The Magnificent Grande Scene volume 7 is Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) prep all day, all night!
No seriously: Kanade ends up seeing a familiar face in Ryo, who she met way back at the Dance for Fun class, and he too is taking part in the competition. Well, the different types of competition for each level, but the point is — everyone’s in training mode now and that means Kanade’s got to do everything she can to perform Diana in the preliminaries.
So what does that mean, aside from Kanade staying up way too late to watch ballet videos? Well in addition to her usual training she learns from her classmates a new way to improve her skills. So top that with her already realizing she needs to fully understand the role and her incredible passion, and she’s on track to do well. However, her grades might start becoming an issue at the rate she’s going. And so are costs for taking part in these competitions…
This volume focuses on the YAGP while also bringing to light so many characters developing in front of our eyes. It also showcases a dark side — the amount of training everyone has to do to compete at their age level. Naturally, you hear of athletes training relentlessly to improve their skills, and this series has brought it up plenty. Volume 7 only reinforces that and the cost of such passion: time and money. In this volume Shoko’s relentless positivity is at odds with everyone else, and the way she trains kind of seems detrimental to her success. All of this said, the amount of fun she shows and the fact that she’s fired up by her competitors might ultimately prove to be what helps her through this training period.
But all this ballet will be good until you fail…and if you fail, what’s next? Well, lots of sunken costs, as her parents realize how much money she needs. And then they even ask, as they know they’re biased, if she’s good enough to earn a scholarship. But these are the questions that have to be asked, and Kanade soon understands that as much as ballet matters to her, school life and what happens after ballet is important. Well, the school life is important now, but she has to basically balance doing both. This manga does a great job in showing how that’s done.
It also continues tying things all together, which is what manga should do properly. We got a sneak peek when, of all people, Ryo, whom Kanade met when she went to the Dance for Fun class, shows up at her class; the true reveal comes when Risa shows up and watches Kanade dance. Talk about coming full circle — Kanade got into ballet because of Risa, but after watching Kanade perform in practice, Risa found her real passion in ballet — and that’s making clothes for dancers. It’s beautiful to read, and from all the times they’ve talked to each other, it was a great moment here.
While Kanade continues to do weird things to get better (learn archery from a friend, learn it’s not right for her dance; talk to a old classmate, gain a skill because that friend’s in drama club), other characters continue their progression. Sakura is obviously not the same person when she first met Kanade, but their interactions now is night and day. It’s one of the rare times in a shounen series where the rival characters’ harsh language is actually endearing. That’s likely due to seeing her progression, how her words bounce off of Kanade to how’s she drawn in key moments (when Kanade meets Sakura at the airport is a good example). Ema is not only competing, she’s also doing the same dance as Shoko — so they’re at it again! This, however, is not the same Ema as before, so we’ll soon find out how her evolution takes place on the competitive stage.
Easily one of the strongest elements of The Magnificent Grand Scene is the rivalries. It is not a secret that rivalries are a thing in manga, or for athletes in any sport. But it’s brought up here in this volume, and it brings up a question: would having a rival motivate you to become better? The example for this is Risa, where as good as she was, she didn’t have someone like a Shoko, a Sakura, or an Ema to drive her. Maybe ultimately even if she did it wouldn’t have mattered, but it is a nice touch to point out — and contrast that with the personalities of each character, it makes these rivalries great, like you don’t want any of them to lose.
But that will be the case — there will be failures in this group. Thanks to how these characters have been built up, it’s easy to rally around them — and will be tough to see them when they lose. But we’ll soon see how these characters respond in this competition, and it’ll be interesting to say the least.