We begin this episode with Aqours finding out that they’ve passed the qualifiers. Chika is optimistic of the results ahead of time as she was informed of the forecast from Sarah. I’m confused over the exact relationship between these two. Like, Sarah has been pretty blunt before and yet, she does acknowledge Aqours’ growth and success and she’s apparently close enough with Chika that they chat online. I’m with the others on this, when did these two become buddies?
While passing the qualifiers is cause for celebration, Aqours is faced with a new setback: their wallets. It hasn’t really been brought up before but since school idols make a profit of $0, the girls have had to cover expenses entirely out of pocket and now, they’re short on cash. So for this episode, we see the girls finding ways to raise some money such as running a stall at a flea market and working part-time at the local aquarium. You hooks everyone up with the latter because once again, this girl is seemingly good at everything. Both of these segments, though moreso with the aquarium, utilize the characters’ gimmicks to good effect. My favorite bit is when you find out that Yoshiko fails to sell a bunch of feathers she uses for her Yohane persona and she just accepts it when the wind blows all of them away. It’s hilarious, albeit in a self-deprecating sense.
The real plot of this episode centers around Dia. Kanan and Mari have grown closer with the others and Dia is worried that the same can’t be said about her. This is emphasized by the characters’ use of honorifics. The underclassmen still use -san when referring to Dia but with Kanan and Mari, they’ve switched to the more informal -chan when talking to them. Dia is surprisingly shy about requesting a honorific change so she instead spends this entire episode trying to come across as more approachable to the others.
Perhaps it’s too early to say but Dia might be my favorite character in Sunshine!!. I’ve really enjoyed how this character has been utilized. When she first appeared, Dia is presented as the scary student council president and she’s still one of the more dramatic characters in the main cast. At the same time however, she surprisingly lends herself really well to the show’s comedy, being a part of some of the show’s funniest moments. Naturally, I got pretty excited to get to this episode and watching Dia as she tries to be more informal with everyone does not disappoint. Sometimes, she accidentally lets her super serious self resurface. Other times, she acts more outgoing and without the proper context, the underclassmen get scared and think something is wrong with Dia. The whole endeavor is simply a joy to watch.
It is true that Dia could stand to be less uptight though this episodes does bring up the positive effect of her personality. As Chika points out, Aqours wouldn’t be running as tight of a ship if Dia wasn’t around. It’s thanks to her maturity and sense of responsibility that the club has been given some direction. You see this demonstrated a couple of times in this episode. Dia is the one who proposes selling stuff at the flea market after hearing her friends looking for jobs, some of which would run the risk of taking time away from idol practice. During the aquarium segment, some children run amok and the only one who manages to calm them down is Dia, who manages to come across as though she’s been doing this shtick for years. A really nice touch to this scene is the addition of a little girl who is trying to act mature like Dia, framing Dia as a positive role model when she reels all the kids in.
I like that Kanan and Mari pick up that Dia wants to be more informal with the others. If anyone would notice that something is bothering Dia, it’d be them. Chika also catches on, which makes sense. She’s proven to be pretty preceptive at times. However, the episode pulls a reversal on this by having Chika join the other underclassmen in being horrified at a happy-go-lucky Dia. It’d be more interesting if Chika wasn’t as perturbed as the others. Still, this episode uses Chika to good effect by having her lead the group in telling Dia at the end of the episode that she’s the fine way she is. That the club leader herself is telling Dia that everyone depends on her is extremely on point.
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