“Oshi no Ko” S2 Episode 2

This episode was ROUGH in more ways than one. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from the mangaka, but it definitely wasn’t this. After the sudden declaration of wanting the entire script to be revised, we see just how passionate Abiko is towards her work, more specifically her characters. Like, on one hand, I get it. I completely understand feeling frustrated over feeling like someone took your work and made the characters act in a way that they would never. Especially in Abiko’s case where she views them as her children. It feels like they’ve been disrespected in a way. Not to mention that Abiko HAS been asking for revisions since the start and grew more and more frustrated that it felt like her words and feelings weren’t being heard. So it’s only natural to have felt like they were shutting her out of the project and using her characters however they pleased.

HOWEVER, the way she ripped into the scriptwriter felt so needlessly cruel and unfair. At first, it seems like the scriptwriter is fully to blame for how the script ended up becoming, making GOA the immediate target for Abiko’s frustration. We are then shown how the pipeline really is and boy, it is so needlessly convoluted and lacked immediate communication. Just seeing how many hoops they had to go through and how many people had to relay the information to the scriptwriter… it felt like a complete mess and opens it up so wide for miscommunication, to which clearly happened. When the information eventually got to GOA, he was given such watered down instructions that at that point it wasn’t even Abiko’s true instructions. And because Abiko was most likely not informed that there was essentially a game of telephone whenever she gave critiques, to her, it made it seem like GOA just was not listening to her and did things his way when that was not the case at all. We were already kind of set up from the last episode with how GOA commented how as a scriptwriter, he has already accepted the role as the “bad guy” and man, but I didn’t expect everything to blow up the way that it did. I feel like this all could have been avoided if GOA and Abiko had personal communication from the start. Especially since if Abiko talked directly to GOA, he may have been able to see to that her revisions would suit the script. Though I did see that someone brought up the fact that their schedules might not have been able align since both are so busy with their work. So it’s all just an unfortunate mess.

I feel SO BAD for GOA. He literally did everything in his power to abide by the “author’s wishes” and worked with what he was given. However, because he was given bad information down the pipeline, he wasn’t able to grasp what Abiko even wanted changed or even really know what she wanted. And while I can understand Abiko losing it after seeming like she was being ignored all this time, I felt like it was incredibly foul of her to attack his creativity like that. It definitely rubbed me the wrong way, especially after knowing it literally wasn’t even his fault that the script ended up like this because the majority of it was corporate meddling but all of the blame solely landed on him. I think the worst part was that he was a fan of her work and even put aside time to be able to take on the job. He was extremely diligent on getting the revisions done as soon as he got them and even getting a freaking fever from figuring out how to make it into a good play. The guy really put his heart and soul into trying to write the best script he could only for his efforts to be discredited as “uncreative” by someone he looked up to. I honestly wouldn’t know what I’d do in that situation… probably just cry. I’m dead serious. He definitely took being let go on the project with grace, but man… his self esteem must have taken a severe hit from that and I really feel for him. I hope it won’t affect his other work, but I feel like he might need some time off to shake it off and refresh from this experience. Though with his busy work schedule, he might not even get that chance. JUSTICE FOR GOA.

After what went down with GOA, I really do not like Abiko at this point in time. Through out that whole ordeal, she was behaving incredibly childish and stubborn and it definitely rubbed me the wrong way. Especially since in the first season, when Yoriko was thinking back on her meet ups with other creators and how their adaptations ended up, all of them had basically waved off how it’s best to not get your hopes up for a good adaptation of their work. I feel like Abiko is being overly stingy on how her work is being portrayed. Again, I fully understand being protective over your work’s characters, but you have to allow a certain amount of leeway since a stage play and manga are two completely different mediums with very different restrictions. With manga, you can afford to take time to really get the story how you want, but in stage plays it’s go go go. I really do hope that the two sides = find an acceptable middle ground that they can work with because at this point in time, 20 days is just not a lot of time. Not to mention gives the actors even less time to rehearse. I’m sure they’ll be able to pull it off, but I can only imagine the stress being put into this situation. Abiko strongholding her way is just causing so many problems for so many people it’s just so frustrating to watch. She better get some good character development because man, she’s definitely treading on some thin ice for me.

While this episode was good, the situation was so frustrating and heartbreaking. Especially since it showed us just how convoluted the pipeline of communication can be. Not to mention how messy it can be for the original creator to get involved with the adaptation. In some ways, it can be a big benefit so that the characters don’t drift away from who they originally are. However, in other ways, it’ll end up blowing up like it did here. At this point, I can only hope that GOA recovers from this as receiving such harsh criticism from someone you look up to would be soul crushing. On a lighter note, I am excited to see what happens to Melt this season as it seems like he’s really shaped up since his last appearance, even if his acting left both Aqua and Kana traumatized lol. His dynamic with Kana seems a lot more fun now that he’s been cut down a peg and she isn’t afraid to speak her mind around him now that she isn’t the lead. It’ll definitely be fun to see how Melt navigates through this arc now that he’s being a lot more serious about it, though there may be times he’ll feel discouraged because he’s not on the same level as everyone yet. Considering in the first episode, it showed Kana dimming her performance to match Melt’s again, so he probably still has a long way to go.