(Hi) Oshi no ko

[Frontier]

It would be kind of funny if in becoming Ai Akane gained idol skills and joins the new B Komachi. That wouldn't be weird for Ruby at all .

I guess they were foreshadowing it with how much notes she was taking. It wasn't just something cute to make her look like a hard worker, it's basically behind her entire method of acting.

[Chiibi]

Let the Romance Wars Begin!!

Team Kana always

(I don't dislike Akane as a person....but AkanexAqua is too unhealthy for my taste.)

[FlareKnight]

I suppose it is nice to see that Aqua isn't always on top of things. It makes him less of a potential supervillain. Too often he has almost everything under control and going in the direction he wants.

But getting blindsided by Akane was good. He underestimated her ability. Plus he just underrates everyone in the world in general compared to Ai. To him she was absolute perfection. While obviously he'd be aware of some of her flaws, mentally I could see him dismissing them and certainly not grasping them on the level of Akane during her character breakdown.

I still prefer Kana overall. Her personality, voice work, and attitude just works for me best out of the whole bast. But I do appreciate Akane showing how scary good she is. A stage actress that can absolutely get into character when she's ready to go. Completely understandable why Kana would consider her a huge thorn in her side on the professional level. And honestly as soon as next episode will probably consider it on the personal level too...

[Kanon]

The producers were somehow even bigger assholes than they already seemed to be, as they actually had the footage of Akane and Yuki making up but refused to release it. Akane had to strong arm the crew into giving it up. Sucks that they're going to get away with everything in the end, as thanks to Aqua's work Akane was not only redeemed in the public's eye but the show's popularity soared as a result.

I'm a manga reader but I was still shocked when I heard how close Manaka Iwami's performance was to Rie Takahashi's Ai. Huge props to her. Incidentally, Rie Takahashi is an Akane fan and she's the character she initially auditioned for, and she was delighted by episode 7.

[Wandering Soul]

I like both girls, but I do lean closer to Akane. I always did like how intelligent and observant she proved to be once she got out of her depression.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by Frontier

Dang, I know Akane did her research but I didn't expect her to comb through Ai's entire life and social media presence and figure out such spot-on details about her life, background, and personality to the point of coming off like an obsessive detective (Aqua could probably respect that though). Like she figured out really personal and emotional stuff that most people who didn't know her personally never would have recognized. Like, jeez .

Akane's attention to detail is why she's my favorite character.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by Kanon

The producers were somehow even bigger assholes than they already seemed to be, as they actually had the footage of Akane and Yuki making up but refused to release it. Akane had to strong arm the crew into giving it up. Sucks that they're going to get away with everything in the end, as thanks to Aqua's work Akane was not only redeemed in the public's eye but the show's popularity soared as a result.

I'm a manga reader but I was still shocked when I heard how close Manaka Iwami's performance was to Rie Takahashi's Ai. Huge props to her. Incidentally, Rie Takahashi is an Akane fan and she's the character she initially auditioned for, and she was delighted by episode 7.

Yeah, I was amazed how close she came to Rieri's inflection. Kind of a full circle moment given Rieri wanted to play Akane and now Akane is playing Ai .

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

Method acting is not the same as Stanislavsky system though.

Also, I don't think Akane's acting is Stanislavsky system per se. It's kinda similar in the sense that she analyzes the character's motivations and such, but Akane seems to build the role only based on the information she gathers and her analysis. Stanislavsky is not that simple.

Stanislavsky requires building up immersion through constant repetition, so there's a lot of physical training involved to get in character. It's not as simply as building the character in your head like Akane does. You have to commit the character to muscle memory by practicing a whole lot, so that not just the character's personality but their movements and mannerism and habits become second nature to you through physical training. Building a role through Stanislavsky system is sorta like practicing martial arts, in a sense. You can't learn martial arts just by learning the moves from reading a book or watching martial arts videos. You have to practice a lot to commit the movements to muscle memory. Stanislavsky is just like that.

Method acting, on the other hand, it's about relying on your personal experiences (also called affective memory) to build the character. Some derivatives of method acting rely on imagination instead of personal experiences though.

I don't know what acting method Akane is using, but it certainly involved lot of physical training and repetation to get every movement and gesture right. It's ridiculous assume she just learned that from her chair.

[ryllharu]

Originally Posted by ssvb

Aqua said that "No one can imitate Ai - it's something you are born with". But the interesting thing is that Ai's personality was fake in the first place. Ai seemed like a gloomy girl when she first met her producer and she even thought that she wasn't fit for the idol job. The producer said that faking is okay and she did just that. The Ai's real talent was attention to the most insignificant details, such as figuring out the most effective smile and so on.

Now Akane is also faking something with extreme attention to the details and I really have a dejavu moment.

The difference is that Ai showed a lot of characteristics of being a sociopath, while Akane is pretty obviously not one.

It doesn't mean that Ai was a bad person, but there was a reason she was so hung up on what being 'loved' meant, that she consistently failed to empathize with her audience but paid attention to them to an exhaustive degree to bridge that gap. She didn't understand it. She lacked the emotional resonance with other people. In her own words, she calculated her every expression and action to make people "love" her without understanding what that felt like. She was finally redeemed by her own children.

Akane got torn apart emotionally because she is very attentive toward others, if a bit introverted in her own persona. Akane is methodical and sensitive to others, she just lacked the experience for TV and film, given that all her professional history is with a critically-acclaimed theater troupe. She turns her acting on and off without any kind of preparation or internalization. She just thinks about how she should react.

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

Method acting is not the same as Stanislavsky system though.

Also, I don't think Akane's acting is Stanislavsky system per se. It's kinda similar in the sense that she analyzes the character's motivations and such, but Akane seems to build the role only based on the information she gathers and her analysis. Stanislavsky is not that simple.

Stanislavsky requires building up immersion through constant repetition, so there's a lot of physical training involved to get in character. It's not as simply as building the character in your head like Akane does. You have to commit the character to muscle memory by practicing a whole lot, so that not just the character's personality but their movements and mannerism and habits become second nature to you through physical training. Building a role through Stanislavsky system is sorta like practicing martial arts, in a sense. You can't learn martial arts just by learning the moves from reading a book or watching martial arts videos. You have to practice a lot to commit the movements to muscle memory. Stanislavsky is just like that.

Method acting, on the other hand, it's about relying on your personal experiences (also called affective memory) to build the character. Some derivatives of method acting rely on imagination instead of personal experiences though.

Is she following Stanislavsky or Strasberg then? I think it is vague enough to be either, but I'll admit I'm not really sure.

We do see her do a lot of physical training in the theater practice room in cuts back to her doing stretches and poses and deeply sweating. Her theater company obviously puts them through a lot of physical work.

Kana, from her words alone this episode and the previous two, is the opposite school of acting from Akane then. She's very attentive towards everything others do, but overtly doesn't care what anyone thinks about her because she's been through that stuff and rejected it to keep sane.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by ryllharu

Is she following Stanislavsky or Strasberg then? I think it is vague enough to be either, but I'll admit I'm not really sure.

Between those two, I'd say it's closer to Stanislavsky. Strasberg is closer to what we know as Method acting. It has a lot of emphasis in really feeling the situation that affects the character, which is why drawing from your own personal experiences was a key element that Strasberg pushed for, as it allows the actors to convince themselves that what they're feeling when playing the role is real. Akane doesn't seem to be doing that. She's building the character in a more intellectual way. She's really smart and can figure out what was going on in Ai's head and her motivations and such, and is a genius at using all that data to sort of mimic Ai. But her method doesn't seem to require a strong emotional connection to the role. So it doesn't feel like Strasberg.

Then again, it's not exactly Stanislavsky either, so I guess I'd just call it the Akane method.

She's just a genius at figuring out the character inside and out and use that data to inform her acting. It's probably something that only works for her and not a technique that others can use. I think she once said she could be a detective if she wasn't an actress. lol

[Alchemist007]

Pacing seems a bit odd to me, we went from really noticing her as a part of the show to full on depression/suicide attempt in one episode. And while most of this ep was fine, in the last minute she studies and practically becomes Ai's persona. Was the manga also paced this fast?

[serenade_beta]

Wait, so Aqua was doing his usual "Haha, I will show them a thing or two!"
And all that happens is that he finds this convenient "Staff A" who is convinced to giving him everything they need with a tad bit of shaming? Considering how "dark" the previous episode was, everything just seemed to fit into pieces in a flash.
Also, now that I think about it, the cast have the credentials to use the official Twitter account?

And... yeah... This anime should also have an arc now on how higher-ups are abusing the anime companies and they can't finish the next episode in time, because the only thing consistent so far is the "suits are trying to make money so they do sucky stuff" theme. Man I wish I got $10 each time an anime misses its broadcast. I couldn't buy a decent meal 10 years ago, but I could do some good stuff these days

[ryllharu]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Also, now that I think about it, the cast have the credentials to use the official Twitter account?

They mentioned it last episode around the mid-mark that MEM and the white-haired guy were recording separate videos for Twitter and TikTok. The crew gave her permission to market the show on the side. The crew probably had oversight to what she was doing.

This episode they glossed over the fact that the cast were going to post the video to those accounts whether the crew approved or not, because of Akane's suicide attempt. The crew again knew what the five were up to, because they got the footage of the actual aftermath of the incident from them.

In light of what happens with real-world incidents like this, where the remainder of the season gets cancelled or the entire series gets canned, the crew was probably welcoming the attempt to salvage the situation. They claim that they weren't thrilled about the heat getting moved to them instead, but if they were really dead-set on maintaining the drama and the reputation of the producers and the show itself, the director would never have shared the clip with Aqua.

[Marina2]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

And all that happens is that he finds this convenient "Staff A" who is convinced to giving him everything they need with a tad bit of shaming?

Eh...that "Staff A" is the director of the show. He was also the same guy who Akane asked for advice all the time.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Alchemist007

Pacing seems a bit odd to me, we went from really noticing her as a part of the show to full on depression/suicide attempt in one episode. And while most of this ep was fine, in the last minute she studies and practically becomes Ai's persona. Was the manga also paced this fast?

It was the same.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I'm a manga reader but I was still shocked when I heard how close Manaka Iwami's performance was to Rie Takahashi's Ai.

I thought Takahashi had come back to play Akane at that point. Very impressive.

Over on his blog Enzo mentions the remarkable coincidence of Shima being there to rescue Akane. An even more remarkable, and remarkably unbelievable, coincidence is Mem's identification of Ai as Shima's perfect girl. On just those flimsy clues, she right away thinks, "Oh, it must be someone like that dead idol from a decade ago."

[Kanon]

English version of Idol

YouTube

https://youtu.be/RkjSfZ30GM4

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Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I thought Takahashi had come back to play Akane at that point. Very impressive.

Over on his blog Enzo mentions the remarkable coincidence of Shima being there to rescue Akane. An even more remarkable, and remarkably unbelievable, coincidence is Mem's identification of Ai as Shima's perfect girl. On just those flimsy clues, she right away thinks, "Oh, it must be someone like that dead idol from a decade ago."

Aqua, not Shima. You're confusing shows

Aqua rescuing Akane is not too big a coincidence. Only the timing is, but it's still relatively believable if we assume Akane was on that bridge for a while. As for Memcho identifying Ai so easily, don't be so quick to write off as a coincidence. Ai was a one of a kind idol, anyone familiar with her would think of her after hearing that description.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by Kanon

I'm a manga reader but I was still shocked when I heard how close Manaka Iwami's performance was to Rie Takahashi's Ai. Huge props to her. Incidentally, Rie Takahashi is an Akane fan and she's the character she initially auditioned for, and she was delighted by episode 7.

Honestly, I think Iwami basically did something close to what Akane was supposed to do about copying Ai (without going full profiling I assume ). The inflection and speech quirks used right there are definitely what Takahashi would have done, no doubt.

Originally Posted by Alchemist007

Pacing seems a bit odd to me, we went from really noticing her as a part of the show to full on depression/suicide attempt in one episode. And while most of this ep was fine, in the last minute she studies and practically becomes Ai's persona. Was the manga also paced this fast?

Originally Posted by Kanon

It was the same.

I dare say the anime took its time and exposed the shift of Akane's presence in the reality show in a slower and more natural way than the manga.
But then again, bad buzz and stuff like that really can happen all of a sudden, and it was quite obvious several days or weeks passed before Akane spiraled into despair. What the series didn't show in advance was her ability to analyze people's personality to emulate them, which is normal because it was not relevant in the reality show.

[Tenzen12]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Wait, so Aqua was doing his usual "Haha, I will show them a thing or two!"
And all that happens is that he finds this convenient "Staff A" who is convinced to giving him everything they need with a tad bit of shaming? Considering how "dark" the previous episode was, everything just seemed to fit into pieces in a flash.
Also, now that I think about it, the cast have the credentials to use the official Twitter account?

And... yeah... This anime should also have an arc now on how higher-ups are abusing the anime companies and they can't finish the next episode in time, because the only thing consistent so far is the "suits are trying to make money so they do sucky stuff" theme. Man I wish I got $10 each time an anime misses its broadcast. I couldn't buy a decent meal 10 years ago, but I could do some good stuff these days

That footage certainly helped, but it's not like whole plan hinged on it and would fail if director refused to give it away.

[EroKing]

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Megami

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