Oshi no Ko Season 2 Episode 9 review: Doga Kobo magnificently ends Tokyo Blade Stage Play as the next story arc is set up

By Gokul Chettiyar

Modified Aug 29, 2024 20:00 GMT

Oshi no Ko Season 2 Episode 9 review: Doga Kobo magnificently ends Tokyo Blade Stage Play as the next story arc is set up — Akane Kurokawa and Aqua Hoshino as seen in Oshi no Ko Season 2 Episode 9 (Image via Doga Kobo)

With the release of Oshi no Ko Season 2 Episode 9, the anime delved into three aspects - Aqua's emotional acting, set up for the next story arc, and the stage play's conclusion.

Evidently, the animation studio was successful in depicting all three aspects beautifully. While Doga Kobo relied heavily on the source material for the first two aspects, the third aspect featured extended original scenes. Those scenes helped give fans get the complete experience of watching a play on a circular stage.

However, despite such special efforts, what caught fans' eyes the most were Aqua's emotional acting and the mystery surrounding Aqua and Taiki's shared biological father.

Oshi no Ko season 2 episode 9 review: Doga Kobo perfectly concludes the 2.5D Stage Play Arc

Aqua Hoshino as seen in Oshi no Ko Season 2 Episode 9 (Image via Doga Kobo)

While the main plot point for Oshi no Ko season 2 episode 9 was to end the 2.5D Stage Play Arc, the animation studio went above and beyond in the entire episode. Considering how the studio hasn't faltered with the anime's animation quality till now, praising the same again would seem quite pointless.

So, let's take a look at all that Doga Kobo achieved by methods other than animation. Firstly, the anime focused on Aqua Hoshino's emotional acting. For this, the animation studio seemingly prioritized Takeo Ootsuka's (Aqua Hoshino) and Kento Ito's (Gorou Amamiya) voice acting as they played a key role in making the sequence work beautifully.

Aqua and Gorou as seen in Oshi no Ko season 2 episode 9 (Image via Doga Kobo)

Takeo Ootsuka's depiction of Aqua's pitiful voice worked well to showcase the character's emotional acting that stemmed from his pain of failing to save his mother Ai. As for Kento Ito, his voice as Gorou Amamiya's spirit within Aqua's mind helped fans understand why Aqua was so petrified at the thought of enjoying his youth.

Following that, the anime majorly focused on the stage play's conclusion. This included the backstage preparations, talks between the staff members, and the actors taking their time to reflect on their positives and negatives. However, something that stood out among these scenes was the near-2-minute 30-second long original scene that saw the cast members thank the audience for watching the show.

Aqua and Akane as seen in Oshi no Ko Season 2 Episode 9 (Image via Doga Kobo)

Other than that, the anime also added a scene that saw Abiko Samejima applauding the stage play. As fans may remember, she was planning to replace GOA and write the script herself. This scene effectively portrayed that GOA had redeemed himself with the script's rework.

Lastly, the anime focused on setting up the story's next arc. It is true that Doga Kobo almost entirely depicted these scenes from the manga. However, their depiction of the same was truly commendable, especially since they managed to kickstart the arc with a cliffhanger.

Final thoughts on Oshi no Ko season 2 episode 9

Abiko and Goa as seen in Oshi no Ko Season 2 Episode 9 (Image via Doga Kobo)

Evidently, Doga Kobo did a good job while producing Oshi no Ko season 2 episode 9. Their depiction of each of the above-mentioned aspects was beautiful. However, what made it all work perfectly was the way the anime transitioned between the scenes. In no part of the anime did it feel like the episode was deliberately focusing on one aspect of the episode. Hopefully, the future episodes will also be produced as well as this one.