Action Heroine Cheer Fruits Episode 10 Review – “So Long, Despairing Warrior”

(Spoilers in this review)

Summary

Hinano Cheer Fruits manage to break into the top 10 list of local heroines after their most recent performance. As a result, Mako Kamisu, the woman who plays Kamidaio (who has steadily been number one for a while) visits Hinano and gives them an interview. Some of the Cheer Fruit heroines end up losing confidence in themselves after seeing her in-person, which causes them to mess up their next performance and drop into 25th place. The team is on the verge of breaking up, but Mana pulls them all together so she can continue to sell her Cheer Fruits merchandise.

Thoughts

• I had actually thought Mako Kamisu would turn out to be a terrible person so I was pleasantly surprised that she turned out to be a mostly agreeable person. I had forgotten that she was supposed to visit in Hinano in episode 1 and she was very understanding of the plagiarism incident (heck, she admits she did something similar when she first started. I bet her management was the ones who filed a complaint).
• She did end up threatening Hinano Cheer Fruits with her own brilliance, so she did end up causing a disturbance in the end.
• While it’s painful to see confident people lose self-esteem after seeing how the very best behaves, it’s still one of my favorite sort of plot developments. Seeing characters bounce back and continue to struggle despite being the underdog fires me up!
• The villains didn’t get shook which was interesting. To be a good heroine, you need strong villains and Roko and Kanon fit the bill. Perhaps they didn’t feel the pressure since they’re villains rather than heroes (so they’re not directly competing against Kamidaio).
• Be that as it may, Kanon’s arrogance and confidence really rubbed me the right way as she berated An for losing confidence. I usually hate those sort of haughty characters, but wow.
• Mana also surprised me. I tend to be indifferent to money-grubbers, but the extent Mana goes to sell merchandise is actually impressive. And I haven’t noticed how different and unique her voice is. I think I’m in love with it.
• Honorary mention goes to Genki and Momo-chan for staying steady.
• Misaki’s belief that she causes everything to go wrong if she becomes too involved seems like a bit of a stretch, but maybe there’s some truth to it. I really hope that isn’t the case, though. Looks like yet another episode will be focusing on her according to the preview for next week’s episode.
• All in all, it was an episode that was both rewarding yet painful to watch. Sometimes characters go through rough patches after doing really well. Now that they’re recovered, I’m looking forward to seeing how Hinano Cheer Fruits continues from here!