AKB0048 Next Stage - Episode 7

Mimori's succession has been decided by the powers that be, but who will she replace, and what will happen to the Mimori that her friends know and love?

It's this question that lingers throughout this week's AKB0048, as Mimori's colleagues happiness as they learn that Mimori is now a successor, and as a result is going to get a celebratory concert in her name, is offset by worries that the experience will somehow change her core personality.  On top of that, there is of course a little jealousy to add into the mix for those who are still understudies, not least Kanata as she finds herself the last of her generation yet to make it into the group proper.

Kanata's frustrations in turn bring concerns from Minami, who continues to fret that she's effectively stealing Kanata's time in the limelight as she seems like a cut and dried successor to herself - thus, a recurring theme this week is the assertion that Kanata needs to be more selfish in pursuing her own dream, words that potentially sink in when spoken by the new Mariko at the end of her celebratory concert.

All of this makes for another decent enough if unspectacular episode of AKB0048, punctuated by further progression of the deeper story surrounding the Zodiac Group and the fate of the Centre Novae - two plot threads which have now become irreconcilably tangled into a single major focus of the story at hand.  I really hope that this side of the show starts to get more play in the coming weeks, as I'm more than ready for its progression to stop being punctuation and start being the main course (to mix my metaphors).  I get the feeling that this probably won't happen until near the very end of the series, but a guy can dream can't he?