[LETS OUT BREATH]
Seriously, TRIGGER is the freaking MVP of this season and nobody can tell me otherwise.
Let’s all take a moment to be grateful for the fact Ryu was present with Sogo and Tamaki when the Aya-Bomb went off! Poor Sogo, fate has been messing with his heart the entire time, stressing him out with what felt like an unending nightmare of just how horribly wrong everything would go once Tamaki learns he knew about Aya. But even though he had made up his mind to finally talk to Tamaki about it, he ended up overlooking what ended up actually hurting Tamaki the most: His lack of trust in him.
Frankly I don’t think it would an exaggeration to say Ryu being there when this blew up played a crucial role of preventing this incident from spiraling out of control. At times like this, we have typically seen Sogo and Yamato to be the ones to step in and take control of the situation, however this time Sogo is on the other end of the conflict, and Yamato would have had a difficult time handling the two of them on his own. That isn’t to say the others are incapable of resolving it themselves, but I would argue having an “outsider” (by that I mean not a part of their Idolish7 family) like Ryu. Not only he is their senior who has a lot of experience in this field, but he is also someone Tamaki trusts, making him to the perfect person to talk Tamaki through this whole thing.
And Ryu didn’t shy away from calling him out when he needed to, addressing the fact as long as Tamaki continues to have the attitude to quit when things get hard, don’t go his way or he gets hurt, he is only sabotaging himself. Tamaki knows that is true because he has already seen the results when he keeps himself in check, he progresses and succeeds. But what hurt him the most was that, despite all the effort he had made, because Sogo didn’t trust him enough to tell him about his sister made it as though everything he had done was futile and there is no hope for him to believe Sogo to ever trust in him in the future. All he wants is Sogo’s approval, and that right there was the most heartbreaking part of this fight. As Yamato had said himself, Tamaki considers Sogo as family, the elder brother he never had. Sogo has become someone he looks up to, and is someone who motivates him to do well.
Fortunately Ryu was also able to take Tamaki’s doubts about Sogo and highlight how this isn’t a one-sided thing. By assuming Sogo will never come to understand and trust him, Tamaki is doing the same thing as Sogo had. Ryu also was able to explain to him that no group is immune to this kind of stuff, nobody’s perfectly compatible from the start, time is needed to get to know and open up to each other.
All of this was exactly what Tamaki needed to hear at that very moment. So let’s take a moment to thank our lord and savior Ryu for preventing this crisis from getting out of hand.
Meanwhile that was happening, Yamato was the one who took charge of walking Sogo through this whole thing. Sogo isn’t used to opening up and asking for help when he is troubled. He is always afraid of being a bother or hurting someone. And who to blame when he was an outcast in this family and was eventually disowned. But that’s also he needed someone to spell it out to him, and explain how Tamaki already knew he was keeping it a secret (of course he thought it was something related to Sogo’s family, not his own), and it upset him that he couldn’t be much of a help to him.
In this end, this crisis between Sogo and Tamaki seems to have been resolved in rather epic fashion. I couldn’t stop laughing when Sogo showed up at Tamaki’s door and the moment he was denied entry, I just knew he was going to find a way to bust it down. I suppose we should be grateful he used a screwdriver instead of an axe, (I wouldn’t put it past him to use one if it came down to it), but oh my god, I was dying when he started talking because all I could think of was: SOGO PLEASE PUT DOWN THE SCREWDRIVER! I find it absolutely hilarious how he doesn’t seem to realize just how terrifying it is to walk into someone’s room, and ask them not to disband their unit while holding a weapon power tool in his hand, (unless it were actually a deliberate move, that would be a big brain strategy there – not recommended though!)
But the best part of this resolution was Sogo’s ingenious plan to lure Aya out. He wasn’t kidding around when he said he was going to help Tamaki reunite with his sister as soon as ‘tomorrow’. Even though Sogo has been disowned, he Sogo took advantage of his family’s position as Secret Night’s sponsor (FSC) to have the director pass the instructions to TRIGGER mention Tamaki got sick after accepting a keychain. I was crying because I was laughing so hard with how Sogo pressured the guy to do it, and then I freaking died when Ryu went with a bad case of sentimentality because it was so cringy! Again, thank you Ryuu because he understood Sogo’s instructions that was passed onto them and was able to get the team to do it.
The whole set up worked like a charm, because the moment Aya heard Tamaki sounded like he was in trouble, she went flying out the door. But sheesh, she was being a reckless by not looking both ways when crossing the road! Luckily it was Tsumugi who ended up inadvertently finding her, fast tracking her to meet Tamaki.
So yay! Hopefully that means one crisis out of the way! It would be nice if this family reunion were to end up sweeter than Tenn’s and Riku’s, ahahahha (SOBS).
Speaking of which, the preview does show Tenn is going to (probably) reveal to everyone that he and Aya have both been adopted by Kujo. But this time, Riku might be better off than how he would normally be because he was already told this ahead of time by Yuki. And if we are really lucky, Riku will keep calm and not flip out about it because the things he had learned about Kujo today may create another ruckus in regards to Aya’s situation.
But the truth of the matter is, I completely understand why Riku is worried about his brother’s situation. Yuki had just described him to be someone with a dark side (and no shit, the entire conversation with Tenn creeps me out), who behave as though he is possessed. He strongly suspects Kujo was the one behind the stage incident that scarred his partner’s face so he could acquire them. He even warned them to careful of that side of him. I mean, after you hear something like that, how could you not be concerned?
That was also why, when freaking Kujo appeared in front of Sogo and Tamaki and offered them drinks I was screaming, “NONONONONONONONO DON’T TAKE IT! DON’T DRINK IT!” He remains my prime suspect for the potential drugging Momo’s drinks. (Though I’m kind of surprised there hasn’t been mentioned of a drug test yet to figure that out?????). It was so stressful to see him in front of them.
But goodness, as if Yuki, Riku, Tenn, Aya and Tamaki weren’t already enough to be tangled up with Kujo’s affairs, we can now add Sogo and his uncle Osaka Satoshi to the mix. It appears Kujo may have tried to recruit him at some point or another only to end up disappointed, or perhaps he was just someone he knew in the industry and disregarded because he considered him to be mediocre man who lacked the talent to surpass Zero.
As such, with this combined with what we had learned from Yuki’s backstory and the rumors surrounding Zero’s disappearance, this leaves me with the impression that Kujo has been cycling through a number of artists with the potential to become the next legend, and will go to the extreme lengths to obtain and control them. With the sheer amount of pressure this guy puts on them, and the lengths he will go to achieve his goals, I think it would be fair to say it ends up breaking anyone who is unable to keep up with his demands and expectations. Such pressure from a man who is obsessed with nothing but his goal of creating a new star to surpass Zero certainly paints a picture of why the legend himself would suddenly disappear without a trace. It goes beyond not just being found, at that point, it may have been more about Zero being able to breathe again.
So now that Riku had learned that Kujo is the one who took Tenn away, he has a whole new source of stress that’s going to plague his mind. Riku still doesn’t understand the circumstances around why Tenn ended up going with Kujo in the first place, but it certainly doesn’t help that now he has a reason to be deathly afraid of what Kujo might do to his brother. And frankly, that’s exactly why I am so worried about Tenn, because while he is a strong a intelligent young man, he is also Human and I am scared that Kujo might hurt him if things don’t go his way or as planned. In fact Tenn himself showed us how he is acutely aware of Kujo’s fixation with his dream of creating the next big legend, and expressed how he is doubtful that once he achieves that dream, Kujo would finally be happy.
And I completely agree with Tenn’s assessment. Even if Kujo were to achieve his goal, given his obsession with creating a new legend, once he is no longer satisfied, he will start this cycle anew again. So as long as he remains stuck in this endless loop, he it will be difficult for him to be true happy.
Next week RE:VALE’s special concert is about to begin! Day 1 will be featuring TRIGGER, but before that, both teams have prepared a special surprise they wanted to prepare for RE:VALE to help cheer them up. There’s lots to look forward to, but with the threat looming over them, I can’t help but me guard about the potiential dangers that is lurking around them.
