Catch the other episode reviews here

Last episode, we finally got back to some more VA stuff and learned a lot more about the surprisingly complex Shiho.

First Impressions

We start by seeing that our Vogel girls got all the money they needed to officially move on with the project. Once they put their voices on there, the weebs came a rolling in and pledged all the money. Cool. Also, hat girl of their group, Yuzuha, is in Singapore. Felt like that was important to mention. But she’s back like the next scene.

They also got a song made that they’re going sing at some point. In fact, they’ve started the recording and have a live show soon. Their group is called Chun x 4? 4 x Chun? Well, as the comment on Crunchyroll said, I’m dubbing Vogel 4chan. Airi and Yuzuha gets creeped out by some big guy in a black suit attempting to hide behind a small tree he couldn’t fit behind.

It seems like he’s after Yuzuha. Probably has something to do with her family, but they should really hire better people. That guy was trying Looney Tunes tactics. This continues for a while, and eventually, Yuzuha confronts him in the night with some poor anime English, unfortunately. The next day she suddenly disappears. This is the mystery episode, I see.

Each of the girls have their own idea of what could have happened, some ideas taken from an anime and some about a forbidden love taken from a very different kind of anime, apparently, but they settle on a debt collector, which is boring but logical. Far less boring and logical is that Yuzuha gets dropped in on the gang by helicopter, and we learn the truth.

She’s rich and has pretty good social standing, so a prince wanted to marry her just like the other five women he already had. She turned him down, but her father was insistent on it, which is why she kept disappearing. And mystery guy is her bodyguard.

We then learn more of her backstory, particularly why she ran away to Japan. It wasn’t only to get away from the marriage stuff but also because she wanted to accomplish something on her own. Not something money could buy her or somebody else could do. She wanted to become a voice actress to prove she could. Again, kind of deep.

And so the live show begins, and 4chan/Vogel sings for a hallway of otakus till their heart’s content. What an episode. That was a wild one.

My Thoughts

See, I’m kind of tired when writing this. Not super tired, but I’m a bit loopy. That made this entire episode with helicopters and mystery men really weird. It felt like some kind of fever dream, and I almost lost it when I saw Yuzuha being lifted down from the heavens. Wild episode, I have no idea what happened.

With that being said, it was fun. I do like random subplots showing up, and I like the direction the story’s going. Now that we’ve established the characters, it looks like we’re starting to flesh them out. There’s a strange amount of care put into these people, and I see why we need more than 12 episodes. Makes sense.

4chan is arguably less interesting than the other VAs, but I do enjoy seeing where this musical journey takes them all, and it’s nice to see exactly why Yuzuha wants to go through with it. I relate to her. Not the rich thing, but the whole wanting to accomplish something just for yourself to prove you can. That’s my entire existence, pretty much.

I will say I don’t really understand what 4chan’s actual goal is. I’ve been mixed on Project Vogel from the beginning, but I’m starting to question it more. So, they’re virtual idols, right? Then why is the live performance the actual people and not like Miku holograms or at least them cosplaying? That kills the immersion, right? Why not just be regular idols?

I was joking last episode, but genuinely, a lot of these people don’t want to see real girls. They’re cute, sure, but they want these anime waifus, not humans, so why not go for one or the other? I don’t know. Maybe Japanese people are smarter and can distinguish the character from the person? Maybe. Well, I know they’re smarter, at least.

If we’re following the pattern, next time will focus on the radio show, which I actually really enjoyed, so I look forward to that. That and we’ll probably go deeper into another of the characters’ backstories.

Thank you very much for reading

More helicopters, please.