It’s the day of the cultural festival, and if you’ll recall, the F/ACE boys are filming scenes at the school today. Wouldn’t this cause a riot? No, it’s okay! The boys are all concealing their faces! This way, they can walk around the school unbothered! Actually, I feel like this should have the opposite effect. If you saw a dude donning a gorilla mask, wouldn’t you be suspicious? And of course, the dickbag Ori would be the gorilla. Typically, the trope dictates that the main couple spends precious time together walking the grounds, taking in all the activities. Unfortunately, Ori insists on third-wheelin’ Utage and Tamon. The sad part is, at the end of the day, Tamon will tell Utage how much fun he had with her, she’ll return the sentiment, and neither of them will even remember that Ori was with them. Dude’s a complete non-factor, but he’s still trying to get with someone else’s fan. Ori has no shame.
Eventually, the boys finally reveal themselves to the whole school via the PA system. As you might have expected, the entire student body flips its lid. But it doesn’t stop there. F/ACE will also be performing a Natsuki original song onstage. It’s an exclusive concert for these kids and these kids alone. The dancing 3-D models are jarring, and I think the music is terrible. But I’m not the target audience, so take that with a grain of salt. You’re supposed to focus on the lyrics, because they are Natsuki’s personal message to Asuka. But again, I’m a hater, so words are cheap to me. There’s so much more he could do for her than write some dinky pop song. Natsuki later sneaks up to the roof to have a personal 1-on-1 with Asuka. Aw, they’re so perfect together~ But again, they’re just words. Thanks for being there for me and all that pablum. At the end of the day, Asuka and her family took him in only for Natsuki to run away when the going got tough. Saying thanks on a school rooftop feels hollow to me.
Well, we’re all about intimate 1-on-1s now, so Tamon also manages to elude the crowd somehow. Plus, where did he get the uniform? Like I mentioned earlier, Tamon’s going to express how much fun he had spending time with Utage today. Yep, no mention of Ori whatsoever. Suddenly, Utage overhears a bunch of students walking nearby, so she pulls Tamon behind the curtains to hide him. After all, it would be a huge scandal if they saw her and one of the biggest pop stars in the country alone together. But of course, hiding him also means getting up close and personal with him. But before viewers start squeeing with joy over this “development,” it’s just the same ol’ repetitive bullshit as always. The more time she spends with Tamon, the more selfish urges continue to grow ever so slightly within Utage. But at the end of the day, she’s still the number one evangelizer for the Church of Tamon, so she feels guilty for being a normal teenage girl. She feels guilty for wanting to possess Tamon all to herself when his greatness belongs to the whole world, blah blah blah, we’re been beating this dead horse into the ground for weeks now so I fucking get it. Weeks and weeks of simply no substantial progress being made. I don’t understand how people can enjoy stories like this. Nothing happens. Nothing ever happens.
Of course, Tamon wants Utage to confess her explicit feelings, but of course, they get interrupted. Utage then runs off. Sure, she later admits that she loves him in a different way, i.e. not just as a fan, but she does this all to herself with no one around. So big whoop. Nevertheless, that’s the “progress” that they expect you to be satisfied with. Right before the episode ends, the story tries to hit us with an oh-so-big shocker: Utage submits her resignation letter. A bit formal for a part-time housekeeping job, no? I would just tell my manager that I quit. In any case, I can only shrug at our heroine’s latest attempt to distance herself from her idol. Maybe in the next episode, Tamon will perform some grand gesture to show Utage that he needs her. Well, whatever happens, I expect the season finale to hit big ol’ reset button.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— I’ll never understand people who do what they’re told even though they’re unhappy about it.
— Jesus, it’s like a shrine to F/ACE everywhere you go. C’mon, school is full of all types of people. You can’t tell me there isn’t a single normal person here — that there isn’t a single person who doesn’t give two shits about some generic idol group.
— Why a milk carton for Keito? What does that symbolize? Is he lost? Nevermind, I don’t even know if missing people on milk carton is even a thing outside of the US. Even then, we stopped doing this around the mid-90s. Anyway, maybe there’s no real meaning behind any of the masks, because Natsuki is apparently a traffic cone.
— Bro is complaining about having to pay 500 yen for takoyaki. Sure, it’s 5x the food cost, but at that price range, I think it’s fine.
— Despite being a chain-smoking alcoholic, Natsuki is probably the only truly nice member of the group. His biggest flaw, aside from killing himself slowly, is that he’s a lazy coward. Better than being an abusive prick like Ori, a miser like Keito, or just a guy who threatens suicide to make a girl do what he wants like Tamon. There’s a fifth member, but we haven’t formally met him yet.
— Haha, classic Gloomyhara threatening suicide as a joke! So funny!
