Rating: B+
One of the recurring themes of the franchise has been the somewhat cynical notion that nearly every successful move in the entertainment industry – even ones that seem fully spontaneous to a layman – has actually been carefully calculated. When characters in this franchise have acted without rigorous planning and intent (Akane slapping Yuki on Love Now, Abiko trying to rewrite the script for the play on her own being the biggest two examples), a mess has transpired, and only those who rigidly stick to that ultimately get ahead. Throughout the first two seasons, Aqua was the calculating one of the two twins, while Ruby acted mostly off of emotion and instinct. That’s definitely not the case anymore.
In fact, Aqua actually takes a back seat for most of this episode, which is almost entirely split between the viewpoints of Ruby, (more briefly) Akane, and a young, frazzled assistant director that Ruby is playing up to on advice from Saito Ichigo. (“Make good connections to ADs because they could one day become big shots” he essentially tells her.) And Ruby is the one that’s doing the calculating now, to the extent that Aqua naturally picks up on how deliberate her effort to come across as the complete ditz actually is; she’s even setting up situations for him to reply within his acerbic “cool guy” persona. Previous seasons have had a penchant for highlighting key moments with rougher alternative frames, and we see that done again here in the key moment where Ruby takes over. No less calculating is Ruby’s pitch to recruit Minami for the upcoming cosplay segment. She knows Minami has the kind of look that would sell in any kind of cosplay piece, and so would be an easy pitch for a director. Minami’s not savvy enough to pick up on how Ruby is using her here, but I wonder if Ruby could get away with that with Frill?
Akane’s presence in the episode is a small one but not at all wasted. She’s clearly happy that Aqua is genuinely trying to be a good boyfriend, but she also understands him well enough to know that, ironically, him keeping such a careful distance from Kana isn’t completely a positive; it shows that he’s conscious of her situation and does care. (She also knows that he’s not indifferent to the attention he draws from the ladies.) Somewhat surprisingly, she also gets the episode’s one true comedy moment in her silent admonition about how cheating by Aqua won’t be tolerated. And remember, this is the same girl who coldly fired back to Aqua last season that she’d help him kill someone if that’s what it came to, so that’s a less playful threat than it would have been from others.
The episode sags some in the parts focusing on the AD. Yes, he does allow the writing a convenient way to fulfill this episode’s quota of extemporizing about behind-the-scene details, but in a series stacked with strong personalities, he doesn’t stand out enough to be particularly interesting. Still, that whole sequence does allow the series to at least dip its toe into the world of cosplay, coming from a wholly different angle than fare like My Dress-Up Darling or 2.5 Dimensional Seduction. It also allows the series to bring up how important obtaining proper permission is at the professional level. Your typical convention attendee doesn’t need such permission, (or, perhaps more accurately, the need for permission is overlooked), but once money is on the table, everything has to be approved. Very curious to see what kind of adaptation the variety show is going to make to adjust to not getting appropriate permission.
This episode also features the debut of the official OP and ED, and both are winners. “TEST ME” by Chamina may not be the massive hit that YOASOBI’s “Idol” was, but it’s still an alluring song backed by such an array of loaded visuals that you could probably write a whole article just analyzing it shot-by-shot. (There are even some clear allusions in it to the long form of “Idol.”) ED “Serenade” by natori evokes the jazzy sound and beat of Creepy Nuts’ “Call of the Night” while having its own dose of striking visuals (including, again, call-backs to the long form of “Idol”); the scene of a cardboard cutout of Ruby during her reporting routine particularly carries meaning, but so does her dancing with Aqua. Both have plenty of rewatch value and could, in the long run, be considered among the season’s best.
While stakes aren’t high here yet, this episode shows that the whole variety show thing is more of an actual story arc than just a set-up. While not the juiciest arc we’ve had, it’s starting to show some potential.
USA Anime 