Nice. After the previous episode, I was expecting another rather silly episode, but this installment instead took itself entirely serious. Instead of going for the usual fun basketball matches that this series became known for, instead the focus fell to Dan and Rouge, and the romance between them. As it turns out, the idols had to take medications in order to e able to keep up with the basketball matches and not to disappoint their fans, but Roughe took this way too far, collapsed, and the episode ended with her returning to the moon without her having the chance to say goodbye to Dan.
This episode was really solid and well done, but it does have me worried about this series’ future a lot. When this series first started out, it managed to so well avoid some of the clichés and tropes of similar series, but for the past few episodes the clichés have really been heaping up, with this episode probably being the worst.
For example, it’s great to see that Dan now has more reasons to go to the moon than just for his sister: his motivations are changing, and that’s pretty interesting. HOWEVER, at the same time it reduces Idol Rouge as a simple damsel in distress. The romance so far worked so well because Rouge really was someone who fitted Dan: impulsive, strong and not afraid to speak her mind. The two filled in for each other’s weaknesses and that was fun to watch, but having her talents explained by an overdose of medication, bringing her back to the moon beyond her will so that Dan can save her. That was a bit of a disappointment, and the creators had better know how to handle this properly.
And yeah, I guess I could have seen this coming, but I’m still really disappointed by this: Miyuki. She was really fresh as Dan’s childhood friend, exactly BECAUSE she wasn’t in love with him. The two of them really were friends: they hung out together and had the same purpose: she worked as a mechanic, while he was doing his basketball. But unfortunately, this episode showed some really big hints that she is indeed in love with him. I mean, seriously! That’s about the biggest cliché in the book that you can think of!
While I still like this series at this point, something really has to happen in its second half to make it surpass the brilliance of the first third of the show. I really hope that the change of directors after episode 17 (at least, I assume that the changes are going to be noticeable from that point) aren’t going to make this even more difficult than it already is.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
Solid episode, but lacked the creativity that made me a fan of the rest of the series.
Well but you should have seen this coming 🙂
Remember the flashback in the first episode? Mutual Love?
She always loved him. It’s just that Miyuki probably doesnt want to taint her friendship with Dan by trying to start a relationship. However, she can’t help but feel jealous about the situation with Rouge.
If I understood Citron correctly, the problem actually wasn’t that Rouge overdosed on her performance-enhancing meds.
The problem was that she stopped taking them entirely, because she didn’t want to be dishonest to Dan – that was why the others found the pile of unused pills in Rouge’s drawer, and why her (unboosted) body ultimately couldn’t handle the stress of play, leading to her collapse.
Well i think that this ep was one of the best eps so far. I mean up till now he didnt even have a solid reason to actually go to the moon. But now that he has it it will deepen the story a bit further. But i have an uneasy feeling that he will lose, if the series is 26 eps long they just cant end it with him going to the moon, so im not quite happy about that.
One thing i forgot to mention is that i thought that the part with him throwing a ball that made sounds was really impressive. Usually it’d that he caught up and it was a tear full departure. But it showed out right another ending which suprised me. So who knows what suprises the director may show us? I think that this is gonna be a very intressting anime from this point. The intro is over and now the main plot starts
In all honesty, I thought it was made clear before-hand (in like the first few episodes?) that Miyuki liked Dan… Maybe because of the fan-subs I watched? I dunno… But actually the whole episode while Dan was making that song thing, I was honestly thinking “What about Miyuki? HUH?” So I’m glad they finally showed her a lil upset about it.