Idolish7 Episode 5 Review: Secret

Hello, everybody! In this week’s episode of Idolish7, we saw a lot of heavy rain. Although a lot of Japan has recently received a lot of snow, it was mostly just rainy at the MANGA.TOKYO headquarters here in Osaka. Unfortunately, if my trains are ever suspended due to the typhoons, there are no pretty guys there to sing for me. Stop raising my expectations, anime!

Anyway, this episode focuses mostly on Riku and his poor health. Everybody, please take care of yourselves and don’t push yourselves too much, ok?

As long as you keep working, I’ll keep supporting you

Japanese title: 秘密

Story

IDOLiSH7 receive a new song and are excited about the next activities. However, Tsumugi needs to visit TRIGGER’s agency in order to apologize for the taboo that IDOLiSH7 have broken- promoting their own group at a different group’s concert. Yamato, as the leader of the group, tells her that it is his duty to come along and that he is used to this kind of thing (foreshadowing, people). The rest of the group practice their performance, but of course, Riku is wheezing as he normally does. Just as I am about to shout ‘do you not notice wheezy face over there?!’, Iori decides that he is a doctor, and gets his ear right up on Riku’s back to take a listen. My fujoshi-senses started tingling (Iori x Riku is my OTP, sorry). Iori, being the strange non-tactful boy that he is, decides he would just MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT regarding Riku’s very obvious health issues. Of course, Riku physically drags Iori outside (fujoshi-senses start tingling again) and begs him not to tell the others. Iori is absolutely right to scold Riku, because IF HE DIES then the fans would be sad, right? The boys later end up performing in the rain for the people stuck due to train cancellations, but of course, asthma-boy collapses and is sent to the hospital. This is not a shonen manga where you can just say ‘I’ll keep fighting until I die’! Thankfully, Tsumugi has a good head on her shoulders and wants Riku to continue as part of the group, but of course with certain restrictions in place. Not long later, tickets go on sale for their next outdoor concert. Of course……they sell out instantly!! It may be cliche, but I still had the same reaction as Tsumugi. Good luck, boys!

Highlights

Kaoru snapping those pens, oh boy.
Did you notice Tenn’s teeny tiny bowtie button? How sweet!
Did you notice Nagi had his chopsticks behind his ear?
The way Iori was staring out the side of his eyes to look at the fansite of him and Riku was so adorable
When Tenn shouts at Gaku to rewind the TV and he just retorts with ‘I ain’t recording it!’. That was cute.
The way the boys were sat on the floor when talking about the concert was quite sweet. Mitsuki was sat with his legs crossed like a child (which he would probably hate if he heard me say) and Riku had his knees up to his chest because he’s the ‘cute one’!
Crying Tsumugi~! The fact that Tamaki asked her if she was asleep almost had me in stitches
BANRI SCREEN TIME! MORE OF THIS PLEASE.

Trivia

The song playing in the background when IDOLiSH7 were on the TV was called ‘Joker Flag’ and is the 3rd song to be unlocked in the game.
The boys get a special lunch for working hard, but Sogo mentions something along the lines of ‘we’ll keep working hard so we can have even nicer lunches soon.’ He is actually talking about ‘Makunouchi Bento,’ which is a lunchbox with rice, meat, pickles, vegetables, and other yummy things. It’s seen as a high-quality bento and was originally meant to be eaten between acts at Kabuki performances (makunouchi literally means ‘between acts’). Bento is a running theme in Idolish7. The boys getting treated to a Makunouchi bento will mean they have done really well!

Believe in Yourself, Reach for the Dream

This episode has some really terrible animation in places, with the character’s faces basically just having dots for eyes. But I don’t care! However, I do hope we can get some more variation in the BGM sometime soon. The episode touched upon the relationship between Tenn and Riku. Is Tenn pushing Riku away from the idol world out of love? What was his motivation for leaving? You may be able to guess the answers to these already, but we really need the appearance of Kujo to go deeper into Tenn’s reasons for leaving.

Also, I hope that soon we will be able to meet the president of Yaotome Productions!

See you next week!