Following her “defeat” at the school idol festival, Lanzhu has decided that she’s done all she can as a school idol so she packs her bags and buys a plane ticket to Hong Kong (where school idols don’t exist, I guess). It reminds me of that part in Superstar!!, where Keke tells her folks that she’ll return to Shanghai if she can’t make it big, only it’s actually happening. Given Lanzhu’s self-confidence, I half-expected her defeat to motivate her into doing better but to be fair, that part of her character has been crumbling away the past few episodes. It makes sense for her to feel dejected and call it quits. Going back to Hong Kong is certainly an extreme decision but Love Live! can be dramatic like that and I kind of figured Lanzhu was considering it after last episode’s post-credit scene.
There’s another reason behind Lanzhu’s decision. Apparently, she works as solo idol because she struggles to make friends. This is clumsily explained with exposition though given Lanzhu’s attitude, I can picture her leaving a bad impression to people. Knowing the idol club, they’d probably accept Lanzhu with open arms, warts and all. Hell, they’ve wanted her to join them since this season started. Be that as it may, Lanzhu can’t help but fear any friendship with the club members will go poorly. So, she opts to return to Hong Kong, thereby removing herself from the picture and saving herself and the others the trouble that might happen if she sticks around.
The news comes as a shock to everyone and they all try to change Lanzhu’s mind. I’d imagine Shioriko would be the one to pull it off, seeing as she’s the only friend Lanzhu had when she was little. There are a couple of scenes involving the two though really, it’s Mia who leads the way. Mia takes particular issue with Lanzhu’s decision as it is effectively pulling the plug on their collaboration. At first, Mia tries to create a new song for Lanzhu to perform. When that doesn’t work, Mia vents with Rina and reveals that she used to be a singer and she quit out of fear of disappointing her family. With Rina’s encouragement, Mia decides to revive her dream by becoming a school idol. She then reworks the song and performs it for Lanzhnu, effectively telling the latter to be like her and not give up on her dream.
Rina being the one to advance Mia’s arc is a curious choice. There have been a couple of scenes where Mia hangs out with the first years though I don’t know if it amounts to anything substantial. I kind of figured Yu would be the one to help Mia. Aside from having an established rapport with Mia, Yu has also learned to incorporate herself into her music and that could’ve tied nicely with Mia’s decision to rework her song and turn into her own piece. Then again, Rina has had her own struggle with self-doubt so her involvement does work in a thematic sense.
Mia’s insert song is atypical, not just in Nijigasaki but in Love Live! overall, as it’s sung entirely in English. Mia has spoken some dialogue in English (her voice actress is bilingual) though this is obviously the longest she’s spoken in the language. I guess since she’s from America, Mia is more fluent in English so she’d prefer to sing in that language if the opportunity presents itself. It’s a little odd to have Mia sing in English while Lanzhu only sprinkles in a Chinese line with her songs but whatever. I enjoy the song but since the lyrics are in a language that I myself speak, it can sound a little wonky to me. That admittedly can’t be helped; I doubt the songwriter is as fluent in English as the singer is. I’m curious if this song will be the last one in the show that’s performed by a solo idol. At this point, each of the new girls has performed at least one number and Nijigasaki doesn’t appear to be keen on giving any of the original nine idols their own song again. There are four more episodes to go however so who knows.
With that, the gang is all here…again. Lanzhu is convinced to stay in Japan and she finally accepts the club’s invitation. Mia joins alongside her. I’m very curious to see how the cast will fare going forward. Thirteen characters still feels like a lot for the show handle, especially with just four episodes to go this season. Still, I’ve enjoyed the original team dynamic and the new girls have been pretty decent so I’m looking forward to seeing the two “groups” interact more with each other.
Watch Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club on Crunchyroll and Funimation
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