While in the background for a while, struggling to earn money, Natsumi finally gets her day in the spotlight. Of course, she does the unthinkable, as any capitalist will do.
From the looks of it, Natsumi has been struggling a lot lately as an influencer. She struggles to get views and followers. Yes, getting noticed on social networks is challenging, especially on social media. Of course, she can’t stop obsessing over money. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t blow all her money on meme stocks. Then again, life is not all about money.
Of course, she does the unthinkable. After realizing Liella’s popularity, she decides to do some clout chasing. That is while Kanon, Keke, Chisato, Sumire, and Ren get excited about having 8 members. They are one member away from getting to that absolute number.
Meanwhile, the first year struggled with the training. Only Shiki barely held on. It’s not too surprising since national preliminaries are coming up soon. Still, it’s nice to see that Kinako, Mei, and Shiki have some talents. Kinako is good with picking up good words for lyrics and Shiki, dancing skills. Again, not too surprising, given that Shiki showed off some moves before Mei entered the Science Association. Even so, they feel a bit down, wondering if they can reach the same growth as the second year.
Of course, Natsumi makes her move as she makes an offer to Liella. Sure, the girls get excited over possibly having 9 members, especially for Keke. Sadly, no, as Natsumi wants to produce videos and market merchandise for Liella. She shows them the contract, which Sumire gets a bit suspicious of, although they went along. She reads the agreement, saying they won’t get paid and Natsumi’s company will take all the profits while covering the costs.
They are getting taken advantage of, and Kanon seems to not care until Sumire calls Natsumi out. More on that later. Still, it’s fun to see the girls pass the cards through a basket for a game of Daifukugou since Keke’s apartment is small. As expected, Natsumi was recording it as Ren noticed Keke’s game console, which looks like a Nintendo Switch. As expected, the girls leave Kanon and Sumire hanging as they play a game that looks like Mario Party.
Of course, Natsumi gets excited that her newest video featuring Liella got a lot of views. As expected for a clout chaser like her. However, this gravy train may not last. Ren thought it was best to split off their efforts since the first years were struggling, but Kanon didn’t want to. After all, the school looks forward to the festival, and the performance doesn’t have to be perfect.
That is when Natsumi interferes with their practice and tries to get a video introduction from Kanon. Probably not a good idea as she gets a bit nervous and runs away. Sure, she can perform on stage, but this is a different story.
Kanon eventually runs away, and Sumire has enough. She tells Natsumi off after revealing that video with many views. Keke thinks Sumire was like Natsumi as she joined the School Idol club to grow her popularity, but this time is different. Sumire is simply looking out for her teammates. Notice that Natsumi ran away after Shiki exposes her by showing how much money Natsumi will make off the video. Perhaps if Natsumi split the revenue fairly, they probably won’t make a big deal about this. Sadly, her greed caught up to her.
After that splat, I’m surprised that Kanon let Natsumi clout chasing go. But, of course, this is late-stage capitalism, especially since she is not even part of the group. Still, the first-year students seem neutral to Natsumi after getting exposed.
While they feel down, they ultimately want to follow their own schedule to avoid becoming a burden for the second year. So, Kinako, Mei, and Shiki are going with the plan Ren originally proposed. Even so, Natsumi is still a bit sus, given that she took advantage of the girls. Can she ever redeem herself? We’ll find out eventually.
Natsumi’s greed is cuge. Her using Liella to make money wasn’t but she’s yet to hurt any of them. Like Kanon said there has to be a reason besides the love of money. Looking forward to finding out.
Well, who doesn’t like money, but Natsumi monetizing Liella and pocketing the money behind their backs seems a bit sleazy. Hopefully we get the real reason, but Natsumi can’t be that desperate to go that low, right.