It's tough to be a loser and know it.

On the other hand Miki is apparently an idiot savant like Yui Hirasawa. Only she's not an idiot.

Seriously though, the storyline of P-san descending into a funnel of being a loser, his desperation, and idols dealing with his increasingly erratic management style was reasonably well done. When I watched it, I felt that it did not go far enough, or the idols did not react strong enough. They could have staged a more effective intervention. Instead, everything was resolved by Miki alone, and that was somewhat unsatisfying (even Haruka's candy seemingly have gone to waste). But by now I realize that I miss a whole lot of messaging due to the language barrier, so perhaps it's all right.

UPDATE: For a contrarian take, check out what Divine writes:

It’s kind of hard to believe that I was going to let this series go unwatched let alone uncovered a month and a half ago. Good thing I took the plunge after A-1 Pictures’ visuals caught my eye, because IM@S is already busting out fully hand-drawn idol performances only six episodes in. Compare that to the second season of K-ON, where Kyoto Animation held out until the twentieth episode.

Yes, that dance was ok, but what about the rest of the episode? The worst came when girls applauded the TV. Remember how K-ON got bad rap for the deformed fingers? Well at least they moved properly!

I'm going to make some GIFs for the most eggregious cases next.

P.S. I'm just re-watching Nichijou 14 and there's this little moment when Mio is holding the yakisaba and she shakes it a little side to side, because she's so out of balance, mentally. Just how can anyone compare A-1's IM@S to that? I watched 6 episodes, and by now the only moment when A-1 came a little step closer was when Chihaya glanced back to Haruka in ryokan's lounge, and even that was sandwiched between two frames of mediocrity. The difference is enormous and can be seen by anyone with eyes!

UPDATE: Suguru joins the chorus:

think episode 6 of Idolmaster dropped my respect for Kyoani half a notch - I think Ryuuguu Komachi's performance beat anything K-ON (either single or multiple exclamation point version) put together. I keep thinking about the Thelma and Louise wannabe music video from K-ON! and it's not a flattering comparison. A-1 Pictures did, to be fair, cut to reaction shots and a brief conversation between Ritsuko and The Producer to save key frames, but still a pretty amazing effort.

Looks the world is out of step with me, is it not? He also carps about costumes with the best of them.

UPDATE: Zyl, however, straddles:

I still don’t understand how [Azusa's haircut] makes the group more balanced and it feels weird to see her with long hair in the OP now; the insert song didn’t grab me aurally or visually and I still like the OP more much.