Winter Break, Week X.III: Chapters 3-5 and 3-6
Reading time: an hour 50
Length: ~13k字
Story:
3-5 is wrapping up showday prep. They arrange the song, sell their tickets (mostly to classmates), Ririko designs a logo and puts it on shirts for them to wear on stage. That kinda stuff. Yukitaka makes sure to give tickets to both gem of rubble and Nayuka.
In 3-6 we go wake up Ririko for the first time in a while, and head to dress rehearsal/soundcheck, after which the band scatters. Anju stays behind with Yukitaka: turns out standing on that stage triggered a nasty case of stage fright. Yukitaka just recommends she go off to clear her head, which she does, but he's worried she won't hold up mentally during the show. The scene closes on him calling Morichika for help with... something.
In the green room before the show, Anju isn't doing any better. She tries to find camaraderie in Tsukimi and Ena, but the former is plenty used to performing, and the latter went through trial by fire at the club presentation event, so she's all alone.
Ena introduces the band, and they start with the by now well-known Be Brand New. Everyone is doing well, but as expected, Anju's struggling: she's rushing the song and whipping herself into a panic, even drops her pick right before the big guitar solo's supposed to happen. Thankfully, Yukitaka has a plan: he adlibs a bass solo instead, supported by Morichika. After the song, there's some good-natured heckling by their classmates, who want to hear Enas iconic "Fuck You!". Ena herself insists that it isn't her signature line or anything, which gives Yukitaka a moment to reassure Anju: she should just play as she wants, if something happens he's there to back her up.
Songs 2 and 3 go off without a hitch, and then it's already time for their last piece of the night: Akeboshi ("Morningstar"), the song Yukitaka wrote. Roll opening credits, essentially. Fully animated video, about half of which is actually them performing, the rest interspersed introductions for characters not on stage as well as some classic (spoiler-y) OP scenic shots.
We close out on Lemonade Factory's after-party. They discuss issues and hint at plans for the future, but overall the vibe is celebratory. We get flashbacks to a short conversation between Yukitaka and Nayuka, who praises and congratulates him on his first proper show, as well as one to a somewhat longer conversation with gem of rubble, which includes a full 180 flip from combative rival to adoring fangirl from Miku. When we cut back to Lemonade Factory, Yukitaka is ambushed by the completely public date of exam week: kickoff is the day after tomorrow.
Thoughts:
I really loved the scene of the band arranging the songs, it's the first time we actually see them COLLABORATE on something and pretty much exactly what I've been begging for. More of that, please and thank you. So much more.
I'm sorry, what kind of buying power is the author assuming for the yen here?!? 1500 is NOTHING. That's like 9 bucks American, even less European. I'd be THRILLED if that were the ticked price for a music show! Even for the kind of show Lemonade Factory is playing, where it's just a bunch of indie bands (which btw, debut show at specialized music venue? Unthinkable around here), I haven't seen ticket prices below DOUBLE THAT basically EVER. Tf are we going on saying "1500 yen is a significant amount of money for High Schoolers" no it's the fuck not?!? You can MAYBE buy a manga magazine with that kind of money, and 7 years ago it was worth 3 konbini bento boxes but like. Unless your parents are struggling to get by, that's not an amount of money to hum and haw that much over.
One thing I admit I'd COMPLETELY missed so far is that Anju's last name is written with the Kanji for hiding... which I only noticed NOW because of the line about her hiding this band thing from her school. Probably no pun intended, still kinda funny.
Again with the obsession on how to market the band... I agree that having stage costumes is a good idea for the visual identity of the band, but they want that for the wrong reasons! I'd be more amenable to having this much focus put onto marketing strategies if there were concrete plans for at least some of the characters to use the band to jumpstart a music career, but that is not the case! If anything, it's the opposite! Anju's dad wants her to stay away from that lifestyle, Tsukimi explicitly mentions that her classical piano studies take priority, Yukitaka has no ambitions whatsoever, Ena just wants to do music and Morichika's goals so far seem to be reached just by the band existing. Why are they marketing this thing like they're some 50yo office worker who bet their life savings on a specific stock and desperately need to see the company succeed to not lose their retirement money?!? ACT LIKE HIGH SCHOOLERS GODDAMNIT!!!
And speaking of the costumes: once again, Yukitaka alone makes a decision for the group without so much as telling the others about it, let alone involving them in the decision. Why the heck did Ririko not check with the band if they liked her logo design?!?
Another thing I noticed the author likes to do is to make the female characters stare or even glare at Yukitaka. Multiple times no there's been a scene that plays out in the exact same way: one girl or the other, very determined over something or other, will stare directly at Yukitaka, and his internal narration will go something like "I don't seem able to escape her gaze". Idk what it means if anything at all, just something I noticed.
Every now and then, the narration will get overly detailed, describing every tiny action taken, almost step-by-step. I think it's supposed to reflect a feeling of time slowing down or maybe just tension? Doesn't really work for me, it just annoys me, but that might be more due to my fluency in reading Japanese not being nearly as good as my fluency in reading... basically any of the other languages I speak, than in the narration being badly executed or anything like that.
I won't go into to much detail on the show itself, that's what the "Shows" thread is for, but there is one thing I think belongs here: I'm glad they had issues. They REALLY rushed this thing, and I would've been very disappointed if there were no consequences whatsoever for it. Don't get me wrong, given the circumstances it still went RIDICULOUSLY well, but at least that one hiccup means my immersion wasn't completely broken. There's a reason even professionals do weeks and weeks of rehearsals before doing a show: you want the peace of mind of having done everything you possibly could to prepare, and you want the muscle memory to know your set even if your head is shot to high hell. That goes double for a debut show: mentally, there's so much more riding on your first show than there is on like. Your 17th or 39th or whatever. No matter how the first show goes, it WILL have an effect on your confidence, the band dynamics, EVERYTHING going forward. So you don't rush the debut show. You write your music, you learn your set, you make sure everyone can play it in their sleep. Then, and only then, you arrange the show.
The rest of my thoughts are mostly related to singular characters, but closing out on panic over incumbent exams is relatable af lol. I realized YESTERDAY that my first exam of the semester is on Tuesday. help.
