I’m surprised at this point that none of the guys have questioned Mashu’s motives at all. Yeah, he was the only one at their first live but then he invites them to have a battle of the bands with Gyroaxia, and now he personally invited them to take part in the Destiny Rock Festival. Which is a pretty huge deal! Argonavis has pretty much made a name for themselves from all of this and in huge part thanks to Mashu. Even though he’s Gyroaxia’s manager, he’s really been pushing for Argonavis’ success. Who is he and what exactly does he want?
I quite liked this episode a lot. We finally slowed things down some and had some time to see more personal character interactions, as well as some conflicts. The conflict we had this time around felt more believable to me compared to ones before, not that Yuto feeling down on himself wasn’t believable. It’s was just a little much that he wanted to quit the band just like that. Ren feeling down on himself felt believable because we could see that from last episode. The boys decide to take part in landing in the top two spots for the festival, and they end up uploading their performance of Starting Over to the festival’s website. But Ren hasn’t been very confident in the performance, or mainly in himself since the battle of the bands (which we don’t know the winner of). Standing on the stage singing alongside him, he was able to tell that he’s so far away from where Nayuta is talent wise. We could see from his expressions and body language, and I’m glad that we’re getting something like this from Ren. I do like Ren, but he’s been a little too passive. Which is a little funny to say because he’s usually the one to go out and move things along, like convincing Yuto to stay with the band, going to Nayuta’s place to persuade him as well. Ren sure does like to persuade people now that I think about it. But again, I like that we saw some inner conflict with Ren. Said conflict brought the band together and they sort of steered their way into their answer of what they want to do with Argonavis.
The boys know that they’re not at the same level as Gyroaxia, but like Rio said, is that who they are? The guys are still trying to figure out what they really want to be, but they know for sure that they’re more of a chill band. They love music and love to play it, as well as improving but not to the extent of being obsessed about that. They want to do what they can do, together. It was a very sweet scene and great that they’re all on the same page and that they can count on each other. Boss’ reaction was also a highlight, he’s so sweet. Too bad no one goes to Submariner because it’s always Argonavis.
The livestream was a great idea from Rio and I really love the new song. Honestly, I enjoy all the songs so I’m always happy whenever there’s a new one. It’s extra special that Ren wrote the lyrics for it this time (with the help of Wataru) because he was really able to write out his thoughts of growing and pushing on in the future, even if things stand in his way. He wants to do what we can with his own strength. While I’m not a fan of the Muse Asia subtitles (or maybe it’s the script?), I do appreciate that they translate the lyrics for the songs. I wish they had done that for Bang Dream, it would have made certain scenes even more stronger.
Banri’s hand injury is much worse than we all thought and it’s most likely going to get worse from here on out. Yuto notices Banri going to a neuro clinic and later finds out that he’s going there because his injuries from the auto accident was worse than he thought. He hit his head during the accident and his hands have gone a little numb, which we’ve seen multiple times when he’s dropped things. Again, I really wish we actually could have seen the accident because we don’t really know the extent of how bad it was. Banri can tell us what happened, but actually showing us while telling us is better. But, oh well, I don’t think we’re going to be getting that now. It was still a pretty good scene because it turned emotional when Banri admits that he genuinely loves the band. He was only interested in money before and was ready to bail when he had enough, but grew to love the guys and music more. He’s prepared to leave if his hands get worse, but you can see that it’s painful for him.
I know Banri will somehow be okay, but hand injuries are no joke. Being a drummer, and an especially powerful drummer like he is, it could definitely exacerbate the problem and just make his hands unusable. But, we’ll see what happens. The episode left off with an unfortunate turn, and it looks like there’s going to be more obstacles for Argonavis, whatever they are.
