I’m gonna be honest that I’m still frustrated about last week’s ending especially now knowing how it impacts this episode! For one, Hiyori, why did you run on a bad foot!? You could have injured yourself further and completely destroyed your dreams of running at Nationals! And two!! Why have you not gone to a doctor?? Or gotten any help! I’m rooting for you to succeed but trying to shoulder everything yourself is only going to make it harder for you in the future!!
I’m gonna apologize now, because I was pretty fixated on the whole foot thing for this episode. I’m pretty bummed that she didn’t even tell Aizo or Yujiro about the injury and kept it secret from everyone except for the person who hired her. Personally, I think there was a lot of potential with all of them talking to each other about it. Hiyori could talk more about her dream and LIPxLIP could hopefully learn more from her. Even if they were tsundere about the whole thing they could have helped her out with things all while scolding her for trying to do things while injured. I just wish there were more direct conversation between the three of them. I’m going to start banging pots and pans together, “No more lying!! No more secrets!! Just talk to each other!!”
Okay, officially done ranting about the foot. Let’s talk about the rest of the episode. Honestly, it really had final episode vibes to the point where I had to double check the listing to make sure this wasn’t a surprise short series. Aside from the career halting injury, the remainder of the episode really focused on Hiyori’s contract coming to an end. For a better part of the episode, Hiyori was fully expecting to wrap her time with the idols and go back to focusing on what she came to Tokyo for: Running. It’s a little sad to see that chapter close, but she was looking towards the future. It’s almost funny that the boys didn’t even know until someone else told them, but what’s most important is that they decided to do something about it.
So, they sang their encore song for her. A song that was definitely one that she needed to hear. Praising her for how hard she has worked and the road still ahead. It was really nice for Hiyori to see the power that idols can have as she broke down into tears. She’s come a long way from where she started. First, she had no interest in idols, and look at her now! She might become a full-blown idol fan by the end of the season. And in the end, everyone ended up victorious. Hiyori declares that she wants to continue working for them and to give her all to both her sport and her job. LIPxLIP gets to keep their manager and hopefully all of them will become better friends as the time goes on.
(Also, I just wanted to add when they started singing Romeo, I definitely had a moment where I sat up in my chair and yelled, “BANDORI????”, since that was my first exposure to the song. It was a little bit nostalgic. I’m happy that they included snippets of their entire concert rather than just overlaying one song.)
It looks like next week we’ll officially be halfway through the anime and I’m looking forward to seeing what will be coming our way! At the very end of this episode, we see Hiyori get a call from a Nagisa. I’m curious to know what his role will be in this story. I hope he’s a friend and not a foe, but we will see!
