Andante with You

tl;dr

The Story Itself

• I appreciate the fast build-up of the story.
• I like how Sheffy related to Ranpha.
• I like how Kokkoro pushed Ranpha & Chika.
• I like how Chika had to be reminded that she's an idol, too.
• I love that they actually show the characters writing the new song.
• Of all the characters, Ameth feels the weakest here since she's only here to dump exposition.

Difficulty

• Easy, thanks to Ranpha being so slow.
• Missed some gibberish, except for one.

The Story Itself

The build-up

The story pretty much reeled in all the characters together immediately. Kokk, Sheffy and KSKN are doing some monster hunting quest, and they happen to run into Chika and Tsumugi who're doing some monster observation due to their recent abnormal behavior. Turns out, the monsters are acting funny because of Ranpha's singing. Kokkoro brings up it could be because of the spirits, and they visit the elven village to confirm. Meanwhile, in the Tower of Sol, Ameth notices something strange in her logs...

All these are covered in the prologue. The problem? There. The characters? Are all there. Tease about how the characters will solve the problem? Also there. Laying it all like this to the audience allows them to know what to expect out of the story. From there, hopefully, the audience will keep reading the story to find out. Another thing that this "style" writing enables is to let the audience to come up with assumptions with how the story the play out, and from there, the writer can either affirm, or deny it by introducing a twist somewhere in the story. Although this isn't something this event did, this event's story is quite straightforward (not a bad thing), I'm just rambling here.

Still, I think this should be done case-by-case. If the writers feel like the best way to wrangle the characters is to do it gradually, then by all means, they should do just that. The important thing is not to randomly separate the characters once they're together. Example of events guilty of this is the HKaori event and WAoi event.

Roles of the supporting characters

How I see it, this event is about two awkward girls, one much more awkward than the other. A story of how a senpai is struggling to guide her troubled kouhai. The path of a Song Summoner is a solitary one, and while Chika isn't as socially stunned as Ranpha, she still isn't used to guiding people. Sure, she yelled at Nozomi that one time because the latter worked too hard, but that's more like "you're doing something wrong, stop it", rather than "you're doing it wrong, let me show you the right way".

As for Ranpha...do I even need to say anything here?

This is where I'd say the proverb "the blind lead the blind" would apply, but that's a little bit too harsh since Chika certainly knows what's she's doing, she just doesn't know to convey it. So...how does this story even function? Wouldn't the two just run around in circles? That's where the supporting characters come in. I think the message here is "there's no shame in asking for outside advice", but I feel like that's me stretching things. A more "reasonable" reason in terms of writing is that it'd be an extreme asspull if the two figured things out on their own, seeing how awkward they are.

Sheffers

At one point during practice, some elven villagers notice Ranpha's beautiful singing. They ask to hear more, and Ranpha being Ranpha, runs away. Chika laments how she couldn't encourage Ranpha, like a good senpai would.

Later that night, Sheffy is sleepless and runs into Ranpha. The two sit together and start chatting. Sheffy asks if Ranpha likes singing. Ranpha gets a bit confused and says that she's been singing for as long as she can remember and that she doesn't really think about it. Sheffy relates with Ranpha, saying that when something has become such an integral part of you, you don't really think about whether you like it or not. Sheffy continues, saying that it sucks when you have to stop doing that has become second nature for you, and asks if Ranpha is fine not being able to sing. Ranpha answers that it gets a bit lonely.

While I haven't really read Sheffy's stories, I've learnt bits and pieces of it through the thread. I like how the story relates Ranpha's not being able to sing with Sheffy's inability to skate because of her leg issues. I think...? I can't say anything more than this because I haven't read shit, my point is, Sheffy's role talking with Ranpha is irreplaceable. I mean, who else wants to be an ice skater but can't because of health issues in this game?

Kokkoro

While Sheffy and Ranpha are chatting, so are Kokk and Chika. Kokkoro notices Chika being distressed about not being able to support Ranpha. Chika comments about how Kokkoro must be a master guide with how considerate she is. Kokkoro thinks that Chika is being hyperbolic, and says "just talk to them bro".

Kokkoro then tries to relate with Chika a bit more. She says that even though she's not a Song Summoner, she knows the feeling of loneliness all too well. Must be referring to the 3rd anniversary here. Chika thinks about how broadminded Kokkoro is, and in a moment of weakness...calls her mama. Kokkoro thinks that Chika must be tired, and so she brings her in and they take a break together.

Kokkoro being Kokkoro, this isn't her only contribution in this event. Later in the story as the spirit trashes about, Ranpha is doubting herself because she thinks she can't sing yet, and therefore, won't be much of a help against the spirit. Kokkoro then says it's okay to fuck up (even bringing up a proverb for this), brings up the fact that even she herself had to get help when dealing with a spirit in the 3rd anniversary and goes, "and now, Chika needs your help!".

And thus, Ranpha resolves to help Chika, sharing the burdens of being Song Summoners together.

Of all the characters, Kokkoro is the one with with "two" contributions here. Well, what else you'd expect from my mommydaughterwife? It also goes without saying that her role here is irreplaceable as well because of the connection between Kokkoro and elven village from the 3rd anniversary event. I still haven't read it yet, but at the time of writing this, I'm reading the Inori SOS event, so, getting closer!

Before we move on to Tsumugi, I wanna talk a little bit about the dynamics between Ranpha and Kokkoro since I saw it being brought up ITT when this event just released. This was originally a bit longer, but I realized I was going off-topic, so I cut down on this section somewhat.

Why is Kokkoro fine with other girls being with KSKN, but not with Ranpha?

Because she's a legitimate safety hazard. I haven't read Ranpha's bond stories, but this CG tells me everything I need to know.

Wait, doesn't this make Kokkoro sound like a cuck?

I guess, but as I mentioned once before, KSKN being liked by many girls is just something that all the Priconnes have to accept at some point. Kokkoro seems to have embraced this already because she has that acquaintance counter device with her. Also, to be fair with Kokkoro, she doesn't seem to be afraid to ask for what she wants. One of her homescreen line is her asking you to treat her as if she were your own bride.

Tsumugi

Remember the Just a Moment event? There, Nozomi worked too hard to the point of pissing off both Chika and Tsumugi. Tsumugi's role here is similar, and that is to tell Chika to take it easy. Wait, doesn't this make this make Chika sound like a hypocrite? Considering that Chika was the angriest at Nozomi during that event to the point of scaring Tsumugi. However, I think there's an explanation for that here, and that brings me to my next point...

KSKN

After Tsumugi told Chika to fuck off and take a break, Chika wanders around restlessly before encountering KSKN. Chika then confides to KSKN that she feels like she failed as a Song Summoner, as she was unable to guide Ranpha. KSKN tells her not to worry and suggests her to see things from the perspective of an idol. Chika then remembers that the job of an idol is to sing and dance to bring everyone's hearts together. And from there, she realizes that her and Ranpha need to be on the same page as well. Chika then runs off to Ranpha to talk.

During the talk, Chika brings up that she was glad when she found out there's another that uses songs as a weapon. At last, someone she can relate to, she thought. When Ranpha surrendered, she was glad and hoped that the two could be friends. This was the reason why she was so desperate in trying to guide Ranpha.

So, there you have it. Chika went full chink trying to groom Ranpha because one, she saw things through the lense of a Song Summoner, and not an idol. And two, it seemed Chika was just glad to find someone similar to her and wanted that someone to be on the right path.

The gang gets together

So, does all that support from the characters actually culminate into something here? Yes, it does! Ranpha is wondering where to write her song. At first, she wanted to write somewhere quiet so she can take it easy. She then reminisces about how she was happy with the company of Rage Legion, and from there, she realizes that she'd be also be happy to be in the company of the people with her right now. Chika, Sheffy, Tsumugi, KSKN. And so, Ranpha proposes the idea, and then...

While this isn't the "real" climax of the story, I find this just as satisfying, if not more. It's nice to see two songstresses actually do songstress things, and have it actually shown on screen.

Ameth

Ameth's just here to dump exposition about why the spirits are going batshit crazy. Long story short, it's because the world is lacking an admin. While not explicitly stated, I think this is because Eris is still recovering from the Arachne raid. The story words it like "us saving Sheffy might've been the cause for this". Without an admin, things start to degrade and since the spirits are one part of nature, they're also affected.

Because of this degradation, the spirit that went over to Ranpha and started spouting garbled voices misunderstood her begging to stop as an "ok" to go even more crazy. I think. I may have misunderstood. As always, feel free to call me out ITT if I do.

Wait a second, this doesn't explain why the monsters were attracted to Ranpha's singing in the first place. I think that's simply because Ranpha never finished writing a song to be officially recognized as a Song Summoner. After all, Ranpha didn't know what a Song Summoner was until after she met Chika.

Overall Thoughts

Very enjoyable story, I like how everyone has a role to play here. Well, except for Ameth, I guess. But she just had a whole-ass anniversary event that's all about her, so I suppose it's fine for her to sit on the sidelines for this event.

Difficulty

As I said, easy. Ranpha speaks slowly, but still uses a fair amount of kanji making her easier to understand than say, Precia. Well, that's all there is to say about the difficulty, really. 99% (797/799) comprehension. The two lines I missed are explained below.

There is one part I missed, although I have a feeling this isn't something that is intended to be understood anyways. As mentioned before, Ranpha started hearing garbled voices from a spirit. One of them is completely undecipherable (to me), but I could make out some words in the other two.

The words "mama" and "body" are there, but I'm not sure the meaning of it as a whole.

As for this one, it's quite obvious that the writers want you to understand at least this one because they didn't omit the kanjis. It says something about someone wanting to see their daughter again. This can't be anyone else but Azold looking for Precia. There's a bit of irony here, being able to understand this line about someone who literally never uses kanji, because the line still uses kanji...

That's all for this blogpost. See ya on the next one.

Nozomi got the Alchemist event, Chika got this event. So, is it Tsumugi's turn next?