The following contains spoilers for Oshi no Ko Season 2 Episode 11, “Freedom,” now streaming on HIDIVE.
Now that the Tokyo Blade story arc has ended, Oshi no KoIn the second season of , the main characters are free to pick up the same plot threads and drama that they had in the first season. In a way, the anime is coming full circle starting with episode 11, “Freedom,” and the episode title is actually ironic in many ways. Aqua thinks he's free from his quest for revenge against his father, but he couldn't be more wrong, as his twin sister unknowingly notes in this episode.
Additionally, the love triangle between Aqua, Kana, and Akane comes to the forefront again, and this could spell disaster for Akane Kurokawa. While Akane adores Aqua as the boy who saved her life, Akane clearly doesn't realize that Aqua Hoshino will never bring her happiness, and is holding herself back with this dysfunctional relationship. On the contrary, Akane has felt freer and stronger pursuing her rivalry with Kana Arima in Tokyo Bladebut for now, at least, he seems to have forgotten it. As of episode 11, only Kana and Ruby Hoshino feel free in their lives, while Akane and Aqua are unaware of the suffering they are about to inflict upon themselves.
Kana Arima quickly establishes herself as Aqua Hoshino's best love interest in the second season
By Oshi no Ko's twisted standards, she's the ideal girlfriend.
Since Aqua Hoshino became old enough to pursue a romance, he had to consider two girls in particular: the talented former child actress Kana Arima and the skilled but shy Akane Kurokawa, both of whom were highly regarded in the first season of Oshi no Ko. Those girls have played a variety of roles in the anime so far, such as exploring the dark side of the entertainment industry in new ways and even providing explanations on how these careers work. Kana and Akane also reignited their professional rivalry in the second season as they performed together in Tokyo Bladethe theatrical comedy, but with Tokyo Blade now over, Kana and Akane have to do something new, or rather, go back to what they've already done. This forms the core of episode 11, with the love triangle back in full force.
Love triangles work best when there is tension over who will win the race to the third person's heart. During the Tokyo Blade production, Kana and Akane were neck and neck as performers and romantic options, but now that Aqua is spending quality time with those girls in her day-to-day life, an imbalance appears, and that's what the plot needs. Since the love triangle is actually a subplot, it shouldn't linger too long and drag on for too long. Aqua's interactions with Kana and Akane are meant to reinforce other, more important plots and provide hooks, so the romantic tension should be short and conclusive. That's the case in episode 11, as Kana Arima takes a clear lead over her blue-haired rival.
In episode 11, Aqua's date with Kana comes first, and not only is Kana's date better than Akane's in this episode, Kana is more useful to Aqua for their next adventure. B-Komachi is about to shoot a music video in Miyazaki, the region where Dr. Gorou Amamiya died, and it's Kana who can provide advice and insight for everyone involved, not Akane. As a potential girlfriend and artist, Kana is the stronger of the two, and that gap could widen even further as this storyline continues. The differences are that the popular Kana Arima has more appeal as a cute tsundere than Akane, and that Kana has less baggage than her rival. From Oshi no KoBy 's strange standards, Kana Arima is the perfect girlfriend.
Kana has baggage, like most characters in this anime, but she manages her baggage better than the other characters manage theirs, all while standing on her own two feet as an artist. Kana may not be perfect, but she at least has the determination and confidence to push her career and love life forward, with or without the help of her friends. In contrast, Akane Kurokawa is still clinging to Aqua and shaping her life around him, much more than a girlfriend or platonic friend should. Even after six months, Akane is still unsure how to move forward without Aqua, or at least, that's how she feels in episode 11. While Kana does what's best for herself, Akane just wants to be Aqua's sidekick in her dark quest for revenge for Ai's killer. Akane still doesn't know how to be her own person, and not even her rivalry with Kana can push her forward.
On the other hand, all of this makes Kana Arima's date in episode 11 more cute, fun, and realistic than Akane's scene with Aqua. At this point, Kana doesn't even have an agenda, and there aren't many subversive elements to what she's doing. At this point, Kana is the most honest and relatable character in the second season, being nothing more or less than a tsundere teenage girl enjoying her time with her boyfriend. While Kana doesn't know exactly what she's getting herself into, since Aqua is the thirty-something man she outwardly acts like, Kana still has good intentions here. She's not trying to get lost in someone else's life, and she's not running away from anything. Kana is ready to take her relationship with Aqua Hoshino to the next level, and as far as she knows, this is the great teenage romance that a lot of people would want. If Kana plays her cards right, at least she can avoid getting hurt and maybe even find a few glimmers of true happiness here and there.
In short, Kana Arima is aiming for the future and her heart is in the right place, which is quite impressive in the context of Oshi no Koconstant subversion and drama. This gives her a distinct advantage over Akane Kurokawa, who is held back by her past. She is no longer haunted by her ordeal with ego surfing and cyberbullying, so instead, she allows Aqua's past to haunt her. Akane may not know all the details, but she is trapping herself in a dark and futile quest for revenge that will do her no good, allowing Aqua's painful past to derail her life as a rising star. Akane has potential similar to her rival Akane, but if her relationship with Aqua stays like this for much longer, then she is destined for a world of hurt.
The arrival of Aqua and Ruby's father begins the countdown to Aqua's misery
It's only a matter of time before Aqua realizes that her target is in her sights again.
The final scene of episode 11 begins on an innocent note as Ruby Hoshino visits the Hoshino family gravestone, speaking in memory of her late mother. Just as Ruby leaves in a good mood, a well-dressed man in a hat and sunglasses walks past her, holding a bouquet of flowers. The scene slowly savors this image as a dramatic wind picks up, making it clear that this man is no ordinary cemetery visitor. For a moment, there is trepidation as to who he is and what gravestone he is visiting, until he turns to the Hoshino family gravestone and speaks of his and Ai's son and daughter. Contrary to what Aqua heard from Taiki Himekawa, her and Ruby's mysterious father is still alive.The newspaper article about the murder/suicide was clearly intended to be a short-lived red herring.
This has all sorts of implications for Oshi no Ko's story moving forward. For starters, the mysterious father is set to start appearing more often and playing a more substantial role in the anime now that he's making his dramatic debut, though it may take some time for that to bear fruit. However, there's no going back on the father's introduction into the story, so Oshi no Ko is bound to do something serious with him soon. He could do anything: attack his son and daughter when the opportunity arises, embrace them as his beloved children, or tell them to run away from the industry that devoured their late mother, to name a few. Instead, he could try to stay out of sight, daring Aqua to find him.
If Ruby finds out her new father is around, there's no way to know how she might react, but anime fans can safely guess how her twin brother will react. Aqua recently lost his Hoshino-esque eye star because he was convinced his quest for revenge was for naught, but now Aqua's father is on the scene, and for the sake of the plot, Aqua is bound to find out at some point. For now, this creates some serious and exciting tension about how long it will take Aqua to find his and Ruby's father, and that tension promises to be even greater than when Aqua's search was more ambiguous than that. There's now a clear target who's been confirmed to be alive, so the tension has basically doubled. This will breathe new life into Aqua's character arc and begin the countdown to his misery. There's no way a father and son reunion will make either of them happy, but it's bound to happen anyway, and anime fans should be ready.