Girlish Number succeeded by almost jettisoning Chitose entirely this week, instead focusing on the frankly more sympathetic Kazuha and Momoka. Both of those two have legitimately understandable anxieties about their career, and they were smartly contrasted all through this episode. The close focus on characters that I’d hoped to see from this show is pretty much immediately coming to pass, so I don’t really have many complaints today!

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

Kazuha apparently lives with her mom, the person she was trying to avoid talking to on the phone

And her mom is a mom. Worried about her wearing a swimsuit on “TV,” etc

Kazuha doesn’t have any friends. This isolating industry

Kazuha’s mom comes to their Q&A session

“You could say this is a merit-based industry” oh my god Kuzu

Kazuha’s persona is being betrayed. She’s deeply embarrassed

Momoka trying to be sympathetic to Kazuha

Yae actually fights back against Chitose!

Momoka is legitimately trying to figure out her own feelings, using those of the people around her

“You seem more cheerful than I thought.” As usual, her mom just wants her to be happy

Towada gets to clean up Kuzu’s mess again

“Your father’s not always going to be well, you know?”

Kazuha and Koto are such reasonable people compared to Chitose

“Parents tend to get smaller the longer you don’t see them, and they’re not as young as you think”

Momoka actually wants to get closer to her coworkers. Lots of subtleties to these conversations

Her stiff smile when her mom gets brought up

She probably thinks her mom sees her as a project

Momoka actually wants her mom to be protective enough to not let her do gravure idol work

She doesn’t want to just be a pro, she wants to be her mother’s daughter