Hidan no Aria AA – Episode 4 – Preparing to Fight Against an Old Rival

Now, it’s Akari’s second chance to raise her rank by winning a Quartet test. Sadly, she has to face off an opponent that humiliated her in the initial test.

Recall what happened in the first episode. Yep, Takachiho Urara is a very narcissistic rich girl who faced off against Akari in a test to determine the initial rankings. There is no wonder why Akari couldn’t beat her since Urara pretty much curb stomped her. I suppose that other students will be put in a similar situation if they had to face off against her during the initial test.

To me, while Urara picks all the strongest Brutei to go against Akari’s team, I feel that she will ultimately lose from being too overconfident or rather the hubris. While Akari is far from being a skilled brutei, she has a lot of determination and never gives up. This enables her to win the challenge against Aria to become her Amica despite not being as skillful compared to others. In comparison, Urara lost against Aria and she is still bitter about it while being envious towards Akari. From this, Urara already set herself for failure despite having a strong advantage against Akari’s team.

Aside from that, it’s nice to see Mine Riko showing up to play as a role of the teacher to help train Akari’s team. Sure, Urara laugh at them while they trained, especially at Akari from far away, but I won’t doubt Riko’s teaching abilities since she is very capable. Not to mention, she looks good in the teacher’s outfit.

While the girls prepare for the test, we learn more about Shino and how she became Shirayuki’s Amica. I find it amusing that Shirayuki is basically teaching her how to cook traditional Japanese foods along with eliminating potential love rivals, namely Aria. There is no wonder Shirayuki makes a good mentor for Shino since they think alike. Not only that, we learn that Kirin was initially hesitant to make Raika her Amica because she is small and weak. As a result, she was afraid that she would get rejected until she mustered up enough courage to do so. With that in mind, it makes me wonder how well she will do with Raika by her side next time.

In the end, will this training help Akari’s team to pass the test next time. We’ll see, but hopefully from Aria’s encouragement from the charm she gives to Akari, Akari will win someway or another. After all, she still has a lot of hidden abilities that nobody knows about. Even so, you can’t underestimate the power of friendship, can you? ¶