Before it all
First and foremost there's something I'd like for you to understand. Heroine Tarumono was an absolutely fine, run of the mill good vibes idol show; I'd even concede it was decent, dare I say. However, the events that transpire on episode 11 of this disgrace of a show are so absolutely abhorrent and outrageous that I wouldn't even be able to call it storytelling; they completely erased any and all goodwill and positive impressions I had of the show up to that point, and thus, are the entire reason for me to be writing this review in the first place.
Basic plot
Let's start from the beginning. Hiyori, the protagonist, is going from the countryside to the city to pursue her love for track and field, ending up becoming friends with two girls, Chizuru and Juri; but her, also wanting to be considerate of her family's financial situation, picks up a well paying job that just so happens to be as "Manager-in-training" of two of her classmates which happen to be idols, Aizo and Yujiro. Since the both of them are incredibly stuck up it takes a while but they eventually warm up to her (Even if not explicitly stating their newfound fondness of her); but at this point the main cause for concern is the fact that nobody can find out she's their manager contrasting with how they're on the same class on high school (Which clearly makes that a tad bit complicated). And this is pretty much how the show goes until episode 9.
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The beginning of the end
Episode 9 introduces a new conflict, a situation, a malevolent intention, a third party, a snitch, a fucking woopsie daisy if you will. Arriving at school, on the bulletin board Hiyori sees a bunch of pictures of her, Aizo and Yujiro hanging out together after school hours, which creates a big commotion; high schoolers that have parasocial relationships with idols, being the societal fuck-ups that they are, start harassing the trio and making their life a living hell both on school and on social media. This culminates in Hiyori having to make a drastic decision; abandoning her job as Manager-in-training as to help preserve her friends' careers and help quell any rumors about them that were making the rounds; all this while their agency, trying to do the same on their side, tries to make them stop going to high school altogether.
Now we come to episode 11, oh sweet episode eleven how did anyone think of approving this.
We start the episode with a reveal that those with a keen eye might have seen coming; Chizuru, one of Hiyori's friends has the brainrots for Aizo, half of the duo. From there, they hammer it in even more just how absolutely deranged she is mentally, taking pictures of them while they play basketball during school hours all while trying to conceal herself; but them, seeing her, think they might have got a clue on their stalker. From now on the episode goes all out on showing her continue being deranged; she leaves mid conversation with Hiyori and Juri after they start talking about the boys and is then shown having a breakdown behind the school and erasing Hiyori from the pictures she took of the trio. This is when the episode really starts getting completely ridiculous.
After some help from Yujiro reveals to Hiyori and Juri that Chizuru was their stalker, and causes her to reveal how much she hates Hiyori for being with her idols, Hiyori needs to clear her mind; she goes jogging and ends up finding a totally irrelevant character that, knowing little of what's going on, compares her situation with "hating" her sister to Hiyori's situation of being stalked, harassed and made to quit her job and basically says "talk it out bitch".
Now lets get to the good stuff; Hiyori spends the entire day trying to catch up to Chizuru and talk to her, but Chizuru, HAVING STATED SHE FUCKING HATED HIYORI obviously doesn't want to talk. All of this culminates with a confrontation on the schools entrance where Hiyori is knocked out cold by Chizuru.
Now, before me telling you how this absolute fucking shitshow ended let's do a quick recap of what happened since episode 9.
Chizuru has:
- Stalked three people
- Exposed three people
- Induced the harassment of those she exposed both IRL and online (IRL especially for Hiyori since it seems most idol fans are deranged here)
- Jeopardized two idols' careers
- Made the idols have to hold an entire press conference just to address this issue
- Made Hiyori quit the job she only took to help her family just so things wouldn't get even worse for the duo
- Punched Hiyori out cold
And now, after all of the really damning and serious stuff Chizuru's caused other people simply because of the parasocial relationship she has with one of these idols, Hiyori wakes up on the nurse's office with the duo and Chizuru, at which point the episode ends by...
Hiyori saying it's her fault she didn't realize Chizuru's "feelings" which for whatever reason need to be acknowledged as real even if they're completely one-sided and border insanity.
This is the example of how to not to write a redemption story. Chizuru may just have permanently fucked up all three of their lives or at least their public image, which for an idol is everything, but at the end of this godforsaken episode she's going to be forgiven by Hiyori AFTER EVERYTHING SHE'S DONE because "oh oh her feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelings"
In every piece of media the viewer needs to have a level of suspension of disbelief; but to tell the viewer
"Hey, she's done all this shit because of her one-sided feelings which may result in people's livelihood being jeopardized, but even though she's done absolutely nothing to redeem herself, believe she'll just stop hating Hiyori because she... punched her I guess."
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But what about episode 12?
Episode 12 didn't matter much to me after how much of a stinking shit ep 11 was, but the breakdown goes as follows:
Chizuru gets in a self pity spiral while Hiyori forgives her too easily and everyone forgets about everything that happened (including their harassers) as they would in this utopia they live where people's memories last for less than a week. Chizuru, in her self pity keeps saying she's "not a fan anymore" to try and garner any sympathy after what she's done only to restart her erratic behavior regarding this single parasocial relationship.
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Conclusion
In the end this is all about perspective, after all Chizuru is just a victim of circumstance; and Hiyori is a victim of... well... Chizuru, and Aizo is a victim of... her too, and Yujiro... well you get the gist of it.
Only watch this show up to episode 9 or 10 if you want to keep a good impression; this episode absolutely destroyed my opinion and rating of the show; I have no idea how they thought it would be a good message. I understand what they were going for, but if they wanted the viewer to feel any sympathy at all towards Chizuru they should've made her less wicked, because when you stop to think about it for more than 2 seconds, the stuff she did is really dangerous and fucked up; ESPECIALLY considering she was fucking friends with Hiyori.
But if there's a one thing I can say I absolutely loved with no caveats or buts during the entire show on every scene she was in it's Juri. Best character with little contest.
