|
...So many girls I want to hug this week... Mimori and Kanata and Chieri (I always want to hug Chieri... somehow she always seems in need of hugs) and Takamina so very much (the look on her face when she heard she had come in second... even the use of the most awesome part of AKB Sanjou! as her theme couldn't offset the pain from the look of disappointment) and somehow even Yuuko looked like she needed hugs. I WANNA HUG THEM ALL!!
*coughs* Anyway. Folks can argue that not much happened this week, and I suppose chronologically not a lot of progress was made, but this was a significant event, both in terms of their lives as idols, and in terms of the girls' character development. Nagisa has (hopefully) finally come to understand that competition doesn't need to make you enemies with each other.
Last week Chieri steadfastly refused to let her father run her life... and this week she took that to another level by realizing (perhaps unconsciously) that if she leaves just because he's trying to make her stay, she's still letting him indirectly control her life, letting him force her away from who she wants to be, and what she wants to do. ...Well, maybe I'm giving her too much credit, and it was just for the fans' sake that she stayed, but still, it's true, and I hope if she hasn't realized it, she will. If he doesn't want her to leave, and she leaves to spite him, in a way she is still letting him control her actions. To truly be free of him, she must make her own choices regardless of what he wants.
The other understudies had various epiphanies about not giving up, about how much they meant to each other, etc. This was an important character development episode, and with all the build up it could not have been skipped, and should not have been compressed. I say they did this right, and they did this well. There was emotion in this episode, and powerful moments. I felt myself tearing up at times. They did well.
Now that it is done, on to the next stage. I think evil is going to show more of its true colors soon, and the girls are going to need every bit of strength they have gained to face it.
|