Now that Kokona realizes she is being used as Yae’s foil, she is ready to work with Shizuka to give the version of Aladdin that Kokona should give all along.
At the beginning of the episode, we see a flashback of Noa in a church. She was looking at Yae’s performance and scouted Yae since she has a lot of potential, given her sense. Yae became one after seeing Noa’s performance.
We also see a flashback where Yae wanted to rehearse with Noa but overheard Noa talking to Shamo. She tried to quit but say on to support the girls. She doesn’t intend to return to acting until Sirius finds a World Dai Star. This means Yae won’t be able to perform with Noa after her performance of “The Little Mermaid.”
This is perhaps part of Noa’s motivation to accept Yae’s request. Noa believes this is the best way to get Yae closer to becoming a Dai Star. Also, Yae believes that if Noa takes her request and makes Kokona her foil, Yae hopes that Noa can go back to acting after Yae becomes a World Dai Star. However, Noa knows Yae’s weakness that she didn’t reveal to Kokona and Shizuka. So, of course, Yae goes to a café with Noa, and she seems worried that Yae isn’t giving her all. Yae, of course, reassures that this isn’t the case. More on that later.
With that, Shizuka showed various versions of Aladdin. Kokona’s reaction is being amazed by Shizuka’s performance. Shizuka believes adjusting her role with every performance is the only way to nail it down.
While there is some resistance to changing the performance, Yae eventually, with Sassu, Panda, and Kathrina, says they are okay with Kokona’s proposal. Noa smiled, but she allowed it under one condition. Kokona can only change it up once. After that, if Kokona messes it up, she returns to being Yae’s foil.
Of course, Noa helped Kokona and Shizuka figure out how to use their senses effectively. Instead of imitating, Kokona and Shizuka have to do it one scene at a time. Even during the dress rehearsal, Kokona was almost at her limit, but she pushed on. We find out that Shizuka is good at acting in a perfect immersion style, which is ideal for Kokona to adopt. In short, Kokona’s ability is not just imitating someone’s acting. It’s more of visualizing the perfect version of the character in Shizuka’s mind. Then Kokona uses that through her sense.
Compared to Kokona’s previous performances, this performance really stands out. No longer as Kokona combines Shizuka’s sense to give an ideal version of the character with the ability to convey these emotions to the audience. Even with Yae’s sense, Kokona is not fazed at all. Eventually, the audience finally notices Kokona’s role as Aladdin. It shows when someone actually bought a photo of Kokona. This is a big change compared to the last episode.
With that, there is one point that Noa brings up. This may be why Yae will never become a World Dai Star if she doesn’t realize this. It’s because of her sense, which allows her to express her emotions to the audience through a song being overpowered.
As a result, the audience will only remember her. This goes against the spirit as the world will never acknowledge her as an actress who destroys a performance as a Dai Star. As they say, there is no silver bullet to quickly becoming a World Dai Star, even with that sense. It took Yae to realize that several times and doing it alone might not be the best way to do it. She admitted to this to Noa as Kokona came.
Apparently, the mascot otter of Sirus, Dugong, finally acknowledges Kokona’s performance as the fireworks begin. Yep, Panda, Sassu, and Kathrina finally come onto the roof after waiting as they didn’t want to butt into the conversation. Even so, it’s nice to see Kokona finally make a break and learn how to use her senses. But, of course, she couldn’t do it without Shizuka.
Either way, Sirius Troupe will perform “Romeo and Juliet” next. I have a feeling that Sassu and Panda are the only ones left that haven’t received much development yet. It should be interesting if more about them is revealed next time.
