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[pretty-idol-hell]

Idol Land PriPara 11

The final battle...

Oh yes. Before I begin my post this time, to save me yet another round of asks, this episode and all the previous ones are viewable for free in the movie theater on the Idol Land PriPara app. Please download Idol Land PriPara. It's in your app store. Please.

And now...

NEW CUT IN THE OPENING OMG OMG POLOLO IS HAPPY NOW possibly only one episode left this season (maybe ever) and they still threw this in there GEEZ.... so much love in this show.

(Wait is her accessory the wrong color uguu...)

The episode begins right where we left off of course! Amari has challenged Mario to a duel. If he wins, she'll join (or c...combine??) with him and he can do whatever he wants, and if she wins, he can never show himself in front of her again. Mario solemnly agrees.

After the opening, Mario is laughing and making fun of Amari for how serious she was in challenging him. But he also quietly asks, "Do you really want to erase me?" Well, whatever, Mario is glad Amari is finally acknowledging him head on. He agrees again and asks if they are gonna just punch each other or what.

No sooner than Amari answers with "What!? We're idols, of course we are gonna perform!" a stage rises from the ground with the Hysteric Bunny and Fullmetal Rabbit logos on it, and everyone is instantly transported.

This includes WITH and Dark Nightmare, who now have their goat costumes removed. Koyoi and Shogo acknowledge this duel will determine Yui's fate as well.

Everyone questions what has caused the stage to form (it's GaarmageddonMi's doing if you ask them), but Janice, still powerless, suggests the system itself desires Amari and Mario finally settle things. The future of PriPara (Amari's kirakira vs. Mario's dark power) is in the balance.

In Amari's dressing room, Amari vows to protect PriPara, and everyone says they believe in her. They all turn to leave, except for Laala. She turns back to Amari, and begins a very important conversation.

Laala asks Amari, "Amari, do you really hate yourself? Why?"

She's of course referring to the previous episode, when she heard Amari yell that out in a moment of weakness.

Amari states that since junior high school she'd always felt left out everywhere she went, but since finding PriPara she was happy she finally thought she had friends and felt like she belonged. But then Mario appeared and started ruining everything, and it was all her fault. Mario is the version of herself from the past that she hates, so she has to defeat him.

"Do you have to?" asks Laala.

Laala doesn't like that Amari hates herself, because well, Laala likes Amari. But if Amari doesn't like herself, "Is this a love triangle!?"

"There is love inside hate", Laala tells Amari.

Laala doesn't quite remember where she heard that, but she's decided that it must mean hate is actually love. As Amari is trying to comprehend this for herself, Laala suddenly hugs her.

"I love you, Amari-chan!"

Laala turns to go, smiling and waving back at Amari as she leaves her alone with her thoughts.

Back at the stage, the tournament is ready to begin...

Janice needs a seatbelt to ride the stage.

Amari and Mario stare at each other from across the stage. Mario is grinning but he has noticeable bags under his eyes. They decide the winner is the person who can take over the audience (with kirakira or dark power). (A large portion of the audience is already being controlled by Mario, as "whatever" zombies.)

Without any discussion of who will go first, Mario begins. After his performance, a lot more of the crowd is converted, including Fuwari, Mikan, Ajimi, Dorothy... (Shion notes that Dorothy rolling on the floor saying "whatever" isn't that different than usual.)

Amari begins her performance, and she actually sings the second verse of Chaotic Hurricane (!!!) the entire time wishing Mario would just disappear. DISAPPEAR, DISAPPEAR, DISAPPEAR.

Amari's performance starts to shatter Mario's dark keys, bringing most of the audience back to normal.

Pleased with her performance, Amari looks up to find that what she wished for is actually coming true. Mario really is disappearing. Distressed, he shouts that he won't let himself disappear. He desperately asks Amari again, "Do you really want to erase me!?"

Amari is genuinely shocked and just stares as she seems to realize for the first time that what she's doing is basically killing him. Mario stops disappearing.

"That's right, you're not really going to erase me. Are you, Amari?"

But now that Mario is stable again, the duel resumes. They walk towards each other where they meet at the center of the stage. A third Making Drama begins where they immediately clash.

MAN I love the Making Drama battles Idol Land introduced. It definitely feels inspired by the battles in King of Prism.

As the battle takes place, you can hear a new song playing in the background. A duet between Amari and Mario.

The Making Drama ends without a clear winner. Amari knows she has to save PriPara, but something is holding her back. She remembers her earlier conversation with Laala.

"REMEMBER!" shouts Mario. "Remember your TRUE SELF!"

Amari thinks back again to her junior high self, the day she created Mario. But, overcome with embarrassment, she screams as loud as she can:

"DISAPPEAR!"

As Amari's scream creates shockwaves over the stage, Mario begins to disappear again. But this time faster than ever. He falls to the ground, half gone already.

Laala shouts, just loud enough to reach Amari:

"You can't erase him!"

And then Amari remembers. Further back, to when she was in elementary school and dreaming about being an idol. Then getting older, meeting Laala, and all the lessons she learned as we remember all the character development she's had gradually over the series episode by episode (damn this was such a good show...) up until the present episode when Laala told her "hate is love".

Amari realizes everything is connected, and the version of herself she loves and the version of herself she hates are both what make her whole.

"Don't disappear! Don't disappear, don't disappear, don't disappear!!" Amari cries as she runs to embrace Mario. Mario weakly says how he's always loved her spirit (I think).

But, just when it seems like he's too far gone...

Mario is solid once more.

"So, you need me after all, huh?"

"SHUT UP! I HATE YOU!" Amari yells, lunging at him without hesitation.

And actually punching him square in the face. Turns out that throwaway line from the beginning... not a joke haha! But well, since Mario is herself, Amari sees no need to hold back, after all.

"There, I won," she says as Mario is knocked to the ground and all the other characters just kind of stare into space not quite knowing what to make of this.

(Except Dorothy. Judging by her face, she's like YEAH! Give it to him.)

(I actually only noticed this on my third rewatch of this scene. Love these reaction shots where only one character has a different expression. Also feels like a callback to King of Prism haha...)

"You fight dirty!" Mario yells as he gets up and they both lunge at each other again. But instead of punching each other, this time, each sticks their key in the other's mic.

And then well.......

THIS

HAPPENS

um

There is probably a lot that could be said about

this

a lot of analyzing

Honestly though, thinking from the Japanese perspective I'm not totally sure what might be intended by this, so.

Let me just say.

Whatever this is

I like it.

Wow honestly

Even though they threw around the word "combine" a lot I was not. I was not taking it seriously. Like AT ALL.

Until now obviously.

Well also we know why Amari and Mario have the same birthday I guess.

The stage is destroyed and everyone is blown around as the Amari/Mario duet plays again (or is this a different one?) as ... let's call them "Amario", takes to the sky, literally grabbing the fallen key and putting it into the Yumeme in the sky.

Edit: Checked the credits before posting. Two songs are listed with a similar name, and I guess the combined version of them is called "Amarion" officially, according to the titles. CD release WHEN??? Anyway.

It seems Amari is the most in control here, and Mario is just kinda coming along for the ride ("whatever") as she borrows his power, but he seems to be enjoying himself all the same. They have trouble turning the key, actually bursting into flames in the process, and Meganii suggests it's because Mario's dark power reacting to the kirakira. But, eventually they are able to overcome it and the key turns.

But, Amarion is then sent rocketing back down to the ground, still burning in flames. As they fall, Amari thinks that she'll have to leave PriPara after this, for all the trouble she's caused. In the end, she's still left out. "Whatever......"

Mario asks her (in their head) if she really likes PriPara that much, and Amari says yes.

"Well, guess I've got no choice then," says Mario.

Mario separates from Amari so that he's the only one burning now.

Amari tries to reach out to him, but with a last "Whatever..." Mario allows himself to burn away... into nothing...

Amari yells for Mario as she falls, only to be caught safely in Pololo's hands.

And back in the sky, from the Yumeme, finally falls... Yui.

Yui's normal self somehow falls through the Yumeme, is converted into a beam of rainbow light, and emerges from Takki as her full idol self.

The Yumeme power is so strong everyone gets yumeme, even Shogo.

Gaze upon yumeme Shogo.

The yumeme spread to Amari and Pololo as well, as Pololo converts more bugs (the last?) into happy flowers.

The others wave up to Amari as she sits cupped in Pololo's hands and Amari waves back. But Amari then looks up to the sky.

"Mario..."

The Amari/Mario duet plays over the credits.

So.... I guess........ I.........

I guess first I... I will

I'll get my game predictions out of the way um

Obviously I think Yui will be added soon.

It's also high time they added Believe My Dream I guess? If we have to get an older song?

And um. I said there wouldn't be a gatcha for the last episode and I was wrong so. There may be a gatcha for this one. I think we may actually be getting that crazy half Mario half Amari coord. It's clearly a cyalume that we only got to see lit up. So, much like the Evergold team SCRs, we'll probably see the unlit version for the first (only?) time when it is added to the game. I'm looking forward to it. I just wow.

So.

My thoughts on this episode. Yes. My thoughts?

I guess anyone still reading this for some reason might want to know.

.........................

When I was in Japan at the beginning of this month, I visited Prism Stone Tokyo Station several times. And on my last visit, I decided to buy an Amari plush doll.

I took her down from the shelf I had placed her on in my house upon unpacking, so that she could sit with me here right now as I rewatch the episode and write this post. So I could hold her, hug her, and poke her as necessary.

....During the time I was in Japan, I was of course sitting on the cliffhanger from the last episode. I was already having a lot of emotions about Amari and Mario and... for a brief moment, I considered buying Mario too after I decided I was getting Amari. I did think that maybe, just maybe, I might regret not buying him based on what might happen in the next episode. But, still, I decided against it.

I do regret it.

She's literally without her other half. Amari, I'm so sorry...

I shouldn't be that upset about this but I kind of am.

This episode had a very important message.

It's hard to accept some things about yourself.

It's hard to look back.

But your awkward past. Your cringe OCs.

The imaginary anime boyfriend you made when you were in middle school that also may or may not be you sort of experimenting with yourself as the opposite gender???

That's... that's all you.

And that's OK.

Because Laala loves you.

But really though.

This episode left me with this terrible, hollow, lonely feeling that I can't or rather won't go into full detail about here. I'm sitting here, playing with Amari's bunny ears as I rewatch scenes from this episode over and over again to edit and add details to this post

and missing a person who doesn't exist.

But in my case, I think he is too far gone. I deleted that novel. It felt right, at the time.

I'm sorry.

[telebeast]

unoriginal joke

[nostalgebraist]

If Pikachu were real, it would not be a very pleasant animal. An enormous mouse that shocks you like an electric eel. I would run from these beasts

[canisalbus]

Trying to figure out modern Ludovica.

[ivytea]

local scrumptious cake population reduced by one

[he4db4ng3r]

will anyone see this 😕 hai..

[yesokayiknow]

[clearcutcasualty]

“Do you think seahorses write fpreg” and the many other riveting things my friend texts me right before I go to work

[hummise]

i once considered him the center of my life, the sun in my galaxy

[novva]

back to making mini comics in my free time 🤸🏾‍♀️

[let-them-fight]

can we stop doing this trope

[wild-menace]

In honor of the new Zelda game coming out.

I WILL be playing

(Simpson’s draw over)

[hanavbara]

happy halloween 🎃

[inkskinned]

because sometimes there are invisible tests and invisible rules and you're just supposed to ... know the rule. someone you thought of as a friend asks you for book recommendations, so you give her a list of like 30 books, each with a brief blurb and why you like it. later, you find out she screenshotted the list and send it out to a group chat with the note: what an absolute freak can you believe this. you saw the responses: emojis where people are rolling over laughing. too much and obsessive and actually kind of creepy in the comments. you thought you'd been doing the right thing. she'd asked, right? an invisible rule: this is what happens when you get too excited.

you aren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes, so you don't, but then you're too serious. you're not supposed to be too loud, but then people say you're too quiet. you aren't supposed to get passionate about things, but then you're shy, boring. you aren't supposed to talk too much, but then people are mad when you're not good at replying.

you fold yourself into a prettier paper crane. since you never know what is "selfish" and what is "charity," you give yourself over, fully. you'd rather be empty and over-generous - you'd rather eat your own boundaries than have even one person believe that you're mean. since you don't know what the thing is that will make them hate you, you simply scrub yourself clean of any form of roughness. if you are perfect and smiling and funny, they can love you. if you are always there for them and never admit what's happening and never mention your past and never make them uncomfortable - you can make up for it. you can earn it.

don't fuck up. they're all testing you, always. they're tolerating you. whatever secret club happened, over a summer somewhere - during some activity you didn't get to attend - everyone else just... figured it out. like they got some kind of award or examination that allowed them to know how-to-be-normal. how to fit. and for the rest of your life, you've been playing catch-up. you've been trying to prove that - haha! you get it! that the joke they're telling, the people they are, the manual they got- yeah, you've totally read it.

if you can just divide yourself in two - the lovable one, and the one that is you - you can do this. you can walk the line. they can laugh and accept you. if you are always-balanced, never burdensome, a delight to have in class, champagne and glittering and never gawky or florescent or god-forbid cringe: you can get away with it.

you stare at your therapist, whom you can make jokes with, and who laughs at your jokes, because you are so fucking good at people-pleasing. you smile at her, and she asks you how you're doing, and you automatically say i'm good, thanks, how are you? while the answer swims somewhere in your little lizard brain:

how long have you been doing this now? mastering the art of your body and mind like you're piloting a puppet. has it worked? what do you mean that all you feel is... just exhausted. pick yourself up, the tightrope has no net. after all, you're cheating, somehow, but nobody seems to know you actually flunked the test. it's working!

aren't you happy yet?

[canisalbus]

✦ Bread ✦

[beidak-art]

Attack on @plaiesancier 🚢