After hopefully the last hiatus Superstar will have this season, Chisato’s character arc comes to a close. And I have to say that I find myself growing attached to her. She’s always been this sweet presence in the group and this episode just solidified the need to PROTECC her. I just love her.
I think of the childhood friends relationships in Love Live (minus Nijigasaki again bc I still haven’t seen it), Kanon and Chisato have to be the best so far. Honoka, Kotori, and Umi had a nice relationship but the show never did anything else with it, except with that small subplot of Kotori moving away. Which…I’m sorry, I didn’t care for all that much. And I’ve complained about Chika and You’s relationship before and I don’t want to talk about it again here.
As a child, Chisato was weaker and always the target of bullying. She was a very sensitive girl emotionally and was scared of many things, always seen crying. It wasn’t until she met Kanon one evening as she fell that she was able to come out of her shell little by little and experience things she couldn’t before because of her fears. Chisato cares about Kanon a lot because she was always there for her, such as protecting her from her bullies as well as just being a great friend to her. Wanting to do something for Kanon herself, it circles back to that mini flashback from awhile ago of Chisato wanting to do something that only she can do. Something that Kanon can’t do, which is dance. I’m glad that she also wanted to improve her confidence as well, and purposely chose something separate from Kanon. So while she was doing something that could potentially help Kanon out, she was also doing it for herself too. Which is good, because I was a little worried that everything she was doing was for another person, which can cause some issues but Chisato is also making her own decisions. And whatever the results were of the dance competition, she was going to join as a school idol either way.
Again, their friendship is just so sweet. The fact that Kanon took the time to catch a ship back to the mainland to talk to Chisato before her competition was huge, and oh so sweet. I’m glad that Kanon was able to sense something was wrong just from the short phone call they had, which is way better than our previous orange head protagonists…Ahem.
I think what I appreciate the most was how smoothly this all went. They easily could have prolonged this issue, or had this dramatic blowout between them or something like we’ve seen in the past. But no, they each knew what they had to do but Kanon took the time to see her friend either way, and they both truthfully communicated their thoughts and feelings to each other to avoid any pointless drama or even misunderstandings, and they were even able to let the other know how important they are to them! I love it! This was so lovely, I hope we get to see more of their friendship in the show.
Another thing I liked from this episode were the interactions between Chisato and Ren. We’ve seen Ren as this very serious figure so far, so it was surprising to see her friendlier and cuter. It was funny how she kept opening the door the training room and awkwardly backing out over and over. Not really fitting for her image but makes her more endearing. Chisato is the only character Ren has had a normal conversation with, going as far as Chisato telling her personal things to. I hope when it comes to Ren joining the group, it’s Chisato that pushes her to it instead of Kanon considering they at least have a small bond with each other. She’s come to understand Chisato, so I hope it happens vice versa when the time comes. And it looks like it will pretty soon considering the title of the next episode. I’m still kind of indifferent towards Ren but I’m hoping that’ll change. Sumire is growing on me (tfw you can cook Chinese food better than the Chinese girl), and Keke and Kanon continue to be charming. This is a great cast so far, so I only hope for the best.
Their song was pretty cute, not as good as Kanon and Keke’s song, but it was cute that they also went for a tropical theme in song and outfits to match Sunny Pas. Speaking of, again…can’t they just show their performance and song in full at least once? C’mon now. :/
