After building up to it for two episodes, the plot finally arrives at the culture festival and with that, the conclusion to Sāya’s arc. Has the arc been as good as I remember? I think so. In retrospect, I realize that Sāya has an unfair advantage over the other characters. At three episodes, she objectively has the longest arc out of anyone so far. It kind of makes sense for the show to give the lion’s share to Sāya. She’s the first person Kasumi befriends and the last person to join Poppin’Party so there’s an obligation to go big for her. But because she has the longest arc, she naturally has the most fleshed out one. In addition to that, this three-parter features the most mature plot in the season. In hindsight, it’s almost a precursor to the kind of writing we’d get in the later series. Not to dismiss the previous arcs, they’re better than I remembered them to be, but there’s certainly a couple reasons why Sāya always stood out the most to me.
Right before the culture festival, Kasumi finishes the lyrics for the new song and she leaves them at Sāya’s door for her to find. Before Sāya can read them however, her mother’s anemia worsens again, forcing her to take her mother to the hospital instead of going to school. Kasumi learns about what’s going on after Sāya’s father drops by to deliver the food her homeroom orders. Though bummed that Sāya can’t show up, Kasumi realizes that her friend would be just as sad to see the festival go awry so she focuses on making sure the event goes smoothly. I have to hand it to Kasumi. Even after her argument with Sāya, she remains just as empathetic to her friend’s feelings.
Since this is the obligatory culture festival episode, Bang Dream! of course spends a decent chunk of time having the main characters go through the usual motions of checking out the different attractions in the event. I can’t deny that it’s pure fluff but it is admittedly par for the course if you’ve watched plenty of CGDCT anime and it’s somewhat more justified than usual since the stuff going on with Sāya could use some levity running parallel to it. Definitely the highlight of this tour is Kasumi, Rimi, and Tae finding out that Arisa is dressed up as a princess for her homeroom’s interactive theater. I don’t know why Arisa is often the butt of the joke but it works so I ain’t complaining.
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