The title may grace an A&V editorial — there's so much material in that little episode — but actually I only have time to note that I did not understand what transpired at all. To me it looked like this:
- Dance practice is ongoing; the instructor interrupts it.
- Instructor singles out Kanata for pointy criticism, especially in view of her belonging to the 75th, so more is expected from her.
- Instructor orders Kanata and Chieri to swap places, with Chieri going to the front row.
- Kanata throws a tantrum over her demotion.
- Chieri asks to be excused from the swap, under the excuse of needing to see 75th in front because she is not yet entirely familiar with the routine.
- Kanata runs away in histery; The 77th blame Chieri and express their disapproval to her.
What has just happened? Why is this Chieri's fault by unanimous agreement? It makes no sense! (Also, what did they expect her to do? Swap quietly?)
And they say that Russian soul is mysterious. Hah!
In the days past I would rewatch the raw, transcribe, translate, and refer to other blogs to get the sense. But now I have no time. Maybe later.
UPDATE: Kotaro-Robert Miyahara suggested that the house went down when Chieri said "私は入ったばかりです。何も分からない。だから、先輩にしっかりしてもらわないと困ります。". Okay, and...? I need a closer look.
Kurogane e-mailed:
That part relates back to the Asian concept of 'face'.
When the instructor told Kanata to change positions with Chieri, he was implying that Chieri's a lot better than her... which is pretty embarassing since she's been there for two years and having someone who just joined two WEEKS before to replace her totally ruins that 'face'.
Well, that's bad enough already, but Chieri's refusal to swap positions would have been 'saving face' if she rejected it outright, but she just HAD to add the "I just only joined recently.." line [The one Robert-Kotaro highlighted above — Author], which was indirectly telling Kanata that she sucked.
Basically, the part about 'setting an example as a senior' is usually understood implicitly when you join any organization or class like that, so when you state it outright at a situation like that, it's pretty much a direct jab at the person. Chieri's saying that she was expecting her to set the example in that situation (dance lessons) but instead Kanata is going ahead to argue with the instructor and totally ruining the class.
I do agree with her mostly, but in situations like this, the nail that sticks out pretty much holds all the blame. It's really an Asian thing, and unless you are born as one or lived in the culture for a long period of time, it's a little hard to get the nuances to actions like this.