Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we might check in on Oushin Girls’ Academy, and see how new arrival Lilisa is managing to uphold the tenets of dignified high-class ladydom. Having crawled up from the ranks of the peasantry through her mother’s union with the distinguished Suzunomiya family, Lilisa is determined to become the academy’s Noble Maiden, and thereby secure a lasting future for herself and her mother. And it won’t take much – just abandoning her current personality and her most precious memories, including her conjoined love of her father and the guitar.
So yeah, that probably wasn’t going to happen. Nonetheless, it took the intervention of fellow young maiden and born blue blood Otoha Kurogane to shake her poise, calling her back to the guitar and the earnest, unvarnished feelings it represents through the time-honored challenge of “what are you, chicken?” Along the way, Rock is a Lady’s Modesty has presented a bevy of charged visual motifs, defining life at Oushin as a series of cages and mirrors, barring true expression while consistently allowing glimpses of humanity to seep through in fountain pools, painted glass, or the sweat of pure, reckless passion. I’m at this point most curious to learn of Otoha’s “true self,” or whether she has actually managed to integrate the duality of propriety and rebellion more gracefully than Lilisa, but I’m down for whatever this team has to throw at us. Let’s get to it!
Episode 2
We open on an aerial view of Oushin, revealing track and tennis facilities, a walled secondary estate with a pair of ponds, and the old school building just visible through a scattering of trees. As expected of a production so focused on compositions over fluidity, the setting is fully realized by our background-focused art director Hirofumi Sakagami
Compositions emphasize empty smiles and automobile-related symbols of wealth as we pull in
“How does Miss Suzunomiya maintain such elegance so early in the day?” In truth, this is likely the easiest part of the performance for Lilisa, when she basically just has to prep her appearance (admittedly a formidable task given her chosen hair style) and walk with a certain inner confidence. Ladyship is easy as a stage performance, and thus most students at this academy seem to keep each other at a comfortable emotional distance, something the school itself tacitly encourages through its system of perpetual evaluation. The system is thus self-perpetuating; Oushin wishes to create women who will not speak unless spoken to, and ensuring its students are punished for any forms of unsanctioned speech or action is a natural way to train them into silence
Inside, she’s of course still raging about Otoha. Given Otoha’s outburst, I’m still curious if they’re going to define rock music as anything more than “rebellion against propriety,” or to dive deeper into the show’s natural adjacency to class commentary
Lovely trick here as Lilisa’s rage in this hyper closeup is maintained as we cut to a neutral shot, with half of her face still boiling over with flames. A joke constructed of our unconsidered assumptions regarding the interiority of such closeups, using the cut between compositions for humor – again, perfectly appropriate for this team that’s so focused on layouts and transitions
Aaand it seems Otoha has transferred into her class. I’m also curious to see if the show will do anything with Otoha’s simultaneous heightened elegant restraint and heightened violent outbursts – perhaps to frame both as performances, and seek a middle ground
Our high-energy OP indulges in wild color distortions and fun typographic flourishes as it introduces our eventual bassist and keyboardist
Our four leads lying floating in a pool, a close cousin of the “lesbians on the grass” staple of OPs and EDs alike
The first episode emphatically defined pools and reflections more generally as places of transformation, revealing your true self beyond the surface. This OP echoes that definition through Lilisa diving into the pool to retrieve the guitar pick, submerging to reconnect with her true self
“What is the relationship between you two?” The onlookers swiftly rush to define this bond, hungry for gossip. As demonstrated before, one of the fundamentals of Class S yuri is constant awareness of the crowd’s gaze, and society’s judgment beyond
Otoha seems to dazzle the crowd without even trying, framing her meeting with Lilisa in the most charged, implication-rich way possible
They meet “through the glass,” their private conversation framed through the falling waters of the fountain. This team’s really working overtime to layer every scene with a touch of visual thematic intent
“Thank you for collaborating with me yesterday.” Unlike Lilisa, Otoha is able to translate the feelings expressed on one side of the glass to the conversational modes of the other. It seems like neither is a performance for her, or that she is at least fluent in both
She’s also good at ignoring undesirable statements from her conversation partner while steering the discussion as she wishes, a natural reflection of her upbringing
She apologizes for her outburst the previous day, but says it was merely because she thought Lilisa “wasn’t taking our session seriously”
Apparently Lilisa learned English from listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. A worrying thought; Anthony Kiedis basically just uses word sounds as percussive instruments, few of his songs actually mean anything. For every “Under the Bridge” they’ve got a dozen lines like “slow cheetah come before my forest/look like it’s on today”
I’m again curious as to whether original mangaka Hiroshi Fukuda is making an intentional point by having Lilisa correct herself to “The Phantom of the Opera” as her inspiration. Like Clair de Lune, Phantom is basically the most obvious, superficial pick you could go for regarding musical theater – so is that an intentional point regarding the superficiality of their collective affectation, as they all scramble for an acceptable “ladylike” alternative to the things they’re actually passionate about? Or is that just the extent of Fukuda’s own engagement with musicals? It could certainly be a fun thread if it’s intentional!
The show makes a gag out of its own limited animation as a still frame of Lilisa slides out of the scene. This is really one of the essences of anime – making the most of perpetually limited production resources, and playing to your team’s strengths wherever possible
Otoha reveals she also loves the Chili Peppers, as well as Linkin Park. I assume she prefers the Chili Peppers’ more funk-oriented stuff, but frankly I think they’re actually at their best with the arena rock anthems. I listened to so much By the Way as an adolescent, and then countless spins of Stadium Arcadium while I was playing World of Warcraft (I’d personally say they peaked with Wet Sand). One of those albums with an incredibly strong sight memory attached, except that sight memory is the forests of Azeroth
Lilisa’s anxiety once again expressed as a stiffness of framing, this time with another fourth-wall breaking flourish as her character outline flips, revealing her to be paper-thin
After school, Lilisa considers returning the pick, her reflection wavering in the fountain
And over at Otoha’s sanctuary, the flower vase has gained a lily to accompany the original rose. Lily, Lilisa, pretty easy connection there – and of course, lilies are also frequently used as a signifier of forbidden love in Class S dramas
Otoha really rocking that double kick bass. I was never more than a journeyman drummer, and didn’t play the kind of stuff that would require a double kick anyway – that’s mostly for hard rock and metal, while I trended towards lighter genres like indie rock and alt-country. Alongside the Chili Peppers, my gateway bands to greater engagement with music were groups like Modest Mouse, Weezer, and Built to Spill – and then the new wave revival hit, and bands like Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, and the Strokes became popular enough to actually talk about with purely radio-guided listeners. Plus The Shins got huge and carved out some space for indie pop… it was a good era to be caring about rock music
My college’s events team also booked a shit-ton of great artists following that period. I got to see Broken Social Scene, Matt & Kim, TV on the Radio, White Rabbits… hell, I even stayed with a friend in Chicago and got to see Slint perform Spiderland at the first Pitchfork Music Festival. A real formative moment in my musical education
Lilisa’s presumed stepsister from before stands alongside her at violin practice, demonstrating the virtues of a trueborn noble
Her name is Alice
Lilisa’s performance of course lacks delicacy. She wants to wrestle with her instruments, not gently coax them into beautiful sound
Alice clearly sees Lilisa as an interloper in her family home
“I just have to become the Noble Maiden. Then I’m sure mom can live comfortably and happily as a member of the Suzunomiya family.” Any happiness of her own is subordinate to her mother’s comfort. And so far, we haven’t really seen an indication that her mother cares about Lilisa’s happiness in turn
The same sequence of establishing shots lead us into the next day at school, establishing an expectation of routine that is immediately broken by Lilisa nervously exiting her car bag-first, determined to avoid Otoha
She runs into the student council president instead, Yukari Fujimurasaki
Unsurprisingly, getting on the student council is nearly a prerequisite for being the Noble Maiden
Otoha gets Lilisa her formal introduction to the president, putting Lilisa clearly in her debt
Otoha even prevents Lilisa from overstepping. You can’t ask for a student council seat during your first encounter with the president!
I’m really looking forward to more honesty from Otoha – right now, neither her ladylike nor rock-driven personas seem to fully encompass the tactical awareness she’s demonstrating. It’s tough to get a read on her underlying feelings
Ah, it seems that walled estate is where the school conducts tea ceremonies
“The clean, pleasant, and steady beat… hearing that is enough to tell me she’s taken learning the drums very seriously.” As the bedrock of the rhythm section, the drummer’s stability is what allows the rest of the band to shine. Your control of the beat and tempo must be impeccable before you can even think about flourishes of your own; attempting to play with an unsteady drummer is like attempting to tap dance on a waterbed
Classic contrast of Lilisa in darkness and Otoha bathed in the window’s light as Lilisa challenges her on her unladylike passion, secretly wishing to be drawn into the sun
Otoha replies that rock has nothing to do with being a lady. It’s the only thing she can “truly lose herself” in, a pleasure just for herself. I suppose it makes sense for this production, but it’s interesting how they’re framing rock music purely as personal liberation, not as a method of communication as in Bocchi or MyGO
“The circumstances have no bearing whatsoever!” She goes a bit further with this though, framing rock music as a democratizing force where your social standing or gendered expectations are irrelevant
Lilisa is understandably furious with how casually Otoha dismisses all the difficult self-denial she’s been enduring
Thus she is once again goaded to show up that asshole Otoha on the guitar!
And Done
Lilisa, you are far too easy to provoke for this sort of balancing act. Between her mention of the Chili Peppers and her lack of an answer regarding a socially proscribed hobby, it seems like her mask of perfect ladydom is already suffering a few cracks. She’s simply too hungry to play the role; her passions demand release, and even when it comes to pursuing the Noble Maiden title, her clear eagerness for the title parses as somewhat unseemly. What she needs is an outlet, and fortunately it seems Otoha understands that as well, even if she’s so far framed rock music as an entirely selfish pursuit. But can Otoha even relate to the anxieties Lilisa is experiencing, her persistent awareness of the gulf separating the rock-loving commoners from their lofty superiors? C’mon show, give us a goddamn Otoha episode!
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