Oshi no Ko Season 2, Episode 2 Puts the Anime's Love Triangle on Ice (2024)

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Oshi no Ko stands out as one of the best returning anime in Summer 2024, opening Season 2 with a bang as the Tokyo Blade story arc takes over the narrative. The end of Season 1 set up a delightful love triangle between Aqua, Kana, and Akane, and Season 2 is doing a fine job blending the love triangle with each character's stage play character for Tokyo Blade. Kana may be in denial, but it's still obvious.

Oshi no Ko Season 2 Episode 2 not only examines the character drama, but the many technical challenges that manga authors, scriptwriters, and directors face when adapting a work. A lot of coordination, effort, and sacrifice is needed to turn a battle manga like Tokyo Blade into a compelling 2.5D stage play. Thus far, author Akibo Samejina isn't pleased with what she sees. This brings her into conflict with GOA, leading to an entertaining and informative clash of creators that gives Season 2, Episode 2 some much-needed structure and focus.

Episode 2's First Scene is Just the Anime Spinning its Wheels

While Episode 2 of Oshi no Ko's second season is a strong one overall, it gets off to a fairly forgettable start. Out of necessity, Episode 2 spends a few minutes introducing the characters to each other, mostly for the benefit of the twisted genius Aqua Hoshino and his fellow performer Kana Arima. In particular, Sumiaki Raida, the friendly lead producer, introduces them to a handful of characters, from GOA the scriptwriter to the director and a few Lala Lai performers – including new faces like Norio Mita, Mei Adashino, and Ryoma Funito. As far as character introductions go, it's all pretty simple and straightforward, but it'll be tough for anime fans to remember these characters let alone juggle them with everyone else. At least five new names are added to the narrative rapid-fire, and none of it is compelling.

Strictly for lore-building reasons, it may be helpful for "Game of Telephone" to round out the cast with these extras and make the Tokyo Blade production feel like a full-scale performance instead of just an excuse to see Aqua and Kana dress up and act dramatically. A few of those new faces may be relevant later, so the anime might as well get the introductions out of the way, but it's still a dry watch. Unless the anime has yet another big twist in store, none of these new characters will end up joining the main cast or appear beyond the Tokyo Blade story arc.

At roughly the same time, the anime shows Kana and Aqua chatting, but they don't say much new and the love triangle doesn't advance, either. In fact, Kana denies that she, Aqua, and Akane are in a romantic battle with their stage characters as proxies, so that delightful story arc will have to wait for now. It's a shame, too, since that's the single best part of the Tokyo Blade story arc so far. On the plus side, Episode 2 gets a lot of work done with its Akibo narrative, so fans may forgive the lack of love triangle development here. Still, it feels like a wasted opportunity as the performers mingle outside of their rehearsal sessions, making this first phase of the episode feel like obligatory busywork and not much else.

Akibo Samejima Stands Out as a Cute and Tough Manga Author

The end of Episode 1, "Tokyo Blade," introduced Akibo Samejima as the author behind the in-universe Tokyo Blade manga series. She came off as a timid, unassertive young woman who could barely look anyone in the eyes. Then she ended the episode with a bold request to rewrite the stage adaptation's entire script. In Episode 2, Akibo picks up right where she left off, allowing her to make a much stronger impression as she gets more screen time. Within two minutes, Akibo is a highly entertaining character to watch, making her a sudden star of Oshi no Ko's second season and the driving force behind Episode 2. All of her material is done well, and the payoff for focusing on this wonderful character is huge. Episode 2 is a great because of her alone – though of course, there's still more to it.

Akibo is not unlike the bashful Akane Kurokawa, since both of them burn with passion but don't have an easy time expressing it constructively. While Akane uses Ai-style eye stars to appeal to Aqua, Akibo uses her forceful words and heartfelt ideas to take control of the situation, which has a substantial impact on Episode 2. It's a delight to see this new character, an apparent pushover of a young woman, stand her ground to remake the stage play into something true to her vision. It's a sympathetic and fun narrative to watch, and it's already clear that this will either make or break the Tokyo Blade 2.5D stage play. Akibo knows her material best, but whether she can translate that into a workable script remains to be seen – and Oshi no Ko gives viewers every reason to care about this.

Episode 2 Proves How Challenging the Entertainment Industry Is, Even Without Exploitation

The original premise of Oshi no Ko was to serve as a scathingly honest look at the idol entertainment industry, which drove Ai Hoshino's story arc right along and created some dire stakes for Ruby Hoshino's efforts to follow in her late mother's footsteps. Oshi no Ko has other insights to share on the entertainment industry as well. As Episode 2 demonstrates, the anime is wise not to linger entirely on the idol industry. The Tokyo Blade production has nothing to do with Aqua's revenge quest or Ruby's career with the new B-Komachi, so none of that is forced into the narrative. Instead, the anime creates a variation of a theme, showing viewers how stressful, complex, and challenging it is to adapt one medium into another.

Just as Ruby and Akane went through a lot of hard work to become pop idols and translate their skills into idol music, Akibo the manga author and GOA struggle to make sure that the Tokyo Blade production is both faithful to the original story while functioning as a stage production. Meshing those two goals is a big ask for them, and Akibo and GOA each have different ideas on how this should work. This serves two purposes in Episode 2: to provide insight to the challenges of the entertainment industry, and to make both Akibo and GOA sympathetic. Episode 2 succeeds on both fronts, which helps make "Game of Telephone" a fantastic follow-up to Episode 1. In fact, this plot thread and Akibo's delightful character both make Episode 2 one of the anime's strongest, most engaging episodes yet.

Episode 2 makes Akibo more sympathetic first, which is a fine idea, since she's the compelling new star of this season and exploring her viewpoint first keeps the momentum of her introduction going. Akibo is an emotionally sensitive and intuitive person, having a strong grasp on her characters' emotions and thought process, and she needs all that to be expressed in GOA's screenplay. To Akibo's dismay, the script mostly focuses on simple, direct characterization and fast-moving conflict, eliminating the nuance of the characters. It's indeed sympathetic to see Akibo complain about this mishandling of her characters, giving Episode 2 a strong emotional core. To that end, Akibo opts to rewrite the script herself, even if that's not her area of expertise. It's a rich plot twist that helps reinforce the idea that Akibo's involvement will either make or break this stage production. This also creates plenty of tension.

Meanwhile, GOA finds himself on the defensive as Akibo repeatedly criticizes his work. GOA has read the Tokyo Blade manga and is making a serious effort to produce an entertaining stage play for all to enjoy, but he's convinced that certain sacrifices must be made for practical reasons, and he can't convince Akibo to see things his way. GOA made a lot of personal sacrifices, as he notes in Episode 2, to make this happen, and he won't let that be for nothing. Even if GOA is making some mistakes and botching Akibo's original material, it's still easy to relate to his position as a man just trying to do his job. Episode 2 effectively balances his and Akibo's viewpoints, which is yet another strength here. It's not entirely about right vs wrong, but two creators trying their hardest to figure out this mess and take the lead in this tough project. In an industry like this one, it could be no other way.

Oshi no Ko Season 2, Episode 2

8

10

TV-14

Drama

Fantasy

Kana, Aqua, and Akane put their love triangle on hold while meeting new cast members. Akibo, for her part, tries to take command of this production as the manga's author, putting her at odds with the well-meaning but clumsy scriptwriter GOA.

Release Date

April 12, 2023

Cast

Rie Takahashi , Yumi Uchiyama

Main Genre

Animation

Seasons

1 Season

Creator

Aka Akasaka

Production Company

CyberAgent, Dogakobo, Kadokawa, Sentai Studios, Shueisha

Number of Episodes

12 Episodes

Pros

• Akibo's and GOA's positions are both understandable.
• Akibo Samejima is a charming and compelling addition to the anime.
• Akibo's anda GOA's conflict shows the hardships of the entertainment industry in a new light.

Cons

• The love triangle is put on ice for now.
• Aside from Akubo, the new character introductions feel weak.