Love Live! Sunshine!! Episode 4: Two Girls’ Feelings

Man, I just don’t…like Chika. Or Dia.

I’ve already mentioned why I don’t like Dia, but Chika is getting more and more on my nerves. She’s extremely pushy and rude, and she’s more of an airhead than Honoka was. Also, I just feel like she’s not taking this school idol business as seriously. Sure, the school isn’t closing down but she wants to compete in Love Live, and not writing lyrics and not listening to what other people have to say isn’t going to help her. I get she’s enthusiastic, but she’s so pushy and loud and I find her so irritating.

But this episode wasn’t about her, it was about Ruby and Hanamaru. I was worried about Ruby since the beginning. Reading what little there was about her, looking at some of her art, and just hearing her voice, she immediately was at the bottom of my list. I recall her bio saying she’s afraid of men, she’s also afraid of dogs, she’s extremely shy, and her voice is even worse than Hanayo’s. Basically, I feel like they were forcing this infant sort of personality on her, and I still think they are. She talks and sings like a baby. She hides behind people and objects when people speak to her, like a baby. And a couple episodes back Chika beckoned Ruby with a lollipop…like a baby. You see what I’m saying here? I can’t really say I grew to like Ruby this episode. I felt like her problem wasn’t too big of a deal, all she needed to do was to stand up to her sister and be like “Let me do whatever I want to do!” But of course with her personality, that was impossible, so she needed some extra pushing from Hanamaru. I’m glad Ruby did end up doing what she wanted to do, and stand up to Dia, but I don’t know. I don’t like what they’re doing to Ruby, and whenever I just hear her voice I want to tear my face off.

To me, the real star of the episode was Hanamaru. What an angel! When I had nothing to base my best girls on, I just had a feeling Maru would be my fave, or at least one of them. And she really is. I find her character to be really relatable, and I see a little of myself in her. Your situation doesn’t have to be the same as hers, such as reading books to escape a lonely reality. It could just be that you accept your life right now, but you know you could do more. Hanamaru is a very selfless girl. She puts other people’s happiness before hers, and she’s fine with that, even though she had an interest in school idols as well. She didn’t find herself suitable, but she was inspired by Rin Hoshizora. Rin had her own self doubts, thinking herself not girly enough to be a school idol, and Hanamaru was really touched by that. She saw herself in Rin. I love how self-aware the show is by making the girls’ faves from Muse being their clones (Dia liking Eli, Ruby liking Hanayo, etc.). I found it very fitting and a strong touch to make Hanamaru narrate some of the events that happened in this episode, just showing how much she’s been invested in books. I maybe would have liked if another episode was dedicated to Hanamaru, because I do feel like it was a little rushed near the end. Her quitting the club at the end would have been more powerful if it finished right there, but…I guess that’s fine too.

The mystery with the third years is getting more and more obvious and I just want everything to be revealed already because I’m tired of Kanan not doing anything and Dia being a bitch and Mari…squeezing titties and being overly touchy, which I’m not a fan of either. I don’t like all this sexualizing. :/ But yes, the whole mystery.

Now I’m not so sure if Dia and the other girls made an idol group, because wouldn’t Ruby had known about it? Dia and Ruby, we saw, used to get along with each other greatly and talked about school idols, Muse, all the time. They would dress up together and sing their songs together. If Dia had made a group, I’m sure Ruby would have been her biggest fan. Dia’s sudden hate for school idols, which we learned from Ruby started a little after starting high school, has to be another reason, and now I just don’t know. But then the other side of me thinks, yeah they made a group! Because Mari jumped on Kanan saying she’d recruit her as a school idol, and Kanan made such a painful expression. I don’t get it! Maybe they did make a group, who the hell knows, I just want some damn answers already.

People are still pointing out the similarities between Aquors and Muse, and…yes, I’ve mentioned it before. But now in this episode they made the running regimen with the stairs, and they claimed the roof of the school as their practice area. The reasoning behind these decisions was because Muse did it. They’re very inspired by Muse, but now it’s just making it seem a little same-y all over again. The way the episodes are going are the same as well, where the 4th episode was dedicated to recruiting the second years (except one). The 5th episode was for Nico, and the next episode is dedicated to Yoshiko who is obviously Nico’s counterpart. I did say that sometimes this series would take some similar situations and make it their own, such as with the concert, but some things like this…I’m not sure how I feel. The same with Chika wearing the “chi” symbol on her shirt like Honoka wearing the “ho” symbol on her training shirt. I just…eh. I’m not sure, I see different opinions about all this and I’m sort of in the middle.

Anyway, next episode is dedicated to my original best girl, and it’s about damn time! Shoutout to Yoshiko calling Hanamaru “Zuramaru”.