#and ep11 has some additional factors that make the meta more complicated

[yujachachacha]

I've seen peeps angry about how Dia's episode this season and Yoshiko's last season seem to mean nothing since they're still calling them "Dia-san" and "Yoshiko" respectively. What do you think? bc I personally feel that the point of the episodes had less to do with how they were addressed and more w/ a feeling of belonging in the group

I agree! I think that the issue with these character-centered episodes has to do with the fact that the audience is misunderstanding the point of them.

This might be easier to understand if I first explain how they’re structured. IMO, the LLS character-centered episodes usually follow a certain formula that goes something like this:

The central character has a certain flaw or worry that makes them go through a period of self-doubt. (Examples: Yoshiko wants to live a normal high school life. Dia notices that she’s the only third year in Aqours who isn’t referred to by a familiar suffix.)

The central character believes that they have to act a certain way to resolve this issue. (Examples: Yoshiko thinks that she has to abandon her “fallen angel” routine to be accepted by her peers. Dia thinks that being called “Dia-chan” will make her closer to the rest of the group.)

With the help of Chika - or in the case of Chika herself, the others in Aqours - the central character realizes that there is another solution they didn’t consider because they had misunderstood the root of the problem. (Examples: Yoshiko realizes that she should find friends who accept her as she is rather than trying to change herself. Dia discovers that her title is given to her out of respect rather than distance.)

The problem is resolved and the central character regains their confidence. Hooray, friendship saves the day! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

See that bold section in #3? That’s the part that a lot of people miss - ironically, this means that these people are making the exact same mistake that the main character of the episode is making.

[FML my meta posts are never short so the rest is under the cut]

The point of S1E5 wasn’t that Yoshiko wanted friends who would call her “Yohane”, but that Yoshiko wanted friends who would put up with her demands to be called “Yohane”. This is even apparent at the final confrontation of the episode:

Yoshiko: I’ll spew a lot of weird stuff.

You: That’s fine.

Yoshiko: I might start performing ceremonies and stuff sometimes.

Riko: We’ll deal with it.

Yoshiko: I might tell you to be my little demons!

Chika: Well, um… We’ll say no if we don’t want to!

Let me repeat that last part because it’s hella important: “We’ll say no if we don’t want to!”

What Yoshiko needed wasn’t a group of girls who would hang out with her only because she got rid of her fallen angel routine, or little demon lackeys who would obey every edict she issued. What she needed was friends who would be realistic about her antics, but would stick with her until the end. Friendship isn’t about agreeing perfectly with each other - you’ll have different tastes, and will sometimes fight over those differences. True friendship is being able to accept each other despite these differences.

You might have noticed that it’s not Mari and Ruby, the pair that tends to play along with the “Yohane” thing the most, who are seen as Yoshiko’s closest friends in the anime. The pair that is the most associated with Yoshiko is, in fact, the duo that complains the most about Yoshiko’s behavior - Riko and Hanamaru. They tease and scold her about her quirks precisely because they’re so close to her. It’s because these two are so attentive to Yoshiko’s well-being that they moderate her weirdness. Thanks to their friendship, Yoshiko knows that despite their occasional harsh words, they mean the best for her.

So with this in mind, is it really all that crucial to refer to Yoshiko as “Yohane”? While it would be nice of Aqours to do so, I think that would be missing the point. Accepting “Yohane” doesn’t mean accepting that as Yoshiko’s name. Rather, it’s accepting the concept of Yohane, that Yoshiko happens to be a high school girl who occasionally says some off-the-wall occult things that she can’t help because she loves the fallen angel thing and oh god she knows it’s weird but at this point it’s so ingrained in her identity that there’s nothing she can do about it please all she wants is to stop feeling so lonely -

…you get the point. The important thing isn’t calling Yoshiko by her preferred name “Yohane”, but that the existence of “Yohane” is accepted rather than shunned. Yoshiko had been so caught up in thinking that the “Yohane” persona was a black-or-white “if it pops up I’ll lose my friends / if I hide it I can have a normal life” situation that she never stopped to consider a balance between the two: friends who didn’t necessarily have to indulge her fallen angel antics, but would always support her in times of need.

Fittingly for a series called “Love Live!”, an important theme of the work is about love - that is, self-love, and giving your all at something you love to do. The charm of school idols, Chika insists to Yoshiko, isn’t that they change themselves into whatever they think is popular or that the audience likes best. Rather, it’s the fact that they have a part of themselves that they love, and are happy to share that with everyone.

Consider this - do Yoshiko fans like Yoshiko despite her fallen angel shtick, or do they like her because she throws herself so wholeheartedly into it? I’m sure you can guess the answer by now. We admire people who are passionate about what they love. Chika’s words make Yoshiko realize that “Yohane” isn’t something to be ashamed of - rather, it’s something that she should embrace.

Again, this is a crucial lesson echoed throughout the “Love Live!” series: embrace the time you have now, and put everything you have into something you love. That’s when you truly shine, because there’s nothing more beautiful than someone who’s doing their best and enjoying it.

With Dia, we have a similar theme of friendship being tied to a certain name. However, the circumstances are quite different.

Now, I can understand why people were a bit upset about Dia’s episode turning out the way that it did. After all, Dia spent nearly the whole time making a fool of herself just to hear Chika tell her, “We like you just the way you are, Dia-san!” µ’s even had an entire episode dedicated to having the members address each other with “-chan” to break down the seniority barriers.

But let me point out something important: Dia refers to Kanan and Mari, her childhood friends, as “Kanan-san” and “Mari-san”. Do you think that this means Dia isn’t close to Kanan and Mari?

Recall the scene where Kanan and Mari spill the beans about Dia to the rest of Aqours. They talk about how they’ve always seen Dia as somewhat “above them” because of how talented and formal she is. With everyone expecting Dia to act the part of the refined lady, Dia slowly took on that role until it became an actual part of her identity. If Dia was just a normal high school gal, she’d probably refer to Kanan and Mari as just that - Kanan and Mari, no suffixes needed. But because Dia’s been raised to be well-mannered, she automatically refers to them as “Kanan-san” and “Mari-san” despite her close relationship with them.

This shows that Dia’s way of referring to people is simply a matter of her upbringing as a Kurosawa heiress rather than her trying to distance herself from others. If you need more proof, just listen to how Ruby refers to other people in the early episodes of the anime and in the audio dramas - apart from her sister and her childhood friend Hanamaru, Ruby refers to nearly everyone with “-san”. Ruby has the same habit, but is a lot more lenient about casting it aside as she probably doesn’t feel as pressured as Dia is to stay prim and proper. That’s why the spotlight is solely on Dia for being out-of-place about how she refers to and is referred to by others.

Here’s the mini-takeaway from this episode - what’s important is not the words itself, but the meaning behind them. I’m gonna illustrate this with two different takes of a scenario. Imagine that Aqours is chilling in a dressing room, waiting to be called for their performance in a school idol competition.

Take 1:

Mari bursts into the room holding a venti Starbucks latte in one hand and a set of very expensive-looking car keys in the other.

“What’s up, bitches?” Mari sings.

Chika and You cheekily salute and parrot back the greeting. Everyone else ignores her (except Dia, who looks like she would be strangling Mari if she wasn’t occupied with covering Ruby’s ears).

Kanan sighs. “We love you Mari, but get your ass in here. You’re late.”

Take 2:

A rival school idol group that has been sending condescending looks towards Aqours all day bursts into the room.

“What’s up, bitches?” Girl A sneers.

Since Dia is too busy covering Ruby’s ears, Kanan is the first to rise up in anger. However, she’s interrupted by the sight of Mari popping open the lid of her latte and splashing its still-hot contents at the intruders.

“Don’t you dare speak that way towards my friends,” Mari hisses.

…this illustration was probably a lot more vulgar than it needed to be, but hopefully you get my point. It doesn’t matter that Dia is referred to as “Dia-san” - what’s crucial is the intent behind it. Chika brings back the lesson from Yoshiko’s episode here: you shouldn’t try to change yourself just to make friends. Aqours doesn’t hate her strictness, so there’s no need for Dia to try to do away with it. Dia is referred to as “Dia-san” because everyone respects how much work she puts into making sure Aqours isn’t a complete mess, and thus they refer to her with an appropriately respectful title. In a way, it’s actually a very affectionate title that shows Dia’s unique position in Aqours - you could even think of it as the equivalent of “Mom”.

If you’re still thinking, “Oh come on, how hard is it to just call her ‘Dia-chan’?!”, let me illustrate with something that’s actually happened to me. At Thanksgiving this year, I met a family member who’s around my mother’s age. She’s a distant relative of mine, but because we live in the same area, we’re pretty close. I was helping her with the dishes when we had the following conversation:

Relative: Hey Yujacha, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.

Me: What is it?

Relative: You know how you call me “Aunty”? I want you to call me “Grandma” instead.

Me: …I’m sorry, what?

Relative: I want you to call me “Grandma”. I’m serious. I really, really, really want you to call me “Grandma”.

Me: I, uh…

Relative: Call me “Grandma”!

To give you some context: my family tree is kind of messed up (I think it had to do with some kind of early/late marriage), so somewhere along the line the branch with my relatives became a generation above mine, despite us being the same age. This means that the relative above is technically a grandmother to me despite being around my mother’s age, and her children (who I usually refer to as my cousins) are technically my aunt and uncle - even though they’re younger than me.

I could’ve said yes. It was a request from an elder, and she genuinely wanted me to use the title. Plus, what harm was there in simply saying a different name?

Instead, I replied, “…I’m sorry Aunty, I can’t. It sounds weird to me. ( ; w ; )”

I was so used to saying “Aunty” that I couldn’t break the habit. It was also a matter of respect - even though the relative herself wanted to be called “Grandma”, in my mind, I would be lowkey insulting her by implying that she looks a lot older than she actually is.

I could be completely off the mark here, but personally speaking, I think that this might be part of the reason why Dia is always referred to as “Dia-san” by most of Aqours. As stated above, Dia is revered as the Kurosawa heiress and the brilliant student council president of Uranohoshi. Even though Dia herself wants to be called “Dia-chan”, to the rest of Aqours, it would feel like an insult if they didn’t refer to her respectfully. At that point, they’re just so used to calling her “Dia-san” that it would feel weird to say anything else. Communication is a two-way street. Don’t forget that a title shows a relationship between the receiver and the giver of the title.

I know that some people are still going to be upset about the “Dia-chan” thing, which is fine - Dia deserves the love! But the point of the episode, despite what it seemed, wasn’t just to get Aqours to call Dia something different. Rather, it was Dia’s clumsy way of opening herself up to the others and admitting that she wants to be their close friend. While the lesson might not have been so clear due to all the slapstick shenanigans going on, I think that we did see Dia succeeding on that end. No matter what she’s called, from now on, Dia knows that she’s appreciated by Aqours and is considered a close friend.

tl;dr: Chuunibyou high schooler and stern StuCo prez awkwardly try to make friends, and learn that friendship extends beyond appearances and titles. What needs to change isn’t their behavior - it’s the way they think about their behavior. By casting aside their self-doubt, they can begin to love themselves as they are, and renew their confidence as the school idols of Aqours.

While we’re on the subject - I’m sure that with this talk of controversial character episodes, you might be wondering why I’m not bringing up the two most controversial episodes, i.e. S1E9 (the KanaMari episode) and S1E11 (the You/ChikaYou episode).

I think a lot of meta writers who are a heck of a lot more talented than I am have already covered Episode 9, so I don’t really feel the need to bring it up. At this point, there have been enough rallying cries from the “Kanan Protection Squad” that most people should be a bit more forgiving of Kanan’s actions. As irrational as they were, you have to also consider that Kanan was just a fifteen-year-old girl under a lot of stress and self-inflicted guilt. There’s also the factor of miscommunication, and…well, again, this has already been analyzed, so I won’t dive into this one.

As for Episode 11, I actually received an ask about it, so I’ll be sitting down and thinking about how to answer that one! I’ve already got a couple of ideas in mind…