Shiho needs to be the best and woe betide those who get in her way. After she fell out with her old band, she made a new one to show them how it’s done, but her reasons are a little vague. Aki decides to force the issue, but once Himari gets involved, Yori’s going to have more stake in this than she thought…
With the driving romance of the main story resolved, it’s time for the side characters and Aki certainly loomed large in the series before, so having her tangled up in the twisty angst of Shiho makes perfect sense.
Shiho has a whole basket of axes to grind with her old band mates, however, and while she makes no bones about her reasons for wanting to lay the beat down on what she derisively calls a hobby band, that’s hardly enough reason to be this snippy all the time.
And it’s not. Plus, Himari has gotten to know Shiho independently of all this, which leads to a little coffee talk where Shiho reveals her motivations. And cue the violins, because this is a girl who thought she was unstoppable until she was quite thoroughly shown that she was.
Poor Shiho accidentally made friends at a young age with a fellow prodigy who was better than her and defeat after defeat turns out to be more than she can handle. Thus, she turned away from one instrument and took up the guitar when she got older, and snubbed said friend for making a (perceived) mockery of her.
Yes, this is all incredibly petty on one level, but Shiho’s neither the first nor last person who couldn’t handle it when reality came along to give her a bit of a wallop. Further, she is the agent of her own misery, which was kind of obvious, but while her drive is laudable, her attitude is somewhat less so.
This didn’t seem like the strongest arc last volume, it’s a far cry from the romance bits, but the mangaka is doing all the work to make Shiho interesting and, for me, it worked. She’s as fragile as she is strong and she doesn’t shy away from putting the work in, making her one of the better realized antagonists I’ve seen in a bit.
And Shiho’s still not even being that honest - once Yori and Himari’s relationship is revealed during Himari’s very Himari-like attempt to patch things up without a silly contest during the school, well, Shiho’s bitter proclamation that ‘you’ve stolen everything from me’ isn’t aimed at Aki, I’m pretty certain, but Yori.
Yeah, the most likely reading of all this is that Yori stole Aki, who was Shiho’s “bestie” (I sense that runs a bit deeper), and now Shiho feels like she’s lost whatever she was building with Himari (that’s a bit murkier). So Shiho pivots to believable villainy in her final moments here.
Now, the correct response to the proposed throwdown at the end of the book is, in fact, to say ‘go soak your head’, but I feel like we’ll be seeing this one all the way through, since it’s going to bring Yori back into this in a huge way and if there’s a hero moment to be had for her, this is it.
Obvious weakness is obvious - there is not nearly enough mushy Yori and Himari content here, as we settle in for the battle of these two bands. Himari’s got a pretty major role, of course, but their day to day is definitely missed, even if the story is quite good here.
Yori is the one with the least to do, as Himari ends up being involved in all of this by virtue of her kind and simple nature. Possibly too simple at times - the scene with her and Yori where the shoe finally drops is pretty adorable. But she remains true to herself even now, which is a nice touch.
4 stars - a well-drawn, interesting bit of yuri fun. A nicely realized plot plus the return of the meanest bonus pages (that revelation!) in the industry? Heck yes. Why, this would make an excellent second arc to an anime even, HINT HINT licensing gods.