And all this time I thought it was better to imagine the audience in their underwear…
What They Say:
Haneru is a kid who’s always been into dancing and dreams of becoming a famous dancer like his idol Jey-El. One day while he’s practicing his moves at his usual spot he finds out it’s the same place where a girl named Kanon also practices and she’s secretly a famous dancer known as Rhythm who’s well known on the internet. After being impressed by her moves and finding out she’s been watching his, he decides to form a dance team with her.
The Review:
Content (warning as portions of this review may contain spoilers): So it appears that for the time being the show has decided to settle into doing character focused episodes. Last week’s was focused around Haneru, which was mostly okay but not as fun as the show usually is since he’s not as interesting as his teammates. This week’s however focuses on Kanon which makes for a much better piece as her character has a lot more to work with.
Kanon’s school is having a festival and she decides to invite her teammates to it as they become aware for the first time that she’s from a well off family. They ask her if she’s going to do any dancing for the festival, but she’s afraid too, partially because she’s nervous and also because she doesn’t want to risk her teachers or her family finding out about her street dancing. Of course one of her friends signs her up for it anyway and when she tries to back out of it her teacher finds out the truth. Kanon immediately assumes the worst case-scenario but it turns out her teacher doesn’t particularly care so long as she’s confident in doing it. This eventually causes her to change her mind about dancing for the festival and with a little advice from Haneru about imagining the audience as crips(with a stylish visual metaphor to boot)it goes off without a hitch.
For some time now the threat of Kanon’s upbringing being an issue loomed over the show, and it’s a pain because the idea of hanging out with people outside your social status is almost never handled well in fiction, usually resulting in extremely painful cliches. That plays a part in this week’s episode and thankfully while the usual pains of this plot exist on some level, the show manages to work around them pretty well. Instead the show ties it more into Kanon herself rather than her status, which makes for much better material.
The actual issue this week comes more from her lack of self-confidence, as she has a tendency to assume the worst is going to happen (I can relate). This extends into her assuming that she wouldn’t be able to dance with the others anymore if she got found out and that she wouldn’t be able to dance well in front of her classmates. When the first part of that turns out to be her just thinking too negatively it helps her outlook a bit, and also reaffirms that her passion for dance beats out those problems when she finally takes center stage in the end. Haneru’s role in the episode also works a bit better than in last week’s since his character is better when he plays off of her’s rather than being left on his own as he supports her in trying to be more positive. It’s good character material and while it’s not too exceptional for a kid’s show, it’s packaged in the show’s usual brand of fun, and makes for a full return to the show’s usual level of quality
In Summary: Kanon taking the spotlight for this week’s episode makes for a pretty good one, as her character has a lot more to it as opposed to Haneru last week. The episode also does a good job of painlessly getting through the issue of Kanon’s social status and hopefully that won’t need to be brought up again for a while. Next week’s episode looks to focus on Yuzuru and that should hopefully make for even more fun as he’s the most entertaining out of the team.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll, Hulu
