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Looking back, I’ve pleasantly surprised at just how many hints they dropped about this season. They were even dropping hints about this season’s events in the Youtube miniseries that ran during the second half of the first season; gotta hand it to Bandai, they had the story pretty well thought out! Particularly, there’s a scene where Gaku and Tenn are annoyed at how Ryu keeps managing to get lured into awkward situations by random women who are throwing themselves at him and winds up needing them to rescue him. Tenn says that he should just force Ryu into cosplaying as little red riding hood because of how naive and gullible he is, and heavily implies that he thinks that his teammate is going to get bitten in the butt one day by how clueless he is. Tsukumo definitely knew what he was doing when he decided to go after Ryu first; Gaku and Tenn’s have stronger BS meters and they probably would have picked up on being set up pretty fast if he tried to go after one of them. I also like how Ryu’s issues with his contrasting stage persona and true personality play a role in the plot this season. It’s been pretty clear since the start of the series that he is actually pretty sweet, innocent and essentially the exact opposite of his stage personality. It seemed like a good set-up for things to go very wrong, since even the I7 guys mistook some of his behavior in season 2 as him being a creep before they got to know him better. Since everyone in the public thinks that he’s a sexy playboy, the whole scandal thing is even more tricky, as the public and media are going to be a whole lot less willing/able to believe his side of the story. The story they’ve been fed about him dating the singer and fooling around with her just to get her transfer agencies and then dumping her all sound pretty legit if you believe that he is a womanizer and know that his boss is one of the biggest buttholes in the entertainment world who isn’t above using dirty tactics to make sure he stays on top. Speaking of which...it’s pretty satisfying to see all the warnings to Yatome Sr. pay off. After 2.5 seasons of people telling him “Hey, you should quit being an underhanded jerk because it will come back to bite you”, his ego has finally gotten punched by the realization that he isn’t as powerful as he thought he was. If you ask me, he was asking for it because he literally ignored every single red flag that was pointed out to him. He had information dropped into his lap that his company was about to be attacked by a manufactured major scandal and he just brushed it off because he thought he had enough pull to protect himself and his talent. He was the one who was so insistent about Ryu keeping up his sexy stage image that he introduced him to the guy who would frame him for the scandal that nearly buries them all; Yatome Sr. quite literally handed Tsukimo an opening into taking down both TRIGGER and his production company. He also completely overlooked the fact that Ryu was getting less work and that the media was acting like he was about to become unmarketable, which was a big hint not only to the coming frame-up, but to Yatome Sr’s connections not being strong as he thought they were since everyone turns on Yatome productions as soon as the scandal breaks. I hate the fact that TRIGGER and their manager are suffering because of his pride and stupidity, but it’s still VERY satisfying to see him finally get whacked down a few pegs. On another note, I agree that Ryu Tsukumo is definitely using the ZOOL guys, but I also think that they are mutually using him, which is even more disturbing, if you ask me. Think about it; everyone notices that something is very off about the man, and he doesn’t even try to hide his psychopathy around his group. He’s also the one leading/coordinating the takedown of I7, TRIGGER, and Re-Vale. The things he’s already done in season 3, part 1 to TRIGGER and how he used Momo is clearly not normal for any sane person, but, from the few “spoilers” I’ve heard from my online friends who’ve actually played the game, things just get worse in the second half. The attacks on TRIGGER apparently escalate to the point of actual attempted physical harm and, once Tsukumo switches his attention to Re-Vale, someone (not sure who) is dang near murdered. Regardless of the extent of their involvement in the crimes, the ZOOL guys have to know about everything. They want revenge for their personal grudges and hate of the overall idol industry so badly that they are ambivalent about the fact that their manager/benefactor is straight-up trying to murder people and hurting innocent people who did nothing to them, just because it means that they can eventually get back at the people they hate. That is both very twisted and almost worse than Tsukumo’s open insanity. During the scene where they are figuring out who to go after first, they literally say that they’ll eventually attack Re-Vale just because they need to get the top-ranking idol group out of their way. Also, while (mini spoiler) all four have sad pasts that legitimately messed them up, that doesn’t excuse their actions or make how far they are willing to go any less appalling, particularly given how disproportionate everything is to their actual grudges. For instance, one guy wants to ruin Ryu’s life out of nothing more than sheer petty jealousy, despite the fact that he only met Ryu in person all of once after he already decided to ruin his career and allied with Tsukumo, and Touma is just pissed for his old band being shoved aside and blames everyone in the music industry for his group turning on each other and eventually disbanding. Seriously, the fact that four angry, hateful guys and one total psychopath managed to find each other and are willing to all use each other, without regard for any innocent people who will suffer because of their plans, is even worse than Tsukimo just being a smart and manipulative nutjob in this for the funsies. I’m really nervous to see what will happen to the I7 boys in the second part. The only hint that I got from my friends was that Tsukimo turns his wrath on them once he thinks that he has successfully pounded TRIGGER and Re-Vale into the ground, but that one of the ZOOL guys develops a soft spot for one of the youngest I7 members and discreetly warns them about what’s coming because he can‘t stomach the idea of him suffering from the things that they’ve thrown at the other idol groups; basically the same sh** is going to happen to them, but they are at prepared to ride it out...not sure how well that is going to end for them. Although, since the game that this is based on released a 4th chapter and is still releasing special events and chapters, I’m at least hopeful that things will end up reasonably okay for everyone. That’s enough for my dissection/rant; thank you for your insightful review![/spoiler]
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