Road trip!!!
While episode three didn't quite live up to the standard set by the first two episodes, I'd say it did an OK job at developing a character that in most cases is the worst of the cast. Two weeks ago I said Yukiho, who has a slight case of androphobia (or fear of men) would probably end up being my least favorite character in the show, and that hasn't really changed much even with this episode focusing on her. Luckily, she didn't ruin the episode.
In this episode 765 Production takes a road trip to perform a concert, but when they arrive they realize it's not as "fancy" as they would have liked. The most important thing I managed to scrape up from this episode was that the cast seems to be split into groups, the younger girls (Iori, Ami, Mami, and Yayoi), the teenage trio (Yukiho, Makoto, and Haruka), the mature girls (Takane, Azusa, Chihaya) and than there's Hibiki, who I rarely see, and Miki, who is always asleep. I love seeing the friendships within the groups grow, but I'd love even more to see more interaction outside of the groups, which there was only a little of this episode. I guess you could say the split groups does help with conserving time for each girl, since there's only 23 minutes and TONS of characters.
Men ... we're demons.
I've seen plenty of "men-haters" in series before, like Arashiko from MM! and that girl from Working, but Yukiho could easily be swapped with either of them and you would never tell the difference from their personalities. I was hoping she would "overcome" her personal issue and become some super-awesome character, but I know now not to get my hopes too high. Even though she was able to perform her song and forget her fear of men, she quickly went back to her old "I'll probably be a bother to you~~" ways right after. Why does this girl even want to be an idol!? She has no confidence in herself, and it doesn't seem to be changing.
Speaking of performances, I did think Yukiho's song was outstanding. I loved her vocals and the animation was excellent the entire time she was singing and dancing. I'd say the singing scenes are the strongest part of every episode. That's not to say the episodic-stories and characters are bad, it's just they're not as great as I would hope, mostly due to the time issues. I'm not sure how long the series is going to be, but 23-25 episodes would do it wonders.
At least Yukiho has great friends.
Last week I was pretty harsh on the Producer, and though I still don't like him much he did improve a little this week. I can't help but hate his try-hard attitude, probably because I'm not very fond of people like that (or in general). I would rather see more interaction and development for the idols than for him though, I mean, he still doesn't even have a name!
I'm still kind of surprised I'm enjoying this series, even if this episode was a little meh. I used to be really critical while watching anime, but then I realized all that was doing was making me hate one of the few things I enjoy in life. Watching for the things you like, rather than constantly looking for reasons to hate it, makes the experience so much more enjoyable. And hey, maybe Idolmaster isn't the most original or outstanding anime this year, but it has great music, some interesting characters, and surprisingly good animation. Besides, I love blogging/writing, and if every week I only talked about the things I hate I'd get tired of it ... really fast.
From the preview next week looks like it might be a Chihaya or Takane focused episode (with cooking) and either way I'm sure it will be interesting. I also love to cook, so strangely I'm actually sort of looking forward to that. So, what did you think of this week's episode? Do you like Yukiho, or do you hate her as much as I do? And, it's not so much about me hating her character, but more so her really cliche personality.
The power of friendship!
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