Kageki Shojo Episode 6 is now airing! This week, the Kouka girls get their shot at acting for the first time! Sure, it’s just a small class exercise. However, it’s the most exciting thing that the girls have done since arriving at Kouka! Let’s look at this episode’s key talking points in a spoiler-filled discussion!
Romeo and Juliet
Upon asking for acting opportunities in class, the girls of Kouka find themselves with a rare chance. They are presented with the opportunity to act out a scene from “Romeo and Juliet”! The members of the class are sorted into groups of four by random.
As luck would have it, Sarasa and Ai find themselves in the same group! Together with Chika and Kaoru, they comprise Group E. Kaoru ends up taking the role of Romeo, while Sarasa is assigned to Tybalt. Chika ends up winning her Rock, Paper, Scissors game with Ai. However, she ends up choosing the role of Juliet’s Nurse. She tries to play this off in a cool manner, but there are hints of an inferiority complex somewhere there. Perhaps it’s in the way she sees Ai?
The process of practicing for their scene is not a smooth one, though. Sarasa appears to be completely hopeless in the role of Tybalt. Ai appears to have trouble reading her lines too. Later on, it is revealed that it is because she had never learned how to read kanji. This infuriates Kaoru at first and leads to her storming off. However, later on, the group resolve to overcome these difficulties to come up with a great performance.
The interactions between these characters are ultimately the most interesting part of Group E’s formation. Viewers have been treated to tidbits of Kaoru, but this is the first time the spotlight has really been on her. Chika too gets a bit of development here. It’s these character moments that make the girls of Kouka feel real and relatable!
Happy Birthday, Sarasa!
This episode also features Sarasa Watanabe’s birthday! The Kouka girls find out when she receives a package containing sixteen roses. This, of course, signifies her sixteenth birthday. She presumes that the roses are from her boyfriend, Akiya.
After learning of Sarasa’s birthday, Ai sets it upon herself to get her first-ever friend a gift. This gift ends up being a Tsukahara Vault Taku figurine that she wins at a lottery. She doesn’t win this by chance, rather doing so after half a dozen tries. Sarasa is thrilled, not only by the gift but by the fact that Ai addressed her by her first name on the greeting card.
This marks a really wholesome moment between these two characters. The tsundere act Ai was putting up at the beginning of the show seems to be long gone. Sarasa and Ai really do seem to now be on the path of a beautiful friendship. It warms the heart seeing these two interact in such a kind and healthy manner. It really adds to the amount of heart that this show has!
Another thing of note here is Sarasa’s love life. We don’t get to see too much of it throughout the show. However, hints of what’s going on have been sprinkled here and there. It appears that she does have a boyfriend in her hometown, but something feels like it isn’t that straightforward. Again, it’s another one of those moments that you’ll just have to figure out as more episodes get released. Keep an eye out for that though!
Stage presence
Kageki Shojo Episode 6 ends with Group E getting to perform their Romeo and Juliet scene! The performance goes about alright. There were some mistakes and awkward moments here and there but the end result seemed to be alright!
Their teacher, Andou, gives them all certain pointers about their performance. He tells Ai that she must perform for not only one person, but for an entire theater. To Chika, he says that she didn’t quite inhabit the role of an old lady like she should have. He warms Kaoru about her mind straying during a performance. However, it’s to Sarasa that he gives perhaps the harshest of words.
Andou-sensei, in the dryest of tones, ominously tells Sarasa that if she does not change, she will never get to be a top star at Kouka. It’s on this scary note that the episode ends.
What does Andou-sensei mean? Based on what’s been shown in this episode, he appears to be commenting on Sarasa’s uncanny ability to imitate other performances to a tee. Viewers have seen Sarasa do this before. In a previous episode, she flawlessly repeats Romeo’s lines from the play she watches. Earlier in Episode 6, she is able to do perfect imitations of the Kouka teachers. And in the scene she performs with Group E, her Tybalt performance heavily captures that of the Romeo and Juliet movie she watched previously.
It feels like Andou is going to tell her that imitation will not lead her to becoming a top star. He may end up telling her that she must carve out her own style in order to reach the top. However, that is just speculation! We’ll surely find out in the next episode what he means!
The road to the top
The road to the top of Kouka is looking a bit rough for these girls! It certainly appears that all of them have much to learn. But that’s what they’re in school for, right? They’ll surely learn soon enough the tools of the trade.
This Kageki Shojo episode returns to the academic struggles that the girls face at Kouka. It does a decent job at hinting at the demands that will be placed on the girls as performers. We get ever closer to finding out what it truly means to succeed at this prestigious school. Furthermore, this episode fleshed out the show’s supporting characters quite nicely. It makes the group Sarasa and Ai find themselves surrounded by feel all the more human. This may be very important as the show goes forward, with the girls having to work with each other far more often.
Kageki Shojo Episode 6 is available to watch on Funimation! Episode 7 will premiere on August 15, 2021.
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