Season 2 Episode 5 takes a break from Poppin’Party and their journey to create their own live show. It instead shifts the spotlight over to Pastel*Palettes. This band consists of vocalist Aya Maruyama (Amia Maeshima), guitarist Hina Hikawa (Ari Ozawa), bassist Chisato Shirasagi (Sumire Uesaka), drummer Maya Yamato (Ikumi Nakagami), and keyboardist Eve Wakamiya (Sawako Hata). PasuPare’s presence in this show has so far been a bit odd. In the season premiere, they’re noticeably absent from the live show in Galaxy and the only interaction they have with any of the other bands is watching PoPiPa’s performance online. There’s more of a crossover in this episode but for the most part, PasuPare is off in their own little plot. There are likely plenty of scenes in Girls Band Party! and its tie-in anime where PasuPare interact with the other bands but just within the confines of the mainline anime, it feels a little weird that this band is self-contained from the rest.
In this episode, PasuPare practice for an upcoming performance at a big idol event called Love Live the World Idol Festival (WIF). A shadow that apparently looms over the band is their failed debut show, where they had to lip sync and pretend to play their instruments due to technical difficulties, resulting in subsequence shows being held to a lot of scrutiny. Combined with the prestige associated with the WIF and the band feels very pressured to ensure that their performance at the event will go without a hitch.
Practicing for the WIF proves to be difficult as Chisato, is often busy with other commitments related to her acting career. It’s soon revealed however that Chisato is secretly practicing on her own time at various studios in the city. The only one who becomes aware of this is Tae, who apparently works part-time at all these studios. In previous episodes, PoPiPa talks about how difficult it is for Tae to show up for practice and now, I know they really weren’t kidding. Chisato eventually confides to Tae that she’s been having these secret practice sessions because one of PasuPare’s songs, “Yura-Yura Ring-Dong-Dance”, requires her to play the bass and sing with Aya at the same time, a skill that she feels she hasn’t quite mastered. She later explains that she keeps the sessions a secret because she reasons that her band should only see the result of her effort, much like how an audience is only privy to a band’s performance onstage and not the work that goes into it. This makes a bit more sense if you consider Chisato’s background as an actress, where her logic can apply to her work in television, a medium where you typically only see the final version of a given work.
To be honest, I find Chisato’s decision a bit silly even when considering the context. That said, it does lead to a pretty interesting conflict between her and Aya. Every time Aya asks to practice “Yura-Yura Ring-Dong-Dance”, Chisato puts it on hold due to her lack of confidence in her skills. The one time Chisato does budge, she asks to skip her singing part, under the guise that she wants to focus on getting her bass playing right. When it becomes apparent that the song needs both singers, Aya asks Chisato once again to sing together, prompting Chisato to blurt out that she doesn’t want to do it. The conflict does a good job in showing the cracks in Chisato’s plan. Thing is, Aya lacks a lot of confidence in herself. Because Chisato keeps her insecurity a secret and because she keeps holding off on practicing the song, Aya begins to think that Chisato doesn’t want to practice with her. Once Chisato blurts out her refusal to practice the song in earnest, Aya can’t interpret it in any way other than Chisato saying she’s not good enough for her. Chisato wants her bandmates to see her at her best but that decision ironically accomplishes anything but that.
I thought for sure that Chisato would ask Kasumi for some pointers. Tae mentions to her that Kasumi struggles all the time to maintain her guitar playing and singing and we have previously seen Kasumi settle on dividing up her part with her bandmates. This episode also has Kasumi eavesdrop on Chisato and Tae with Eve and almost learning about Chisato’s secret practice sessions so I figured Kasumi would be of help. For whatever reason then, this doesn’t happen at all in the episode and you’re left to assume that Chisato simply got good enough. Other than that, I think the resolution works well. I like that in spite of her self-doubt, Aya manages to muster enough courage to speak to Chisato and resolve to meet her friend’s standards (even if said standards in ultimately in her head). Also neat is this having an effect on Chisato, who realizes that she shouldn’t feel the need to hide her insecurity and instead practice with Aya and the others.
Like with the previous episode featuring HaroHapi, there’s an unevenness to how much attention this episode gives to the members of PasuPare. Obviously, Aya and Chisato gets the lion’s share of development here. Out of the remaining three, I think Hina stands out the most. As you could probably tell, Hina is Sayo’s twin sister. Knowing that relation, it’s really interesting seeing Hina being way more upbeat than her sister while also proving to be just as competent when it comes to handling a band. Eve gets relegated to comic relief but for what it’s worth, she’s pretty good in the role. I had to look up the full context behind her obsession with Japanese culture (from my understanding, she grew up in Finland so moving to Japan was eye opening for her) but even without it, it’s still funny watching her act like a ninja when she eavesdrop on Chisato and Tae. By far the weakest link is Maya. There currently isn’t much to her character. That said, she does make one cool contribution to the plot, in that she notices the completely worn out strings on Chisato’s bass. This later helps Aya realize how much work Chisato is actually putting in the band and it helps her overcome her fear that Chisato doesn’t want to be in the band with her. Eve gets relegated to comic relief but for what it’s worth, she’s pretty good in the role.
The episode of course ends with PasuPare performing “Yura-Yura Ring-Dong-Dance” at the WIF. Don’t really much to say about the insert song but that’s not a knock against its quality and it is very cool seeing Aya and Chisato sing together as promised. Also, you may notice a curious cameo appearance by a blue and pink haired girl during the concert. No doubt, that’s another new character to keep an eye on.
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