English Dub Review: Kirio Fanclub “It Was All a Lie”

Overview

Aimi and Nami’s plan to make Kirio happy backfires.

Our Take

Picking up from the previous episode, Kirio Fanclub continues to strike an impressive balance between absurd comedy and surprisingly heartfelt character moments. The grandpas and grannies getting excited over Kirio-coached soccer provides plenty of ridiculous fun, while Manda once again steals the spotlight with his thoughtful advice and genuine concern for his friends. His willingness to call out Aimi and Nami while acknowledging how much their friendship means to him shows just how far he has grown. Even Seira gets involved, proving that her obsessive fandom can occasionally come in handy.

Aimi’s growing realization that she has been projecting her idealized version of Kirio onto the real person adds some much-needed emotional weight. Her attempts to cheer him up don’t go as planned, highlighting how difficult it can be to truly understand someone beneath the image you’ve created of them. Manda continues to be one of the show’s strongest supporting characters, serving as the voice of reason while still contributing to its bizarre humor. That ability to jump seamlessly from ridiculous facial expressions and chaotic gags to sincere drama remains one of the series’ biggest strengths.

Overall, this is a strong episode and an effective setup for the Season finale next week. The comedy is still consistently hilarious, but the more serious moments give the characters genuine emotional depth as the story moves toward its conclusion. With Kirio’s situation reaching a critical point and the finale now just around the corner, “Kirio Fanclub” leaves things in an appropriately tense place while preserving the strange charm that has made this series such an unexpected highlight of the season.