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This is a brutal manga. Not only in premise, but in execution, trash. shows focuses on the lowest members of society, the trash of the human race. It's not entirely unexpected for a work devoted to assassins to be this way, but the grittiness that you'll find in trash. is more than just skin deep; it fearlessly tackles some of the darker aspects of the criminal world, without holding back and without being too melodramatic.

So, let's get into it: trash. is a manga that follows the exploits of two female assassins, Shirato "Francesca" Marin and Ishikawa "Bullet" Rushia, as they are contracted by the ... young yakuza boss and fellow high school girl Konomi Minoki. It's not exactly the most novel premise you'll find, by neither is it weak. It sets the stage pretty well for the events to come, though if one criticism is to be found, it might be: Why high school? For Minoki, it certainly adds an aspect to her character, but our two lady assassins have basically no discernible character depth relating to their identities as high school students. Regardless, Marin and Rushia's contract to Minoki makes the format of the manga fairly arc-based, episodic; basically you can expect each volume to be devoted to the dynamic duo taking out some target, or group of targets, and facing off against fellow thugs, criminal kingpins, and murderers for hire.

Let's talk about the smaller elements of the plot, the ones that really get me excited about this manga. Elsewhere, you'll find manga that deal with the bottom of society, and the scum therein, but rarely, in my experience, will you find them so committed to not leaving out the details. Not only will you find guns, drugs, and sex, but trash. puts the reader face to face with human trafficking, prostitution, physical, mental, and sexual torture, body modification, and a whole host of psychopathic lunatics that actually don't feel too over the top. There's more than one character that gets off on the misery of others, and although the main yakuza cast are placed somewhat as "the good guys", it's still fairly clear that nobody wins, nobody is free of sin when the name of the game is killing, and killing frequently. It's not that trash. gets its appeal from "edginess" or torture porn; it's just merely that as each brutal element is introduced, it doesn't feel all that forced, and it doesn't detract from the experience of reading the chapters, of furthering the plot.

As you might expect from such a premise, there isn't too terribly much character development in trash., at least not after the 31 chapters I've read so far. Rather, the character depth and change comes in the form of gradually learning the backstory of the assassins and criminals. This is something that trash. does surprisingly well, in my opinion. Yes, the scenarios are somewhat contrived, with too-lengthy exposition of past horrors being recalled precisely when that character relives a version of them in the present, but once again, it's not forced enough to take you out of the moment; it feels natural enough to work.

For the most part, it's easy to keep the characters separate, as they have strong, memorable personalities. I say "for the most part" because this is true primarily of the female characters, which comprise most of the cast. Most of the men are subsidiary to the women, not only in the main yakuza's hierarchical structure, but also in terms of characters depth and plot relevance... which is all fine, honestly. It doesn't feel like it loses anything by not having a majority of the characters being strong-willed strong-hearted strong men. In fact, having most of the main cast being women actually allows for some decent contrast in tone, with various moments of cuteness being appealed to, if not in the characters themselves, but in their perception of the world or situations around them. It feels pretty nice, as there's only so much dark, brooding cruelty that you can handle before you start to want at least a little bit of tone diversity.

The next thing to talk about would have to be the art, which is phenomenal. trash. is illustrated by the talented D.P, who among other things also illustrates Gun x Clover, and the similarities in style are very clear. It's worth noting that I actually think trash. is drawn a bit better; the character designs and set pieces tend to be a tad more minimalistic, which allows for a cleaner art style that is directly and satisfyingly contrasted with elements of hyper-detail, mostly pertaining to particularly gory executions. The fight scenes are dynamic yet easy to follow, which I appreciate. Too often, it's difficult to make out the exact movements of characters in a complex battle sequence, but the structure of the pages and the execution of each panel by D.P is good, very good, to the point where it's no trouble at all to piece together the fight sequences in your mind's eye. Additionally, the way character emotion is portrayed is particularly nice. With most of the characters living double lives, students by day, killers by night, the ability of the artist to separate these personas by facial expression and body language is pretty important, and it's done exceedingly well in trash.

Overall, it was impossible for me not to be drawn in by trash. as I was reading it. The action and plot development were well-paced, the characters and circumstances were addicting, and I was always eager to find out what would happen next, worried for the more vulnerable characters and excited for the stronger characters' opportunities to prove themselves. Not only is trash. similar to Gun x Clover, but it also feels a lot like Arachnid, another personal "Assassins killing assassins" favorite of mine.

Would I recommend trash. to you? Yes, I would, but conditionally. Like I've mentioned, it's got gore, it's got rape, it's got a whole host of rather heavy topics that honestly aren't for everyone. trash. does a decent job juggling those darker moments with occasional flashes of brighter merriment, but all in all, the tone of the work is dark and mean. If you don't mind that, then absolutely, I would recommend trash. to you. If you're a fan of those things, then why are you not reading it already?

tl;dr-
Story: 8.75/10. Well-paced and gripping in all the right ways, if not necessarily the most original manga
Art: 9.5/10. Detail is paid to all the right things, with plenty of ultra-detailed gore and a fair amount of fanservicey ecchi moments to top it off.
Characters: 8.75/10. Exciting and unique, though somewhat static. It's easy to find at least a few favorites amongst the cast.
Enjoyment: 10/10. A wild ride that won't leave you disappointed.
Overall: 9.4/10, would absolutely read again (and anxiously awaiting more chapters)

It's difficult to view The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls in a vacuum. For a story existing in the same universe as the original iDOLM@STER series, it seems only natural that it should be judged against it. The formula is a bit different this time, but an idol anime is an anime; at the end of the day, there are going to be things that I want from it.

Unfortunately, however, it may in this comparison against the original series where Cinderella Girls falls the most. There are differences and similarities both: 765 Pro was a small agency, whereas 346 is a massive one; 765 was already together ... in its entirety before the series started, whereas Cinderella Girls devotes some time to the formation of the group as a whole; both groups started as amateurs, and the anime follows their climb to relative stardom. But throughout almost any comparison you can make, Cinderella Girls falls short to the original. The characters are less memorable and more underdeveloped; the plot is relatively dry and the pacing worse; even the music isn't as good. However tempting it is to use the original iDOLM@STER as a ruler to measure all successes and failures of Cinderella Girls, I will attempt to judge it by its own merits, to the extent that it is possible.

A note: This review will have minor spoilers. I'll try to not go into specifics, so you can still watch it with fresh eyes.

Story: 5
The story of Cinderella Girls may easily be the worst part about it, as a whole. There were relatively basic problems in pacing and escalation of plot. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that in a series with so many characters would spend the leading episodes building up personalities and relationships, then start to break some of them down near the end, adding drama and suspense, only to finally (because this is a happy happy idol anime!) bring everyone back together through the power of hard work and friendship. However, even in this regard, Cinderella Girls fails rather convincingly. The primary complication you'd expect from an idol anime is the whole "I can't do this! I'm letting everyone down! I don't want to be an idol anymore, I quit!" was used far too early, and it undercut all subsequent drama. At least let us get to know and care for these girls before trying to pull them away and make us care about it.

Moreover, the way that Cinderella Girls attempted to actually introduce each of these characters to us is rather odd. It's to be expected that the early/middle part of the series be devoted to giving us a view of each of these up and coming idols, developing character and personality. However, Cinderella Girls attempted to go about this in a way that didn't work for me; by dividing the group into subunits, and giving each solo, duo, or triplet group their own episode. Sadly, this quickly developed into a formulaic approach that was far more boring than it should have been. The asymmetric distribution of screentime also led to skewed views of the characters; it's far easier to understand the characters that got a solo episode than it is those who had to split screentime 3 ways (with the exception of the "main 3", I suppose).

In the end, the buildup to the climax was plenty believable. I don't even consider it to be a spoiler to say that, of course, the anime ended with a group concert. The leadup was well enough paced, with it being a relatively natural step up from their previous activities. However, the drama (because there has to be drama!) was really quite weak. Why choose the character we arguably know the least about to be the centerpiece for the conflict of the episode? That's not to say there wasn't some decent resolution: The main 3 overcoming their problems since early on was nice to see, and I adored Anastasia's role at the end. However, though the ending wasn't terrible, neither was it wholly satisfying. It just ended things adequately.

Art: 9
Nothing bad to say here. They've done a fantastic job of making the series looking great, like the original before it. The concerts have always been the high point of animation for the iDOLM@STER series, and Cinderella Girls was no exception; it's worth noting, however, that I felt the actual number of performances to be lacking. Songs overlapped dialogue often and fully animated dance + song sequences were limited. That's a small criticism, however, seeing as the art in general was very good. Overall, this is probably the strongest area of the anime, together with its music.

Sound: 9
I think the easiest way to judge this section is, truly, by comparison. Speaking honestly, I think the music in Cinderella Girls was inferior to the original iDOLM@STER, and to other series, like Love Live. That's actually not saying too much though, because in my opinion the music from those other series was phenomenal. The music in Cinderella Girls was good; it was well composed, and the performances were exciting to listen to. Perhaps not as memorable as some other series, but good nonetheless. Oh, and for what it's worth, I think the OP is the strongest song by far (other than, maybe, the solo idol's piece)

The voice acting was actually quite strong, especially in the cases where it might typically break down. Of course, we had the girl that it seems every idol anime needs, adding an excess of "nyaa~~"s into every sentence, but we also had a Russian girl speaking broken Japanese, a producer that had difficulty being less formal, and girl who's country style accent was fun to listen to. The voice actors did a good job of matching the characters and imbuing them with life.

Characters: 6
I could talk about this forever, but I'll try not to. With 14 idols, it's impossible for things like this to not spiral into a discussion of "best girl". Certainly, some characters stood out more than others, but unfortunately, they often coincided with whichever characters were given more of the extremely limited screentime. As such, nearly all the characters seemed at most one dimensional, at worst simply walking representations of a single idiosyncrasy.

The "side" characters were actually some of the most interesting. Mika was a joy whenever she was on screen, and the Producer had just enough personality to keep it interesting (although the creeper/hentai jokes were a tad overused). The "from the sidelines" view of the other idols at 346 Production was fun to see, and of course I was delighted whenever a billboard or such would reference the 765 girls or Jupiter. Also, good ol' Yoshizawa~

(For what it's worth, my Top 3 "best girls" are Rin, Anastasia, and Mio, with Rika and Uzuki coming shortly after)

Enjoyment: 7
Boy did I try hard to enjoy this anime. As such, even a 7 might be somewhat inflated. The middle of it dragged on, and I found myself just starting to like some characters before they were wrenched away from the screen for 3-4 episodes. I held out for the songs, but having them performed almost exclusively by a small subset of the group was nearly uniformly disappointing. Then I held out for the end concert, and was only mildly disappointed; I came for the music and animation, and was rewarded in those, but was let down in the character department pretty heavily. It was hard to get behind the zany hijinks of this ragtag bunch, mainly because so much of the interpersonal antagonism felt surprisingly cruel-hearted. It'd be one thing of the pestering was lightly done, but often, in the cases of characters like Anzu or Riina, it actually was just pessimistic or mean.

Overall: 6
I watched this anime because I really wanted more idol anime. I like the themes of overcoming odds through hard work, of friendship and unity helping a group become greater than the sum of their parts. I like the music and the spectacle of the performances. I like the sense of struggling through training and growing because of it. Cinderella Girls touched on each of these, and satisfied my desire for them on the barest of levels. I hold some lingering respect for the series because of its resemblance to the original, which I love, and some resentment because it wasn't able to live up to it.

I would not recommend this anime to anyone who isn't looking specifically for an idol anime. The plot is not engaging, the characters are not particularly amazing, and you can get all the music an performance you need by looking up the songs on YouTube. If you're like me and just need to watch more idol anime, whether because you're obsessed with forming best girl lists, or because you want to relive your high school days of performance (like me), then Cinderella Girls will pass. Barely.