Score: A

Things picked up in a positive way compared to the rather dark episode of the previous week. This show does tackle some serious topics within the entertainment industry. But it does find enough light to keep the show extremely fun and engaging. It’ll end with some uncertain moments like Akane nearly killing herself and then the next episode will end with her absolutely blindsiding Aqua with how much of Ai she actually has the ability to mirror. She of course can’t literally become Ai physically, but she seems more than capable of capturing the personality and atmosphere in a compelling way.

Akane has good friends

If nothing else the show has done a good job establishing Akane. I got to think that she’ll remain a relatively steady presence in the show since she does touch into the same acting sphere as Aqua and Kana. And this episode set her up with the social media assault and suicide attempt. This girl has been through an absolute gauntlet in just the few episodes that she’s been in the show! It took an interesting route showing her at her weakest and only really starting to show her absolute strengths at the end of this episode. Akane gave the feeling of someone that was in a bad spot and struggling to make her mark, but she’s got quite a bit going for her.

Credit to her for holding her ground and staying on the show. There wouldn’t have been anything more that could be done if she did step back. That would have been an acceptable choice of course. Considering she was worn out to the point of a suicide attempt that would be completely justified! But in the end she stuck it out and that allowed those around her to support her on turning this situation around. And good on them. That girl deserved to get something positive out of this mess. Ironically it was friendship more than anything, but there’s a bit of time left on this reality TV show.

This girl is serious!

What really impressed me though is how Akane’s seriousness can be turned into an absolute weapon. It was a weakness with social media, but when in her acting element…it really is something. This girl in a short time completely broke down the character of Hoshino Ai. Holy smokes. She couldn’t get absolutely everything, but she almost did. If acting doesn’t work out, maybe she should be a detective. For better or worse the reveal that Ai is Aqua’s type really is going to allow Akane to make the biggest splash she could. And that’s all thanks to how she could throw herself into understanding everything she possibly could about Ai from circumstantial evidence. And that’s evidence that would have been over a decade old by that point. Pretty good!

My biggest question is what kind of impact will this have on Aqua? Certainly, Akane is going to show her ability and hit pretty darn close to the presence of the real thing. Will that get a positive emotional reaction from Aqua? Will he get strangely upset about it? Since it is mimicking someone he cared about that is dead. But at the same time, it’s just taking on those traits. It’s not like she’s straight up calling herself Ai or anything. If nothing else though it should be interesting. Since this will be the first time he’s gotten to interact with Ai (sort of) in a long time.

Not often is he this shocked

At the very least I’m glad that Akane had the chance to blindside Aqua. This guy has often been in total control of things. His actions have mostly been ones that can benefit everyone involved in a situation. But outside of the deaths of Ai and himself, things have mostly been under control for him. So it’s nice to have him mostly handle this situation flawlessly and then get hit hard by the shock that Akane absolutely can bring out the kind of aura that Ai had.

Honestly, Aqua has spent a lot of time underrating everyone. For him Ai is such a level of perfection that no one can touch. Ai was an incredible girl, but she wasn’t perfect. Akane in a sense perfectly broke down a lot of her weaknesses or hidden sides during her investigation. If nothing else it would kind of be nice to have him realize that Ai isn’t the deity he’s playing her up to be. Akane has talents of her own and hard work can absolutely imitate her if there is enough ability behind it. It’s weird to say considering how serious Aqua has been about his revenge scheme, but I hope through this he can realize the value of hard work. Akane captured quite a bit of Ai’s presence through insane hard work and research.

The plan relied on retweets!

The actual plan and effort to save Akane was pretty good. They used the strengths and weaknesses of social media to their advantage. Plus, they made use of the people they had on that show. It’s a series about young professionals in entertainment. Of course, they’d have some legit strengths to bring to the table here. Mem’s experience let them drop that video with the right timing and impact to flourish. But it was also thanks to the great music, editing, etc.

The biggest thing though was that their gambles paid off. If the main tweet didn’t go relatively viral then Akane wouldn’t have been able to make the comeback that she did. Equally important was Aqua being able to get the footage they needed. That gamble relied entirely on the people working on that show having human souls. If that guy hadn’t been a relatively decent person, then Aqua guilting him wouldn’t have gotten them the footage. And it was a real gamble since as Aqua noted, the show-runners themselves were happy to play Akane up as the villain for ratings. Even after she tried to kill herself they didn’t remotely change course without Aqua putting on the pressure. It’s not unbelievable, but it is unfortunate.

This girl is good

I do want to give Yuki some credit too. She is calculating, but that doesn’t stop her from being a good person. Love her giving a solid slap to Akane and being rather pissed that she cornered herself that hard without reaching out to them. Because without some good fortune she would be dead. I’ll trust that Aqua just guessed her route properly with the information he had. Yuki did make sure when Akane cut her face to put her hug in the perfect angle on the camera. But the girl just has a good grasp on what is needed to make herself shine. She still has feelings and cares about those around her. Again, I think she’s got Aqua’s calculative side without the same pitch-black flames of revenge fueling her.

Need some Kana content here

This was another good episode. It let Akane set herself up nicely and it will be interesting to see how the next episode plays out (though it is delayed to June 7). I kind of like that even with episodes like this that we still get some moments for the other cast members. Kana got a few little moments since she is the voice of experience and reason for this cast. And it also allowed her to set up Akane as this acting threat. If Kana honestly wishes that Akane would take a step back from acting to make things a bit easier, that says quite a bit. Hopefully things progress well for Ruby and Kana’s idol careers in the remaining episodes. But for now, I’ll be curious to see if Akane playing a role on the reality TV show will help her stand out in a good way.