It’s the conclusion of the Hashimoto two-group chorus competition in Hashikko Ensemble Chapter 22: Me o Sorasanai (Don’t Look Away).

Summary

The Chorus Appreciation Society is up in the mini-competition being held at their school. To counter Tsuyama and company’s Spitz song meant to win Mimi-sensei over, they sing one of their own: “Sora mo Toberu hazu.” Despite Akira having performed for the opposing team, he also joins in here, like an impromptu double-agent.

Despite their impressive performance, all the guys cheer in favor of the other team—because a rumor spread that if Tsuyama’s crew wins, they’d get to touch Mimi-sensei’s breasts, and the winner is determined by decibel level. Hashimoto’s girls try to start a counter-cheer despite being heavily outnumbered, seemingly in vain. However, thanks to Science, the girls (and thus the Chorus Appreciation Society) win out.

Look Into My Eyes

While hearing the performance, Takano-sensei mentions that while there are four singers on stage, it sounds like there are only two. In a flashback, it’s shown that Jin had Akira and Orihara sing while looking directly at each other, making sure they didn’t avert their gazes. This is supposed to help you learn about the other person as a singer, and for you to be “showered” by their voice. To me, it feels like something that would be deeply intimate and personal, almost like looking at someone naked

The Science of Noise

As explained by one of the teachers as well as Jin, humans have a limit to which frequencies they can hear. “A-weighting” is a measuring of low-level frequencies, which is commonly where environmental noise resides, and A-weighting is used in music to achieve a sense of loudness to the human ear. Humans have a hard time hearing low-frequency sounds, as well as high-frequency sounds. It’s something students working in construction have to account for. The most easily heard range is 2–4 khz, the sound of a baby crying or a woman yelling. So while the guys sounded louder to the human ear, the girls managed to be even louder without seeming so.

Oh Shion

Shion is a certain kind of dumb that leans more towards naivete. In this chapter, she tries to come out in a bikini (similar to how Hasegawa is in her school swimsuit), only to get snatched away by a teacher and forced to change. It’s like she does and doesn’t realize what that would do to a school of mostly boys. There’s just a lot about her character that cracks me up every month, and Kio’s never really written a girl like her. She lacks a certain level of common sense, which I find highly relatable.

Shion plays piano for the Chorus Appreciation Society, and multiple characters point out how good she is. Takano-sensei thinks that Shion might be even better than her, while Kanon wonders why she’s even at a technical school in the first place. In a way, it’s fortunate that Shion had that personal crisis about what to do with her life, and that she ended up at Hashimoto. There’s something wonderful about someone trying to overcome their own weaknesses.

The Girl with the Deep Voice

Though not super prominent, Kurotaki Mai is emphasized a fair amount. She first appeared last chapter as the one who called over Hasegawa when Akira looked like he was going to get beat up by Tsuyama.

In multiple instances, Mai is the last face on a spread, or at least close to it, and there’s a kind of mini-arc over the course of the chapter. We already know that Mai, like Akira, is sensitive about her voice. Earlier, she’s shown being captivated by the performance. Later, when the girls are trying to out-shout the boys, she doesn’t immediately join in due to her complex. However, she seems to find that bit of courage, and begins to yell as well.

It feels like she’s going to become an important character—maybe a path for the girls to start forming their own singing group. There’s also the vague sense of some kind of love web with Akira, Shion, Himari, and Mai, but I can’t tell if the manga is headed that way.

Songs

Same as last time, the two mentioned are Spitz’s “Cherry” and “Sora mo Toberu hazu.” I should note that in previous chapters, I had translated it to “You’ve Gotta Be Able to Fly,” but the lyrics featured in this chapter clearly show it should be “We.” A literal translation would be “We Should Be Able to Fly in the Sky Too” but I’m trying to figure out a way to make it sound less unwieldy.

Final Thoughts

Takano-sensei seems to have encouraged Tsuyama and friends for this little competition as a way of getting them to accomplish something. It makes me remember that while they’re not the major part of this manga, Hashikko Ensemble is also a story about teachers and their students.