So because Love Live is the most prestigious school idol competition and there’s an infinite number of high schools in Japan (that may or may not be at the risk of closure), there’s a lot of applicants for the preliminaries. To curate the applicants, the competition is demanding that their songs fulfill a certain theme. For southwest Tokyo, where Liella! operates, the theme is rap.
The girls each try their hand in rapping, all with amusing results. Kanon struggles as she’s more used to singing. Chisato can rap but she ends up focusing more on her dancing. Ren does tanka. Keke can only rap in Chinese. The only one who has a knack for rap is Sumire so by default, the club assigns her to be the center for their next performance. That’s right, our giant isopod is finally getting her big moment!
Sumire’s reaction to being the center is interesting. She’s talked plenty of times of wanting to be in the role but not only has she never served as the center, she’s apparently passed on it when her friends offer it to her. Despite talking big, Sumire doesn’t really have the self-confidence to back it up. There’s a couple of reasons for that. One is that Sumire has never landed a big role in anything. She’s so used to being an extra that she doesn’t expect the opportunity to be anything more than that. Second is that Sumire doesn’t really have a niche within Liella!. The in-universe consensus is that Kanon is the best singer, Chisato is the best dancer, Ren is the most elegant, and Keke shines the most. Sumire has all of those qualities but she’s not considered to be as good as that compared to her friends. She’s a jack of all trades and master of none. She doesn’t stick out so the prospect of her being the center seems unlikely. So even though Sumire is finally getting what she wants, she’s shocked that it’s actually happening and she’s a bit apprehensive about going through with it.
Before the concert, the club does a test video with Sumire and posts it online for feedback. Unfortunately, the comments suggest that Kanon or Ren should be the center instead. That’s a bit unfair considering that those two have been the only centers so far in the show and it’s unlikely that Sumire was at her A game while filming the video. Regardless, it brings attention to the issues I mentioned in the last paragraph and it’s enough to convince Sumire to back out of being the center.
I’m not surprised that Keke has a major role in this episode. She’s been so toxic to Sumire since Episode 4 (and it’s been great), it’s only fitting that Keke be involved in Sumire’s next bout of character development. At first, Keke is against Sumire being the center, arguing that she’s the least suited for the role out of the five and she isn’t taking Love Live seriously enough. After seeing Sumire work so hard in preparation for the concert however, Keke changes her tune, even going as far as design Sumire’s outfit and base everyone else’s on it. Really, there isn’t a better confidence booster for Sumire than Keke of all people is saying that she can pull off the role of center.
Towards the end of the episode, it’s revealed that Keke will have to go back to Shanghai if her school idol career is unsuccessful. That gives Sumire another excuse to not be the center but it also shows how much she genuinely cares about Keke. Despite their bickering, Sumire doesn’t want Keke to leave and for that to happen, the gang has to win Love Live. If handing the center position over to someone else ensures their victory, then so be it. By that same token, the prospect of Keke leaving Japan adds weight to her faith in Sumire. She’s betting her tenure that the gang can pass the preliminaries with Sumire at the helm and that’s more than enough to convince Sumire to go through with the plan.
While this prospect adds to this episode’s resolution, it technically goes unresolved. It’s also worth noting that Kanon, Chisato, and Ren are in the dark over this. I imagine this will be revisited during the next round of Love Live and I hope it’ll be a prominent plot device. The foreigner archetype being pressured to leave Japan isn’t new for this franchise but I don’t recall having it coincide with the saving the school plot. Considering how much the latter has been done, it’d be a nice change of pace to having a more personal stake to go along with it.
Since it’s the Love Live preliminaries, we get treated with a MV at the end. Oddly enough, despite the preliminaries’ theme being rap, Sumire only raps in the first third. After that, the girls just sing as per usual and the song veers more towards swing as it progresses. It’s weird and you’d think it would get Liella! disqualified but the rap does make the song more unique and Naomi Payton does a pretty good job at delivering it. I really dig how well this MV harkens to Sumire’s showbiz background. Everyone dresses up like princesses. The stage resembles an amusement park. The dance choreography feels akin to a musical number. Simply put, there’s a lot of pizazz here. Admittedly, none of this is what would first come to mind when you think of rap but whatever, the girls ditched rap pretty early on and the MV should reflect Sumire first and foremost. Honestly, what irks more is the giant, fully operational Ferris wheel in the background. I know it’s a stylistic choice and I should look the other way on it but how the hell did the girls get that?
Watch Love Live! Superstar!! on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
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