Highlights
- Oshi no Ko Season 2 focuses on the Tokyo Blade stage play adaptation, with actors facing challenges and revelations.
- Akane struggles with portraying Princess Saya due to the character’s limited material and personality changes.
- The arrival of Tokyo Blade’s mangaka, Abiko Samejima, brings potential revisions to the script and a new roadblock for the production.
The following contains spoilers for Episode 1 of Oshi no Ko Season 2, “Tokyo Blade,” now streaming on HiDive.
After making a massive splash during last year’s Spring anime season, the reincarnation showbiz-revenge story Oshi no Ko finally returns this summer with its highly-anticipated second season. The series’ return coincides with the start of the Tokyo Blade arc, with Aqua, Kana, and Akane all playing fairly major roles.
The first episode sees the various actors involved in the Tokyo Blade stage play, with all the problems that come with making an adaptation of a popular property. The series’ usual attention to detail when it comes to the world of acting remains impressive, and the excellent use of imagery makes this first episode a great comeback for the series.
The Theater Company Lala Lai
A Collection Of Capable Actors
Rehearsal for the 2.5D stage play adaptation of Tokyo Blade begins, now that all the major characters have been cast. Aqua is cast as the supporting character Touki, with Akane playing his ally and love interest Princess Saya. Meanwhile, Kana stars as Tsurugi, ally of the main protagonist Blade, who is played by Lala Lai’s Taiki Himekawa. Melt Narushima, who acted with Aqua and Kana as the main character in the ill-fated adaptation of Sweet Today, also appears as well, with the remainder of the cast being made up by Lala Lai’s actors, including Sakuya Kamoshida.
Despite his rather unassuming appearance, Himekawa quickly makes an impression on the rest of the cast with his incredible acting, especially with Kana, who shares a lot of scenes with him. Since Kana is an adaptive actor who reacts to the skill level of her acting partners, Himekawa allows her to let loose in a way she hadn’t been able to before, making an indelible impression on the others as she acts out a fight scene with Himekawa. The spectacle motivates the other actors to improve their own performances, except for Aqua, who merely sees this job as a way to get close to Lala Lai’s director, Toshiro Kindaichi. The next target in his relentless search for his father, Kindaichi’s relationship with Ai is the one thing that interests him the most.
The Melancholy Of Princess Saya
The Difficulties Of An Unfortunate Character
Though the rehearsals are going well enough, Akane finds herself struggling to provide an interpretation of Princess Saya that satisfies what the director wants from her. However, things aren’t going well due to the relative unpopularity of the character. Though she was initially billed as Touki’s love interest, the audience slowly became bigger fans of his relationship with Tsurugi instead, and as a result, Saya was sidelined, giving her very few scenes compared to other major characters. This is a big problem for Akane, as even with her analytic style, she has difficulty really grasping the kind of character Princess Saya is supposed to be with so little material to work with.
Making things harder is the drastic change in personality Princess Saya has undergone in her adaptation in the script. In the manga, she was a more reserved, gentle character who was conflicted about having to fight. However, in order to simplify her character for runtime, she was instead changed to a more belligerent character, which is a complete 180 from her original personality. Akane bemoans this change in character, but doesn’t bring it up, since even the author has supposedly signed off on the script.
Her concerns are eventually noticed by Aqua, who suggests that she bring it up with the scriptwriter, who specifically came in to meet with the mangaka, who herself was stopping by to see how rehearsals were going. Akane is reluctant, but Aqua goes ahead and approaches the subject with the director and the scriptwriter, GOA, much to her chagrin. Surprisingly, GOA was also aware that the princess’s change in personality wasn’t ideal, but it was needed in order to cut down on the play’s runtime, a sentiment the director agrees with. Having heard the justification for the change, Akane ultimately accepts the decision made.
The Mangaka’s Visit
The Anticipated Impressions Of The Original Creator
While Akane considers how best to approach a more easy-to-grasp version of Princess Saya, the arrival of Tokyo Blade‘s mangaka, Abiko Samejima, is announced. She arrives with Sweet Today‘s mangaka, Yoriko Kichijoji, who came to support the clearly anxious Abiko. As Yoriko greets Kana, Aqua, and (reluctantly) Melt, who acted in the adaptation of her manga, Abiko struggles to greet the other cast members, due to them being so handsome and pretty.
The cast members begin rehearsing again, this time with Abiko watching. She is immediately impressed by how talented the actors are, much to the joy of the staff working on the play. Despite this, Abiko seems to still have some reservations, and boldly asks for the entire script to be revised. It’s unknown if the production will take her request to heart, but this is sure to be the first major roadblock to hit the Tokyo Blade stage play production.
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