“Oshi no Ko” Episode 2

A lot of things have happened between the span of the previous episode and this episode. Namely how Ichigo basically went MIA after Ai’s death. Which essentially left all of his responsibilities to Miyako, who honestly has been taking everything that comes at her like a champ. Not only did she take in the Hoshino twins when they had no where else to go, but she also took over Ichigo’s freaking company and seems to be doing well with it. Unfortunately because of Ai’s death, B-Komachi ended up breaking up two years later. Though I’m impressed they were even able to last that long without Ai not gonna lie. But Strawberry Productions hasn’t produced idols in over a decade since then. So the fact that Miyako is still able to run the company without producing idols is a pretty big accomplishment.

Despite what happened to Ai, Ruby is looking to still become and idol so she can follow in Ai’s footsteps. However, through her striving to become one, it demonstrates to the audience how difficult it is and even if you’re passionate about it, doesn’t mean things will work out. Though it’s surprising how much Ruby is still so set on becoming an idol despite the potential dangers and backlash that she has witnessed. However, I can understand the fact that she may just want to honor Ai’s wish of her becoming an idol in the future and in her previous life, it was the only thing that brought her joy. Despite how naive Ruby is, I can’t help but find myself rooting for her and I feel like I’m a lot more drawn to her as a character as opposed to Aqua.

SPEAKING OF AQUA. BRUH. When it revealed that it was Aqua who pretended to be the audition person who told Ruby she didn’t make the cut, my jaw DROPPED. That was so incredibly messed up. And while I understand why he wouldn’t want Ruby to become an idol after what happened with Ai, what he did was terribly manipulative and cruel. Even going as far as to turn down the audition in her stead and blocking their number on her phone. I get he’s just trying to protect her, but man, that was all kinds of messed up. Especially since because of Ruby’s past life, I can understand her wanting to live her life to the fullest this time and being an idol could possibly bring her closer to Ai in a way.

While I don’t feel particularly compelled towards Aqua, I do feel really sad about his situation. Especially with how he empty he probably feels towards everything around him now that Ai is gone. It also saddens me over the fact that he doesn’t seem capable of moving past her due to his mental age and doesn’t see this new life as a way to “start over” for himself like Ruby. He seems to be stuck in a way where he can’t move forward with a new life as he’s too busy being tied down to who he was. And because of that, his love for Ai is also holding himself back from actually enjoying the privilege of having a new life. And I find it sad when Ruby points out that he never seems to have fun or enjoy anything anymore. It’s also even more sad over the fact that he is just so focused on getting his revenge by killing someone despite having been a doctor who saves lives. There is a possibility that he could go further with acting as he seems to also be more interested in it than he’d be if not for Ai asking him to become one in her last moments. Here’s to hoping that he’d be able to find joy in acting so that it would give him something to continue striving for in life. Especially since at this point in time, he doesn’t foresee himself continuing to live after his revenge is completed…

I also appreciate the director who took to mentoring Aqua to become an actor as he also called him out about just how too focused on Ai. And while he is kind of a bum who still lives with his parents, I do appreciate him trying to encourage Aqua to continue acting. Though considering his mental age, it probably is difficult to really take the advice of someone younger than him to heart.

After all the sadness and pain, one of the only good things that came out of it was how close Miyako and Ruby have become. Miyako has become a wonderful mother figure for her and my heart absolutely melted at the shots of them showing the two together and how much of a bond they’ve formed throughout the years. And I appreciate that she doesn’t stray away from telling Ruby the hard, honest truth about the reality of things. However, unlike Aqua, while she is worried about Ruby going into the idol industry, she isn’t trying to actively stop her and wants Ruby to be able to live out her life. Even going as far as to start producing idols again just so that Ruby could live out her dream and not end up associated to a shady company. I also appreciate her relationship to Aqua. While the two aren’t as close, the fact that he’s still comfortable talking openly about his feelings on certain things is telling. The two also seem to be on the same wave length for certain things and Miyako even goes along with Aqua’s schemes at times despite her grievances.

We learn more about the politics within idol groups and how some of them are MESSY. Especially when that one girl talked about the favoritism within the group and how unfair everything was. Even within B-Komachi, Ai was obviously the fan favorite. But I do appreciate how Miyako brings up how she wouldn’t hire someone who would easily bad-mouth their fellow colleagues since yeah, that would prove to make a pretty tense and awkward working environment.

The twins are now attending Youtou High School that apparently has a performing arts department to which whoever wants to be in it, needs to already be associated to a talent agency. Though I did find it funny how Aqua basically scored a pretty high score of 70 despite the school’s standard school was just 40. Makes sense since he did go to school to be a doctor in his previous life. Guess we’re going into the direction of typical high school setting for the time being though I’m sure that it will only be a part of the series and not mainly focus on it… hopefully lol.

However, we do end up seeing a familiar face. And my gosh, I swore if Ruby mistook her as the girl who licked baking soda again, I was going to lose it. And thus I lost it. Kana Arima makes her comeback and I’m honestly surprised to see her actually be happy to meet him again despite seeming pretty vengeful the last time we saw her. She’s surprisingly a lot more cheerful as well and seemingly grew out of her bratty phase (thankfully). I am curious as to what she views Aqua now as it seems like she was looking forward to going to school with him and was shocked when he said he was in the General Education program rather than the Performing Arts. Also, I have a feeling that I might end up really like Kana. I don’t know how to explain it, but she just seems to be a character with a lot of potential and I feel pretty drawn to that. But we’ll see what happens. Though I did see gigguk’s youtube video on this series and said that Kana was his best girl so hmmmm… I look forward to good things with Kana’s character.

This episode was a lot slower, but what do you expect from essentially having a movie be the first episode. However it was still interesting and there’s definitely a lot of set up happening as well. I look forward to what else this series has in store.