Some time in April 2017, on a channel whose music uploads I frequently listened to, I found this.
I didn’t make much of it the first time, to be honest. I was on this channel for its Love Live remixes more than anything else. I wasn’t interested in getting to Idolmaster at all.
Three years later, look where I am now.
I’ll always give credit to the music of iM@s for ultimately leading me towards getting into the series. From it all, I came up with plenty of favourites. Here’s a playlist full of some of the best songs in Cinderella Girls. And Radio Happy.
And, as you might have noticed, I’ve tried to put it in some kind of logical order, as if it were imitating an actual live somehow. So I hope you enjoy that.
Hotel Moonside: Needless to say, as I’ve noted here many times before, of course I have the highest of praise for the song that started it all off. I still think, on the whole, Hotel Moonside is one of the greatest pieces of music in any medium you care to mention. I’ve never heard anything so perfectly catered to my tastes as this. And the great thing is, lots of people seem to be in agreement with me about this song’s magnificence. Stunning. For the purposes of this, feel free to take in the extended live version, which adds a cool intro, the above remix, which still sounds as sensational as it did when I first really fell in love with it, and iM@s’ own remix, which adds a bit more drama to the whole thing.
Kanade: Yes, they really made Kanade sing a song with the same name as her. But this is a beautiful little slow thing that shows another dimension to Kanade’s voice.
If: Likewise, this song, too. I would say I prefer Kanade, if only through familiarity due to it being older, but of course this is still absolutely fine.
Never say never: Rin’s solo still bangs, even to this day. And if you want more from her, go out and find AnemoneStar somewhere, which is more dramatic, newer and cleaner.
Trancing Pulse: Absolute classic. Easily the most dramatic tune in the series, and one of the most tuneful as well. All three of Triad Primus’ vocals are glorious.
Trinity Field: The cool, epic sequel to the above, while it was never gonna top Trancing Pulse, it still has plenty of drama to merit its own brilliance.
Niji: An absolutely glorious cover by Karen and Nao, the best demonstration of both of their goose-bump-inducing voices.
2nd Side: This sounded familiar when I first heard it, and also brilliant for it. And to prove how brilliant Nao’s vocals are, this is the fourth of nine straight songs with her in it. She’s marvellous.
2nd Side -After the Rain Remix-: Evidently, Bamco knew this sounded familiar, too. This is a remix by Hiroshi Okubo, a man who’s done much for Ridge Racer, and he brings it out just a little bit more in this super-cool remix.
Neo Beautiful Pain: And here’s another absolute banger, one of the very best second solos. This one’s got a little bit of something for everyone.
Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari: And how about combining my very favourite anime and one of my very favourite singers? You can imagine how good that’s gonna be. A great spin on a great original.
Frost: Probably the best tune from any of the seasons albums. Aims to strike a tone, and does so perfectly. Gorgeous song.
Nothing but You: Another real banger, with a huge variety of vocals within. All kinds of class singers in this one, with Anya, Nao, Syoko, Yuka and Miku.
Memories: Another real classic from the anime, this is the signature of Anya and Minami’s brilliant unit.
Akimeite Ding Dong Dang!: A song with a superb, all-star cast, with Kanade, Minami, Karen, Anya and Chie all here. You can’t go wrong with a group like that.
Venus Syndrome*: Do you want to know what Minami is about? Then listen to this. One of the most powerful, dramatic songs in the series, which is not bad bad going for a solo.
*Please excuse the picture on the video. For no readily apparent reason, the Venus Syndrome I have came with no album art on it.
Voyage: Or, if slower stuff is your thing, listen to this instead. This is a more beautiful representation of Minami’s singing.
Amairo no Kami no Otome: For the complete package, though, you need to listen to this. That gentle opening and epic transition into the beat is just perfection.
Nation Blue: This one really goes in. A hardcore beat to match the best of them, and the singers, as you’d expect from the cool type’s frontline, is sublime.
Illusionista: A real cool song in its own right, and quite a unique one for Idolmaster, being as ultra-jazzy as it is.
Mitsuboshi: This one works in two flavours. Mio’s original is fine stuff, but even finer still is the remix they made just for Minami, which rivals just about anything the series can offer.
Dekitate Evo! Revo! Generation!: Another classic from the anime, this one is one of the best songs of the lot from it, and always a great listen even out of it.
Yes! Party Time: If anything’s gonna get you up and dancing, it’s this. An absolute rave of a song, this one.
Atashi Ponkotsu Android: One of the very best cute type songs, this one really nails down the archetype of the attribute to a T.
Decoboco Speedster: Nigh insanity, one of the fastest songs in the series, but all the more beautiful for it. This is a fun one.
Sunflower: Probably the best song to come out of any of the Gekijous, this is a nice and quirky one with a lovely group of singers, with Mika, Mio, Sanae, Kirari and Shin all here.
Tokimeki Escalate: Absolutely one of the most hype songs in the song, and structured perfectly for the purpose. Also makes the absolute most of Mika, doing her absolute justice. And there’s a nice and energetic remix here to behold as well.
Nudie: This one’s closer to more genuine J-pop, and again, this suits Mika very well indeed. Beautifully modern.
Nichiyoubi wa Damedame yo: But if anything suits Mika right down to the ground, it’s this. A supremely well-chosen cover, this sounds like J-pop as it should be.
Watashi-iro Gift: One of my personal low-key favourites from the anime, especially as a wonderful ending to a wonderful episode. Still great out of that context, though.
Twinkle Tail: The glorious duet of the Jougasakis we all deserve, it’s just as you’d expect for them. Another perfect fit.
Angel Dream: And now for something a little different. The collab song the series did with the Taiko no Tatsujin guys is probably still their best, a nice and hectic bop with a particularly tuneful chorus.
Jet to the Future: A right rock epic, from those two purveyors of rock, Riina and Natsuki. As powerful and intense as you’d imagine from these two.
Girls in the Frontier: Another absolutely spectacular epic, and one with some of the best vocals of any song. I can think of only one off bit of the entire song, which is Mirei’s bit in the first chorus. Otherwise, nigh perfect.
Naked Romance: Easily the best of the cute solos, Miho’s song packs a real punch you probably didn’t expect. But her excellent vocals make this most of all.
Sora to Kaze to Koi no Waltz: On the other end of the spectrum for Miho, we have this. It shows you what sensational variety she has that she can make both of these songs work for her.
Tooku Tooku: And here’s another tuneful bop of hers to demonstrate that fact. The covers add a real different flavour to a lot of Idolmaster’s catalogue and this is no exception.
shabon song: This is just plain, good old medium-slow pop, though. And Mika and Miho combine here for one superb pair of vocals, both on full show here.
Twintail no Kaze: There’s few more enticing trios of singers than this trinity here, Kanade, Mika and Miho. Predictably, they make a good fist of this song.
Aikurushii: One of the slowest songs of all, this is the premier example of the series’ slow tempo songs. The choice of singers here is basically perfect, all relaxing and soothing, as this song sets out to be.
Bi ni Iri Sai o Ugatsu: A immensely intense song here, which is quite a surprise from two idols as tame as Syuko and Sae. But boy does it work here.
Ao no Ichibanboshi: A song that really needs a listen to the full version to do it justice, thanks to that epic intro. This is a supreme musical triumph, IOSYS at its finest.
Absolute Nine: One of the best epics in a series filled with more than its fair share. This one never fails to bring the hype, and is still comfortably the best song any election has produced.
Seizon Honnou Valkyria: Another properly cool song, one formed very well around Minami in particular. There’s not a bad vocal to behold in this one.
Babel: Raw, hardcore EDM at its absolute finest here. A song so good, and such a headbanger, it can even give Hotel Moonside a run for its money in those stakes.
Near to You: Singled out as the best of the three jewelries full group songs, this is just a nice, simple and easy bop. Feel free also to behold the Cool version, given its…enthusiastic opening.
Saite Jewel: That same group gave much more of a damn about this, though. The best jewelries song by a long way, all five vocalists are superb here, and the tune and instrumentation some of the most evocative of all.
Tulip: An utterly beloved song, with good reason. Those famous jazzy notes, that perfectly formed unit, and that unforgettable tic. This is an absolute must-listen.
Crazy Crazy: One of the purest headbangers of them all, this is cool dance as it should be. The moment when the chorus drops the first time is amongst the greatest things in any song here.
Ki-ma-gu-re☆Cafe au lait!: It’s got stereotypes coming out its ears, but in any case this is a tuneful and truly unique song amongst the iM@s catalogue. Frederica does a good job with this one.
Frederica, Neko Yameru yo: One of the most successful second solos, for it captures the spirit of its singer perfectly. It’s wild, it’s a lot of fun, it’s Fred through and through.
Zettai Tokken Shuchou Shimasuu!: One of the absolute embodiments of the passion type, this is one of the most hectic songs in the series, and done so beautifully.
Miracle Telepathy: Another fine fit for its singer, the ever eccentric Yuko Hori. This is a song to just sit back, take in and relish.
Mouretsu★Yonaoshi Guilty!: Another iconic song from Deresute, and with not a trace of subtlety about it. A brilliant spectacle of a tune to behold.
Can’t Stop: Sanae’s solo is another terrific headbanger of a dance song, a more conventional affair compared to some of the more experimental tunes before.
Fuyuzora Precious: Another belter from the superb Winter Seasons album, this is the best of Cinderella Girls’ Christmassy collection. Simply a lovely tune.
Kimochi ii yo ne Ittoushou!: Yuki has some of the most lovably unique vocals in the series, and this makes the most of them absolutely. You can’t help but smile at this.
Kirarin Robo no Theme: One Gekijou skit made for one crazy, wonderful theme. This is as all-out as you’d expect from the wild, hilarious idea that is Kirarin Robo.
Ankira!? Kyousoukyoku: Ankira’s iconic theme tune, this is as frantic as you’d come to expect from them. But if you haven’t heard the full version, you might not be expecting the twist that comes in the back end of the song.
Lulu: Another anime I love had its ED done by Anzu, and for what it’s worth, with her vocals, she did a bloody good job with it. Hell, they didn’t even have to change the key of the song for it.
Little Riddle: Now this is a real ball of fun. All the cool rapping throughout is unlike anything else we’ve heard since, but Anzu is the real star here with her background rapping.
Secret Daybreak: The tantalising pairing of Kanade and Minami, of course, provides a stunning track. Particularly of note is the experimentation with vocals in this, which give the song even more character.
Nocturne: Another vintage, all-out EDM tune. And what an inspired choice it was to extend Kaede and Mizuki’s original to Kanade, Minami and Ryo. They evolve the song immensely.
Pretty Liar: A delightfully beautiful tune from Kanade and Kaede. One of the most intense, melodramatic and tuneful songs in the series, with some of the smoothest, huskiest vocals to back it up.
Koi Kaze Hanaba: The original Koi Kaze is understandably much celebrated (as the live version here can attest to), but I reckon the sequel has it licked. Particularly of note is the dramatic choir in the background of the chorus.
Koi Kaze Azure: But even better is this dramatic twist on the original. The instrumentation here is simply second to none. A long, enjoyable epic.
Kagayaku Sekai no Mahou: Even now, this is still the best ‘top 5’ election song. The best part are the dramatic introductory build-up and the conclusion.
High Pressure: A super-intense, epic cover from Aki, in comfortably the best song she features in. Maybe even the best rock-genre song iM@s has had.
Lunatic Show – For SS3A rearrange Mix: Probably the best rearrange of any, this is a nice, up-tempo redo of Lunatic Show, with Tomoe’s vocals making for a particularly noticeable improvement.
Other notable mentions not in the playlist
Mikansei no Rekishi: A close second to Frost in the seasons stakes, this has a supreme trio of singers in Karen, Hajime and Asuka. With a combo like that, of course you’re gonna get magnificence.
Undead Dance Rock: A real surprise of a song, with Ryo’s impressive vocals and Koume’s sweetness and light allied to some superb guitar work.
Needle Light: Among the intense dance tunes in this series, this might beat them all. But it’s actually the vocals that surprise most of all, as Haruna and Hina make for a dynamite duo.
O-Ku-Ri-Mo-No Sunday!: A real fun song, one of the most characterful of them all, defined by the lovely Nagi’s amusing babbling.
Mirror Ball Love: One of the most hype songs in the series. There’s all sorts going on here, between slightly suggestive ‘Ahing’, epic trumpets and, most of all, the moment the chorus drops. That’s what it’s all about.
Kagayake! Beat Shooter: A recent addition, and a welcome one, imitating a cool anime opening very well and being a superb showcase of Haru’s much underrated vocals.
Onna no Michi wa Hoshi no Michi: A dramatic enka song from the most enka of idols, Tomoe. This is the sort of classical tune I know a lot of people would absolutely love, and Tomoe’s vocals sell it perfectly.
AnemoneStar: As mentioned earlier, this is a properly epic song to behold for Rin. Her vocals are at their very finest here.
Nebula Sky: An exclusive solo for Anya, this comes packed with some inspired instrumentation throughout. Stick around for the end of this one, it’s brilliant.
Kagayaku Sekai no Mahou -Magical Step Forward Remix-: A wild and intense remix of an already superb song, as its Deresute map can attest to. Another real headbanger of a dance tune.
Kimi no Seishun wa Kagayaite Iru ka: A real classic of an intro theme, with a perfect singer to match in Hikaru. Definitely the best demonstration of her powerful vocals.
Colors: A Code Geass cover, and one by that superb duo of Haruna and Hina again. Their brilliance is even more apparent here than in their own song.
I’ve said time and again that if anything’s gonna keep me coming back to a series, it’s characters. And Idolmaster Cinderella Girls sets a standard that perhaps nothing around can match.
The class of 190 it has to behold passes every test you can think of. There’s good. There’s bad. And there’s nondescript. All this serves to create a ideal world where the best sparkle and stand out, precisely because not everyone is the best. And boy are there some gems in amongst the lot. In fact, I’d give props to pretty much the entire 15 in that Onegai MV as being all truly great characters in some way. And enough time has passed to envisage them as the type of girl they’d be in an ideal, real life situation in which they’d all jumped out the screen and become a part of my everyday life. A situation which sounds more enticing than ever, right now.
1. Hayami Kanade
2. Nitta Minami
3. Jougasaki Mika
4. Shiomi Syuko
5. Miyamoto Frederica
6. Jougasaki Rika
7. Oikawa Shizuku
8. Kohinata Miho
9. Shibuya Rin
10. Hojo Karen
11. Fujiwara Hajime
12. Kamiya Nao
13. Honda Mio
14. Kimura Natsuki
15. Anastasia
Queens of the hill are the top three, Kanade, Minami and Mika. Kanade has stood since Day 0 as my favourite in the series, which is actually an extraordinarily rare occurrence for me. On that basis, I should have seen her coming to take my Best Girl Ever title. However, in reality, it’s not really as clear-cut as me wanting to be with her more than any other.
I’ve said this of Kanade plenty of times before, but if I asked her to live with me every day, she’d laugh me right off. And she’d be quite right too. She is, if anything, too good to be with everyday. The thing with perfection like hers is the shine tends to get taken off it if you take it in too much. Also, can you really imagine someone with her personality accepting to be your girlfriend? No chance. She’s a free bird on that front. That doesn’t mean you have to be ‘just’ friends with her, though. No, if you’re real good with her – and needless to say, I’d be more fiercely loyal to her than any other – you can live it out with her that way. Which means to say, Kanade is easily the greatest friend with benefits, and indeed the greatest side chick, in history.
And I’m not sure Mika’s the answer on a life partner front, either. You could certainly run with her for ‘longer’ than Kanade. She’d be great fun to have a fling with. But I suspect in the real world you’d tire of her lifestyle after about one month. If not, two or three. Sometimes you’ve just gotta take a different butt some day. But if you want a girlfriend that will go on to be a life partner, surely you can’t do better than Minami. Soft, gentle, caring, responsible, and absolutely beautiful. And erotic without even trying, or knowing. She would do absolutely anything for you. More than anything, I love Minami for that. You just wish she could come and give you a cuddle, and fall asleep in her arms.
So, that’s my holy trinity established. Minami as the wife. Kanade as the mistress. And Mika? Hmm. Maybe introduce her to your bezzies. And see how they like her. Though obviously, if you’re still her mate, you can always tease her periodically.
So that leaves the other eleven.
…What do you mean, I’ve miscounted? Of course I’m not including Rika in this, silly. Not unless I want to be lynched by idoltwt, at least.
Anyway. That leaves the other eleven. If you’re gonna have nights with them, where do they fit on this spectrum?
Syuko’s the kind you leave to her own devices. She chooses when she wants you, whether you like it or not. But she also seems the type who isn’t arsed either way if you wanna go along with her or not. So she’s a more conventional side chick, unlike Kanade where it’d be all a bit more fwb-ish. I suspect Kanade and Syuko would be most interested in doing you together.
Frederica, though? Maybe not so much. She’d be great of an evening out, bringing the banter everywhere with her energy. But fun as she is as a person, you know what they say about sticking your dick in crazy and I think that applies to Fred as well. Maybe she won’t put her personality on first thing in the morning and you can see her for real, how beautiful she may be deep down. But I wouldn’t wanna go through what it takes to try and get her there in the first place. Best just leave her to Shiki, really.
Now Shizuku is a whole different ball game, cause she’s not really cut from the same cloth as the others. She’s more fantastical than the others, really. Her looks certainly could be real, and I wish they were somewhere. But you wish you could put her personality aside and just let you live out your fantasy. That’s why you should show her the money to let her do that. That’s about it, really. She’s a flight of fancy. Nothing more.
Miho…I wouldn’t touch. She’s too shy like that, really. Not like hopelessly so, but it would be a bit awkward doing anything more than chatting to her casually. Maybe best introduce her to your shyest friend, then. Because it’s not like she’s as open as Misaki out of DoA, who’s easily embarrassed yet still openly interested in you, and also proves Minami Tsuda is the ultimate seiyuu for shy girls. Mind you, Miho has a bit of interest in Producer showing, too, and some might convince you that once she gets over the initial phase she’d be fine and comfortable. A bit like Mika, really.
That’s when you get to the next bunch down. The cool four, plus Mio, Natsuki and Anya. And I think it’s fair to say Rin isn’t going to be easily flapped…unless you bring her in with someone else. Then you could suck her in. You’d think someone like Karen could do the job, but I dare say she’ll be too interested in going with Nao instead. I’d love to see those two going at it together, even just with each other…there’s clearly enough friendship to turn into love there. You just know they’d get up to no good together, alone…and boy, wouldn’t you just like to see it.
So you may think you could take Rin along with Mio instead. But Mio edges dangerously close to the crazy I was mentioning earlier. In fact, I reckon she can deceive just enough that you’d be lured in but you just know she’s gonna break your heart in some way by having a tantrum and walking the hell out on you. Which means, again, it’s best to leave her to her own devices. Probably the same with Rin, as well. Too much effort on the whole.
Hajime is the kind who’s a slow-burn. You gotta work her throughout the night, and then slowly but surely, you’ll get to her. Because of this, she might a bit reluctant to advance too far, but never too reluctant. Maybe you just gotta nudge her along a little, but not too far, else the whole thing’s over. Simple as that.
Natsuki is not the one you meet on a night out. That’s because she’s the one you fling with at a music festival instead. I don’t think anybody could argue with that. Obviously, festivals being festivals, have fun with her, and go mad. Yeah.
Finally, there’s Anya. Now obviously she’s too awkward to just approach like that. Except remember how Minami’s your partner? Yeah, Anya and Minami are tight friends. So you can just invite her in that way. We know that Minami is deeply passionate about Anya, too, so she’d be more than willing. Actually, Minami has a bit of that going on with Kanade, as well…so if you had them both round together, you could have all three of you together for the most passionate love-making I can imagine anywhere. That’s the dream, isn’t it?
So, there you are. There’s what I’d do when presented with an opportunity like that. What would you do when presented with your, say, top tier? Feel free to shill all you like. It is election season, after all.
It’s all over. Finally, after more than two and a half years of grafting, I can say I’ve done everything I want to in The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls: Starlight Stage.
I have to say this game is simply magnificent. Once you get over the initial learning curve and start indulging, you’ll find before you a wonderful world of a game. You wouldn’t think that of a game which, fundamentally, is nothing more than just putting your finger in one of five bits of your phone at the right time. Of course, this is rather a little more than that. As I have mused on this blog time and time again for anything up to the past three years, when I found what ultimately influenced me to take the deep, dark plunge into this idol hell.
It helps though that I probably got into this game at just about the right time. You may say that might just be the rose-tinted specs coming onto my eyes, but I truly believe I nailed my time of arrival – which may have helped me get into it more, deep down. I arrived at a time where the game had enough content to form a substantial core, but not so much it was overwhelming. The meta was still largely under control, not yet taken over by the ever-progressing power creep and the ever-more pompous and grand skills that have come with it. The content count is an incredibly difficult balance to strike, thinking about it. I mean, now, I’d happily invite anyone else to come and have a look at the game, but the sheer number of songs now in the game is extraordinary. To be precise, there’s 262 of them. And I fear that kind of amount might blow the socks off a first timer who wouldn’t know where to look. This is a problem I think might have been hurting any extended attempts to properly get into Bandori or even Mirishita, come to think of it. Conversely, I was playing SIFAS from day 1 and the obvious need to build a game from the ground up means a relative dearth of content to do stuff with as a result. Shinymas had a bit of this when I first got into it as well, though that is getting better.
But ultimately, Deresute goes down as a series of great elements combining together to create a package that is nigh-on utopian. The group of 190 characters that make up the game’s cast are a wonderful, eclectic bunch, some of whom are sheer and utter perfection. Sometimes, they’re represented in some absolutely beautiful card art. Some of them are voiced by some top-class seiyuus, and the range of music is incredible. Some of the songs are genuine all-timers. And of course, the gameplay works just like it should. It builds you up for a challenge and properly rewards you for getting better at it.
So I can wholeheartedly recommend Starlight Stage to everyone. But for me, my time with it ends now. And through my long and complicated history with this game, 20 dates stand out as the most momentous. Here they are…
31st October, 2017. It’s my first Cinfes. I’m still paying for rolls with some frequency at this evergreen stage of my Deresute experience. So I approach this still relatively elusive happening with plenty of excitement. I pay up for just one 10-roll worth of cards. Little do I know that it will completely shift my way of life from that moment on.
I’d fallen hard for Kanade Hayami ever since she started edging me towards this so-called ‘idol hell’. If this is what ‘hell’ is like, I want to stay here forever. I lay in bed, sharp and still in shock for a good 30 seconds at the revelation of this moment. A moment of realisation, of wondering if a humble anime girl can really be this good. Having only known her for a little over six-and-a-half months, suddenly I’m bowing down to call her my Best Girl Ever. Given who she is surpassing on that score, and how long I’ve known other favourites, and how long they’ve been my favourites, that gives you some idea just how much I feel for Kanade at this moment in time. I love her. And I think I’m gonna give this game a good go now. So, what’s next?
4th November, 2017. It’s happened again. The first gacha after I’ve gotten the second Kanade is…the third Kanade. This girl, man. This girl.
I’m having to pay up again. Just a little bit, day by day. I can’t do anything but pay, and hope what little rolls I do get this near-transcendental girl.
Six 10-rolls in, they do. Still the beat goes on. And I don’t know what’s hit me at this point. If there’s any character in the world better than Kanade, I’d love to know who she is. Then again, maybe not. I love her so much I don’t want anyone else right now.
16th February, 2018. Mika Jougasaki has a permanent SSR. She’s the second girl I’ve really fallen for. I was hunting for a meaningful card of hers for a long time. I don’t like Mika1’s awakened art and I’m not all that sold on Mika2.
Jougzy duly obliges and comes home within two 10-rolls. And once again, I’m in love with an idol. So much so that, with me getting into the groove with this game and sussing out Masters, I want to do a little bit more to get other cards of hers…
21st February, 2018. I’m grinding on an event for the very first time. Not for anything in the event itself, you understand. It’s Frost, which is happening somewhat ironically while I’m out in Sevilla, a place where it’s a chilly 20°C at this time of the year. (And -2° and icy back at home.) It’s a good job I have the free time because I plan to run up to 25,000 points, to get an event ticket, so I can get Mika’s Orange Sapphire card. The one with her butt sticking out in those short shorts. Yes, I’m excessively tasteful.
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By Wednesday evening, the day I want to be finished by, I’ve done it. Even with not a single FC throughout the entire grind, courtesy of me still being on an S6 that periodically chooses to drop notes solely because I have auto-brightness on, I’ve made it to my first event goal. I’ve also passed Tokimeki Escalate for the first time, a mindblowing achievement for someone whose thumbs are still nowhere near fast enough to cope with such things like the ending yet. Throughout the course of the event, I flirt with getting within the top 1000, which also feels astonishing at this moment in time for a scrub like me. I dutifully tell my mates in a Discord somewhere “I swear you’ll never see anything like this ever again”. Sure you won’t, mate.
3rd March, 2018. Oh hey, I’m grinding on an event again. But only to 10k. And that’s because, in a delicious twist of irony, Mika is in the next event. She’s not what I’m going for here, though. That’s Kanade. And that’s because Twintail no Kaze is our next event. Oh, and this nondescript Miho girl seems kinda decent too, actually.
So, my first Kanade event card to aim for. Of course, at this stage, I wouldn’t dream of going for it end-to-end for a T100. I just want one Kanade card.
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I do it by the end of the first night. For good measure, I spend the rest of the time in Live Party, grinding up to get the Aikurushii Kanade in the shop. Which means I have all of Kanade’s cards within my first 5 months of playing. Not bad going for someone who would have said “a Kanade what?!?” at this time last year.
31st May, 2018. There’s this rather beautiful looking new Minami lim that’s shown up in the gacha. But I can’t really go for her. Because I have my eye on one rerun gacha with two cards I want even more. They’d be Minami2 and Syuko3. So I tell myself I won’t roll in anger for this card. Elsewhere, I say I won’t roll in anger for this card. I consider imprinting on my actual hand “I won’t roll in anger for this card”. Anything to stop me ill-advisedly going for this card and screwing my savings.
Narrator: He did.
I even spent a little cold, hard money to try and do it, on the last day of the gacha. Deep down, I realised it was probably foolish to try and get her with no more than twelve 10-rolls. My gacha luck has been so extraordinary to this point that I was going to get caught red-handed at some point. I got cocky, and paid for it. My savings lie in tatters. And now I don’t want to see or have anything to do with Minami. Why did I even bother? I don’t like her that much anyway, surely. I will remember.
27th July, 2018. The rerun I was saving up for right until I wasn’t has arrived. I’ve cobbled together some jewels from the last bunch of events, FCing a shit-ton of leftover Pros and clearing any outlying Masters. So now, out here on my second of three Greek holidays this year, I can go again. Not for Minami2, obviously. Just Syuko3.
My stocks are still low, but not so low I can’t get SSRs out of them. The first one that pops up is Kirari2. I’m rolling on the wrong gacha. You dickhead.
As my stocks start running out and I get that sinking feeling all over again, I pay for the daily 60.
Syuko3 is in it. And thank god she is. I’d been waiting on her so long that god knows what I would’ve done had I not got her. I can’t remember now, actually. Probably cursed Minami again, and cut her off from my mind. For now though, she can have a stay of execution. Just as well, cause I couldn’t even stay mad at her for that long after the whole Minami3 debacle…which is why I promptly used the next limtix on her.
19th September, 2018. The moment I’ve been waiting for has arrived. We’re getting a Kanade event, and one where she’s the main card at that. She’s with Kaede in a song called Pretty Liar, and it is glorious. So, here we go. Here’s an event where I want to really go for it. To what level, I don’t know. Just to a level where I can do Kanade proud. That could be T1. It could be really high up into T1. I don’t know. I don’t have a numerary goal. Setting one for myself would just put unnecessary pressure on me. And so, with what I have, I head in. Or at least, try to.
But, there’s a problem. Since May I’ve been in a new job, and developments both in the real world and other hobbies are coming thick and fast. The latter is cooling off a little, but earlier in the summer I was doing next to bugger-all in Deresute. Later events motivated me though, thanks to a clutch of great songs inspiring me to play. Sunflower, Decoboco Speedster, Crazy Crazy, Girls in the Frontier and Pretty Liar is a streak that is never gonna be topped. The former, though, is more of a concern. Especially because I’m dipping my toe into ever more stuff. And it’s not easy. In fact, it’s so not easy it slowly but surely starts crippling my ability to do anything on this event that I want to play more than any other. In the end, one sobering Wednesday completely breaks my resolve, as I’m dipped into a situation where I try to sort something out for a so-called ‘VIP’ at work who supposedly needs something done urgently, cause he’s going on a business trip the next day. And my nooby self just cannot do it. And there’s no one around to help me, sans a colleague on the other line. It’s a horrid experience. But it’s not a surprise. I’m working in a bank. This guy was one of many in the team handling trades. Traders are total bastards on a professional level. And I’ve gotten a taste of that for the first time.
All I can do is half-heartedly scramble and do whatever I can back at home. But it’s nowhere near enough. The result of this is the most disappointing experience I’ve had in my time with the game.
I just did not have the time to prepare for anything like this. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. I was winging it so much I completely neglected the eigyou feature the whole way through. I didn’t know how to use it, to be honest. I’d never had cause to before so I never bothered learning about it. In the event, the highest-scoring event to that point went on largely without me.
I try and carry my wave into the next event, Doremi Factory, but eventually crash and burn out. And it’ll be a long way back before I have the motivation to do lives from here. Reality bites.
3rd March, 2019. I’m uneasy about the upcoming lim gacha. SSR4s have been a thing for a while now and a lot of people on Discord are queuing up and saying it’s Mika’s turn next. I’ve steeled myself up with quite a lot of jewels since I last had anything to roll for, but I haven’t been playing anywhere near enough to make it a certainty I’ll get her. I go to bed with a sense of trepidation over me.
Blindsided by Kanade striking back for the first time in a long time, I prime all my jewels. Plus a few more I paid for with my wallet.
It’s just as well I got them because I was working through them by the time I finally got to her.
My miss on Minami3 wasn’t great, but losing any Kanade would have been crushing. I would have had to sit there for a year, in purgatory, waiting for this to come round. I’m not sure I could have taken that. I simply could not allow myself to miss Kanade4. But realistically, is there anything else I’d rather have spent my jewels on? No, of course not. That’s what they were there for. The only issue now is, I have to try and find some jewels again to get Minami3 with in a few months time…
27th May, 2019. Minami3. We meet again.
I haven’t gathered up anywhere near as many jewels as I’d like. I’m not comfortable about this again. And sure enough, there’s a sense of deja vu as, once again, all my jewels come and go without Minami showing up on my screen. And again, when I pay all I dare and it still doesn’t happen. So I’ve just gone through everything I did all over again, just in less time. I’m not as annoyed about Minami, though. I’ll just grab her with the next limtix and put me out of that misery. No, it’s that I don’t know what to expect on the other side of this gacha. However, the mantra to follow with this game, Never Predict Bamco, suggests that you shouldn’t speculate what is coming next because you will be wrong, and you will look like a fool. So I go to bed the night before the next gacha, not dwelling on whatever is the worst that could happen.
31st May, 2019. The worst has happened. Mika4 has arrived…and I have nothing to get her with. Nothing. I cannot believe this. Minami has screwed me over again. Times like this make you wonder why you even bother. So I tell myself that I won’t any more. Getting screwed over both ways like this is not OK. I vow to leave this game behind and not look back…but not before I spend as much as I dare, to see if I can salvage something. But I know by now that the last three 10-rolls I use, and what few solos I have lying around, almost certainly aren’t gonna amount to anything. Oh well. It’s been a good run, Deresute. But you were just too manipulative for my own good. Goodbye.
…You were never gonna let me go that easy, were you?
I wish I could explain the release that came with this moment. I still can’t quite do the moment justice. And I suspect I never will. So let’s just sum it up by acknowledging that this is why I was able to get to this stage and write this. At least there’s one girl I can trust in the gacha…
2nd July, 2019. For the first time, I have a new event type to behold. It’s something called a Live Carnival. Reality bites. It has long taken hold again and I rather need something to fill my time away from it. Is this it? Well, if it’s gonna be, I need help figuring it out, cause right now I don’t have the time to sit down and figure out anything new-fangled. But help isn’t forthcoming. So, if I can’t do my thing on Deresute, I decide I’ll spend my time trying to find something else. A few days in, I download Mirishita, Shinymas, and Bandori, and start all of them. Mirishita is in the middle of its anniversary, and with it giving free rolls out like candy, it gets off to a promising start. Shinymas, not so much. Bandori likewise, but that has a character better than any of the other three can muster in Saaya. And I’m looking over my shoulder for Love Live SIF All-Stars, aka the return of mu’s. I’m not saying I’m done with Deresute yet…just pondering what’ll fill the void once I’m done with it.
22nd July, 2019. I’m starting to fall out of love with this game, if I’m honest. The Minami3-Mika4 debacle is still lingering. Though I came out the other side of it, the whole thing really burnt my mind out. And now all I’m doing it sitting around waiting for the limtix to drop the while, all the while being constantly fearful that Minami4 will arrive any moment, not come home, screw me over again and leave me stuck with this game for another year. I need something to come along and inject this game back into my veins.
And I get it in the form of something that, no matter what, can always keep me coming back to iM@s.
It’s the music, and a glorious new song, Babel. Shiki and Asuka are very much not my favourite characters. Shiki, in fact, is still my 190th favourite, no matter how much I’ve acquiesced with her qualities. I still wouldn’t want her round me in a million years. But this song is such an inspired piece of aural pleasure that I can’t help but take it in, over and over again. And a moment like this makes me realise why it is I fell in love with this in the first place. I haven’t played an event this much for a long time. Not so much I’m, like, tiering really highly in it, but by standards, I’m playing plenty. Though, for the record, this event ends up being the highest scoring at the time, partly down to the characters involved and partly down to an inexplicable maintenance period brought about by an error in an update. Conspiracies abound that they’re looking to give the frantic scramble at the top a break from the intense pace. Still, they’ve learnt their lesson there.
It was around this time last year that the music rose to its glorious peak, introducing banger upon banger in the late summer. Is that gonna happen again? I hope so.
1st August, 2019. I’m going on holiday. I need jewels. And yet I play the next event for not a single second. My optimism may have been rather premature. I know I needed a break from real life. But I wasn’t expecting to count Deresute in that number.
The next token event to come round is comic cosmic. I play plenty of that. I don’t understand my playing habits any more. Or what brings them around. Still, the spectre of Minami4 looms large. But, by god, if I get her, I could just say…I don’t have to worry about anything with this game any more.
31st August, 2019. It’s time for the game’s fourth anniversary. And they’ve changed the gacha menu. Karen is the fes card and she is mooning me with her beauty. And her actual moon, as it turns out.
There are free rolls going, so I easily resist even when she doesn’t come home. How I have learnt.
Speaking of learning, I have to learn Carnival now. The anniversary song, True Colors, is being fronted by…Mika Jougasaki. She’s the main event card. This time, help is forthcoming to help me figure out this brave new world, and I didn’t even have to ask around that much. Even if I now look like a right arsehole for giving stick to those who weren’t so inclined last time. What I find is enjoyable, refreshing and a good use of all the SSRs I’ve gathered to this point. I quite like this.
Obviously, it takes an awful lot of playing before I can get into position to even roll one Mika, but get there I do and with a whole new lease of life in my Deresute interest. For the first time in a while with this game, I’ve had…fun.
Oh, and the elephant in the room has been kicked out of it now. The limtix came round and, of course, I nabbed Minami3 with it. I have all three of her SSRs now, yet I rolled none of them. They were all from tickets. That bodes well for Minami4. But now, I have a whole new motivation to grab those all important jewels.
30th September, 2019. Still going. Still enjoying this game. Especially now that I have fresh impetus. A few days prior, a special ticket came round, a one-shot deal for a 10-roll including a guaranteed Cinfes SSR. And who did I get in the one I paid for?
Yes, of course. Mika2.
And this comes with even greater significance because of the introduction of the memorial gacha, containing all the first-year lims. All of a sudden, there’s two cards to aim for, not just the one. Putting any doubts about the card itself aside, if I get Mika1, I could realistically end up with a complete collection of all three of my tantou’s cards. That, I decide, would be grounds to finish with this game once and for all. Not that I go all out on the memorial gacha now, of course: I know that would be foolish. I concoct a strategy easily enough for it: do paid dailies, use free rolls on it when they present themselves. And even if you can’t get Mika normally, she’ll be there at the end of 300 rolls on the gacha. She’s basically right there for me to take at this point.
Oh, and she’s in another song as well. Gossip Club. Another quality tune, and one that’s come from the previous 7th Live. I play the event plenty, once again. I’m still shifting in this game. And, until the moment comes, long may that continue.
I also take a moment to laugh at Nao’s new SSR, whose awakened costume is evidently modelled on a stripper. I know what I’m talking about when I say these things.
I didn’t roll for her, either.
5th November, 2019. Something has popped up on a promotional pamphlet that greatly disturbs me.
It’s at Funky Dancing, and it’s got a bunch of units together with songs…plus Kanade and Minami. At Comical Pops, they put Sexy Gyaru together and we got Gossip Club. So it doesn’t take a genius to work out what’s coming next. And that’s an event with two of my favourite girls ever in them. I can’t miss this opportunity, for any number of reasons. The need to pay tribute to these two glorious idols. I need to do something for two years of Kanade’s brilliance, and I’ve long forgiven Minami for everything before, my love for her starting to reach what I think is an apex. The need to feel what it’s like to play an event. I’ve been at it for so long without going properly hard at an event that it feels a bit of a waste not to have done so yet. And, of course, the need to put the ghost of Pretty Liar behind me. It’s been over a year since that. This time, I will get myriad time to prepare. And luck is on my side, as the latest suptix means I can complete a cool auto team…for a cool event. Still, I have to grind a little to get everyone’s potential up, so I do that at the next Cinderella Road. It couldn’t have gone more perfectly if I’d tried. On the very last live that I completed both maps, I got my idols to the required stats. And so, I can go into this moment with confidence. Again, I have no numeric goal: merely a wish to do Kanade and Minami justice. How far that will take me, I don’t know. All I can say is, bring it on.
I’ll also give shoutouts here to Hame Dragon, who managed to draw an image set with Kanade and Minami before any of this was announced. He must’ve known what was coming.
20th November, 2019. The day has come. And I’m fully prepared.
I’ve spoken at length on what happened next, and what happened was: a lot. So I’ll just point you to my post on it rather than regurgitate me going through initial hope, new experiences, self-inflicted despair, a heartily-assisted and slightly fortunate comeback, and one horrible, horrible maintenance period. But I can sum it up simply by saying it’s one of the most cathartic experiences I’ve ever been through. And, most important, I achieved what I set out to do. I can honestly recommend, if you are a true Deresute fan, that you go through something like this at least once. Maybe not again, though. But you might like it, so I’ll leave it up to you. Just don’t go through an event like the one I did.
30th December, 2019. So, yes. Two cards. That’s all I had left before I could finally, finally tell myself I was satisfied with what I’d accomplished in this game. I could go off in 2020, and get on with other things in my life. I could finally say I wasn’t trapped by the uncertainty of knowing I’d have to come back for one thing I wanted, deep down, more than anything.
Alas, the first card doesn’t turn up. That’s OK, I think. If she’s not coming this Cinfes, I can just wait for the new year lims to come and odds are she’ll be there instead. But either way, it’s disappointing that all I can do is keep on rolling for the other one. Jokingly, I tell myself she might arrive before the first one, even though the law of averages suggests that would be quite ridiculous.
The next day. Going about my business on the Discord, and when I check back from my work, a piece of news comes up that stops me in my tracks. The first girl’s seiyuu is getting married. She’s the fourth seiyuu to announce her marriage in the build-up to the new year, and my joy for her is unadulterated. I write a little prose about her on Reddit, and how she has been such the most wonderful discovery of the year for me. Well over an hour passes before it sinks in, and as the new year begins in Japan, I go through the motions of the game’s huge celebration: a clutch of new SSRs, and the realisation that, with twenty free 10-rolls coming, I am guaranteed to get the second card. The return of the game’s discount packs, and calculating what I’ve earned in the game to date, confirms that, no matter what, the first is in reach too, when she arrives. That’s it. I know I’ll be done with this game for sure soon.
An hour after that, something extraordinary happens. The marriage announcements aren’t done yet. A newspaper is reporting another seiyuu’s marriage. It’s…the second girl’s seiyuu. A couple hours later, she confirms it herself. What’s more, these two newly-weds have been friends since before they even took voice acting up. You could not make this up. My emotion is all over the place for them, euphoria flowing through me as if I’m hooked up to a whole mains’ worth of it. Happy New Year to me, indeed.
So it was with Aya Suzaki and Haruka Yoshimura. To both of them, and their new husbands, Takashi Ifukube and Shōgo Noda respectively, I give my hearty congratulations.
This moment sums up my new plight: getting ever more interested in the voices behind everything that happened here. Maybe this, and not any of the other games I’ve been looking at, is where I’ll gravitate towards once I’m done with this. After all, having seen what they were up to at Funky Dancing, their world looks like a lot of fun. Oh, and there’s someone called Ayaka Ohashi who’s been catching my notice ever since I found she was voicing Saaya…and Uzuki, at the same time. Maybe it’s a sign of the times that my next ‘best girl’ might, in fact, be a real one. That would be a fitting sign that I’ve escaped idol hell.
Two weeks later, thanks to a bounty of free rolls, I finally get Mika1. It was probably inevitable that, having managed to get three SSRs of hers in five 10-rolls, I would end up having to ‘spark’ the last one. But at least there was never any doubt I’d get her. Meanwhile, my jewel and free roll stocks are now so plentiful that raising the earnings required for Minami4 is no longer a concern. So now, for her, all there’s left to do is, as I have done for the past half-year, sit around and wait…
…and wait…
…and wait…
…and wait.
A lot happens in the meantime. A war threatens to break out. A modern sporting icon dies far too soon. The entire world is forced into a hiding from which it currently has no escape, and that will change it irrevocably when it does. And Hayate Hisekawa*, an idol that would not actually exist for another 10 months when Minami3 arrived, receives her second SSR.
Reality bites. But it’s too late.
*Her sister is thousands of times better and you will not change my mind, no matter how much you simp over Hayate.
30th April, 2020. Finally, finally, finally, she’s here. Minami’s 4th SSR. Of course, she is gloriously pretty.
Don’t tell me you can’t look right back at that glare. That right there is her ‘she wants the D’ face. (D is for ‘dollars’, of course.)
And I will get her, no question – I have enough rolls to ultimately pay up to a spark. Which I’m fully expecting to need. After all, I have not actually rolled a single Minami before. I’m doubtful it’s even possible, at least until I see it for myself. Then again, maybe it is. So. Will I finally legitimately roll a Minami Nitta?
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Yes, I will. And early enough for me to enjoy the rest of Cinfes and use all the jewels I don’t need now.
My next two Cinfes cards are Minami…
…and Minami again. Back-to-back.
I’ve rolled her three times in a matter of minutes. And I’ve spent two years trying. This is a momentous moment. Why couldn’t this have happened two years ago?! Think how much bother that would have saved. And money. One wonders if I needed to go through Secret Daybreak to make this all possible.
As if to prove that point, who shows up next?
Yes, Kanade. My best girl, bringing me back full circle to where my love for the game started. This is insane. It doesn’t matter any more, but it’s still insane.
I didn’t need to go to a spark now, which meant my last roll in Deresute for the foreseeable future beckoned. And who was in it?
…This is ironic on so many levels. Not only do I finally have the synergy I’ve been looking for forever when I don’t even need it any more, but it’s Shiki. My least favourite character. She was never gonna let me get away with it, was she? Oh well. I don’t hate her really. She’s a great character. Just batshit mental. And she makes a stupid noise when you level her up.
Still…can I really have her be my last ever SSR?
No, I couldn’t. So, I got a suptix. Paid up to a spark (it wasn’t that far). And got three more SSRs for my trouble.
Firstly, I ticketed the only unvoiced idol you should vote for this election. Vote Chizuru.
Secondly (if you discount the Syuko4 and Syuko2 I rolled back-to-back, for she wanted to join the party as well even though I already had all her SSRs) was an idol who had been one of my favourites at the beginning of my time in Idolmaster, but who had slipped back ever since. Still, better late than never, Mio.
The funny part about this is I should have used my suptix on her instead. Specifically, Mio1. That would have completed my auto set entirely and left me able to sit back and watch almost any song in the game go by (though to be fair, you only need a tricolor auto to do that anyway). Unfortunately, it turns out that two-and-a-half years with this game were not enough for me to learn that the only cards you can spark at Cinfes are…Cinfes cards. A dumb decision to sum up my Deresute career, that one.
Oh well. At least that gave me the perfect excuse to get this.
So, there you go. My last SSR. And it’s the next Cinderella Girl elect. Which is an even more poignant happening given the times.
I’m happy enough to draw a line here on doing much of anything else that isn’t of great significance in this game. I note with some interest that there are currently 2500 jewels being given out every day currently (as opposed to daily 10-rolls). Some have taken this as a hint that SSR5s are coming. I don’t care, really. Even if Kanade and Mika are two of the first, and I miss out on them cause I’m still using the jewels on Cinfes, I’m happy to leave this game right where it is, now. Ideally, I’d like to have taken this moment and use it as a springboard to further my real life, and focus on improving that now. Of course, that is no longer a possibility at this time. All I can do is sit and wait for that moment to come, again.
In the meantime, Bamco have opened up MVs to allow for every single costume to be selected, regardless of whether you have them or not. Which gives me the perfect method of finishing up this retrospective.
Syuko3 is in it. And thank god she is. I’d been waiting on her so long that god knows what I would’ve done had I not got her. I can’t remember now, actually. Probably cursed Minami again, and cut her off from my mind. For now though, she can have a stay of execution. Just as well, cause I couldn’t even stay mad at her for that long after the whole Minami3 debacle…which is why I promptly used the next limtix on her.
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