26 September 2011: But I LIKED The IDOLM@STER TV episode 12, "The Courtship of Miki Hoshii"
Producer and Miki cross a bridge.
"This was as bad as ep.3, and for the same reason."
Amidst concern regarding the lack of primary sources confirming the purported two-cour length of The IDOLM@STER TV comes the above lament by ani-nouto. This surprises me somewhat, because I really liked episode 12, and not just because Miki is second only to Chihaya in my iM@S lineup.
Miki kills time.
Episode 12 confirmed what I had suspected about Miki. She is lazy and undisciplined but has always been able to skate by thanks to her looks and considerable talent for apparently everything she tries. She's always had it easy and even her parents make no demands of this teenager. Miki spends most of episode 12 frivolously whiling away her time with Producer in tow as he tries to woo her back to 765PRO. Doesn't this girl go to school? Why is she being so stubborn over a pretty immature misunderstanding on her part?
Producer is happiest when Miki is perky.
The answer, of course (or at least so I hope), providing The IDOLM@STER TV actually is 25 episodes, is that Miki has a lot of growing up to do. That's okay, we've got time. I stand by my prediction that Miki is The Chosen One who will ultimately be Producer's salvation, if not all of 765PRO's. She'll have to mature a bit to get there, but I feel optimistic we'll see that progression during the remainder of the season. After all, Producer winning Miki over in episode 12 was much better done I would have expected. Typically these things seem to turn on a single bombastic speech about the Otaku Virtues coinciding with some unlikely Important Event. In the instant case, however, I really feel Producer and Miki got somewhere together, and both became better for it.
Try to ignore Azusa's hair for now.
In other news, I don't think The IDOLM@STER TV is going to delay this Live much longer. Since anime loves to put spoilers in its OPs and EDs, I fully expect the current Live to be the warmup act for the big, important Live at the end of the season—the one that pulls the old gunslinger out of retirement.
