©Aka Akasaka x Mengo Yokoyari/Shueisha, partner of “OSHI NO KO”
The girls are fighting and I’m glad they’re not just fighting over Aqua. This week’s episode Son of Shinobu Season 2, which featured a mostly female cast, took a break from Aqua’s melodrama and gave Ruby a refreshing turn. Meanwhile, Akane and Kana serve as opposing heroines, adding a new layer to their rivalry and plenty of laughs. As its title suggests, “The Curtain Rises” very much describes the rising action of the storyline: covering everything leading up to the show’s opening night. The episode is set in the present, keeping supernatural elements to a minimum but showing the everyday dangers that young actors, especially female actors, can encounter in the modern entertainment industry.
Aqua might think he’s dealing with demons, but they know nothing about his girlfriend. At first, Aqua seems to want to protect Akane from his darkness, but he severely underestimates her darkness. We’ll see if the couple who murdered your father together stay together, because Akane seems more than eager to be complicit – as she declares with her disturbingly flat eyes. All she wants in return is Aqua helping her own goals – which, thankfully, isn’t illegal. She wants Kana to show off her talents and become the most talented actor in the show. Akane and Kana are love rivals, and their rivalry usually takes center stage. But this week, the focus is on their acting skills — their strengths, weaknesses and insecurities. In a subsequent scene, Kana sees Akane’s glare and engages in a battle of wits, knowing she has a secret weapon: a years-old magazine in which a young Akane was interviewed about her acting role models. Interview: Arima Ganai. Cartoon backgrounds enhance their energetic back-and-forth, and the energetic performances from the two girl voice actors suggest that these characters are particularly entertaining. one can imagine Han Huimei is having the happiest time of her life while playing under a false name.
We haven’t seen Ruby in a minute. She’s not in the show, and the resurrected B-Komachi isn’t able to perform while Kana is so busy, so I’m glad the story was able to feature her in a cameo while visiting her brother during rehearsals. But since Aqua is busy talking to Akane about the murder on the director’s balcony, she encounters Melt instead. When Ruby goes in to use the bathroom (but is that all she does in there?), another cast member, Sakuya, finds her gravure model friend Minami who is following her. Minami was visibly uncomfortable when Melt saved her bacon, so his reward was to have Sakuya retaliate for this perceived dickish behavior by pointing out Melt’s shortcomings as an actor, which was particularly unfair – and this scene is harder to watch than the scene with Akane. (It’s worth noting that for all Sakuya’s criticism of Melt for calling himself a professional, Melt was not the one of the pair who acted unprofessionally offstage.) Wire address. Fortunately, her friends possess a shrewd concern that Ruby lacks in this area.
Let’s not gloss over Ruby’s brief transition into dark mode, or it might have been a hilarious moment as Minami’s overactive imagination contemplated Aqua and Akane’s fictional date. This is contrary to the previous situation where Ruby underestimated the potentially dangerous situation of a male actor who wanted to take advantage of her. She knew full well that a harmless-sounding caress for Nan could end up leading to a teenage pregnancy that would jeopardize her career. No one could miss the twinkle in her dark eyes, no matter how briefly. A few scenes later, Aqua’s eyes echo those of his sister, and he’s in full costume, looking up a picture of his mother, and then completely losing his memory. What does it mean when the light in their eyes changes from white to black? My theory: Aqua and Ruby are both haunted by guilt and PTSD from their past lives, deaths, and their mother’s murder. When they make a conscious decision to release the darkness within, the stars glow black. The episode ends on a cliffhanger – the real kickoff to the drama that’s yet to be played out. But for a work that’s entirely focused on building a future plot, it’s a fascinating watch.
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Son of Shinobu Season 2 is currently airing on HIDIVE.
Lauren writes about model kits at Gunpla 101.
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation and the majority shareholder of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.
