Tag: Love Live!

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Review

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Review

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror anime series cover art
Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror

Love Live! Goes Fantasy

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror (Genjitsu no Yohane: Sunshine in the Mirror / 幻日のヨハネ -SUNSHINE in the MIRROR-) is a Love Live! Sunshine!! spin-off series. And since Sunshine!! is probably my favorite Love Live! entry, I had to watch it. But, that’s not the only thing this series has going for it.

As you can likely guess from the series’ title, Yoshiko “Yohane” Tsushima is the protagonist. Yohane isn’t my favorite of the girls from Sunshine!!, but she’s a good one. And she’s better than Chika, that’s for sure. Oh, and this spin-off is a fantasy series, so there’s that.

Now, a good question to have at this point is, how does the fantasy aspect change things? Is it still Love Live!? Or, does it simply use the same characters? Does it still have what made Love Live!, well, Love Live!?

Ruby Kurosawa hiding between books from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror
Ruby Kurosawa hiding between books

If you’re a fan of the core series, you’ll be glad to know that the songs and dances are still here. It makes a little less sense when characters break out into song. But, the series tries to make the songs plot-relevant as much as it can. And, they’re still good songs from Aqours.

Where the fantasy aspect comes in is with the characters and story. For example, in the image above, you can see that Ruby is a fairy now. And, instead of saving their school from shutting down, Yohane and the girls need to save the town of Numazu.

What are they saving Numazu from? The calamity, of course. Are you curious to know more about the calamity? Well, that sucks, because we never really get much more information about it. It’s bad, it causes animals to go mad, and it’s purple. Also, of course, the power of song and friendship can stop it.

Aqours, Reimagined

Okay so, you already saw how Ruby is a fairy in this series. But, what about the rest of the girls? Is Dia a fairy, too? No. Dia is the town’s chief of staff by day and a motorcycle-riding, katana-wielding hero by night. Makes sense, I know.

What about Chika Takami? She and her sisters run an inn, which checks out. But, they also moonlight as superheroes. And when they do, Chika takes on the name Katy. Then, there’s You Watanabe. She’s a mail courier in this world. But, that involves being shot out of a cannon and flying.

Hanamaru Kunikida is one of the few normal girls of the group. She’s a baker. But, she also has a giant, and I mean massive, pig named Shishinoshin as a pet. Riko Sakurauchi is also normal, being a zoologist from out of town.

Yohane Tsushima and Mari Ohara from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror
Yohane Tsushima and Mari Ohara

In Sunshine!!, Kanan Matsuura was my favorite of the girls. What’s she up to in Yohane the Parhelion? Well, this time around, Kanan still has a connection to the ocean. But, it comes in the form of collecting ocean drift waste and engineering it into things.

My favorite of the girls in this series, though, is Mari Ohara. I didn’t care too much about Mari in Sunshine!!. But, she’s great in Yohane the Parhelion. This iteration of Mari is Demon Lord Mari. She has demon horns and lives with a bunch of ghosts on an otherwise uninhabited island.

Finally, there’s Yohane Tsushima. Unlike in the main series, I don’t believe she ever goes by Yoshiko here. Everyone calls her Yohane and she never has to correct any of them. What’s special about her is that she has some kind of magic. That, and her best friend is a talking wolf named Lailaps.

Not As Good As I Hoped

At the start of this review, I was really hyping up Yohane the Parhelion. But, the reality is that it’s not as good as I hoped it would be. I went into the series with high expectations based on everything I previously said about it. It didn’t meet those expectations.

At the end of the day, this is a fine series. If you’re a Love Live! fan, especially a Sunshine!! fan, you’ll enjoy it. But, don’t go in expecting it to be the best entry in the franchise. It’s a spin-off. And if you keep that in mind, you should have a good time.

But, what would have made Yohane the Parhelion a better series? The answer to this question is going to be different for everyone. However, I can point to a few changes that would have improved it, for me.

Lailaps and Yohane Tsushima from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror
Lailaps and Yohane Tsushima

The first change I would have liked is for the series to be more adventure-based. For a fantasy series, there wasn’t very much fantastical stuff going on. Ruby was a fairy, Mari was a demon lord, and there was a talking wolf. But, to me, the best fantasy series have some kind of adventure.

It would have been way better if I got to see Yohane and the other girls travel across a fantasy world. Maybe Yohane has to go on a journey to bring the other girls together. I don’t know. But, I wanted something like that when I saw it was a fantasy series.

The other change is the inclusion of Saint Snow. This might be an unpopular opinion, but Saint Snow is the best thing about Sunshine!! And yet, they didn’t appear in this series at all. Why not? Where are Sarah and Leah Kazuno?

Yohane the Parhelion: 6/10

Unfortunately, I have to give Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror a 6/10. It’s a fine anime. But, I don’t feel like I’d recommend it to anyone who isn’t already a Love Live! fan. There’s just not enough going on for me to recommend it as a standalone anime.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

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Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 13 Review

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 13 Review

Legend of Resonance

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 13 is the final episode of the series. And, it was a pretty decent ending. However, I still have some questions that were never answered. For example, we still don’t know anything about Ruby being a fairy who can turn into a human.

I get that whatever’s going on with Ruby isn’t plot-relevant. But, considering she’s one of the main characters, I thought we’d get that information. Is she a fairy or a human? And since she’s Dia’s sister, can Dia change into a fairy form, as well?

That kind of stuff is probably my biggest complaint with how the series ended. Though, as I’ll get to later in this review, it’s not my only complaint. But, for now, let’s switch gears and discuss something I thought this episode did well. I loved how the legend of resonance was presented at the start.

The legend of resonance from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 13
The legend of resonance

Why didn’t we get this sort of stylized cinematic at the start of the series? If we did, sorry, I forgot. But, I’m pretty confident that we didn’t. This was the best part of the entire series, to me. And it would have been cool to open with it.

I guess one potential issue with doing that, though, is that it would have set the bar too high. If I had seen that at the start of the series, I would have been expecting a lot more than what we got. I would have been looking for a lot more lore.

At the end of the day, Yohane the Parhelion isn’t a fantasy adventure series. It’s set in a fantasy world. But, it’s slice of life. So, I can understand why there wasn’t that much lore, even if it’s what I wanted.

The Power of Friendship and Song

As I, and hopefully many of you, expected, the power of friendship and song saved the day. Since this series is a spin-off of Love Live! Sunshine!!, the final performance was always going to involve all the members of Aqours.

But, I was a little disappointed to see that Lailaps didn’t play a role here. Why couldn’t she have participated in the song? I know she’s not a member of Aqours. But, it would have been nice to include her in the end. Maybe she even could have taken on human form like Ruby does.

Anyway, it’s time to get to my next two real complaints with this episode. The first is actually one I don’t believe only applies to Episode 13. But, I’m including it here anyway. Why don’t we get subtitles for the songs in this series?

Yohane Tsushima performing from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 13
Yohane Tsushima performing

Yeah, they’re songs, not dialogue. But, it’s hard to imagine that the lyrics of this song weren’t relevant to what was going on in the series. So, why don’t Crunchyroll’s translators translate the songs, as well? Is it because they aren’t given the lyrics of the songs to translate?

I don’t know how anime translation works. So, if someone reading this does, please enlighten me. Do translators work off a script that’s in Japanese? Or, do they work off the episode itself? If it’s the latter, I see no reason why the songs wouldn’t be translated. And if it’s the former, I’d still like the lyrics to be in the translation.

The other complaint I have with the performance in this episode is with the sound effects. Why were loud, jarring sound effects played during the song? Go to 9:25 and tell me the sound effect of the water spouts isn’t terrible. I’ll wait.

Peace Returns to Numazu

Some interesting things happened at the end of Episode 13. For starters, Yohane’s friends decided that they want to continue singing with her. That’s not very surprising considering this is a Love Live! spin-off. But, it kind of makes Yohane a bit less special.

Remember, her goal was to find the one thing that only she could do and that was fun. All of her friends had something like this — except Ruby, arguably. But now, they all have their own stuff going on and they’re doing the same thing Yohane is.

We also saw that Lailaps doesn’t get her voice back. I was really expecting Lailaps to be able to speak again by the end of the episode. And I was expecting that everyone, not only Yohane, would be able to hear her. That wasn’t what happened.

Mari, Riko, Dia, Chika, Kanan, You, and Hanamaru from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 13
Mari, Riko, Dia, Chika, Kanan, You, and Hanamaru

Lailaps was able to say one last thing to Yohane in her dream. But, that doesn’t count for much. It’s a bit depressing to know that Yohane and Lailaps will never be able to talk to each other the same way again. Though, it appears that Lailaps can still understand her.

Finally, Mari Ohara revealed the cause of the calamity. The legend at the start of the episode did, too. But, Mari’s explanation was much clearer. Why did the calamity begin? Because the people of Numazu forgot about the magic of song. If they kept singing, the calamity would have never happened.

And, this is important because it explains why the calamity began after Yohane left for Tokai. Yohane was the last singer in Numazu. Without her, Numazu lost its songs. I guess, in a way, you could say that Yohane was responsible for the calamity. Or, you could think of her as Numazu’s protector.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of the final episode of Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror? Do you think the legend of resonance should have been included at the start of the series? Would you like to see the lyrics of the songs included in the subtitles? And, what were you expecting to happen with Lailaps?

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

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Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 12 Review

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 12 Review

Saving Nami and Sakura

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 12 was pretty alright. Most of the episode was about Yohane realizing things that we already knew. For example, she finally realized that she could use magic all along.

But, at the start of the episode, what she realized was that she hadn’t been treating Lailaps very well. Though, I can’t say that’s entirely Yohane’s fault. Lailaps was also part of the problem because she never told Yohane how she felt. However, I’m still going to place most of the blame on Yohane.

Sure, Lailaps didn’t tell Yohane why she didn’t want her to go to Tokai. That’s on Lailaps. But, Yohane’s response to that was to run away and stop speaking to Lailaps until she returned from the city. She didn’t make any further attempt to reconcile with Lailaps.

Dia, Riko, Ruby, and Chika worried about Yohane from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 12
Dia, Riko, Ruby, and Chika worried about Yohane

Alright, but Lailaps didn’t make any attempt to reconcile with Yohane either, right? Yes. However, Lailaps was the one whose feelings were originally hurt. Yohane’s feelings were hurt by Lailaps not explaining why her feelings were hurt. So, Yohane should be the one to apologize. And, in this episode, she finally did — sort of.

Before Yohane and Lailaps made up, though, we got to see the story of Miki and Sakura. Sakura is Miki’s pet pig. And, after the two of them had a fight (not sure how you fight with a pig), Sakura left the house.

Of course, this wasn’t a great time to leave the house due to the calamity. So, Miki’s sister, Nami, went searching for Sakura. And, in the end, it turns out that Sakura was trying to find a flower to make Miki feel better. Seeing this made Yohane realize that she should make up with Lailaps, too.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

It took 12 episodes. But, Yohane finally remembered that she’s had magic all along. As we already knew, she was the one who cast a spell on Lailaps, granting her speech. And, as I previously theorized, Yohane was the only one who could hear Lailaps.

I’m still a bit unsure how Yohane didn’t realize she had the power to use magic. She wished Lailaps could speak, cast a spell on her, and was then surprised when she spoke. I get that she was a kid at the time, but that was a pretty straightforward series of events.

And it’s not as if magic is a foreign concept in the world in which Yohane lives. At least, I assume it isn’t. Sure, we don’t actually see anyone else use magic throughout the series. But, there’s plenty of magical stuff around, like fairies, ghosts, and a demon lord.

Yohane turning Lailaps into a cute younger sister who can speak from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 12
Yohane turning Lailaps into a cute younger sister who can speak

I guess even with all those other things being “normal,” magic still isn’t. But, I also have to acknowledge that those things aren’t actually normal. Everyone is surprised when they see Ruby for the first time. And Mari and her ghosts were only found on Warshimer Island.

Anyway, it took Yohane years to connect the dots. Maybe Lailaps had been able to speak for her for so long that Yohane thought it was normal. Or, as the series seems to imply, Yohane simply forgot that she ever cast a pretend spell on Lailaps.

I can understand forgetting something you did as a child. I forget things I did within hours. But, you know, I’ve never cast a spell on a wolf causing it to be able to speak to me. That seems like something you’d remember, especially when you live with said wolf.

Farewell, Lailaps

I can’t believe Yohane killed off Lailaps at the end of Episode 11. Okay, well, she didn’t kill Lailaps. But, she did remove Lailaps’s ability to speak. Now, when Lailaps talks to her, all Yohane hears are the same barks everyone else hears from Lailaps.

But, why did Yohane have to take Lailaps’s voice? It’s because Yohane’s spell used a part of herself as the catalyst. That magic power has to come from somewhere. And, I guess in this case, it came from Yohane’s soul. So, you could say that until now, she’s been working at half capacity.

Okay, but that didn’t really explain why Yohane took Lailaps’s voice. That explained why Lailaps had a portion of Yohane’s soul. So, as for why Yohane took her soul back, it’s because she needs it to fight the calamity. Why do you think her previous performances didn’t stop it?

Yoshiko "Yohane" Tsushima from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 12
Yoshiko “Yohane” Tsushima

Now that Yohane is back to her full strength, she should have no problem dispelling the calamity. Well, her and the rest of Aqours. She won’t be able to do it alone, of course. And, I’m betting Lailaps is going to play a role, too. Maybe she’ll join in on the singing.

But, my big question at this point is, will Lailaps ever get her voice back? Even if Yohane saves Numazu, it would be a pretty depressing ending if she never heard Lailaps again. Sure, Lailaps isn’t dead. But, she’d have lost her only way to effectively communicate with Yohane.

So, here’s my prediction. Once the calamity is gone, Lailaps is going to get her voice back. How? I don’t know — magic. How isn’t what’s important. What’s important is that I’m also predicting that everyone will finally be able to hear her. That would be a happy ending.

Conclusion

What do you think of Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 12? Do you think Yohane or Lailaps was at fault in their argument? Why do you think Yohane forgot that she cast a spell on Lailaps? And, are you expecting Lailaps to regain her voice in the end? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 13 is available now.

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Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 11 Review

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 11 Review

It’s All Yohane’s Fault

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 11 wasn’t a great time for Yohane-chan. Not only did the calamity ruin her going away party. But, it also made her feel like she wasn’t special, after all.

Based on the prophecy Mari told her about, Yohane assumed the calamity was already over. After all, the prophecy said that the Resonance was all that was needed. Surely, Yohane’s performance with her friends at the festival was that Resonance, right? Apparently not, since the calamity is still around and worse than ever.

But, even if Yohane’s performance didn’t stop the calamity, why does she blame herself? It’s not as if Yohane caused the calamity, is it? You could make the argument that it has something to do with her magic. But, as far as we know, there’s no direct connection.

Yohane Tsushima feeling sorry for herself from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 11
Yohane Tsushima feeling sorry for herself

Also, Yohane doesn’t seem to blame herself for the calamity existing in the first place. She blames herself for the continuation of the calamity. If she was as special as she thought she was, she would have been able to stop it. She blames herself for wasting everyone’s time by thinking she was special.

Why does being special matter so much, though? Well, as we know from Love Live! Sunshine!!, Yohane’s a little chuunibyou. She has a hard time accepting that she’s not special in some way. But, in this context, being special really means having a place or calling of her own.

All of her friends have something they’re passionate about and good at doing. But, Yohane doesn’t feel like she has that yet. Sure, she wants to sing. However, she failed to make it as a singer in Tokai. And when her song was supposed to stop the calamity, it didn’t.

Lailaps and the Magic Staff

When Yohane decides she isn’t special after all, she throws her staff into the river. And then, Lailaps chases after it for a bit before losing it. But, why did Lailaps go after the staff? Is it important, after all?

Do you remember what Lailaps tried to tell Yohane after she lost her staff in Episode 8? Yohane was convinced that the staff was the source of her magic power. But, Lailaps tried to tell her that it was the other way around. Yohane is the source of her own magic and the staff is a product of that.

So, why is Lailaps concerned about the staff now? She didn’t really care when it was missing during the festival. Has she realized that the staff actually is important for stopping the calamity? I don’t think so. My guess is that she wants to retrieve it for Yohane’s sake.

Chika Takami smiling at Yohane from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 11
Chika Takami smiling at Yohane

The staff is like a security blanket for Yohane. She doesn’t have much confidence in herself normally. But, when she has her staff, she believes she can accomplish anything. It doesn’t matter if the staff has any magic power of its own. What matters is that Yohane thinks it does.

Lailaps wants to retrieve the staff so that Yohane will get her confidence back. Also, it’s been pretty obvious for a while that Lailaps knows more about the calamity than she’s letting on. So, she likely knows that Yohane has to be the one to stop it.

Now, there’s one thing I didn’t like about Lailaps going after Yohane’s staff. She gave up pretty fast. But, when she decides to go back the next day, the staff is still sitting in the same spot. It didn’t float down the river at all in those 24 hours.

The Cheer Yohane-chan Up Party!

While Yohane’s having a bout of depression, her friends decide that they need to cheer her up. They realize that she’s going to be key to stopping the calamity from destroying Numazu. How do they know that? Probably because of her staff.

I mean, whether or not the staff itself is magic, it represents that Yohane is, in fact, special. When Yohane gained new friends, their emblems were magically carved into the staff. To the average person, that seems like it would be a clear sign that Yohane is special.

Also, you know, they want their friend to not be depressed. So, we shouldn’t ignore that part of it. Not everything has to be about protecting the entire town of Numazu. Sometimes, you have to look out for your friends, as well. In this instance, those two goals happen to be aligned.

Magician/Demon Lord Mari Ohara from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 11
Magician/Demon Lord Mari Ohara

Anyway, as we saw, the other girls (except Dia and Ruby) put on a little show to cheer Yohane up. But, what exactly the girls do to cheer Yohane up doesn’t matter. What matters is that they show Yohane that she’s not alone. She doesn’t have to put all the pressure on herself.

Remember, Lailaps was trying to tell Yohane the same thing in previous episodes. Yohane has a tendency to think that she has to be the one to do everything; she has to be the one to save Numazu. And, to an extent, she does. She has a vital role to play.

But, what her friends help her understand is that she still has to rely on others. Being special doesn’t mean she has to be special on her own. And, it’s taken Yohane 11 episodes to finally understand that. Even when she performed with her friends, she didn’t really get it.

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 11? Do you think Yohane is somehow the cause of the calamity? Why do you think Lailaps went after Yohane’s staff? And, do you think Yohane really understands the power of friendship yet?

I’m still pretty convinced that Lailaps has something to do with the calamity. But, I don’t think Yohane is the cause. And, as I mentioned, the staff is more of a representation of Yohane’s abilities than anything else. As for Yohane understanding the importance of her friends, that’s 50/50. She could still show us she doesn’t get it.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about supporting this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 12 is available now.

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Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 10 Review

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 10 Review

Invitation to Tokai

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 10 took a turn I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t think Yohane would receive an invitation to another audition in Tokai. But, one of the women who judged her original audition saw her performance at the festival.

Interestingly, she only gave Yohane an invitation. It was a group performance. But, I guess none of the other girls stood out enough to receive invitations. With that said, I’m predicting that the audition is going to involve all nine members of Aqours. I mean, it has to, right? This is a Love Live! spin-off, after all.

We also got a little bit of foreshadowing about that in this episode, too. When Yohane was practicing calling her mother, she said something important. She mentioned that this time, she wasn’t going to rely on anyone else. She’d go to Tokai and audition on her own.

Yohane disassociating from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 10
Yohane disassociating

Of course, Yohane was in Tokai on her own at the start of the series. So, what does she mean by this? Well, she may have physically been there alone. But, she was receiving financial support from her family. Remember, she didn’t have a job at the time.

However, Lailaps views her statement about not relying on anyone else differently. Lailaps believes that Yohane should be relying on others. She doesn’t come out and say that. But, it’s pretty clear that Lailaps thinks Yohane should rely on her friends. She’s not alone anymore; there are other people who want to support her.

And, that’s why I’m expecting the audition to involve the full Aqours group. Yohane might think she’s going to audition on her own — even up to the last minute. But, the other Aqours members are definitely going to be there. And they’re going to perform, too.

See You Soon, Yohane-chan!

For now, the expectation is that Yohane is going to Tokai on her own. And, word of that spreads all over Numazu. Though, as the news spreads, things get a bit twisted. Yohane going to Tokai for an audition becomes Yohane going to Tokai to represent Numazu on a big stage.

And, because of that misunderstanding, the town rallies behind Yohane. They’re excited for their small town to gain some recognition in the big city. And, even when some people find out that it’s actually just an audition, that doesn’t change how they feel.

Since returning to Numazu, Yohane has become a fixture of the town. Everyone knows who she is thanks to her fortune-telling-turned-odd-job business. She’s helped out everyone in town at one point or another. And, they’re grateful for everything she’s done. So, it’s only right that they now support her.

Mari Ohara and Riko Sakurauchi from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 10
Mari Ohara and Riko Sakurauchi

Yohane’s audition is also only three days away from when she receives the invitation. That doesn’t leave much time for the townspeople to wish her well and say their goodbyes. So, Dia decides that they’re going to throw a going away party. I guess it’s part two of the Numazu festival.

It’s a bit unclear what this going away party was originally meant to entail, though. We don’t actually get to see it all come to fruition. Though, we do see how it started.

Kanan constructed a stage with the help of some of the other girls. Hanamaru baked some Yohane bread to give out during the event. And Dia gave a long-winded speech on the stage before introducing Yohane to the crowd.

The last thing we see before the calamity strikes is Yohane giving a speech of her own. So, is that all the party was? If so, that’s pretty lame.

The Calamity Strikes Back

As I mentioned, the calamity interrupts Yohane’s going away party. But, luckily, Lailaps arrived just in time to warn Yohane that danger was coming. Though, Yohane didn’t exactly relay that information to the crowd. And there wasn’t much time before the calamity struck, anyway.

However, we did get some important information from this interaction. We can now say for certain that Yohane is the only one who can understand Lailaps. Despite being on stage when Lailaps yelled at Yohane that it wasn’t safe there, nobody else heard her. She had to tell Yohane to tell them.

Oh, and also Lailaps wasn’t initially at the party because of the calamity. She’s the only one who realized that the festival didn’t stop the calamity. So, she was keeping an eye on it. And, it’s possible that Lailaps knows the truth behind the calamity, as well.

Yohane within the calamity's miasma from the anime series Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 10
Yohane within the calamity’s miasma

We know from Episode 9 that Yohane wished Lailaps could speak when she was younger. But, who did Yohane actually cast that spell on? Did she grant Lailaps the ability to speak only to her? Or, did she grant herself the ability to understand Lailaps?

I’m starting to think that the latter might be the case. Lailaps doesn’t seem to be a normal wolf. She’s as smart as a human. And, Yohane has commented on how large she’s grown multiple times. We also don’t actually know where Lailaps actually came from. So, could she have come from beyond the calamity’s rift?

That would certainly explain some things about Lailaps. But, we should also keep in mind that she’s not the only unusual creature in Numazu. Shishinoshin, Hanamaru’s giant pig, also isn’t normal. And then, there are the ghost creatures who live with Mari on Warshimer Island. Are they calamity residents?

Final Thoughts

What do you think of Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Episode 10? Do you think Yohane is going to do the audition, or stay in Numazu instead? What did you think of her going away party? And, how do you feel about my theory that Lailaps might be connected to the calamity?

As I said earlier, I’m pretty convinced that the audition is going to happen. And, that’s going to involve all nine members of Aqours. Yohane’s going away party also seemed too formal to actually be fun. And, I’m actually still unsure about my Lailaps theory.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to share it with everyone you know. Also, follow me on your social media of choice so you don’t miss out on any future articles — links are in the footer.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman and JasonHK for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about becoming a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Episode 11 is available now.

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