something something Irish potato famine

It's a clever touch that they've reframed the story such that we're not looking for the performance to be great or anything (we've already seen it a couple times now), but instead for Mizuka to be enjoying herself. It places less emphasis on the animation and more on the storytelling, which is probably easier to pull off.

Plot-wise, we kept getting "they finally pulled this off... but then this other bad thing happened", which is just good writing, but also it helps make the handwavy-er plot points (suddenly their performances are super good!) feel more earned. ... I hope Maria is okay...