No current anime leaves me as conflicted as Wandance. Not even close. The writing is tremendously authentic, and the characters some of the most relatable and interesting around. And then it runs headlong into… the other thing. I just feel as if every time I want to embrace it with abandon, we hit that brick wall and all I get out of it is a headache. If I’m honest this episode was better than some in that sense – to a degree. But given the context that only gets you so far.

Given that this was the first competition episode, the wooly mammoth in the room couldn’t be ignored. The piper was going to be paid, plain and simple, As good as the buildup might be – as invested in the outcome as it makes you – that moment still has to sell itself. There’s no net. And again, the buildup was excellent. Wanda’s confides in Kabo that she wants to be “one of a kind” – or maybe just the best in the world. Like Michael. Those two aren’t the same, exactly, but we can forgive a 16 year-old girl a little imprecision when the impulse is a pure-hearted as this was.

The event in question is the “High School Dance Convention” – which I’m assuming is an actual thing, more or less. Lost of schools are involved – more than 25 anyway, as that’s Ichirin’s number. Some big-name judges are on-hand too, including a well-known hip hop dancer named Assay (Kobayashi Chikahiro). Wanda immediately catches his eye, but his encounter with Kabo is memorable for another reason as the latter is unable to get his respectful greeting out. Wanda always tries to rescue him with an explanation in these situations – she does later when Iori-kun shows up – but she’s not in earshot.

Kabo’s comrades are worried that he might have pissed off the judge, but as it turns out that might not have been a bad thing to happen, as Assay certainly remembered him (and his performance would seal the deal). The other teams are an interesting mix of styles, but Iori – who definitely knows his shit – reassures the fans that only two schools have any shot. He also notes that stuff like making sure the sound is perfect and accounting for the lag in reaching the back of the large auditorium are overlooked by most schools. What he doesn’t say is that he was the one who set up the sound for Ichirin’s performance – surely a clue that he’s much more invested in On-sempai and the club than he lets on.

My suspicion is that Iori has recused himself because he doesn’t work well in the team concept – that his presence would hurt the club’s chances, not help them (the fact that he won the individual award the year prior certainly doesn’t refute that). It’s time for Ichirin to go on, and for viewers to literally face the music. There’s no hiding what happens next – that performance has to command the screen, and for a good several minutes too. Here’s where the anvil this series is carrying around really weighs it down the heaviest, and what a shame that is.

Still, it’s not entirely a tragic moment. My general ignorance of dance and the visuals are kind of a double-whammy for me. But I think even I can see that Ichirin is doing something different here. Their song is a cut above, first of all, and they seem to be immersing themselves in it like none of the other schools we witnessed. There’s no sense of trying to outshine the music – in fact their performance is pretty understated compared to what we saw before. But they somehow seem to fit better. On is clearly the headliner, but to my untrained eye it seems like she gives the spotlight to Kabo and Wanda, mostly. And I fully agree with the friend group in the crowd – those two look great together.

Iori says that “intensity” is Kabo’s strength as a dancer. I don’t pretend to understand the medium well enough to really grasp what that means in practical terms. But this climactic moment does manage to evoke something in me, despite fighting with one hand tied behind its back (fortunately the same cannot be said of Wanda). And that’s testament to both the choreography and to the grunt work that was done in the first five episodes to make it really mean something.