Atarashii Prelude

The iDOLM@STER 06: Miki Awakens

It seems as if no matter what anime it is, a sure fire way of ruining a female character is to have their hair cut short. Usually, this is done in the name of 'character development', which does seem like a valid reason, but in the case of Azusa, it was done purely out of aesthetics, which to be honest ruins her whole onee-san character, since this archetype dictates that she has the three key criteria consisting of a large rack, "ara ara" and long hair

If you are an artist from the moon, having a television debut is pretty much a gateway to instant fame and fortune, provided of course, you get called up as music guests on programmes that matter, which include Utaban, Music Fighter and Hey! Hey! Hey! I kid you not - this is the Japanese entertainment industry's equivalent to the Holy Grail, and more often than not, these artistes will end up on the Oricon charts and have their albums and singles fly off the shelves in no time at all; just from one televised appearance.

That is why it is next to impossible for most up and coming acts to just show up on one of these shows since they have an insanely rigid vetting process, which also requires that you have a good rapport with or know someone on the inside. The fact that Ritsuko even managed to secure a TV spot pretty much puts her ahead of Broducer, though whether or not she gave a head(or two) for it is up for speculation...

Poor Broducer-san, having two of his better idols (sorry, Ami) NTR'ed right under his nose. Voltaire once said that if there was no perfect idol, then it would have been necessary to invent her. Miki is that very idol, who somehow concealed her powerlevels well enough for Ritsuko to completely overlook her. I guess you could see it as a blessing in disguise, since this turned out as an impetus for our lazy genius to finally apply herself. That little misunderstanding between Miki Miki and Broducer might also set itself up for bigger things, since she is now looking to him for acknowledgement and approval. In my earliest posts, I mentioned that The iDOLM@STER was, among other things, a visual novel hybrid, although in the case for most girls, there was no real romantic implications. Without giving too much away, let me just say that Miki is the only one who truly devotes herself to her Honey

Yes, but consider that The iDOLM@STER episode 6 had over 22000 frames of animation, whereas an important episode in your normal Kyoto Animation episode has around 12000. - Yamamoto Yutaka

Quality of animation aside, fluidity,variety and the amount of movement does in some ways act as a measure of budget allocation, so it is an understatement to say that they have spent quite a bit tracing the game version of Smoky Thrill practically frame for frame. That should not come as any surprise since A1 has Namco Bandai's financial backing, who will recuperate their investment come October when my limited edition box is shipped