Narenare -Cheer for you!-

Episode 3

Alright, before I get too deep into this one, I'd like to amend something in my previous review. I had said in my review of the first two episodes that whatever mental hangup is preventing Kanata from performing cheer routines is tied to Megumi's current condition. It has since been pointed out to me that the two things seem to be unrelated, and that the cause of Kanata's trauma is something we don't yet know about, which gets brought up more directly in this episode. That's a pretty big error on my part, so I apologize if that caused any confusion. With that out of the way, let's dive into this week's episode.

So Suzuha has been something of a mystery up to this point, as the only things we really know about her are her insane parkour skills and some kind of unspoken tension between her and Shion. As it turns out, the reason why Suzuha acts so awkward around Shion is that she has a big crush on her. All the times she's acted aloof in her presence are just the result of her being an anti-social dork, turning her from stoic to relatable pretty quickly. In truth, she actually wants to get closer to Shion and apologize for being so weird around her, which leads to her deciding to get in on Anna's videos and complete our ensemble. While she's scared that Shion doesn't like her since her tendency to be expressionless has caused her to be misunderstood in the past, and eventually led her to drop out from cheerleading, Shion doesn't exactly have much confidence in herself either, as she's convinced no one really likes her songs. Luckily for the two of them, they turn out to be each other's biggest fan, as Suzuha raves on about her love of Shion's singing to the point of not minding her being a little tone deaf, while Shion reveals that she actually based her song for their routine off of how cool she thinks Suzuha is before being too embarrassed to complete the rest of that conversation. It's extremely cute, and while I'm skeptical of this show committing to any actual romance between the girls, I'm still rooting for these two to work out regardless, and all this left me feeling pretty endeared toward the both of them.

Anyway, while all that makes for a pretty good subplot, the main focus here is on Kanata, as we learn about what's going on with her, and it's also where I felt this episode stumbled a little. We learn that Kanata is suffering from a condition called Yips, which makes it difficult to perform otherwise familiar athletic activities, and that the cause of it seems to be related to some currently unknown incident that occurred during last year's big competition. She's also been keeping this a secret from the people closest to her, including Megumi, and she actually wasn't even supposed to participate in the tryouts last episode, to begin with as she's been banned from cheerleading until her condition is cured. Having learned the truth, Megumi, Shion, and Nodoka are all a bit hesitant about including Kanata in their cheerleading videos. But Anna points out that it should ultimately be Kanata's choice and they can't make that decision for her. Unsurprisingly, Kanata does decide to keep herself involved, but she hesitates over putting herself in the top position as she's still unsure if she'll be able to perform any actual gymnastics and feels better off being a spotter for now. Had the episode ended there, it would have worked as a pretty good compromise, as passion aside, it would be pretty reckless to have her perform when she's dealing with a psychological condition that could put her in actual danger if she messes up. Instead, she does end up trying to perform a gymnastics routine, and while her first attempt does fail, the others give her a pep talk about how the most important part of cheerleading is knowing who you're cheering for and that she needs to have more faith in herself, and this ends up being enough to let her pull off a flip successfully.

I'm not quite sure how much I like this honestly. While I wasn't really expecting Kanata to be unable to perform for most of the show or anything, given how badly her condition seems to be affecting her, it does feel a little cheap to resolve things in such a simple way. To be fair, I'm not expecting this to actually stick, and since we still aren't sure what caused Kanata to develop Yips to begin with, it's likely to keep affecting her for a while. But considering this is the strongest dramatic hook the show has for the time being, it'd be a bit of a letdown if that ends up in the background for a bit. Despite some of those worries, I'm still largely on board with this show. Even if Kanata's issues do take a bit of a backseat, the stuff with Suzuha and Shion does at least make me confident that the show might be able to do enough with the other girls to keep things going in the meantime.

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Narenare -Cheer for you!- is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.