Still found it hard to like Eri. I was betting on this episode to make me change my mind. Although it eased it a bit, still don’t like her as much.
She means well. Her intentions to save the school are honest to heart… but she takes it too seriously. She feels it’s something she MUST do because of her position of student council president. And because of it, she takes it out on the girls and their (school) idol activities thinking such amateurish activities is not a good image for such a prestigious school… or at least she tries to make it look prestigious.
At least this episode, she tried to make them become better.
Nobody questioned Kotori’s power levels. (Want this to be addressed before the series ends.)
She was so sure they would quit because the training would be too hard for them. Her elite ballet is not for the weak minded. That was the only reason she decided to help, they’ll quit once they learn how tough it is to be a good dancer.
TOTALLY WRONG THERE, ERI!
These girls love their school, they’re doing this to save the school. Yeah, they may be having fun and enjoying themselves, but their main objective is to prevent the school from shutting down. That’s why they’ll take your training, no matter how difficult, and ask for more lessons!
You know how determined they are. You know how passionate they are. You know they want to save the school just as much as you do.
What will you do?
Don’t think about your position. Don’t think what you SHOULD do. Remove that stick.
What do you WANT to do?
She was just like Nico. She wanted to be part of the group. She wasn’t honest with herself.
Eri was so hellbent on saving the school on her own terms she thought their activities would be worse for the school.
But what do you know, showing how fun you’re having in school, showing how great it is to be with your friends, turned out to be more effective than your initial plans, Eri.
Damn, am I being hard on Eri? lol
I mentioned I still don’t like her, but I don’t hate her as much as before, knowing more about her side of the story eased it up a bit. Here’s hoping future episodes will change my mind!
Open Your Mind 
What? You still don’t like her enough?
http://www.imagebam.com/image/a039a6239169878
http://www.imagebam.com/image/bd2f0c239169864
http://www.imagebam.com/image/508996239169868
She lightens up now and hopefully she’s more likable in the future. Personally I never really hated her since I find her seriousness not really an issue. Although that’s probably because I grew up around pretty serious people so it never really bothers me as much. However it’s still good that we have an even balance between serious and genki characters.
I don’t mind the seriousness, I like that. What I don’t like was her elitist attitude towards school idols. She trained in ballet dancing, that somehow makes her better than any school idol by default as she sees them as amateur dancers… no matter how popular they are.
She was the antagonist for the girls, nothing wrong there, I liked her in that role to be honest. But seeing everyone else in a lower level than her was what I didn’t like her for.
She lightened up, and that attitude/view is gone, making her more likeable to me, but I will still need a bit more time.
CONVINCE ME, ERI!
What I was getting is slightly different. It was clear that when she was a child, she loved and enjoyed ballet. But no matter how much she tried, she never won. That probably made her think “Fun = No Win”. Therefore she saw that Muse was full of fun and therefore they could not fill the purpose of saving the school. The key was that she WANTS to have fun but she thinks that having fun won’t get her anywhere and won’t help the school because not having fun means helping the school. This point is pointed out by Nozomi which is why Eri than started crying because she wants to have fun but her thinking of “having fun = no win” have already brought her to this so how can she simply just asked to join?
When Muse proves that they can work hard and still have fun, she starts doubting her thinking the entire time. That’s why I don’t really think it’s her elitist thinking but the whole “fun = no win” is what cause the issue.
That does make more sense.
But regardless of fun vs no fun, she still saw all the school idols as amateurs with no skills. She even believes the top school idol group, A-Rise, to be below of what she believes to be skillful dancing.
True. The good thing though is that she’s not keeping the skills all to herself. She’s very willing to teach once she realizes that Muse are also trying very hard and are determined. And… now that she joined, her Spartain dance training together with Umi’s daily drill is going to raise the overal group skills quite high. That means they’re going to start wiping the floors with the other groups right? :D Can’t wait too see how well they will be doing.
On a side note, it’s pretty clear in one of the scene how out of shape Honoka, Hanayo, Kotori, and Nico are. I’m a bit surprised at how fit Nozomi really is. But now that I think about it, she seems to sweep the shrine’s floor everyday so her stamina is definitely quite high.
HELLISH TRAINING FROM HELL CONTINUES! MUSE’S WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE!
Was Kotori really shown to be out of shape? If anything, I think she’s the most in shape of the group… this because I think–
I’ll leave my speculation aside for now. ;)