Now that Kasumi wants to form a band, she of course goes around asking her classmates to join her. In fact, she begins right as Glitter Green finishes their concert, immediately inviting Arisa on the spot. Arisa rejects the proposal (in her defense, she’s known Kasumi for on afternoon) but to her chagrin, Kasumi continues to visit her at her house. Kasumi befriends Arisa’s grandmother and the latter appreciates that there’s someone from Arisa’s group who wants to be her friend so she lets Kasumi hang around and motivate Arisa to go to school. This allows Kasumi to become a regular visitor of the residence, even joining the family for breakfast, and prevent Arisa from accusing her of trespassing on her property again.
While Kasumi tries to convince Arisa to join her band, she formally meets and befriends Rimi. As it turns out, Rimi is the younger sister of Glitter Green’s vocalist and guitarist, Yuri (Suzuko Mimori), and plays bass herself. This of course prompts Kasumi to invite her to the band, which Rimi shyly accepts. So there you go, we kind of sort of have two members in the band now! I kind of find Kasumi being a little too pushy here, Saya even points this out to her and Rimi, but I get that Kasumi is just that energetic and it’s not like Rimi isn’t interested in joining the band. As for Saya, she supportive but she politely declines Kasumi’s invitation. Given her unwillingness to go to Space at the end of the first episode, her decision is kind of to be expected.
After school, Kasumi notices Arisa clearing out her family’s backhouse. Much to her horror, the guitar she found, the Random Star, is among the items Arisa plans on getting rid of. Apparently, the guitar goes for at least 300,000 yen so unless Kasumi forks over the cash, it’s going to be sold off in an online auction. Kasumi continues to hang out with her, leading Arisa to assume she’s being chummy to get the Random Star. It’s definitely an ulterior motive, just look at how enamored Kasumi is whenever she looks at the guitar. That said, she is definitely sincere when she insists that she just enjoys Arisa’s company (and I’m not just saying because I have finished this season).
Since it’s awkward to just stand around and watch, Kasumi offers to help Arisa with the cleanup. As thanks for helping her, Arisa lets Kasumi look at the Random Star (albeit at hilariously short periods). As the girls make progress with the backhouse, Arisa finally begins to open up to Kasumi. As it turns out, Arisa is the one who put all the star shaped stickers in the neighborhood. Those were rewards she got from piano lessons. Even though Arisa enjoys playing the piano, she quit the hobby in order to focus on her studies, eventually earning enough credits that she can actually afford to skip school for a while.
I originally didn’t give it much attention but on a rewatch, I quite like Arisa’s arc. It does a good job factoring in all the curious details about the character so far. The fact that Arisa can comfortably skip school is a pretty effective way for the show to say she feels dissatisfied with her decision to quit music. It’s great that she did that well in school but her opting to stay at home and do nothing suggests that she feels rather unfilled by her accomplishment. As silly as it is that the stickers are coincidentally Kasumi’s favorite shape, connecting to the whole star beat thing conveys where Arisa’s passion truly lies. It also works in tandem with Arisa’s budding friendship with Kasumi, evolving from dismissing the latter’s quirkiness to admiring her passion, which would then lead to Arisa’s inevitably rekindling her interest in music.
As the girls finish up with moving all the junk out, Arisa lets Kasumi take one last look at the Random Star. Unfortunately, the handle of the case falls apart and Kasumi accidentally breaks one of the guitar strings as a result. This leads to Arisa and a very distraught Kasumi taking the Random Star to a music shop for a repair. I can’t help but find this scene a teeny bit funny. Like, the way in which the girls barge in with the guitar and wait for the good ness, you’d think they were concerned for a loved one in the emergency room instead. Joking aside, the heightened tone of the scene works well in informing us how attached Kasumi is towards the Random Star.
After the guitar gets fixed, Arisa finally decides to let Kasumi keep it. Her only stipulation is that Kasumi covers the fee of taking the online auction down. Kind of a missed opportunity to have Arisa put Kasumi in debt. Like, that could make for a decent running gag where Kasumi is scrounging for cash and Arisa continues to remind her that she still owes her a lot of money. That said, Arisa only asking for a small payment is perhaps the better way of showing how much Kasumi has grown on her.
Back at the Ichigaya residence, Arisa receives the keys to the backhouse from her grandmother, as part of a deal for cleaning it out. Arisa takes Kasumi to the basement, which has been turned into a makeshift music studio. This allows Kasumi to try the Random Star with a guitar amplifier. Later, we see Kasumi ask the owner of Space to let her audition. That she thinks she’s good to go after trying the guitar once is dumb but that’s admittedly the kind of thing Kasumi would do. By chance, Kasumi meets Rimi again and she blurts out in front of Yuri that Rimi is joining her band. Although Yuri is happy and supportive of the news, Rimi reverses her decision, presumably due to her anxiety, setting up the story for the next episode.
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