5/31/2024

This blog area is still kind of a work-in-process, but I need 2 talk so I’m gnna use it anyway lol. So I’m watching Pripara again from ep 1 with my boyfriend bcoz he’s never watched it b4 and it’s a necessary life experience to watch it all X3 and now that I’m not. Like. 11 years old lol I’m noticing sum things and wanna put down all my thoughts while the eps are fresh in my mind. Also for context I did rewatch it all a bit ago bcoz when i originally watched it, the service I was using to watch it started freaking out at around the jewlie episodes so I never finished it, but then I finished it up later over the course of a few years (I wasn’t binge watching or anything, just casually going thru it when I remembered to), so this is kind of my 3rd time watching it

I think the stuff they did with Sophie is interesting bcoz her whole red flash thing is a metaphor but it’s a little hard 4 me 2 grasp what exactly it’s a metaphor for? Like on one hand the obvious conclusion is that they’re supposed to be like her meds, but then as shown in the game show ep, she also just likes them generally and can really specifically identify silhouettes of different kinds of red flash as if it could be a special interest (which would be a little less of a metaphor lawlz) plus her father goes to great lengths to get her a perfect red flash as if it’s just smth she likes, but maybe that could also be like her father is tryna find a “cure” for her? Which would be messed up bcoz they portray this behavior as something sweet iirc but oh well. And idk, I’m not someone who needs meds of any kind so idk if her story of needing it when she was younger and then learning to mostly live without it makes sense? I know I’ve heard of some ADHD folk talk about how they used to be on meds but it made them feel like a zombie (or they otherwise didn’t like being on them for personal reasons) so they preferred being off them and learning how to live like that, and maybe that can be similar to Sophie’s story? Another theory could be that it’s not supposed to be representative of any condition at all and is instead supposed to represent her passion. Maybe the spark isn’t literal, it’s instead her internal spark and passion for dancing and how everyone in her life exploited that passion into something she just has to wield when necessary and then she just feels drained otherwise, and then her being able to live a little more without it is her learning to bring that passion into other aspects of her life?? Idk... i feel like every theory I can come up with has another aspect of Sophie lore that contradicts it I wonder what the writers were thinking with her so bad...... maybe they didn’t even consider it as a metaphor for anything, or mayyyyybe it’s supposed to be a metaphor, but not for anything in specific? So it’s her own unique condition so it can be relatable to more kids than just one specific story could be?

Another thing I’m thinking about is Dressing Pafe bcoz we just got to their debut. I’ve always been like "waaaahhh No DnD code is their best unit song I wish everything was like it" but then going through the context, I’m realizing how sidelined the twins are not only in the beginning episodes but also in that song too. They feel very much like a Twin Act to support Shion, kind of like what usagi was planning to do with New&Mew in Sophistee, and THOSE twins were mad about it and I’m surprised Dorothy isn’t more mad about it, but I guess she’s still inexperienced and is just happy to be performing right now. But yeah, the whole rock theme is mostly Shion’s style, and the pop of later songs is more of the twins’ style, and to be fair I still LOVE Change My World and Run For Jumping and stuff, and I guess I’m just realizing now that they’re more of an equally distributed team in those songs rather than Shion center with a twin support act. Still, though, it can’t just all be pop for the twins, I still wish later songs got back into the Shion vibe, bcoz PriPara proved they still had it in them with Absolute Life of a Final Show Girl, which is a song I LOOOOVE . We need Shion 2 let her interests out like that more often.

Last thing on my mind is something we haven’t gotten to yet in our rewatch, it’s just that I had saved a few screenshots of a conversation between Leona and Hibiki bcoz they were talking about their gender presentations and stuff and at first I was quite confused of what they were saying, but I think my thoughts have settled a bit more now. (this section will be heavy with headcanons lawlz)

I think Leona’s asking that cuz she’s like “omg another trans person ?!” So naturally she’s curious how Hibiki thinks and if he’s someone she can relate to, but I think the clash comes in the fact that Leona is a trans girl and Hibiki is nonbinary (at least 2 me). I think Hibiki’s line about the world being a lie and a farce is that he’s already personally grappled with the fact that gender is a social construct and is of the belief that if it’s just a construct, then none of it matters. He’s only worried about how he wants to present, and any gender that anyone extrapolates from that comes from their own view of the world, which is why he states that he doesn’t care what gender he’s viewed as. Whether you see him as a handsome princely woman or a beautiful charming man or anything else, he doesn’t care, because in the end he believes that’s more of a reflection of YOU and not him. How you view him won’t change who he is and what he does and so he doesn’t care. Meanwhile I think Leona does care. I think she wants to be seen as a girl. She wants to go to PriPara and any other location presenting completely as a girl and be read as a girl and is insecure about ‘being a boy’ and would rather people not know or not make a big deal of it. I’m still confused on the “I’m fine as I am” line, but I think that’s her in the process of accepting herself. She has a perception of herself that she considers who she “is” and wants others to see her this way, which is why this is her response to the world being a lie and a farce. She doesn’t think it is-- Leona thinks there’s truth and meaning behind who people are and how they wish to be perceived while Hibiki doesn’t think there’s any meaning beyond the contents of someone’s talents and personalities.