Love Live! Sunshine!! Episode 10

This week we take a break from all the touching drama from the last two episodes, and instead we’re treated with an episode full of hijinks. And I’ll be perfectly honest, I never really like the episode with hijinks. This episode wasn’t bad, I had some laughs, but it wasn’t the best episode.

We had a beach episode! No surprise there, right? Well, if Sunshine didn’t have a beach episode that would be a crime since they literally live right next to the beach. Dia, who has shown her true maniacal side has decided that Aquors needs to start a serious training regimen since the Love Live competition is near. Through her own methods, she was able to find Muse’s training regimen. But, it was actually the regimen that Umi had made before which none of them followed, so them trying to follow that one was hilarious. Dia tries to schedule these training sessions but Chika has to help out with a summer beach shack she promised, so the girls decide that they’ll all help Chika with the shack in the afternoons, and they can train in the mornings and the evenings when the weather is cooler. And this is when the hijinks start happening, with the girls playing around, Dia looking stupid, and no one actually training. Also, the shack was a piece of junk and there was a more popular one next to them, so they had to get the place in tip top shape and get attention for customers  to arrive.

We really saw some personalities shine this episode, particularly Dia. We knew Mari was an eccentric girl, but seeing Dia being so energetic, loud, and meme-y was quite the surprise. I knew she was overly passionate about school idols, so her trying to teach the girls the history of Love Live wasn’t a shocker. But…everything else was, especially with her little “comedy act” with Ruby in the beginning. We always saw Dia be such a serious and mature sister with Ruby, so to see her pet her sister’s head and say she did a “gweat job” was REALLY weird. I did like seeing Dia actually act like herself, the idol snob maniac.

It was fun watching the girls be all goofy. Mari going back to being genki and weird was a joy, and she makes a fun duo with Yoshiko. We saw You be all perfect again, as usual. Other than being a school idol, a swimmer, a designer, a seamstress, and just a plain ol’ good friend, apparently she can cook. She’s all around perfect…and I find her really boring. But I’ll talk about her later.

Seeing the girls have fun was nice, but the hijinks weren’t the important part of the episode. We had something between Chika and Riko…again. And I’m going to be that person and just say that they’re forcing this ship way too much. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Chika and Riko’s relationship, they grew to be very close friends pretty fast. I don’t know what to make of that “I love you” in the end. Riko said “daisuki” which can mean both “I like you” in a platonic or romantic way. But the fact that Riko randomly said it threw me off. I know from first-hand experience that girls say I love you to each other all the time as friends and it’s always platonic. But this is anime and people are always wearing their shipping goggles. But let’s be real here, considering the main demographic for this series, I don’t think they’re going to go anywhere with that.

Now the thing with the piano competition, I was surprised when Chika said it was okay for Riko to go ahead with it, because she could see that Riko found love for piano again. I say it’s surprising because Honoka would probably never had noticed. Chika is really different from Honoka in the sense that Chika actually pays attention to her friends’ feelings. Honoka was too preoccupied with Love Live that she didn’t know that Kotori had been acting weird, when she was hiding the fashion school thing. And then when she found out later, lashed out at her. Even though Chika is really into Love Live, she still pays attention to her friends, and I have to say…kudos to you, Chika.

But the thing that really bothered me with this Chika/Riko thing…was that it was Chika/Riko. Again, this forces the ship. But also, the rest of the girls have a right to know about Riko’s competition because it affects the whole group. Chika can’t just be the only one that knows Riko won’t be there for the Love Live prelims. Also, this bothers me because we’ve never really seen Riko interact with any of the other girls, just Chika. I would love to see Riko confide with the other girls as well and build a relationship with them and not just Chika, because so far Riko has only spoken to Chika the most and not anyone else. And maybe that just goes for the whole group dynamic. They’re probably going to tell the group later about the piano competition, but then if they’re okay with it, what about Love Live?

And it’s making me think that they’re just not going to enter Love Live at all. There’s probably going to be about two or three more episodes, and we’ve seen nothing. No song, no dance, no practice, no actual planning for Love Live until Dia mentioned it. They’ve barely become a full group now, and it’s plain to see that they’re not prepared. And Dia was right to want to teach them about Love Live since most of the girls seem very new to it all. The show has been focusing more on drama than the competition itself, so I have no idea where they’re going to go with it.

And next week seems even more evident that they’re not going to enter Love Live because the next episode looks You-centric. Which is good! What I wanted to talk about with You is that…she hasn’t had any time to shine. She’s plain, and she’s boring. Sorry. This whole time these past 10 episodes, I felt like You’s just been…there. Not really doing anything. We caught some glimpses this episode that You can see Chika being more preoccupied with Riko, and I think we’re going to see some jealousy and loneliness from her next episode. Which is great because I want You to have more character development. And I’ve been seeing this jealousy coming as I’ve said before, Chika and Riko hang out a lot. You feeling left out makes sense.

I’m thinking that Sunrise already has another season for Sunshine planned, and we’ll actually see them enter Love Live in that season because they don’t have time this season. Or…they might just jam-pack them in Love Live in the end. I hope not.