The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls Episode #15 Review

It's time to unleash our hidden power!

What They Say:

The idols from 346 Production's "Cinderella Project" are back, and this time they have more work than ever! Following the success of the summer idol festival, the girls have gained an incredible boost in popularity. Their first group album has even launched. There's just one problem though -- the new executive at 346 Pro, Mishiro. This mysterious new boss is now planning on dismantling all of the company's idol-projects. ALL OF THEM. What could possibly be in store for our beloved Cinderella girls now?!

The Review:

Content: (Please note that the content portion of the review may contain spoilers)

The second episode of the summer-half of Cinderella Girls picks up right where the first left off, with our beloved Producer smack-dab in the middle of Mishiro's announcement to disband all of 346 Pro's idol groups. Obviously, with an entire troupe under his wing, Producer stands up and refuses to accept this, announcing that he will come up with an alternate proposal to have Mishiro look over. It isn't long after this meeting that the girls find out what the next few weeks are shaping up to be like. And what better time for a sad montage of everyone moving their possessions out of their practice space? The episode gets right down to business immediately and wastes no time introducing and elaborating on the conflict that we are going to follow for the next ten episodes or so.

But that's enough seriousness for now. It's subplot time. This week we get to spend some time with a side character we've basically seen nothing of up until now, that being the mature and composed Kaede Takagaki. Kaede is the first person that we have seen Mishiro actually treat with respect (Sort of). That respect however, fades away almost immediately when Kaede refuses Mishiro's proposal to advance her career as an idol. This serves as a well-deserved slap in the face to the woman who is trying to tear our girls apart. Shortly after the slap, we find ourselves in the venue that Takagaki debuted in. And following a quick opening act from New Generations, she takes the stage and wows her dedicated fans, advancing her career with them instead of walking the path on her own, as Mishiro proposed.

All while this is happening, the Cinderella girls are trying to form a plot of their own to keep their groups from disbanding. The thing is, there isn't really much that they can do. Several of the girls want to try and write proposals of their own for Producer to piggyback off of, while others (Specifically Minami because she is level-headed) think it would be a better idea to clear out an area for a new practice space. New Generations, being away as the openers for Kaede Takagaki, coincidentally have the same exact idea as the other girls and try writing proposals of their own. However, they never get around to finishing them. I'd go ahead and blame that on the fact that they were singing and dancing for a good portion of the day.

Best/Favorite Part:

Would it be cliche if I were to say the opening was my favorite part of this episode? It would? Okay, never mind then. In that case, I'm going to have to say the last scene, where Producer and New Generations arrive back at 346 Productions to the rest of the Cinderella Girls having cleared out a new area for them to practice. The added bonus is the proposal that they have put together as a group. It's a pretty heartwarming and adorable minute or two.

In Summary:

More of the same thing we've grown accustomed to this week as season two of Cinderella Girls tries to ease us back into how it works. Kaede Takagaki serves as a new and moderately interesting focal point, with New Generations once again being the secondary focus. I understand the need to involve side characters more often, but I strongly feel like the show needs to focus on the rest of the main characters a little better, seeing as several of them haven't had enough time in the spotlight. Overall, the episode was decent and is particularly enjoyable for fans of Kaede. Unfortunately though, I am not one of those.

Grade: C

Streamed By: Daisuki/Hulu

The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls Episode #14 Review

It's a confession of love!

What They Say:

The idols from 346 Production's "Cinderella Project" are back, and this time they have more work than ever! Following the success of the summer idol festival, the girls have gained an incredible boost in popularity. Their first group album has even launched. There's just one problem though -- the new executive at 346 Pro, Mishiro. This mysterious new boss is now planning on dismantling all of the company's idol-projects. ALL OF THEM. What could possibly be in store for our beloved Cinderella girls now?!

The Review:

Content: (Please note that the content portion of the review may contain spoilers)

The second season to The iDOLM@STER's "Cinderella Girls" series starts off on the right foot. Any time a series relaunches after a relatively long break, a recap (Or something of that nature) is most definitely in order. In this scenario, we get to see what the lives of the girls have been like in the few months that we've been away. Each unit has skyrocketed: Love Laika is busy with radio interviews, New Generations is performing show after show, and Rosenberg Engel is still...Ranko. This quick montage serves as a heartwarming welcome back to the series that we've all been patiently awaiting since the first cours ended back in early-April.

This is where things start getting a little odd though. A mysterious dark-haired woman arrives at the 346 Pro headquarters early on in the episode and is basically oozing an obvious "I'm important" aura. Just moments after, we find out that she is the new head of the company. Us viewers, as well as the girls, just shrug it off and say, "Okay, whatever. Lets get on with the episode now," and things progress onward to a sort of mystery that has been following the girls for a day or two. Each unit is constantly spotting a shadow while doing whatever it is that idol units do. Being teenage-girls, this obviously gets a little creepy and they notify the Producer (Who's name I capitalized for good reason -- he is the man) and he takes things into his own hands.

From that point on, Producer and the girls start to play detective as they look for whatever shadowy figure keeps appearing wherever they go, meeting up with various, underrated side-characters along the way. Natsuki Kimura, Koume Shirasaka, and Mayu Sakuma all make appearances as A1-Pictures eases us back into the series. After all, what fun would it be if we were to just jump back into the girl's side-stories? Actually, don't answer that. It would be fun regardless. But doing things this way just makes is just going to make things a lot more fun in the long run.

Best/Favorite Part:

Considering Mika Jougasaki is the best girl in this series, I'm going to have to highlight her cameo as my favorite part of the episode. In addition to my biased, Mika-loving outlook however, I was also quite elated to see Riina practicing guitar. Plus, the way her eyes lit up when Natsuki walked over and randomly busted out a ridiculous solo...priceless. Don't worry Riina, that will be you one day.

In Summary: 

This lighthearted first episode back is a good way to start off what is hopefully going to be a strong ending to the Cinderella Girls series. By now, it is apparent that this show is most likely going to be nowhere near as great as the regular iM@S (No, not Xenoglossia), but I have high hopes that it is going to pick up and at least make it into my top-three for the season. After all, with a cast as great as this one, it's going to be hard for it to get left in the dust.

Grade: B

Streamed By: Daisuki/Hulu

Hibike! Euphonium (Sound! Euphonium) Review

What They Say:

It's finally time for Kumiko Oumae to enter high-school and begin the next chapter of her life. Being a member of concert band all throughout the lower-grades, one of her first orders of business is scouting out the band at her new school to see how they compare to what she has grown up with. After actually hearing them, however, Kumiko is...surprised to say the least. The concert band of Kitauji High School is terrible, especially compared to the borderline-national's band Oumae was in earlier. Students in the band have gotten lazy and fallen into a slump in which none of them particularly care about the band's future. But all of that changes when they meet their new teacher, professional composer Noboru Taki.

The Review:

Content: (Please note that the content portion of the review may contain spoilers)

Kyoto Animation is back again to tailor to a new clique -- concert band. This time around, they have decided to shelf the swim-club fans of Free, the writers (And detectives?) of Hyouka, and the people that hang out at amusement parks way too much of Amagi Brilliant Park. Industry and KyoAni veteran, Tatsuya Ishihara, is back once again to direct this teen music drama. This show stays relatively inside the "Safe zone" for Ishihara and doesn't really bring out anything he hasn't already done before. (But that is to be expected when you have directed almost everything a studio has produced in the last fifteen years). I basically watch Kyoto Animation productions out of obligation at this point. They become such a phenomenon so quickly and become virtually impossible to go a season without. But just because I watch them out of obligation doesn't mean I don't enjoy them -- in fact, most of the time they come out within my top 5 for the season. So when Sound! Euphonium was announced, I chalked it down and waited to see what the industry-giants had for us this time.

Sound! Euphonium gives us a glimpse into the lives of a few high-school band members, but focuses mainly on Kumiko Oumae, a first-year euphonium player -- an instrument so bizarre that auto-correct doesn't even recognize it. When Oumae joins the band at Kitauji High, she has no idea what she is getting into. That's all made clear relatively quickly though, when Noboru Taki steps in as the band's new instructor. Briefly after his introduction, he gives the band an ultimatum of some sort. They can either continue playing for fun, which is what they've been doing for years, or they could aim to improve themselves and try-out for the national competition. And after a vote which was not nearly as close as I expected it to be, the band decided it was time to step up to a challenge for the first time. Kumiko, being relatively indifferent toward which direction the band would go in, starts to question her decision on joining the band in the first place after she sees Reina Kousaka, one of the girls she was in band with just a year prior.

So now, in addition to the band practicing every day, we have the pre-existing kinship between Oumae and Kousaka that needs time to flourish and repair. And I say repair because the two had an altercation at the end of last year in which Oumae essentially consoled Kousaka and said it was okay that they didn't achieve a gold rating (Which would advance them to Nationals). Kousaka, being the fiery, motivated character she is, backlashed at Kumiko, telling her that Nationals basically meant everything to her. The two then go on to form one of the more interesting relationships of the season as they tend to their emotional wounds and learn more and more about one another, growing closer every episode.

My issue, as far as characters and relationships go, was that there wasn't ever enough time to care about the relationships apart from Kumiko and Reina. I don't know if that can be accredited to the fact that theirs simply out-shined the others, or if the others were just not good to begin with. We start to see these subplots that appear important for an episode or two, but then just wind up vanishing in less than an hour in total. For example, there is this whole thing with Hazuki (A new-friend of Kumiko's and novice tuba player) confessing her feelings to Kumiko's childhood friend Shuuichi (Who never really becomes important at all) that just seems out of place. It feels more like filler than actual plot or character development. Even the moments where the band was practicing were more emotionally-fueled than those occasions of unimportant romance or slightly-confused friendships. I'm not going to sit here and nitpick each one, but I will tell you that the only one that deserves your time would be the whole Oumae X Kousaka thing. Oh, and Midori X Contrabass -- but that's another story.

Sound! Euphonium is an example of how pacing can really diminish a series as a whole. For the first six episodes, I honestly did not care about anything in this show. There were all of these elements that seemed great when looked at individually, but none of them seemed to fit together. In a way though, this could be linked to the series in general. None of the band members seemed to mesh with one another at first. They needed time to grow closer and improve before becoming this high-school super-band. Even though this was probably not done intentionally, it's still an interesting theory and makes those unimportant and boring parts of the show feel more like much needed exposition. I just wish the whole thing could have been as good as the final arc -- which was probably the strongest of the season. And that's saying a lot considering it was up against shows like the newest seasons of Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works and My Teenage Romantic Comedy SNAFU.

Before the wrap-up, there is one more important thing to note, that being pre-conceived hype for a series before it actually airs. For anything KyoAni makes, there is going to be mass-hysteria. The studio has become synonymous with works of art and very rarely lets anyone down. Notice how I didn't say "Never" lets anyone down. Sound! Euphonium is an example of how that is possible. Not everyone was happy with it, that's the honest truth. The season starts off incredibly slow and incredibly uninteresting. It was devoid of everything that makes KyoAni shows great until halfway through its course. It teaches us to not over-hype a series -- because something may appear great on the outside, but when you actually delve into it, there is a chance it might not be the final product that was expected. That mass-hype can really ruin a show for you if you aren't careful.

In Summary:

Sound! Euphonium is a light-hearted an enjoyable show once it gets past the first few episodes. The overall sound and production quality are stellar, but that is to be expected considering the studio that created it. The relationships apart from Kumiko and Reina are not necessary, but can still be enjoyed by the right crowd. The ending arc is one of the best of the year (So far) and even got me a little teary-eyed at points. Those last few episodes really create a memorable experience. It's the ride to those episodes that can really spoil the fun. If you were in concert band in high school, there is no doubt in my mind that you will absolutely adore this show. If you weren't though, there really isn't a strong reason for you to watch it.

Content Grade: C

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

Plastic Memories Review

What They Say:

In the distant future, a constantly-expanding company known as the "SAI Corporation" has created a way to install human emotions into androids in order to assist with various levels of human companionship. Tsukasa Mizugaki, after failing his college entrance exams, had no choice but to accept a job at SAI following a recommendation from his father. His role in the company was none other than working in the department that retrieves androids that are on the brink of expiration. This completely-original new series will leave you grasping for tissues far more often than you can handle.

The Review:

Content: (Please note that the content portion of the review may contain spoilers)

This sci-fi drama by Naotaki Hayashi (Memories Off 2nd/Steins;Gate: The Distant Valhalla) is the first complete anime series from the seasoned scenario writer. Plastic Memories is animated by the somewhat lesser known studio "Dogakobo" and was produced by Aniplex with some help from MAGES. (The studio. No actual mages were used in the making of this series...as far as I know). I'm the kind of guy that reads through every listing on AniChart prior to the launching of the new seasons. And if there are any two things that catch my eye during those moments of intense eye-straining, they would be "Original series" and "Drama". Needless to say, I Immediately highlighted Plastic Memories in green and eagerly chalked it down as my most-anticipated show of Spring 2015. Having no knowledge of what it would be, apart from the brief description available on a few news sites, I was ready for anything..Almost anything, at least.

Plastic Memories follows 18 year-old Tsukasa Mizugaki as he lands a job at the "Terminal Service Department" of the SAI Corporation. Terminal Service's only real responsibility is the collection of humanistic androids known as "Giftias" as they reach the end of their lifespan. This job normally comes with anguish and disdain, seeing as these androids can fulfill the roles of child, parent, friend, etc. Needless to say, most owners are quite reluctant to give up their companions. The thing is though, if the giftias go on to "Live" past their expiration date, things get kind of bad. The androids basically go haywire, resulting in a nearly complete loss of memories and a state of shock/confusion for them that can even cause them to harm others in rare cases.

But the show takes an even more dramatic turn when Tsukasa is paired with a giftia as his partner at Terminal Service. It becomes less of a show detailing the hardships that come with relinquishing companionship, but instead becomes more of a depiction on how things get to that point -- how things like relationships decay over time. And more often than not, that time and those relationships go by faster than anyone could ever realize. The chemistry between Tsukasa and Isla grows stronger with each episode. At the same time, however, so does the knowledge that their relationship will come to a close a lot sooner than they want it to. So now we get this roller-coaster ride of emotions as we are essentially forced to watch the two fall apart. This brings up questions most of us are too afraid to ask, particularly the age-old question, "Would you want to know exactly when you are going to die?". 

It is important to note, however, that this show isn't just tears, sadness, and an excuse to tweet sad emojis. There are a solid amount of scenes in this show that are packed to the brim with hilarity and allusions to other popular anime series out there. There was even one scene where Tsukasa just flat-out dropped a Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai! reference and I basically just died on the spot. These moments of intense jubilance and laughter really create an atmosphere that feels...realistic. Life isn't all sorrow, despite what many angsty teenagers think (And I'm allowed to say that because I was once among them). Happy memories constantly attempt to overwrite sad ones. The thing is, that isn't all that easy, and Plastic Memories knows that. It hits ten times harder whenever Isla starts to talk about how she won't be able to keep her memories for much longer.

The characters apart from Tsukasa and Isla are good, but not particularly interesting apart from who I would call the "Main" side-character, and that is a fiery red-headed tsundere Michiru. Only one side-character apart from her has actual background information, but to be honest, the show doesn't really get you to care about it at all. But that's just a problem you are going to come across when you have such great chemistry between the two main characters. Any situation they don't factor into becomes obsolete in a way. And so those brief moments detailing the past are okay, but there are more important things we have to deal with right now. Tsukasa and Isla only have so much time together. I don't think that time was well-spent in those glimpses into the past for other Terminal Service members.

Another thing I want to touch on before we wrap this up would be the noticeable mood-shifts in the series. Even though they do create that "Realistic" feel I mentioned earlier, something still seemed...amiss about them. I can't put my finger on what it was exactly, but it just didn't feel right at times. Don't get me wrong, I'm completely fine with the show playing out like this, but I would understand why some people would call it an issue. In my opinion though, which is what reviews are really all about, the mood-shifts only slightly take away from the overall experience. There is still a plethora of important themes like mortality, coping, and how many relationships are doomed to fail from the get-go. These themes are what really make Plastic Memories the show that it is.

In Summary:

Plastic Memories creates a story viewers actually care about. Its relationships, even though they are set in a sci-fi environment, feel a lot more real than other relationships in current anime. The story is well-paced and well-written in an impressive semi-debut from Hayashi. The ending, though I will not spoil it right here, provides slight closure but still gives that looming sadness that will creep all over your body. It leaves room for a second season, but does not beg for one. And though I highly doubt there will be one, I would still love to see it. Plastic Memories is equal parts adorable, touching, and memorable all at the same time. It is easily accessible and I would recommend it for new and old fans of drama. Original shows are becoming less common with how many different ways things can be adapted now. But where they are done correctly, they look just like this.

Content Grade: B+

Streamed By: Crunchyroll/Daisuki/Hulu

Aired: Spring 2015