With the Rocket Launching Preliminaries underway, can Umika’s team pull through? As you see, Umika starts to doubt herself.
Now, the contest is underway, and Kei gave her speech. It’s pretty amazing how she explains using CAD software to create the fins, which are 3D printed. She also sounded confident in her model rocket. As they launched the rocket, it went perfectly, reaching the goal without their egg cracking.
Of course, with Umika’s pressure to give a good speech like Kei, she realizes she can’t be like her. She doesn’t have the confidence and charisma as she appears very nervous. As for the launch, the igniter contact failed with a misfire. On the second try, they overshoot the goal, disqualifying themselves.
Obviously, Mitataki, in particular, seems very upset because she lost. While it’s nice for Kei to repay Mitataki, Kei feels taking her money over a lost bet is unfair. Mitataki seemed very angry and grabbed the envelope. When Haruno tries to calm her down, Matataki yells at her, saying that Haruno doesn’t care about winning and losing with everything. Matataki wants to win, and she lashes out her frustrations at Haruno as she doesn’t want to speak to her again.
Most importantly, Umika feels really down. While Yuu assures her there is another chance and they are just getting started, Umika thinks this is their only chance. She takes this loss as a failure and wants to give up. After all, Umika feels this way because she can’t be a charismatic leader like Kei, is useless at building a rocket, can’t get her association promoted into a full-fledged club, nor achieve Yuu’s dream. It’s heartbreaking that Umika just gives up quickly and blames herself when it’s not, as we see later. After Umika leaves, Yuu notices that she can’t see sparkles anymore.
Umika shuts herself in during summer vacation, which worries her younger sister. She eventually had Umika go out and get some stuff. While Umika walks home, Kei catches her as she wants to talk to Umika and see how she is doing. While Umika’s team rocket launch didn’t fit at the required altitude, Kei thought it was an excellent launch. She sees their rocket launch straight up, a breath of fresh air despite not being the best weather conditions.
While Umika says she is useless as a leader, Kei doesn’t think so. She wonders what motivated Umika to build a rocket. After Umika shares her dream, Kei seems excited about it. When Umika shares her lack of confidence, inability to do anything, and feeling that she doesn’t belong anywhere, Kei mentions Umika’s team members who didn’t laugh at her dream. She mentions that they believed in Umika’s dream. Umika needs firm footing so she can do better next time.
In other words, she tells Umika not to beat herself up over everything. This shows Kei’s kindness and support as she wants Umika to not give up on her dream. After all, Kei mentions that Umika can use this experience building model rockets to get herself into university and make that dream come true. Umika, becoming a rocket scientist?
Umika realizes if she wants her dream to come true, she needs to apologize to Yuu. Of course, she tried looking for her, but there was no trace. It seems as if they disappeared. Umika feels sad for being mean to Yuu, and now she thinks that Yuu is gone. When she called out her name, she reappeared next to her out of nowhere. This makes me wonder if Yuu has some connection to the lighthouse.
Eventually, Umika apologized to Yuu for everything she said and wanted to give up on their dream. While it’s an emotional moment, Umika revealed why she didn’t want to do that forehead kiss last time. Because she couldn’t see anything, she convinced herself she needed to solve everything without anyone’s help. She realizes that there is a place on their planet where she belongs. Yep, it’s with her friends.
The moment afterward was heartwarming as Yuu said that all of Umika’s feelings were what made her. That is when she finally remembers a song she had sung as a child, which sounded unfamiliar yet nostalgic at the same time. That moment was so lovely, like in the manga too. With that, can Umika bring back the whole group after what happened, especially in Matataki’s case? Time can only tell.
Reviews from Other Blogs
Stardust Telepath Episode 9: Finding Happiness – The Yuri Empire
My heart ached for most of the first half but thankfully UmiYu making up more than made up for it and was one of the most amazing Yuri scenes ever.
Fingers crossed HaruTaki are next. Really need to see their relationship progress (or start for that matter) and become what we hope it will be.
While it’s obvious they weren’t going to win, it’s just heartbreaking to see Umika breaks down thinking she is a bad It’s nice to see Kei give her encouragement with some nice moments with Yuu and Umika of course.
Yes, I hope Haruno and Matataki make up soon, well see soon enough.