EPISODE 2
Once Chu2 wants something, she doesn’t stop her pursue of it. She wants nothing more than for RAS to be a perfect and powerful band strong enough to defeat Roselia and Poppin Party, and she’s found the guitarist to help her with her goal. However, Rokka immediately said no at the live and honestly Rokka is pretty afraid of Chu2. But being as abrasive as she is, Chu2 continues her pursuit.
I would say the episode was alright. A huge portion of it was Chu2 and Pareo literally chasing Rokka around in a silly fashion. Though I do admit I found the part where Afterglow were cheering for Rokka as spectators during the chase gave me a really good laugh. And Pareo panting like a dog was…strange. I know she’s super loyal to Chu2 but my god. Anyway, it’s obvious why Rokka has her reservations from joining RAS. For one thing, Chu2 scares her. Second, and probably the biggest reason, is that they’re the band that said that they’re going to beat Poppin Party and Roselia to a pulp. Rokka absolutely loves and adores Popipa so of course there would be no way that she would want to join them. So when Chu2 approaches her, she screams and runs off. And Chu2 didn’t want to give up, going so far as to finding her school, getting permission to go inside, then chasing her after school all for her precious megane gurl. Thankfully Rokka was able to escape (even though Hagumi almost screwed up), but Pareo found her later. She was calm Pareo and carefully explained why RAS would love her in the band, and she left it at that. Chu2 also had a quick run in with Yukina at the train station, and her lofty girls made Yukina change her mind about the Bandori. I…feel bad for Roselia.
But I knew that if it wasn’t going to be Chu2 convincing Rokka, it would be Masking for sure since they’ve had run-ins a lot. After her cleaning duties, Rokka grabs her guitar and, as the kids says, shreds it. Masking walks in and is completely mesmerized, and just with that she grabs Rokka and drags her to the studio. I don’t blame Rokka for screaming so much, but my god she screamed throughout the entire episode. Just a bunch of HEEEEEE!!!
Thankfully Layer is more aware of Rokka’s feelings. Layer is pretty level headed so I wish she kind of would tell Chu2 to back off and be less aggressive with literally everything. Anyway, they all get in the booth to perform RIOT with Rokka and it seems to sound pretty great to Layer and Pareo, but not with Masking and Chu2. And funny enough, after all the harrassment, Chu2 says she doesn’t want someone who censors their own music, and proceeds to fail her. Because apparently Rokka held back? But wow, you’d think that maybe Chu2 would give her another chance after all that chasing around. Not going to lie, that kind of annoys me. Also, it looked like Rokka was actually enjoying herself and that rejection seemed to affect her. I mean, Rokka has always wanted to be in a band and for once she was able to experience it at least a little bit. Maybe she was finally turning around when she realized how fun it was. Will Ms. Chuchu give her another chance, will there be fighting within the group? We’ll see. I’m just so glad we’re getting more RAS and getting a lot of focus on them since they needed it.
Popipa is in for the Bandori and Roselia has also agreed to to join in. It sounds like Afterglow is going to pass since they want to perform in the marketplace festival. We haven’t gotten much of Pastel Palettes or HHW so far except for cameos so we still don’t know about them, but I’m sure they’ll join one way or another. We still got more RAS drama to get to!
EPISODE 3
I really wished they had included the lyrics in the performance. Step x Step was specifically for Rokka and it was enough to make her come to a decision, but it’s not like we know what the song was saying. That’s very annoying. :/
This episode was a simple one, but the next step to Rokka finally joining RAS. After her failed audition with them made her pretty sad, and just like I thought, she’s very conflicted about it all. She doesn’t like what they’re setting off to do but she realized how fun it was to play in a band, with other people that have the same passion as her. But then it was just snatched from her. She tries to play it off like it doesn’t bug her, but of course it’s obvious.
Poppin Party are the ones to notice this and it was nice of Tae to be there for her and have a chat with her. And because she’s Tae, she’s a weirdo about it and she gives me a laugh when she passes out in the bath. Also thank you for not making that scene fanservicy or strange like many other shows do. So Poppin Party get to working on their new song and Arisa is so super into it, which isn’t too surprising but it’s so fun to watch her like this. RIP another one of her bonsai trees, she looked pretty sad selling it. Wanting to make their new song even more special, Popipa did a really cool thing this time around where Saya changed up her drum set (or bought it?), and the money Arisa got from selling her tree she used to buy a keytar, similar to what Eve in Pastel Palettes uses. Because the song is called Step x Step, and I guess they were telling Rokka to take that step towards her dreams, they added a tiny bit of choreography to the song. If you can even call it choreography, they simply marched in place. I understand why Saya had to change up her equipment, but I don’t think Arisa necessarily needed to change and get a new keyboard to march in place since she’s usually always standing with her other keyboard. I guess it’s so it’s easier to see? Anyway, the song sounded nice and sweet. Again, I wished we had gotten the lyrics because then it would have made the scene even more special, but oh well.
Rokka heads over to RAS’ place with Masking’s help and she pleads to Chu2 for another chance, but she has a bit of a stronger personality now. The other members are more willing to give her a chance so Chu2 allows her to play guitar, this time on her own. Finally, Rokka kills it. It’s awesome hearing just these instrumentals without all the singing, just pure guitar goodness. Honestly, Rokka really is amazing at what she does and finally she was able to prove herself and she gave it all she had without all the inner conflict. I’m still not the biggest Rokka fan, I think she’s a nice girl and all, but I do admit that she can be a badass and I am happy for her. Now she’s finally got what she’s always wanted, which is to be with a band. Even though she’s a temporary guitarist for now…
Again, simple episode but I’m glad Rokka made that big step. Yes, Popipa helped her and all but she still did it herself. And her friendship with Popipa is really sweet. The Bang Dream competition is already underway it seems like and the preliminaries have started. The bands that entered can pick a venue and perform as many times as they want in order to rack up the votes, and unsurprisingly Roselia is dominating the votes, with RAS right behind them. Popipa didn’t perform until the end, and they didn’t go up against anyone but had a full room, so they should be fine but it’ll be interesting to see how many more performances they’ll do and how high they’ll make in the prelims.
It was adorable seeing Hina and Tomoe gushing over their sisters and voting for them. At least for right now, it looks like this season we’ll mostly be spending time on RAS, as well as Popipa and Roselia. And it makes sense I suppose, mostly on RAS’ side. And the other two bands are the ones that carry the series when it comes to lives. We haven’t really seen much of the other bands except for Afterglow much, but we don’t know if the Bandori will take up the entire season or maybe just part of it like the second season did with its plot. We might not get band-focused episodes anymore and they’ll just stick with cameos this time around, which I guess is fine since those particular episodes did kind of mess with the flow of the plot. So, it’s fine.
RAS is complete and it looks like we’ll be seeing them perform next time. And I hope with every fiber of my being that it’s Expose burn out because I love that song so much.
