Girlish Number – Episode 5

Girlish Number seems to be experiencing some growing pains at the moment, as it expands beyond “Chitose is a jerk” to try and add some substance to the world around her. The show’s sometimes farcical tone and very simplified version of the industry can work against its attempts to add weight to its critiques, but I appreciated this episode’s attempts to tonally underline this increasingly disastrous production. It’s a messy show, but still a very interesting one.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.

Girlish Number

“It doesn’t mean you did a good job. It means the people who wrote the song did a good job”

Gojo was a failed voice actor, apparently

Chitose’s not even really watching the show anymore

Chitose reveling in the “success” of selling 10,000 copies of their single

I appreciate the touch of having their show playing on the store TV

The other girls are getting into what I’d assumed would be the message last week – “in spite of all our hard work, we can’t carry this production”

“What we sell is a matter of chance. Don’t dwell on it, just move on to the next thing”

The top VAs don’t even get what Chitose is excited about

And as usual, Chitose thinks their lack of interest is a script to follow

Their sad little celebration is something

Kuzu-P just agrees with everyone. His way of avoiding dealing with conflict

Oh god, they’re planning a second season

The show deliberately makes a joke of the finance side, presenting the financial staff as one repeated generic dude in a suit

This is maybe the most broad and farcical episode yet

This episode is covering a lot of temporal material, and feels disjointed due to both that and the awkward transitions

Chitose keeps thinking she’s already made it, and so can’t be happy about small victories

“It feels great being able to see the results of all my hard work.” Chitose falling for the classic issue of assigning all success to yourself, and all failure to other people

Using the nature channel special on weird animals to add some congruity to these disjointed small scenes

More of this weird slow pacing – really holding on Chitose’s tears here before the cut

Chitose finally gets the reckoning. The fickle fans turn on her. Her ego was entirely externally built, so it crumples in a moment