Wow, well I didn’t expect this to be resolved so quickly. I expected more drama and someone lashing out but they were able to apologize and move on. But not quite? Saya again is displaying her passiveness. Many times throughout the episode it looked like Saya really wanted to say something and she probably didn’t move on. I was hoping she would bring something up but she never did, especially after Arisa said that it was Saya that was looking forward to their performance the most, and it makes sense. This whole situation basically mirrored what happened with CHiSPA. Nothing was brought up though, but I feel like they will sooner or later.
Things started off a little awkward for Popipa but they all went together to apologize and thank the people that gave them a hand trying to buy them time. It was nice to see Tae own up to her mistakes and take more action this episode. I also was pretty surprised that Yukina wasn’t more harsher on them but she mentioned RAS and that’s where Tae finally tells Chuchu that she’s going to quit as the guitarist. While Chu Square has been irritating, her reaction was actually pretty fair. She’s really serious about RAISE A SUILEN and it feels shitty that Tae would just use them as a sort of stepping stone and just leave them after they became an immediate success. Of course, Tae should have been honest about her intentions from the start. If she had, well I don’t think Chu2 would have even taken her in the band. But they strike a deal where Tae will perform with RAS one last time before quitting. We also got to see from this episode how Layer (or Rei) and Tae met as kids. They struck a very quick friendship and would sing together at the park near the music school they both attended, until one day when Layer suddenly had to move because of her dad’s job. Before she moved, she and Tae sang one last time. Of course seeing her again and being able to play in a band with her is basically a dream come true, but being able to see her again was enough. Deep down, while playing music together with Tae was great, even she knew she couldn’t chain her down.
By the way, I’m loving Masking. She’s this super tough girl that could most likely kick your ass and has a scary scowl and deep voice, but she cries at sad stories, has cute animals on her jacket, and bakes yummy cakes. What do people call that? Gap moe or something? Whatever her archetype is, I love it. Also Maya is a huge fan of hers and her fangirling was adorable.
I feel like the past lackluster performances (except Roselia’s last week) were on purpose because they probably saved some budget for RAS’ concert. The moving camera, the angles, the zooms, the colors and everything were all extremely good this time. It was fun and dynamic and kind of badass, and they have a lot of energy and style so I really enjoyed it. I bet the animators were told to make RAS pop out. Maybe not everyone is on board with RAISE A SUILEN just yet but maybe this performance was able to sway people if RIOT from the game wasn’t enough. I listened to RAS’ other two songs and I’m really loving them and their sound. Each band has a very distinct sound and it’s fun that they’re all very different from each other and this includes RAS. They might even compete with Roselia for my favorite band music wise!
The performance being impressive, the girls of Popipa who were invited to watch noted how amazing the band was and how cool Tae was with them. Like she was a totally different person, and I agree. I feel like Popipa is going to feel like they’re holding Tae back based on their reactions. And while things were patched this episode and Tae reached an understand with RAS, Chu2 brings in the drama and walks up to Kasumi and the others and asks them to hand Tae over to her.
Dammit, Chuunibyou, why are you always in the way? I want to say she won’t get her way because Tae is adamant about leaving RAS and heading back with her friends, but seeing Popipa’s reactions after the show makes me feel like they might even ponder that. Like I predict, they might feel that they’re holding Tae back. I hope if they even feel like that, I hope whatever Saya is holding within she’ll finally let out and speak her mind. I hope they won’t forget about Saya, why else would the show focus a lot of shots on her if they weren’t going to do anything with her? Let’s see!
I feel like they’re going to use my least favorite trope which I call I Know About You Better Than You Do. Basically person A gets an offer to join prestigious organisation or school or whatever. Person A refuses because they love their current life and has prior arrangements and they don’t want to join that fancy party. They tell their friends, and the friends are all like Join It, It’s Important For You, etc, and actually manage to talk that person into joining Fancy Party. Then the friends are sad because person is leaving, and they can’t cry at farewell because they can’t tell the person that they’ll miss them, because it might make that person stay with less fancy but happier for them group. Everyone’s sad. Then something happens, they all get their feelings across and the person stays with happy group
Oof. I feel like that’s what’s going to happen too, especially after a screenshot I saw of next episode of a serious Kasumi talking to Tae. It would be unnecessary drama but I’ll wait before I judge. It would be cool to see Popipa completely shut down Chu2 but they’re not like Yukina. o.<