A little girl stares at a poster promoting Karamazov’s upcoming live event. Did Karamazov just influenced another poor soul? Sure seems like it as we see a butterfly flutter by. Elsewhere, Karamazov hears about Kache long, overdue breakup, so they thinks it’s time for a makeover. I thought they would pay for said makeover, but no such luck. Even influencers with hundreds of thousands of subs can be cheap, huh? And geez, a thousand bucks for these simple outfits? Kache just quit her job. She shouldn’t be dropping a hundred bucks on anything, much less a thousand on clothes. Now, I do agree that good clothes can give you a major boost in confidence, but I dunno if you necessarily need to spend this much money. Kache says she feels lighter, but of course she does! She’s a thousand bucks lighter! And we haven’t even gotten to the accessories! Again, Karamazov are huge, right? So why not help their friend out? Or do they think they’re being charitable by even hanging out with Kache in the first place?
We then get to see Purple Lollipop’s “origin” story. She actually attended one of KAngel’s talk events, and like with Karamazov’s upcoming concert, they only seem to take place in seedy parts of the city. Interestingly, her flower had yet to bloom at this point. She was a fan of KAngel, but she wasn’t in love with her. I’m just curious how Purple Lollipop — I guess she was only Deadly Poison Denpa Girl back then — would go from being one of KAngel’s biggest fans to wanting to kill her in the present day. Or should kill be in quotes? In other words, is it just another form of love? Something like how she has to surpass KAngel in order to prove how much she loved her? The girl then find herself standing at a very familiar place. This was where that we saw the little girl at the start of the episode — where shameless salarymen would pick up young girls. Everyone seems to sell their youth here, just in different ways.
Naturally, a bunch of creeps intended to “snatch” Deadly Poison Denpa Girl right off the streets. Nechika and Michica then appeared out of nowhere and beat those guys up, but this has gotta be pure fantasy, right? I don’t think a little girl normally gets out of this situation safe and sound. And even if a bunch of popular influencers were randomly roaming the streets at midnight, I doubt they could give random dudes a thrashing. Still, the two girls took Deadly Poison Denpa Girl “under their wing” and the transformation was complete. As her flower slowly bloomed, she extended her moniker with Purple Lollipop and assumed leadership of the trio. She also announced that they would all become livestreamers. I wonder if this means Kache will follow a similar character arc. Will we one day see her onstage or in a livestream swearing to the audience that she will kill Karamazov?
Back in the present, Purple Lollipop seems jealous of the closeness the other two share. The trio is truly a threesome, but at times, Purple Lollipop feels like an outsider looking in. I think Kache had a similar problem from what we saw in last week’s episode. Sometimes, we just want someone to be close to. A lonely Purple Lollipop thus takes a break from practice and finds herself at an arcade. Here, she would fortuitously bump into Ame, the person behind KAngel in the flesh. Her offline persona sounds so different. I also find it curious that this persona of hers is considered unemployed. Only a single follower, too. Who is it, I wonder. Maybe that old internet friend of hers?
More importantly, just how much of a hard line are we drawing between Ame and KAngel? Well, the two girls would spend the rest of the night together, and Ame would seemingly flirt with Purple Lollipop every so often. The latter confirms that she desires someone with whom she can confide, but I wonder if she would welcome this kind of attention from Ame. And what’s with Ame anyway? Doesn’t she have that producer she so often talks about? Or does he belong mostly to KAngel? I’m never quite sure how distinct these two personas are supposed to be. We already know that KAngel dumps all of the negative aspects of the job onto Ame. This sort of compartmentalization allows her to be the bright and cheerful personality onstream everyday. But does this means she also hogs all of the positive aspects of the job as well? Does Ame truly end up with nothing so she has to wander the streets and wax poetic about melancholy merry-go-rounds?
When Purple Lollipop departs, KAngel comes out and is assured that she will remain on top. Why? Because Purple Lollipop is too nice? Do you have to be cutthroat to become the biggest online star? I’m not sure about that. Meanwhile, Purple Lollipop returns home with a surge of motivation. I can only hope her friendship with Ame doesn’t end up toxic, but it probably will. Ame isn’t exactly mentally stable. Was their encounter even a coincidence as it seemed? Or did Ame know where to find lonely, broken souls like herself? “A girl who comes to a place like this all alone obviously has something weighing on her.”
We loop back to the little girl at the start of the episode. She gets to meet Purple Lollipop, and in tears, she hopes to be like the livestreamer one day. What’s with this specific corner of the city, though? And why are the young girls always alone and unaccompanied by an adult? Who is letting these children wander the streets? Well, it’s all a loop. You wouldn’t find yourself here if you weren’t broken and lonely like Ame or Purple Lollipop. As a result, a needy internet personality charms the lonely, broken girl, who then turns around and charms another lonely, broken girl. It’s self-perpetuating.
I wonder if Purple Lollipop still says in touch with her mom.
Stray thoughts & observations:
— A salaryman walks up to a girl and propositions her, and it works. Is she even an adult? How often does this happen everyday? It’s also such shameless behavior. I find it interesting that this sort of thing is a regular occurrence, and people don’t seem to raise enough of a fuss about it. But y’know, somehow defending a classmate being bullied is disrupting social harmony or whatever.
— We see the same girl the next day talking to Kache, who confirms that she broke up with her boyfriend. She only takes a dig at his small dick and small dreams, though. I guess sexual assault is too heavy of a topic between girlfriends.
— As an aside, how did jirei-kei look even come about? Why the signature black skirt and pink top? Why the eyeshadow that makes your eyes puffy? Welp, time for a Wikipedia deep dive.
— Well, I think they crave companionship. I think a lot of men truly are lonely, hence the male loneliness epidemic. I also think it’s mostly self-inflicted. I don’t think it’s difficult to make female friends. I think the problem is when you also want to fuck every single woman you meet. It also doesn’t help when you target young girls.
— How did you get that bag, girlie? Are you gonna tell us how you got the bag? Assuming she’s of age, it’s just people using each other for shallow reasons. One side craves a “hole,” the other side just wants a fancy bag.
— This girl is seemingly the opposite of Kache, who was bitter about the fact that she had to sell her youth. But maybe Kache has changed after her talk with Karamazov.
— Nechika shows up before the rest of Karamazov and charms the jirei-kei, but in actuality, she abhors “greed clinging to money.” Uh-huh. We immediately see an insurance salesman trying to scam a retired grandfather. It’s the old-fashioned guilt trip. See, this is what all robo-callers these days don’t get. You can pull people’s heartstrings with AI.
— I like how a retired grandfather barely looks a day over 40.
— I guess you could make some false equivalency about how Karamazov is also scamming their viewers, but eh, I think that would be a pretty cold take. Insurance scams get you by hiding a lot of the fine print. This is exactly why the old man asks if “this is all it costs.” Even though he’s letting the salesman yap, deep down, the old man knows its fishy. He knows he’s being hood-winked. Unfortunately, he probably lacks the courage to stand up for himself. On the other hand, there’s no “fine print” with internet personalities like Karamazov. If you’re a grown ass adult forking over money, you’re just addicted. Maybe even parasocial. They didn’t trick you into loving them or signing on a dotted line. Sure, I feel bad for kids who send huge donations to streamers, but why do they even have access to the cash?
— On a somewhat related note, I saw New York passing a law that bans minors from chatting in video games. I think California is considering something similar. Is this sort of thing heavy-handed? Sure. But whatever happened to personal responsibility? Why aren’t parents keeping a closer eye on their children?
— Speaking of fashion, I heard that The Devil Wears Prada 2 is decent. I should go watch it.
— We see a short skit where KAngel somehow magically steps through the screen and enters one of her fans’ rooms. The place is of course filthy and cluttered. It exudes “bitch, you live like this” energy. She then snoops through his watch history, then unsubs him from other channels like a possessive significant other deleting contacts from your phone. The scene ends with KAngel being laundered. I don’t know what to make of this skit. I guess some guys do feel like certain internet personalities are their girlfriends. Someone should do a study on vtubers or just big streamers like KAngel. When these streamers disappoint viewers, do these viewers undergo a heartbreak similar to being dumped by a girlfriend? I’m truly curious if it activates the same general area of the brain.
— Nechika and Michica seem to have been in a relationship long before they ever became livestreamers, but it’s a safe play, right? Even though most of their audience might desire these girls, they don’t mind if the girls also date each other. These lonely viewers realize deep down that they can’t actually have any of these streamers for themselves. So the next best thing is to ship the girls with each other. This way, they’re “safe” from other men. But of course, we have no clue what these girls are up to once they turn off the livestream. I think it’s funny how certain fans will rationalize it, too. “Oh, if she doesn’t do a Valentine’s Day stream, that means she has a RL boyfriend!” Bro, if your girl was raking in red superchats after red superchats, you would happily agree to delay a Valentine’s Date.
