You’re so vain, you probably think this episode is about You. Actually, this episode is about You. No, not you…You!
What They Say:
Episode 11 – Aye Aye, My Friend!
Riko heads to Tokyo for her piano competition while You faces some struggles trying to fill in for her.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
BM: Time for the preliminary round of this year’s Love Live competition, and Aqours are entering as a team of eight – with Riko away to Tokyo for her piano recital, they’re having to work around her, with You getting to fill in her role. Which is causing her some jealousy issues, as she deals with her long-time best friend Chika now seeming to be more attached to Riko than to her…
Yes, it’s another Epic Drama episode.
GBS: Indeed. Now while I don’t have a specific problem with the basic concept of filling out You’s backstory and…uh…I don’t know…giving her a personality beyond just a fetish (uniforms) and a “profession” (swimmer), shouldn’t this have been done much earlier in the run?
BM: I think that given how the show has run with events so far, this is as early as they could have done this now, and I think it makes sense that it did become an issue, with last week’s events giving Chika/Riko shippers cause for celebration.
GBS: That’s true. Otherwise, someone other than Mari would have had to be drafted in as Mother Confessor, so to speak. The Chika/Riko shippers have been celebrating since the leap across the balcony though.
BM: I’d almost forgotten that scene.
GBS: It was burned into memory from the way my eyes rolled at the time.
BM: Lucky you. I think. Getting back to the story, though, I have to say that part of me thought that the way the ‘triangle’ was handled was kinda sweet, in its own way. But the effect of it was maybe also a bit overplayed.
GBS: Until this episode, while I’ve been deliberately oblivious to the “romantic” aspects involved, I never really thought of the three second-years as forming a potential love triangle…until here. You was mainly the supportive friend, never really much more. At least I can give an ounce of credit that they did not repeat the dynamic of the original show and have the three of them be inseparable childhood friends.
BM: One of a few breaks with the usual dynamic that – most notably the main performance of the episode being just the eight girls. To be expected from the way the story was unfolding, to be sure, but also a little bit of: Hey, look. We can do this with people missing.
GBS: Sure, though it’s not really much of a revelation. In real life, people get injured or can’t perform for one reason or another. If they could not manage it with 8…there’s no way they would ever make it to Love Live!
BM: True, and it’s a small point as well. But I’m looking for credit to give when a cynic might say there wasn’t a hell of a lot to go around.
GBS: I would look to You’s overhead throw of Mari. We should give credit for them recognizing that coming up from behind a girl and grabbing her chest is not acceptable behavior.
BM: Well yes, that was one of two things this episode that had me sighing “Oh, STOP IT” at the screen. Maybe things are different in Japan (doubt it, since it’s something only anime characters who’ve spent time in America do), but the Surprise Breast Grope is NEVER appropriate, and it helped push Mari’s obnoxiousness to a new high for me.
GBS: I hope for Japanese women this is just one of those pathetic loser imaginations of otaku creators and not something based upon real life. And as an American, I can say I’ve never seen a friendly breast grope so I have no idea why they imagine it is something that happens over here.
BM: Also from the Please Stop queue was Yohane’s latest appearance. I like Yoshiko, I liked the few scenes we go of her early in the series struggling with her chuuni tendencies and trying to ditch the ‘alternate personality’. I think there was a subject there that the series could have done some serious work with. But I so wish they’d go back to that line, and ditch the current ‘Yohane’s great!’ approach.
GBS: I was very leery of Yohane from the moment she appeared. It’s been one of the biggest criticisms of the show I’ve had from Episode 1. “A chuunibyou…really? Someone thought that was a good idea? *Sigh.” When they basically decided to tell Yoshiko to “own” her delusional personality, the eyeroll nearly ripped some muscles apart. The saving grace so far is that they limited her screen time to just the occasional comic relief scene, though there are so much better ways to do it.
Ruby and Hanamaru are just much more suited to providing good clean comic relief. Their reactions in the store, that’s all we needed. And Ruby, if course, seems to spazz out and flee at least once per episode. Repetitive…but they manage to create a new context and a new spit-take each time, so I’m good with it.
BM: No argument from me on that front – I’d be happy with Ruby doing her Rubesty (and resulting comic effects) for an episode all of its own.
GBS: Indeed. Perhaps that will be next week? Oh, wait. They need to introduce a plot at this point, don’t they? I mean, a short arc to wind up the season?
BM: Figuring two episodes to go, I’m expecting next week will be the prelim results and any fallout from that (and there’s bound to be some), then the finals the week after that. Not much time left to do anything with any of the Aqours girls who haven’t gotten the focus yet – and I’m assuming the Saint Snow girls will need to get a few scenes in there to deal with The Rivalry.
GBS: The question is: will we get a rehash of the original series (“Oh noes! We didn’t make it this time, but–there will be another one soon!”) or will they have passed the basics now and the second season (which I am assuming they’ll announced at the end of this season) will be their training and run up to the new Love Live! that’s apparently held in the Dome?
BM: That might make more sense than a one-season run to the title. Either way, though, more parochial matters are sure to be off the menu for now.
GBS: Sadly, with You’s turn in the spotlight over, we won’t have any more of her outlandish imaginings…which all seem to come straight out of otaku entertainment, whether it be manga or dating sims. Those made me both roll my eyes and laugh at the same time.
BM: I’ll call You’s imagination the highlight of the week, I think – but then there wasn’t really a high bar for that scene to beat.
GBS: Yeah. No Olympic record for going over that one.
In Summary:
So, more drama as the girls start the run down to their first competiton, but once again nothing in how the story plays out to really grab the attention or make you care about what’s going on. A few fun moments along the way, but not enough to save the episode from another resounding verdict of Meh.
Bryan’s Grade: C+
Greg’s Grade: C+ (B- for You’s imagination only)
Streamed By: FUNimation (US), Crunchyroll (UK)
Review Equipment:
Greg: Apple iMac with 12GB RAM, Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan.
Bryan: Apple MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM, Mac OS 10.11 El Capitan.