It’s the moment of truth. Will the Producer be able to pass this round?
From the looks of things, it seems that Project Krone managed to have a good performance. I expected that this will happen, although a part of me wanted it to fail so that Mishiro would look bad. Aside from that, it seems that everyone worked hard enough from the looks of it. Not to mention, the director at the company was actually impressed with Cinderella Project that he outright said that Mishiro is being stubborn. This makes you wonder whose method is right in the end.
On the other hand, it seems that things did not go quite as planned, at least for Project Krone since Fumika collapsed right before it was her unit’s turn to perform. Thankfully, the Cinderella Project girls were supportive to help advert the live performance from becoming a disaster by keeping the audience busy until Triad Primus was ready to perform. As expected, their performance was very successful, which made Uzuki somewhat uneasy for the future of her unit. I will focus more on that later.
In short, Mishiro should be grateful that the Producer’s project saved her butt from her project becoming a failure. Knowing her personality, she doesn’t give a crap about the girls saving her group. As expected, she continues to take the two girls from Cinderella Project and give nothing in return. In short, Mishiro is very ungrateful, but karma will catch up to her eventually. Even so, it’s a stark contrast of the idols being supportive of each other regardless of the department they came from. Of course, I don’t blame Rin or Anastasia since they decided to do this and they are free to change their mind if they don’t want to continue. I think the upcoming drama will make them reconsider.
From the last episode, it seems that Uzuki never shared her true feelings about Rin as she tries to along with her new unit with Miho. Now, it seems that things are simply not working out for her. Uzuki finally realized that working with Miho is simply not the same as working with Mio and Rin. In other words, she was against Rin’s decision from the start, but was afraid to spit it out.
With Rin and the Producer at the photo-shoot witnessing Uzuki finally snapping, it seems that the spell might have broken for her as she begins to stuffer in the new reality. Hopefully the girls will be supportive and help bring her back. From this, will Rin and Anastasia consider their participation in Project Krone with Uzuki going down a similar path as Haruka from the main series? We’ll find out soon enough.
Aside from that, Nitta Minami had the best performance. Makes me wonder why Suzaki Aya didn’t decide to have an artist debut yet since she has a pretty good voice.
Nice work on the review. Personally, I half-expect Mishiro to drop Fumika form Project Krone like a rock after what happened, maybe deeming her unfit to perform in the project. Perhaps in addition to Uzuki’s drama, that might cause Rin and Anastasia, and possibly other idols in Project Krone to realize Mishiro doesn’t have their best interests at heart, and maybe Mishiro’s plans will unravel from there. Anyway, it’s all just me theorizing, so I could be way off.
I failed to mention it, but it’s clear that Project Krone also lacks emotional support. Unlike the Producer who spends time with the Cinderella Project with the girls supporting each other, none of the girls in Krone have that (excluding Rin and Anastasia). Given that Mishiro will just observe instead of work with them, they are eventually going to fall apart without that support and teamwork found in most idol groups. Without those two aspects, well you are not going to have a good performance and results, even if the talent is there.
Of course, the weakness of the project and Mishiro’s arrogance will be the downfall of the project at the end of the day. I’m predicting it. Still, I kind of feel sorry for Uzuki who is in the middle of this mess.
Well, I think what irks fans is the idea that no matter what happens, Mishiro probably won’t suffer any consequences on a personal level. Sure, Project Krone may crash and burn, but Mishiro only cares about profit for the company, and not who initiates it, which is why she still sees it as a win even if the Producer succeeds. Unlike the Producer, who is putting full force into Cinderella Project because his reputation and possibly, career is at stake, as well as the careers of his idols, Mishiro is just running Project Krone as a pet project, and if it fails, I can’t see her really caring too much anyway, since she’ll probably just move on. She’s been doing that each time an idol refuses her offers, just move on to the next one who may bite.
I know one out-there theory circulating among fans is that since Mishiro is the company president’s daughter, he might find out what she has been doing and drop the hammer on her, but that tome sounds like a deus ex machina, and I hope the anime doesn’t go down that route. I guess whoever came up with it is too eager to see Mishiro suffer personally.
As for the idols in Project Krone, I guess all it may take is a realization that the way they are being managed is wrong. Maybe that’ll fuel some sort of mass defection or something. I half want to see Rin go back to the Cinderella Project and take Nao and Karen with her, but that’s me. What I do think is that Rin is the one who is most responsible for Uzuki’s breakdown and she lost a number of fans for that. I definitely do want to see Rin somehow fix this mess.
I personally don’t think Mishiro would have any more dark ulterior motives from here on out. Outsing Fumika doesn’t seem like a possibility either seeing as how Project Krone seems to be selling well alongside the Cinderella Project’s revamped units. She seems to be a woman of her word at the very least if she can acknowledge what good Producer’s division are capable of. I half expected her to go back on her word but so far she’s been more or less willing to give Producer and his division a chance if they can prove themselves.
The one thing I like about Project Krone is that they aren’t being painted as arrogant or stuck up rivals like Project Jupiter. At the end of the day, many of them are rookies at the level of the Cinderella Project if both groups could be compared to the higher seniors like Koume, Nana, Kaede, Mizuki, Sachiko, etc. That and as shown in this episode, they’re not so different and they’re capable of getting along and supporting each other. It’s as Minami stated, we’re a team from now on.
I don’t think Project Krone’s gonna crash and burn even if the CEO of the company intervenes but there’s -definitely- going to be some reform within Exec Mishiro’s division. I don’t think it’s profit that Mishiro’s fully after, that’s rather one sided for a comment. Prior to her arrival, the present projects were doing well anyways. If one reads / listens to the NoMake / MagicHour audio dramas that come and compliment each week’s episode, a talk between Producer and General Manager Imanishi sheds some more light on why Mishiro’s doing what she’s doing. She’s known the company waaaay before 346 Pro started doing idols and she states that Krone is her vision of an idol division where power, regality, beauty and style is everything. It’s not so much about the profit as it is about her way of seeing things and what she believes the company should stand for.
That being said, I hope the conflict drama revolves solely on Uzuki and not any more on Mishiro. I liked how her “defeat” occurred in this episode and how it didn’t involve any hammy “You’re fired” banhammer. It’s as Producer said in episode 20’s NoMake audio to Imanishi about now harboring any actual grudge against her.
The thing I like about Exec Mishiro as an antagonist is that she isn’t played off as this evil wacky bad guy like Kuroi who clearly wants to make the idols’ lives hell because of a grudge he has with Takei from 765 Pro. What makes Exec Mishiro antagonistic is that IMO she’s a representation of what Producer could have become who focuses more on the aesthetic of business. She focuses so much on her ambitions that she forgets to support the girls under her wing emotionally and it’s shown with what happened to Fumika.
It creates this sense of dynamic between Cinderella project and Project Krone that wasn’t existent in the 2011 anime. Project Jupiter were a bunch of jerks but they only toned it down a notch when they realized Kuroi took things too far. Then there’s Touma’s growing friendship with Haruka as seen in the final episodes of the 2011 anime and the 2014 movie…but that’s about it.
Maybe at some point in the finale, Mishiro and Producer have a talk about the way they do things and what they see in the company. Sort of like the talk Takei and Kuroi had in the 2011 anime. I like the dynamic she and Take P / Producer possess in the 2nd cour.
As far as Uzuki goes, I don’t believe her “wanting NG back” is the reason why she’s been spazzing out. In my opinion, it’s her fear of being useless or incapable. Uzuki regards how impressed she is with Miho’s talent in their unit but she says that partially because she’s afraid of not being up to par. In short, Uzuki feels inferior to everyone else. She’s realized how much energy Mio puts into things and how passionate Rin is about the choice she made…and she comes to the conclusion she herself is lacking in comparison to her compatriots in NG. It isn’t a matter of “I want NG back” but a matter of “Have I fallen flat? Have they both gotten ahead of me?” Uzuki’s shown to be really dependant and that her only trait involves her wishing to do her best. She compares herself to Mio and Rin who come off more as talented and this is where she starts freaking out because she believes she’d just hold everybody back.
Either way, I look forward to seeing how this season is resolved. I personally like the aesthetic Project Krone is going (well, half of it is bias for Fumika Sagisawa who’s one of my top favorites but that’s besides the point) but it does lack a sense of emotional support. I don’t think the upcoming events are gonna get Mishiro fired but she’s definitely in some form or some small manner somewhat soften up to Take P / Producer’s ideals and give them a chance. Like maybe end of the anime has some Krone members join Cinderella Project (but keep their positions in Krone like with Rin and Anya) to express more of their individualities. Like Frederica’s clearly the cute type based on her cards from the CG Mobage, Fumika comes off more as the eerie kind of cool than the royal, confident and regal cool Mishiro wants Project Krone to exhibit, etc.
Well, apart from being an antagonist, Mishiro seems to be created just to initiate drama that several people view as forced and contrived, so she gained derision for that. As for going back on her word, it is arguable that scouting Rin and Anastasia for Project Krone is a violation of her agreement with the Producer to let him do as he wishes to prove his point. How then is he to fight “fairly” if she does something like that? As for Fumika, for all we know, another slip-up from her (which isn’t so unlikely considering her personality) might very well end things for her where Project Krone is concerned. It’s a theory by fans after all. I can suppose why that theory is circulated is because it’s an “easy” way for the writers to make Mishiro look overly villainous and less morally gray. It’s also a quick way to make the Project Krone idols realize that maybe Mishiro might not be the best superior to have.
We don’t know how experienced (or not) Project Krone’s idols are on average. For all we know, Mishiro could have just simply plucked idols that are already well-performing for the project so she doesn’t have to expend as much work bringing them up to scratch. We know she tried her charms on Kaede and Natsuki, so that’s not out of her purview.
I’m well-aware of the NoMakes, but it seems fairly obvious to a number of viewers that Mishiro cares about profit. Why then would she want to disband existing projects that were doing well before she arrived? She likely thinks they are inefficient and a waste of time. As they say, don’t fix what isn’t broken, and it appears she thinks those projects are broken. Why continue to run something you view as inefficient? It’s unprofitable, and that is why some fans think Mishiro cares strictly about profit. Even her wager with the Producer is built upon the idea of profit, since his success means profit for the company and she isn’t going to complain about that. The fact that Mishiro has “seen the change” of the company as highlighted in the NoMake, can be interpreted as further evidence that her motivations are profit oriented. One can argue that she saw how the company developed and is dissatisfied with its progress thus far, so she decides to “drop the hammer” and intervene personally to, in her view, “enhance” things.
Mishiro may have a vision for the company, but at the end of the day, considering the stakes, I cannot see Project Krone as anything more than her personal pet project, which is in contrast to the Producer running the Cinderella Project because his reputation and his idols’ careers are on the line. Mishiro does not appear to care about the bonds between idols, fans, and Producers, given that she wanted Kaede to appear on a large stage and did not care about Kaede’s bond with her fans. That much at least points partly to profit but also can be viewed as evidence for why she does not support her idols emotionally, because she doesn’t care about that stuff and wants instant gratification (money). Even if Project Krone doesn’t “crash and burn”, at the end of the day, it’s still a pet project whose failure will hardly affect Mishiro, since one way or another, no matter who wins the wager, profit comes out of it. The theory of the president personally intervening and taking down Mishiro is probably wishful thinking on the part of some fans, but it’s not hard to see why they might want events to play out that way.
Uzuki’s emotional breakdown/issues began due to a casual conversation about idol units being split up that she took more seriously than everyone else intended, so it is undeniable that New Generations being split up is culpable in causing her problems. If the opening theme is any indication, and the concert the idols are performing is a spoiler for the Winter Ball, it’s not hard to conclude that somehow, the Cinderella Project will be reunited, so in that sense, it’s not hard to connect the project’s integrity being threatened and its potential reunification as being tied to Uzuki’s emotional state. I wouldn’t say Uzuki is useless, she’s probably the glue that holds New Generations, and by extension, the Cinderella Project together, which is probably more important than being leader or the star performer. When Mio had her tantrum in the first season, it was Uzuki who inspired the Producer to personally approach Mio and Rin to fix the problem. That being said, it is possible that if Uzuki is feeling inadequate, maybe she perceives the inability of the unit to stay together as her fault. Her unit’s integrity is likely what she stakes her being as an idol on.
As for resolution, I don’t think Mishiro would be aversely affected, since she views both possible outcomes of the wager as a win for herself. It seems likely that no matter waht happens, Mishiro will get away relatively scot-free. It’ll probably take some sort of unknown higher force (her father, the president) to knock her down completely, and I doubt that can happen at this point without it being jarring, rushed, and contrived. So I personally don’t think the writers will do that. As for Nao and Karen, they want to perform with Rin, I don’t think it matters to them as much who manages them so long as that can be achieved, so if any defections from Project Krone happen, I would assume they are the most likely ones. I know one thoery entails Rin realizing what she’s done to Uzuki and go back to the Cinderella Project as a result, and that could guilt-trip Nao and Karen into following, because they could see themselves as indirectly responsible for causing Uzuki’s problem by “stealing” Rin away. Just my two cents on the whole thing.
I just hope everything Mishiro does turns to shit at this point. I really don’t like how the anime is going at the moment, to think the last 2 episode could change my thoughts about this anime drastically from liking it, to hating it. How it is forced upon us is just terrible imo, and how the girl like Rin and Anastasia not giving a shit about everyone else kinda bothered me. Sure they kinda feel bad and all, but if they were normal they wouldn’t join Project Krone in the first place. I just feel like it’s not very logical for them to side with Mishiro, after all that already happened. Yet they are so happy, “My dream has come true!” and doesn’t give a rats ass about their friends. This is how forced the drama is, and I just can’t accept it that well, sadly.
Now I’m just hoping they will quit Project Krone, or the project just fail or something. If it stays the way it is, my opinion about how shitty this series got from just 2 episodes, stays lol.
“How it is forced upon us is just terrible imo, and how the girl like Rin and Anastasia not giving a shit about everyone else kinda bothered me.”
I don’t get how Rin and Anastasia being part of Project Krone is them not giving a shit about anyone else in their own division. Both of them knew the gravity of their decisions and what was at stake. Anya and Minami discussed it carefully and in the end both came to a consensus decision. The rest of the Cinderella Project (minus Uzuki at this point) gave them their blessings. Furthermore, while I don’t agree with the sneaky tactic Mishiro pulled with having Anya and Rin in her clutches (and Producer was understandably angry about it when they found out), nothing required their units to be disbanded. NG still exists in name but to Uzuki it doesn’t feel the same now that Rin’s in Triad Primus and Mio’s gone solo.
“Yet they are so happy, “My dream has come true!” and doesn’t give a rats ass about their friends. This is how forced the drama is, and I just can’t accept it that well, sadly.”
Where is it implied Anya or Rin no longer give a shit about their friends? Explain.
Anya and Minami were still strongly supporting each other during the concert and the same goes for Mio and Uzuki (though she’s another variable given her reactions at the end).
Minami wants to keep working hard at it so she lives up to the same feelings and effort Anya’s putting into trying something new and expanding her own horizons. Granted, I thought Rin handled breaking the news out to NG in ep 20 really horribly (the way she did it made it sound like she didn’t think much of NG in Mio’s eyes but she was in a lot of doubt at that point) but that shit got sorted out in the end. The fact Minami and Anya are still connected despite these chain of events means one victory against Mishiro as far as trying to split them apart goes.
If something is being forced, it’s Uzuki’s own reactions. She’s always been dependent on NG but her fatal flaw is she’s not the most outspoken type. She tries taking things with a smile and never does much to voice her own opinion. When Mio asked Uzuki as to what they would do in ep 20 when Rin badly broke the news out to them, all Uzuki could stutter was “I don’t know” while in reality she knew deep down she didn’t want NG to “break apart” depending on how one defines them being split.
I’m not saying her reactions to everything that’s happening aren’t justified. I understand how she’d be upset by it but the problem with her (or rather how the writing frames it) is that she doesn’t know how to speak her mind out. She just takes things with a smile and tries lying to herself further. Rin and Mio are more capable of being honest with themselves at the very least.
“Now I’m just hoping they will quit Project Krone, or the project just fail or something. ”
I can see Rin and Anya leaving Krone somehow or maybe the higher ups getting Mishiro to loosen her control over both of them but…
I’ll agree that the way Mishiro’s been doing things are very much controversial and are solely based on her own heavy, selfish focus on business aesthetic and her vision as to what the company should stand for but at the end of the day, the actual girls in the project are innocent and saying it should fail when it’s the one sole thing that’s given them their chance to shine is kind of harsh.
Barring Rin and Anya, many of the girls in there (Fumika, Syuko, Yui, etc) were arguably high tier rookie level compared to the company’s higher aces like Kaede, Mizuki, Mika, etc. These girls didn’t have the Cinderella Project or a similar umbrella to support them so in the end they took Mishiro’s offer for whatever reason but who could blame them?
It was either that or they couldn’t “fully” debut at all. Nao and Karen spent months working hard for their debut only to get screwed over because of Mishiro’s heavy revamping. While many would interpret it as them caving into her pressure in the end, what other choice would they take? Let their hard work sink into the drain?
Yes, Project Krone focuses too much on the aesthetic based on Mishiro’s vision. She clearly lacks any ability to support the girls under her wing and those negative consequences are shown when she’s much too busy watching everything from an observation deck. t
There definitely has to be a ton of change / reform / revisions within the project in terms of social interaction from the exec herself and flexibility if she keeps emotionally mishandling her division the way she did in ep 22.
However, saying the project should fail so Anya and Rin can come back to the Cinderella Project fully while putting the fates of the other idols’ careers at expense is one sided. In the end, many of the girls in Krone aren’t any different from the ones in the Cinderella Project and it was shown through both groups supporting each other before their big breaks while Triad Primus was performing. They just had the misfortune (or from a career standpoint, fortune) to be handpicked by Mishiro before Producer’s camp could get to them because all of the alternatives she had in mind (Kaede whom she regarded had top class work fitting of her vision, Mika, her attempt to convert Nana and the others, etc) were exhausted.
One of the major themes I noticed in the 2nd cour is a sense of distant unity. It didn’t feel like 765 Pro’s rivalry with Project Jupiter where they were just stuck up jerks bragging about how better they were than them. I interpreted Rin and Anya joining Project Krone not just as a way to try new things but probably to build a sense of unity between the different divisions or show that they’re still knit to the Cinderella Project no matter what Exec Mishiro tries to pull. It’s shown in the recent episode’s NoMake when Kanade mentions to Producer about how Anya and Rin talk about him often.
I’ll reiterate it once more, I know Project Krone isn’t perfect and would potentially collapse on itself if Mishiro keeps doing a shit job at supporting her girls. If Krone won’t dissolve due to unseen circumstances, there’ll have to be tons of reforms / changes made even if they are selling financially well otherwise everything goes for hell.
Personally, I hope the anime ends with some of the Project Krone girls joining the Cinderella project (while still keeping in touch with the former if it doesn’t collapse) to form units / alternate debuts that focus more on their own individualities.
I’m just saying. You can obviously see how angry I am at the first comment, nothing to be taken seriously. But yeah by the looks of things it’s gonna be more of Project Krone combining together with Cinderella Project. Things that is already in progress and underway is how the girl are actually already being nice and friendly with each other.
I can understand the outrage, but of course much of my thoughts I was going to say has been said by another commenter. I highly doubt the two girls changed their loyalties at all. I think Uzuki’s ordeal will probably make them wake up more than anything and that perhaps they shouldn’t be doing Mishirou’s thing as it will eventually break up the unity the Cinderella Project has.
Then again, given how poorly managed Project Krone is since Mishiro is putting it on autopilot and not lending any direct support like the Producer, it will end up crumbling. Sure, Mishiro is not nearly as annoying as Kuroi, but then again, how Kuroi end up towards the end of the show. Project Jupiter found out about his dirty antics he did towards Chihaya and ended up quitting the agency and joining a different one. With that in mind, I do see the girls in Project Krone end up joining Cinderella Project rather soon if they find out that they are not receiving the support they need. One way or another, the antagonists will lose in the end and I’m 100% sure of that.
Nothing to be taken seriously. Just me ranting and just angry. Didn’t filter anything out in that comment, lol!
Your take on this is definitely different from mine. I like the see what actually happens though. The Uzuki part is as the same as what i’m expecting. Not long now till we actually know. Looking forward to it.
It’s understandable, but from the look of the next episode, maybe everything will come back together.
Then again, Uzuki is the one that brought Rin and Mio back together and it’s probably time for them to return the favor.