English Dub Review: Ensemble Stars “Supernova”

Overview

The school’s atmosphere has successfully started changing since the DDD competition. Chiaki goes to Eichi and pitches the idea of RYUSEITAI having a concert at a local theme park. Eichi initially doesn’t approve funding for it, but then changes his mind when he sees Anzu’s edited version of the idea. Meanwhile, Kanata teaches the rest of RYUSEITAI how to ace their performance, considering he’s one of the Three Eccentrics.

On the day of the performance, RYUSEITAI’s stage has been set. The members all separately get ready for their performance with Anzu. Trickstar shows up to watch, as does Eichi, who has never been to a theme park before and seems to be less of a tyrant now. Eichi explains that since RYUSEITAI was historically Yumenosaki Academy’s first idol group, he wants to see Chiaki succeed as a predecessor. RYUSEITAI performs their heroes VS monsters show for the theme park’s children, and then finishes it all off with a big song number.

Behind the scenes, though, it seems that everyone except Chiaki (and Kanata) joined RYUSEITAI just because Chiaki pulled them into it and there was no other group to join. This is especially apparent with Midori, who daydreams about being a normal student at a normal school. Shinobu and Nagumo manage to cheer him up, though, as they’ve become more involved due to Chiaki’s passion. Chiaki promises the crowd that RYUSEITAI will continue to be heroes by bringing them music every day.

Our Take

It seems that, with the new batch of episodes incoming, this episode has set the scene for Anzu to take on another musical group as a producer. This makes a lot of sense, considering that the Ensemble Stars game is basically all about promoting and acting as a producer for all kinds of different idols. With so much emphasis on RYUSEITAI, it’s a wonder if the story will be more about them this season, and less about Trickstar. There has been a whole new slew of characters that have been introduced since the end of last season, and it looks like the antagonists of last season (Eichi and the student council) aren’t going to be as threatening this time around

That said, what (or who) is going to be the antagonist this season? With Trickstar gaining mass amounts of popularity due to their DDD win, could fame threaten to tear them off in different directions again? With RYUSEITAI, it’s easy to see that the only fully committed one is Chiaki. Prediction: by the end of the season, Midori will have realized that he doesn’t want to be an idol, and he’ll leave Yumenosaki Academy in order to pursue a life as a normal student. As for the other two, it’s unclear.

One thing is clear, though: Kanata is the best character. What a hippie. His political platform includes laying in a fountain all day, spreading wisdom, and we’re here for that. #WeStan.

In any case, this was a sweet episode. Watching RYUSEITAI have such an adorable show for kids was heartwarming — and it was extra heartwarming that mostly everyone was involved.