

The project that Producer proposes to Executive Director Mishiro is called "Cinderella's Ball: Power of Smile." It's meant to be a complex event that will showcase the idols' individual strengths. Though Mishiro's proposal runs completely counter to this idea, she gives Producer permission to run with it. Producer and the idols will be able to prevent the gutting of their division if they show results within a certain time frame. The Cinderella Project idols are happy about this reprieve, but idols in other departments, particularly those whose strong suit is with variety shows, find themselves facing changes due to Mishiro's course of action. And one of them is the eccentric Nana Abe, who claims to be from the planet Usamin! Cat character idol Miku worries about getting the ax, while Riina worries about Miku...
Uzuki Shimamura is an ordinary girl who dreams of being an idol, so she goes to a special training school. One day, a producer for 346 Production shows up with the news that she’s one of three girls chosen for the Cinderella Project, even though she didn’t pass the audition the first time around. Uzuki is thrilled, but the project can’t start until the other two members are picked... The producer scouts Rin Shibuya, who he has in mind for the second opening. However, Rin isn’t interested in becoming an idol and turns him down flat...
Uzuki and Rin come to 346 Production for the first time. They meet the final member who won the idol version of a “second chance sweepstakes,” Mio Honda, as well as the 12 other eccentric members, and thus the project can finally start. The first job for the three newcomers is to do a publicity shoot, but their nervousness threatens to derail the whole thing. Somehow, they get through it, and well enough to impress superidol Mika Jougasaki, who suddenly hires the trio to be her backup dancers for an upcoming concert!