With Natsumi finally joining the group, the preliminaries are almost here. However, Ren is acting a bit strange. It becomes obvious why.
At last, the requirements of the primaries are finally here. Instead of a solo performance, each group simply needs to make a song and perform it online. Also, there are no restrictions, meaning they can do any song. Of course, with more competition, it’s evident that making the cut will be a bit more difficult. Still, I find it funny how Keke becomes disappointed over Sumire saying everything from the announcement. Not too expected, after all. With that, Kanon oversees the lyrics while Ren does the composition. The problem is that Ren is really sleepy and acting a bit funny.
Yep, it becomes apparent what Ren is up to. If you can tell, at the beginning of the episode, she was playing a VR game that resembles Beat Saber. I find it hilarious how Ren pretends to have a video game controller and make movements with her fingers. It becomes apparent what happened. She is suffering from video game addiction!
When Mei returned to get her notebook after realizing she had forgotten it, she heard music. When she opened up the door of the music room, she caught Ren playing Gacha games on her phone. I find her reaction hilarious. Mei finally finds out about Ren’s secret.
If you recall the 5th episode, Ren finds a Switch that Keke had, and they played with it. Yep, Ren’s interest in video games grew. Thanks to Saya and Ren’s father, they bought all the video game consoles for her. Ren even has some of the unholy grails of video game consoles such as Apple’s/Bandai’s failed Pippin console, the Philips CD-i, Atari Jaguar, Sega CD & 32X, and 3DO.
However, she got some of the greats, such as the Nintendo Famicom, Super Famicom, N64, Sega Mega Drive, Dreamcast, PlayStation 1 & 2, and a gaming PC. Also, she has a PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X, but no PlayStation 5. Unfortunately, even with all that money, Ren can’t get a hand on one thanks to the supply shortage.
Either way, Ren became interested in gaming, and Saya got her the goods. After all, Saya thought Ren needed a break after working so hard. However, when Ren started playing video games, she became addicted and spent time playing them all day. So, of course, she let Mei try them and had a lot of fun.
Either way, Ren knows that this can become a detriment to finishing her composition. So she entrusted the key to Mei. Of course, giving up video games cold turkey seems harder than it looks. I know because I played many video games during my childhood and teenage years.
Of course, Mei hiding the secret is the hard part since Kinako and Shiki start to take notice. Yes, most of the School Idol Club started spying on Mei and Ren and thought they were in a relationship. In fact, they are not. Kanon checked on Ren as she overheard the word “games” from Ren. Ren hid the phone as Kanon talked about becoming her vice president. After all, she wants to help her, knowing how overworked Ren is. She even received permission from the director to take the position. This is good since Ren was the only one managing the operation. From this, it’s very rough on her.
Thankfully, after Ren saw Kanon and the others helping Ren out in the Student Council office, she admitted to her video game addiction. However, that is after Mei advises Ren to be true to herself.
At last, Ren comes clean with the video games, and they seem all right with it. Kanon forces Ren to invite her friends to play video games at her house. Yep, they had a lot of fun and helped Ren beat the game. As they say, video games are the most fun when played with other people. Seeing everyone’s reaction when they beat the game was priceless. From this, Ren finally got the motivation to finish composing the song.
Ren again showed why she’s best girl. Her gamer sanctuary is the dream.
Kanon becoming the vice-prez is pretty cool. It being thanks to Chisato is a nice touch.
Shiki X Mei still rule.
Yes, it’s a pleasant surprise that Ren came out as a gamer girl, although it’s bound to happen. Still, her video game console selection is impressive.
Good point, but it’s nice that Kanon decides to challenge herself like Chisato did. Always nice to see more Shiki and Mei development as well.