The One With… Lily coming out of the closet with the truth behind her past and death. Better grab the nearest box of Kleenex tissues, because this one is quite the Tear Jerker.
Some time has passed since the eventful day at the Saga Rock Festival, and it seems our zombie idol heroines have decided to relish in their new success by checking out the latest scoop from Sagazine. The main article states that Franchouchou were compared to angels, of all things (given that they were literally enlightened with lightning during the performance).
Lily sees the article and is very pleased that she dazzled everyone alongside the rest of Franchouchou, and while Saki toys around with the shrimpy gal, Sakura compliments on Lily's shining star accessory that she keeps on her head at all times. D'aww.
We then cut to an office building somewhere around the prefecture's vicinity, as we see the usual rounds of the office staff arranging their lunch orders. One of the workers seems to love that Sicilian rice bowl, huh? Another worker, who is huge in size, decides to skip out on eating with his co-workers, and heads outside to eat his packed lunch at the nearby park. Apparently, the big bald-headed brute doesn't like staying for lunch, due to his workers watching TV during that time...which seems to upset the dude.
At the local park, the bald scar-faced being begins having his lunch, but is then shocked by the appearance of a random young girl playing at the park. His nervousness simmers down when she leaves, but as he begins reading the new issue of Sagazine, he starts to quake in utter terror...and it's all from seeing Lily Hoshikawa in that photo from Saga Rock. Uh-oh.
Another day, another morning report, as Kotaro begins his next briefing by blowing into a conch shell. Incorrectly. He gives the new status quo order to his zombie idol group, which is to keep making sure they ride that wave of popularity since Franchouchou have managed to secure stardom in the prefecture, for now. And of course, he assaults at least one zombie today- and it's Lily this time. Instead of anything rationally violent, he begins acting cutesy in front of her face, which embarrasses Lily.
After the report is over, we cut to a montage of Franchouchou performing in many, many mini-concerts and being part of new local events in the Saga prefecture. However, it seems like the big brute from before has started stalking Franchouchou, and given he has his eyes on Lily, things might begin to spiral downward when he shows up at their next meet-and-greet.
During Franchouchou's next meet-and-greet, we see that things have eased up for Junko, as she's given backstage duties while allowing her fans to respect her choice of fan interaction (as in, they can get signed photos of her that were pre-made). However, things don't look bright for Lily, as the creepy bald dude is waiting in line for her.
When the bald man is up close and personal with Lily, he begins to stutter in fear, as he cannot believe that he's interacting with the Lily Hoshikawa. But before anything can go from bad to worse, Saki rushes in with a kick to the dude's body, which knocks him out (which is surprising to see from a girl who's way smaller than he is!). Lily starts trying to let the group know who that dude was supposed to be, but she cannot finish her sentence as Sakura takes her away from the bald-headed freak.
Junko then tells Kotaro about what happened to the girls during the meet-and-greet (as the idol producer wasn't there during the commotion), and this greatly upsets him. Given that one of the major rules is to never touch the girls, Kotaro is kinda pissed at the potential harasser.
We see the group with the bald dude, with Sakura and Lily away from him just in case things go awry again. The scar-faced creep then finally tells his side of the truth: that blue-haired girl he wanted to talk to managed to resemble his dead daughter...her name being Lily Hoshikawa. With the bald man's identity now revealed as Lily's father known as Takeo, he is free to leave without punishment. But however, it was still a close call for Franchouchou at the end of the day, since their true identities cannot ever be revealed to the public eye.
Later that night, we see the girls getting ready for bed. However, Lily is still outside in the playground area of the mansion, and Sakura goes to check up on her. We see a lonely Lily, and Sakura decides to see why the lil' zombie is still out alone. Lily tells Sakura that today was a day she regret looking forward to, because that man who wanted to see Lily, was of course- her father Takeo.
Lily decides to tell Sakura her side of the truth behind Lily and her father's messy past, as we go into a flashback. As you see, Lily grew up with the brute-looking father of hers (and to be fair, she got her cute looks from her beautiful-looking mother, who passed on when Lily was a baby), and the two of them got along well perfectly. Lily's father Takeo was quite a huge fan of watching TV back then, and always loved it when his daughter Lily (who he referred to as "Masao") joined him in for some TV time.
However, this gave Lily the bright idea to become a TV star for her father, and with Takeo quitting his old job in order to become Lily's manager, the duo went on to achieve the impossible dream for any 12 year old kid. Lily managed to get a truckload of starring roles in Japanese primetime drama shows, and had a perfect reputation. But unfortunately, Lily eventually could not catch a break, especially when her father kept getting her into more and more roles...without realizing that he should be taking care of his kid.
With Lily on the brink of reaching puberty, she was worried that she would eventually grow up into becoming an ugly person like her father, and she wouldn't be able to be the shining star like she always has been. Takeo doesn't care though, as he demands Lily to get ready for her next TV appearance- and Lily yells back at him that she doesn't want to look like her daddy dearest.
At that moment, Lily looks at a mirror in her backstage bedroom, and notices a little something on her chin...the very first chin-hair of hers has started growing. She is then given the biggest stressful shock of her life, and has a dreadful heart attack that leaves her collapsing on the floor...dead.
Takeo breaks into her room immediately afterwards, but it is too late. His only daughter is now dead, and her last living moments was the fact that she didn't want to be like her dad. With this crushing culmination of events, Takeo grasps Lily's lifeless body, as he tearfully screams out for his "Masao".
Back to the present, and Sakura is incredibly puzzled at Lily bringing up a dude called "Masao" into the mix...
...and its then revealed that Lily's birth name was Masao Go. Thats right ladies and gentlemen, Lily is trans.
As Lily and Sakura head back inside, they both recount the tragic flashback story to the rest of Franchouchou. Saki laughs at how silly Lily's birth name was, and laughs harder at her father's silly name. That being said, Saki doesn't mind Lily being trans. In fact, everyone in the group does not mind Lily coming out of the closet! Which is surprising given that some people like Junko came from time periods where they never accepted that particular idea, but just like Saki said, it doesn't matter what 'junk' Lily has, because Lily is still Lily.
And what's even more surprising, is that Kotaro knew about this revelation before the girls did. With some of the girls being quite unpleased for him not telling the truth beforehand, Kotaro disses them for complaining about it in the first place. Who cares if Lily is trans or not? All she wants to do is dazzle people on stage, and Kotaro respects those life (and death) choices that she makes. So with that, he yells at the zombie girls to get some sleep.
Back at Takeo's house, we see him self-reflecting about him with Lily, and what happened after her death. During this flashback sequence, we see a very tired Lily at home trying to get her father to take her to the nearby park (which is now the park Takeo goes to for when he has lunch), but he is too self-absorbed in seeing Lily on TV, which upsets her.
We then see how Takeo dealt with the aftermath of Lily's passing, with the coroner stating to him that Lily died from a heart attack, which was caused from overwork, stress from dealing with her father and puberty beginning to set in. Afterwards, Takeo is seen watching TV and starts to weep when he hears Lily on TV say "Pappy!", which is how she refers to her daddy dearest as.
With the heavy weight of the entire situation Takeo went through, he decides to give himself a self-inflicted scar, and uncontrollably screams in utter pain as he smashes his TV onto the floor. Back to the present, and Takeo decides that he shouldn't treat the familiar idol he saw as his late daughter anymore.
The following day, Takeo goes to see Lily at another meet-and-greet and finally opens up his heart to the little idol about how he mistreated his daughter back then. Despite the fact that he's talking to Lily right now, he still manages to confess about his problems and gives Lily a hearty apology after hearing Lily telling him that she loves her own father. With that, Takeo then states that he'll leave the shrimpy idol alone- forever.
This gets on Lily's nerves for the rest of the session, and when the group returns home for the day, Sakura comes to tell Lily that the blue-haired zombie can take a breather for the night. However, Lily managed to realize about something she never expected to hear today: Her father managed to confess to her face that he still loves his daughter, no matter what happened to their relationship at the end...and Lily still loves her pappy so much to this day. With the heavy weight now placed on Lily's shoulders, she begins to sob loudly. And to add salt onto the rotting zombie wounds, she cannot see her father ever again under her real identity.
The girls then decide that they need to find a way to properly put this broken father-and-daughter relationship to rest in a brighter light. And the only way they'll do it is by making a new song for Lily to perform, with Kotaro giving his input as usual.
Lily's song is then headlined in a new local event for their fans to watch, and a brochure is sent to Takeo's office so he can see the event. But given he initially wanted to stay away from Franchouchou, he carefully thinks this over for a while...
The event takes place, but while the girls have performed all but one song, Takeo is nowhere to be seen...until the last possible minute. With Lily exclaiming "Pappy", the event can properly conclude with Franchouchou's newest song. Or rather, Lily's new song: "To My Dearest".
As Lily begins to sing, her words are given light on the situation of her relationship with her dad, and during the break before the song continues, she gives her own honesty about wanting to be on TV, and loves every one of her fans who watches her...especially Lily's biggest fan- her father. This moves the big brutish Takeo into tears, and the two reminisce about the good times they both had in the past, as Lily finishes her ballad.
Some time after that, we see Takeo at the office again. He then finally decides to stay in for lunch with his co-workers, and even allows them to order his chicken udon meal for the occasion. With Takeo watching Lily alongside the rest of Franchouchou on TV, it seems like he has moved on from Lily's untimely death. And while the two cannot properly reunite, they will still love each other 'till the end of time.
Tropes
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: The last time Lily and Takeo saw each other, they got into a big fight that ended with Lily dying from a heart attack. Years later as the two talk to each other again(albeit Lily hiding her identity), Takeo admits that he feels really horrible for the way he treated Lily and regrets not being able to reconcile with her. Later that evening, Sakura finds Lily sitting alone, and the young zombie breaks into tears in her arms, accepting that she still loves and misses her father.
- Bittersweet Ending: Lily and Takeo aren't able to properly reunite and reconcile, but Lily's performance helps give Takeo some closure to her death and allows him to begin moving on with his life. The last scene has him tuning in to more of Lily's performances on TV, finally able to rekindle his love for it.
- Death of a Child: Lily died at twelve years old from a heart attack. It's an odd case of Played for Drama though, as the death itself isn't shown as a major source of trauma for her. Instead the drama comes from how this affected her relationship with her father, who would spend years mourning, and not being able to see him again due to being a zombie causes her a lot of anguish.
- Dramatic Irony: Takeo doesn't know that "No.6" is actually his zombified daughter, thinking she's just an Identical Stranger. And Lily can't reveal her true identity because of the possible repercussions of outing herself as a zombie. This causes the two no shortage of strife.
- Identical Stranger: Invoked Trope. Lily can't reveal herself as a zombie to her father, so she pretends to be a lookalike to ease any suspicion.
- Missing Mom: Lily's mother died not long after she was born, having been raised by Takeo most of her life.
- My Greatest Failure: Takeo shoulders all the blame for causing Lily's heart attack, having lived for years in a deep state of grief.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Technically the case, given Lily's status as a zombie. While she's still around, she can't reveal her identity to Takeo, so from his perspective, his child is long gone.
- Queer Colors: When Lily reveals that she's trans to Sakura, the latter is wearing a skirt that's got light blue, pink, and white stripes, the colors of the Trans Pride Flag.
- Queer Establishing Moment: While telling Sakura the story of how she died, Lily reveals that she's transgender, with her death being due to the stress of gender dysphoria (among other things) causing her to suffer a fatal heart attack.
- The Reveal
- Lily is a young transgender girl. Born Masao Go, she transitioned early in life and died on the brink of puberty.
- She suffered fatal heart failure caused by an intense amount of stress from both her gender dysphoria and her demanding job.
- Wham Line: Lily coming out to Sakura.(Lily finishes her flashback)Sakura: "Um, wait. So what happened? Sorry it was kind of hard to keep up. Who is this Masao guy you were talking about?"Lily: "It's what my name used to be."
