Narenare -Cheer for you!-

Episode 9

Between Kanata's argument with Megumi last week and her fallout with the rest of the girls, it felt like this episode had plenty of room for some serious drama. Unfortunately, this show is not particularly great at handling it and tends to stumble upon resolving whatever it puts out. That trend continues here, and while this isn't the worst the show has been in that department, I did walk away from it feeling underwhelmed.

With Kanata's extra cheerleading activities exposed, a rift forms between the girls as none are quite sure how to deal with it. Nodoka in particular starts to wonder if all this could spell the end of their group. When she talks to Anna on the matter, we learn that Anna's still as dedicated to the channel as ever, but can't forgive Kanata for acting on her own when she considers her and the rest of the girls to be like family. I honestly don't buy this, since while a lot is going on between the girls in terms of individual pairs, as a group, they haven't really had any particularly strong moments together (the closest to that we've gotten is the baseball episode, and they were hardly even the focus of that one) and don't feel anywhere near close enough to warrant that strong of a statement. If anything, her being more upset about how Kanata's antics will affect the channel feels like it would have been a little more believable, but this is comparatively less frustrating than what we get regarding Megumi and Kanata.

When Shion and Nodoka decide to talk to Megumi about how everyone seems to be splitting apart, Megumi decides to confess some of her hidden feelings to them. I said last week that her argument with Kanata felt a little out of place since it didn't seem like there were any bitter feelings between those two, but it turns out that Megumi does resent Kanata a bit. She feels envious of how much Kanata is always the center of attention, and since winning at their middle school nationals was her dream, part of her hates that Kanata ended up achieving that in her place. It's the kind of messy relationship dynamics that the show needed since it does a lot to make these girls feel more like real teenagers. This is also why it's a letdown that she says all this to these two rather than directly to Kanata, since having them spill their guts to each other feels like it would have been a much stronger way to resolve all this.

As for the actual resolution, Kanata tries to reenact her big gymnastics feat from the first episode, only to get herself sent to the hospital. Considering how much the show has been all but content to largely ignore Kanata's condition after the first few episodes, this accident feels pretty contrived, but since it forces Kanata and Megumi to talk things out, it's mostly worth the annoyance. Except…that's not quite what happens. At first, it looks like the two of them will start laying everything out as Megumi admits that she did indeed notice how much Kanata was pushing herself too much, but didn't say anything about it. She also knows that Kanata has always been putting on a brave face, even when it came to trying to fulfill Megumi's dream for her, and that doing all this is taking its toll on her. However despite all this, Kanata can't bring herself to let her feelings out, so Megumi simply cheers for her instead.

The animation captures how much Megumi is struggling to dance in her current condition (even if the jump towards the end was kind of overkill) but as is the recurring theme for this show, it feels like way too simple of a resolution for how emotionally complex of a scenario we were presented with. Sure, things do end with Kanata apologizing to the rest of the girls for overstepping, but since we never really saw Kanata get her feelings across during all of this, it doesn't feel like she experienced much of an actual change. I guess I'll give the show credit in that this is a much less aggravating conclusion than I was expecting at this point, but the fact that I walked away from all that not feeling much of anything speaks to how badly it keeps fumbling at wrapping up all these story arcs.

As for where the show could go from here, we still have the mystery of whoever left that mean internet post since while Megumi admits she felt that way, it wasn't her doing, meaning that it is one of the girls from Kanata's old cheerleading club. Even with all my complaints about this episode not feeling melodramatic enough, Megumi being the culprit really wouldn't have made any sense, so I am at least glad it managed to avoid that particular pitfall even if it is less immediately exciting. While I am curious to see how this plays out it's not exactly a mystery that's leaving me at the edge of my seat.

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