Well, I’m a little disappointed. I was really looking for a full Afterglow episode after Hello Happy and Pasupare had their own, but it was mostly a mix with a focus on Poppin’Party. Afterglow didn’t necessarily have to be there and if they weren’t, I don’t think the episode would have changed much. We did get to see the girls of Afterglow though, so it was something. We learned how they got together, giving a shoutout to two Afterglow events from the game. I would have liked more from them, and more than one song, but this was a really Tsugurific episode.
There’s a festival about to go down in the market street and some old ladies approached Tsugumi about getting more young people interested in the event. The old ladies were probably one of the more entertaining parts of the episode. So Tsugumi brings the market street youth group together, which is Tsugumi herself, Saya from her bakery, Hagumi from her family’s butcher shop, Tomoe and Ako as they’re part of the youth festival group, and Rokka representing Galaxy. Oh, and Moca because…well, she’s just a regular at Yamabuki Bakery. Not to beat around the bush, of course they all agree to perform. Afterglow has a spot and Tsugumi asks Saya to ask Popipa if they want to perform, which of course they say yes. They have problems with the rain but eventually the rain stops, both bands perform, and all ends well. I’m very disappointed that Afterglow only got one song this episode, and thankfully it was Y.O.L.O!!! as it’s one of their better songs, but it was real boring that we got to hear Happy Happy Party from Popipa again, even if it was just a little bit.
It was really fun to see Afterglow animated, each of their personalities stood out pretty well. Ran is the cool and quiet one, Tomoe is the older sister also with a cool aura, Himari is the excitable one, Tsugumi is the hardworking one, and Moca is…Moca. She has a good heart but she goes at her own pace, and she likes to eat. They’ve been childhood friends and have been together ever since until one day in middle school, Ran was separated when she was the only one put in another class. The story is a lot more emotional and sweet but the anime didn’t have time to show everything, but what was most important was that they showed that they decided to form a band so they could always be together, and that idea came from Tsugumi! Man I love her. It was nice showing the girls on the roof in front of the sunset trying to come up with their name as both things are really significant to them. The sunset being their clue, they ended up coming up with Afterglow. It was really smart to use Rokka as like an insert for the anime-only viewer to give us Afterglow’s backstory and thankfully we were able to learn about them. It was also really nice that Afterglow performed under the sunset, it was just very fitting. Y.O.L.O!!! is a great song, but the visuals weren’t all that amazing. I feel like the visuals for the performances have been going steadily down, which is sad because the performances are always something to look forward to. There’s not as much dynamic camera shots like from the first couple episodes so the performances are just starting to feel standard, maybe a little boring? Because as a fan of the game, I’ve heard every single song so I know what the song sounds like but not what the performance will be, so a nice performance would be fun.
By the end of the episode, Poppin’Party announces that they’ll do their self-sponsored show at Galaxy, surprising Rokka. So that’s fine, I guess. We saw the two final RAISE A SUILEN characters today, one terrifying Rokka and the last one recognizing Tae? Again, I sort of read the character bios for each girl from RAS but pretty much forgot everything, so I’m really interesting in seeing how Tae knows the black-haired one.
Now that we’re halfway into the season, I think the other bands are going to take a backseat again and we’re now going to fully focus on RAISE A SUILEN coming together, and Poppin’Party’s plot point. The other bands are probably going to appear here and there but won’t be the main focus as that’ll fall on RAS and Popipa. I’m more interested in RAS since they’re new, and also because I don’t really find Popipa to be that interesting. In terms of characters, Popipa is down in my list but maybe the anime will do something to elevate them.
