the battle of finally being free: ririka and her understanding of what it means to love someone and be loved equally.

it’s crazy to think that i’m writing an analysis on ririka three years after my first one! it’s beautiful to see how she grew in some ways and how she managed to get more playful and be able to be more sincere with herself.

chapter 82 brings us a new ririka, one that is a little more in touch with herself. compared to other chapters, where we only see ririka making snarky remarks at shima or blushing in silence, now we have her start to understand more of her feelings towards shima and the whole past they shared together.

i believe that ririka once had romantic feelings for shima. however, they ended up getting very mixed up with all the damage that they went through. after everything that happened with ririka and her career, she started to associate shima as one of the responsibles for the backlash she received, since she was the one that, worried about what her friend was getting himself into, followed him to the karaoke and got caught into a fake drama. 

it’s not that she blames him entirely, it’s just one way she found to try to regain her authority. she knows, deep down, that he was also a victim of the adults around them. that is very noticiable when she confronts shima’s mother after the first school play, questioning if she was once again forcing her son to act on her behalf. growing up so close to shima, it was clear to her how much he also suffered with the fame they had as kids.

however, even with this understanding, it was hard for her to truly get in contact with what she actually felt about everything. to protect herself, her career and her reputation, ririka started to develop a more combative personality that often came to clash with shima. I talked about this before when i first analysed her: she’s not trying to compete or to traumatize him back, she’s just trying to find her place in this mess. and knowing he does feel guilty about everything that happened, playing with that is the only way she sees as a way for him to stay by her side.

i don’t really want to dissect her reactions with shima in the past right now, but focus more on how it developed from then to now. 

as ririka starts to build her career back once again, she finally gets the reassurance and security she was looking for. then, forcing shima to feel guilty about everything that happened starts to feel pointless. she got everything she wanted again by herself and her hard work, and all this time her two best friends were by her side, rooting for her. she knows how important they are to her and how important their own lives and feelings are to each one of them. 

and because of that, those old romantic feelings start to sound a little distant, something she let go before even realizing. 

she knows that there was a time she could force shima to go out with her, but doing that would be pointless, because he never felt the same about her. no matter how big it was the understanding between the two and how painful their story together was, bringing this type of love to the middle of all that would just hurt both of them even more. there will be no romance to grow from it — in fact, it could destroy their relationship completely.

maybe they would meet in the middle, after all. maybe their feelings would start to be the same but…would that make sense, for both of them? would that be real or would that mean they are just trying to tie each other using a more aggressive, easy to break rope rather than the firm one they are already using to tie their friendship together? 

ririka wants her freedom. and by wanting that, she needs to let go of everything she once felt. and that also means that there’s no need for her to force anything on anyone anymore. she’s slowly getting roles she always dreamed of, she doesn’t need to guilt shima to be by her side anymore and there’s also chris, who never, ever left her side (and even were sincere enough with her to often show her hypocrisy to her face). 

contrary to what i’ve seen so many read ririka, she was never mean or manipulative: she was only using the resources she had, the ones that she was taught ever since little. the adults controlled her, her feelings, her career, her place in the universe, so how would she build her own self if not by replicating the same things? 

the “spicy” ririka is still there. of course, there will be jealousy and there will be the same ririka who always wants shima to stay by her side, so there will be moments where she will snap or try to get the attention all to herself. but that’s how growth works: it’s not linear, it’s not simple; there’s ups and many, many downs. the difference is that now there’s a steady ground for her to stand on and continue to build the path she wants to create for herself. 

ririka is an amazing character that shows the consequences of misogyny, how it is to grow with an immense hate from people who don’t even know you, and how a teenager deals with a trauma that follows her for years. she understood that the love she was looking for was always there, by her side, and that letting the people around her be as free as herself would only bring them closer. 

Miku Martineau as Yumeko Jabami

Devyn Nekoda as Mary Saotome

Charlie Bushnell as Ryota Suzui

Ashley Liao as Itsuki Sumeragi

Lisa Yamada as Kirari Momobami

Momona Tamada as Ririka Momobami

Ciara Riley Wilson as Yumemi Yumemite

Miya Cech as Runa Yomozuki

"I gave some thought to this guy whose weak point I couldn't find. I love, therefore I suffer; I love, therefore I shoulder sadness and live with a bunch of feelings…and ∴ I just live it out. QED."

Ririka seems so much more vulnerable when she's surrounded by Chris and Sousuke!

You can feel how at peace she is. Despite the obstacles, she managed to regain her star status!

There is no more anger, only the satisfaction of having reclaimed her star status through her own efforts.