While the club prepares for their concert, Yu is contemplating if she should participate in an upcoming musical composition contest after seeing an advertisement for it. Parallel to that, Ayumu receives an email from a fan in London of all places. This then gives Ayumu the idea of studying there via an exchange program. Both girls are hesitant to pursue these respective endeavors, let alone tell each other about them, in fear of growing distant from each other. This is similar to the drama seen at the end of Season 1 though I do think it’s done a lot better here. At least time around, the feeling is mutual and Ayumu isn’t throwing a fit.
Surprisingly, this episode focuses on Kanata just as much as it does on Yu and Ayumu. Shinonome’s idol club is participating in the Love Live preliminaries and Haruka (Kaede Hondo) is nervous about it as she’ll be performing as the group’s center so Kanata looks for ways to cheer her on. At the same time, she suspects that something is going on with Yu and Ayumu. While Kanata creates a comically large banner for Haruka, both Yu and Ayumu separately ask her for advice. After that, Kanata is approached by some of Haruka’s fans, who ask if there’s any way they can support her during the preliminaries (which audiences can’t attend in person). I love that Kanata herself acknowledges that a lot of people are asking her for help. She’s just as surprised as I am.
Haruka’s fans asking Kanata for advice makes sense. Kanata is Haruka’s sister after all. As for Yu and Ayumu, I’m not entirely sure why they each approach Kanata specifically, apart from plot convenience. Neither of them are particularly close with Kanata. Technically, Kanata has given some advice before but I don’t recall her being particularly known as a good listener. If anything, you’d think she’d just fall asleep instead. That all said, having Kanata play counselor is kind of fitting since she’s a doting older sister. Plus, her being attentive to her friends’ concerns makes for a compelling contrast to her sleepiness.
To Kanata’s credit, she comes up with a very good plan that allows her to kill two birds with one stone. With Rina’s help (and again, why hasn’t this girl been hired), Kanata holds a video call where she and her friends as well as students from the other schools can give words of encouragement to Haruka and everyone else who is competing in the preliminaries. In doing so, Kanata shows Yu and Ayumu how everyone is connected in spite of the distance between one another, convincing the two to go through with their respective plans and inform each other about them. It’s all very smooth. I love that Kanata is asleep the next day. She really deserves that after pulling of her plan (and staying awake throughout the whole thing).
Looking back, I kind of figured I’d dismiss Kanata. You look at her gimmick and she just screams comic relief. Surprisingly, this girl has proven me wrong. Not only is she a very charming character, the show actually gave a meaningful justification to her gimmick and she works pretty darn well in her dramatic scenes. In hindsight, she starred in one of the best episodes of Season 1 (and gave one of the best insert songs as well). This episode is easily one of my favorites in Season 2. I don’t know what is about Kanata but she’s become one of my favorite characters in Nijigasaki, maybe even #1.
With Yu and Ayumu’s concerns taken care of, all that’s left in Season 2 is the idol club’s concert. Apparently, Yu has written a song for all twelve of her friends. Even by Love Live! standards, I find that very hard to believe. Didn’t she struggle to write just one song a few episodes ago? How has she managed to write twelve? That said, I will be very disappointed if the last episode doesn’t play all of them back to back.
Watch Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club on Crunchyroll and Funimation
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