The long-awaited debut of Goro’s Idol, Iyo, appears to be slightly posthumous.
This episode begins a year before the present, with a Blue NPC fan going to see said idol in the green room, bumping into a Red NPC on the way. He walks in, however, to find her dead, covered in blood, with a suicide note scrawled on the mirror. Well, that’s bizarre and horrifying, so cut to the present day!
There, Goro is ready to see a new live show from Iyo, which is set to be a huge deal, especially for a kind of intense fan like Goro. However, he finds that he has two tickets, and not wanting to just scalp one is induced to call a friend. He tries Honoka first, but her contribution to the episode is that she hasn’t been feeling well since that whole Little Angel mess, and Goro inserting his foot in his mouth doesn’t make her feel any better. Chika’s machine picks up with an obnoxious voice mail message as well, and Akitsu is still kind of dead, which means we’re bringing Kouki to the concert.
Kouki, overall, seems to be taking things pretty well given the horrendous death of a friend. He’s also a candidate now, having picked up the Little Angel’s fallen phone and evidently being endowed with his powers, since he can now see Lall. Lall drops the basics on the fact this is a death game, which Kouki pretty much brushes off. Sure, he’s gonna fight, but he doesn’t intend to kill. So, yeah, he’s absolutely our Fourth here.
After that, we get our plot via restroom emergency. Since evidently the event organizers didn’t rent enough porta-poties to avoid massive lines, Goro sneaks in to the venue ahead of time in order to hit the men’s room. Before he can slip back out, though, he hears people coming and hides in a stall. There, Goro overhears a conversation between Iyo and her manager about the convert being canceled due to some dangerous circumstance. After the manager leaves, the jig is up, and Iyo finds Goro. Lall identifies her as a candidate and she charges Goro with being behind a bomb thread. As Goro tries to deny it, a bomb goes off and he resolves to try to help get Iyo out of danger.
Along the way, they run into the Red NPC (who also bumped into Kouki just after the blast) who reveals his nature as a crazed stalker before Iyo goes off on him, insisting he killed her. In a kind of trippy sequence, we come to understand that Iyo is actually the Blue NPC and Candidate, who used the power of perfect mimicry to become the idol after her death via suicide over being stalked, absorbing literally everything about her and pasting it over. The process seems pretty solid, as the mask slips for only a moment before the Iyo persona resumes dominance, though still bent on destroying the tormentor who drove her to suicide the first time around.
Goro protects the guy, even ultimately taking a hit to express how he feels about Iyo and what she’s meant to be, including accepting the mimic as the real thing since, after all, he’s only been a fan for about a year. This gets through to Iyo, and it seems the erasure of her power zone also removes Goro’s wound. For good measure, Kouki shows up and punches out the Red NPC while Goro and Iyo are having their little heart-to-heart.
Later, Goro is watching Iyo’s concert the only way he can (on the small screen, at home, for reason of venue bombing.) she calls him out with thanks, which moves him to tears… a fact that turns into crying blood, evidently from massive damage done via power backlash, whether from this incident or accumulated. So that’s still a thing, I guess, and we end the episode with Goro in seemingly critical condition, Lall unable to help due to the nature of the damage.
All in all, this was something of an upward turn from the last episode. It actually felt like we got some new ideas here, and encountered a more Yoko Taro ish character. Along with that, the return of the price aspect, if rendered more visceral than the previous twists of fate, promises an arc that would be unique to KamiErabi if it’s actually followed up on.
I went long last time, so this time I’ll just let it ride and save meatier comments for later, as KamiErabi continues onward.