Well, this was certainly a very emotion filled episode and… I’m not too sure how I feel about it.
So, it turns out that Chizuru really was the person behind the photos of Hiyori and LIPxLIP getting exposed, and while that was kind of predictable, the way that it developed in this episode certainly was not. I get that they were trying to go with the “fans will do anything for their bias” perspective, but I don’t like how everything ended up playing out… I just feel like there was a better way to get that point across and one that still involved Chizuru!
We know Chizuru has the ability to show some dramatic emotions – she shared some feelings with us with the childhood friend trope not too long ago, but her negative emotions definitely take the cake to that. Not only was she the one to post the photos of her, but she also managed to completely contrive a story behind it to fuel a hatred of someone who was just trying to live their best high school life. It makes me think that she only wanted to be friends with Hiyori and Juri just based on the seat assignments on that first day. And while that’s probably true… Chizuru…. you’ve been stewing in this for too long. Why didn’t you just ask Hiyori right off the bat? Hiyori wears her heart on her sleeve. But at the same time I get it. What if Hiyori were to say something that Chizuru doesn’t want to hear? And with the “can’t tell about being a manger” element thrown into the mix it would just make everything more messy.
Regardless… things are really messy now. Shoutout to Yujiro for actually catching that something was up, otherwise I wouldn’t be surprised if black magic was involved. But it was absolutely devastating for Hiyori to see what fell out of the bag and to hear a rather loud declaration of being hated. She’s done nothing bad to everyone. Sure in the idol world perspective she caused drama and stress for the fans, but if it weren’t for Chizuru taking all the pictures and leaking them… then that pain would have never happened. All Hiyori wanted was to have pizza at a sleepover and hear silly romance stories. She just wants a nice and calm high school life!!
That being said, I’m really torn about the ending of this episode. At first I was like “Hell Yeah!!” when she decided that she was going to confront Chizuru about this whole thing. At least on Hiyori’s end it would give her some closure… but uh… after the fight? Seeing Chizuru holding her hand and Hiyori crying really didn’t sit well with me. I get that Chizuru is a really big fan and the concept of an idol dating someone really shakes people up. But taking pictures of your friend and getting them in a lot of drama doesn’t really…. help anyone. It just lets you see Hiyori suffer. She can’t even claim to be protecting LIPxLIP either because it caused them hardships with having to address all the rumors. Rather than helping we get a damaged friendship, dating allegations, harassment and isolation, and a punch to the face. Hiyori really went through it in the episode! I understand why she felt bad. She realizes she hurt someone that she cared about…. but at the same time I really want Hiyori to understand that the person she thought was a friend also hurt her as well….
I just have mixed feelings about this episode!! I don’t think it ended in a very good place, and we have a lot of cleaning up to do for the final episode next week! I just… I hope that Hiyori is able to have her pizza and sleep over with Juri and friends!
