Ehhh….Meh.
So this is our Zakuro-centric episode of the season, and it’s just okay. It’s by no means bad, it’s alright. It’s just not up to Lettuce or Mint’s episodes’ quality.
Zakuro has written a script for a music video. Her classmate, Rika, and yes we actually meet a classmate of Zakuro’s, holy crap, is directing it. Rika is a prodigy director who is very intense about her craft. People praise her for being able to bring out the true person behind famous faces.
Years ago, she tried to film Zakuro for another project but kept getting frustrated because she couldn’t manage to bring out Zakuro’s true face. She snapped the SD card she was using in half and quit. Now she has something to prove to Zakuro and the same goes for Zakuro. She’s determined to give Rika what she wants to see.
So blah blah blah she can be her true self around her friends.
There is entertainment value in this episode. I thought the other Mews screwing up their scenes was a kinda funny. I think it’s great that they actually had Rika figure out that Zakuro was a Mew Mew, because, well DUH, but she specifically was able to zoom in on Zakuro’s face in Mew form, so.
Rika herself was nice enough and an interesting character. At first, she kinda comes off like another blowhard jerk director, but she has a reason for being as critical as she is.
Her dynamic with Zakuro is also very unique. They’re both very intense about their work, and they butt heads numerous times over the course of this production. They act similarly yet also differently.
I also love that Pudding and Zakuro clearly got updated attack animations this season, if I didn’t note that already. I don’t think I saw these before. Ichigo didn’t even get to do an attack today. Pudding and Zakuro saved the day.
However, I do have some bones to pick.
First of all, Zakuro, what weird-ass script did you write? So the first scene they shoot involves Ichigo handing Zakuro her microphone after jumping down from a bunch of high rocks and parkouring over, which she can do because cat. Somehow no one questions her ability to do this. (Ichigo messes up by falling, throwing the microphone at Zakuro and smacking her in the face with it. Zakuro does recover and start the song, but Rika cuts immediately after.)
In the second scene, Mint is tasked with doing a fancy ballet with Zakuro….is this the first time they’ve brought up that she does ballet? I can’t remember her doing ballet in the reboot. Mint does wonderfully, but in the end she gushes over the fact that Zakuro is holding her and seemingly messes up the shot.
There’s a scene in a circus where Pudding is tasked with doing tricks around Zakuro. She messes up by grabbing Zakuro’s mic to juggle with it.
Lettuce is tasked with….cuddling bunnies with Zakuro? She messes up by freaking out the rabbit with her severe nervousness and causing it to attack.
Finally, there’s a scene where all the girls walk down a flight of stairs together while wearing costumes that make them look like Greek goddesses or something.
So….what is the narrative here? Is there even a narrative?
Secondly, what the what was the Blue Knight’s role today? He saves Ichigo from an attack from a Chimera Anima. Quiche wants to figure out who he is so you’d think there’d be more to this encounter….but no. He just says the Blue Knight’s power is on another level to the Mews, which, fuck off, points out that he can’t be an Earthling and then leaves.
Why did he say the power thing? All he did was save Ichigo from one attack. He did nothing else.
Finally, the stairs they were going to use for the final shot are ruined, so they decide to go to Zakuro and Rika’s school to film. I thought there would be a big staircase at this school they could use….but no.
The idea is that they stack up a ton of desks on top of each other and cover them with a sheet to make stairs….That is so ridiculously unsafe.
Later, they’re all watching the music video together, and it shifts back to focusing on Ichigo because when Aoyama calls her adorable and eats a piece of popcorn from her cheek, she gets so flustered that she turns into a cat and runs outside.
Rapist cat returns, hoo frickin’ rah, and Alto saves her once more by kissing her and returning her to human form. But Alto gets smacked badly by rapist cat before he’s shooed away. He can’t run away before his time runs out, so he transforms back in Ichigo’s arms (causing him to be on top of her when the smoke clears) revealing he’s actually Shirogane.
All in all, I felt very underwhelmed by this episode. It had some good moments and wasn’t bad, but it was still just meh.
Also….I still can’t get the idea out of my head that stuff like this is done for the sake of selling the soundtrack or something.
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