I hope Hanebado having fun of drawing Ayano this week. She who switches from normal-Ayano to Weiwei-Ayano to evil-Ayano in a blink of eye. Appropriately all my screenshots this week are dedicated to her multiple disorder personalities. After all, ridiculous drama with ridiculous facial expressions are Hanebado at its essence now. Story-wise I’m pretty sure that we won’t get to the national stage this cour. It’d be the final match between Nagisa and Ayano and the boy’s tournament. Speaking of that I find it strange to move the final match to the week after. Isn’t it just one match left? Before addressing the elephant in the room (which is Ayano, not the real elephant), let’s get down to Nagisa’s perspective first. To put it frankly her role isn’t big or important enough to be seen as a co-lead. Worse, like many characters in this show, she makes some head-scratching decisions. If she practises to the extend of hurting her knee, then what’s the point of all that? It’s the time where you’re supposed to rest your body, and one more week of practice doesn’t make any real different. Where is Tachibana in all this? Isn’t he supposed to be a coach? I know Hanebado never intends to be realistic but little nitpicks like this take me right out of the main story.
More than any other episodes, this week is the one where we can see Ayano’s character inconsistency all over the board. They say the eyes are the windows to one’s heart and it can apply appropriately here. Her eyes, from total blank when she meets Connie, to all fluffy when she’s in the Weiwei amusement park, then to Psycho’s level of creepiness, ain’t come from the same person. You can pretty much say the same for Connie. First appeared as a talented, stuck-up brat who refuses to let her partner play, what does she become this week? She got beaten by Ayano completely flat. In addition, I don’t really buy her reason to get Ayano accept her as “family member”. They aren’t bloodlined for Peter sake and this is more about proving herself to be a better badminton player than Ayano than you know, get together like a big family with welcomed arms.
And now their Mama truly comes to the picture by greeting Ayano like nothing happened? God, the drama is gonna be awesomely ridiculous next week (a little off topic but where are Connie real parents? Does Mama adopt her legally or just invite her to the house and let her stay?). On the other spectrum, we have a bit insight of Yu’s crush to her upperclassman but frankly I don’t know what will happen afterward. Will she confess? Will the other one care at all? Will we care at all? To say Hanebado goes overboard with its drama is still an understatement. THE drama is getting laughable mediocre, but the way Hanebado embraces it with all it had is kinda admirable by itself. At least, we can always enjoy the many faces of Ayano this week.
I’m few eps behind, but from the looks of it, I’ll have to fastforward through this or drop it altogether. Thx for the heads up.
You can watch this episode just to see how the show goes full melodrama and beyond through Ayano’s character. Otherwise, save your time by watching something else. You could try out Asobi Asobase as I enjoy it every single week, or Revue Starlight where the last episode pulls the rug under our feet again and it’s an awesome twist.