A Star Brighter Than the Sun

Episode 8

They almost did it – this episode of A Star Brighter Than the Sun almost managed an episode without mentioning a school event! Alas, it was not to be, and at the almost literal last second, the school festival was brought up, meaning that this school officially has the most events in anime school history. How is the “school festival” different from all the others they've had so far? Don't worry, I'm sure they'll let us know.

I can excuse it, though, because the Spy”D”Man parody around the sixteen-minute mark is so amazingly funny. I don't think an episode has surprised a laugh out of me like that yet this season, but the whole mother exchange, equal parts Marvel and Star Wars, just set me off. I had to pause to get myself under control. If nothing else, it shows that the writing for this series really does know what it's doing, even if the visuals can't always keep up. Seriously, how many times have we seen a variation of the image of Koki and Sae's faces against a bubbly, sparkly pastel background?

All of these bits and pieces aside, this week it feels like things are on the brink of truly moving ahead. Both Sae and Koki are gearing up to actually say something, and if either of them had the confidence to see it, they'd notice that they're both actually saying a lot without necessarily using the words. Take Koki's reactions in two scenes this week: when he sees Ayukawa and Sae playing a cozy game of shogi and when two guys ask her for directions during their totally-not-a-date. In both cases, he hustles to inject himself into the scene – with Ayukawa he's jokey and overly friendly, but with the two young men, he's aggressive and possessive. That means he's self-aware enough to recognize what he's doing and adapt it to fit the situation; he's nice to Ayukawa while making it clear that he's not keen on the two of them spending time alone together because they're in the same class and that's the best plan. He also may worry that if he's too aggressive, he'll scare Sae off, especially if Ayukawa really is a rival for her affections. But the two others are strangers who are, he thinks, committing the cardinal sin of hitting on a girl on a date with another boy, plus he doesn't have to worry about ever seeing them again. And maybe if he protects Sae, she'll see him as reliable…?

Sae's rather less overt in her actions, which mostly involve her saying she'd like to do this again, but for her, that's a serious declaration, especially since she still thinks Koki likes Subaru. (As a note, I've been informed that the English dub doesn't use “cousin” to describe their relationship; it instead says their parents are close.) Her self-esteem is so low that she can't imagine he'd pick her over Subaru, not recognizing that some of what she finds admirable about the older girl, like her helping others at the crowded school store, are traits that she herself shares. It comes down to the physical for her, as the ringing of the elevator weight alarm (is that a real thing?) shows – it never occurs to her that if Koki stepped off, she could get on without triggering it. She just assumes it's entirely her fault.

While this can be frustrating in its pacing, I think it's still doing a good job bringing a classically shoujo romance to life. It may be a bit of a pastiche of shoujo romance's greatest hits, but some tropes are classic for a reason. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes – and to see how many more school events they'll manage to pull out of the woodwork before it ends.

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A Star Brighter Than the Sun is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.