Oshi no Ko Season 2

Episode 16

The girls are fighting and I'm glad they're not just fighting over Aqua. This week's episode of Oshi no Ko Season 2 was all about its female cast, taking breaks from Aqua's melodrama to deliver a refreshing turn to Ruby for a change. Meanwhile, Akane and Kana added new layers and plenty of laughs to their rivalry as opposing leading ladies. As its title implies, “The Curtain Rises” is very much a depiction of the story arc's rising action: covering all that leads up to the opening night of the play. Set firmly in the present, this episode keeps supernatural elements to a minimum but showcases the everyday dangers that can trip up young actors (especially female ones) in the modern entertainment industry.

Aqua may think he's dealing with demons but they've got nothing on his girlfriend. At first, it seemed that Aqua wanted to protect Akane from his darkness but he severely underestimated hers. We'll see if the couple that murders your dad together stays together because Akane seemed more than eager to become an accomplice—as she proclaimed with unsettlingly flat eyes. All she wants in return is Aqua's assistance on a goal of her own—and thankfully, this one isn't anything illegal. She wants to show up Kana and be the most talented actor in the play. Akane and Kana are rivals in love and that aspect of their rivalry usually takes center stage. But this week, the focus is on their acting chops—their strengths, weaknesses, and insecurities. In a subsequent scene, Kana clocks Akane's glare and strikes up a battle of wits in which she knows she has a secret weapon: a years-old magazine in which a young Akane was interviewed about her acting role model: Arima Kana. Cartoonish backdrops enhance their spirited back-and-forth, and vibrant performances from both girls' voice actors suggest these are especially fun roles. One can imagine that Megumi Han is having the time of her life playing Kana.

It's been a minute since we've seen Ruby. She's not in the play and the revived B-Komachi can't perform while Kana is so busy, so I'm glad the story managed to squeeze her in for a cameo under the premise of visiting her brother at rehearsal. But since Aqua is too busy talking with Akane about murder on the director's balcony, she runs into Melt instead. While Ruby goes inside to use the bathroom (but is that all she's doing in there?) another actor, Sakuya, hits up her gravure model pal Minami who tagged along. Minami is clearly uncomfortable when Melt saves her bacon, so it's particularly unfair that his reward is for Sakuya to retaliate from this perceived cockblocking by pointing out Melt's shortcomings as an actor—and this scene is a way harder to watch than the one with Akane and Kana because his nitpicks are so true. (It's worth noting that for all of Sakuya's criticisms of Melt calling himself a pro, Melt isn't the one of this pair who's behaving unprofessionally off-stage.) The punchline comes later when a flattered Ruby proudly shares Sakuya's LINE address. Luckily her friends possess the shrewd concern that Ruby lacks in this department.

Let's not gloss over Ruby briefly going Dark Mode in the middle of what might have otherwise been a comical moment as Minami's overactive imagination considers Aqua and Akane's fictional rendezvous. This is the reverse of the previous situation, in which Ruby underestimated a potentially dangerous situation with a male actor who wanted to take advantage of her. She knows full well that what sounds like harmless canoodling to Minami could wind up producing a career-endangering teen pregnancy. Nobody misses the sparkle in her eye flashing black, no matter how briefly. Aqua's eye echoes his sister's a few scenes later as he consults, in full costume, a picture of his mom before completely losing it. What does it mean when the sparkles in their eyes go from white to black? My theory: both Aqua and Ruby are consumed by a combination of guilt and PTSD from their past lives, deaths, and their mom's murder. The star shines black when they make a conscious decision to let that inner darkness out. This episode ended on a cliffhanger—the literal curtain rising on the yet-unseen play. But for an installment focused entirely on building up the plot for the future, it was an engaging watch.

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Oshi no Ko Season 2 is currently streaming on HIDIVE.

Lauren writes about model kits at Gunpla 101. She spends her days teaching her two small Newtypes to bring peace to the space colonies.