Rating: A
Oshi no Ko‘s anime adaptation has never found itself shy on content, but this may be the most packed regular-length episode in the series to date. Even though its plotline is relatively simple – we’re watching the final preparations for the debut of the Tokyo Blade play – so many different character points and conflicts are in play that the direction deserves kudos for managing them all with a nearly-flawless flow. That results in some of the season’s funniest moments, but also some of its most disturbing.
One of the latter happens in the scene where Aqua confesses his true motivation to Akane in response to her pestering about what motivates Aqua to be an actor. He doesn’t explain why he has that motivation, but unbeknownst to him, he doesn’t need to; Akane is plenty intuitive enough to figure out that it probably has everything to do with the awful incident in Aqua’s past that was bad enough to give him PTSD. Aqua was clearly trying to push her away by admitting that much, but the dark-pupil stare Akane gives him back is a shocker. That she’s not thrown one bit by this suggests some interesting things about her own personality; perhaps she’s had thought about someone herself. In any case, this is just further evidence that Akane, for all her seeming soft side, isn’t a pushover.
What this and later scenes say about Aqua is also interesting. By the end of the episode the nature of his PTSD attacks have become clear: although Ai’s death is involved, the actual trigger is a need to be intensely emotive. Presumably this is because the one time Ai showed her full, true emotions was as she died, so Aqua has come to associate strong emotions with his worst experiences. That would certainly explain his tendency throughout the series to not get strongly emotional about anything, but it also puts a new stake on the upcoming play debut: can he keep it together enough to deliver a truly emotive performance without having a panic attack?
He’s far from the only one who has something personal at stake, too. Melt isn’t just regretful about his bad acting during Sweet Today; he’s haunted by it. He feels he needs to prove that he can act at least passably well. Unfortunately for him, he got on the bad side of Sakuya by interfering in Sakuya’s efforts to hit on Minami, who didn’t seem interested but was buckling under the pressure tactics. That this a case of a 22-year-old hitting on a minor is a separate issue; what matters most here is that Sakuya has decided to be unrelenting in attacking Melt about his acting in revenge. To a point, Melt knows he deserves it, but Sakuya is making it too personal. This is a new dynamic thrown into the mix, and frankly, it’s the weakest of the lot in terms of impact.
Ruby also gets some scenes for a change, and for perhaps the first time this season, her appearance doesn’t feel like it’s there just for the sake of reminding us that she’s still around. Aqua has had the “star going dark” thing going on at least since episode 2 when he’s having a very negative reaction to something, but Ruby’s reaction to Minami’s insinuations about what Aqua is doing with Akane each night is the first time we’ve seen that Ruby is capable of it herself. (But this is also the first time that anything’s been said to Ruby that hit that close to home.) She can’t seem to turn that darker emotion on and off like Aqua does, so I’d guess that her bathroom visit was actually just an excuse to allow her to calm herself down and get back to her normal cheery self. Kana and MEM-cho looking out for her afterwards as a neat little comedy add-on to lighten the overall mood again.
Speaking of moods, Kana and Akane certainly have a sharp vibe between them, don’t they? We’ve known since the first season that they mutually regard the other as a bitter rival, but Akane should know well enough by now that she isn’t going to win a battle of words with Kana, despite getting in a good jab or two during their dust-up in the dressing room. Kana may be on the mean side, but she’s still a delight in the way she screws with Akane. This leads me to wonder if Kaburagi knew about this and so set up a casting that put two real-life rivals into roles that are rivals. Regardless, they form the other driving tension going into the play and the insight that Kana was the inspiration for Akane getting into acting was an amusing but also loaded revelation, too.
Next episode is the play itself, apparently. How much of it will we get to see play out? It will have to be pretty special to top the quality content we’ve seen these last two episodes.
USA Anime 