?Oshi No Ko?: Trigger   Show Only 
August 23, 2024 1:07 AM - Season 2, Episode 8 - Subscribe

The cast of Tokyo Blade continue to one-up each other as each member tries to give the best performance of the show.

The last two episodes have focused on Melt and Akane respectively, and this one starts off as being the Kana focused episode. Aqua and Himekawa both up the ante by inserting a series of ad-libs in their key confrontational scene, and Aqua tries to bring focus on Kana in order to give her a space where she can show off the acting skills that she's been suppressing for so long.

Structurally similar to the previous episodes, Kana starts the scene, gets a flashback detailing her troubled childhood with her mother living vicariously through her acting career and how that eventually led to their parents' divorce, then comes back into the present day where Kana gives off the strongest performance that she's able to muster. The performance is inter-cut with a cute reaction shot of Akane fangirling over her arch-nemesis.

Then Aqua gets the spotlight treatment, with a similar setup. We see the beginning of Aqua's pivotal scene, and then a flashback to Aqua's internal conflict in regards to his own acting career. Gotanda realizes that it's not Ai's death specifically that is a trigger for Aqua, but in fact the trigger for Aqua's PTSD is when he is enjoying himself when he is acting. With this knowledge, Aqua decides then that he would rather not enjoy acting rather than try to actually work through this PTSD and put it behind him as he feels these negative emotions are necessary for him to avenge Ai's death. His alternative then is to channel all of his rage and grief into his acting, and to externalize and express his trauma whenever he needs to tap into those emotions when he is required to give that sort of performance. We snap back into the present scene, where Aqua unleashes a rage-filled scream and the episode ends with Aqua right about to sink his teeth into Himekawa's shoulder (slightly unclear as to whether this bite is Aqua going off-script).
posted by C^3 (1 comment total)
 
Even Akane's desire here not just to beat Kana but to beat the strongest version of her feels like the exaggerated swagger of a battle shounen protagonist.
C^3, to riff on your insightful comment from last week, in this episode (Aqua/Goku) gave (Kana/Perfect Cell) (space to act/a senzu) so that (Akane/Gohan) could (act/fight) against the best version of their rival.
posted by The genius who rejected Anno's budget proposal. at 5:48 AM on August 23 [1 favorite]


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