A Hanamaru-and-Ruby episode! Will the first-year duo join the newly formed School Idol club?
The episode opens with Hanamaru’s backstory as an unathletic bookworm. Interestingly enough, she uses books to fuel her imagination, which YOHANE has in spades as a chunni. It’s a tangent when Hanamaru has Ruby, however.
After the OP plays, the trio celebrate receiving their new club-room. Riko and You note that Mari was very enthusiastic about approving their club.
As the trio look over their dusty club-room, Ruby excitedly reports to Hanamaru about how the girls secured a club-room. The second-years then enter and Chika tries to forcefully recruit Ruby and Hanamaru. The two girls turn down the offer, but Hanamaru looks sad about Ruby declining.
Later, Ruby explains to Hanamaru that she said no because of her older sister, Dia. Ruby talks about how Dia used to love idols.
Shortly after Dia started high school, however, she seemed to have started hating idols for some reason. Ruby then says if Hanamaru is okay with not being an idol, then she also won’t be an idol. Hanamaru doesn’t seem pleased with this answer.
The scene then jumps to Kanan working at her grandfather’s shop. Mari pays her a visit, however, and proceeds to molest greet Kanan. Apparently Mari came back in order to scout Kanan into the School Idol club, or so she says. Either way, Kanan turns her down.
At home, Ruby reads an idol magazine and remembers how the two sisters used to share a love for idols. Amusingly, Ruby liked Hanyao while Dia’s favorite was Eli.
Meanwhile Hanamaru is reading an idol magazine in the bookstore, musing that being an idol is impossible for her. However, the article about Rin being the center while wearing a wedding dress catches her eye. Some interesting parallels are being drawn with the bookworm freshman (who’s friends with a shy girl) feeling a connection to the athletic freshman (who is also friends with another shy girl).
Yoshiko also happens to be at the bookstore and and tries to sneak away without being noticed.
The junior trio are running up a long flight of stairs as training like μ’s, but they’re exhausted. Little do they know it was a rough road for μ’s, too! They bump into Kanan, who apparently runs up and down the stairs as morning practice.
In the classroom, Hanamaru says to Ruby that she wants to become an idol and that Ruby should join her. Ruby is hesitant because of Dia’s potential wrath. In response, Hanamaru suggests the two of them try a trial period.
Chika is ecstatic, but Riko and You explains that the two girls may or may not join after the end of said trial period.
The five girls decide to take a page out of μ’s book and start training on the rooftop. After dance practice, the freshmen learn the trio are struggling to write songs. Guess Aquors is in need of a lyricist!
The School Idol club then start their stair climbing. For now, it seems like the pecking order in terms of stamina is Riko, You, Chika (who initially led the charge, by the way), Ruby, then Hanamaru.
Ruby stays back to run with Hanamaru, but she’s had enough of Ruby doing what other people want and gently pushes her forward to run towards her dream. As Ruby continues onward, Hanamaru thinks about how Ruby had always kept her aspirations inside her heart.
It seems like Hanamaru was only leaving the group behind as she descended the stairs, but it turns out she had also called Dia out here.After asking her to listen to Ruby’s feelings, Hanamaru does end up leaving after all. When the four remaining girls meet Dia, Chika tries to cover for Ruby, but this is something Ruby has to do herself.
Ruby ends up joining. You then asks about Hanamaru (You calls her Kunikida-san. You is probably seeing her as a rival for her true love YOHANE just being polite unlike overly friendly Chika).
Hanamaru returns to the library and tries to tell herself that her dream, having Ruby chase her own dream, came true. As such, Hanamaru believes that her own story ends here. However, Ruby happens to be lying in ambush and proceeds to ignore the golden rule of libraries by loudly exclaiming she noticed that Hanamaru probably likes school idols just as much as she does. After all, Hanamaru reads one particular idol magazine over and over (I guess she ended up buying it). According to the magazine cover, by the way, μ’s took Love Live by storm 5 years ago. I’m only just realizing that even Maki, Hanyao, and Rin are college students by now, wow.
Anyways, some encouragement from the trio and Ruby finally convinces Hanamaru to join. Aquors finally enters the idol ranks.
The ED then plays. Because of Ruby and Hanamaru’s unique voices, I was reminded that different girls will sing the ED for each episode (bless Love Live!). Time to listen to the EDs for episodes 2 and 3 again.
The next episode is titled “Yohane Descends.” I tried my best to keep images and words to a respectable minimum this time around, but the episode preview looks hilarious to the point that I couldn’t resist sharing all of it here. See you next time!
The Lily Garden 