[Oshi no Ko] 2nd Season

With the help of producer Masaya Kaburagi, Aquamarine "Aqua" Hoshino and Kana Arima have landed the roles of Touki and Tsurugi in Lala Lai Theatrical Company's stage adaptation of the popular manga series Tokyo Blade. Co-starring with them is Aqua's girlfriend, Akane Kurokawa, who plays Touki's fiancée, Princess Saya. Due to the fanbase preferring Tsurugi as Touki's love interest, Saya has made fewer and fewer appearances in the manga, making it difficult for Akane to fully immerse herself in the role. Her struggles are compounded by differences between the play's script and the original work—differences that also frustrate Tokyo Blade's author, Abiko Samejima.

Aqua, however, is more concerned with his personal goals than he is with the play. He has only one objective in mind: to grow closer to director Toshirou Kindaichi and find out what he knows about Aqua's mother, Ai.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Arima, Kana Main

Han, Megumi Japanese

Kurokawa, Akane Main

Iwami, Manaka Japanese

Hoshino, Aquamarine Main

Ootsuka, Takeo Japanese

Hoshino, Ai Supporting

Takahashi, Rie Japanese

Hoshino, Ruby Supporting

Igoma, Yurie Japanese

Mem-Cho Supporting

Ookubo, Rumi Japanese

Saitou, Miyako Supporting

Lynn Japanese

Gotanda, Taishi Supporting

Kase, Yasuyuki Japanese

Amamiya, Gorou Supporting

Itou, Kent Japanese

Tendouji, Sarina Supporting

Takayanagi, Tomoyo Japanese

Yamashita, Shinpei Producer

Kobayashi, Ryou Producer

Kamata, Hajime Producer

Aomura, Yousuke Producer

Reviews

Feb 23, 2025

Remster20

Recommended

I was not super crazy about season 1 of Oshi no Ko, but I think this season has laid out more groundwork that gives a better idea as to where this story is going, and I liked it more than season 1. This anime does a really awesome job showcasing acting as both a job and a craft - we get to see some of the nitty-gritty on how theater works (like the conflict with the scriptwriter and mangaka was super interesting); but Oshi No Ko also drops some insight into the mind of an actor; how they think and prepare, their struggles, and has ... a lot of creative visuals that illustrate what it's like to be "in the zone" on stage. The first half of this season is the highlight to me. Like last season, I think Aqua's acting career is a lot more interesting than Ruby's, even if his character is a bit too edgy for my liking.

But unlike in season 1, Ruby gets some significant development in the latter half of the season, and I am excited to see her take a bigger role in the next season, as Aqua (hopefully) takes a bit of a backseat. I do find the Idol work to be less intriguing, but seeing the main narrative around Ai's killer move forward is always exciting. Still not sure how I feel about the Isekai-ish rebirth thing, I'm still 50/50 on it being either an interesting plot point or shoehorned in b/c it's trendy; I just hope it'll have a decent payoff later. The other characters are kind of just around, I do really like Akane's character even if her relationship with Aqua is less than healthy. I pray the powers-that-be have something in mind for Kana beyond just being a love-triangle piece for Aqua, she has a lot of personality (even if it's semi annoying), and it'd just be a waste.

♫ Theme Song Review ♫ (some minor spoilers here) :

Oshi No Ko is continuing their hot streak for their OP/ED songs, I give both a solid 8/10; but I think the end song is especially worth highlighting this time. The super distorted/noisy guitar with the drums are a great kick off for the track; and I loveeee all the subtle foreshadowing about Ruby's role this season, with the crows, the hospital door, and the very quick flashes of the charm. You watch this end song all season (if you're like me at least) but unless you're really on your P's and Q's, you don't catch all the meaning behind it until the very end of the season, where you finally get to connect all the dots and THEN the full Ai charm is revealed at the end of the song. It's a really awesome detail and I love stuff like this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Remster20 (21)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Feb 2, 2025

Tuls

Mixed Feelings

Oshi no Ko’s 2nd Season is incredibly deceptive, and it ultimately reinforces my opinion that its narrative is severely misguided. The 2.5D stage play arc exemplifies the series’ strengths, exploring the most compelling motifs the show has to offer, and the revolving character drama here should’ve always been the primary focus. Gathering an eclectic medley of actors and creators to collectively work on a project provides the opportunity to examine how differing inputs affect the production process, underscoring the importance of effective communication in such artistic avenues. Although some circumstances are slightly overblown, the theatricality on display is relatively favorable due to the arc’s nature. ... Contrasting characters are paired and made to face each other throughout the rehearsals and the main play, and everyone is allocated sufficient time to come to terms with their insecurities and discover a better version of themselves amidst all the internal conflict. Observing their talented co-stars gives rise to all kinds of emotions like dissatisfaction, envy, regret, and guilt, which are common sentiments experienced in passionate people, and Oshi no Ko brilliantly paints these feelings onto the canvas with its visual direction. The production has improved significantly over the first season, and this arc is perhaps the one most deserving of it as its denouement leads us back to the tedious revenge plot. If it wasn’t blatantly evident in the first season, this arc proved that Aqua and Ruby hold back the show from being genuinely entertaining, as limiting their presence amplified the writing quality. It seems to be leaning even deeper into the supernatural aspect, something that it would’ve done better without, and this season ends up concluding on a disappointing note after a remarkable first act. Oshi no Ko’s 2nd season will presumably end up being the one with the most realized potential unless the murder mystery plot is miraculously discarded.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Tuls (6)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Feb 15, 2025

MaiDeNaBysS

Not Recommended

Funny

Informative

This is what happens when an artist self-inserts about being an artist. Even worse this is a self-fellationary product placement ad for a Japanese theater.

The writing tells the audience what to think about everything through braindead dialogue: "This is cool" "This acting is amazing" "this person is the greatest star ever" it will spend every moment dialogue-dumping exposition for the audience to tell you their feelings and motivations, and literally narrating what is being shown, on top of telling you what to think about everything. It is shamefully braindead. Rather than actually make a good show it just has characters tell you "this is the ... best thing ever" about a play that is the most boring unoriginal shonen-action slop ever. The play also doubles as boring self-inserts for each character, adding another layer of uninspired artistic self-fellation to rehash the same braindead artistic melodrama as s1 ("I need to deliberately act poorly to make the performance better just like last season, believe it! I said it so it's true!") The new characters are dumb and further bloat an already bloated cast in a meandering 1-note story.

Unsurprisingly the author shows the play script get shat out overnight just like how it's by an artist who shits out weekly manga slop prioritizing quantity over quality, but this is good because they said so.

They go into detail expositing all about how important it is to properly adapt a work by taking advantage of the different medium and do an entire scene about removing all the dumb exposition dialogue in favor of conveying information through subtle scene writing, while ironically doing nothing of the sort to fix the show itself. The entire play is braindead.

The source material writer character explains that nothing about the adaptation's script matters aside from that her precious OC characters have the same personality as the source material. The adaptor explains that the generic shonen slop needs to be even more dumbed down to spoonfeed to the audience... Braindead.

Story: almost the entire season was wasted on a pointless theater arc that never mattered before finishing with pointless sidetracking with braindead reasoning.

Characters: these aren't even characters anymore, they're just whiney exposition machines the author shoves around to do whatever as needed for the plot/filler melodrama. The author frequently self inserts to tell you that good characters/acting is the opposite of real people and dumbed down spectacle garbage is the best, among many other misguided notions about art.

Art/direction: high budget, however it was almost entirely superficial spectacle adding nothing beyond jingling keys over a baby.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by MaiDeNaBysS (27)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Shows with Good Opening Themes

by MrSlamboni

29 Entries · 2 Restacks

Highest rated anime of 2024

by Doggo1195

34 Entries · 44 Restacks

Urban Girls Doing Urban Girl Things

by OhlLonesomelMe

16 Entries · 54 Restacks

'"Oshi no Ko"' Third Season in Production

The 13th and final episode of "Oshi no Ko" 2nd Season ([Oshi No Ko] Season 2) ended with an announcement on Sunday that a third season is in production. Th...read more

Oct 6, 2024 5:24 AM by Vindstot | Discuss (14 comments)

Summer 2024 Simulcast List [Update 6/6]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of television anime acquired for simulcast release during the Summer 2024 season. Anime series licensed for hom...read more

Jun 28, 2024 2:58 PM by Snow | Discuss (15 comments)

	Poll: "Oshi no Ko" 2nd Season Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Ricky16 - Sep 11, 2024	177 replies	by Gita96 »» Feb 17, 11:01 PM
	Poll: "Oshi no Ko" 2nd Season Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) nirererin - Aug 21, 2024	244 replies	by haani_legz »» Feb 16, 7:31 AM
	Poll: "Oshi no Ko" 2nd Season Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Ricky16 - Aug 7, 2024	357 replies	by vanillasaruto »» Jan 29, 2:33 PM
	Poll: "Oshi no Ko" 2nd Season Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Ricky16 - Oct 6, 2024	328 replies	by XxAkioTakasexX »» Jan 21, 9:34 PM
	Poll: "Oshi no Ko" 2nd Season Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) IzanaSolos - Sep 25, 2024	224 replies	by TheNoo »» Jan 17, 3:03 PM