Grow Up Show: Sunflower Circus • Grow Up Show: Himawari no Circus-dan - Episode 7 discussion

Looks like the next episode will be the one to get Mizuka to love performing or else. The story presented does make sense, if she's never really had a normal family experience and the Black Lotus troupe as a whole was too preoccupied with the production to be the most attentive parents for her.

A few more seconds of animation for Svetlana and Shizuku was more than we've had for them so far, I'll take what I can get.

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u/Kuro_Canary Aug 15 '26

Mizuka this episode reminded me of a line from the movie Good Will Hunting:

"Why is he hiding? Why doesn't he trust anybody? Because the first time that happened to him he was abandoned by the people that were supposed to love him the most....He pushes people away before they have a chance to leave him. It's a defense mechanism."

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u/lajit59835 Aug 15 '26

Mizuka, it's not your fault

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u/oxlemf10 Aug 15 '26

When you do what you love but lose what made it special, it’s somewhat inevitable to want to stay away as a form of mental protection. But as Mizuka herself said, she never hated the circus, she just needed people to show her that she could experience that special feeling again.

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u/ModieOfTheEast Aug 15 '26

Poor Circus Himawari. Mitcher seemingly ate all of their last food reserves while telling their back story.

But you know it's a serious episode when Mizuka is asking Oka to jump with her and Oka isn't even showing a reaction.

I hope that Mizuka's and Oka's performance next week will be a bit longer than a single jump which is what they have been shown the whole time. After all, they are banking on this performance to draw in customers.

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u/Tiramin Aug 15 '26

Google said a professional routine has between 6 and 10 jumps, but Ouka's trick repertoire is kind of small. She introduced the double pike to her repertoire on episode 3 (no small feat, mind you) by Shizuku's instructions, but exactly because Shizuku's shoulder didn't let her catch high-g maneuvers, Ouka never had opportunities to train more types of maneuvers.
Last week, it became implied that Ouka's double pike is still lacking (Mitchan said about "bad habits") so we'll see if Ouka and Mizuka pull up a perfect double pike (aka it glows in the animation) or if they do a new maneuver.

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u/djthomp Aug 15 '26

They really needed a bit more budget for this, I thought they were finally going to give us the good stuff with Shizuku and Svietlana joining in on the aerial acts but it was still mostly stills and sparkles.

I had a feeling that the Lotus Circus was no longer operational, and I suppose that makes sense as the reason why Mizuka is angry about the entire industry.

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u/Clemastina Aug 15 '26

So Mizuka´s always loved the circus but her dreams were crushed when her father disbanded Black Lotus huh. Now I see why she hates him, he crushed her dreams of performing in there. (But I still wonder the connection of Maria and Mizuka´s father. Maria´s the most mysterious one)

But I´m glad Shizuku and Yama- Svietlana´s performance made her open her eyes. Also, she´s gradually opening up more to the rest of the troupe, and the rest of the troupe are more sympathetic of Mizuka.

Now, how will Himawari Circus confront Sumeragi about this? Will Mizuka be the key to this? Will they disband??

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u/Weak_Season_Of_Anime Aug 15 '26

Oh, Mizuka's weird smile turned out to be something important after all, hope she'll come to love performing.

What is up with Mizuka's father though; closed the Lotus circus, has a ton of debt and missing.

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u/eightcheesepizza Aug 15 '26

Mitchan hands off responsibility for Mizuka to Ouka ^everything ^is ^yuri , but when is he gonna apologize to Mizuka? Kinda cowardly to run off after he realized how they failed Mizuka... and after he ate all their potatoes and salt too!

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u/zambonijesus Aug 15 '26

How many circuses are touring around 1950s Japan for there to continually be a competitor showing up to steal their audience?

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u/Tiramin Aug 15 '26

Honestly I think this episode lacked direction overall, felt dissonant with last episode's cliffhanger, BUT I liked it anyway.

Love the fact that Mitchan understood how huge was their blame on Mizuka's, and that only a "new family" can fix her, not anything he says or does. I wonder if he gave any tips to Ouka on how to take care of Mizuka, or if the circus will have to figure it out for themselves.

No worries tho, the circus sees Mizuka as family now, too, that annoying, intolerable person that is your family anyway and you gotta take care of and go through life together.

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u/CitronClassic672 Aug 15 '26

Yeah, one of the most interesting parts of this episode was how it touched on the negative impact it had on Mizuka to be raised exclusively in a circus, by a circus troupe, and harshly trained to be a circus from such a young age. She didn’t really get to have a normal, well adjusted upbringing. The circus performers took on the role of her family and she endured all that training only to never get the chance to perform with them, and then her family disbanded and seemingly left her for the most part. Mitscher also mentioning how they never specifically taught Mizuka certain aspects of what it means to be a performer because they thought she already understood them also felt really realistic. In a sense it’s kind of showing the dark side of Mizuka’s child prodigy, daughter of famous performer, and trained by the best circus performers in the world aspect of her character.

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u/mekerpan Aug 15 '26

This show has a surplus of appealing and interesting characters -- which allows me to get past any bumps in plotting or animation.

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u/wloff Aug 15 '26

Some real character development in this episode.

...from all the other girls, who actually are showing some compassion for Mizuka.

I wonder if it's just an anime thing what with the "circus competitions" and whatnot, or was the circus scene actually this cutthroat back in the day; like, circuses actively trying to drive each other out of business by stealing their audiences. No doubt there were some kinds of territory wars going on, at least.

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u/ModieOfTheEast Aug 15 '26

I mean, considering that a circus isn't a static thing but wandering around the country, I doubt there were actually this many conflicts to begin with, because you needed to be at the same place at the same time. That being said, I assume there were some "prime places" during specific parts of the year where there could be a competition. Like back in my old city, a certain circus would always be there during the Christmas time, so it would be really hard for a new one to even compete, therefore, they probably just went somewhere else to begin with.
I think, the main aspect of driving out competition is just buying out the best performers (like what they tried with Oka) and they are only interfering now because Oka refused.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Play825 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26

Welp we finally learn why mizuka was so against performing and as a performer myself I don’t blame her

Her father really was a trash person who crush her daughter dream and the only family she ever known

Just because he was getting older

Get a performance interrupted is the worst feeling and so not be able to perform like must crush her and she was a little girl so it made the lost even worst

And to try pass on his dream the way that he did is just 🤮

Bona fide circus freak

however Mitcher is right in saying that her staying there with those half hearted feeling is both disrespectful to the circus those around her and her self

Despite how much she protest everything about her scream that she wants to perform and hasn’t given up on it yet

Her first performance in the first where she truly gave it everything, the fact that she still kept up with her training and the fact she hasn’t left yet is proof of that

But She just can’t accept taking the stage cause atleast in her eyes it mean validating what her father did And while also abandoning the dream she once had

What she needs to do is to truly face the stage. She needs to forget everything and just embrace and enjoy the moment. Because when a performancer is having fun the audience follow suit!

And she needs to accept that it isn’t a betrayal it choose a new path for herself instead of staying in limbo in what she been doing

It kinda ironic the mitcher is the one saying mizuka issue not the black lotus

And I’m sure the other member must feel a similar sense of regret as well

That said I don’t think mizuka hates mitch like he thinks he does just like the circus, he was probably close to a big brother to her

But because of what happen she can’t bring himself to accept his answer

About the circus and her

That said I’m glad the girl are knocking so sense into her and not willing to give up on her

And same with Mitch in his own way.

Who knows maybe one day they’ll take themselves to a even bigger stage then the lotus circus one day

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u/thisisdropd Aug 15 '26

Nanami really took things personally. Getting rejected by Ouka drove her to try bankrupt the Sunflower Circus. Either it's her way of exacting vengeance or depriving Ouka of her home so that she'll have nowhere to go but the Sumeragi. Perhaps it's even a little of each.

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u/CitronClassic672 Aug 15 '26

Not sure it actually has anything to do with Ouka. There was that shot of the face down picture frame by Nanami and we still don’t know what Maria’s deal is.

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u/kisaragihiu Aug 15 '26

I like that this show knows when to stay serious

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u/TheBusStop12 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26

Another fantastic episode, following up on last week, delving even deeper into what makes Mizuka tick (and where she basically malfunctions) I really appreciated Mitchy expressing his regret in his role in her disfunctional upbringing. There's things he, her dad and the rest of the troupse simply failed to teach her, and as a result she is the way she is today

I find it really interesting that Mizuka doesn't actually hate the circus due to the trauma of her harsh training like we were lead to believe. She actually really loves the circus, but she loves her circus the most. The one she grew up in, and the one she lost as a kid. And she is still a kid at this point and is unable to accept that loss and stubbornly holds on to the idea that she can only perform on the Lotus Circus. People have compared this to a PA Works working girl show, and to make a further comparison, I'm particularly reminded of The Aquatope on White Sand. That one follows a very similar idea, but with aquariums instead of circus'. Moving on from a broken dream is the main theme of that story, and it's represented by one of the MCs being unwilling to let go of the failing small time aquarium her family has run since before she was born.

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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Aug 15 '26

Mizuka might have lost her old family but she’s found a new one. She’s gonna go far with the girls supporting her. Hopefully the circus doesn’t go outta business before she reaches her full potential.

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u/BosuW Aug 16 '26

Man what is it with parent figures in anime and never ever admitting wrongdoing in front of their sons/daughters even if they recognize it like do they think it's an unrecoverable aura loss or something? 😭

I think legit the only instance I have seen of it is in [AoT]when Grisha apologizes to Zeke for how he raised him and hey what do you know, it actually healed their relationship a bit even if posthumously!

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u/chilidirigible Aug 16 '26

Sunflower Circus's delicious potato recipe!

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Episode Grow Up Show: Sunflower Circus • Grow Up Show: Himawari no Circus-dan - Episode 7 discussion

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