Flower and Asura – Episode 11

Episode Synopsis:

Mizuki receives an invitation to her brother’s wedding, but tells Hana that she and her family are estranged, and she won’t sacrifice her spot in the competition to satisfy their pride. After she returns home to tell them off, she goes silent and Kichijouji announces that she won’t be returning for at least two weeks – long enough that she’ll miss the competition. Suspecting that she’s being held against her will, the club forms a plan to reach their friend.

Review:

Earlier in the series, Su noted that some of the story beats in Flower and Asura felt rushed, and boy-oh-boy, does this episode feel like it’s in a hurry to get to the drama. While the dramatic turn doesn’t come completely out of thin air, they hit the accelerator on toxic family dynamics and took off for the horizon. Despite it being Mizuki’s “turn” for character exploration, it feels awkward to push it into the the penultimate episode just before the ensemble cast gets to approach the competition they’ve been working towards for the entire show. Dropping her rich, heretofore-unmentioned brother’s wedding on the same day as the tournament feels especially contrived.

It wasn’t surprising to find out that Mizuki is from an incredibly wealthy family. She’s living alone with no obvious source of income, and she’s never mentioned her relatives to anyone, so it wasn’t a stretch to assume that their relationship wasn’t great. To her credit, she recognizes her privilege and knows how lucky she is to still be living off her family’s wealth, but the speed at which all of this information is dumped on not only the audience, but her entire friend group is pretty jarring.

What’s also surprising is her decision to go home and turn down her abusive grandmother in person, rather than telling her to take a hike over the phone or just ghosting her until the day of the wedding/competition. Mizuki’s does have her own sense of pride and responsibility, so I understand the impetus, but I would’ve liked to have seen her arrival so she wasn’t absent for about half of her first focus episode.

Instead, we’re treated to the broadcasting club slowly guessing at what happened to their friend. I enjoyed when Matsuyuki raised the possibility of the family detaining Mitsuki, since our boy knows a thing or two about awful home situations. Luckily, some quick googling reveals that Mitsuki’s brother, Koki, runs a PR division for the family business, and (luckily again) likes to give interviews to students. EVEN LUCKIER THAN THAT, he’s able to give them an interview the next friggin’ day, because THERE IS NO TIME and we must reach the conclusion! Whole lotta good fortune on the team’s side when we’ve got an episode and a quarter left to wrap all of this up and maybe(?) get to the tournament.

While this amateur sleuthing is going on, we do get to catch up with Mitsuki, locked in her room on the family estate. Unwilling to smash a window to make a break for it, she drifts into her memories as a young delinquent, hanging out on the school roof with long pink hair and a lollipop hanging out of her mouth like a cigarette, because this is a family friendly show.

This scene is enlightening, because it’s a nice glimpse into Mitsuki before she evened herself out and began making friends (by force, if necessary). Another girl who was very obviously flirting teased her into checking out the broadcast club, and the rest is history. It also seems like that flirty attitude rubbed off a little, because we see moments throughout the show where Mitsuki interacts with Hana in a similar, if less direct way. Once more, we’re teased with the merest crumbs of a romantic relationship, only for it to be swept aside. Perhaps they’ll return to it later, but based on how the show has handled these so far, I wouldn’t bet on it.

Summary:

I appreciate that Mitsuki’s finally getting the spotlight, seeing how central she is to the story, but it feels like its all being rushed together at the end. The sudden raising of the stakes above and beyond the tournament has really thrown me for a loop, as has the incredible hurry the plot seems to be in to get past this beat. I have to wonder if there’s an issue with scheduling or chapter cutoffs or something else that’s led to this awkward situation, because I don’t really see how they can wrap things up in a satisfactory manner if there’s only one episode to go.

I’ve been really hard on this episode, but I really do hope that we get a solid focus on Mitsuki in the finale. Her charm and energy was a big part of what drew me to the show in the first place, so I hope they do right by her. We’ll see soon!

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