Thread by @RinmeikanGranny

I'm way behind on the Renaissance story, but in Chapter 1, the girls are put into groups as part of their Fundamentals of Performance II class. Hikari, Karen, and Mahiru are put into group G. Maya/Kaoruko, Futaba/Claudine, and Junna/Nana are the other groups.

Each group is supposed to perform a short play penned by previous students of the Fundamentals of Scriptwriting II class. Group G gets stuck with a particularly esoteric play about the Renaissance. Because it jumps between so many places and characters, they find it difficult.

Nana lets them know that particular script is considered difficult, and the senpai who wrote it even went on to become a scholar on Neoclassical performances, so they have their work cut out for them. It's up to them to learn and interpret the Renaissance script in their own way.

That explains the Maya/Kaoruko memoir. Their play is apparently Kobutori Jiisan:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobutori_…

I'll take a stab at translating, even though I found it pretty tricky...

Passion is Contagious

"This time, we exceeded 'Kobutori Jisan,' with 'Renaissance Kobutori Jisan' we can aim even higher!"
"...That's my wish!"
After watching Karen's G-group perform, Maya and Kaoruko feel the 'passion' of the Renaissance.
(1/2)

Next time we'll do it too, the Renaissance that we imagine....!
In this way, the theater Renaissance becomes contagiousー
(2/2)

I'm really curious how they go from an overview of the Renaissance down to focusing on Da Vinci and his thirsty, bitchy, gay apprentice Salai... 😹👌 I'll need to watch the next few chapters.... 🙏

Chapter 2 sees our intrepid researchers hit the library. They peruse the Renaissance section and find that there's lots of books on Da Vinci and Salai. They go over the basic history of Da Vinci not just being an artist, but also an inventor and a genius in many topics.

They touch briefly on the Mona Lisa being based on Lisa del Giacondo, and practice some lines from the play about Da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa with his assistant Salai (Hikari plays the Mona Lisa model lol).

After practicing their lines, however, they just don't feel that "spark" of the Renaissance, so they play a game to better understand the real essence of it. That gives Hikari an idea (the Renaissance is about subverting expectations and trying new things) and she runs off...

Chapter 3's got some real bread for Junnana fans. 😹👌
The chapter begins with Kaoruko and Maya reciting lines from their play, Kobutori Jisan. (Maya's the old man lol.) Mahiru watches them for inspiration and Kaoruko goes on about how her team is the best and will win for sure.

Banana and Junna stop by to ask how Mahiru's play is doing and they all chat about how hard of a play it is. Mahiru asks which play they're doing and it's about high school and looking back on youth through making candy. (Naturally, Junnana's play is about cooking 😹👌)

The twist in Junnana's play is they'll be making real candy as part of it. Junna shows us her hungry side and I'm not sure if it's for the candy or for the fact she'll be baking and acting with Nana 😹👌

"Fufufu, I'm really looking forward to it...what kind of play it'll be."

Banana: "Uh, Junna, you're going to act in it, right?"

Junna: "Uh, well I, can't eat it, then, can I!?"

Mahiru talks about what a great idea it is to actually make candy during the play, and Banana admits:
"Yeah. You know, after Junna-chan read the script, she said how about we try it? Amazing, right? 🎶"

Junna, blushing furiously 😹👌
"W-wait, Nana....!"

Junna: "After being taught by Nana, and making Valentine's chocolates, I kind of started to see my knack for making candy..."

Junna: "So I wanted to show that part of myself on the stage."

(You go, girl! 😹🙏)

Anyway, the moral of this story, thanks to Junna, is that they can innovate and bring something new to these scripts that wasn't there previously. They can infuse these performances with their own personality, which gives Mahiru an idea...

In Chapter 4, Mahiru wanders around town. Inspired by Junna and Nana's play, she decides she might want to cook something, too. At the mall, she finds a side dish called "Twist Potatoes" with a unique shape, which gives her an idea for a new dish using her family's farm potatoes.

Mahiru finds Karen still at school and still trying to figure out the essential quality of "Renaissance". Mahiru hands her a newly cooked dish just like in the event memoir--a pumpkin + potato croquette with a unique shape inside reminiscent of Da Vinci's helicopter.

Hikari shows up and asks for a croquette, too. They discuss how delicious it is and settle on the idea of "Renaissance" being unbound by old ideas, and discovering and creating new things. Finally understanding the theme they want to use, Group G moves forward on their play. 😎👏

😹😹😹👌 In Chapter 5, we see Group G rehearse their play. Mahiru as Salai and Hikari as Lisa have a croquette cook-off battle to determine who will have the right to be the model for the Mona Lisa (or is it really for Da Vinci Karen's attention? 😹👏)

We also see a lot of Mahiru Salai's gayer lines emerge during this part of the performance. Da Vinci Karen can't decide whose croquettes taste better, so she decides to paint the Mona Lisa with elements from both Lisa and Salai.

In a sudden twist, we learn that Salai Mahiru is actually a space alien from Planet Renaissance (seriously 😹👏) and her people are calling her back home. Da Vinci Karen wants to tag along, too, but their differences in technology are too much for now, so she has to stay back.

"My people need me." 😹😹😹👏💯

Space alien Salai Mahiru boards the ship back to Planet Renaissance, but not before Da Vinci Karen makes an impassioned promise to somehow reach that place someday and meet Salai again. 🤝

Special mention to Kaoruko's various reactions during this re-enactment. 😎👌💯

Finally we come to Chapter 6, where each group gets their grades. Kaoruko and Maya's group D gets first place for their rendition of Kobutori Jisan. Kaoruko takes this news with absolutely zero humility lmao.
"Fufu, a natural result~"

Claudine is naturally pissed to lose to Maya.
"Ugh...! Group D....Maya, I couldn't reach them....!"

Futaba is quite pissed to lose to Kaoruko, too.
"Shiiit~, that smug face of Kaoruko's! Disgusting!"

Meanwhile, the Junnana team is just peachy to get second place. (They tied with Claudine/Futaba's team).

The other chapters didn't touch on Claudine/Futaba's play, but it was discussed here. "A Sister's Letter" is apparently about an older sister from the past and a younger sister in the future. Also, Futaba apparently wore long hair for the play.

Unfortunately, Karen's G group didn't fare as well. They came in dead last due to their play going completely off the rails in the second half. 😹👌

However, that doesn't mean there weren't some strong points to their performance. Narrowing down a complex script to three main characters and a focused scenario (Da Vinci's painting of the Mona Lisa) made it easy to understand the theme. Class B thought it was very "Karen." 😹👌

Nana: "You got 100 percent full points for originality, but...
For straying too far from the original script you lost 100 points, huh."

However, by taking the script in a completely unconventional direction they essentially fulfilled the true theme of what a Renaissance is supposed to be (going against conventional wisdom to try new things), so this sparks a discussion on the essence of "Renaissance."

Kaoruko gets salty over all this discussion of Karen's play instead of her and Maya's play (since she and Maya came in first) until Maya gushes about how she felt the passion of the Renaissance and then Kaoruko gets swept up in it too and they have their gay memoir moment. 😹😹👌

(Kaoruko plays a good game of showing how she thinks she's number one, but boy, is it obvious she has a ton of respect for Maya. 😎👌)

Anyway, all's well that ends well. Even though they came in last in terms of grades, their off-the-rails interpretation of the Renaissance and its true essence fired everyone up, and they were able to convey their vision, so in the end their performance was a success. 😎👌