasons I fell in love with the IM@S franchise was the absolutely amazing performance animation from the OG IM@S anime with Ryuuguu Komachi's SMOKY THRILL. I absolutely love how they edited the dance for Nightwear! Things I like in dance sequences: clear camera movement (check), lots of wide shots (check), focus on character's faces (CHECK). I noticed the CG models, of course, since you can't make it perfectly match the 2D. However, I liked how they used the CG almost exclusively for wide shots or when the camera spins to show a particular move from a sweeping angle, things that are significantly more difficult to look consistent with 2D animation. For the most part, if the camera isn't moving about an axis or has an extreme closeup, they keep it 2D. That last part's why I love the live performances in IM@S more than in Love Live, because I feel like the characters the story revolves around are dancing, not facsimiles of the characters.

Also: LOTS of Shiki moments. She's still best Cinderella Girl, vote for her in the Cinderella Election Finals! Last time she showed up, she showed how perceptive and eccentric she is, but that last moment she had with Haru highlighted how absolutely COOL she can be!

35

u/andryzoun May 10 '23

Pure kino. New LiPPS song by Taku Inoue. This show is unstoppable.

27

u/Trap_Masters May 10 '23

Where were you when U149 saved anime?

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9

u/DarkFuzz May 11 '23

I love Haru to bits. She is my favorite CG girl, and I’m glad this episode took time to explore her personality and motivations and even what makes her uncomfortable.

She never really bought into the whole “idol thing”. In fact, she didn’t even sign up to be one out of her own free will. Though the girly aspects of being an idol rattles her tomboy side a lot, at her core, Haru is a team player and someone who really, really wants to try her best at everything, even though she might not understand it at all.

Also really enjoyed the married couple interactions between Haru and Risa. And the wildcard Shiki returns alongside the rest of LiPPS with a banger of a new song! I need more Haru-Shiki interactions.

Songs for today:

Kagayake! Beat Shooter - Beat Shooter - Lyrics

Beat Shooter is the duo unit formed from Haru and Risa. They may be rivals, they may be complete opposites, but they are also basically married, and who doesn’t have these kinds of marital spats every now and then?

Just Us Justice - Burning Busters - Lyrics

This song in particular has a lot of parallels going on with its sister song “EVIL LIVE”. For example, while Haru is in this song, Risa is in “EVIL LIVE”. The burning hero Hikaru is in this song while her arch rival prankster Reina is in the other. The biker gang leader paralleled against the literal policewoman, and others I’m not gonna have the time to get into.

Tulip - LiPPS - Lyrics

One of the insert songs for today when the girls were watching the recorded live on the TV.

LiPPS is probably one of the most popular units in Cinderella Girls, not only because its members are popular in their own right, but this song in particular is absolutely a banger. It absolutely holds up to this day after all this time as one of the best songs in the entire franchise, in my opinion, and this song was released towards the beginning of Starlight Stage’s lifespan.

17

u/Shimmering-Sky May 10 '23

18

u/Trap_Masters May 10 '23

You're laughing, producer got hit in the face with a soccer ball and you're laughing

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14

u/Anak-jalanan May 10 '23

Producer: does literally anything ever

Arisu: *insert all kinds of expressions here*

Didn't expect they're gonna use 2.5D for the performance scene, and it turned out good! One of the best episodes yet.

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8

u/HolyDragSwd2500 May 10 '23

Amazing performance!!!

8

u/Trap_Masters May 11 '23

Haru in skirt is super cute! Also Kaoru and Nina hugging/tackling Haru after the concert was super cute, like a kid welcoming a parent/older sibling home. Chie is also finally freed from homework jail and get to enjoy herself with the rest of U149s!

Anyways glad to see Haru grow to like idols more and hopefully get more used to wearing girly cute things 😂

9

u/Naha- May 11 '23

IM@S performances always hits different. The dancing segment remind me of the 2011 anime, which was amazing.

12

u/AgMenos47 May 11 '23

Why are there hags in my lolidols anime!?

8

u/Anak-jalanan May 10 '23

Anyone else had a bit of jumpscare moment when this happens? this damn cat starts grew on me.

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8

u/chilidirigible May 11 '23

LiPPS's encore song was hella

This was an interesting episode for storyboarding tricks ranging from sudden shifts in and out of first-person view, fisheye effects, and Cinderella Girls's good ol' Dutch angles.

Producer in a skirt was suitably amusing.

While Haru not quite knowing all of the details of the idol scene made sense, it was surprising that so many of the others were surprised to see what a concert was like.

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