Love Live! Sunshine!! Episode 9: Young DREAMER!

Finally, we’ve finally had an episode dedicated to the third years. Namely, Mari and Kanan since the conflict really dealt with them than with Dia. Up to this point I literally knew nothing about Kanan. She appeared in the first episode, and a couple times throughout the show she’s appeared and said maybe one line, or she just would not be in episodes completely. It’s episode 9 and she barely got her time to shine now, which is long overdue. But here it is, and I enjoyed this episode a lot. And yes, my sensitive ass got emotional near the end with Mari and Kanan in the club room.

I can now say I have a better grasp of Kanan’s character, and I really like her. She can actually be quite ruthless but we know she doesn’t mean what she says. Kanan is the type of person to put other people before herself. Everything that happened is because Kanan wanted better for Mari. They’ve been friends for such a long time, ever since they were little girls, and we can see that they care for each other greatly. So Mari, to see Kanan change drastically and talk to her so coldly hurts. Saying things like “I don’t want to see you”, ouch. But she only said those things because she really does love Mari. Now that Kanan has returned to school, Mari continues to try to recruit Kanan even more. At this point we still think that Kanan doesn’t want to be a school idol because of the trauma from their performance, but we learn otherwise.

We learn that Mari had gotten the opportunity to study abroad. This is an opportunity anybody would want because it could open doors for you. But Mari declined the offer because she wanted to stick being a school idol, and Kanan overheard this. Mari also told her and Dia in the club room. On the day of the performance in Tokyo, Mari also had an injury. When they went out to perform, we know that they didn’t sing. But we know now, that Kanan didn’t sing on purpose. She used this failure as an excuse to quit being a school idol, along with Dia, so Mari could study abroad. Dia knew all of this and she told the girls of Aquors, and Mari, at her house.

It was interesting seeing Mari’s character this episode. We always saw her as this weird, quirky, “It’s joke!” character. Seeing her serious side was so refreshing. Knowing the truth now, she was upset. And rightly so. It’s nice that Kanan always looked after her, but she never took Mari’s feelings into consideration and never asked what she really wanted. Mari runs to the club room at school and Kanan arrives moments later. The yelling, the slap, the crying, the hugging. It was such a touching moment because they could finally mend the wounds in their friendship, now that the truth was out. I see that hugging is a big part of their friendship, from what we saw last episode, and seeing them as little girls. So them hugging instead of being mad at each other was a big step for them. So now, they have the understanding that they need to tell each other what they think, and take each other’s feeling into consideration.

As much as this episode was about Kanan and Mari, I really think they should have included more of Dia because she was just as much in fault too. She was withholding information the entire time and she went with Kanan’s actions without telling Mari. We know that Kanan didn’t sing on purpose, so I wonder if Dia knew she wasn’t so she didn’t sing either, or if she really did choke on stage along with Mari. We don’t know if Dia knew what Kanan was planning to do, or if she found out later. I feel like she did go along with Kanan because she mentioned Mari’s injury and that it could have gone worse if they had performed. And that makes me think that Dia agreed to purposely screwing up so Mari wouldn’t turn down a big opportunity to a bright future. So if that’s the case, I think Mari should have gotten equally upset with Dia for hiding all of that for years. But we never really got Dia’s own opinions on the matter, so this is mostly speculation, but I think all of what I said was likely. But the fact that I have to speculate is a little annoying, I wish Dia had more to do with it. But honestly, Kanan and Mari needed more time for themselves since their characters were never fleshed out until now.

And by the end of the episode, the third years finally join Aquors and we have the full group now. Their song was cute, and the performance itself was really pretty. The traditional clothing was a nice touch, the fireworks were pretty. All in all, pretty standard. Still not my favorite song of theirs. In the very end, we find out from Kanan that their group name was also called Aquors. Apparently, when Chika, You, and Riko were trying to figure out a name for the group, Dia snuck onto the beach and wrote the name Aquors there. First, that’s hilarious. Second, that’s also ridiculous. Out of all the names that were written in the sand, the trio’s name would be chosen? Out of ALL of those names, the third year’s name was chosen. That’s really unlikely to happen and kind of bullshit, but…okay. Fine.

All in all, a great episode. I’m so glad the third years finally joined the group, and even more glad that Kanan finally had her time to shine. I really like her, and Mari also grew on me because I was mainly indifferent towards her. Now that Aquors has a bigger group, I wonder if that’ll boost their popularity. And since the third years have done the school idol thing longer than the current group, they can use their experience to help the group improve.

Hopefully, no more tears. :’)