Love Live! Sunshine!! S2 – 09
「Awaken the power」 (Awaken the power)
“Awaken the Power”
God, this episode had me tearing up more than I thought it would.
General Impressions
God, I hate it how stories relating to family always get me all worked up. Be it between father and son, mother and daughter, or sister and sister, there’s something special when you think about the special bonds that only appear through the unique relationship those combinations of people have with one another. And it’s that something special that makes any story that uses these types of connections feel so good even if the overall point is lighthearted or terribly sad.
In this week’s episode case, I love how it focused on the lighter side of things while never losing that sense of just how important things were for Ruby and Ria. With our first years taking care of things this time around, it was super fun watching them separate from the main group in order to tackle the challenge of creating a brand new song with dance steps all by themselves. From Yoshiko revealing her ability to speak like a normal person to Hanamaru dropping some harsh criticism about both Yoshiko and herself, it was quite the chance of pace to see our first years behaving so differently. That said, it would feel wrong if I didn’t compliment Ruby (and Ria) for going so far out of her comfort zone this week. Seeing how all of this comes back to the fact that they were trying to demonstrate to their sisters that they’re capable of moving forward even after they’re gone, I think they were both successful in what they set out to do this week.
Moving on to the performance itself, I felt a little conflicted as I started tapping my foot to the awfully catchy beat. As a full Saint Snow x Aqours performance, it was awesome to see our two rivals come together for a magnificent performance. However, seeing how this was supposed to be Ruby and Ria’s moment, I felt a little disappointed that everyone else ended up participating midway. Disappointed in the sense that thematically this could have been such a strong moment for Ruby and Ria had they done the whole thing by themselves. Don’t get me wrong though — I loved the performance as a whole and after writing this post, I realized that if you look at this as something that Ruby and Ria made on their own, what does it matter who ends up performing so long as they’re the ones who made it happen?
Anyways, let’s close things out before this post gets even longer. With the Love Live Finals approaching and various storylines getting closed out, I can’t wait to see what happens from here on out. Our girls seem to be in tip top shape and have somehow gained the support of more people than we could have even imagined. Hopefully they’ll be able to kick ass at the finals and bring back the prestige and glory to their small seaside town. Based off of next week’s preview though, it looks like there might be some struggles as they make their way there.
Catch you guys next week!
P.S. I forgot to touch on it in the post, but I loved how nervous Dia was this week. As the “serious” member of the group, it’s always a treat to see her freak out in the most illogical ways especially when it involves Ruby.
Preview
Today at 1:56 pm
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