Star Anis feels more like a Hanson Redemption Arc (Critique of Part 2)

Spoiler are included as default. TL;DR at the bottom

So I finished the story. Slept over it a bit to organize my thoughts but I still gotta conclude that I did not like this Part 2 of the story, and here's why.

= The biggest factor is that T.T.Stars (or the group) makes some really bad decisions consciously. Admittedly they're immature, they're young, and everyone makes mistakes, but this group makes them too much

• Signing Oldstang's contract and refusing Hanson's suggestion to cancel it. Remember the group originally was going to wait for Hanson to arrive to sign it, but Oldstang gave his sob story and that pushed them over the edge--this suggests that Hanson was their main motive for making this mistake which becomes relevant for Incident 3
• Quickly realizing that Smile Box was a scam but declining to abandon it. It's worse because the girls constantly question whether this is the right thing to do as an idol but are likely burdened by the other girls enduring it that each of them decide to keep quiet about it as well. The fact that none of them tried to communicate or "talk it out" contrasts to how they constantly communicated in Part 1 and was just too contradictory, even if we know they were emotionally distressed.
• Kinda where I lost my sympathy. Remember that the group signing Oldstang's contract in the first place without consulting Hanson was to "give Hanson a chance to make up with his dad". When the group witnesses Hanson's argument with Oldstang they not only don't question if Oldstang initially lied to them about his sob-story but directly contrasts Hanson and say they can endure the ridicule right in front of the two characters. This is a conscious choice to weigh their idol careers over Hanson which directly contrasts the whole reason why they signed the contract without Hanson's input in the first place, and a display of utmost selfish behavior and disregard for Hanson.
  • I'll be honest, I expected the story to turn here and the group leave Tetra promising to pay back the cancellation cost, only for Oldstang to bombard them with false controversies and rumors that crushes their idol dreams along with the other "evils" of Ark. I feel like this would've made for a much more dramatic and sympathetic story.

These string of events causes massive distress for the girls and ultimately the death of their manager Riss. It is indeed sad that while evil lies with Oldstang, the [Fans], and the internet trolls, the girls of T.T.Star were the exact ones who put themselves in this place with the belief this was the correct path to stardom. They were given chances out but they didn't due to whatever reasons (it could be the fear of retaliation, complacency, or even just the fact that they didn't want to give up the fancy Tetra facilities), and didn't have the critical thinking to question how Tetra (and really Oldstang) simply discarded Yoyo after her controversy.

Through all of this the fact that the girls didn't turn to Hanson, literally the individual who was the manager for Pretty, the ex-director of Tetra, and the one who actually stayed with them when things were at their lowest was just too unnatural. On the other hand, it's likely that this action stemmed from guilt because they're the ones who claimed they can take this humiliation and Hanson himself was gone most of the time, ironically trying to clean up after their mess in his own ways

= The second issue is ironically Hanson. He was the only person who was able to resolve the issues in Part 2 with his intelligence and wit, and it's not even an exaggeration to say that without Hanson all 3 girls of T.T.Stars would probably be dead or gone through an even worse fate. Ironically the fact that he's so immensely capable worked against the story because he was a deus ex machina for all the problems that the girls created. For a small idol group that constantly makes immature mistakes and creates controversies, Hanson's behind-the-scenes work and ultimately sacrifice was what put them to stardom.

If at all, this kind of design only proves the internet trolls were right--none of the girls have anything special about them because throughout Part 2 the girls did almost nothing; it was Hanson's running around overturning the definition of Entertainment or weeding out the bad apples in Tetra. In theory ANY other idol group would've fit Hanson's goal of Entertainment because Anis's goal of "protecting the Ark" or "being a Star" was lost at one point.

It's even worse because it's explicitly stated that it was Hanson who took extreme measures to blot out every and all internet keywords of "SmileBox"--such a history would've clearly smudged the future for T.T.Stars and he knew it, ironically using the same methods as his dad for the sake of Entertainment. This further shows that Hanson was the key to T.T.Stars gaining fandom again, not the girls themselves.

= Third was that I really hoped for a bit more conflict or "pushback" from Hanson's acting as the new Mustang. As it stands the implication was that Oldstang decided to end his life in order to "cause more struggling for Hanson" and this was the prime form of Entertainment that Oldstang pursued. Hanson tells Oldstang that he will change the definition of Entertainment and is how he convinces Oldstang to give up his life, but this seems to be convenient story-writing because there's so many other ways that Oldstang could've pursued his "Entertainment"--an easy one being having Hanson inherit Tetra instead of "taking over as Mustang" without Oldstang dying. (Remember that Oldstang knew about Hanson's deal with the 2 CEOs, so this method would cause "more Entertainment" than him dying).

This "replacement" gimmick also seemed a bit too convenient. Simply having the consent of the individual to "replace" them with another would bring about a plethora of issues (with fraud like borrowing money, possible abuse of the systems, etc.) and Enikk would know this. Most characters who knew both characters also accept it too readily, and there's no public discourse over this sudden "change" that's shown. If at all I imagined due to the presence of a "fake" Hanson body through a subquest having VTC involved transferring Hanson's brain into Mustang's body sounded much more dramatic and plausible while also opening up to more controversy.

===

I really wanted the girls of T.T.Star to shine more than what was shown in Part 2 since that's why their leader's name is on the event title. We all know that Anis's redemption wasn't until much after her meeting with Rapi and the Commander, and most of Anis's statements in the earlier chapters heavily implied that she was oppressed by her [fans] during her idol career but this Part 2 story contrasts this with the fact that T.T.Stars willingly accepted this fate due to their own personal reasons.

Ultimately, I didn't see a sociological, psychological, or even a philosophical moral in this background story from Anis. Rapi's backstory was about finding oneself in the face of injustice or nihilism, Neon's backstory was about staying genuine, kind, and hardworking in the worst of scenarios. Anis's backstory was really more about "have a good connection with someone powerful to be successful" which is a truthful statement, but extremely capitalistic and cynical and not the kind of moral message I want from Shift Up. Mint's little monologue after Riss's death was admirable and I thought the group would start back up properly afterwards, but was short-lived because the immediate scene afterwards was Anis beating the living shit out of Yoyo and disbanding the group.

This event story seemed poorly designed, and I think it was because of all the foreshadows that SU showed until this point that there were only a few ways to connect all the dots, and these methods ended up being new and convenient story elements boiling down to "hey this was the previous history of T.T.Stars and how Hanson brought them up from nothing up to top stardom". It ironically directly contrasts Pretty/Oswald's story who had clear motives and goals and worked towards them at the cost of their lives and having clear oppression (Nikkephobia).

Another theory I can think of is that much of the storywriting was focused onto Chapter 45 and 46, because admittedly the presentation here was unexpectedly superb and thorough, suggesting more time and effort went into writing this main story instead.

In the end this is just my opinion I wanted to get off my chest. It's not going to be a popular opinion, but I did want to type all this up because all the opinions of those who say they didn't like Part 2 is poorly elaborated or not done at all.

TL;DR - T.T.Stars (and especially Anis) did almost nothing honorable in Part 2 and one can argue they set themselves up for this mess. There are no moral lesson to be learned here unlike Rapi/Neon's background stories, and if at all Hanson had to work his ass off and eventually sacrifice himself to resolve the mess, and is the real MVP.