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This week we focus on Kaoru and the others on a camping trip at the beachside!
We start off with Kaoru's morning at her place and it's nice just seeing a very traditional looking Japanese house too.
Shown in the preview already was a cameo of Kaoru's mum so we know she was gonna appear but I didn't think we'd get to see a whole family too! Kaoru's dad.....is pretty hot ngl 😳
It seems that there are more complications with the Third Entertainment Division and poor Producer has to put up with a lot more as usual but that errr head guy or whoever he is, man would he unpleasant to work with irl.
We have Kaoru and Nina meeting up going to the office and once entering, they see Producer working, all frantic and whatnot and only realize the two came in as he saw them at the corner of his eyes. Poor Producer needs a break.
It seems as well that they're continuing to post stuff on social media regarding little happenings and challenges too, with Kaoru and Nina's ball trickshot into a cup video had received good comments as well.
Arisu comes in too and Kaoru asks her again for help with homework which she is okay with, but this time it's a bit more difficult because Kaoru is drawing and writing about a summer holiday memory, making Arisu frantically look on her tablet for suggestions and so forth.
Taking this opportunity tho, Producer decides they should all take a break because the girls have worked hard recently so they all go visit the beach!
Arriving there, they get really excited and Kaoru ends up stumbling as well, luckily Haru going in with a football slide and catching Kaoru in time before she fell flat on her face. They really need to be careful but I can understand their excitement ahahah
They play for a bit and have fun on the beach, Risa doing some recording too of herself and Momoka there but Haru would play with the others and kick a beach ball to pass but unfortunately kicked too high over Miria and Nina, ending up hitting Risa instead 🙈
Producer realizes that Arisu is sort of outcasted whilst being in the shade sitting under a parasol because she isn't used to summer and the hot sun. He calls to her but Kaoru ends up beating him to it and she asks Arisu what's wrong, her then mentioning she isn't fond of summer.
So Kaoru mentions as well that everyone has what they like and dislike, like how she isn't really that fond of green peppers as well. Producer comes in and gives the two a bottle of a drink which I have definitely seen before. Although the drink was altered to not infringe copyright, from the design of the shapes and text and picture placements as well, I know they've referenced this drink:
Whilst I worked in Japan Centre in the past, we sold this drink and I heard from a Japanese colleague that this is the no.1 beverage in Japan to have during the summer because it's a good and healthy drink to battle the heat there. It is also relatively cheap to buy in Japan as well, however it being imported to here, it's price was expensive ahahahah
But alas, Kaoru mentions that if she was to try and get used to green peppers, Arisu should try getting used to the summer as well, and with that brings Arisu to the rest of the girls to have some summer fun!
We get a nice little journey on their summer excursion with "SUN♥FLOWER" playing in the back, with Kaoru, Haru, and Arisu covering it. The original song came from the Cinderella Gekijou series and is another insert similar to last week's insert too having came from that series.
After having lots of fun, they reach their little camping villa and Arisu slumps to the couch ahahahahahh
Producer comes in with a large hefty tray of food and man is it making me hungry 🤤
They all go to help prepare, with the guide of Kaoru leading everyone because she loves cooking, and so they all temporarily call her Kaoru-sensei heheh
Producer would also capture the experience on phone but then gets dragged in to use all his strength to mix some dough, his facial expression is amusing ahahah
They all reach the camp ground with the barbecues and stone brick oven and whatnot and have their food there!
There's a lot of good food and whatnot and Kaoru even tries to attempt eating a green pepper, but Arisu would end up focusing on her tablet too much getting the measurements correct but end up accidentally spilling sugar all over the pizza dough, which she apologizes for but the mood ends up dropping a bit. Producer returns after blowing air into the fire for the stone brick oven and wonders what's wrong, then Kaoru takes charge saying it'll be okay because she is the teacher there for cooking at the moment and puts some strawberries on. She asks Arisu to put some on as well and they stick it in the oven, the others really unsure if it would be nice or not.
It's all done and Kaoru asks Arisu to give a slice a go to see how it tastes and it does! It's saved!
Kaoru thanks Producer with a slice of cutely decorated pizza and attempts to try the green peppers too in the pizza. Producer takes the pizza to add a flower mark using ketchup (a 100% kinda drawing Japanese people give kids when they've aced a test or given their best effort) and Kaoru tries it, finding it really delicious.
She also ends up calling Producer as Sensee because of today's events and hopefully she keeps calling him that ahahah in the og source she normally addresses the producer as Sensee after all!
So the girls enjoy the rest of their pizza and end the day with fireworks, which Producer records more and takes pictures too, then receives a work call but due to the signal, he can't really hear what is mentioned properly so would have to delay it.
The girls kind of discuss about their future and it's all a bit nervous at the fact if they can succeed or not but Kaoru lightens the mood like the sunflower she is and says that no matter what happens, she will always be there to make everyone smile. Having motivated everyone, the girls all have their fists in the air all motivated.
They made some fun summer memories and turn in for the night, the girls sleeping together whilst Producer has a big bed to himself, wearing matching pyjamas and a one of those sleeping hats with the dongle on it too heheheheh
Arisu next to Kaoru sleeping, would tell Kaoru thanks for today because if it wasn't for Kaoru, Arisu wouldn't've had this much fun. It's all really wholesome and sweet.
They all go back home and their fireworks picture having spelled a word already garnered quite a lot of likes and whatnot too which is nice, Producer's sister also adding to that as well and Kaoru wants to thank her on the phone too bless her heheheh
Producer sticks his phone into the bag pocket, and is motivated to make the girls succeed more, but we also see that he had received a work related email and judging by how it was presented as a kinda cliffhanger thing, it probably means serious news and it's gonna get a bit serious next week. Just hope nothing too bad happens.
We end the episode with "Himawari Mark wo Sagase!" which I knew would be used but we get a nice montage of their summer memories as photos on a corkboard, ending with Kaoru's finished written and drawn homework.
I saw as well apparently "Mouretsu★Yonaoshi Guilty!" was another insert song included this episode but I have not once heard/noticed it being played so I'm gonna really have to rewatch the episode to see if like my eyes were blind thinking I saw that song credited at the end or if there really was a scene that included the song and I just didn't notice it ahahahhahahah
(Took a rewatch and turns out it was in fact used in the episode, when Producer was listening to music on the headphones doing work ahahah, kinda fitting that Producer would be playing that one)
It seems there might be some serious stuff brewing next week, just hope it goes all right tho.
I'm thinking because all the girls have had their rotation except Arisu, next week will feature her but who knows if Arisu's main focus will be one dedicated episode or it lasts to the end with her and the others but we'll see.
Here's Kaoru's solo image song in non-credit form:
A 4 screenshot preview was released on the Twitter and it seems like it's a joint episode with all the characters perhaps so Arisu's main focus won't pop up yet maybe. Here is the tweet!
From the screenshots, we should also be expecting Kaede Takagaki, Sanae Katagiri, and Mizuki Kawashima to make an appearance too!
In a different screenshot on the main website, there is also a screenshot of Sugar Haato and Usamin too so they're making a return here too! Seems like "Inochi Moyashite Koiseyo Otome" is a potential insert song for next week ahahah
Maybe Miyu Mifune may appear as well because she and those lot have a lot in common when appearing?
And from what others have been saying too, perhaps this is the unexpected U149xAfter20 collaboration no one expected! Or even better.......plans for After20 getting an anime!?!??!?!?!?.....I wish! 😩
The video preview finally came out and it is in fact an episode that doesn't solely focus on one idol but on everyone as a whole.
Seems like the girls will finally be getting their major break given by the text from last episode and them finally wearing their promo image outfits.
It seems there could be some complications too with that rude higher up man but it seems they will hopefully pull through, as well as having the After20 cast give some talking too. (Man I really hope After20 gets an anime adaptation in the future)
With that meeting at the beginning, just made me worry the whole episode. And think about how harder is manage a division like the Third Division, need a whole pedagogy because everyone is young, and the bureaucracy to get investment, than a more diversified age division would have.
This was a beach episode and a camping episode in one.
Sure, caramelized strawberry pizza is good, but with chocolate is much better.
A sunshine episode for a sunshine personality character like Kaoru.
I think the Italians find strawberry on a pizza unusual but I know they hated pineapple pizza (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDUy3Y_w9Tk) but I think the biggest sin of all is putting a goddamn ketchup on a pizza. This will literally make them go apeshit
Although this was supposed to be an episode focused on Kaoru it ended up involving everyone else too, as well as a bit more focus on Arisu which was nice. Kaoru is the definition of happy go lucky, girl is full of spirit and brings up everyone around her, I enjoyed her cooking class too lol. I think having an outdoors/camping episode was a perfect way to showcase her character, and I also really enjoyed it because it is that time of year and I just love these types of episodes in anime lol.
The insert song was really nice too, as well as Kaoru’s ED which is one of my favorites so far, really loved the visuals showing the pictures they too. I’m guessing next week may be Arisu’s episode, and some important stuff regarding the group performing has been developing too and I’m guessing it will go through since this is an idol show what’s a better way to end it lol.
maaan, how are Japanese birth rates at decline while there's stuff like this being made...all I could want during this episode is 9 daughters that I can take out fishin' and camping and make outdoors pizza with, absolute heart melter of an episode.
So its time for kaoru now, and i have no idea what to expect besides kaoru being kaoru
idolmaster is quite some time now, the manga was uh...2016? or something? did they also do 7 second videos? or maybe its later content from more recently and/or its just original content i guess
oh so this time its a bus trip with EVERYONE? i guess also vaguely hinting as to what's going to happen next, whatever that is
actually. isnt it kind of strange for producer to be out in public with nine 12 year old girls? oh well
why am i not surprised that haru hit risa by accident. if anything im surprised it was just risa
(am i the only one, or is momoka just stealing the spotlight all the time?)
though this time since all the girls are here
somehow arisu is the only one sitting by herself
somehow they got the sunflowers to show up
song being one thing but there sure is a LOT of stuff going on
now i wasnt expecting this but we ended up with cooking session aaand
now it's arisu's turn to spill something. HMMM. well its normal i guess, everyone makes mistakes you know
kaoru be literally trying to keel us with diabetes i see
i mean, im not an expert in the japanese language, but isnt the literal meaning of sensei being well.
nina and kaoru definitely seem to be the more optimistic ones, though nina had more dorama in her ep
Also isnt it weird to call yourself "3rd dvision"?
Not sure whats gonna happen next ep, but if you consider ep 2-9 all had a separate ed plus 1 (or more) insert song every ep, thats like
I feel like with the amount of "content", there's so much things you'll miss on your first watch that there's a big reason to go back and rewatch all the eps.