English Dub Review: If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die “Run for Maina’s Sake”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The popularity vote ranking continues and ends within the week, and Eripiyo just can’t stop her momentum supporting for Maina, at least not now towards the endgame.

In a separate subplot, more in-fighting ensues between the Chamjam Idols, with one of them by the name of “Aya” getting the shit-end of the stick due to being younger than the rest of her group…

Our Take

Although the ranking in the group seems trivial and useless, if particular jobs like “Girls’ Festival” can be assigned to only a limited number of members, it might be one of the ways. But voting and making a purchase are totally different matters. And then comes the final day, and I STILL find it disturbingly funny that Eripiyo and Maina exist for one another and one another ONLY. All her effort exists to keep her alive. What a shameless plug, and it was all worth it, in spirit and mind.

Now that I think about it, I find it unrealistic that Maina has no other fans other than two women. If anything, she should have at least a couple of guys who’d at least be into her or something. I’m all for LGBTQ characters and relationships, but this just feels hideously contrived and less natural in terms of character and relationship progression. The producers of this anime can write their way around all sorts of lazy decisions, but that does not make them invincible to criticism.

Overall, It looks like a somewhat tense episode with the popularity of voting reaching its deadline. Regardless of the votes, it looks like the idols really do appreciate their fans, even if Eripiyo’s subplot can be easily misconstrued as “pro-stalking”.