IDOLiSH7 Episode 8

This episode started off on such a light-hearted note, but quickly became stressful (in a great way!) to watch. Everything descended into chaos: Yaotome’s composer lost his marbles and decided to ransack Idolish7’s dressing room, crushing Riku’s inhaler in the process. Then Riku sees it broken, he starts to panic which then worsens his condition, and then they are called out to perform earlier than scheduled, Iori notices, gets distracted and one thing leads to another and Idolish7 blew their performance, big time.

Ultimately, the one to blame is Yaotome’s Composer, who had no business going through their stuff in desperate attempt to steal their demo tape. But what frustrated me the most, was both Riku’s and Iori’s lack of communication with the team. First of all, it was terribly irresponsible for Riku to not tell anyone that his Inhaler broke. What happened if he had an attack? There’s no back up. Tsumugi should’ve been informed right away to at least look to prepare a new one (though honestly, it is something she herself should be carrying with her, regardless of Riku owning one himself!). Unfortunately for Riku, Iori picked up on his poor condition, which prompted first major mistake, which also so happened to be a catastrophic one that played a part in Idolish7’s demise.  That is one hell of a tough pill to swallow. You can’t blame him for running away. He was so ashamed of himself. Luckily his brother knew exactly where he would go, and was able to catch him, and was able to support him for the first time.

Iori may appear to be perfect, but today showed how how he too, can make mistakes. He is a selfless guy, and is always looking out for the team in hopes to help them attain the best results, but he also keeps too much to himself. He cannot shoulder the weight of the team alone. Instead of trying to solve the problem on his own, Iori should have consulted the team to figure out how they can cover Riku if it’s required. It’s not like they had no time at all, they had fifteen minutes to at least get everyone on the same page. Knowing what’s going on is better than being caught with your pants down.

Another major problem Iori has, (one that he probably doesn’t even realize himself), is his lack of faith in others. Today he didn’t have enough faith in Riku being able to pull through the concert. Another good example would be taking over Tsumugi’s responsibilities as manager. Because he (up until now) had the confidence he can do everything perfectly, he probably believed it was his job to help others and support them.

Amazingly, the ones who managed to keep a cool head and put on a stable performance were actually Nagi and Yamato, desperately trying to hold the group together. But the rest of the group lacked focus and lacked the trust that the individual members will be able to get back on their feet, prompting a soulless performance. And that’s yet another another thing they all really need to work on: Get in the zone, and stay in the zone. They are supposed to be entertainers, so they need to get into the mindset of one.

In the end, what caused Idolish7’s true demise was their lack of preparedness and faith in the rest of their team.

In other news, a particularly interesting yet crazy situation unfolded between Tsumugi and Yaotome’s CEO Sousuke. Tsumugi bumped into him by accident, and then when he saw her, he flipped out and grabbed her face with a sense of recognition. He definitely knows she is Otoharu’s daughter, but I also firmly believe there’s a lot more to it, and it’s connected to the bad blood between him and her father. Luckily for Tsumugi, Gaku came to the rescue, and as result he flew up my bias list like a rocket!. He barely have had any screentime, but I already love him to death.  You can tell he has such a big heart, looking out people in general, and even keeps his eyes peeled for talented groups like Idolish7 (who are targeted by his father), and he wants to help them grow and gain recognition. He was especially upset and frustrated at how they blew their opportunity, especially when he knows they can offer so much more.

Tenn on the other-hand, damn when he’s in business mode, he is ruthless. He had to stop watching Idolish7’s performance because it was so unbearable to watch, and then glared at Riku when they passed each other. I can’t imagine their encounter would have been a good one even if they encountered each other in the hall earlier. In fact, Riku probably would have been shaken one way or another. The only difference is, had they not gone back to the room the team probably would have been alerted of Riku’s condition and quickly prepare, perhaps that would have been a better road to the take.

Last but not least, we have to talk about Nagi. This dark horse starting to step out of the shadows since the last episode. Nagi’s character continued to intrigue me. I definitely underestimated his abilities, especially with how focused he can be when performing. This week he shown us what his role is in the group, and that is the morale booster. His job is to raise their spirits when they are feeling down. And he did just that. Another thing is that I am even more confident about is how he must know Zero personally. And based off the look he had last week when Iori was talking about the song, I have a strong feeling that perhaps the anonymous composer is Zero himself!