The preview kind of caught me off guard, but not too surprising. Since the last episode focused on Mei, it makes sense to focus on our favorite Chuunibyou, Eris Rie.
If you thought that Misaki had completed the expansion of her new multimedia project, you would be wrong. She finally reveals the remaining characters part of the project. Then, of course, Haruna asks if it’s okay to become part of the project. Rio gives an apparent response to this. Either way, I wonder what characters the remaining eight will take.
Of course, the focus is on Rie as she, Mei, Satori, and Rinne did an interview. The interviewer believed that Rie was the leader. Not too surprising since her appearance completely fits the overall feeling of the unit. Moreover, Mei and Satori are not that great at managing people. Also, forget about Rinne for apparent reasons. In other words, Rie is the apparent leader, and she becomes proud of it as she acts like her usual Chuunibyou self. However, she doesn’t realize the responsibilities of being a leader.
The next day, Rie started acting a bit funny. As they say, “great powers come great responsibility.” While Rie thinks it’s cool to be a leader, she doesn’t realize its responsibilities.
From this worry, she gets so caught up in the thought of what a leader is that she is acting funny. I find it funny how she spaces out and burns her breakfast pastry. This worry plays out as she figures out what a leader does. Eventually, Kirika notices Rie’s behavior, and Misaki and Rio call her into the office. Maybe she shouldn’t overthink it for now. After all, Rie is the one that keeps the group together. Still, the answer is probably closer than she thinks it is.
Eventually, Rie’s leadership opportunities finally present themselves when Rinne wants to put on another live storytelling for the kids. But, of course, Satori and Mei are against it due to their packed schedule. I can see why Rinne shouldn’t be the leader, given her inability to think through her decisions.
Eventually, Rie thought about what to do after seeing the kids cry over Mei and Satori saying no. Rie decides to do it. Not to mention, she finds a way to make it happen with the packed schedule. She ultimately decides on a familiar story on which they can make a script quickly while enlisting help from her friends. Thankfully, everyone else at AiRBLUE had no problem helping her out.
After the performance, the stars aligned properly, and the whole live reading went well without a hitch. It’s good that Rie finally realizes the leadership qualities she has. However, despite feeling anxious about bossing people around and dragging everyone into this project, Rie feels down as she stands in front of an empty state. That is until Mei, Satori, and Rinne came to meet with her.
Then again, Satori recalled the time their group was basically “industrial waste.” She says that they wouldn’t get where they are today without Rie. In other words, Rie is already one, and she doesn’t need to change anything about herself. If it’s not already evident in the last episode, her leadership skills came naturally, as too her Chuunibyou personality. Her personality is what makes her perhaps the most enjoyable character from AiRBLUE.
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Not often we see characters who excel at something so long as they don’t think about it. Very cool story for Rie. Team Leftovers are my favorite group and not just because there’s a couple in it. Team BloomBall (hopefully) has one too.
Interested to learn about Miharu next time.
Not too surprising, then again I did like Rie’s personality and appearance, even after the first episode since she kind of reminds me the awesomeness of Ranko. I can see how she made the “industrial waste” team into a hero, which is a nice underdog story.