Hello everyone, and welcome to the halfway point of Kageki Shoujo. This week we get more insight into the lives of a couple of other girls who are part of our class of aspiring actors. And as has been the norm so far, we also get peeks into the pasts which seem to drag them down. Though, the highlight of the episode was still the opportunity to be able to see our lead duo finally get to go out in front of an audience and display their acting chops.
Did that all these individual acts add up to form an irresistible tour de force?
Let’s find out!
As has been the pattern all throughout the first half of this cour for Kageki Shoujo, this week too we started the episode in high spirits, with Sarasa celebrating her 16th birthday and receiving a bouquet of 16 roses to commemorate the occasion from her boyfriend. Who exists. In 3D. Or so she tells the other girls, though for them it’s a tough pill to swallow. But we, the audience, are one step ahead and are able to make the connection to the shy childhood friend of hers being the eponymous boyfriend. Though, truth be told, in light of this latest information, his elder brother’s meddling in their affairs does seem to come off as a bit creepy.
Ai too decides to take advantage of the occasion to make major inroads towards the completion of her Mission Call-Watanabe-by-her-First-Name. She goes out of her way to get the rare figurine Sarasa has been pining for, for a while. And writes a sender’s note addressed to Sarasa in her first name. This whole thing has always had this’ innocent confessing to her crush’ vibe from the start and it was a joy to watch it all unfold.
Later on, all the students tired of Professor ‘Phantom’s class appoint Sarasa to propose that instead of studying the art of acting on a stage under a mathematician’s lens, they be given the opportunity to actually put their skill to the test. The prof first turns down the notion but later on pulls some strings to convince entities higher up in the food-chain to let the girls put up a small showcase. The students are divided into groups and tasked to rehearse and present a scene from Romeo and Juliet.
Sarasa and Ai find themselves in the same group along with an outwardly bossy Hoshino and an underconfident Chiaki, thus completing their band of misfits. They obviously choose their roles in the most reasonable way possible but even after getting the opportunity to play the role of Juliet, Chiaki passes it up so that she isn’t forced into competition with her sister, who it seems she considers superior to herself in talent. We also find out that Hoshino on the other hand is always as intense and driven as she has the pressure of being her mother’s legacy weighing down on her at all times. Neither of the issues that these two girls are faced with is particularly extraordinary or unique, but sometimes our problems just are that regular. Sure, they might be fortunate enough to not have suffered from abuse or developed eating disorders but that doesn’t make their problems any less noteworthy.
And through the support of the friends around them, they found a way to put up their best performance on the day of the showcase. Yet, as we watched them perform as part of their audience, we all knew, that the show-stopping moment was always going to fall to Sarasa Watanabe. And that is where this show… stumbled for the first time. The moment Sarasa started watching the stage adaptation of Romeo and Juliet and her eyes turned blank, I got flashbacks to a particular series with another female lead that displayed a trait similar to hers: Hanebado. Now that series was many things but first and foremost, it was a shounen. Kageki Shoujo is not. Its understated nature, its ability to mine its quieter moments for visceral impact and most importantly, its reverence for its characters is where this series stands apart from the rest of its ilk.
Kageki Shoujo is not a series where the lead character switches into split-personality mode and has an ominous aura surround her to have the strength of her performance carry through. Watching Sarasa’s performance have this strange ‘underdog protagonist finally unlocking his true power’ sensibility just rubbed me the wrong way. This is a series that really does not need to fall into such shounen tropes. And every part of me wishes that it avoids that fate in the coming weeks.
Armitage, I didn’t get the same experience you did watching Sarasa. What I see is that Sarasa lives for an audience but is merely imitating other performers rather than bringing new to the table. I suspect that Andou will specifically harp on her for merely imitating others instead of bringing her own spin to things as a weakness instead of framing it as a shounen superpower judging by his remark that she’ll never be a top star if things continue the way they are. I think Sarasa will clearly struggle after hearing what he says even if she doesn’t outwardly show that and keeps up her genki personality.
Yes, I get that Sarasa’s performance was supposed to come off as an imitation and hence less impactful. But it’s just the way that the show decided to portray or in a way exaggerate her mannerisms that I didn’t like. I mean, was the ominous shounen aura during her performance really necessary?? It just felt like an unsubtle exaggeration and the show could have done without it, instead of opting for a grounded approach similar to the performances in Rakugo Shinjuu.
But yes, I do hope that that’s the last imitative impression we see from Sarasa. For her own sake.
Armitage, you were unhappy about the show portraying Sarasa as having a shounen power-up and a split personality, and I have to say that I don’t mind that because when I start making cold calls, it’s as if I turn into a completely different person that is hard to recognize. I tend to be pretty monotonous when I speak, but when I start doing my work, I emote better, speak with the right tone at all the right times, and emit so much more confidence. People don’t expect me to be great at making cold calls due to my lack of social skills, but when the areas that I have deficits in, such as in interpreting body language and my complete lack of hand gestures, are removed from the equation, forcing an emphasis on tone of voice and the words said, I suddenly excel at work people would not expect me to be great at. That’s why I don’t have a problem with Sarasa being situationally great at replicating performances.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I get the sense you stopped covering Kageki Shoujo!! these last couple of weeks because you weren’t enjoying the episodes, but I still find it to be quite enjoyable, and it’s still the anime of the season for me, especially after considering what else is airing right now.
Actually, Armitage had to stop due to personal reasons according to a message left on the Discord server. Has nothing to do with the show itself. The reviews could come back (only sporadically), but Armitage is more focused on crunching and cramming for exams next month.
Having read the manga (Or what’s out, that is), Andou does exactly that, pointing out that Sarasa is merely imitating someone else, not doing her own take on Tybalt.
I appreciate any series that tackles serious subjects with respect. I just hope the show does not fall apart later on.