By process of elimination, the only character left in the cast who needs to join Liella! is Natsumi. I haven’t thought much of this character but in Superstar‘s defense, all she’s been doing the past couple of episodes is trying to find success online (boy does that hit close to home for me) and literally break her back working her day job (which I’ll admit is amusing). This of course changes this episode as Natsumi approaches Liella! with a proposition. Natsumi isn’t interested in school idols, let alone becoming one. She does however notice Liella’s online following so she offers to serve as the group’s producer and create promotional videos for them.
At a first glance, this arrangement sounds beneficial to both parties. None of the school idols are content creators so having someone more versed in that field would be really helpful. Meanwhile, Natsumi gets to work with a popular school idol group and get more exposure as a result. That said, Natsumi isn’t exactly doing this out of the goodness of her heart. One thing she stipulates in the contract is that any money made off of the videos she makes for Liella! goes to her. Kanon agrees to this bit of fine print on the club’s behalf because school idols aren’t in the business to make money and the episode needs her to be stupid for the plot to work. Sumire however calls Natsumi out on being exploitative and Shiki later reveals with the power of math that the videos will eventually net a lot of dough. Suffice to say, the idol club gets a little pissed with Natsumi.
Natsumi’s actions are sleazy and that poses a bit of a problem as we are supposed to eventually like her. Kanon speculates that Natsumi must be exploiting Liella! for a reason but there aren’t any hints given as to what that reason is so the sympathy angle is out of the question for now. What the episode instead opts to is pull a Kasumi and make Natsumi the butt of some jokes. Sometimes when Natsumi acts like Mr. Krabs, her back problems kick in. Towards the end of the episode, Natsumi has to run alongside the idol club to film them and she replaces early Season 1 Keke and early Season 2 Kinako as the least athletic girl in Superstar!!. It’s a temporary counter to Natsumi’s egregious agenda but it does balance things out and it is pretty entertaining.
There’s a B story in this episode involving the other first years. Kinako has developed an interest in songwriting, Mei reveals that she’s pretty good with the piano, and Shiki shows potential as a dancer. While it’s neat to see each of these three find a niche, the harsh reality is that at least one of their senpais are talented or experienced in one of those areas. They’re not exactly bringing something new to the table and the gap between them and the second years is becoming more apparent. That the second years are in a different league also makes it difficult for the first years to connect with them. An exception to this is when Natsumi makes the club play games as Keke’s place for a video and that’s only because it’s separate from idol training, allowing everyone to feel equal to one another. I probably sound like a broken record at this point but I really like that the difference between the first and second year characters has been a thing. It makes the characters being in different grades actually matter.
At the end of the episode, Mei worries that with Natsumi’s videos, Liella’s fans will eventually notice the sheer difference in skill between the first and second year members of the group and that’ll a PR disaster for the club. That’s a very clever way of tying the two major plots of the episode together. In response, Natsumi proposes that the first years train on their own during summer vacation and she accompany them in their journey. I do worry that Natsumi is planning something devious here. Like, maybe she’s trying to stir up some drama in the club for the sake of content. That said, this is probably going to culminate in Natsumi joining the club so I should give this development the benefit of the doubt.
This episode makes some good use of the first years. Sumire is a very apt choice to play the skeptic over Natsumi’s offer. She’s worked in show business so I imagine she knows what it’s like to be taken advantage of. Also fitting is Chisato approving the first year’s request to train separately. She’s spent years developing confidence so that she can work side by side with Kanon so of course she’d relate with how the first years feel. Plus, we get to see Chisato act as the club president. I was afraid that’d be get bury right after it was established last episode.
Definitely the weirdest development among the first years, and the main cast as a whole, is Ren becoming a gamer. While hanging out at Keke’s place, Ren notices the former’s Nintendo Switch and she gets super into video games as a result. It’s so random but I must admit that it’s funny. Of all the characters in this show to be a gamer, Ren is the last character I’d think of. If this really is the direction Superstar!! is taking with this character, I hope it goes big. I better see Ren playing a rhythm gacha mobile game that resembles one of Love Live‘s and spending all of her father’s allowance for a bunch of SSR idols.
Watch Love Live! Superstar!! on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
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