Oshi no Ko season 2 massively builds upon the foundation set in its first season. The already amazing animation comes back stronger than ever, character arcs feel more integrated and deeper. The slightly odd aspects to the show have massively reduced screen time and previously sidelined concepts find themselves thoroughly explored. I debated a lot on rating but my feeling heading out of it is a 9/10, the greatest season to season improvement I’ve seen yet.

To start with the animation here is gorgeous, the previous season had made good use of light shadow and color but still had some generic looking scenes. In the second season every single shot is jam packed with color and emotion. If they cannot come up with something for a shot the frequent cut aways to amazing unique animation to explain concepts serve to fill the void. Multiple color palettes are used depending on the context but all of them are amazing. The animations of the now required dynamic fights in the theater sections were also extremely well done and would’ve easily been the best in a normal season if not for strong competition from Elusive Samurai.

Continuing with visuals the character designs continue to be very strong with the returning star motif and the stage outfits being great stand outs. In my opinion the star motif in particular felt even more strongly used this season and it was a great way to convey someone’s state changing without needing to spell it out for viewers. The outfit choices for everyday wear were also great and I really enjoyed looking at them for my own style inspiration. It’s very refreshing to see women dressed normally (or normal for their social status in a few cases) instead of what we often see in anime. Akane’s outfits in particular are very similar to the types of things I like to wear.

I’m not a musician so I usually refrain from commentary on soundtracks as I don’t understand the dynamics at play but I wanted to call out the strong showing here. The piano themes they use for backing in tense scenes are really good and the insert songs, OPs and EDs remain great as well.

My strongest criticism of Oshi No Ko in the past has been it’s treatment of women. Especially in the first season the way women hoard around aqua and fawn over him was extremely annoying and while it might be something funny or interesting for me really takes things away from me. This aspect is still present in the second season but finds itself massively diminished in favor of an arc that focuses on two women's dreams to the exclusion of their affections. This is a massively beneficial change that saves the show from what could’ve been a disaster. This is not to say they completely ignore this dynamic but I’m very happy with the direction they are going and found myself far less annoyed.

Similarly I found the treatment of the Idol aspects in the first season to be a bit pedestrian and uninteresting, serving to somewhat glorify the industry in something I think should showcase why it’s terrible for young women. The second season while having a bit of this massively cleans up it’s act in this regard. The focus away from these aspects into other portions of the show I find more interesting certainly went a long way in improving my opinion of this season.

Continuing on this I’m very happy with the way the show has been treating women as human beings with their own dreams. Even women with romantic attraction have other things going on in their life that they consider important. They aren’t one dimensional and can coexist on multiple fronts like real people, especially highlighted by a sound off your dreams moment in the last episode. I touched upon this earlier but this decision massively improves the stage play arc by making it about their career goals instead of something to do with possession of Aqua. The largest exception to this behavior is probably R
uby and to a lesser degree Kana. In Ruby’s case I do find her brocon cutaways to be grating, unfunny, and uninteresting however it does also seem like the show portrays this as a character failing. With Kana I find the situation to be less distasteful, sometimes funny, and still a little bit annoying and once again it does seem like future development is in store for this.

The characterization of the cast outside of romance is just generally extremely good. You get a great idea of why people do things and it refuses to play into the idea that people do things for no reason. People have convictions behind their actions which can be explored and deconstructed if you take the time to understand them. The depictions of despair are also really great and I was happy to see one of my favorite motifs portrayed so well. There’s a few blunders present, most notably an extremely simple scene involving a musician but these are stand outs in part because of their length and are easy to let fly you by.

The last episode served as a capstone integrating best in the series with its otherworldly visuals, well placed insert, and deepening mystery. They’ve managed to transform me from someone who was debating watching season 2 at all to someone who is quite excited to see where DogaKobo goes next.