If you've ever been involved in the world of theater, or really any performance art, Kageki Shojo!! vol. 2 will likely dredge up some painful memories. Acting is a zero-sum game, and any time someone is rewarded with a role it means there are others who wanted it but failed to get it. If you are the wrong height, wrong skin color, wrong gender, your parts will be severely limited; instead, you'll have to watch the ones you want be filled by potentially less-talented actors. It's only natural this kind of system breeds petty rivalries and resentments.

Kageki Shojo!! explores these feelings as it delves into Sarasa's past, finally revealing just what happened. We've gotten brief glimpses of her childhood in the previous volume and in Kageki Shojo!!: The Curtain Rises: walking in a procession onstage in a traditional wig, grumbling about how she hates her dance teacher – and indications that she's somehow connected to Asakusa's kabuki scene, but no confirmation of anything. I theorized that she may have been in training to become a geisha, but there was some kind of seismic shift in her life that caused her to stop training. It turns out I wasn't quite correct, but not too far off either.

Sarasa's past is revealed as she and Ai take a trip to visit her family in Asakusa. Sarasa is still upset about Andou-sensei telling her that she'll never be a top star based on her pitch-perfect imitation of Satomi Sei as Tybalt. Ai, who is accompanying her, notices how deeply this has affected her and decides to get to the bottom of just what Sarasa's connection to theater is and why the idea of putting her own spin on a character is so foreign to her. Lucky for her, the up-and-coming kabuki star and Sarasa's boyfriend Akiya is napping upstairs. The bulk of the volume is flashback as he describes how he and Sarasa were born into Asakusa's kabuki tradition and what it meant for their lives' paths.

Anime watchers already familiar with this particular plot arc may be wondering if it's worth picking up the volume. I want to emphasize: it totally is. No disrespect to the lovely anime adaptation, but its single-cour episode count meant it had to abbreviate a number of storylines, and it left out most of the inner monologue. Here, the story of Akiya and Sarasa's childhood is explored more fully than a single episode could, taking up much of the volume. Akiya himself narrates, and his perspective offers a clarity that Sarasa's alone probably would not have. It pulls together the themes of the volume: what theater means to ourselves and others, how one's identity can restrict their choices, and finding oneself in art.

Akiya himself is a nice enough boy, but somewhat bland outside of his role of grounding Sarasa in her past; luckily, we aren't forced to hang around him too much in the present day; that time goes to our darling heroines, Ai and Sarasa. Sarasa shows a different side of herself, sad and discouraged, so different from the puppyish enthusiasm she's maintained through the story so far. Her past informs her present, both in terms of her understanding of theater and in how she handles a sense of rejection. In kabuki, the actors strive to disappear into the role and recreate the performances of their predecessors; it's no wonder that Sarasa is gifted at imitation but doesn't know much about how to build her own sense of character.

Ai, on the other hand, is half thrilled about Sarasa calling her her “best friend” and inviting her to go with her to Asakusa, and half worried about Sarasa's brooding when she isn't sure what she can do to help. Her flat affect belies her concern, and she can sense that Sarasa is still upset but is unsure of what to do about it. Her deep trauma and unstable childhood have left her without any kind of social skills, but even then her inexpressiveness and inflexibility feeds into potential readings of her as being on the autism spectrum. Where once she and Sarasa were opposites who struggled to get along, they now are perfectly suited to one another's needs as friends: Sarasa's lovingness and Ai's need to be loved keeps them in balanced harmony. It's sweet to see, and clear that they will continue to lean on each other in the future.

Kabuki is such a visually distinctive art form, and Kumiko Saiki's delicate linework mostly serves to bring it to life. She captures the swirling, exaggerated makeup that overtakes the actors' features to transform them into their characters and make them indistinguishable from the actors that came before them, and it's always wonderful to get a glimpse of Ginza's Kabukiza and its distinctive character. However, at times the art feels a bit too delicate for the heavy, exaggerated movements that characterize the art form. After all, as the story makes clear, kabuki is a distinctly masculine space, and there's a shoujo-esque lightness to Kageki Shojo!!'s artwork that doesn't quite fit. Still, the art is as strong as ever where it counts: expressing the characters' thoughts and emotions through their physicality.

Kageki Shojo!! The Curtain Rises was largely a melodrama, exploring the trauma of a small group of characters. Kageki Shojo!! vol. 1 marked a much lighter shift in tone as the series moved to a shojo magazine, bringing it to something closer to a girls' coming-of-age story. Now, Kageki Shojo!! vol. 2 explores the less dramatic but still sharp pain and sadness of rejection just for one's identity, regardless of talent or ability. It's a beautiful series, and I look forward to seeing what the next volume explores.