"Oshi no Ko" 2nd Season

With the help of producer Masaya Kaburagi, Aquamarine "Aqua" Hoshino and Kana Arima have landed the roles of Touki and Tsurugi in Lala Lai Theatrical Company's stage adaptation of the popular manga series Tokyo Blade. Co-starring with them is Aqua's girlfriend, Akane Kurokawa, who plays Touki's fiancée, Princess Saya. Due to the fanbase preferring Tsurugi as Touki's love interest, Saya has made fewer and fewer appearances in the manga, making it difficult for Akane to fully immerse herself in the role. Her struggles are compounded by differences between the play's script and the original work—differences that also frustrate Tokyo Blade's author, Abiko Samejima.

Aqua, however, is more concerned with his personal goals than he is with the play. He has only one objective in mind: to grow closer to director Toshirou Kindaichi and find out what he knows about Aqua's mother, Ai.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Arima, Kana Main

Han, Megumi Japanese

Kurokawa, Akane Main

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Hoshino, Aquamarine Main

Ootsuka, Takeo Japanese

Hoshino, Ai Supporting

Takahashi, Rie Japanese

Hoshino, Ruby Supporting

Igoma, Yurie Japanese

Mem-Cho Supporting

Ookubo, Rumi Japanese

Saitou, Miyako Supporting

Lynn Japanese

Gotanda, Taishi Supporting

Kase, Yasuyuki Japanese

Amamiya, Gorou Supporting

Itou, Kent Japanese

Tendouji, Sarina Supporting

Takayanagi, Tomoyo Japanese

Yamashita, Shinpei Producer

Kobayashi, Ryou Producer

Aomura, Yousuke Producer

Kamata, Hajime Producer

Reviews

Oct 6, 2024

eksratu

Recommended

Season Two continues Oshi no Ko’s two-pronged approach to storytelling, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the Japanese entertainment industry while simultaneously serving up a long-form murder mystery. This season shifts its spotlight onto a fictional theater production, opening in media res with an unusually long static shot of the stage. It’s a fun scene as part of an anime adaptation of a real-world manga, which has an arc about adapting a fictional, in-universe manga into an in-universe stage play that you then get to experience as if you were part of the in-universe audience.

As fun as these meta-layers are, though, Oshi no Ko is more ... concerned with exploring the conflicting perspectives of its characters. Many of them are involved with the aforementioned stage play, and their attitudes and creative methods constantly clash throughout the thirteen episodes of this season. Oshi no Ko also features some brilliant animation work that elevates its already-solid source material to new heights. Episode 6 in particular ends with a spectacular, wordless sequence on how a side character’s life changed as a result of his involvement with the play.

For me, the main highlights of this season are the in-depth, humanized exploration of the manga-to-stage-play adaptation process that covered a lot of unexpected perspectives, the compelling narrative arcs of several recurring characters (but not all of them, unfortunately), the much smoother transitions between low-stakes and high-stakes scenes (compared to the first season), and the striking visuals. I was not a huge fan of Ruby’s general absence or the (expected) soapy melodrama.

As a whole, this season was rewarding to dig into. It’s a treat for your eyes and a rollercoaster for your emotions. After seeing what it accomplished, I would highly recommend giving Oshi no Ko a try, as it was one of my favorite shows this year.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Oct 6, 2024

NiQ1

Mixed Feelings

Note - This review does not contain spoilers of this season, but does contain spoilers of the previous one!
I love Oshi no Ko, but I feel like this season is a bit of a letdown compared to the last. What makes Oshi no Ko so different than the typical idol / showbiz anime is that it's anything but lighthearted. It has a strong dark side, about murder and vengeance.
The first season ended with Aqua joining a stage play for the sole purpose of identifying his father, who is presumably the person behind the killing of his mother Ai, as well as himself in his past ... life. This season picks up from there.
The main issue with this season is that the vast majority of it is the preparation for the stage play and the play itself, which really feels like an average showbiz anime, one of those that you've seen one you've seen them all. The season only picks up around the 9th episode, and only then it becomes as enjoyable as the first season.
I understand that they probably wanted to stick to the source material as much as possible, which I generally consider a good thing - I don't like it when anime cuts a lot of things, but I still wander whether arc that doesn't seem very important had to take two thirds of the season.
Anyway, a 3rd season has already been announced, and at the very least the last five episodes of this season are very much worth watching and will definitely be needed to understand it. Go ahead and watch, but keep in mind that the first eight episodes might feel somewhat boring.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 6, 2024

Tkit

Not Recommended

Funny

If you liked the first season you will most likely enjoy the second one, if you didn't you won't. This may sound a bit simplistic, but despite changing direction and focusing on a side quest the fundamental premise of this show remains the same. Whenever I discuss this anime there is a major issue that decides if someone likes it or not, is the anime too pretentious/preachy? If those aspects of Oshi no Ko never bothered you than I hope reading this may at least explain to you why there are those who despise this seemingly universally liked anime.

It is often fine for a show ... to be pretentious, so what makes people annoyed by it mad? Oshi no Ko is the strangest combination of documentary and a show. Author wants not only to educate you about show business, but also to reveal all of the dirt that surrounds it. Serious issues are brought up, certain ones condemned in a clear way. Because of this there needs to be a lot of exposition, some forced. Pacing must be occasionally sacrificed, plot abandoned. So we have this educational, serious side which meshes with it being a show. Oshi no Ko is comedic and bombastic, characters wacky, plot exaggerated. Aqua is a super edgelord, with some ridiculous revenge story. Show constantly tired to overhype everything about acting to the point of parody. Some see this combination as the best of both worlds, but I mostly felt the negatives. This wacky, edgy show seems to have a religious mission to preach the good word while trying to maintain having a plot which counters its goals and takes time away from this preaching, making the documentary often feeling half assed, the issues rushed and manhandled. It feels insulting when anime and all its characters are screaming at me to take them seriously and than I get to see an edgelord and his team play out one of the more 'anime' plots I've seen.

To be fair second season lessened many of those issues by turning away from the main plot, this move highlighted Aqua. If you like him its a fine move, but I would suspect people who find Oshi no Ko pretentious don't (including me). Theater arc in itself is longer than it ought to be by the previously mentioned fact that anime has to both be a show and a documentary. Another reason why we are spending a long time on this arc is to also witness the massive overselling and overhyping of acting in theater. Again the duality. It is fine to be over the top, but it just didn't glue well for me with being educational and preachy. I do appreciate the fact that the hit manga being adapted into a play is an awful slop. Quite a realistic touch, intentional or not. Beside the basic education and symbolically touching some issues in the industry first arc focuses on developing the protagonist with his two love interests which leads into characters.

Aqua is a super serious, annoying edgelord. Theoretically he has PTSD which should be compelling and interesting, but it feels like just being there to make him more edgy. He has to 'suffer' to act, same as his great predecessor, Sasuke, he has to get better to kill his target. Manipulator but also aware of his wrong actions and completely ready to sink into the filth of the showbiz. Let me tell you, if this wasn't a flawed documentary I would most likely enjoy this duality a whole lot more, but it is and I dislike it. By bringing up real flaws in our modern world and making the protagonist a part of the problem, he stops being like an anime super master manipulator, but feels to me like a scumbag and I don't like that in a serious critique, it feels hypocritical. Anime tries to address this issue. Towards the end of the season this aspect of Aquas character is shown as a flaw that he should abandon. If the anime was serious about trying to bring good change that would be a great direction for his character. Redemption, maybe followed up by trying to help people in the industry and really focus in on some message... but no. This is a show so plot demands that we get back to the ridiculous revenge story, anime straight up tells us that this reflective Aqua is temporary. He will go back to his wacky mission and his manipulative edgy tendencies are spreading to yet another character. Will this anime commit to its revenge story wholeheartedly? I doubt it. We will most likely return to the template from the first season, following this ridiculous plot while engaging with more sensetive issues. Author will narrate by some of those wacky characters how the industry is evil and whatever, after which those same character will engage in the similar tactics to achieve their cartoonish goals. Oshi no Ko will continue to demand being taken seriously while being the same anime as those 'less' serious shows... anyway.

Theater arc is focused on advancing Aqua's relationships and skill, in the second one we are shown how he would act if he was a normal human being. As I said, seemingly a momentary change, but at least he has some development. I found Akane as a nice representation of this anime. On one hand a walking mishandeling of the issue of suicide, with the feelings of indebtedness towards Aqua and the aura of being a 'serious' character, but also with a wacky anime psycho side to her. Perfect clash of pretentious topics and the showiness of this anime. Beside the nature of her character her goal is the advancment of her relationship with Aqua and seeing Arima at her best. Said Arima is the most enjoyable person here. Quirky, but not over the top, she works the best in this story and her journey to become a little selfish was cute. Outside of the main focus is Ruby which didn't get much love in this season. Most of the shake up with her character is setting up next season so it doesn't make sense to talk about her much in this review.

I couldn't give a damn about other characters, but let it be known that everyone here has amazing voice acting. Of course often it was very outlandish and contributed to my previously stated problems, but the quality of acting itself was great. While I am in the positives it is important to mention that this show still looks great. Art style is memorable, animation good. Passion was put into many creative sequences. Direction was nice and so was the music. The over the top nature of the animation led to some wacky scenes and my previous complaints. Side note, goofy manga panels in the theater were quite unintentionally funny, being unintentionally funny is something that decreased in this season. By moving away from cringe plot and serious topics, there was less room for funny fumbles. They still happened, but in this season when something failed it often wasn't as funny.

Oshi no Ko is in my eyes a pretentious mishandeling of its intentions, that instead of being captivating, mysterious, emotional and educational felt preachy, annoying, insensitive and quite wacky. First season gave the vibe of self importance despite mishandeling serious topics while being a silly, edgy show. The second season temporarily shifted weaknesses of this work. We are exploring theater which leads to smaller amount of sensitive issues to cover that Oshi no Ko can screw up, but on the other hand we are on a overly long side quest that without the constant education should be half as long and focuses on our cast of characters which are of questionable likeability to some (me). This is a positive trade off in my eyes, but last episodes convinced me that even if my main problems with the first season were being slightly addressed/lessened, it is a temporary effect of being momentarily away from the main plot. I want to enjoy this ironically as a wacky failure, but author's arrogant belief of self importance imprinted into this show is impeeding even that kind of enjoyment.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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