12 Days of Anime Teachers--#8: Producer

Sometimes, all you need is someone to show you the way forward.

While I enjoyed the first half of Cinderella Girls, it was lacking a bit of the soul searching “what does it really mean to go after your dreams” angle that the Idolm@ster anime had. The second half of the show addressed this with a heartbreaking subplot centering around Uzuki, who falls into a rut because she feels that everyone else is moving forward while she just doesn’t have the talent of ability to keep up anymore.

It’s a feeling that I’m familiar with in my own creative pursuits, so I really felt for Uzuki. It’s a hard spot to be in—you KNOW that you’re being irrational and doing the thing you love is a reward in and of itself, but when you see everyone around you surpassing you, you start to wonder if you’re really just wasting everyone’s time.

This is where Producer comes in. He was on the list for this year a while before I decided on the “teacher” theme because he was such a sweetheart and supportive of every girl on the cast. However, it wasn’t until this episode with Uzuki that I realized the true strength of his character—one by one, he teaches each of the girls to believe in themselves and move forward, whatever that might mean for them individually.

That was what made this scene so beautiful. He never doubts Uzuki for a second, but if she had told him right then and there that she didn’t want to continue, I have no doubt that he would have accepted her answer. However, he still believed that she has what it takes, even if she didn’t see it herself at that moment.

And sometimes all you really need is that kind of belief.

Screenshots are from Daisuki.net. Please support official simulcasts.

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