While Umi, Kotori and Honoka is on field trip, Rin goes in the hot seat to become a leader temporarily.
Believe it or not, I am surprised that Rin hasn’t complained about not being feminine enough since the fourth episode of the prequel when Hanayo wanted her to join too. Since then , her complex over not being feminine enough hasn’t been touched upon until now when she become the leader when the 2nd years get stranded in Okinawa. While she firmly believes that her short hair makes her tomboyish, I honestly l find her more feminine compared to Makoto from The Idolmaster who is raised as a boy. Not to mention, Rin doesn’t really have a hairstyle that makes her look like a boy. To me, I feel that her complex came as a result of bullying because her classmates already branded her as such based on appearance during her childhood. I don’t blame her since children are immature, but it certainly took a toll on her self-esteem. Sure, she could have just grown her hair out and wear girly clothing, but she would still get bullied.
On the other hand, while I find Rin’s attempt to talk politely rather funny, it’s apparent that the girls wanted to make Rin the center of their performance at the fashion show so that she will get over her complex. Sure, it’s still hard for her to get over it for the fact that the trauma from her childhood still haunts her as seen with her running away and convincing Hanayo to wear the dress instead. At the same time, she can’t possibly run away from the issue forever. That’s why the girls at the last-minute decided that Rin would wear it so she can finally realize that she is pretty all along. She just needed some encouragement from her friends to get over it.
As a whole, I’m glad that Rin has finally gotten over the “too tomboyish to consider herself cute” thing mostly because she didn’t receive much character development compared to everyone else. After seeing her in a skirt at the end, it makes me wonder if she will continue to do so in future episodes and/or perhaps take it a step further by growing her hair out. Even so, she is still a decent leader since she has some of the qualities Honoka has that keep the group together.
Great post, this episode gave me the urge to talk about something similar on my site. It draws back to that problem of letting hairstyles determine a girl’s popularity. I’d love to see a reverse scenario where Rin grows out her hair and gains some more love. Not that it would be the right method of approaching the problem, but I rarely see it happening this way.
I think it has more to do with society as mentioned, females are expected to have long hair and that short hair is usually a punishment. Of course, this trend is changing (one of the characters actually mentions this), but it really depends on the hairstyle as there are ones that won’t make a girl look like a boy. Not to mention, there are like two other characters (Tsubasa and Hanayo) that has short hair, but probably a little longer than Rin. I just think she needed to get over the idea that not all short hair styles necessarily make one look like a boy, but there are some that is considered cute or feminine. Of course, Rin wearing nothing but pants and shorts doesn’t help with her complex, but I’m glad that she gotten over it.
Totally. I just feel it’s so shallow that society still labels women as what they want, and it’s basically a societal sin to be yourself and be expressive. If you have long flowing hair, you’re a beautiful woman. If you have short hair, you’re a boy, lesbian or some other derogatory form. It’s like people can’t be who they want to be without being judged, but now I’m talking about the problems of society in general.