IDOLiSH7: Second Beat! Episode 10

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I knew another bomb was gonna drop, but man…. everything was fine until Aya shows up in front of Sogo and starts spitting things about pleasing her benefactor and trying to save “him”. After that I just wanted to scream in frustration. Also way to hurt us with the solo edition of the ED Song because Momo lost his voice. Just what we needed, more pain and suffering.

Let’s start off with the most important part of the episode: Re:Vale’s backstory.

Re:Vale started out as indie artists consisting Yuki and his partner. They were best friends who wrote songs, sung together, and were able to generate a strong following. And among their fans who loved them was Momo. One day they were approached by Zero’s Manager (Kujo, ugh) who sought to sign them into their agency, but they turned down his offer due to the difference of artistic direction.

Sometime after that, just after finding an agency that matched them and were preparing for their debut, Yuki and his partner experienced an accident during their performance, and Momo was there to witness it all. A cieling light suddenly fell, and Yuki’s partner pushed him out of the way to protect him and was gravely wounded. Having lost the deal with the agency they were going to sign debut with, Kujo swooped in and offered a deal Yuki could not refuse: Introduce them to a hospital that could treat his partner’s scar in exchange for them signing with him. Despite their artistic differences, this time Yuki agreed.

However they had signed with Kujo, Yuki’s partner disappeared, leaving only a note behind, telling him to find someone place where he could sing his way, Re:Vale’s way. Heartbroken, Yuki was at the verge of quitting music altogether until Momo came along and begged him to continue singing. It was Momo’s intervention that saved Re:Vale, because he persistently begged him every day for an entire month, and offered to serve as his partner’s replacement for five years or until he returns. (Though it’s amazing Yuki had never called the cops on him. Consider yourself lucky that he’s a gentleman Momo!)

So that’s why Momo said his time was running out. But in reality, Yuki had no intention of replacing him, he just wanted to find his best friend so he could invite them to their 5th Anniversary concert. Luckily this conflict was resolved very quickly with the help of TRIGGER, Riku and Iori.

In fact, let’s just take a moment to appreciate TRIGGER continuing to be reliable buddies helping sort out some misunderstandings and communication problems. We also need to appreciate Gaku because this guy has been on a freaking roll! He has proven to be the best guy to help people sort out their feelings by calling them out just to be honest with each other, and has now brought very valid concern that the reason why Momo can’t sing isn’t psychological, but potentially because he is being drugged by someone to prevent him from doing so.

Now this is pretty ominous but also makes a lot of sense considering we have just learned how Re:Vale already has a history where they have been struck by misfortune… all eerily happening around the time Kujo is looking to pull some strings.

Seriously what a mess. Honestly I don’t know how else to describe it. Kujo right now, is really ticking me off. Of course we are seeing a lot of implications right now, but we still don’t have the full picture of his intents and whether he is really the one behind all of this. So as much as I want to jump the gun and blame him for absolutely everything, I simply can’t. Not until there is enough evidence. (Though there is shit I can call him out on: SUCH AS REPEATING THE SAME FUCKING WORDS HE SAID TO RE:VALE AND NOW TO TENN? You know how awful that must have been for Tenn to hear that?)

Of course besides the fact he is shady guy who gives me the creeps, and how some of these things could very well be serving as red-herrings, they are also a handful of valid possibilities of in regards to his intent. The most ominous indication to that possibility is looking back to the time of when he declared he wanted to use Re:Vale’s concert as an opportunity to show the world that Tenn is the next legend to watch for. Bearing that in mind, it wouldn’t be outside of the realm of possibilities for Kujo to make arrangements to sabotage RE:VALE’s concert to basically hijack the stage.

We also know that Kujo has a knack of being involved with various affairs, only to swoop in to seemingly play the hero to save the day. The best example is that we had just learned Kujo had tried to recruit Yuki and his partner to join his agency, but the two of them refused due to the difference of artistic direction. Then some time after, during their performance, Yuki’s partner saved him from a stage light that had fallen, but ended up taking the hit. The incident left him wounded with a scarred face. Then comes in Kujo, offering access to a hospital that is famous for treating scars in exchange for Re:Vale signing under his agency, and Yuki immediately agrees.

Immediately, this clicked to how it parallels Tenn’s and Riku’s situation. Kujo comes in with an offer Tenn can’t refuse, and may have potentially offered a way to get Riku treated. And although Tenn said it casually, I see truth in his words, “I sacrificed myself to look after my precious sickly little brother so he could be happy.”

This also leads me to become even more concerned about the potential dangers we may very well see transpire as the days for Re:Vale’s anniversary concert draws closer. Of course my biggest concern lies in the dress rehearsals. I fear there may be a possible incident reminiscent of the one that injured Yuki’s partner. Now the excitement for the concert has turned into a new source of stress because I don’t want anybody to get hurt!

Up until this point, everything was fine and dandy. I was enjoying the episode, but then when Aya appeared to stir up more shit, and I’m just like “Ughhhhh whyyyyyyyy?!?!?”

All of these conflicts are intertwined with each other in such a complicated and messy ways, that now it’s all tangled up, making the knots even bigger than they need to be. It just feels like we keep on getting new conflicts without resolving the existing ones.

And some may disagree with me, but I would say my biggest gripe is how everyone is too closely connected to each other. This episode did show us that Kujo seems at the center of the mess, but come on. It makes sense for Riku, Tenn and Re:Vale to be involved in this, because we have a past and present parallels going on, but to throw Aya and Tamaki into the mix? Was that really necessary? Did Tamaki sister really have to be involved in all of this? That’s the main reason why I feel so sour about it. So I am not a fan of this particular development.

It doesn’t really help that the Aya’s reasons for her action irks me. Yes she is a just a child, but when she went on about pleasing her benefactor and how she wanted to help “him” (I don’t know if it’s Kujo or Tenn, or someone else entirely) because he is suffering, for whatever reason, she reminded me of a certain idiot Gundam 00 Season 2, whose stupidity created a giant mess and got everyone freaking killed. I pray her character will not turn into anything of the sort.

But I swear to god, if she is the one responsible for drugging Momo (if it turns out he really is drugged) and cosplaying as Zero spraying that graffiti all over town— @#*(!*@#(!@#. I hope I am wrong. That said, we is is a bit tricky to even suggest it might be her because there wasn’t enough context of their stature. But the reason why she is among the suspects was because of the guilty look Tenn on his face and the fact Aya suggested she might be a back-up.

It also didn’t help that she made a mess in Sogo’s head. One minute he had finally made up his mind to tell Tamaki about her, and now he is hesitating because he is concerned about the potential consequences he and the rest of iDOLISH7 could face if Tamaki suddenly dies to quit after being reunited with her. While I completely understand he is in a tough spot of whether to tell him or not, and I recognize his concerns about Tamaki potentially leaving the job, BUT COME ON!!!!!! Keeping it a secret is not going to help. AT ALL. ARRGHHH SOGO PLEASE!!!!! DON’T BE STUPID NOW!

Anyways, apart from my great distaste with how Aya is making things even more messy, this was an excellent episode. I very much enjoyed the marriage couple-like banter between Yuki and Momo (I totally ship it), seeing Tenn and Iori both roast Riku was golden, especially when he sided with Momo, and dared to drag Mitsuki into it.

BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PROTECT BOTH RE:VALE AND TENN! I DON’T WANT ANY OF THEM TO GET HURT! I AM SO WORRIED ABOUT THIS CONCERT NOW! It seems whoever is behind it is set on making the anniversary a freak event haunted by Zero! God damn it, I have a bad feeling Tenn might be the next one to get injured. I hope that ankle injury we saw last week doesn’t lead to a bigger problem.

Anyways I will wrap things up with the promised story of how I got spoiled about Re:Vale’s backstory. I will not include any details about Yuki’s original partner since he has yet to be revealed.

So a while back I had ordered the LALA DX magazine in support of the sequel of my all time favourite series. And since that was all I cared about, I didn’t realize that in that same magazine, Re:Vale’s manga was featured in it too. When I was flipping through the pages to get to the series’ chapter I wanted to read, I ended up landing on the freaking page with the biggest freaking spoiler! That’s my fault for not paying attention though ahaha. But seriously, of all ways to get spoiled in this day and age, it was by a freaking magazine I ordered!