There’s a particular concern with covering a series like this one. Because of its dual nature – excellent story, ghastly animation at key moments – it’s very easy to sound like a broken record. I could talk about the CGI every week because it’s bad every week. But I make the decision to cover Wandance anyway (as I have) what’s the point? So this is the last time (OK, I can’t promise the absolute last) I’m going to talk about it. Don’t take that as an endorsement of the show’s choice, because it’s not. It’s just an acknowledgement of the reality.
As much as dance is a mystery to me, I do kind of get the struggles of Nikami Yura (Miyashiro Momoka). There are commonalities across forms of artistic expression to be sure. And the most relevant one in her case is classical music. Yura is a fellow first-year, and a diligent and (relatively) experienced dancer. Majime, as the Japanese say. She even corrects Wanda on mistakes (as she seems them) in her performance. But when it comes time to choose three first-years for the competition, Wanda obviously makes the cut, and so does her muse Kabo. And the third is Date Aoi (Ogino Kana). Yura is left out in the cold.
Yura is shy, but she does muster the nerve to ask On why she wasn’t chosen. This question of precision is an interesting one. Merely shadowing On’s moves – while technically impressive – adds little to the ensemble’s performance. In a performance of Mozart or Bach, there’s always interpretation by the conductor and musicians. Or more to the point, the higher the level of performance, the more interpretation there is. And if anything this is even more the case with dance. This is improv after all – in that sense closer to jazz than classical (at least that’s how I make sense of it).
Yura is too embarrassed to ask Wanda directly for help, but she does ask Kabo to ask her. Specifically to video themselves practicing – which Wanda improvizes to a three-way practice session. And in this session Yura can see a glaring issue. She’s rushing – keeping time with the beat, never pausing. Kabo and Wanda are following the music (like Sinatra) and varying their pace. This I can grasp, even in dance. On later observes that there’s a lot of trial and error in Kabo’s dancing – that he has the nerve to try things and to vary his style over the course of a performance.
This whole sequence is very genuine and winning. I especially liked the astonishment on Kabo’s face when he saw himself dancing. Astonishment that this was the same kid who humiliated himself during the junior high dance video shoot. “I look like a totally different person!” – how often do adolescents have that very experience? Kabo’s status as the only boy in the club lends his performances a certain focus to begin with, but in fact it may be he who has the most potential among the first years, even more than Wanda.
Of course in fact Kabo is not the only guy – as Wandance will very soon be reminding us. Iori turns up again, this time in a dance contest in a city (we’re not told which one – indeed, while this looks like Hokkaido I don’t think we’ve been told the setting at all). Which he wins. Iori definitely has a literal “too cool for school” vibe to him – he can’t resist dissing the very idea of a school dance club. But it seems that his talent is legit. On certainly seems to think so anyway, which makes his perpetual absence from the club a source of great irritation for her.
On is a shrewd one, though. Her means of trying to suck Iori back in is to play up Kabo’s presence. Another guy for starters. A prospect, maybe a potential threat? “He might get mistaken for you” is a pretty transparent shot across the bow, but it’s effective. And when Iori and Kabo’s paths cross in the halls, the seed of something is clearly being planted. It’s such a Japanese thing – as the kouhai Kabo could safely just keep walking, but as Iori is in his club – even if absentee – he has to greet him. That clues Iori in to who this kid is, and perhaps it’s a Casablanca ending moment – or at least, the start of the “fated rival” thread.
