?Oshi No Ko?: Tokyo Blade   Show Only 
July 3, 2024 5:14 PM - Season 2, Episode 1 - Subscribe

Season 2 picks up right where we left off S1. Aqua, Kana, and Melt from the live action TV adaptation of Sweet Today join the Lala Lai theater troupe as they prepare to put on a 2.5D stage production adaptation of the popular manga Tokyo Blade.

The episode opens up with the finished introduction to the Tokyo Blade play in front of a live audience before rewinding about 30 days into the past to the beginning of rehearsals.

Kana is thriving in this new environment. She's constantly having to dumb down her acting to match the skill level of whatever teen heartthrob they're currently trying to promote for most of her acting jobs, but here she's acting opposite Taiki Himekawa, one of Lala Lai troupe's best actors. They have a stunning swordfight rehearsal sequence which shows both of them excelling in their respective roles.

Akane on the other hand is struggling. Her usual method of deep research in order to flesh out a character is falling flat here because she has very little to work with. The character she's playing is nuanced and conflicted in the original work, but the adaptation has removed most of the subtlety and turned her into a stock character to make her motivations easier to understand for the play's audience. She has a couple of cute interactions with Aqua, and overall seems like she's taking their fake relationship much more seriously than he is.

Aqua continues to be his usual self. Overall stand-offish with the occasional keen observation and we also get a reminder about his true goal in joining this play to infiltrate Lala Lai and find out more about how it all related to Ai.

Ruby, as per OnK tradition, is largely absent from this episode outside of a brief montage update on how B-Komachi has progressed since their big performance at the end of last season.

The episode concludes with Abiko Samejima, the mangaka behind Tokyo Blade, visiting a rehearsal for the show. She asks if it's too late to make some changes to the play's script. The scriptwriter and director are nervous but accommodating, asking what she'd like to be changed. She answers with one word, "Everything," and we go into the credits.
posted by C^3 (1 comment total)
 
Not a bad start to the season while also feeling like a pretty smooth transition from the previous one.

I had to mentally brace myself for the new OP / ED combo, given that Idol and Mephisto both had a huge impact in the overall anime community and were both widely mimed for even memes outside of the community. Idol in particular felt like such a huge and inextricable part of the show itself during the first season, and not having it this season does make things feel a little bit off to me. Still, the visuals at least for the new OP / ED are great. I think Fatale will grow on me but I'm a little less sure of what my final opinion will be for Burning.

Akane's meta conversation with herself on quiet and subtle characters always getting pushed aside while the loud and energetic characters take the spotlight feels like it could either be an in-joke or foreshadowing, but either way I found it to be amusingly cheeky.
posted by C^3 at 7:50 PM on July 3


« Older Movie: Humanist Vampire Seekin...   |  Star Trek: Prodigy: Into the B... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments

poster