Atarashii Prelude

18Nov/1132

The cHIH@Y@M@STER 20: Promise

>Holy shit episode 08 was great! I don't think they will be able to top this!
>Holy shit episode 13 was great! I don't think they will be able to top this!
>Holy shit episode 15 was great! I don't think they will be able to top this!

There seems to be a pattern going on around here and I'm inclined towards lumping this week along with the three above. It's strange that while the episode itself more or less unfolded in the fashion that I had expected, its execution and delivery left me in awe and at the brink of tears. Twenty weeks of suffering and buildup finally paid off, with interests and then some.

I appreciate the liberties the production team took in explaining how Chihaya came to losing her voice; which is a far cry from the convoluted KEY AIDS plot device that the game employed, which involved ghosts and talking birds. And while Broducer is an extension of the player - thus making him the 'main character', I'm glad that they let him take the backseat for this one. The onus of saving Chihaya may have been placed upon you in the game, but here, that responsibility belongs to only one person.

Folks, you know me; I'm a conservative who believes that the two people in a pairing should only be between a man and a woman. However, even I was disappointed at how they botched the opportunity to appease the yurifags by having Haruka perform a duet with Chihaya, and in turn rescuing her from permanently breaking down. Biggest cuntblock if I ever saw one. Heck, I even borrowed a pair of yuri goggles just to justify the occasion, though it seems I had my yuri headphones put on, since I could have sworn I heard Haruka say 'Aishiteru' instead of 'Aidoru' when she was at Chihaya's flat. Get it? Chihaya's flat? ... I'll grab my coat.

Either way, everyone coming to Chihaya's side towards the end was probably a lot more satisfying and appropriate, though I was expecting a hug at least, which ironically was hijacked by Miki Miki who took first dips wwww

I got misty-eyed at several points throughout episode; most notably Chihaya's solo ARUKOU~ during the song right after a dramatic silent pause and the waterworks that followed suit. After nearly a decade of suffering, you would think that someone like Chihaya would have had her tear ducts all dried up, but if anything, it just showed that she had been holding it back before finally letting the dam burst. No matter how many times I see anime characters crying, I can never seem to quite get used to it when it is properly animated, with actual beads of tears and all that. I actually chuckled for a bit there when I saw Chihaya crying, though it probably helped prevent me from doing so as well :cry:

This. The apparitions of loli Chihaya and her otouto manifesting themselves were the moments that really tugged my heartstrings; there was once upon a time when Chihaya was an innocent and happy little girl and there is no way she can ever relive those times again :cry: Using children to toy with my emotions like that...Well played, A-1, well played :cry:

I don't think they will be able to top this.

Posted by Shin

Filed under: The Idolm@ster Leave a comment
Comments (32) Trackbacks (0)
  1. bluemist AUSTRALIA
    November 19th, 2011 - 00:00

    “which involved ghosts and talking birds”
    LOL that’s definitely KEY AIDS.

    Not enough yuriness for you Shinn? It’s not just the scenes at Chihaya’s flat. Haruka and Chihaya were sitting at a corner before her performance at the concert and were practically soft-blushing all the way remember? My 3D yurigoggles were useful to my satisfaction, and not only that, I noticed that Chihaya gained a bit of chest with that concert outfit.

    3D tears too.

    As a non-gameplayer, I’m not sure how the eventual Haruka episode will be able to top this. We’ve had all ranges of character episodes from the happy to the dramatic, but A-1 just reached an steep level of quality with this Chihaya one. Care to share what kind of stories ringleader Haruka have in the games?

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    • Shin MALAYSIA
      November 21st, 2011 - 09:56

      This is what happens when I get second hand goggles; so much subtext and detail is lost to me!

      For Haruka’s story, it’s best to consult Setsuna about it. In any case, I personally think the anime handles Haruka a lot better, since her interaction will only be limited to between her and the producer.

      Because the idols are pretty much left to their own devices here, there’s a lot interaction among them, which makes for better viewing. Game is fun but the anime supplements with the characterisation that is not too heavily emphasised.

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  2. yaku UNITED STATES
    November 19th, 2011 - 01:10

    Wait, no selling her to middle aged executives from show biz to get her gang banged and have her flying up to stardom now that she’s healed? FAIL :shock:

    I personally can’t sympathize with her. While traumatizing, she wasn’t actually responsible for the death of her bro, it was an accident, so her feelings of guilt are way exaggerated, what an emo. :oops: And where were the parents during all her following 8 years of mindfuck anyways? It’s not like her depression is a secret (she makes sure to be angsty enough so people notice her angst = attention ho) so how come they didn’t get her counseling and full support? From the looks of her mom (who looks like she could probably get a cup of coffee. Or a full regime of beauty products) they probably were too busy snapping at each other than taking care of the daughter. Both parents and daughter FAIL (because irresponsible and emo respectively). Also, all the other idols overcame their obstacles either by themselves or with just a friend or two, Attention Ho needed THE WHOLE COMPANY. :evil: Dad you’re growing soft if she can move your heart strings! Plus she’s too old, she has boobs! (DFC FTW)

    THEY USED THE REST OF THE BUDGET ON HER DAMN SINGING ANIMATION. Just look how freaking fluid it is, why don’t just make a movie about her while we’re at it? AND they used part of ojousama’s episode on this emo harpy. I need to get some drugs and go to lala land, this episode made me so angry!!! AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH :mad:

    BTW the smell of lily vaginas was so overpowering I went to dip myself in my cock pool for a sufficient time.

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    • Shin MALAYSIA
      November 21st, 2011 - 09:49

      Suffering old Chihaya didn’t get to me. It was happy loli Chihaya that made me hnnnnngh and feel sorry for her :oops:

      I guess it’s hard for someone to open up about such a subject without people around you looking at you under a different light. Guess Chihaya wanted to avoid that. Besides, is there really a right time to talk about it? If anything, Kuroi helped Chihaya in overcoming her issues! :lol:

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  3. Kinny Riddle JAPAN
    November 19th, 2011 - 01:24

    This conclusion to Chihaya’s “emo” sub-plot should hopefully stuff Shinn silent on his Chihaya-bashing for a period (at least until just before the last episode). :cool:

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  4. Kinny Riddle JAPAN
    November 19th, 2011 - 01:32

    @yaku –

    Hey, you try losing a loved one at that young age and not get emo about it. :razz: Perhaps your ire should be directed more at her parents, who decided to blame each other, thus exasperating Chihaya’s emo levels after so many years. So I don’t think it’s really Chihaya’s fault that she’s so emo.

    That said, credit must be given to her for never asking the likes of “you” to empathize with her. Heck she even told Haruka to mind her own business, though Haruka being Haruka as well as being Chihaya’s true love (TM), is destined to be the one to open up Chihaya’s heart at last. :grin:

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  5. Crisu UNITED STATES
    November 19th, 2011 - 04:11

    If anime eyes are N times the size of normal eyes, tear duct capacity follows suit. I think that’s why it ends up being a little funny to me because her face is suddenly covered in gobs of viscous tears (e.g. everyone crying in CLANNAD http://up.7cc.com/upfiles/2WF70553.jpg).

    I enjoyed this episode a lot, but I couldn’t help but feel 22 minutes was too short for it. It’s a good move to forego the OP for 90 extra seconds, but I would have wanted maybe 5 more minutes of cushion to milk all the emotions further. That’s okay, though. If I interpreted the next-episode preview correctly we’re going to get more of Chihaya: ep 20 is the healing episode, but I hope 21 is where she brings HER LOVE, HER ANGER, AND ALL OF HER SORROW in burning revenge to 961 Pro. That would complete it for me.

    Haruka is my leader in my first imas2 playthough, and I’ve been falling for her pretty hard when I didn’t feel too much for her throughout the anime up until this week. I’m with you on the yuri goggles, but there’s too much danketsu flowing for any two to have a couple’s moment. But maybe during Haruka’s episode, Chihaya will get to return the favor somehow.

    (Can I take loli Chihaya home, too?)

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    • Shin MALAYSIA
      November 21st, 2011 - 09:42

      They must have taken a cue from KEY with those tears the AIDS :oops:

      I was personally counting on this being a two-parter, since they didn’t actually show the aftermath of what the tabloid news did to Chihaya. In other words, there wasn’t enough suffering. Next week looks like it’s a joint episode, and not a Haruka one, so I’m counting on Kotori to intervene :razz:

      It’s funny that the biggest Haruka fan is just right below me in the comment box.

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  6. Setsuna-san MALAYSIA
    November 19th, 2011 - 07:21

    Well, so much for KEY AIDS and talking birds. Loli Chihaya apparitions are just as good (maybe even better) in my book though.

    Also, you were only at the brink of tears? I opened the floodgates when Haruka and the rest went on stage to back her up. My dam burst when she sang Arukou~ :cry: :cry:

    Good to see that you finally cut Chihaya some slack for this episode. :roll:

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  7. schneider AUSTRALIA
    November 19th, 2011 - 08:58

    There was certainly crying involved over my end as well, but it started earlier, when Haruka gave the sketchbook to Chihaya.

    I’m glad I’m not the only one who felt a pang of disappointment when the other girls showed up after Haruka. BUT in the end, I thought it was all for the best, making for a better spectacle.

    I don’t think they will be able to top this.

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  8. Lectro Volpi MEXICO
    November 19th, 2011 - 09:16

    Miki and Chihaya official peace treaty (if you missed it, you missed it) So we faggots stop fighting over them.

    Amazing episode! I giggled when Chihaya called out on Haruka´s over optimistic attitude.

    The close-ups were good quality too!

    And there are 2 types of Chihaya fans: the white knights that want to protect her and the ones that think she shines brighter when suffering. :cry:

    Did not cry but it was touching.

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  9. Niles 98.88.161.238
    November 19th, 2011 - 11:07

    @Crisu – I picked Haruka first too, although my first playthrough was marred by unending failure, repeated losses to Jupiter, and fits of rage. Maybe it’s because I scored the Bad End, but Haruka’s route seemed pretty boring (not understanding Japanese did not help). Oh yeah, I had Miki and Chihaya as the other members- Chihaya hijacked some scenes and disrupted the unit’s mood, believe it or not. :mad:

    Second playthrough with Yayoi, Yukiho, and Mami went much better.

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    • Shin MALAYSIA
      November 21st, 2011 - 09:26

      I notice that you’re also posting in the iM@S Project forums, in which case, there’s a relatively decent gameplay wiki up. It doesn’t covering some of the more technical aspects but it’s enough to get you a normal/good ending. Anything else I guess you just have to ask.

      There’s also compatibility between members that you have to take note, since you can’t neglect anyone.

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  10. yamada BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
    November 19th, 2011 - 14:32

    Being Chihaya fan is (not) suffering. :cry:

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  11. Godslayer 180.253.149.137
    November 19th, 2011 - 16:54

    Chihaya and Haruka should just fuck already

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  12. Fabrice JAPAN
    November 20th, 2011 - 21:29

    Beautiful final episode. Idolm@ster was a great show and I’m sad to see it end, but I’m glad it had such satisfying ending!

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  13. Niles 98.92.251.6
    November 21st, 2011 - 10:03

    @Shin – Yes, I’ve been making full use of the wiki, though it’s irrelevant now… for some reason, I just lost all my Idolmaster data, except for those silly trophies. No yandere Haruka face is enough to describe my RAGE. I have no idea what I did- perhaps jamming on the buttons while loading data is not a smart idea.

    I’m debating whether to do a full data restore, not knowing how much Idolmaster data is on my backup drive. Then again, I literally have nothing- no producer data, no items.

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    • Setsuna-san 175.139.212.52
      November 21st, 2011 - 12:51

      I know that feel bro. I know that feel. Accidentally wiped all my data once when I was playing Haruka’s route.

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    • Crisu 96.19.102.35
      November 21st, 2011 - 14:37

      :???: Are we talking about the one on Wikia? I’m glad for the lookup tables on amulets and the evening communications, but it’s still lacking a walkthrough on all the Promotion events, no? Though I understand that would be a massive task to map out. :swt:

      That’s crazy you lost all your data. :( Dumb question, but are you logged in under a different profile? I’ve done that once or twice by accident and got a little freaked.

      Regarding your earlier reply, I mostly liked Haruka because of her poses and mannerisms in-game. Hibiki’s got really repetitive, and Chihaya sure likes to hold her right arm. I tended to avoid all the Promotion/commu events because of a lack of Japanese comprehension. I managed just enough for a Lv3 memory appeal, which was good enough to finish the game, so I probably missed a lot of Haruka’s character, but the ending wasn’t all bad. Sad that your unit gets deleted every playthrough, so you can’t experiment a little bit more. Got a D rank on my first run, lol. But I now have the right amulets and equipment to hopefully get an A next time around.

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  14. Niles 98.88.134.200
    November 21st, 2011 - 22:57

    @Setsuna-san: Oh, okay. I guess I'm not the only person who's stumbled into this stupid bug. As a programmer, I've made my fair share of things that crash, but nuking one's data is unforgivable. I have a knack for tripping over bugs too. I was up till 4 am working on my new save file- guess I should think about work…

    @Crisu: Yep, that's the one. I also used the original Japanese one it's based on to get the perfect commus for RK. Guess I won't be repeating that part for a while…

    I don't have a second profile or JP profile, though profile mixups might be part of the bug. It's been explained to me how the bug manifests but I don't fully understand it, except that I shouldn't have been using auto-save, so the next time the system loads default data instead of my real data (making it look when it's gone when it isn't), I can just quit out instead of overwriting it by mistake.

    The commus are what I wanted the game for, though I don't know Japanese either. Unfortunately, to get the endings, they get pushed to the side.

    Haruka's poses actually get on my nerves- she still has that arm-flinging move when she's throwing a tantrum, something she did a lot in the PSP games. It's also weird that she wound up with the twins' spin move- probably because the twins got split up. The problem with her in the game is that you're the confidante, not her, so she doesn't get to shine (at least not in the routes I played). I admit it's interesting to see what new(?) moves everyone picked up. Yayoi has a 360 turnaround moe jumper!

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