Drama kids gonna drama.
What They Say:
Episode #4: “Apathetic Coup d’Etat”
Just before the rookie battle, Eruna forms the After-School Six with the drama club to train, and Yuto deals with some childhood trauma.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Eruna takes to practicing her fight moves with the freshmen of the drama club. I still have no idea what all the animal themes have to do with drama class, but they are certainly an overdramatic group. Extremely loud as well, Eruna fits in quite well. Yuuto watches all of the exhausting antics with a forced smile.
Yuuto is revealed to be not the outgoing cool kid that he comes across as. In fact he admits to himself it’s all an act to get others to like him. He’s actually quite introverted, and blames that side of himself for why his mother left him with his father and took his perky younger brother with her instead. That’s also why he was so annoyed with Asuhi, because the younger student reminds Yuuto of his brother.
Yuuto’s self-consciousness proves to be misplaced. He wanders the woods alone and Seisa discovers him. He admits all of his concerns to her, but she doesn’t exactly seem like the best person to use as a sounding board for personal issues. Later Eruna finds him and he asks her why she’s still friendly with him considering she knows. Knows what? That you’re actually a mopey dingbat putting on an act? Eruna shrugs the whole thing off, as she should. Real or fake personality, Yuuto let her practice with his club so she doesn’t care.
Eruna finds out her first opponent in the rookie battle is Katai, the pink haired girl she met at the start of school. The competition takes place in a massive stadium, one that can apparently generate all manner of scenery to fight in. Eruna’s battle against Katai is set against a desert backdrop complete with adobe buildings and a sandstorm. I really like how flashy the fights are, even though the animators keep using the same tricks. This particular battle features a stampede of sumi-e horses baring down on our heroine. Eruna is finally able to use her finger pistol attack, although it’s a mystery as to why she can only use it in the heat of real battle. She wins her first round with style if not lacking a little grace. The faceless crowd goes wild!
In Summary:
We finally start to dig in to the supporting cast, but we start with a very unlikely candidate. Sadly I don’t think Yuuto is a very interesting character, and I find the drama club kids obnoxious. So you’re actually something of a quiet loner with divorced parents, it’s not exactly a grand tragedy there Yuuto. I’m happy that Eruna’s time training with them is over. If it wasn’t for the battle part of this episode it would have been an uneventful slog. I’m far more interested in seeing what sort of club Eruna would make and watching how her fights play out.
Episode Grade: B –
Streamed by: Funimation
Review Equipment: 27” iMac running OS 10.10.1, via Safari 8.0.2, FIOS 15/5 Mbps connection. Your milage may vary.
