Oshi no Ko Season 2

Episode 19

Want to become a better actor? According to the latest episode, there are two ways to go about it. You could focus on overcoming your past trauma with some help from your friends, like Kana. Or you could simply lean into how messed up you already are, like Aqua. Brilliant, experimental animation illustrates Kana and Aqua's dueling approaches with equal beauty. “Trigger” is an exploration in contrast as these actors diverge to draw out their full potential on stage. And while this is the third “hype up a character” episode in a row (following Melt and Akane), the artistry and obvious care of Studio Doga Kobo means it's still fresh, and likely the best episode I'll watch this week.

Last week Akane got the main heroine treatment; this week the spotlight turned to a much-deserving Kana. When Taiki and Aqua start ad-libbing, the result is that Kana ends up at center stage, forced to finally come out of her shell. Aqua correctly points out that Kana's character, Tsurugi, is a simple and innocent battle fanatic: a persona perfect for Kana to portray with a high-octane performance. But it's not so easy for Kana, who recalls the way her mother's obsession with fame broke her family apart—and how Kana herself carried guilt over that for years. It's that fear of being discarded that led Kana to sideline herself in supporting roles, or anything she could do to make the production go more smoothly. In a surreal sequence that places Aqua and Kana on the stage of a subconscious 2.5D play while their memories light up the big screen, Kana gets the push she needs. Creative animation sequences were a sparkling celebration of her triumph over trauma, giving her the same treatment as a magical girl when she transforms. Her joy is too big to contain in the classic Oshi no Ko starburst motif; instead, her eyes are filled with glittering constellations as she acts her heart out. It's so effective that even her rival, Akane, squeals with hearts in her eyes as she becomes Kana's #1 fan anew.

What a tonal shift then, when we move from Kana's embodiment of delight to Aqua's descent into despair. As the screen on the floor of the 2.5D play splashes with red pixels to represent Princess Saya's blood, it's time for her chief lieutenant, Aqua as Touki, to react with the rage and pain such a death would realistically inspire. There's no room for Aqua the actor, who still has PTSD from Ai's death, to draw his own suffering into the performance. Instead, as Aqua's director mentor Taishi narrates, Aqua must turn the entire acting process into suffering. As long as he hates what he's doing, Taishi hypothesizes, then his guilt won't surface and paralyze him. Once again there's an animation style change; a coarse, brutal multimedia shift that seems to pour out from the black hole that is Aqua's dark star eye and corrupt everything around him. It's stunning, but at what cost? Aqua's downward spiral is paired with Taishi's revelation that he's always known who Aqua's real mom is. Now that he's confirmed it, we can look forward to finding out whether this rare reasonable adult in Aqua's life will help or hinder his revenge plot.

Oshi no Ko Season 2 has been consistently creative, transforming into something fully apart from the manga. The points in which it has the potential to soar above (or sink below) the rest are the scenes that blur the characters' reality with the stage set. Sometimes it's overly opaque and hard to tell if a sequence is occurring as part of the stage play or within a character's head until they address each other by name; if they use their role names, then I know it's “real.” Other times, like when Kana and Aqua stand on stage in their high school uniforms, it's clear that this isn't taking place in reality, but the trappings of the play add theatrics to their real-life drama. The parallels of the play's head-to-head battles are particularly delicious: using a real fight between Aqua and Taiki's characters to visualize their different approaches to acting, for example. The episode concludes with a pivotal scene for Aqua's character Touki. It's impossible not to see the symbolism of Touki's urge to avenge Princess Saya. In the final scene, Aqua literally bites Taiki; I can hardly wait to see how next week ups the ante from there.

Rating:

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.