We go from one band to another this episode, from HHW to Pastel Palettes! From the crazy to a more serious, but still cute, episode with our lovely rock idols. They’re a band that’s come a long way and I appreciate that the anime showed a little bit of their debut show that was told in the game’s Band Story for Pasupare. While this episode was totally about Pasupare, with only a tiny bit of Popipa sprinkled in, it was mostly about Chisato and Aya. They’re a duo with an interesting history and seeing them come together is always a joy for me.
With their rising popularity and fame, Pastel Palettes has gotten a new gig at one of the biggest girl group concerts in the country, WIF. Of course they’re all really excited for this, but learning that Yura Yura Ring-Dong-Dance is in their set list, Chisato shows a lot of concern. Yura Yura is her duet with Aya and Aya is really excited in doing that song because they haven’t done it in awhile. But Chisato is struggling with playing and singing at the same time, so she always turns down Aya’s request in practicing the song in rehearsal. But as usual since Chisato is also a very famous actress, she has to balance her idol time, rehearsal time, and actress time since she has a role in a TV show. But in secret, Chisato books herself some rehearsal time in studios around the city so she can practice and improve on her own. I found this really interesting because I think this is the first time that Chisato has shown lack of confidence in her own playing rather than her acting (which one game event story was about). Not wanting to worry her band members and to continue to put up that professional side of hers, she keeps it a secret until Tae finds out as she worked in the studios Chisato booked. Which was honestly so hilarious. Maya was able to sort of figure out when she saw Chisato’s bass strings worn out, but this secrecy causes misunderstandings with Aya, thinking that her singing is bad that Chisato doesn’t want to practice Yura Yura with her. And of course that’s not the case.
Chisato got a lot of flack from the game fans after people read Pasupare’s band story. She was a very harsh and realistic character that didn’t quite care about Pasupare at first and would butt heads with Aya a lot related to hard work and dreams, but she soon learned to really care about them in the end with the band becoming something important to her personally rather than a good opportunity professionally. I could understand people’s dislike at first, but Chisato really proved herself later on and while she can be direct and blunt, she’s still very caring. Chisato’s whole character is so interesting to me, and I honestly think she’s one of the best written and realistic characters in the whole game. But I love ALL of Pastel Palettes.
It’s fun seeing them together, with Hina’s boppin’ personality, Maya’s “Huhehe~”, and Eve’s BUSHIDO! Of the girls, I think Eve benefits from the anime. I don’t quite know what it is, maybe it was the sword/umbrella, but Eve sort of has more substance and personality than the game shows sometimes. Yeah, maybe it was that umbrella with the sword hilt. And her “ninja” spying with Kasumi got laughs out of me.
The scene in the rain in the end with Aya and Chisato reminded me of the rain scene in their band story. The rain scene in the game with Aya selling Pasupare tickets and Chisato in the end joining her was the shift of their relationship and of Pastel Palette’s story. While they didn’t totally see eye to eye in that moment, they became a band and showed their support for each other. The scene in the anime just shows how far their friendship has gone from walking on eggshells to full on love, trust, and support. Just…man! It’s so good! I’m so glad that the anime also mentioned their debut concert. For people (anime-only) that don’t know, Pastel Palettes was formed on a whim by their talent agency. None of the girls knew each other and were brought over to create this band because the agency thought it would be huge and different for idols to be in a band. But the agency didn’t want them to play their instruments, even though Hina and Maya already had experience playing their respective instruments. And Aya was to lip sync. Some of the characters weren’t on board with this but they complied, and in their debut concert, they were outed in front of everyone when they had technical difficulties with the music. It was honestly so heartbreaking and humiliating. Seeing it animated hurt my heart, but at least they didn’t animate Aya failing to sing but freezing up in fright. Now THAT really would have killed me.
I personally think that Pastel Palettes had the most interesting band stories in the game, and I kind of wished the anime would have taken this season to animate the band stories for all five bands instead of doing…this. Animating the band stories would have given the non-game players a chance to experience the game’s stories and the chance to really get to know all of the characters outside of Poppin Party. It’s a missed opportunity.
I do have to admit that the anime’s pacing is weird. They made this season look like it was going to be about Poppin’ Party but with giving each band their own respective episode, it brings the main plot to a halt. Though I appreciate these episodes. This episode was fun, and every single Chisato and Tae moment cracked me up, especially when Chisato appeared behind Eve and Kasumi out of nowhere. Her expressions were priceless as well.
In the end, Pastel Palettes performed at WIF though on a smaller stage, but it was still successful. And hey, we saw Pareo! She’s adorable, I can’t wait till we offcially get to meet her. Next week is Afterglow hype! They’re another band I absolutely love and I can’t wait to see the childhood friends in anime form. Also, we’re gonna get Y.O.L.O!!! as one of the songs!! Hope we also get Hey-day Capriccio too. We got some of the better Pasupare songs this episode, Yura Yura being one of my favorites so that was great~ Aya and Chisato’s voices go well together.
