Sleepless in Mitsuzawa

"Sleepless in Mitsuzawa" is the fifth episode of StarLight. It was first written and published as part of Project 20:15, and was the last episode to be completed before the project's suspension. It was later published on FictionPress and SparkaTale in weekly instalments between 28 September and 28 October 2015.

"Sleepless in Mitsuzawa" follows Sanae as she deals with the effects of sleep deprivation after having to fight a monster at two in the morning. Throughout the episode, her attempts to catch up on her sleep are thwarted, culminating in a second monster attack - the first and only time two monsters attack in the same episode.

Plot
The episode starts with Sanae's parents coming home for a visit only to find their daughter asleep on the sofa. As her mother ponders how busy Sanae's day must have been, the episode flashes back to 2am that morning, as Sanae is woken by a monster attack downtown. She initially refuses to fight it, but is forced to by Kousen, and after a scrappy battle she destroys the monster with a White Star Beam. After arriving back home, she is then kept awake by the sound of roadworks outside her house.

The following morning, Sanae arrives at school in a state of exhaustion. When Inaba-sensei springs a pop quiz on the class, Sanae races through it by writing down nonsense answers and spends the rest of the period sleeping. Amaya tries to help her sleep through the following periods by drawing fake eyes onto Sanae's eyelids, making her appear awake, but this backfires when Sanae is called upon to answer a question to which she does not know the answer. Amaya then suggests that Sanae sleep through lunch; secretly, she plans to take advantage of this by transforming into Black Star and causing havoc in the city while her friend is asleep.

When lunchtime arrives, the roof is mercifully empty, but before Sanae can get to sleep, there is a sudden panic as another monster appears in the residential district. An irritated Sanae sneaks off to confront it, while Amaya proceeds with her plan to transform into Black Star. The White Star Fan Club volunteer to distract Black Star, allowing White Star to focus on dispatching the monster, a giant spider-like creature. She succeeds, but not without giving away her location to Black Star; the villain arrives spoiling for a fight, only to find her rival asleep on the ground. Remembering that Sanae is supposedly waiting for her on the school roof, Amaya hurriedly races back to the school, followed by Sanae; against all logic, Sanae arrives first.

At the end of the school day, Sanae is confronted by Inaba-sensei, who is incensed by Sanae's attitude to the pop quiz; she makes Sanae stay behind in detention and do the quiz properly. Upon finally arriving home, an exhausted Sanae collapses onto the sofa and falls asleep, thus leading to the point where the episode started. When Sanae finally wakes up, she finds to her horror that she has slept almost until her usual bedtime and is now wide awake.

Cultural references

 * Sanae and Amaya both make reference to "Medal Gear Salad V", a reference to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
 * The episode features two visual gags based on Death Note. The first is when Sanae fills in her pop quiz in an over-exuberant manner, parodying Light Yagami's exuberant writing style when writing in the Death Note. The second is Sanae's reaction to seeing her zero test score, which parodies L's shocked reaction to Misa inadvertently revealing the existence of shinigami. (Nurse has admitted that neither gag works in the light novel version)
 * White Star attempts to think of a witty one-liner before dispatching the second monster; when she cannot think of one, she remarks, "James Rond made this look so easy", referring to the character of James Bond and his trademark one-liners.
 * After Amaya arrived back at the roof to find Sanae already there, Hitomi interrupts the episode to ask how Sanae could have got there first, to which Mio replies, "Well, you've got me. By all accounts, it doesn't make sense". This exchange parodies a similar scene in The Emperor's New Groove.
 * At one point Mio uses the exclamation "by Homura's wings", while Sanae later says "for the love of Madoka", both references to Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Sanae also references the Pretty Cure franchise, claiming there are "fifty Pretty Cures" while she has to work by herself.
 * The episode's ending, together with Sanae's horrified cry of "I slept too long!", references the original ending of Army of Darkness, in which protagonist Ash Williams drinks too much sleep potion and wakes up in a post-apocalyptic future.