At the very first moment of this episode, we have a glaring fanservice shot of Chio changing clothes and I thought to myself: “Chio-chan just can’t stop itself from having so much fun”. But it later reveals THAT is what this first segment is about. Yuki’s wearing her “revealing” track suit to school, concerning both our Chio and Manana. This week is a return to form for Chio-chan: these segments are laid out just about enough, both Chio and Manana have heaps of material to shine, and in the end the show tries something new with the little story involving Momo. It’s a welcome return of Yuki, who reveals another side of her this week to the surprise of both Chio and Manana. She wears a short tracksuit to school and she doesn’t care. She notices people glaring of her but to her it’s just like when she’s running in the big stadium. She’s fine with all the attention but it’s shattering for our girls who don’t prepare mentally for such a showcase.
So how the two girls “cope” with that? In different ways but jus so themselves. Look at how Chio decides to blend in: she wears her tennis suit so that her friend Yuki don’t stand out with her suit, but her “below-average” mindset means that she rather prefers to hide behind Yuki. I mean, it’s just a very Chio way to do. Manana, being herself, does things as indirectly as possible. She takes Yuki to the nearby supermarket so that Yuki can finally get it. The plan backfires quickly. She then teases her best friend by tempting Yuki to run, leaving behind Chio and her standout tennis suit. Even if the main joke of this segment to be: what does people react when see a girl wearing tracksuit to school, Chio-chan makes it exciting and never runs out of its welcome.
The second segment recalls the first episode’s shenanigan for all the right reasons. It does enough to not become a gimmick though. It starts innocently enough: Chio’s babbling about her games to an uninterested Manana before her game-mode takes a better of her again (Chio’s hyper for sure). Crawling up towards narrow alley is fun enough, we then have the reappearance of that bald guy (in a pretty much same situation) who still somehow misses Chio in a split second. Having Manana in this segment is an improvement from the first episode, when she just had it with Chio and storms through the roof to catch Chio. As it stands, there are many ways to reach a rooftop, and both Manana and Chio’s journey to that place prove to be entertaining and warm at the same time. “The rare item of friendship” indeed.
Lastly, we get to see the reasons why Momo doesn’t have any friend and why she joins the school committee in the first place. While she wasn’t that remarkable the first time we saw her, this little segment does a good job to give her a personality and presents her point of view. That poor girl has all the good intentions, she just need someone who listen to her. Chio-chan walks a right path this week. Segments play out just at the right length and there’s some genuine moments here. Like Chio, I feel like I’ve collected something rare watching it. Hopefully they keep it up for the remaining half of its run.
Indeed, it was structurally impressive. Good job elucidating this.