Finally, the beach episode we are waiting for is here. Or rather, it seems more like a survival photo shoot in paradise.
At long last, we get the awaited beach episode. Yes, they had to do the octopus thing. Even so, the girls look great. It is too bad that Hanako didn’t take part of it.
The main focus of this episode is on Kotoko and her brother, Genta. He is apparently the only brother in the family as Kotoko’s family have several sisters. Kotoko is the oldest sister in the family. Apparently, she wanted to become an idol after looking at them on television. It’s funny how they argued about which occupation is better during their childhood.
Regardless, it’s quite obvious that they are supportive with each other and want to see them succeed. From the looks of it, her brother’s photography career might be off to a great start. However, something unfortunate happens.
During the reunion, Kotoko got a bit too playful with her brother. The paparazzi apparently took a picture of it and try to spin it as some kind of scandal. I have to admit that the whole purity culture thing with idols is pretty sexist against women. Even so, it’s kind of stupid to assume that Kotoko is actually dating from that photo when it’s obvious that it is her brother. Obviously, you can’t date a family member. That paparazzi manages to spin it as such. To me, I think one can consider this as libel.
Either way, Kotoko understandably becomes upset thinking that the photo is going to ruin Ongaku Shoujo’s reputation. Sure, she could clear things up by saying that it’s just her brother. Sadly, her emotions got to her and she now wants to quit. Thankfully, all the members came to convince her not to quit since she is too important to the group. Most importantly, her brother came and tell her not to quit since she would be giving up on her dream.
With that, the girls hugging Kotoko is one of the heartwarming moments of the episode. While those music executives are being dumb and not realize this situation is just a big misunderstanding, they decide to disband Ongaku Shoujo anyway. I am confident the girls will fight back. After all, there is nothing wrong with Kotoko showing affection to her family members.
With that, it’s time to address the other elephant in the room. It was kind of hard to watch this episode since the production values noticeably went downhill. While the usage of stills makes this obvious, that is not part of the worries.
The animation took a noticeable downgrade, especially in the second half. It was pretty bad, probably worse than what I saw with Märchen Mädchen. In some scenes, the animation looks very melty and lacked detail. Sure, the 9th episode of Märchen Mädchen was poorly animated, but I think this episode manages to look worse in comparison. It’s a known fact that Studio Deen isn’t known for quality, but this is pretty bad. Hopefully, the next episode won’t look as bad in terms of animation. ¶
Nice beach episode and look at the evils of paparazzi. The girls with developed bodies all looked quite nice, including Kotoko. Her family life is familiar but still cool.
While the animation and still shocks are meh, at least it’s a nice beach episode regardless. Still, didn’t like the whole fake idol scandal part though.