Being the number one card-carrying member of the Church of Tamon, Utage wholeheartedly believes that her oshi belongs to everyone. One of their precepts is that Tamon should never, ever direct his love and affection to one person and one person alone. As a result, she now wants to be professional and maintain boundaries between her and her oshi. Sure, sure. But a teeny, tiny part of her still desires Tamon for herself, and this is enough to trigger a crash-out. I’m torn too. I’m torn between “Girl, it’s just a popstar” and “This guy is weird and manipulative, so you should stay away from him.” In the end, however, it’s too late for Utage to back out. Well, no, she can always back out. But that would require her to switch off her fandom.

I’ve been griping about how this anime doesn’t really feel like a romance. After all, not only does Utage worship Tamon like a god, she only sees herself as one of his millions of girlfriends. She loves him in that distant, platonic way, not the “I want to go on dates and snuggle with you” way. Or to put it more simply, she loves him, but she’s not in love with him. But what does Tamon want? Unfortunately, this is a Pandora’s box we might not want to open. Ever since Tamon misunderstood Utage’s encounter with Ori, he’s been off his rocker. When Utage takes her weird-looking dog on a walk one day, the “criatura” somehow leads her straight to Tamon’s apartment. It has great timing too, because when the girl looks up, she sees Tamon about to jump from a building. Yep, it’s that serious. We’re actually talking suicide.

Ori has now started requesting Utage from her cleaning agency. Does she have the right to refuse this assignment? She should. It might put her job on the line, but any decent business would side with its employees. Besides, if someone called you up and specifically requested the underaged girl on the team, shouldn’t that raise an eyebrow or two? “Huh, I have a team full of capable of employees, but you want the high schooler? That’s odd…”

Jerky McJerface, aka Ori, actually manages to goad Utage into taking a bet: if he becomes the new center of F/ACE, she has to switch her loyalties and become his housekeeper. After all, if she’s so confident in Tamon, then why not accept the bet? Surely, Tamon’s biggest fan would never doubt his success. But why even entertain this asshole? Just kick him out. I don’t understand why people always give an inch to jerks like Ori, in real life or in fiction. Utage apologizes to Tamon afterwards, claiming that she literally couldn’t say otherwise. Bullshit. She didn’t have to say anything! Literally grey rock Ori. Let him talk. Oh, he’s saying shit about your oshi? It. Doesn’t. Make. A. Difference. But now there’s added pressure on Tamon to succeed.

Utage is now caught between wanting to keep her beloved Tamon pure versus acknowledging the fact that she has an indelible amount of influence over him. She can pick and choose what he wears (like that necklace). She can even influence how he acts onstage and on TV. I wish she was more of a corruptor even if she only does it inadvertently. That would make this show a lot more interesting. But instead, she just wants to be one of the countless, faceless fans he already has. On that note, do fans ever contemplate what the end would look like? Like you can’t keep stanning the guy forever, right? Idols retire and get replaced all the time. Idols get married all the time. At some point, your fandom has to face its mortality. But maybe it’s one of those things where you just don’t think about it until you have to.