Now that all the drama is out of the way, everything is back to normal and Poppin’Party can finally go through with their self-sponsored show. We see cameos from all the bands, everyone comes together, and we got the newest rendition of Returns and it was beautiful. Of course we still needed some tiny conflict when it comes to Chuchu but that matter was dealt with very quickly.
Chu2 is not giving up when it comes to recruiting Tae back to RAS. It’s kind of sad, really. She’s so overconfident that she’ll get Tae back that she’s already even planned a welcome party for her that Layer is helping with. Even Masking can see that she’s jumping the gun. It was pretty crappy that Chu2 would go up to Popipa and make the offer again, but thankfully this time Tae shot her down immediately. Which, thank god she did. She was still very kind and grateful though for the time she spent performing with RAS and she thanked Chu2 for the opportunity but made it pretty clear that she’s with Popipa and she always will be, which ended up angering Chu2. I hope this matter is over with now. I’m glad Tae finally stood up for herself and made herself clear, but Chu2 threw a tantrum over it. Again, I don’t have the highest of opinions for the members of RAS but Chu2 really is irritating. Even though she’s a bilingual genius who’s prepared enough to be a producer, she’s still a thirteen/fourteen year old and she definitely shows that with her immature attitude. I don’t want to simply hate on her but there really hasn’t been a moment where her character was redeemed. I do like the fact that she has a lot of love and passion for RAS, but I feel like that passion is mainly aimed towards destroying Roselia and now Popipa just to make them look like fools. Sorry, Chu2, I can’t get behind that. We know we’ll be getting a third season this year, so I hope in that third season we’ll get more development and backstory for the RAS girls, especially Chu2 and Pareo.
Now that things are back to normal, Popipa is kicking things into high gear because the date of their self-sponsored show is coming close. This episode was mainly a preparation episode for the show so nothing too exciting happened other than that Chu2 scene, but the episode was still fun nonetheless. Popipa got the setlists from Pastel Palettes, Hello Happy, and Afterglow. At first they weren’t sure about Roselia since they never heard back from them, so when the girls went to them to apologize and ask again for them to perform, Yukina replies with a simple yes and Rinko hands the set list. They were always going to perform with them, they were just preparing. But Yukina asked for sure if Popipa were prepared, alluding to their mess from before. Of course we know that they are so things just keep going up from here.
Poppin’Party really is back in full swing. I mentioned when the last time they did their cheer it was out of sync and disconnected. This time, now that the girls are together and on the same page and things are well, their cheer was perfect. With getting all the bands’ set lists and preparing with flyers and at Galaxy, the girls get together to go over their own set list. We know we would get Returns but I forgot that Kasumi was working on another song and we heard a little bit of it and it was cute. I just assumed that Returns would be the new song but it’s cool we’ll get another one!
Donned in their Kizuna Music outfits, the girls go out onto the stage to perform their band rendition of Returns. Since it’s a song about Popipa, Tae gave Kasumi the reigns to sing the song herself. The performance was pretty nice, the close-ups on Kasumi were pretty impactful. This song…it’s really something. For the longest time Teardrops has been my favorite Popipa song but Returns might even take that spot. The lyrics of the song are really deep and make me emotional, plus Kasumi’s gorgeous voice and the awesome instrumentation just make this song one of the best they’ve ever put out. Plus, this song I feel is one of the more different songs Popipa has ever put out. Their songs are usually fun and cutesy and about mundane things like having fun at festivals, hanging out and shopping, or just having fun in general. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But the whole mood of Returns, possibly because of the events that led up to the song and the fact that it’s a song Tae wrote with all of her emotions, it evokes a really different and powerful feeling than their other songs. Obviously, I love this song a lot and I can’t wait to hear the whole thing. I also can’t wait to hear the other new song.
It looks like the season finale is going to be a musical episode and honestly I didn’t expect anything else. Closing this season with all the bands performing together is perfect and I hope we hear some of their other songs and not the same ones we heard before. I mean, I saw Hey-day Capriccio on Afterglow’s set list and please…I’m begging, please let them perform Hey-day. It would be amazing. Either way, I can’t wait to just sit back next week and just enjoy all the songs and cheer on the girls like Hina and Tomoe were cheering on their sisters and you have to admit, that was the highlight of the episode. :’)
Chu2 is the most interesting and well written character of the season.
I won’t deny that she’s interesting. She’s obviously really intelligent being bilingual and having the skills to put together a band and even plan their debut concert, and she has a lot of love for RAS. I do think she’s really interesting, but I can’t totally get behind her character as of right now. But I think my opinion of her will change when she gets her own focus episode.