Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Girlish Number Episode #09 Anime Review


The youth have every right to dream, and it's our duty to sell them that dream.

What They Say:
No one wants to get stuck in a boring profession, so when college student Chitose Karasuma storms into a voice acting training facility, she thinks that her future is poised for awesomeness. However, this bad-mannered beauty is in for more than she bargained for as she gets accepted into the talent agency “Number One Produce.” Together with her coworkers, including a girl with a Kansai accent and a cunning airhead, Chitose charges into the competitive world of professional voice acting.

The Review:
Content: (Please note that the content portion of this review may contain spoilers)
Number One Produce has a new seiyuu! Her name -- Nanami Sakuragaoka. Nanami, coming off as a complete novice right off the bat, still possesses a certain charm that is able to captivate and win over the rest of Kusure's staff in just her first time meeting them. Being what may just be the number-one fan of the series, Nanami is the first person our characters have ever come across that actually loves Kusure. In fact, her love for the series is so real and unpolished that it reinvigorates the entire production crew and gets everyone motivated for the first time in...well, probably the history of the show. With that being said, though, what does this mean for Chitose and the other newbie actors? Now that they're all going to be senpai, they realize they're going to have to step-up their game in order to maintain their statuses as professional actors. Of course, that is much easier said than done considering the history and ego of a certain pink-haired protagonist.

Chitose and the others aren't going to be the only ones that need to do some waking up, however. With season two beginning its production, the staff is noticing a [not-so] surprising lack of Kuzu. In fact, it seems that everyone except Towada has essentially given up on him. But, after running into a former colleague who is significantly more well-off than he is now, Kuzu's outlook on work seems to have changed a bit. Maybe. We're going to have to wait until next week to see how he manages to slack off again. Regardless, Kusure has been proven to function without him thus far so even if he doesn't wind up working harder, it won't make much of a difference. 

After several minor changes are made to the dubbing and streaming processes, things slow down a bit. We're taken from the studio to Gojo and Chitose's apartment where Namba Shachou reveals just what Number One Produce plans on doing with Nanami. This decision, however, winds up being a bit surprising. As it turns out, Gojo will no longer be managing Chitose -- he will instead be taking care of Nanami and ensuring that she gets off to the same kind of start that Chitose did. As for Chitose, her new manager is still up-in-the-air. But even though said new manager hasn't been decided yet, Chitose is visibly and semi-expectedly opposed as she realizes exactly how much she wants to work with her brother. After Namba leaves, Chitose starts throwing passive-aggressive remarks at Gojo about how he should stay with her that ultimately culminates in a backhanded insult about how her brother threw away a promising career as an actor. Clearly upset by this, Gojo walks away in silence and Chitose is left on the couch in the most melancholic state we've seen her in yet.

It gets even more upsetting when Gojo walks back into his room and the camera pans over to Chitose's birthday present.

In Summary:
This is one of the more eventful episodes of Girlish Number thus far. With the last several focusing purely on character development, we're getting back into the swing of things and moving the story forward at a faster-than-ever pace. The clock is now ticking for not only Chitose and the other newbies, but Kuzu-san as well. But will the shockingly positive youngster, Nanami, be enough to completely reinvigorate both sides of the production staff? Despite playing such a small role, the addition of Nanami has created a spark in Kusure that is either going to catch fire or fizzle out in seconds. The main issue now is how Chitose and Gojo are going to deal with their being apart.

Grade: A-

Streamed By: Crunchyroll

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