in season one, all we know about nico’s backstory is that she gave up on being an idol, or at least holding a sizable club once her old members quit on her.
i found that odd after reading her school idol diary and learning more about her in season two. why would someone so passionate, stubborn, and determined give up so easily?
the details remain vague until season two, where we are given brief flashbacks. why did they bother giving nico more than one flashback of her handing out flyers? look at her uniform bow. although it is not outright said, nico didn’t just give up during her first year, after her old group members quit. she tried hard to recruit new members up until her last year in school, where she finally decided to accept that she would not only never achieve her dream, but also never hold close bonds with others.
i’m going to be a nico apologist here and say that with that in mind, it’s no wonder why she was so sour in her debut episode. nico had spent nearly two years trying to get people to join her club. to her, it was as though some girl in the year below her just waltzed onto the idol scene with a half-assed group that held less than half the passion nico felt about idols. ever since her first year, nico probably always held an underlying sense of being in the wrong for having so much passion, and honoka’s group appearing and succeeding out of nowhere did nothing to alleviate her frustrations.
because nico is the ‘comic relief’ character and the tone of the show is relatively light, it is very easy to forget that nico has gone through a lot emotionally, and was the member to go through the longest period of isolation from others.
