English Dub Review: Tune Into The Midnight Heart “It’s Hot, So Please Be Careful; 20 Points Is Basically Margin of Error; Forgetful”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Yamabuki notices Rikka is getting more self-conscious on stage and runs into an old friend of hers who says she used to perform original songs, so he tries to encourage her to do that.

OUR TAKE

After getting her first story smooshed together with Nene in the second episode, the time has come for Rikka to finally get her own episode all to herself! Or at least that’s what I would be saying if the third segment wasn’t basically a group story based on Yamabuki (yeah I’m using his last name now like the show is) trying to see if any of the girls are Apollo and SUSPICIOUSLY not doing so for Rikka. Yeah, I think I’m gonna add this to my case that Rikka is actually Apollo, mainly in how they seem to be doing a lot to hint AROUND it but then moving away at the last minute. I already heard her voice coming from the cup and string conversation last time, and now it seems like they’re just teasing it more, though maybe that’s all for the bigger misdirect that it’s actually one of the other three girls. I’ve been burned before by these sorts of mysteries, namely in Quintessential Quintuplets where the ending seemed like it was picked just because it would be surprising and not because it made sense in the story itself. This show doesn’t seem to be even half as clever as that, but I could be wrong. Regardless, I doubt we’ll be getting a definitive answer on any of that this season anyway, so I might as well talk about what is ACTUALLY in the episode.

As mentioned, there’s more focus on Rikka this week (weird that they had the last part of it not really about her so she still hasn’t gotten a full episode yet but whatever) and we learn that while she’s popular in covering popular songs, one of her OG fans is pissed she stopped playing her original tracks. I mean, we don’t see that friend very long and I thought she would come back and talk to Rikka herself, but maybe that’s later. And just like her initial segment in the second episode, the solution seems a bit simple, in this case just having Yamabuki gather up the other girls to act as a practice audience who will hype her up and give her more confidence. So, maybe we’ll see her play an original song later on to show her character growth from this moment! Hopefully? Next week is Nene also not getting her own full episode as there looks to be some Iko involvement as well, but I honestly like Iko more so I’m fine with that.