As established last episode, Kanon and Chisato agree to have Liella! and TomaKanoTe compete against each other in the school festival, to decide who should compete in Love Live on Yuigaoka’s behalf. I like how this announcement is met with mixed reception from the student body. Like, everyone gets why the idols are doing it but they would rather just have the two groups perform together like they did during the Shanghai event. Before even getting to the end of the episode, you probably take a good guess what these extras decide to do at the end.
To keep things fair, the director proposes that Liella! and TomaKanoTe sing the same song. Kanon decides to take it a step further by having two members of each group create a new song for the upcoming concert. Since they’re graduating, the third years hand the duties of songwriting and composing over to the younger members. Kanon asks Tomari and Wien to represent their group (not like they have a lot of members to pick from) while Mei and Natsumi volunteer to represent Liella!. Before getting down to business, Mei and Natsumi proposes that whichever group wins the competition gets to make a request to the other group. Curiously, Tomari and Wien agree to this proposal.
The collaboration starts off on a humorous note, where Wien reveals that she’s already composed a song for everyone to perform. The only problem is that it’s a rock song so it immediately gets vetoed. I agree with Mei that the song is not school idol-like but a morbidly curious part of me would’ve loved to see it performed in earnest. Speaking of Mei, I really like the brief clashing between her and Wien. Seeing as Mei is a huge school idol fan, it’s kind of ingenious to pair her with Wien, someone who didn’t really get school idols until recently. I would’ve loved to see more of that in the episode.
Given the inclusion of the Onitsuka sisters, this collaboration is naturally a vehicle for the two of them to finally reconcile. In order to get something done, Tomari proposes that the four representatives each come up with their own song and have their respective leaders, presumably Kanon and Chisato, decide which one should be used for the competition. It’s a sound plan but as Natsumi points out, this would defeat the purpose of the collaboration. Tomari refuses to budge, forcing her and the others to work to go along with her plan for the time being.
As Natsumi tries to convince Tomari again, the other second years and Wien visit the Onitsuka residence to help her in the effort. Kind of surprising that Wien decides to help but it does make sense that she wouldn’t be happy with the collab if she doesn’t fulfill as intended. I really like that Shiki is the one who leads the charge; that’s a nice follow-up to her confidence boost earlier in the season.
Tomari threatens to drop out of the team-up but she relents when her words upsets Natsumi and the latter begs her to talk to her again, just like they used to when they were little. I really like how this scene puts Tomari’s relationship with Natsumi on its head. The whole reason Tomari decided to be Natsumi’s rival is to ensure that Natsumi doesn’t get hurt again. But at long last, Tomari sees the big hole in her plan. By acting so distant and so harsh towards Natsumi, Tomari ends up hurting her sister’s feelings anyway. With that realization, Tomari agrees to work with everyone and more importantly, she and Natsumi finally reconcile. I’m kind of surprised to see this conflict resolved a little over halfway through the episode, before the big “battle” no less, but this is a satisfying resolution so I’m okay with the timing here.
I really like that the third years don’t get themselves involved in the collab and they instead leave it in the hands of the younger members to figure it all out. It’s especially important for the second years as they’ll eventually have to call the shots once the original five graduate. A little silly of Kanon to watch over the second and third years from a distance but it is important to show her reaction. She’s been leading the gang for so long at this point and she’s always looking out for everyone so it says something that she chooses to trust her underclassmen in figuring things out, as opposed to stepping in like she usually does.
The last couple of minutes in the episode is of course dedicated to the school festival concert. I can’t help but think that the show is cheating a little bit with the so-called “battle”. The song does have an aggressive or dramatic sound to it. The first couple of verses, as well as the initial choreography and staging do come across as Liella! and TomaKanoTe duking it out. But as the MV goes on, it eventually becomes another group number, with everyone all performing together in a circle (which I imagine made Chisato very happy). By the end, any sense of clashing is lost. Admittedly, I’m willing to give this direction a pass for two reasons. One, the song is quite catchy and this is one of the more dynamically animated MVs in the season. Those automatically merits some leniency. And two, we already know what’s about to happen next to the gradual shift to a united performance is actually on point.
Seeing as the extras want all eleven idols to perform at Love Live, I’m not at all surprised to see them all deliberately vote towards a tie. I figured that TomaKanoTe would win as that would satisfy Wien’s whole desire to beat Liella!. I’m kind of surprised then that Wien would just be okay with a tie. Then again, she technically still wins first place and earning acknowledgment from the older idols and the other students is a win in its own right. It’s also possible that Wien deep down doesn’t actually care about as much about winning as she initially thought. The funny thing about the tie is that doesn’t matter anyway as both Liella! and TomaKanoTe was going to request that the other group accompany them in Love Live. No matter what happened during the competition, Liella! was going to have eleven members anyway. What ended up being important is everyone being on board with the idea and seeing how this episode ends, that most certainly appears to be the case.
And so the gang is all here…again…for real this time. Crazy how Superstar!! has had this big moment three times now but to the show’s credit, seeing the group assemble has been satisfying each time.
Watch Love Live! Superstar!! on Crunchyroll.
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