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「犬を拾う。」 (Inu wo Hirou.)
“Taking In a Dog.”
While we may have lost one of the funniest jokes due to character development, there’s something extremely rewarding about seeing Riko conquer her fear of dogs.
General Impressions
With the overall story of Sunshine slowing to a crawl as our girls approach the Regional Prelims, this week’s episode took some time to give Yoshiko and Riko an opportunity to grow as both individuals and friends.
Starting with Yoshiko, it was super refreshing to see that she’s actually not completely infected with the disease known as “chuunibyou syndrome”. As a character, I get that one of her draws is that she’s the fallen angel who brings some edgy darkness to Aqours. That said, this second season has really amped up each girl’s individual quirks and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that Yoshiko’s constant dives into Yohane-mode have slowly started to grow old. But, once we discovered where Yoshiko draws all that inspiration for her outbursts from, I’ll admit that I started to look at her and all of her prior “moments” with a much softer gaze. Also, something about the way she was dressed up with her demon zip up made her look extra cute this week.
Changing sides to Riko, god I was so happy to see her finally overcome her fear of dogs. While it makes me a little sad to know that we’ll never get another amazing moment where Riko is hovering in-between two houses while an excited Shiitake is wagging his tail behind her; I’ll admit that the events leading up to that final moment of the episode made it all worth it.
Overall, not too bad for what was essentially a character development episode. Seeing how our second years have been getting less of the spotlight recently, it was nice to see that the story hasn’t completely forgotten about them (hopefully You is up next for some well deserved screen time). Now, all that’s left is for the story to kick things into gear and start focusing on the actual Love Live competition that I think we’d all love to see our Aqours girls make it into. Judging from what the preview showed us, it feels like things might be taking a turn for the worse. Hopefully though that just means we’ll get another great episode that shows just how well our girls can band together to face whatever near-impossible situation is thrown at them. In any case, I’ll catch you guys next week. See you then!
Preview
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https://randomc.net/image/Love%20Live/Love%20Live%20Sunshine%20S2%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2006.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Love%20Live/Love%20Live%20Sunshine%20S2%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2006.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Love%20Live/Love%20Live%20Sunshine%20S2%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2027.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Love%20Live/Love%20Live%20Sunshine%20S2%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2014.jpg
Best episode simply because of so much Yohane-sama! <3 lol
Though, it was saddening that Kanan also brought up the feels that were felt in the first series in reminding us that she, Dia, and Mari will be graduating this year and won't be around for future Love Live! competitions ala Eli, Nozomi, and Nico…the question now is whether Aqours will disband like Muse did and keep Aqours uniquely their own group, or will they do the opposite and simply keep Aqours going as a "generational" thing, with new members joining in their first year and, if they stick around, leaving when they graduate, assuming they succeed in saving their school.
https://randomc.net/image/Love%20Live/Love%20Live%20Sunshine%20S2%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2003.jpg
Yoshiko’s “E-Rank Luck” strikes again…
https://randomc.net/image/Love%20Live/Love%20Live%20Sunshine%20S2%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2004.jpg
OK, now you’re overdoing the “Kotori-style photobomb” gag. Also, is this the first time we’ve seen Shiitake with eyes wide open?
https://randomc.net/image/Love%20Live/Love%20Live%20Sunshine%20S2%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2012.jpg
Whozzacutedoggie?
Man, and I thought Dia’s day in the limelight episode was enjoyable enough. But this episode comes quite close–with my third (Yoshiko) and seventh (Riko) favorite Aqours members, to boot! (Though I’ll admit I’m starting to like Riko even more after this.) Still, I’m honestly gonna miss the running gag of Riko being scared of dogs–even the small ones. Heck, I was waiting for fanart of Riko meeting Rin Shibuya (iM@S: Cinderella Girls*) and her pet dog Hanako just to see how Riko reacts. I guess she wouldn’t mind as much now…
Meanwhile, nice to see some exploration on why Yoshiko adopted her chuunibyou personality, and how her streak of bad luck made her a bit more spiritual in how she views the world (her whole spiel about the “invisible hand of destiny/fate”). It also reminds me a bit of how Maki still believed in things like Santa Claus back in the original series. That being said, if Yoshiko wasn’t a chuuni, then she won’t bother wearing those gorgeous goth-loli dresses, hehe.
Also, I never thought of the Riko x Yoshiko pairing before (even though Riko and Yoshiko’s mothers already know each other). Oh well, a new shipping route has been opened for the yuri fans (and doujinshi circles)…
(* – And on that note, I would love to see a crossover concert between Aqours and 346Pro. If μ’s and 765Pro did it back in 2015’s Animelo Summer Live, perhaps Aqours and 346Pro would be open to it as well?)
I want to see just one single talking male. Fucking single one!
Is it that hard?
Even the goddamn dog is a bitch!
That’s like going to a Vegan restaurant and asking for ribs.
If I ever go to the vegan madhouse, it will be to oven them all.
Shitake – I though Shitake was a she and not a he based off of this site http://llsif.wikia.com/wiki/Shiitake
I kind of wish Riko didn’t get rid of her fear of dogs, I would love to see more screen time of Shitake taking action on Riko.