I've had a lot of fun with #AkaneBanashi so far and there's plenty of opportunity for it to turn things around but basically none of its individual elements came together in a satisfying way this week. By FAR the worst episode of the show to date.

The contrast between what the show depicted and what it tells us it depicted is inherently off-putting, and it's made all the worse when Akane comes on and we're told how bland and low-energy she's being when, I dunno, she's coming off about how Koragi did. #AkaneBanashi

As was the attached flashback. Quiet, neutral, matter of fact, sleepy. What's worse is that we're arbitrarily told after the fact that she crushed it to the degree that she has a viable shot to win over Teeth Guy's lavish, high energy, full-episode performance last week. #AkaneBanashi

the delivery was simply quite bad IMO. Obviously a show about this type of performing arts is always going to need a lot of high energy and creative framing to generate visual interest and we simply didn't get that today. Koragi's performance was *desperately* dull. #AkaneBanashi