Dance Dance Danseur Episode 3

Just as when I thought we were finally cutting a break from characters annoying me, this series introduces a set of new despicable characters to add to the list. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! 💢💢 They sure knew how to make me angry at them this week. Honestly, a part of me wanted to just walk away because I was so freaking done with it, but the voice in the back of my head keeps telling me me to stick around. Hopefully the payoff for this mess will finally come into fruition next week. You know, when they can properly start focusing on the ballet stuff now that Junpei finally understands he needs to be true to his heart.

But god damn it all! It was so hard to watch Luou being bullied, and by his entire class no less. Absolutely disgusting. This is the kind of thing just just makes me blood boil. Junpei’s so-called “friend” (quotations because he definitely lost that right after this episode) Hyouta decided to make him a target when he noticed how Luou was struggling to follow the classes and only excelled in English. He became the subject of mockery because of his foreign blood and up-bring, and things got worse when they looked up his name in kanji to find that he is the son of a former idol Mori Mazuru who was caught in a scandal with a wealthy and powerful man.

Without a doubt, the second most infuriating part of the episode was watching Junpei only think about himself like the world revolves around him only. Here he was all worried Luou would share that he’s doing ballet when he himself has nothing to gain from doing so. Meanwhile, Luou is just trying to stay safe from the bullies, who later ended up trying to punch him and harass him by kicking the soccer balls at him. The only bit of relief I got from it was that Junpei was rightly disturbed to see his “friends” bullying Luou. But it was frustrating to see him just watch it happen and do little to nothing to stop it. The only bits of effort we did see was trying to speak to Miyako about it (but she wasn’t going to listen to him since he stopped coming to the ballet studio), and trying to dissuade Hyouta from bugging him any further by claiming Luou is “boring”, and eventually tried to confront him after he got fed up of watching him not stand up for himself when he knows there’s a proud side to him. Either way, it wasn’t handled appropriately.

In the end, nobody saved Luou but himself. After being shoved onto stage dressed in a girl’s uniform, expected to sing his mother’s song, Luou wasn’t about to accept being made into a laughing stock. Instead, he turned the malicious prank into an opportunity to show off what he is truly capable of as a ballet performer. And sure enough, that quickly shut everyone up. Better yet, despite how he got into that situation in the first place, Luou ended up coming out of it feeling better than ever.

Luou’s action to proudly showcase ballet was a moment of enlightenment for Junpei, to the point he was moved to tears. To see someone apologetically and proudly perform in front of everyone under such circumstances showed Junpei what is actually means to be who was already doubting the way he was doing things. Was it truly manly and cool of him to hide his passions, or was he just a coward? Seeing Luou proudly perform in front of everyone on stage showed Junpei what it means to stick to one’s belief. It completely redefined the ‘manly’ and ‘cool’ image he had in his head for so long. It’s sad that it had to happen under the expense of someone suffering, but finally, Junpei is being released from the shackles of what he thought he needed to be that have bounded him down since the death of his father.

The first step to doing this was making the swift decision to quit the soccer club. And honestly, given the kind of people involved in the soccer club, he has nothing to lose from it. They are bullies, so I don’t give a crap about how they are all salty about him announcing his love for ballet and that he’s quitting the club and won’t be joining Hyouta’s band. But considering how this series loves to have aggravating characters in some shape or another, I wouldn’t put it past them to start bullying him for it. Junpei seemed to have hoped he could salvage the relationship with them, but considering they have chose to remove him from the group chat, that means they have effectively cut ties with him. He talked earlier about not wanting to betray his friends and mentor, but considering these guys are trash, I suspect– or for sake of things, I hope his mentor would be more understanding about him wanting to pursue his passions.

Next week, looks somewhat promising to see Junpei looking more free than ever now that he had decided to finally and proudly embrace his love for ballet– heck he even decided to get a buzz cut. I honestly would rather be spared of the bullying drama, and just focus on the whole ballet process. I really don’t need my blood pressure to rise and feel angry about watching this every week. So hopefully, this means that kind of shit is finally behind us and we can actually start watching the characters grow more positive and likable. (I am still very wary of Miyako’s mother, we have seen that woman makes the faces of a devil sometimes… >_>;;;) At this point, Luou is still the only one I care about though. Everyone else got their work cut out for them. For me at this point, I just want to see the guy be happy.