The iDOLM@STER SideM Episode 4

Move aside Jupiter, there’s a new bias in town and they are Beit!

Oh. My. God. I absolutely adore this trio! The dynamic between them feels so natural, so simple, and absolutely endearing! The three of them met and continue to currently work in a local shopping district. Pierre our Prince from a foreign land who is the frog mascot, Minori who works at the flower shop and Kyouji a cashier at convenience store. Among the three of them, this episode focused the most on Kyouji, who just shot up to the top of my Idolm@ster Side:M’s bias list – which will be developed over the course of the series, I’m sure. Until now, Touma was in my number one and only slot, but now that Kyouji is in the picture, we have a new leader on the board!

Kyouji is absolutely precious and I already love him to death (AND I JUST REALIZED THIS EPISODE HE HAS TWO DIFFERENT EYE COLORS~ SO PRETTY!!!!!). In the beginning of the episode, the poor guy really struggled to put up a smile, especially when he needs to for the camera (I feel your pain bro, I can’t force myself to smile either). So they decided to just roll with his cool and focused image. Later on in the episode though, Kyouji is able to smile and AHHHHHHH MY HEART! IT’S SO PRECIOUS! #PROTECTKYOUJISMILE

Kyouji was particularly irritated to see his family’s corporation building a large mall nearby the shopping district. The shop owners are worried they might lose business because of it, and Kyouji wants to do everything he can to help them compete against their new competitor by attracting more customers. So as a group, Beit decides to help out at the festival, where there both they and HighxJoker will do a collab performance.

But perhaps what appealed to me about Kyouji the most was while his family perceived his actions as cowardice, running away from his problems, Kyouji knew leaving his home and forging his own path was the way to go. Living in that house horded by expectations and being regarded as the shame to the family was suffocating. Leaving was the best decision he could have ever made, especially since it allowed him to meet Minori and Pierre.

Since he had left, Kyouji’s relationship with his family has been tense and he had little interest to reach out to them. That changed however when Pierre accidentally gets himself into a mishap of climbing into a truck that ends up driving off to god knows where. As result everyone thought he was kidnapped, and Kyouji didn’t hestitate to suggest that perhaps he will contact his father in hopes they coudl uiltize’s his family power and resources to ensure Pierre’s safety. This little detail though, seems to have been brought up only to be fizzled out the second Pierre calls on a payphone to let them know he’s okay. It honestly felt like forced writing, because in the end, we didn’t see him reach out to his family – so I’m guessing the only thing he did was consider it, but didn’t need to followed through since they knew where to get Pierre.

Speaking of Pierre, protect this precious angel. Sometimes characters who are from a “foreign land”, and a prince no less can either be annoying or flimsy characters. Pierre however, has this charm about him that is so likable. Though he is a prince, he certainly has an open-mind, he wants to experience new and different things and honestly, just acts like an average person. Not to mention, nothing he does feels forced, his character feels authentic.

Minori on the other hand, I swear to god – this guy, not only he can translate Pierre’s SP signals and gestures (which I will mention were absolutely hilarious), but he is one hell of a driver. I convinced he is actually either a former or undercover SP agent himself – nobody can tell me otherwise! He is also a total sweetheart (aren’t they all!) and is keen enough to notice and is ready to back up his friends when they are feeling down.
Also HOT DAMN, HE IS MIGHTY FINE!

Overall this was truly a feel-good episode. It was just so heartwarming, and nice~, and I really do love this trio, I really hope we will continue to see more of them in the future despite the fact Dramatic Stars are main unit of the series.

Next week the teachers are in action~

Random Note of the Week:
MVP of the episode gotta go to the SP Agents