Hello folks, and welcome the fuck back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to return to Lilisa and her as-yet-unnamed rock quartet (no, they’re not going with Shiraya’s stupid name), as they work to balance their high society obligations and passion for rock music, the latter providing an excellent outlet for all the frustrations of the former. When last we left off, Lilisa had just met with six-years-removed Noble Maiden Yayoi Takayanagi, who offered her some troubling words of wisdom regarding her own pursuit of the title.
Though Lilisa initially assumed Yayoi was a kindred spirit, given her flouting of obligation and love of music, she soon learned that the world of the elites was even more cruel and unfair than she’d expected. It was not merit that earned Yayoi her title; it was her generous endowment to the academy, the same method by which those of the upper class have acquired their scholastic credentials for centuries. For every commoner who “pulls themselves up by their bootstraps,” there are a thousand members of the landed gentry who simply bought their way into continued adulation; high society is an exclusive club, and you are not invited.
Beyond Yayoi’s blunt acknowledgment that wealth, power, and social standing are all the same thing, she further demonstrated the sort of person who thrives in this system, casting aside Lilisa’s truest passion with a conspiratorial “keep that nonsense to yourself.” To worship at the altar of capital demands an absolute denial of the empathy-driven self; one must become a creature without human sentiment, and that necessarily demands abandoning such pursuits as “expressing your feelings through rock music.” Yayoi has “won” in the way Lilisa thought she desired, but her victory has left a hollow shell where a person once was, one of the countless husks that comprise our global elite.
This was all obviously a terrible shock for Lilisa, but it certainly improved my impression of the show’s ambitions. Too often it’s felt like this story has been constructing a simplistic, binary contrast of “stultifying collectivism versus selfish individualism,” a philosophy that felt more reactionary than humanist, more childish than liberatory. This last episode went a long way towards realigning rock with genuine social rebellion, and I can only hope that continues as Lilisa reconsiders her ambitions. Now let’s quit with all this stuffy thematic analysis, and get to the fuckin’ show!
Episode 12
We open with the club manager once again asking them to perform. Always funny to see the full band lined up together, with Lilisa a full head shorter than everyone else
She states that their one condition for performing is that they must find another band to battle against. I’ve frankly never seen a battle of the bands outside of high school; it feels like Hiroshi Fukuda is leaning on them just to give the group an external target for their adversarial approach to music. They can’t always be fighting each other, so they gotta have someone else to fight – a very different approach to live performance than most band dramas, which generally tend to frame them as vehicles for personal growth and solidifying mutual trust
Meanwhile, Alice is imagining all sorts of indecent things her sister might be doing in this shady club. Fantastic distortions in her form as she half-melts here
The boy band from the end of the last episode storms past her, knocking her down while rambling about their social media channels. Seems like they’re being set up as a band that play for external validation rather than personal fulfillment – and their name is “Bacchus,” the Roman god of wine and revelry, further implying this is all just a raucous game to them
“There’s a practical reason to having you find your own opponent in this battle of the bands. It’s to attract more audience members.” So this is basically a Rock Lady-specific variation on the actual club system, wherein bands are expected to sell some number of tickets themselves to justify their use of the stage. It’s a pretty easy way for audience-starved clubs to drum up artificial attendance; you set up a battle of the bands that’ll be decided by votes or audience noise level, which naturally incentivizes your performers to bring as many friends and family members as possible, all of whom have to pay for tickets
Of course, this system naturally results in whoever can bring the most committed fans automatically winning the battle of the bands, but hey, that’s the business. Believing success is decided by merit is one of the first preconceptions you must discard to survive
Lilisa immediately asks Shiro if she knows a group that will face them. Good on her; you can either lament the unfairness or grit your teeth and fight through it
Shiro regretfully replies that she’s a jerk and everyone hates her
And right on cue, Bacchus arrives. Love how they always leap to distinctive full-band poses as they enter a room, real Sharks versus Jets energy here
They fit into extremely familiar archetypes; the leader is the “bad boy,” sleepy eyes is the mature, sensitive one, glasses is the intellectual, and the short one is the energetic younger brother type. We’ve basically got a classic otome game cast here
Their leader Naoto actually introduces them as such. A band that’s perfectly tuned for mass appeal and plays entirely for external validation, basically the ideal nemesis for our group
Excellent chibi form reactions from our group, with even Shiraya looking more expressive than usual. Her introduction was rocky, but she’s becoming an increasingly likable member of the group
Love how Lilisa looks like a suspicious cat as she glares at this group’s performance video
Tina is the only one to offer a positive comment, saying “their posing is on point,” a compliment that might be more brutal than if she just said they sucked like the rest of her crew
Bacchus claim they can get five hundred attendees, which I don’t doubt; they seem to have mastered the aspects of image tailoring and social media outreach that actually build a following as a musician, particularly in this modern era where perpetual touring can’t really compete with online virality
Their fifth member bumps into Alice as well, revealing her to Lilisa
Their “fifth member” Itsuki is actually their manager, the secret behind their success
“Up until now they’ve mostly been doing game Let’s Plays, but three months ago they decided to become a rock band.” Once again framing them as the exact opposite of Lilisa’s group, a band that has no binding principles or anything to express beyond “we want to be famous”
It’s frankly kinda hard to watch the decay of general culture in the era of social media, where “I want to be famous” is the foundational philosophy of so many youth icons, and there are no guardrails ensuring a certain degree of talent and training precedes public exposure. The algorithm is a poor replacement for professional curation
“These clowns want to play Fuji Rock?” Their shared dream is a shock to Lilisa, who likely saw playing Fuji Rock as a validation of her own approach to music
“Oh yeah? Well, I don’t mind as long as you get people in the door.” But no one can afford to be an idealist in a field as cutthroat as rock music. Every band and every club manager is just scraping by; capitalism assigns no value to authentic self-expression
“Rock bands aren’t a huge deal, right? It’s all about having fun, anyways.” This vapid streamer echoes the same philosophy as Yayoi; they might be from wildly different backgrounds, but they have both surrendered their identities to others, both discarded authenticity in favor of wealth
Frankly, these folks might be worse; having grown up seeking the applause of an online audience, they may simply not have an authentic self, instead being the same kind of glass-eyed homunculus as Mr. Beast
Hearing these words again, Lilisa agrees to their offer, ready to destroy them. She can’t beat Yayoi, but she can crush this echo of Yayoi’s ideals
The club manager offers some helpful advice: they’re not competing to “beat” the other band, they’re trying to conscript that band’s fans. Every adversarial crowd is a fresh opportunity
This is the same logic that defines debates, incidentally. Every call of “debate me” is really a demand for “let me share my views with your audience”
Welp, the girls have already adopted Alice
Shiro notes they’re still inherently at a disadvantage without a vocalist for the audience to focus on. It’s true; the vocalist is essentially the first point of contact for the emotion or narrative the band is trying to convey, and many bands are built around augmenting that vocal narrative. I’m certainly the same way; I approach rock much like musical theater, with a strong emphasis on lyrics and storytelling. It is very tough for me to love a band if I don’t love their lyrics
Regardless, it seems like this may well be a route for Alice to join the band, perhaps alternating between vocal and violin parts
The club veteran Shiraya unsurprisingly takes a strategic approach to the situation, noting that this audience will be composed entirely of Bacchus fans, and that they must thus calculate their performance to win over that audience. Another key skill for any musical group, one which doesn’t necessarily require any compromising on their part; just lean your setlist towards your more uptempo, balladic, or heavier songs depending on the crowd
“Those types of fans aren’t easy to win over.” It’s true – fans that are there specifically to see one group, rather than to see the setlist as a whole, will frequently just shut down and check their phones all through the other performers
“I do not play the drums in order to make others feel good.” Otoha’s fundamentally self-oriented approach to music finally prompts some friction here, as she announces she won’t play for the sake of pleasing a crowd
And Lilisa actually challenges her! She wants their greatness to be acknowledged; she can’t be happy just playing for her own satisfaction. Baby steps here, but it’s still a marked change from first denying the guitar, then only being willing to indulge it in secret. Now that she’s had a taste of showing the world her true self, she can’t go back
Oh damn, and we’re jumping straight to the day of the concert. Well, just one episode left, I suppose
Outside the venue, Bacchus’ fans vow to ignore this girl group that has the temerity to compete with their beloved faves. In our modern secular society, fandom has essentially replaced religion, an object of worship through which people can find identity and community. And just like religion, fandom tends to encourage tribalism, narrow-mindedness, and strident, dogmatic behavior. There’s a reason “fan” is short for “fanatic”
Aw shit, Alice’s got a staff pass. She’s really in it now
And our girls finally have matching outfits! Not essential for indie rock (the costume there is just jeans and another band’s shirt), but Lilisa’s sort of hard rock demands “telling a story” visually, and making your band an aesthetically unified collective really helps there. Wouldn’t do to have three folks in KISS leather and one in a tank top
“You might even be a hit with the Bacchus fans, since they seem to mostly care about looks.” Aesthetics are all the more important when you’re trying to reach out, to convince folks who see music as a sort of style choice to move beyond that level of engagement. It might seem petty, but everyone has a first band that actually speaks to their heart, and dressing yourself to enable that connection is well worth the effort
Itsuki bumps into Alice again, who offers a searing indictment of his appreciation for Bacchus. “They’re arrogant, shallow, and look on others with disdain. I fail to understand how any part of them is good.”
Of course, “arrogant, shallow, and look on others with disdain” pretty neatly describes Alice’s prior attitude. Entering this new world from the bottom is likely going to give her some harsh perspective on her behavior as a lady
AND HERE COMES LILISA WITH THE STEEL CHAIR! Incredible defense of her sister
And Done
Hell yeah, fuck ‘em up, Suzunomiya sisters! Truly wonderful to see the pair of them aligned at last, with Alice serving as a terrier-sized attack dog defending Lilisa’s honor. It’s also quite nice to see the band interacting as a full, solidified unit, which lets the differences in their perspectives come through far more clearly than when they were just testing the waters. Lilisa’s experience with Yayoi has clearly changed her; it seems like she’s coming to understand the impossibility of the compromise she sought between rock and high society, and in the process starting to see rock as more than just a personal outlet for her “shameful” feelings. That has in turn brought her into conflict with Otoha, whose philosophy of rock extends no further than her own satisfaction. With the terms of this contest set on “win over an adversarial audience,” our crew will have to turn their perspective outwards, and embrace rock music not just as a personal outlet, but as a vehicle for collective celebration. I’m ready for the show!
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