Opening Songs
OP 1 - Star!! (Cinderella Project)
OP 2 - Shine!! (Cinderella Project)
Ending Songs
Too many to count
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Episodes: 25
Here, take it from me. I love "Idolm@ster", to me, its always going to be my go-to idol franchise, even though "Love Live" took the world by storm, I'm always going to choose "Idolm@ster" if I were given a choice. While both are somewhat similar, "Idolm@ster" has this more "industry" feel to it that really kicks the show up a notch. Both may be about cute girls aspiring to become cute-sy pop star singers, but both tackle the whole "idol" aspect of the shows very differently. "Love Live" is still pretty freaking good, but after watching "Cinderella Girls", I was reassured that "Idolm@ster" is indeed the franchise for me. It all the love, seriousness, drama, rivalry and camaraderie that I can ever hope for, and it's somewhat rekindled my love for the franchise. The original 13 girls will still be my favorites, but the 14 girls of "Cinderella Girls" now hold a special place in my heart for being so dang amazing!
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| Say hello to your 14 new lovelies! |
I do love the "Idolm@ster" franchise but I'm not a HUGE fan of most of their songs, they just sound too bright and cheery for my tastes. While some of their songs do end up being badass (a small minority), these aren't used for opening themes. For the first season, the opening theme is "Star!!", with "Shine!!" being the opening for season 2. Of course, the songs are sang by the seiyuus of all the 14 main girls of the show. Both songs are cheery and bright with the 2nd opening being the better one in my opinion, though not by much.
Rating: 8.0/10
Let's get the obvious out of the way. In my opinion, "Cinderella Girls" is not as good as the original. Sure, the feel and atmosphere is there, and once again, the cast of idols is incredibly unique and diverse, everyone stands out in her own way. Also, with the formation of idol units, there's a much more distinct separation of who's who, and I like that. While the producer this time round is rather dull and a little bit uninteresting compared to the first, there's still drive to his actions and its good to see that. There is a whole lot of character building among the cast, and them being close knit is really to be expected. As with the original, "Cinderella Girls" is packed to the brim with emotional moments that really seem to pull on your heart strings, those are the moments where the show shines at its brightest. And of course, you watch an Idol themed show for the songs, the show is full of them, with each song being sang by different characters. There's a MASSIVE cast of characters, so there really are a lot of songs here and there by different groups of characters.
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| Choose. Your. Waifu! |
Shimamura Uzuki is a high school girl aspiring to be an idol. She regularly attends a small school that specializes in training idols, where she practices dance steps and certain routines, in an attempt to become good one day. She is scouted by the producer from 765 produce as an idol to be a part of his Cinderella project. Alongside her, 2 other girls from her similar age group were also chosen, Mio and Rin. The 3 were chosen as the last members of the Cinderella project, which was meant for a group of idols to shine brightly on stage as their own cohesive units. There are a total of 14 idols chosen for this very project, and they are all eargerly waiting for their inevitable debut. Uzuki, being the happy go lucky girl that she is, hopes that she can get along with everybody else. But she soon finds out that life in a idol studio with her rivals, is very much different from training school.
"Cinderella Girls" quickly swooped me back into the "Idolm@ster" craze that I've long sought for after the movie. I can only hope that its not the end of the animated offerings of these idol girls. Even if they decide to go for a different group that's not the original 13 and the girls from the "Cinderella Project", I can't wait to see what they come up with next.
