While Yohane contemplates on what she wants to do in the future, she meets one of the people who oversaw her audition back in Episode 1. This music producer reveals that she saw Yohane perform at Numazu’s summer festival. Impressed with how Yohane has improved from her audition, the producer invites her to audition again at Tokai. Part of me expected the producer to invite the entire main cast and pitch “Aqours” as their idol group as some sort of meta joke but this is Yohane’s show so I wouldn’t say it’s a missed opportunity that the show didn’t go there.
Naturally, word spreads of Yohane’s big opportunity and kind of like with Lailaps’ “disappearance” last episode, the townsfolk briefly thinks Yohane has already been offered a record deal and is about to make it big. Funny how this is the second in a row where something like this has happened. Yohane clarifies things to Dia though the director of the administration still wants to celebrate so she organizes a public farewell party for Yohane. See, moments like this is why I think Dia is Best Girl. Joking aside, the prospect of a farewell party might be the push Yohane needs to pursue her idol career again. Yohane has been hesitating because she now has a bunch of people she can call her friends and a place she can call home. With how supportive everyone is of her opportunity and her dream, perhaps Yohane can feel more comfortable with leaving Numazu again and more determined to get her foot in the door.
The only one Yohane is at odds with right now is Lailaps. Lailaps says she is supportive of Yohane’s dream but for whatever reason, she decides not to attend the party or accompany Yohane to Tokai for her audition, claiming she has other things to do. There are definitely some mixed signals here. She’s rooting for Yohane but at the same time, she excuses herself from the event meant to cheer her on? And what could be more important to bidding your closest friend farewell? The part where she declines to travel to Tokai also bugs me. Considering that Lailaps stayed behind in Numazu the first time Yohane left town, I have to wonder if Lailaps can’t actually leave Numazu. Like, maybe there’s something binding her to the place. All I know for certain is that there is something going on with this wolf and this show building up to it.
I was expecting a new insert song during the farewell party. I mean, the gang did set up a whole stage so Yohane might as well put it to good use. That doesn’t end up being the case as the calamity resurfaces and pollutes the entire town with a miasma. I would say this is surprising but given the lack of confirmation that Yohane and her friends vanquished the calamity during the summer festival, it seemed like there’s a good chance that this threat would return. The timing is very suspicious. Just as Yohane prepares to leave Numazu, this phenomenon comes back tenfold. Come to think of it, the calamity sure has a tendency of appearing around Yohane. In Episode 1, it struck during Yohane’s first day back home. In Episodes 2 and 3, Yohane got ensnared by the calamity and surrounded by some possessed deer. In Episodes 5 and 6, the calamity infects Yohane’s childhood stage in the forest. I know Yohane’s magic can vanquish the calamity but can the calamity really be aware of that, to the point that it might be actively targeting her? Maybe Yohane is more connected to the calamity than I first realized.
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