English Dub Review: If My Favorite Pop Idol Made it to the Budokan, I Would Die “Your Fave Isn’t Your Friend”
Overview (Spoilers Below)
Against her mother’s wishes, Eripiyo sneaks out to a Cham Jam Valentines Day Concert despite being sick and unable to talk so she has to resort to using a dry eraser board and a sharpie to convey her thoughts and feelings. Meanwhile, Maina has considered taking her fan/celebrity relationship with Eripiyo a step further…
Our Take
The number of references to colds, flu, coughing, and spreading could come across as thematically relevant for everyone right now and it’s cringeworthy for the dubbed release of this episode to come out at this particular time. For one of the few “Good” takeaways, I gotta give points to the animation team for using 2D animation for Cham-Jam’s dance scenes. It looks surprisingly fluid in places and less choppy like the attempts at Cel-Shaded Art in certain shows. I can also appreciate that they’ve learned not to keep going with the Maina and Eripiyo “awkward misunderstanding” loop that they’ve done in multiple episodes.
Of course, the episode itself isn’t perfect and is heavily flawed in a number of ways. The Jokes remain bland, monotonous, and unimaginative in terms of quality and it shows through the repetitive nature of Eripyo doing something stupid to sabotage herself for the sake of trying to impress Maina and failing because the plot demands it.
While part of me feels bad for Maina having to put up with Eripiyo is as a fan, it does make you wonder what Maina’s life is like. She’s in high school, right? Does she have friends? What’s her family situation? These questions flood my mind because Eripyo is unquestionably a creep, and for Maina to have such strong feelings for a rabidly obsessed fan like her, You have to ask yourself if Eripyo is the first person to show her any kind of genuine affection? Not just in her idol career, but in her life, period.
Will it end on a positive note by the end of this season? Who knows…
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