You get a heart-shaped sparkle! And you! And you! Everybody's getting a heart-shaped sparkle!
With the way last week's episode ended, I thought that the show was going to spend some time angsting about this, with Cecil probably having a drawn-out argument with his dad about becoming an idol. I was excited to get more information about Agnapolis, assuming that Haruka and the harem would probably have to go there to help Cecil with his argument or something. But this episode says LOL NOPE to all of that, opting for angst over Cecil's disappearance in the first half and another hallucinogenic shoujo bubble light show in the second half.
I'll admit, I was a bit disappointed in this episode because it played out like a sped-up version of the events towards the end of the first season. The point of the episode wasn't about Cecil making a commitment and leaving his old life behind him like I'd guessed last week. Instead, it was about Starish convincing Shining that they're better as a group by singing the ED song. When this happened in the first season, I'm not sure how I stopped laughing; however, recreating it didn't have the same effect this time around. I think that this has to do with the fact that this season has consistently been bigger, flashier, and more ridiculous than the first season, so pulling the same trick twice feels like a letdown. Not that it wasn't a sight to see anyway. If they add any more sparkles, I don't think I'll be able to see what's happening on the screen anymore.
As for Cecil, he really resolved that problem quickly. Shining may have some unexpected competition for most ridiculous entrances if Cecil keeps this up, since I was not expecting him to parachute in. Also, apparently he needed some kind of elaborate scroll to prove that he has permission to sing J-pop? Honestly, I want to see Agnapolis even more now, just to have a visual on a country that crazy.
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| You weren't even gone for 24 hours |
Anyway, with all of that out of the way, we're back to the vague UtaPri award! I'm even more confused this time by Shining's ability to make light show announcements out of nowhere then I was last time. Aren't they at a secluded campground? What's the point of doing this here? I keep imagining confused wildlife. More on topic, apparently the award is between two groups: Starish and Heavens.
Heavens hasn't been officially introduced before this point, although I did recognize them from various magazines the characters have been reading during previous episodes. (Foreshadowing? In my UtaPri?) It's still more than a little out of left field, since show still hasn't really done anything with the senpai characters and I'm losing hope that a Tokiya episode will happen. Now we have a whole new idol group of top of everything else? I don't know how this went in the games, but wouldn't it have made more sense to set up Heavens as their rivals from the beginning, competing for the same jobs as Starish? It wouldn't have to be anything big. For example, one of them could've been in Ren's modeling show and pointed out that he was only there because of his family, underscoring the problem in that episode. Or have another guy compete with Masato for his role in the musical drama, pushing him to do better and resulting in him asking the others for help. There was a way to do this without upsetting the balance of the episodic storylines.
...Of course, that implies that UtaPri would choose the logical path in the first place, which it never does. Forget I said anything.
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| Just listen to the siren call of Starish, and all your plot questions will go away... |
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