Last episode had the weird decision of not confirming if Yohane and co. successfully contained the calamity with their idol pop magic. This episode sheds a little bit of light on that thread and by little, I mean a very thin beam. No one is talking about the Calamity bothering them so Yohane concludes that she and her friends must’ve done their job. I’m willing to take her at her word but with no visual confirmation, I feel inclined to think the fight is not over. I hope the calamity is brought up again because lately, it feels ill-defined and an afterthought. The school closing down in Sunshine!! felt more ominous than this.
With the calamity possibly gone, Yohane now spends her days chilling in bed. She doesn’t even run her fortune telling business or do errands for anyone. Lailaps asks Yohane what the plan is going forward. Is Yohane still planning to go back to Tokai to pursue her music career (if so, she might want to get back to work) or does she want to stay in Numazu with all her new friends. Yohane appears unsure so she halfheartedly answers Lailaps so that her companion will stop nagging at her.
Since she’s getting nowhere with Yohane, Lailaps heads out into town for an anniversary of some kind. Curious as to what the wolf is up to, Yohane gets out of bed and decides to tail her for a bit. Along the way, Riko and Ruby join Yohane. If you’ve seen Sunshine!!, specifically the movie, you’ll know that Yoshiko sucks as stealth. Naturally, this trait carries over into her fantasy incarnation. As for Lailaps, this episode gives us a detailed look at what she does daily, which is helping people around town. She’s apparently very popular as a result. I’m starting to think people gave odd jobs to Yohane because they figured Lailaps’ human companion has the same occupation as her.
Eventually, the gang loses track of Lailaps so they split up to find her and ask the rest for help. Word soon spreads of Lailaps’ “disappearance” and it begins to mutate into the outrageous rumor that she’s been kidnapped. Of course, the honor for most over the top contribution goes to Best Girl Dia, who sends out a search request to the entire town and asks the denizens for help with a megaphone. There are kids with missing pets would love to have this level of support. As silly as this all is, this is par for the course for Love Live!. And to be fair, this demonstrates the strong camaraderie Yohane has with her friends.
During the search, Yohane comes across as a tree by the lakeside and remembers it being the place where she met Lailaps when she was little. Lailaps reappears, revealing that the day the episode takes place marks the anniversary of this first encounter. While reminiscing on childhood memories, Yohane thanks Lailaps for being her friend and helping her become the person she is now. Things then get rather ominous as Lailaps refrains from answering Yohane when she asks if they’ll be together forever. Lailaps also tries to tell Yohane that her magic didn’t first manifest the day she came back from Tokai but is cut short when the rest of Aqours(?) shows up. There’s a really good shot here where Lailaps looks on at Yohane hanging out with her friends as if she’s some outsider, with the “camera” getting more zoomed out when it cuts back to her.
So what exactly is going on? Well, something that I’ve noticed about Lailaps is that she only talks when she’s alone with Yohane. As soon as someone else enters the scene, Lailaps communicates like a normal dog. No one in the show bats an eye over this so I didn’t question it too much but after this episode, I really have to wonder what the deal is. Perhaps what Lailaps was about to tell Yohane is that her ability to talk is actually the first instance of magic Yohane ever casted. Maybe that spell is eventually going to wear off? Thing is though, I don’t know if that’s much of a stake. I mean, if Lailaps is afraid she won’t be able to talk like a human, couldn’t Yohane just cast the spell again? I don’t know, there needs to be something more dire here. And yeah, this is Love Live!. How dark can it get? But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about how animal characters are written, things often can get dark.
Watch YOHANE THE PARHELION -SUNSHINE in the MIRROR on Crunchyroll
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