When Wakaba takes her to the mall for some shopping, Himawari gets propositions from numerous guys and a popular modeling magazine snaps pictures of her. The next day, Wakaba volunteers Himawari for a more formal photo shoot, but it’s on the same day she wanted to go on a factory tour. Himawari decides to do the shoot if Wakaba is her servant for the day. While she’s asleep, the magazine people change her hairpins, and she panics when she can’t find them, but Wakaba has them. A meteor-like Alone appears in the atmosphere, and Wakaba and Himawari help clear a path for Vividblue to defeat it. Rei arrives too late to shoot her arrow.
Like Futaba confessing to hating tomatoes, Himawari’s freak-out over her hairpins seems like another one of those conflicts that just isn’t deserving of the overblown drama it receives. This is a Wakaba/Himawari-centered episode, which frames their relationship thusly: Wakaba parades her around like a doll and unilaterally decides to kickstart her modeling career; while Himawari makes Wakaba her slave and will make her go on many long, tedious tours of tech facilities. In short, both make little sacrifices for each other, which is that’s what friendship’s all about. That, and magic, natch.
But yeah, there’s not much here. The episode even admits this by inserting a totally boilerplate alone battle to fill the time in the end, complete with full-length transformations and poses we’ve already been subjected to too many times. Kuroki Rei simply reiterates her determination to get everything back, and now has four remaining feathers for the three remaining episodes, but she was utterly useless this week, and the Alone posed no danger whatsoever. We really expected Wakaba and Himawari to merge the way Akane and Aoi do, which would have at least been something, but it didn’t happen.
Rating: 5 (Average)
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