Coming from where I was last week, this is an improvement. I’m not royally pissed off at least – there were still things which annoyed me in how this episode played out, but not to the extent of the past couple of episodes. Safe to say it took a couple of turns I wasn’t necessarily expecting. Maybe eventually but not here and now,, where I thought the whole idol scandal thing would remain center stage. For my sanity – and continued involvement – it’s probably better this way.
The most irritating part of the episode was when Kana said her fans would be “rightfully angry” at her over what happened. Screw that – it’s the same sort of attitude that had public figures apologizing for catching COVID. Japan is seriously messed up that way, but that’s not news – the issue is that Akasaka is OK with it. Be that as it may, though, Kana’s travails were really only a trigger to detonate a bigger plot development. It was made pretty clear why Mako set Kana up – she slept with Shiima and was pissed that he was cheating on his wife with other women besides her. Kana was just collateral damage.
Aqua takes matters into his own hands, and boy does he ever. Miyako tells Ruby that the only way to head off the release of the article now would be a “barter story” – something bigger and juicier than a B-list idol spending the night at a director’s apartment. She doesn’t have anything in mind, obviously, but Aqua didn’t need to be listening to know he was going to follow that route. In effect Aqua shows Ruby and Akane that they’re pikers when it comes to scheming – he’s still the high roller where manipulation is concerned.
What are we to make of the fact that Aqua was willing to out himself – and his sister and mother of course – in order to protect Kana? The partisan in me would like to say this proves she’s the one he really loves, but of course he pushes his chips in with Akane too in order to force her to cash out of this dangerous game. Coming clean to the sleazeball reporter about Ai’s murder and his and Ruby’s lineage was a huge step to take, and if he really did it all for Kana that does say something about the depth of his feelings for her. But I tend to think he wouldn’t have done it if he weren’t ready to make that leap generally, and the Kana incident was just the push he needed.
Speaking of which, that incident with Akane was pretty interesting. My read on that was that the “jogger” absolutely did push her – though it’s possible we were just being fooled into thinking that. It’s not far-fetched to think that Kamiki Hikaru could have paid some jamoke to take Akane out. Which of course would mean he knows she’s been sniffing around his past, but that would hardly be a surprise. I mean Aqua did, and it’s been inferred that Kamiki is just as smart as he is – in fact kind of a dark version of him, if anything. Maybe the thing on the stairs was all a coincidence but I don’t vibe that (even as much as this show loves its coincidences).
Aqua knew, of course, because he’s been bugging Akane since the two of them became social associates. I do find this pretty funny – Akane thinks she’s some kind of dark obsessive mastermind, but Aqua is more messed up than she is. He was a step ahead of her all along. And now, having gone all-in with the barter story, he knows the stakes are too high for Akane to safely remain at the table. Which, if one is a partisan in the other direction, they could draw a similar conclusion to the earlier Kana one. It’s interesting to wonder, though, if Aqua was really just using Akane as an information-gathering agent all along. She was certainly useful to him, there can be no denying that. Are they finished now? For me, too early to say (but probably not).
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