Love Live! Nijigasaki Episode 6: The Mask

My most anticipated character episode of the show is here at last!

We began with Rina’s backstory. In short she’s communication anxiety. First because she’s shy.

Second because she had great difficulty smiling. She really, really wanted to smile but couldn’t. Her poker face is of course glorious but a smile (in the anime, not official art. We all know they exist) would be amazing.

Her life slowly became better when Miss Ai befriended her. It was like “Oh my. Somebody wanted to be my friend in spite of my face.”.

Back in the present we joined four of our heroines on a double date at the arcade when they were approached by three of Rina’s classmates she tried befriending in the flashback but couldn’t. They recognized them thanks to the PVs from last episode.

They liked Rina’s too which featured a cute avatar. They wondered if they came to the arcade to check out a potential spot for a performance. Rina saw this as her chance to change herself and surprised everyone saying she’d perform. Naturally the gang were happy to help.

This screenshot makes sense when you see where it’s from. It’s meant to show how seriously Rina took training. She could get singing and dancing right but her biggest weakness was standing on stage, specifically presenting.

Later Rina invited her girlfriend and the main gays to her fancy apartment building to show them what she’d planned for her show. They praised her tech savvy. She explained that because she’d a hard time talking to people she had to play by herself, which is how she got great with technology, but after meeting Miss Ai and joining the SIC she had a lot more fun with other people, something she never thought would happen. Thanks to them she wanted to get better at socializing.

After a lot of training Rina was about ready for the show. Suddenly she noticed her classmates and pumped herself to try befriending them one more time. However, on her way she saw her face in the glass and her fear came bubbling back to the surface. She ran away. Rina didn’t show up for training since. Before we get to the big scene some fun moments.

Karin was all like “Rina doesn’t want to come. It’s her decision so let’s leave her be” but her girlfriend saw right through her.

Miss Ai couldn’t take not seeing Rina after she worked so hard for the big day and was like “I have to go. My girl needs me!” and Yu was like “I can use my harem powers to help!”. Everyone tagged along.

The big scene was hard to watch. As a big Rina fan watching her suffer hurt me. Even as I typed this I shed a tear.

Of course the gang were all there for her. A cute moment as they praised Rina for all her talents had Miss Ai going “Aw come on you guys! Stop praising her! I wanna be her heroine!”

As she thanked everyone for their support they commented on it being the first time she opened up to them all like this. As she got up with the cardboard box she borrowed from Snake still on she had a revelation.

This doods and peeps, was The Mask’s origin story.

Look at her. LOOK AT HER!

I freakin’ love Nijigasaki! I freakin’ love Rina! I freakin’ love The Mask and her performance!

Next time my dear sister’s #1 Hype Girl gets the spotlight. Should be another great one.