Man I do not like Sayaka at all, so while this gamble is probably the most unique, elaborate, and probably the most exciting we’ve ever gotten (especially this season) I feel like I won’t even get to enjoy it because of her. I really can’t wait to hear Kirari’s reasoning for having Sayaka stick around her because I just see her as an annoyance. It looks like we’ll get some backstory for her so I’m hoping that can make me like at least a little bit? Because I do not like her character type at all.
There’s another update on the election and we see a new top ten but Terano and Kirari reign in the top two places still. On the live broadcast, Runa asks those in the top ten for some words and when she picks Yumeko, Yumeko immediately calls out wanting to gamble against the president, and that’s when Sayaka intervenes. I’m going to be blunt, I find Sayaka to be pathetic and I have no idea what she sees in Kirari. Kirari is in no way a good person from what I can tell, and I can’t even say that Kirari even cares or respects Sayaka. Yumeko asked Kirari whether she kept Sayaka around for her rationality, but she just laughed it off. Yeah, I do want to wonder why she keeps her around. We see Midari describe Sayaka as she was in middle school. She was considered a genius as she placed at the top in every test, but Midari never thought of her as a genius because Sayaka simply studied every day, from day to night. But now that she’s in high school, it’s like that same obsession she had with studying has changed into a new obsession, now with Kirari. A very unhealthy obsession.
Sayaka probably has zero self-esteem. She absolutely can’t imagine her life without being by the president’s side and only wants the president to look at her and only her, which is why she challenges Yumeko to a gamble that’s not even connected to the election and Kirari volunteers to be the dealer. The Tower of Doors is really cool but wow that this school would just build a tower just for gambling. Hm. But it was visually very beautiful with those blue flowers, but the inside looks like these girls are in a different anime now. Still, the concept and tower itself is very cool and the rules of the game are simple. Just solve the problems on the door to move on down, just so they can grab the flower on the first floor and make it back up to the top floor.
But because Kirari can somehow read Sayaka’s mind, they upped the stakes and made it so the loser goes through one of the doors leading outside and basically die. Again, so this school can just allow students to kill themselves? So far no one has ever been killed, and we’ve had games in this anime where the stakes were high enough that Yumeko could have gotten herself killed but bullshit happens where it doesn’t go as planned. So, again, I really doubt anyone is going to die from this game. At least the tower itself is really cool.
The stakes were upped only because Kirari was able to figure out what Sayaka was thinking, which was if she lost that she would only be able to yearn for Kirari from a distance like any other passerby. But if she still has that pleasure, then she still hasn’t given up everything right? I guess. Because if she still yearns her from afar, Kirari still thinks that they hold some sort of connection. And hey, they can’t have that. Because that’s no fun, that means she’s not giving up everything. Hence the loser jumping out the fifth floor to their death. Kirari won’t have a connection with a corpse. Being willing to kill yourself over someone whose never really looked your way even though you’ve taken all their tasks like making their schedule, preparing their meals, etc., is insane but Sayaka agrees with a huge smile on her face. She is literally willing to do everything for this chick and I just don’t see why. She’s desperate and it’s pretty sad and pathetic. I take it that Sayaka probably has zero self esteem and has nothing to live for except for Kirari. What kind of crappy upbringing did she have for her to feel this way?
While Sayaka makes her way down, Yumeko is still on the fifth floor. As she picks a door leading to the outside, describing the door and tower like a blowjob, she solves the riddle on the door and it opens, but that’s where the episode ends.
I wonder how many episodes this is going to take? We only have three more episodes left and this looks like a very big deal, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if this Tower of Doors arc took up the rest of this season. But then it leaves me disappointed because if that’s the case, then virtually nothing would be accomplished from this season when it comes to the -bami family and this election. So…I don’t know. I’ll just enjoy what I can get from this last bit but I’ll most likely still be disappointed either way.
