Shōnen Hollywood - Holly Stage for 49

Episode 12

Another solid episode of Shōnen Hollywood! This one covered more of the team's final fears as their Christmas show approaches, with conflicts emerging on both the personal and performance level. It opened with Shun expressing more resentment at Makki and Kakeru's missing practices, which was a very tidy example of one of the things I like about this show - even when personal conflicts are “resolved” in a broad narrative sense, those things still feel like they happened. The character's actions have lasting consequences.

After that, Makki received his harshest personal blow yet when Cat decided he likes Shun's shoulder better. I'm not proud to admit just how funny I found all the ridiculous owl-based material this week. There's just something about that silly owl allegedly being the bearer of hopes and dreams that gets to me, particularly when an episode spends a sizable portion of its running time staring into Cat's deep, mysterious eyes. Here's hoping Makki wins Cat's affections next week, I'm not sure I can take this tragedy much longer.

The bulk of this week's conflict was focused on the lingering problems of Makki and Kakeru. Makki's problem is very simple - he's just not very good at this. Kakeru, on the other hand, mainly just has trouble expressing himself. I've really appreciated how the show portrayed Kakeru's inability to articulate his feelings, both this episode and across the show in general. When he wants to express solidarity to Makki based on the posters Makki made, he can only manage “your handwriting is lousy.” And when the others critique Makki for his lackluster performance, Kakeru responds with “isn't it okay if he's lousy? Might the audience want someone to root for?” It's a very believable response coming from someone who thinks deeply and privately about the issues that bother him - instead of responding to their immediate problem, he jumps ten steps ahead, and responds with the answer he's arrived at over the course of his own internal arguments. Given his difficulty with self-expression, his ultimate wish that they express something indescribable with their music rings endearingly true.

Beyond that, the solidity of this episode's conflicts was greatly aided by how well the show depicted the group's mediocre rehearsals. Shōnen Hollywood's always been about expressing an honest, “warts and all” take on idoldom and performance in general, and this episode clearly expressed that through the awkward dances, constant revisions, and actual frank discussions of how they can improve their performances. Generally, the road from amateur to perfect synchronization is expressed through “let's do our best!” and maybe a montage or two - that this show has its characters adjust their pacing, critique each other, work on the beats without the music, and then repeatedly take it from the top lends it a strong sense of conflict and reality. And the animation's ability to clearly demonstrate the faults in their synchronization helps as well.

Overall, this episode wasn't quite the standout that last week's was, but it was still a very solid entry in a very solid show. I'm looking forward to the finale!

Rating: B+

Shōnen Hollywood - Holly Stage for 49 is currently streaming on Funimation.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.