Oshi no Ko (2020)

[推しの子]

Volume 2

Author: Aka Akasaka
Artist: Mengo Yokoyari
Publisher: Young Jump Comics

Synopsis:
As she approaches the end of middle school, Ruby seeks to follow in her mother's footsteps and become an idol, but Aqua has other plans.

Story/Characters:
We pick up from the time skip at the end of the previous volume with Ruby going to an audition to become an idol, only to not make the cut. Or so we think until it's revealed that Aqua has been sabotaging her efforts because he doesn't want her to end up like Ai. However, a scout for an underground idol group throws a monkey wrench in his plans. Aqua then goes undercover as a scout himself to lure out one of the underground group's members to get information. Not liking what he learns, he decides the least bad option is to convince Miyako to restart idol operations and have Ruby sign on with Ichigo Pro. Besides keeping her in a relatively safe and controlled environment, she won't actually be actively working as an idol for the time being because, at the moment, it's just a group of one. Ruby is happily oblivious to all this and she and Aqua enroll in a high school geared toward young people working in or wanting to work in the entertainment industry. Aqua isn't in the entertainment course himself as he denies having any talent as an actor, contrary to the opinion of Gotanda, the director he worked with as a kid who he's been apprenticing under ever since Ai's death. His goal is to work behind the scenes in his quest to find his biological father.

At the Hoshinos' new high school, they are reunited with Kana Arima, who hasn't forgotten about Aqua in all these years and is very disappointed to learn he hasn't enrolled in the entertainment course. Kana is desperate to reconnect with him and he grudgingly lets her tag along as he goes to Gotanda's house (or should I say Gotanda's mother's house as the not-so-successful auteur is still living with dear ol' Mum and the running gag of any Gotanda scenes involve his mother spoiling the drama). At supper, Kana mentions a drama adaptation of a manga she's starring in and tries to recruit Aqua to fill in a vacancy. He turns her down at first until he hears the name of the producer, someone who was among the list of contacts on Ai's cell phone (while he unlocked after brute-forcing it over the course of four years). The producer, Kaburagi, is a bit on the scummy side (he is a producer, after all), but he has a talent for making use of human resources to get what he wants, and the art is rarely it. For instance, in the drama Kana is in, it's based on a popular shoujo manga, but he mainly uses it as a vehicle to give models and such more exposure (and we know how good most models are at acting) and Kana's reputation is leveraged to give the production legitimacy, though she has to pull her punches to better keep pace with her co-stars. Kana herself is a big fan of the source material and it's tough for her to look the mangaka in the face given what a travesty the show is. It's not just the acting that's terrible. The shooting schedule pretty much ensures a one take is the only take approach to filming with a single rehearsal run if they're lucky. Aqua is cast as stalker and is not only able to channel his memory of Stalker-kun but also uses the environment to enhance his performance and provokes Kana's co-star Melt (the lead male) to break him out of his usual wooden acting. With him raising the bar, Kana is able to make the most of her potential and the episode ends up being the high point of an otherwise disastrous show. This ends up resonating with the mangaka, which in turn makes the experience rewarding for Kana. Aqua has made a good impression on Kaburagi and engages in some tit-for-tat to learn more about Ai's connections.

Afterward, we get more of a proper introduction to the school. As I mentioned before, a lot of the students are already active in the entertainment industry and some have quite a name to them. Ruby quickly hits it off with the gravure idol Minami Kotobuki and Aqua catches the attention of the actress Frill Shiranui, who compliments his performance in the drama. Ruby starts to feel a bit of an inferiority complex as she hasn't made a name for herself yet. She wants to start working as an idol and that means to putting together a unit, but where is she going to find a cute freelancer who doesn't have much going on at the moment? Aqua has an idea. Poor Kana-chan thought something else was going on when Aqua asks to speak with her after school. Becoming an idol with his sister wasn't in her plans for the day, but life can be funny like that. And just when she thinks that this might afford her the opportunity to spend more time with him, she learns that he's booked for a new gig: a teen romance reality show.

Art:
I took a sampling of Yokoyari's previous works to test an idea I had. Perhaps I could confirm this if I looked up some interviews, but it seems like Akasaka was doing more than just writing the story as a lot of his artistic sensibilities are reflected in the composition of scenes. The emphasis on reaction shots and such are much like those in Kaguya-sama (and not so much in the sampling of Yokoyari's other stuff). Kana gets particular focus in this respect, which is part of the reason she's arguably my favorite character in the series.

Other:
There's a bonus comic of Ai with Aqua and Ruby when they were little with Ruby being a creepy otaku and Aqua's fear of shampoo.

Conclusion:
This volume sets up the two paths for our leads which will be running in parallel in the story and reintroduces Kana as a major player in the Hoshinos' lives. Aqua's performance in the drama has a lot of punch and it's nice to see a big show-off moment like this. And then there's of course of the ongoing intrigue of Aqua's hunt for his dirtbag dad. Ruby's plot seems fairly lightweight in comparison, but that's the point, I feel, to balance the light and the heavy. This volume does a good job of developing the premise established in the previous one and the overall package is definitely worth adding to your collection.

Rating:
Own It