Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Oshi no Ko Season 2
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tintor2
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Aqua casually changing subjects has to be one of the best cliffhangers this series ever had since Akane "entered into Ai mode"
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jdnation
Posts: 2085 |
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Well this episode was certainly a banger on every level and theme, from comedy about Kanna's romantic envy to the play's performances, to nuggets of industry insight, personal revelations, supporting characters being developed in interesting ways, and a big cliffhanger development!
But the highlight was definitely Aqua's moment. I'm surprised that he did manage to overcome himself purely by focusing on Ai, and it is great to see Ai returning in new flashbacks and a "dream" sequence, and it worked. I'm really wondering hiw Akane is feeling, and that she deliberately channeled Ai to help Aqua. I am also convinced at the point that Kanna is utterky clueless about Aqua's past. I wonder also if Ruby felt anything watching that scene with Aqua. So much to know! This was an excellent episode, and Oshi No Ko continues to surpriseus with it's prime story. And it would make total sense that Aqua's pap is a player. |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2479 |
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I think this Aqua sequence was the first time I felt like the show used his reincarnation in a way that seemed somewhat necessary; at least, the specific array of emotions on display there would need some modest re-writing to sell it as something a non-reincarnated kid who witnessed their mother's murder would feel.
Excellent episode all-around, in any case. It took a while for me to be sold on all the new secondary characters, but I've become pretty hooked by the end of this season. The only thing I can even think to criticize is that the Aqua conversational heel-turn felt very abrupt, given how intensely focused he seemed on the director at first. But, that's so minor I can't bring myself to get worked up over it at all. Last edited by NeverConvex on Thu Aug 29, 2024 2:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Shay Guy
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"Something like that won't kill me," Aqua imagines Ai saying -- wishing her lie could've been the truth.
The very first word in "Idol" is "muteki", invincible. It goes on to describe Ai with words like "kanpeki", perfect; "kyuukyoku", ultimate; "saikyou", strongest. Aqua says "Her speech and behavior are seemingly all-conquering" in S1E7. That was her persona, her character. And it doesn't seem right that someone like that could die to a random stalker with a knife. So of course Aqua retreats from cold reality and dreams that it isn't so. That the ultimate idol, Ai of B Komachi, could've been more than just Ai Hoshino, a girl as mortal as anyone. It's how the entertainment industry works, after all. We choose to believe lies.
Pretty sure this play still counts as "2.5D", just as much as the TeniPuri musicals. Got the wigs and everything.
That track started when Blade and Tsurugi activated Saya's scabbard, and Aqua retreated into his mental space to channel his fantasy. I'm not sure I recognize the mournful track that plays in the last part of the Touki/Blade fight -- it could be from later in that same scene -- but the tune that plays when Saya's healed is definitely the one used when Ai opens the door and sees her children's lives flash before her eyes. |
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minamikaze
Posts: 241 |
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Right, the distinction made previously in the show was the difference between a regular stage play and a "stage around" play, not a regular stage play and a 2.5D play (which is just a play that features characters from manga, anime or video games). For example here is a scene from West Side Story which was a "stage around" (not a 2.5D) production: youtube link. Here are 2.5D (not "stage around") productions of Kimetsu no Yaiba and My Hero Academia Sadly, as someone already mentioned in this thread, IHI Stage Around Tokyo, which was the venue the theater in the show was based on, has closed permanently, so they couldn't use it even if they wanted to do so. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 13217 |
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Rie Takahashi as Ai returns! Watching her praising her sons' acting and seeing what's going on with him now...chills.
This was really about Aqua grappling with his feelings and facing himself...not just the Goro part of him but also the emotionally traumatized child still mourning his mothers' death. And obviously he channels that rage and pain into his performance, viscerally so, but just for a brief moment he's able to believe his mother is alive and be happy...even if it's a dream. Kana questioning how she was going to do this for a full month (on top of her B-Komachi obligations) really makes me want to see how much the production stood up across teh entire stage run. Like was Melt able to pull off that move each time? Did everybody get that burst of Doga Koba acting flourishes every time? Did Kana have to watch Aqua Princess Carry Akane down the stage every time? Though I hope she got him pinching her face every time too. Ai represents the acting ideal...to make people believe you are more exceptional and cute than is possible for a person. And it seems like Kana came close to that idea. Ha! Kana and Akane both think the other "won" and are driven even more to surpass each other...and in Aqua's heart. The greatest acting performance of Kana's life was acting drunk off of ginger ale. I actually wonder if in reality they probably would have let the underage performers drink alcohol (which I think anime are legally unable to depict) though it wouldn't be the first anime character to get drunk off of something they can't get drunk off of. You know the moment she turns 20 Kana is hitting the booze. I did not expect the brother reveal with Himekawa. Like how did Kana even figure it out enough to know he had to do a DNA test? And hilariously his big brother took him to a hostess club for actors. |
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TJ_Kat
Posts: 408 Location: Saskatoon, Canada |
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Fully expected both Kana and Akane to think the other one won. But IMO, I think this one goes to Kana. While Kana was impressed with Akane's acting, she never lost control, backed off due to her own issues, and ceded the stage to Akane. Akane on the other hand was captivated by Kana's performance and Kana took the stage from her. Plus we the viewer know that Akane didn't actually draw Aqua's performance out of him, that he found a way to use his memories of Ai to inform his performance.
I'm happy Melt got his redemption with the shot of Abiko-sensei gushing over him and Yoriko-sensi all smiles. |
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Shay Guy
Posts: 2253 |
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You know what Kaburagi's comments make me think of? The first chapter of The Princess Bride. If you've never read the book, its first line is this: "The year Buttercup was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette." It goes on like this for a while, having some fun with the idea of "the world's most beautiful woman" as something that can be objectively known, mentioning that at 15 Buttercup was "barely in the top twenty, and that primarily on potential". She doesn't know or care, because, "What difference could it have made if you were only the third most beautiful. Or the sixth." There are maybe five million teenage girls in Japan. If we imagine it were possible to rank them by "cuteness" or whatever, there would be 50,000 in the top percentile. A whole lot of those 50,000, we can assume, would be in the entertainment industry, encouraged by people telling them they could be an idol, model, actress, etc. And the entertainment industry isn't that big, which means top-percentile girls are everywhere there. So how much difference can there really be between #1 and #50,000? The waitresses at that private bar have what it takes to be in entertainment, but still haven't been able to make it big (apparently only 2% of actors can make a living from it). Back in S1E2, when Ruby applied to Totally Not AKB48, she was one of 136,000, of whom 1,288 made it to the second round. When the industry lures so many people in from everywhere, how does a producer pick? And what really determines which of the people who are given a shot strike gold? Yeah, I guess it comes down to how well someone can sell the image. That and luck. Just like how Aqua thought of Ai's aura as something that just showed how innately extraordinary it was, before Akane proved it could be reverse-engineered. |
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Covnam
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 And here I figured we'd be spending a few episodes chasing after the Lala Lai vet only for the inevitable reveal that he's not the father, but I never would guessed we'd get a surprise half-brother instead!
Kana got two great reaction faces this week Also, since I forgot to mention it earlier, I think it was the premier episode of the play, but that wire work they had Kana perform was crazy. If these were real actors, that would be amazing to be able to do in just a few months when she's not a stuntwoman.
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Clarste
Posts: 432 |
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I don't think Aqua figured anything out, he just blindly does DNA tests on everyone he meets in the industry, just in case. This guy just happens to be the first hit he's gotten. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2085 |
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There is some smart writing with this reveal.
Given the age difference, we can now conclude that Aqua's dad is likely much older than we thought. Ai might've fallen for an older guy who maybe she unconsciously desired as a father figure who was missing from her life. If this guy has been sleeping around regularly and having kids he doesn't care for and the girls remain quiet without any support, suggests someone pretty famous and powerful, or at least an asset worth protecting and covering up scandal over by some powerful exec. I get the feeling that this story is not something as simple as Aqua's father being the villain. And I'm still suspicious about Ai's criminal mother. Wouldn't surprise me if there are any Yakuza ties in this business. |
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tintor2
Posts: 2066 |
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Nice seeing Aqua taking a backseat but I wondered if they would close that miniarc by explaining what happened to the play in general rather than moving so casually to Ruby. The revenge is also interesting cos it's obvious it will return judging by the eye symbolism (especially with how the ending theme "Mephisto" played with Aqua as a guy who will who to the biggest underground to achieve his desire)
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18393 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Yeah, too much doesn't add up here (and I mean that literally as well as figuratively) to take any of the big reveal at face value. Unless Taiki is fudging a lot on the time frame, the dates don't work out; the man he thinks is his father would have committed suicide a year or more before Ai died, and Aqua is too rattled to notice that. Also, I can't buy that a struggling, suicide-prone actor would have the wherewithal to orchestrate the attempts on Ai's life even if the time frame wasn't an issue. Seems more likely that Taiki's mother, rather than father, was the one having the affair, and I wouldn't be surprised if that somehow played into the double suicide. (If Aqua's father could have orchestrated sending the obsessive fan after Ai, he certainly could have orchestrated a double-suicide to cover up another loose end.) And to be clear, I haven't read past the first volume of the manga, so this is anime-only speculation.
As great as the Tokyo Blade arc was, I'm definitely appreciating Ruby getting a lot more attention, and I'm intrigued by what this Miyazaki return visit could lead to. |
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MemoBookworm
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My thought was that Taiki's "father" was the womanizing jerk Taiki thinks he is and his mom had an affair out of revenge that resulted in Taiki. The "father" finds out his "son" isn't his and kills the mom and himself. Though it didn't occur to me that this is indeed possibly two more suspicious deaths until I read your comment. |
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Shay Guy
Posts: 2253 |
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For what it's worth, Akasaka's been known to goof on occasion with the timeline. Couple of examples that have already been in the anime:
Ruby says at Ai's grave in episode 12 that four months have passed since the new B Komachi's first concert. JIF is based on Tokyo Idol Festival, so that should've been in August… but if that grave scene is meant to be taking place around the same time as the rest of the episode, the timing doesn't work out. Over three weeks of rehearsal and a one-month run for the play that ends in mid-January means the start of rehearsals should've been in late November. Rounding to "four months" is a bit of a stretch, even after the anime tweaked it (the manga has the run ending in mid-December). And when Akane does her detective act in episode 15, she says Ai died 14 years ago, but from what's been established previously, it should be right around 13 years ago, or just under. That is, episode 1 established that the twins were three when Ai died (and there was an early snow a few days later, which gives an idea of the time of year). They entered high school in episode 4, which means they were 15 on April 1, and episode 6 establishes that Aqua had turned 16 by the time of the Akane incident, so the twins were probably spring babies. Add it all up, and the timeline looks something like:
Also, Himekawa says, "How old are you again? Seventeen?" in this episode, and Aqua doesn't contradict him. So the timing of the Uehara/Himekawa suicide could be another case. |
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