The Fall 2022 Preview Guide

IDOLiSH7 Third Beat! Part 2

Kujo starts carrying out his plans to defame Gaku and Ryu, in attempt to make Tenn become a solo artist to better achieve his goal of nurturing the idol who will surpass the missing Zero. Meanwhile, a new group ŹOOĻ makes their debut, but they're giving the other idols the cold shoulder. Worse is when more of the past - especially related to Zero's lyricist Haruki Sakura - continues to surface. And it seems ŹOOĻ's manager, Ryo Tsukumo, also has his own evil plans.

IDOLiSH7 Third Beat! is the third season of the television anime based on the IDOLiSH7 smartphone game and streams on Crunchyroll on Sundays.

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

In this moment of joy at the return of IDOLiSH7, the idol show I can't seem to get enough of, I am hard pressed to decide who I dislike more: Kujo, Tsukumo, or ŹOOĻ. Based on the content of this episode, which wastes very little time recapping the previous thirteen episodes before diving right back into the Tsukumo-orchestrated crisis, it's looking like ŹOOĻ's four members are more convenient patsies than anything more dire. While at least one has been mistreated by the garbage fire that is Kujo, they're all basically in the right mindspace at the right time for Tsukumo to take advantage of them in his various vendettas. In fact, they specifically say that they don't want to be involved in anything illegal when Tsukumo is talking about his evil plans for TRIGGER. (And then they're promptly all complicit in three kidnappings. Whoops.)

TRIGGER remains in the line of fire as Tsukumo enacts his nefarious schemes. While this could be moderately disappointing if you're in this series for the boys of the title, it feels like TRIGGER is being used as a catalyst for their own development. Tsukumo doesn't appear to be counting on the fact that one of the young men he's targeting is the twin brother of Riku of IDOLiSH7, or if he is, he's under the impression that the rivalry between the two groups and the tension between the twins will prevent Riku from doing anything to help. In this he is sadly mistaken, because as we saw when his mouthpiece attempted to embarrass Yaotome on live TV, Mitsuki jumped in to save him from scandal. It may simply be that Tsukumo's worldview doesn't allow for self-sacrificing, kindhearted people, and that's looking like it may be the one thing that could defeat him.

It's not unique to the IDOLiSH7 guys, either – Yaotome senior knows he's being tricked into a compromising situation, but he goes anyway when he fears that Hanamaki may commit suicide, and Tenn basically offers himself up as a sacrifice to Kujo so that no more people's lives will be ruined by his insane ambition. The stakes are very high going into this season, and while this episode has its lighter moments, the anxiety of what they're all facing taints every action. It looks like we'll be in for a wild ride, but since it comes with new songs and plenty of drama, just fasten your seatbelts and get ready to hold on.