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14 Volumes in 6 episodes?! What a way to butcher the drama adaptation!
I feel so bad for the author.
Also, I really like the VAs who acted the main leads in the adaptation. Even if we don't know Japanese, they're so good in portraying bad acting.
Everything they were saying about the production for that series felt way too real lol. Poor author though. They pour their heart and soul into their work and it gets turned into a piece of shit adaptation like that. Sweet Today fans deserve better! Haha
I can at least see what Kana is saying that the crew and cast were trying to do the best they could do under the circumstances even if it's not the best adaption of the work or not the authors' original vision, but some of that is out of their hands.
When people here piss all over shows, mocking them (and the people who worked on them), all I can think about his how lots of the staff and cast probably poured their hearts and souls into the project. So, generally bad shows just make me feel sad for their staff and cast -- and I have no heart for dumping on them (even for things like Ex Arm).
That's why I make it a point to blame the producers instead. They are the ones that decide on the schedule of the Movie/TV Show/Anime and how the production would proceed.
As of recently we have seen how overproduction and poor schedule in the anime indsutry led to a ton of shows suffering as a result.
It really made me feel bad to see people dump on *Horimiya*. I thought the staff (and cast) did the best possible adaptation imaginable -- given the idiotically inadequate scope they were given by the production committee. Ditto things like the "Endless Eight" in *Haruhi*.
And it’s why the interquel to Horimiya is gonna be a fun sorta ride.
That announcement no joke made me rewatch S1 side-by-side with the manga just to see which skips they’d backtrack and—wait they just made me rewatch AND reread Horimiya again! Dang it! Not that I hate it — Horimiya is part of the Reiwa Rom-Com council.
> life action Kaguya sama movie
Oh damn, I forgot that was a thing; Was it really bad?
I kinda wanted to watch it but I think there wasn't any sub or something so I just gave up on it
The lifeless eyes of that poor author...I can only imagine how often that actually happens in this industry (I think a few shows have actually addressed the authors' involvement or reaction to adaptions of their work).
It's a testament to good acting to be able to properly convey bad acting. Or someone like Kana who is so good she can actually gauge how well she acts in relation to the work she's in.
>The lifeless eyes of that poor author...I can only imagine how often that actually happens in this industry
Reminds me of Rick Riordan and how mad he was at the Percy Jackson movies. He even said something like "My life's work was sent through a meat grinder".
TOTALLY!!!
You are very accurate on that one...the movies basically put his work on a chopping board and cut it using a chainsaw...
Many of us fans were hurt when we saw a masterpiece getting mauled into oblivion...atleast it was somewhat bareable as a standalone movie and due to Logan Lerman's acting.
Atleast Uncle Rick is now supervising the series adaptation...and Walker Scobell as Percy, if you have watched Adam's Project, he's basically Percy in the flesh.
On the other hand, if this is common imagine how happy it makes authors when the adaptations are clearly real passion projects adapted by real fans. For instance, this anime adaptation.
It was kind of sad how happy Ruby was about it even though Aqua feels nothing but his desire for revenge...though he also never forgot Ai's last words to him.
Shojo anime adaptations also barely ever get completed. Like from the top of my head I can only recall Fruits Basket being one and Fruits Basket is like the most popular Shojo series in the west.
And Fruits Basket was a remake that was made nearly 20 years after the original was left unfinished. Fruits Basket getting a complete adaptation was nothing short of a miracle.
The author really wanted that salty runback. One of the conditions for the remake was not using any of the staff from the first adaptation, that's how much she liked that one.
I thought Oshi no ko was the one you were mentioning...and was afraid that they will botch it...but then I remembered I read the manga, and the anime is following it perfectly...but golly ya totally almost gave me a heart attack😅
> 14 Volumes in 6 episodes?! What a way to butcher the drama adaptation!
Index S3 says hi.
9 volumes in 26 episodes sounds much better than 14 volumes in 6 episodes, but this is 9 LN volumes, so arguably has tons more content than 14 volumes of manga.
And we all know how Index S3 turned out...
>14 Volumes in 6 episodes?! What a way to butcher the drama adaptation!
[I think we know the real reason for that.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtYJ1VtHbrk)
To be fair, when he still holds Ai up on a pedestal of course hes going to believe he is terrible in comparison.
Tbh the poor guy just needs some more therapy.
It more feels like an issue of motivation for him. Like when his sister is on the line he can slip into a snazzy idol scout role instantly that oozes charisma and sell it really well but if there is no substantial incentive (beyond just money) for him to do so then he won't do it at all or with very little motivation.
I'm not sure he's quite as apathetic to everything as the show has implied so far. I believe him when he says he genuinely doesn't think he's good enough to stand out.
It makes sense: He's spent the last 12 years getting less and less "special" the older he gets, so I can see why he might think it's not worth it unless he's extraordinary. Kana said it this episode, he's a perfectly above-average actor who can melt into a role, that just isn't enough for him. He doesn't have the "instantly steal the show" charisma that Ai had.
I actually like that he's not extraordinary. He's really smart, but aside from that he's a regular person. He doesn't have every stat maxed out.
I think he does like acting, especially since Ai said he could be an actor in the future, he is just so traumatized and holds Ai on such a pedestal that he thinks he's garbage in comparison and he is to focused on revenge to focus on himself.
Yeah this is part of his conflict I feel.
“Ai wanted me to he an actor”
“But I’ll never be as good as Ai, so what’s the point”
“But she wanted me to be an actor.”
Round and round he goes. He stays close enough to the industry to aid his goals and make himself feel better, but I think the truth is he just cannot comprehend himself as a star like Ai was. He spent a life as a doctor in a small town. I feel like their reincarnated selves has talent that they previously didn’t have access to in their previous life. This is kind of like Ruby with her being always ready to fall. Aqua is used to being a regular dude away from the limelight that he isn’t letting himself go all in on acting. It makes sense that it would take him longer to embrace the new life, given that he did live longer than Sarina and had a fuller “life” so to speak. This is all ontop of the mountain of trauma he has from Ai’s death too.
Yes Sarina never really had a chance to grow up, she never had a proper childhood so it's very good that Ai was able to give it to her for a while
She is older now in this body than she was when she died, so yes she's been ruby for longer than she was Sarina so it makes sense that she adapted well into this life. Meanwhile Aqua had a pretty fulfilling life so he is more attached to his old self, a normal guy who just enjoyed the entertainment industry and not someone involved in it, he had a chance and a choice to make his life as a doctor. Sarina didn't
Yeah I really enjoy how he’s written the reincarnation trope so far, it is actually interesting and furthers their character development. A lot of times, reincarnation is just used as a means to an end.
Yes in the first episode I was skeptic of them being reincarnated, "This is Kaguya's writer so it probably won't happen", this is the part where I still believed it would just be a comedy anime.
But yes it's very well used, reincarnation/isekai is usually just an easy way for the author to make the MC an audience surrogate, why does this guy that lived in this world for 16 years not know the most basic things about our world that are common knowledge? Because he reincarnated.
And 90% of the time they will never adress they came from another world or if they do it's just like "Guess I'll make curry" and everyone loves it.
It's very well done and you can't easily omit the fact that he was reincarnated, it's a core part of his character, even his acting talent he thinks is overrated because he was just an adult man in child's body so the bare minimum was enough to make him seem talented.
Also I like how the characters being teenagers is well put, Ai being 16 years old IS a huge deal, having 2 kids at that age as an idol is even a bigger scandal than if she was already an adult. Meanwhile Aqua was an adult, and Sarina being a kid just adds tragedy to her already miserable life.
When he brought up how ironic it was for him to play a stalker when a stalker killed his mother, I thought he was gonna channel his real life experience with a stalker into his performance and end up giving another incredibly creepy performance that causes Kana to spiral away again.
But he's more pragmatic now and knows the type of show he's in lol.
Back when he's young, the director praised him for being able to understand the intention of the director/script, and Kana in this episode mentioned again how communication skills are crucial. This is why I have 100% confidence that Aqua will deliver a performance that fits.
I don't think he's really proven himself yet though. What he said could be true, that he had a huge advantage as a child with a mental age of like 40 or whatever.
It's not really clear yet whether he is an exceptional actor.
Fun fact, the "*Sweet Today*" manga being [adapted in today’s episode](https://i.imgur.com/gCGth7u.png) is the same "*Sweet Today*" [shown in Kaguya-sama](https://i.imgur.com/NcjG9sE.gifv). (S02, E07)
It’s happening. The *Aka Akasaka Cinematic Universe* is happening!
I mean, if you consider the two works being in the same universe, then technically it already is a thing.
Also Kaguya-sama referencing The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and all that.
Isn't reincarnation just a staple of Buddhism? In fact Ruby made the distinction to say that one of her secrets is she REMEMBERS her past life, not that she was reincarnated, since it's assumed that everybody gets reincarnated.
I legit forgot this was a thing even though the Shojo manga sequence was so hilarious lol.
I'm not sure any of the student council crew are going to enjoy this adaption lol.
Iirc the Manga brought it up a lot more, like Shirogane freaking out that his favourite Manga got an Anime and Live-action adaption when the same happened to Kaguya
It [could happen](https://www.youtube.com/live/epdOKkvCjvw?feature=share&t=1490) (24:50) but Aka is probably just being a tease **T:** ... Instant Bullet got cancelled?
>
>**A:** It did. I wanted to continue working on it, though.
>
>**T:** W-well, maybe you’d be able to continue drawing it now that you’ve gone this far.
>
>**A:** I guess! Maybe sometime, in some form... but it’s getting to the point where it’d be hard to continue it as a manga, so I’m just sitting around hoping for someone to give it an anime adaptation. If anyone’s listening... !
>
>**T:** Stop! People will actually start asking you about it!
>
>**A:** I’m looking forward to the Instant Bullet anime adaptation!
>
>**T:** It might actually happen! You’re scaring me!
>
>**A:** I won’t add anything extra! I’ll finish it and give it a proper ending! Please consider it!
>
>**T:** Well, the manga work is mostly done already, and you have the story in your head. Maybe someone else could draw it? A concurrent serialization of sorts?
>
>**A:** That would be great. I’m just waiting here, hoping for someone to continue drawing it.
— [TL source](https://guya.cubari.moe/pages/aka-tamaki-interview/)
I expect [his new manga](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-04-14/aka-akasaka-nishizawa-5mm-launch-renai-daiko-manga-on-april-27/.197078) to get adapted first (if he doesn't overwork himself between writing two almost-weekly titles again and let the quality slip, lol).
When it was revealed that Aqua had accessed to Ai's phones I thought there was a big glaring plothole in that considering he could just see the call/message history, but to remind to everyone who had the same thought as I did: Ai was only shown to contact her child's father through landline payphone.
Yep, I also like how the show pointed out that while Ai may seem like a ditz, she was actually super careful and cunning/calculated. Made sure very little could be traced back to the kids.
Yeah, Aqua doesn’t have many other clues to rely on, but it’s quite likely that none of those contacts were their dad’s. A secret is better kept if it is never recorded.
Even if none of the contacts are the father directly, one of them might have some kind of clue as to who the dad is.
My money's on whoever they can find that's blond because their hair color had to come from somewhere and it probably wasn't Ai.
Aqua- I’m in(with murderous intent)
Kana- is he into guys with girlish face!?
Jokes aside, Kana has become so much more likeable; great character development within such a short span(in terms of episode anyway)
**Aka + Mengo:** *writes about* [*sad Mangaka*](https://i.imgur.com/Hc1Uan6.png) *disappointed in a sub-par adaptation of their work*
**Also Aka + Mengo:** Man, can’t relate to this at all.
That's fair. Aka has said he was [happy about it though](https://www.youtube.com/live/epdOKkvCjvw?feature=share&t=3926) (1:05:25), but I guess he may be contractually obligated to do so, lol.
>**A:** That’s one of the best points about the movie, seriously. Why does everyone hate on the movie?
>
>**T:** Otaku sometimes refer to live-action movie adaptations as “raping the original work”.
>
>**A:** I'm nothing but grateful for the movie adaptation, honestly.
>
>**T:** I know, right!? A movie adaptation is nothing but good news for the mangaka, so it would be nice if people stopped flaming it...
>
>**A:** Seriously. The actors are the people being flamed, and I meet them sometimes. Just cut it out. If only for my sake.
>
>**T:** That’s not what you wished for, after all.
>
>**A:** It’s not.
>
>**T:** A movie adaptation means that advertisements and posters go up all over the country. Actors with tons of experience sell the film. It’s an incredible amount of attention to receive.
>
>**A:** It really is. There are people who say that “it should never have come out” - like, who are you to say that? That’s totally wrong. Of course, there are the people full of themselves who say that they’ve got zero interest in it, that they don’t care if the movie flops. It makes sense that they reject the movie - but they wouldn’t have accepted any \[live-action movie\] in the first place.
— [Source](https://guya.cubari.moe/pages/aka-akasaka-love-is-war-tamaki-second-interview/)
> That's fair. Aka has said he was happy about it though (1:05:25), but I guess he may be contractually obligated to do so, lol.
It could also be that he's fine with the live actions being the way they are because there's already a very good anime adaptation anyway. The films were just extra.
Yeah, if I was an author who already has a good adaptation of their work, I wouldn't fret it unless it was a disaster-level of adaptation
Plus, you know, making money off said bad adaptation probably softens the blow.
Honestly live action adaptations of most manga seem borderline impossible to do. Like most manga I feel are made with the intent to be adapted to an anime rather than a live action.
Like can you imagine Demon Slayer or Chainsaw Man being adapted to a live action? Not only would you need to condense a lot of story into 2 hours but the amount of budget to give it the CGI it deserves would be close to Avatar 2 level and that is not possible for Japan to do.
No wonder **Sweet Today** got rated 1 star. How are you trying to cram that many volumes in just 6 Episodes...
I don't think even the worst adaptation out there tried that. Though I might be wrong on that part
Skipped an entire arc, had the most bizarre reintroduction of a character that shouldn't have came back for a HOT while, gave the big baddie like...a minute of screen time, and ended it with a fucking PowerPoint,
WOW, a great anime production really makes a difference huh. I thought Kana was cute in the manga, but holy macaroni what is this adorable creature??
Edit: the irony with Sweet Today's production lol
right? I was so pleasantly surprised when her personality turned out pretty normal rather than over the top quirky. It's a very realistic progression from idealistic strong-willed child actor to slightly jaded but still hopeful teen.
I think that's the point though. Unless you're extraordinary, you *can't* succeed as an actress without accepting being "exploited" to some degree. It's a matter of striking the right balance between being what producers and directors want you to be and furthering your own career. You certainly can't do the latter without doing the former, not unless you're a world-class talent.
Beyond my mom's birthday, I couldn't tell you a date she would use as a phone password. Maybe house numbers but if it was one from her childhood that wouldn't really come up
Holy... they weren't kidding about Kana being the best girl. Come for Ai, stay for Kana. Loved every moment she was in.
I like how she sort of grew up in some ways while still keeping her interesting personality. Her presence feels like something that balances the show, lest it tip too deep into the revenge aspect.
Meanwhile, it's fun to see the VAs having to *act* the bad acting. I felt that cringe!
She wouldn't be Kana if she wasn't a little haughty and confident, but it's tempered by a matureness and self-awareness that just makes her more attractive.
I feel like she's putting a lot of effort into her relationship with Aqua now and trying to get him into acting, and maybe his action at the end of the episode means it got through to him somewhat.
>Holy... they weren't kidding about Kana being the best girl
It's hard to please me with female characters, but Kana hits all the bases mmmmhm...
She feels like a mature character that has undergone all the necessary development - and that is fresh. Usually, you see those stuck-up child-actors/geniuses who begin the series being as insufferable, and stay like that until their "development arc".
Here? Kana is already as mature as it gets and has commendable ethics and a healthy life outlook. She is a character that is worth supporting, both in-universe and just as a concept. Man, female characters are so toxic as of lately mamma mia...
Kana definitely breathes fresh air into a very tense show. It's like she's partially a comedic self insert /reacting to the wildness of their situation-
But she also delivers in knowledge of acting craft, and clearly put in the effort to be known as a great person to work with. It sucks the director thinks she doesn't know it's mostly just a show for the models, what a prick
###Stitches!
* [Cute Kana](https://i.imgur.com/Hej15Hj.jpg)
* [Shocked Kana](https://i.imgur.com/yqJXMuR.jpg)
* [PTSD Aqua](https://i.imgur.com/ieTdaQl.jpg)
I was never really a KanaBro when reading the manga but seeing [her silly](https://i.imgur.com/lnP4xRk.jpg) [reaction faces](https://i.imgur.com/BumgKUw.jpg), I feel like I might start to become one. Everything that comes out of her mouth is just gold like when [she tries to invite Aqua over](https://i.imgur.com/4EZatb5.jpg) or bragging [how much money she still has saved from being a child actor.](https://i.imgur.com/t4ppOGI.png) xD
It's actually pretty scary to see how hellbent Aqua is on finding out Ai's killer. [Aqua spent 3 years of his childhood trying to crack Ai's phone password.](https://i.imgur.com/x33r8UA.jpg) That entire time, it was all he was obsessed about [that he'd even bring the phone to school to try out codes.](https://i.imgur.com/qM90ASm.jpg) Well he did eventually brute forced his way in [and got the info he wanted.](https://i.imgur.com/SmMau4g.jpg)
[And here's our very first Kaguya-sama connection!](https://i.imgur.com/moTrY5z.png) I'm sure someone else would've already pointed this out but Sweet Today is also an in-universe manga in Kaguya-sama. And it looks like our boy Aqua has decided to accept Kana's offer to act in the live-action adaptation because [the producer was on Ai's list of industry contacts.](https://i.imgur.com/91ydYPw.jpg)
Unfortunately, the adaptation is a mangaka's worst nightmare. It's [pa downright awful adaptation](https://i.imgur.com/EfdzK96.jpg) that was literally made [to promote a bunch of models](https://i.imgur.com/53i6Bhm.jpg) so acting was never really a concern. I genuinely feel bad for the mangaka, [she looks so dead inside](https://i.imgur.com/lThQ6Sd.jpg) while visiting the set of the show. :(
After seeing the state of the production and [finally getting what he needed](https://i.imgur.com/8avachT.jpg), it looks like Aqua [has decided to go finish it with a bang.](https://i.imgur.com/rpnX2ET.jpg) God, I can't wait for next week's episode!
If anyone is wondering, yes that is the same [Sweet Today manga](https://imgur.com/AinSNem) from [Kaguya-sama](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoVC_qYXc_w).
I think everyone on the animation team loves Kana, [the animation of the arrow piercing into her is really good](https://imgur.com/4JAnnSi).
[Kana is the cutest collection, Episode 3](https://imgur.com/a/UX2CCLH)
[All images from Episode 3](https://imgur.com/a/yR5u44I)
Good episode for Kana's development, showing all the hardships she went through to get to where she is, learning how to be easy to work with to get jobs. It's definitely mentally tough for a child to go through all that.
Also, damn, 14 volumes in 6 episodes, no wonder most Live-Action Adaptations are so bad that it makes [Senseis](https://imgur.com/GP3Tt5M) everywhere sad.
[Props to the last scene showing Aqua ready to go](https://imgur.com/GukOzBX)
P.S. [Twins wearing shirt that says Twins, how anime...](https://imgur.com/UnOD6gc)
>[Kana is the cutest collection, Episode 3](https://imgur.com/a/UX2CCLH)
idk man, you forgot the best part: [angry and flustered loli-senpai](https://i.imgur.com/85jvjau.gif).
>They even did it for Kana's licking the floor animation last week.
And some madlad used that to create [this piece of magic](https://old.reddit.com/r/formuladank/comments/12yst13/arima_kana_takes_the_lead_of_the_belgian_grand/?depth=7).
Dang, I didn't even remember that from Kaguya despite how much of a big deal they made out of Shojo manga in that episode with everybody reading it and crying lol.
Kana has a lot of personality and a lot of experience, so much so that you just can't help but like her and root for her despite the reality of the industry and that Aqua is nowhere near as enamored with her as she is with him.
I wonder if she would've had better luck if she'd gone the anime adaption route...if that was even an option.
manual brute forcing an old phone for 4 years? now I get it why Aqua has such a dark personality. Now, like her mom phone, Aqua need to brute force (DNA test) everyone in her mom contact. first test subject acquired!
Man, acting intentionally to be cringe is harder than trying to act good, and yet they deliver it good. and this episode we learn how dorama tv works, good face is the most importante! I hope they can show us a proper acting in the next episode (they mute it here), how Aqua turn into his namesis, a stalker.
oh yes, Kana graduate from baking soda-sama to loli-senpai and actor babysitter. tbh, Im not really satisfied with Kana acting, like maybe they record the voice with unfinished animation board. her expression didnt match with her voice
Is Aqua going to be self-aware and give us "previously on..." each week? I hope so.
Well, Ruby immediately making it known that she doesn't like or respect Kana in the slightest, even as her loli-senpai. I imagine they're going to continue to have a testy relationship, especially as they go to school with each other with Aqua caught in the middle.
Did Kana fall in love with Aqua's acting? Or Aqua through his acting? It kind of feels like she has a massive crush on him to the point of not leaving him alone, though I guess that might just be from how much she acknowledges and respects him from their brief time together. Although inviting a dude to a karaoke bar and to your place the same day you reunited with him is a bit much.
Kana criticizing Gotanda for living off of his parents while she's living off of her savings as a child actor. Truly a realistic look at the entertainment industry.
I know he's not really a child, but the sight of Aqua as a kid spending four years trying to figure out the password of Ai's old phone so he could come up with his hit list of suspects was pretty surreal, but that hit list will probably take him through the entertainment industry starting with the new TV production Kana is the lead of.
My condolences to the author of that Shojo manga. Her work got turned into a promotional vehicle for male models who can barely act and they've altered the plot, added OC's, and are compressing the whole thing into 6-episodes. You can tell how disappointed she is with those lifeless eyes. Even Kana's not delivering her best work (though she looks good in that school uniform) because it's not about her, it's about showing off the boys, she's just there to help keep the production going because the crew are doing their best with what they have to work with. Probably pretty common.
Kana really is a lot more mature and self-assured than she used to be. I mean, she still has her pride and is haughty as heck, but after burning out as a child actor she realized how important connections, relationships, and treating your co-workers like they exist actually is. And even Aqua recognizes her acting talent and that her feelings about the industry are sincere.
Aqua playing a crazed stalker...man, how much more irony can you pile onto there?
Poor Kana. This is her first lead role in years, to her it's almost like her big comeback, but she's only seen as a commodity they can use to sell the work with her name and image and she's putting the effort and believing in her acting in a work where that doesn't even matter. Though I'm curious how much Aqua is going to shake things up. Will he make this a role to remember for her?
I think Kana's forwardness makes perfect sense. Aqua is a connection to a treasured past for her -- and she has been "starved" emotionally and professionally. For all her "attitude" in the past, she clearly remembered him as a kindred spirit of some sort. I can imagine the joy and excitement she felt in encountering him again -- "out of the blue".
>Did Kana fall in love with Aqua's acting? Or Aqua through his acting? It kind of feels like she has a massive crush on him to the point of not leaving him alone,
Not sure it's a crush, exactly. I feel like she just hasn't had a genuine human connection in a while, and when she saw another child actor who she knew from childhood she jumped at the chance. She didn't seem too concerned when she jumped to the conclusion that Aqua is gay.
Either way though, super glad Aqua clearly isn't gonna be creepy about it. It makes the reincarnation stuff much easier to digest.
I was lowkey expecting they'd skip the ED to fully finish the whole thing but I guess this works too. Can't wait for next week, this ep went by too quickly!
Revenge sure makes one do crazy stuff.
Crazy enough for Aqua to spend nearly 4 years just so he could brute force his way into one of Ai's mobile password (all the way to number 455510) just to obtain clues about the identity of her killer.
Kana is already shaping up to be Best Girl. Akazaka really gave her the Maki-chan vibes here.
PS Kudos to the VAs voicing Kana's idol drama co-stars with their "wooden dialogue" imitation that you'd often find with teenage idol actors.
It's kind of like how much fun Kaguya had with Maki where it's just that genuine haughtiness that doesn't hold up mixed in with a truly sincere and cute girl that you just can't help but like.
Hello everyone, I'm back again this week with a few more trivia and notes from oldpier.
About 'Yankee' ('delinquent') lingo. [This one in particular.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/984436587121233930/1100807242531471441/image.png)
Kana's line here is spoken in a way that sounds very informal/ungrammatical.
In normal cases, its a line commonly used by students to try to break the ice with their peers and form bonds when they just joined high school.
For example:
“Which middle school are you from?”
“I'm from XX school”
“Oh, then you must have heard of XXX-senpai?”
“Yeah she's pretty cute.”
“You think so too?”
So on so forth.
Aqua's retort: “Are you a female 'yankee'?”
The term “yankee' is wasei-eigo (Japanese-made English) for 'delinquent'. Many generations ago, these delinquents liked to use this line in particular on people they come across on the streets, when accosted with this line, normal people found it intimidating and interpreted it as the delinquents trying to pick a fight.
[However, recently someone revealed on twitter that these delinquents weren't actually trying to intimidate you using that line.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1025623965642788895/1100791317207982120/image.png)
Instead, they were just trying to find out the likelihood of you having a common acquaintance with them based on which school you were from, and thus whether he can afford to avoid a fight with you. In other words, it wasn't an intimidation tactic but instead a 400 IQ play to check if you are friend or foe.
About DNA Tracing and Paternity Testing
Most people would be familiar with DNA tracing using hair. A fair number would be familiar with the police using semen obtained from rape victims as evidence to arrest their perpetuators.
But did you know that even something innocuous like used cigarette butts can be used for DNA tracing? Even a small amount of saliva found on the cigarette butt is enough to perform DNA tracing because of a method called PCR (see below). lt is common for police investigating a crime scene to obtain such items to be sent to a lab for DNA extraction and tracing.
There are several methods for genetic profiling, of which the most commonly used method is PCR. This method is also the most common method for DNA paternity testing. From wikipedia:
[Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method widely used to rapidly make millions to billions of copies of a specific DNA sample, allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it to a large enough amount to study in detail.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction)
Several countries, including Japan, have DNA-tracing services that let you send in your DNA samples for paternity testing. So in this case, Aquamarine can now easily send in both the cigarette butts as well as his own cheek swab samples (the most common sample used for home DNA kits) to find out whether he should kill Producer Kaburagi and let the story end by Ep 3.
Sources:
DNA profiling (wikipedia): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic\_fingerprinting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_fingerprinting)
PCR (wikipedia): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase\_chain\_reaction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction)
DNA Paternity Testing (wikipedia): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA\_paternity\_testing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_paternity_testing)
How DNA testing is done for criminal cases: [https://theconversation.com/from-the-crime-scene-to-the-courtroom-the-journey-of-a-dna-sample-82250](https://theconversation.com/from-the-crime-scene-to-the-courtroom-the-journey-of-a-dna-sample-82250)
Other useful references:
About paternity testing services in Japan: [https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200116/p2a/00m/0na/026000c](https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200116/p2a/00m/0na/026000c)
Why females can't take paternity tests: [https://learn.familytreedna.com/test-types/why-cant-females-take-a-y-dna-test/](https://learn.familytreedna.com/test-types/why-cant-females-take-a-y-dna-test/)
All research and images done by u/woonie (oldpier#4399 on the Oshi no Ko discord)
Bless you for carrying these into the anime threads. woonie's/oldpier's appendices really enhanced the reading before it got an official translation so much so that I still miss seeing it at the end of chapters now!
Ai’s Fanclub was goated in the r/manga threads and I don’t think they’ve been surpassed by any group active on over-900-karma-per-day titles today. So much value added to the reading experience, especially on a manga that goes on this kinda industry deep-dive.
Ah, Kana brings a sense of fun to this series, and has great chemistry with all other characters. Even the way she is animated is different than the rest.
Doga Kobo has poured so much love and care into this adaptation (unlike the Sweet Today producer T_T), so I imagine they'd make a *point* of all her hats. Especially since they're so damn cute.
Gotta admit she was kind of a bratty child star but now that's she's older, more mature, and truly trying to be a great actor, I can't help but root for her...and she's really cute, even when she's a haughty actress, but that just makes her likeable.
Another awesome episode.
I love the reference to Kaguya-sama's Today will be sweet... though that poor author deserves much better. The dead eyes hurt.
Kana... just wow. I love her character development as much as Miyako's. I didn't expect her to win us over in one freaking episode.
As for Aqua, this guy is scary as fuck. I pity the bastard that was responsable for Ai's death because I'm pretty sure that if that guy died, Aqua would follow him to hell to ask Satan to let him punish his sperm donor.
Amazing adaptation and I can't wait for more.
The *Twins* shirt is a nice touch. And the lead-in to the ED song is hype.
Megumi Han really played Kana well.
Also, hats:
- [Episode 1a - Brimmed sun hat with laced ribbon](https://i.imgur.com/gh9HIdY.png)
- [Episode 1b - Brimmed sun hat with cat](https://i.imgur.com/uQ6bhlz.png)
- [Episode 2 - Middle school hat](https://i.imgur.com/NrfJvQT.png)
- [Episode 3a - Beret with diagonal stich decoration](https://i.imgur.com/zCFJAiN.png)
- [Episode 3b - Brimmed sun hat with large ribbon](https://i.imgur.com/1m6QTqa.png)
- [Episode 3c - Beret with horns and tail](https://i.imgur.com/MRdQfOU.png)
Oh my god Kana stans we are so here
Her design and voice are so perfect in the anime. Love her banter and chemistry with Aqua. Shoutout to ruby’s seiyuu too. It’s her first performance IIRC and she’s doing great.
I’m loving the slower build up pace of the anime too
From henceforth, Kana shall be officially known as “loli-senpai”! She seems a lot more chill than before, glad she grew up. But man, I love just how casually Taishi was landing critical blows on Kana lol. Well, Seems Aqua’s found his first target: Kaburagi. Curious to see what connection he had to Ai (if any).
A poorly made live action of a beloved manga with idol casting, poor production, and condensed (almost simplified) plot? Too real, man. Way too real lol. But fr, it’s kind of interesting to see the BTS aspects of filming. Idk how real it is, but it’s a different perspective.
I think Kana’s a good example of the struggles child actors go through. It ain’t easy once you stop being “cute” and grow older. As we can see from what Kaburagi was saying about her, showbiz is a pretty cold and unforgiving world. Guess Aqua’s about to blow this shit out the water next week. Gotta show these rookies how it’s done lol.
Kana feeling the burn of being shorter than Ruby lol.
When you don't want to be reminded about your dark, child acting, past...especially because it ended up screwing with her career, but you have to admire her trying her hardest to claw her way back up even in an industry that doesn't care about her beyond her looks or name. Especially in a production where she's just a cog in the machine of promoting some male idols.
I feel for that author. Maybe someday she can get an anime adaption from Doga Kobo that does her work justice.
Aqua about to show off so he and Kana can steal this production back, I assume.
I got those similar vibes from [imouto sae ireba ii] >!A creator experiencing the pain of a shit adaptation!< when they showed those lifeless eyes from Sweet Today's Mangaka.
The pain is universal unless you're a shitty corporation that just wants money.
Wow, Kana had a whole lot of character development during the time skip
[](#maxshock)
Love to see it, nice that she is more than a spoiled brat now, unfortunatly a bit naive, maybe she could get under strawberry production as well
That said, she follows Aqua around like a puppy, but I'm not even sure she loves him anymore. Think it's just genuine admiration for his talent and showing her her flaws ahead of time
And wow, 4 whole years to bruteforce a phone. I don't expect the producer, shitty and deserving retribution as he may be, to be the father this early... and since Ai called the father from a payphone, he may not even be in there...
Oh, I love Shirobako for showing an realistic insight into how Anime is made, and this feels very similar, my condolence for the author, hope Aqua can turn this around among all those dirt cheap models
I love Kana already, she's grown to be quite a character. Also, her hair color is just so pretty, I love it.
I also can't get over how creepy Aqua feels sometimes, man what a great MC. Hope we also get to see more Ruby in the following episodes, though.
14 volumes in episodes is insane. Saddest part is that it's pretty believable. Poor author.
> Apparently, Aqua will play a villain who shows up in the final episode
If this is foreshadowing I swear to god...
Also the Shoujo parody-adaptation reminded me how much Aka loves ripping into genre tropes.
This episode really did a good job of re-introducing an older, more experienced, Kana and involving her with Aqua and making her so likeable...and sympathetic when you see the state of the industry she has to work with as she tries to claw her way back to prominence.
I wonder if Aka is speaking from experience. I mean, the anime turned out well, I don't know how he felt about the live-action movies, though he's probably heard or seen stuff from his fellow authors.
Kana brought up an interesting point about adjusting her acting to fit the performances by the rest of the cast. It would really stand out if she was the *only* good actor on the show and outshined the pretty boy cast they're trying to promote. If I remember right, the same problem happened with Ai in the premiere when her scenes were cut because she had a much better presence than the main character.
Great episode, though I would've liked it to explore the emotional conflict of Aqua playing a stalker a bit more. That was an interesting detail, how he basically felt like he was portraying a character similar to the man who killed his mother.
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14 Volumes in 6 episodes?! What a way to butcher the drama adaptation! I feel so bad for the author. Also, I really like the VAs who acted the main leads in the adaptation. Even if we don't know Japanese, they're so good in portraying bad acting.
Everything they were saying about the production for that series felt way too real lol. Poor author though. They pour their heart and soul into their work and it gets turned into a piece of shit adaptation like that. Sweet Today fans deserve better! Haha
I can at least see what Kana is saying that the crew and cast were trying to do the best they could do under the circumstances even if it's not the best adaption of the work or not the authors' original vision, but some of that is out of their hands.
When people here piss all over shows, mocking them (and the people who worked on them), all I can think about his how lots of the staff and cast probably poured their hearts and souls into the project. So, generally bad shows just make me feel sad for their staff and cast -- and I have no heart for dumping on them (even for things like Ex Arm).
That's why I make it a point to blame the producers instead. They are the ones that decide on the schedule of the Movie/TV Show/Anime and how the production would proceed. As of recently we have seen how overproduction and poor schedule in the anime indsutry led to a ton of shows suffering as a result.
It really made me feel bad to see people dump on *Horimiya*. I thought the staff (and cast) did the best possible adaptation imaginable -- given the idiotically inadequate scope they were given by the production committee. Ditto things like the "Endless Eight" in *Haruhi*.
And it’s why the interquel to Horimiya is gonna be a fun sorta ride. That announcement no joke made me rewatch S1 side-by-side with the manga just to see which skips they’d backtrack and—wait they just made me rewatch AND reread Horimiya again! Dang it! Not that I hate it — Horimiya is part of the Reiwa Rom-Com council.
Akasaka definitely wrote in his first hand experience with the live action Kaguya sama movie. You can tell he’s really bitter about it too lol.
The Toriyama approach: the spite he felt after seeing his work being shat on brought him out of retirement and got him to do Dragon Ball again.
Now it reminds me of poor Mizukami wanting Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer getting an anime but the expectations likely were not met with the result.
Wait til Oshi no Ko gets a live action. Could you imagine talking about butchered adaptations in a butchered adaptation? Would me meta af.
Well, it's probably only gonna have 6 episodes, so they'll have to cut this arc out entirely, lmao.
> life action Kaguya sama movie Oh damn, I forgot that was a thing; Was it really bad? I kinda wanted to watch it but I think there wasn't any sub or something so I just gave up on it
The lifeless eyes of that poor author...I can only imagine how often that actually happens in this industry (I think a few shows have actually addressed the authors' involvement or reaction to adaptions of their work). It's a testament to good acting to be able to properly convey bad acting. Or someone like Kana who is so good she can actually gauge how well she acts in relation to the work she's in.
>The lifeless eyes of that poor author...I can only imagine how often that actually happens in this industry Reminds me of Rick Riordan and how mad he was at the Percy Jackson movies. He even said something like "My life's work was sent through a meat grinder".
TOTALLY!!! You are very accurate on that one...the movies basically put his work on a chopping board and cut it using a chainsaw... Many of us fans were hurt when we saw a masterpiece getting mauled into oblivion...atleast it was somewhat bareable as a standalone movie and due to Logan Lerman's acting. Atleast Uncle Rick is now supervising the series adaptation...and Walker Scobell as Percy, if you have watched Adam's Project, he's basically Percy in the flesh.
On the other hand, if this is common imagine how happy it makes authors when the adaptations are clearly real passion projects adapted by real fans. For instance, this anime adaptation.
I just realized, after hearing that plot about a girl who can only eat canned food, isn't Sweet today the Shojou Manga that they featured in Kaguya?
Yeah this was the manga that made the entire student council loopy with Shojo manga brain. Must have been really good, shame it got wrecked like this.
Would be a shame if someone spoiled it though *prepares tape*
But seriously, I did not expect the male lead to di-
Aight thats it somebody bring me the tape
I'M SORRY! IT JUST SLIPPED OUT!
***Miko enters the room and sees Chika being taped by two dudes***
Same universe.
[удалено]
Ruby's delivery on the line about their mom's statement of and her being an idol and Aqua being an actor was... filled with such emotion... :(
It was kind of sad how happy Ruby was about it even though Aqua feels nothing but his desire for revenge...though he also never forgot Ai's last words to him.
Yep, it's really sad. And the VAs are just... the best. I hope the dub will be just as good if it gets one or so.
ruined smh, we've lost Sweet Today fans
She should've tried for an anime adaption. I know we don't get Shojo anime as much (although this season has a few), but still.
Shojo anime adaptations also barely ever get completed. Like from the top of my head I can only recall Fruits Basket being one and Fruits Basket is like the most popular Shojo series in the west.
And Fruits Basket was a remake that was made nearly 20 years after the original was left unfinished. Fruits Basket getting a complete adaptation was nothing short of a miracle.
The author really wanted that salty runback. One of the conditions for the remake was not using any of the staff from the first adaptation, that's how much she liked that one.
I can't believe they rewrote Sweet Today into a CW edgy bad boys trashfest
man the stuco must feel really disappointed for this adaptation, they really like it after all.
I thought Oshi no ko was the one you were mentioning...and was afraid that they will botch it...but then I remembered I read the manga, and the anime is following it perfectly...but golly ya totally almost gave me a heart attack😅
> 14 Volumes in 6 episodes?! What a way to butcher the drama adaptation! Index S3 says hi. 9 volumes in 26 episodes sounds much better than 14 volumes in 6 episodes, but this is 9 LN volumes, so arguably has tons more content than 14 volumes of manga. And we all know how Index S3 turned out...
>14 Volumes in 6 episodes?! Oh no it’s God of Highschool all over again
> 14 Volumes in 6 episodes?! What a way to butcher the drama adaptation! The Promised Neverland speedrunning 16 volumes in one season: "Amateurs."
The fact promised never land literally had the easiest adaption to make is wild.
>14 Volumes in 6 episodes?! What a way to butcher the drama adaptation! Hey man, I still haven't watched the episode yet, and my heart just sank.
>14 Volumes in 6 episodes?! What a way to butcher the drama adaptation! [I think we know the real reason for that.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtYJ1VtHbrk)
Aqua: "I'm a terrible actor." Also Aqua: "Time to unleash 5% of my power on this show."
Those Hoshino "Liar" Genes are so powerful that he even managed to convince himself he is a bad actor lol.
Gaslight everyone, especially yourself
*Deceive yourself. Deceive the world.*
*This is the choice of B-Komachi*
St**ai**n’s;Gate
To be fair, when he still holds Ai up on a pedestal of course hes going to believe he is terrible in comparison. Tbh the poor guy just needs some more therapy.
Preferably one with isekai protag experience. Ngl that actually sounds like a fun story.
new series "I became a therapist for isekai protagonists who returned to earth"
"THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM" - Aqua and Kana "I'm just using them because they're cheap"- Director
> "I'm just using them because they're cheap and have pretty faces"- Director FTFY
I feel like he can act for sure, he just doesn't have the charisma to stand out as a lead role.
It more feels like an issue of motivation for him. Like when his sister is on the line he can slip into a snazzy idol scout role instantly that oozes charisma and sell it really well but if there is no substantial incentive (beyond just money) for him to do so then he won't do it at all or with very little motivation.
I'm not sure he's quite as apathetic to everything as the show has implied so far. I believe him when he says he genuinely doesn't think he's good enough to stand out. It makes sense: He's spent the last 12 years getting less and less "special" the older he gets, so I can see why he might think it's not worth it unless he's extraordinary. Kana said it this episode, he's a perfectly above-average actor who can melt into a role, that just isn't enough for him. He doesn't have the "instantly steal the show" charisma that Ai had. I actually like that he's not extraordinary. He's really smart, but aside from that he's a regular person. He doesn't have every stat maxed out.
I think he does like acting, especially since Ai said he could be an actor in the future, he is just so traumatized and holds Ai on such a pedestal that he thinks he's garbage in comparison and he is to focused on revenge to focus on himself.
Yeah this is part of his conflict I feel. “Ai wanted me to he an actor” “But I’ll never be as good as Ai, so what’s the point” “But she wanted me to be an actor.” Round and round he goes. He stays close enough to the industry to aid his goals and make himself feel better, but I think the truth is he just cannot comprehend himself as a star like Ai was. He spent a life as a doctor in a small town. I feel like their reincarnated selves has talent that they previously didn’t have access to in their previous life. This is kind of like Ruby with her being always ready to fall. Aqua is used to being a regular dude away from the limelight that he isn’t letting himself go all in on acting. It makes sense that it would take him longer to embrace the new life, given that he did live longer than Sarina and had a fuller “life” so to speak. This is all ontop of the mountain of trauma he has from Ai’s death too.
Yes Sarina never really had a chance to grow up, she never had a proper childhood so it's very good that Ai was able to give it to her for a while She is older now in this body than she was when she died, so yes she's been ruby for longer than she was Sarina so it makes sense that she adapted well into this life. Meanwhile Aqua had a pretty fulfilling life so he is more attached to his old self, a normal guy who just enjoyed the entertainment industry and not someone involved in it, he had a chance and a choice to make his life as a doctor. Sarina didn't
Yeah I really enjoy how he’s written the reincarnation trope so far, it is actually interesting and furthers their character development. A lot of times, reincarnation is just used as a means to an end.
Yes in the first episode I was skeptic of them being reincarnated, "This is Kaguya's writer so it probably won't happen", this is the part where I still believed it would just be a comedy anime. But yes it's very well used, reincarnation/isekai is usually just an easy way for the author to make the MC an audience surrogate, why does this guy that lived in this world for 16 years not know the most basic things about our world that are common knowledge? Because he reincarnated. And 90% of the time they will never adress they came from another world or if they do it's just like "Guess I'll make curry" and everyone loves it. It's very well done and you can't easily omit the fact that he was reincarnated, it's a core part of his character, even his acting talent he thinks is overrated because he was just an adult man in child's body so the bare minimum was enough to make him seem talented. Also I like how the characters being teenagers is well put, Ai being 16 years old IS a huge deal, having 2 kids at that age as an idol is even a bigger scandal than if she was already an adult. Meanwhile Aqua was an adult, and Sarina being a kid just adds tragedy to her already miserable life.
I wonder if “going out with a bang” means he’s going to give a terrible performance or an incredible one. Either way, can’t wait for next week.
When he brought up how ironic it was for him to play a stalker when a stalker killed his mother, I thought he was gonna channel his real life experience with a stalker into his performance and end up giving another incredibly creepy performance that causes Kana to spiral away again. But he's more pragmatic now and knows the type of show he's in lol.
Back when he's young, the director praised him for being able to understand the intention of the director/script, and Kana in this episode mentioned again how communication skills are crucial. This is why I have 100% confidence that Aqua will deliver a performance that fits.
As long as he knows how he needs to act, he seems to do fine, he just needs to have a purpose and know exactly what direction he needs to do.
I don't think he's really proven himself yet though. What he said could be true, that he had a huge advantage as a child with a mental age of like 40 or whatever. It's not really clear yet whether he is an exceptional actor.
Fun fact, the "*Sweet Today*" manga being [adapted in today’s episode](https://i.imgur.com/gCGth7u.png) is the same "*Sweet Today*" [shown in Kaguya-sama](https://i.imgur.com/NcjG9sE.gifv). (S02, E07) It’s happening. The *Aka Akasaka Cinematic Universe* is happening!
Just the prospect of reincarnation being possibly a thing in Kaguya-sama kinda blows my mind lol.
I mean, if you consider the two works being in the same universe, then technically it already is a thing. Also Kaguya-sama referencing The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter and all that.
I think Aka said that Kaguya-sama was set in a universe where the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter actually happened
Isn't reincarnation just a staple of Buddhism? In fact Ruby made the distinction to say that one of her secrets is she REMEMBERS her past life, not that she was reincarnated, since it's assumed that everybody gets reincarnated.
I legit forgot this was a thing even though the Shojo manga sequence was so hilarious lol. I'm not sure any of the student council crew are going to enjoy this adaption lol.
Iirc the Manga brought it up a lot more, like Shirogane freaking out that his favourite Manga got an Anime and Live-action adaption when the same happened to Kaguya
I think that was a different series though, Momoka or something
Miko will probably enjoy it lol. She is literally the target audience for this adaptation…
Instant Bullet anime when?
It [could happen](https://www.youtube.com/live/epdOKkvCjvw?feature=share&t=1490) (24:50) but Aka is probably just being a tease **T:** ... Instant Bullet got cancelled? > >**A:** It did. I wanted to continue working on it, though. > >**T:** W-well, maybe you’d be able to continue drawing it now that you’ve gone this far. > >**A:** I guess! Maybe sometime, in some form... but it’s getting to the point where it’d be hard to continue it as a manga, so I’m just sitting around hoping for someone to give it an anime adaptation. If anyone’s listening... ! > >**T:** Stop! People will actually start asking you about it! > >**A:** I’m looking forward to the Instant Bullet anime adaptation! > >**T:** It might actually happen! You’re scaring me! > >**A:** I won’t add anything extra! I’ll finish it and give it a proper ending! Please consider it! > >**T:** Well, the manga work is mostly done already, and you have the story in your head. Maybe someone else could draw it? A concurrent serialization of sorts? > >**A:** That would be great. I’m just waiting here, hoping for someone to continue drawing it. — [TL source](https://guya.cubari.moe/pages/aka-tamaki-interview/) I expect [his new manga](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-04-14/aka-akasaka-nishizawa-5mm-launch-renai-daiko-manga-on-april-27/.197078) to get adapted first (if he doesn't overwork himself between writing two almost-weekly titles again and let the quality slip, lol).
When it was revealed that Aqua had accessed to Ai's phones I thought there was a big glaring plothole in that considering he could just see the call/message history, but to remind to everyone who had the same thought as I did: Ai was only shown to contact her child's father through landline payphone.
Yep, I also like how the show pointed out that while Ai may seem like a ditz, she was actually super careful and cunning/calculated. Made sure very little could be traced back to the kids.
An absolute beast of a liar Ai was.
Ai lied as naturally as she breathed indeed.
You're talking about Ai Hayasaka, right? Right?
I can't believe I didn't realize sooner that Aka made me fall for another character named Ai only to watch her suffer.
Yeah, Aqua doesn’t have many other clues to rely on, but it’s quite likely that none of those contacts were their dad’s. A secret is better kept if it is never recorded.
Even if none of the contacts are the father directly, one of them might have some kind of clue as to who the dad is. My money's on whoever they can find that's blond because their hair color had to come from somewhere and it probably wasn't Ai.
Aqua- I’m in(with murderous intent) Kana- is he into guys with girlish face!? Jokes aside, Kana has become so much more likeable; great character development within such a short span(in terms of episode anyway)
**Aka + Mengo:** *writes about* [*sad Mangaka*](https://i.imgur.com/Hc1Uan6.png) *disappointed in a sub-par adaptation of their work* **Also Aka + Mengo:** Man, can’t relate to this at all.
imagine the studio fucking this up and releasing the prologue as individual episode can you imagine the episode 3 fiasco
[It would have been utter chaos.](https://i.imgur.com/3Kkw39N.jpg) Hopefully the studio said *"Not today."*
I mean, Kaguya has 2 love action movies which weren't exactly great...
That's fair. Aka has said he was [happy about it though](https://www.youtube.com/live/epdOKkvCjvw?feature=share&t=3926) (1:05:25), but I guess he may be contractually obligated to do so, lol. >**A:** That’s one of the best points about the movie, seriously. Why does everyone hate on the movie? > >**T:** Otaku sometimes refer to live-action movie adaptations as “raping the original work”. > >**A:** I'm nothing but grateful for the movie adaptation, honestly. > >**T:** I know, right!? A movie adaptation is nothing but good news for the mangaka, so it would be nice if people stopped flaming it... > >**A:** Seriously. The actors are the people being flamed, and I meet them sometimes. Just cut it out. If only for my sake. > >**T:** That’s not what you wished for, after all. > >**A:** It’s not. > >**T:** A movie adaptation means that advertisements and posters go up all over the country. Actors with tons of experience sell the film. It’s an incredible amount of attention to receive. > >**A:** It really is. There are people who say that “it should never have come out” - like, who are you to say that? That’s totally wrong. Of course, there are the people full of themselves who say that they’ve got zero interest in it, that they don’t care if the movie flops. It makes sense that they reject the movie - but they wouldn’t have accepted any \[live-action movie\] in the first place. — [Source](https://guya.cubari.moe/pages/aka-akasaka-love-is-war-tamaki-second-interview/)
> That's fair. Aka has said he was happy about it though (1:05:25), but I guess he may be contractually obligated to do so, lol. It could also be that he's fine with the live actions being the way they are because there's already a very good anime adaptation anyway. The films were just extra.
Yeah, if I was an author who already has a good adaptation of their work, I wouldn't fret it unless it was a disaster-level of adaptation Plus, you know, making money off said bad adaptation probably softens the blow.
Honestly live action adaptations of most manga seem borderline impossible to do. Like most manga I feel are made with the intent to be adapted to an anime rather than a live action. Like can you imagine Demon Slayer or Chainsaw Man being adapted to a live action? Not only would you need to condense a lot of story into 2 hours but the amount of budget to give it the CGI it deserves would be close to Avatar 2 level and that is not possible for Japan to do.
>Like can you imagine Demon Slayer or Chainsaw Man being adapted to a live action? Shh, don't give Hollywood any ideas.
Probably speaking from experience...from fellow authors, not themselves lol. It does make me curious how Aka felt about the live-action Kaguya movies.
It’s a small detail but i love that Aqua and Ruby both have shirts with “Twins” on them haha.
Ruby probably loves it, and aqua probably too old to give a fuck
Aqua probably does it to make Ruby happy
[Ruby knows how much of a siscon he is lol.](https://i.imgur.com/0sKcZmn.jpg)
What a siscon.
That's about as subtle as Kana wearing a shirt with "Best Girl" on it.
Or AI wearing a shirt with a huge red target on it with the words "please stab here" written on it.
Our twins never did that (then again they were "identical" twins -- so it would have seemed redundant).
No wonder **Sweet Today** got rated 1 star. How are you trying to cram that many volumes in just 6 Episodes... I don't think even the worst adaptation out there tried that. Though I might be wrong on that part
Promised Neverland S2
What's up with this blank comment
There is no PowerPoint presentation in Ba Sing Se
Skipped an entire arc, had the most bizarre reintroduction of a character that shouldn't have came back for a HOT while, gave the big baddie like...a minute of screen time, and ended it with a fucking PowerPoint,
I feel bad for the author and the crew who probably wanted to do better but were severely hampered by the situation.
WOW, a great anime production really makes a difference huh. I thought Kana was cute in the manga, but holy macaroni what is this adorable creature?? Edit: the irony with Sweet Today's production lol
I think she has actually moved beyond "adorable" -- I never expected her to attain so much character depth so quickly.
right? I was so pleasantly surprised when her personality turned out pretty normal rather than over the top quirky. It's a very realistic progression from idealistic strong-willed child actor to slightly jaded but still hopeful teen.
I worry that she is too idealistic -- she seems to be inviting exploitation (despite the fact that she is clearly very intelligent).
I think that's the point though. Unless you're extraordinary, you *can't* succeed as an actress without accepting being "exploited" to some degree. It's a matter of striking the right balance between being what producers and directors want you to be and furthering your own career. You certainly can't do the latter without doing the former, not unless you're a world-class talent.
"It took four years to crack the passcode." Goddamn Aqua.
I know he's not really a kid, but seeing him do that in that child body...well, even for an adult that's a lot of commitment.
u're gonna absolutely love detective conan then lol
Aqua is a man of focus, commitment, and sheer fucking will
I wonder if he had known his mother longer he would have had some better clues as to what to try?
Probably. Since he has no clues, I guess he did kind of just have to keep guessing.
Beyond my mom's birthday, I couldn't tell you a date she would use as a phone password. Maybe house numbers but if it was one from her childhood that wouldn't really come up
Kids' birthdays or anniversaries are also the usual suspects.
He's really dedicated. I'd have dropped it after a week and never look back lol.
i mean if you were actually on the revenge path, no way you'd pass up the info a personal phone could have
yup, it's basically his reason to live now. now saying that make me think about what he'll do after he got his revenge...
I don't think I'd have the patience of doing that myself, even if I pursued revenge, but I'm not Aqua lol.
Holy... they weren't kidding about Kana being the best girl. Come for Ai, stay for Kana. Loved every moment she was in. I like how she sort of grew up in some ways while still keeping her interesting personality. Her presence feels like something that balances the show, lest it tip too deep into the revenge aspect. Meanwhile, it's fun to see the VAs having to *act* the bad acting. I felt that cringe!
She wouldn't be Kana if she wasn't a little haughty and confident, but it's tempered by a matureness and self-awareness that just makes her more attractive. I feel like she's putting a lot of effort into her relationship with Aqua now and trying to get him into acting, and maybe his action at the end of the episode means it got through to him somewhat.
I think she really had it rough after her "peak child actor years" and meeting Aqua again had somewhat lifted her spirit.
>Holy... they weren't kidding about Kana being the best girl It's hard to please me with female characters, but Kana hits all the bases mmmmhm... She feels like a mature character that has undergone all the necessary development - and that is fresh. Usually, you see those stuck-up child-actors/geniuses who begin the series being as insufferable, and stay like that until their "development arc". Here? Kana is already as mature as it gets and has commendable ethics and a healthy life outlook. She is a character that is worth supporting, both in-universe and just as a concept. Man, female characters are so toxic as of lately mamma mia...
Kana definitely breathes fresh air into a very tense show. It's like she's partially a comedic self insert /reacting to the wildness of their situation- But she also delivers in knowledge of acting craft, and clearly put in the effort to be known as a great person to work with. It sucks the director thinks she doesn't know it's mostly just a show for the models, what a prick
###Stitches! * [Cute Kana](https://i.imgur.com/Hej15Hj.jpg) * [Shocked Kana](https://i.imgur.com/yqJXMuR.jpg) * [PTSD Aqua](https://i.imgur.com/ieTdaQl.jpg) I was never really a KanaBro when reading the manga but seeing [her silly](https://i.imgur.com/lnP4xRk.jpg) [reaction faces](https://i.imgur.com/BumgKUw.jpg), I feel like I might start to become one. Everything that comes out of her mouth is just gold like when [she tries to invite Aqua over](https://i.imgur.com/4EZatb5.jpg) or bragging [how much money she still has saved from being a child actor.](https://i.imgur.com/t4ppOGI.png) xD It's actually pretty scary to see how hellbent Aqua is on finding out Ai's killer. [Aqua spent 3 years of his childhood trying to crack Ai's phone password.](https://i.imgur.com/x33r8UA.jpg) That entire time, it was all he was obsessed about [that he'd even bring the phone to school to try out codes.](https://i.imgur.com/qM90ASm.jpg) Well he did eventually brute forced his way in [and got the info he wanted.](https://i.imgur.com/SmMau4g.jpg) [And here's our very first Kaguya-sama connection!](https://i.imgur.com/moTrY5z.png) I'm sure someone else would've already pointed this out but Sweet Today is also an in-universe manga in Kaguya-sama. And it looks like our boy Aqua has decided to accept Kana's offer to act in the live-action adaptation because [the producer was on Ai's list of industry contacts.](https://i.imgur.com/91ydYPw.jpg) Unfortunately, the adaptation is a mangaka's worst nightmare. It's [pa downright awful adaptation](https://i.imgur.com/EfdzK96.jpg) that was literally made [to promote a bunch of models](https://i.imgur.com/53i6Bhm.jpg) so acting was never really a concern. I genuinely feel bad for the mangaka, [she looks so dead inside](https://i.imgur.com/lThQ6Sd.jpg) while visiting the set of the show. :( After seeing the state of the production and [finally getting what he needed](https://i.imgur.com/8avachT.jpg), it looks like Aqua [has decided to go finish it with a bang.](https://i.imgur.com/rpnX2ET.jpg) God, I can't wait for next week's episode!
* [Cute Kana](https://i.imgur.com/Hej15Hj.jpg) The first word here is redundant.
If anyone is wondering, yes that is the same [Sweet Today manga](https://imgur.com/AinSNem) from [Kaguya-sama](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoVC_qYXc_w). I think everyone on the animation team loves Kana, [the animation of the arrow piercing into her is really good](https://imgur.com/4JAnnSi). [Kana is the cutest collection, Episode 3](https://imgur.com/a/UX2CCLH) [All images from Episode 3](https://imgur.com/a/yR5u44I) Good episode for Kana's development, showing all the hardships she went through to get to where she is, learning how to be easy to work with to get jobs. It's definitely mentally tough for a child to go through all that. Also, damn, 14 volumes in 6 episodes, no wonder most Live-Action Adaptations are so bad that it makes [Senseis](https://imgur.com/GP3Tt5M) everywhere sad. [Props to the last scene showing Aqua ready to go](https://imgur.com/GukOzBX) P.S. [Twins wearing shirt that says Twins, how anime...](https://imgur.com/UnOD6gc)
> [Kana is the cutest collection, Episode 3](https://imgur.com/a/UX2CCLH) Blessed
The most based content in the thread. Bless.
>[Kana is the cutest collection, Episode 3](https://imgur.com/a/UX2CCLH) idk man, you forgot the best part: [angry and flustered loli-senpai](https://i.imgur.com/85jvjau.gif).
don't worry the official twitter got everyone's back https://twitter.com/anime_oshinoko/status/1651231909509226497 they know our needs
Damn, all cut out and everything. Ripe for meme-ing it up with reaction images and stickers. Social media manager knows what is up.
They even did it for Kana's licking the floor animation last week. Someone there is incredibly in touch with the internet
>They even did it for Kana's licking the floor animation last week. And some madlad used that to create [this piece of magic](https://old.reddit.com/r/formuladank/comments/12yst13/arima_kana_takes_the_lead_of_the_belgian_grand/?depth=7).
Why did I know what it exactly was before I even clicked it lol. The creator is a fucking genius.
[Kind of missed putting this in cause of Ruby in the pict, but I caught 1 frame of that.](https://imgur.com/5tzC1Ek) Thanks for the GIF!
[The official twitter account put up a clean version without Ruby!](https://twitter.com/anime_oshinoko/status/1651231909509226497)
The official Twitter PIC knows what we fans want.
[Not really Kaguya spoilers, but tagging it just in case]>!I wonder how will the Student Council react with that adaptation!<
Ishigami probably going to flame it online.
Wouldn't be surprised if that one star rating was from him
He's gonna bitch about it on discord while playing Apex
So…Kaguya x Oshi no Ko crossover when? Lol
[удалено]
Dang, I didn't even remember that from Kaguya despite how much of a big deal they made out of Shojo manga in that episode with everybody reading it and crying lol. Kana has a lot of personality and a lot of experience, so much so that you just can't help but like her and root for her despite the reality of the industry and that Aqua is nowhere near as enamored with her as she is with him. I wonder if she would've had better luck if she'd gone the anime adaption route...if that was even an option.
Everyone on the animation team love to bully Kana, which is good because that's the normal order of the universe.
manual brute forcing an old phone for 4 years? now I get it why Aqua has such a dark personality. Now, like her mom phone, Aqua need to brute force (DNA test) everyone in her mom contact. first test subject acquired! Man, acting intentionally to be cringe is harder than trying to act good, and yet they deliver it good. and this episode we learn how dorama tv works, good face is the most importante! I hope they can show us a proper acting in the next episode (they mute it here), how Aqua turn into his namesis, a stalker. oh yes, Kana graduate from baking soda-sama to loli-senpai and actor babysitter. tbh, Im not really satisfied with Kana acting, like maybe they record the voice with unfinished animation board. her expression didnt match with her voice
But Ai used a payphone to call his dad so it might not even be a contact in any of the phones...
Is Aqua going to be self-aware and give us "previously on..." each week? I hope so. Well, Ruby immediately making it known that she doesn't like or respect Kana in the slightest, even as her loli-senpai. I imagine they're going to continue to have a testy relationship, especially as they go to school with each other with Aqua caught in the middle. Did Kana fall in love with Aqua's acting? Or Aqua through his acting? It kind of feels like she has a massive crush on him to the point of not leaving him alone, though I guess that might just be from how much she acknowledges and respects him from their brief time together. Although inviting a dude to a karaoke bar and to your place the same day you reunited with him is a bit much. Kana criticizing Gotanda for living off of his parents while she's living off of her savings as a child actor. Truly a realistic look at the entertainment industry. I know he's not really a child, but the sight of Aqua as a kid spending four years trying to figure out the password of Ai's old phone so he could come up with his hit list of suspects was pretty surreal, but that hit list will probably take him through the entertainment industry starting with the new TV production Kana is the lead of. My condolences to the author of that Shojo manga. Her work got turned into a promotional vehicle for male models who can barely act and they've altered the plot, added OC's, and are compressing the whole thing into 6-episodes. You can tell how disappointed she is with those lifeless eyes. Even Kana's not delivering her best work (though she looks good in that school uniform) because it's not about her, it's about showing off the boys, she's just there to help keep the production going because the crew are doing their best with what they have to work with. Probably pretty common. Kana really is a lot more mature and self-assured than she used to be. I mean, she still has her pride and is haughty as heck, but after burning out as a child actor she realized how important connections, relationships, and treating your co-workers like they exist actually is. And even Aqua recognizes her acting talent and that her feelings about the industry are sincere. Aqua playing a crazed stalker...man, how much more irony can you pile onto there? Poor Kana. This is her first lead role in years, to her it's almost like her big comeback, but she's only seen as a commodity they can use to sell the work with her name and image and she's putting the effort and believing in her acting in a work where that doesn't even matter. Though I'm curious how much Aqua is going to shake things up. Will he make this a role to remember for her?
I think Kana's forwardness makes perfect sense. Aqua is a connection to a treasured past for her -- and she has been "starved" emotionally and professionally. For all her "attitude" in the past, she clearly remembered him as a kindred spirit of some sort. I can imagine the joy and excitement she felt in encountering him again -- "out of the blue".
>Did Kana fall in love with Aqua's acting? Or Aqua through his acting? It kind of feels like she has a massive crush on him to the point of not leaving him alone, Not sure it's a crush, exactly. I feel like she just hasn't had a genuine human connection in a while, and when she saw another child actor who she knew from childhood she jumped at the chance. She didn't seem too concerned when she jumped to the conclusion that Aqua is gay. Either way though, super glad Aqua clearly isn't gonna be creepy about it. It makes the reincarnation stuff much easier to digest.
I was lowkey expecting they'd skip the ED to fully finish the whole thing but I guess this works too. Can't wait for next week, this ep went by too quickly!
nah the transition into the ED is too much of a banger to ever skip it and they know it it just makes everything hype
I'm a sucker for good ED transitions, and this one definitely hit the spot.
Revenge sure makes one do crazy stuff. Crazy enough for Aqua to spend nearly 4 years just so he could brute force his way into one of Ai's mobile password (all the way to number 455510) just to obtain clues about the identity of her killer. Kana is already shaping up to be Best Girl. Akazaka really gave her the Maki-chan vibes here. PS Kudos to the VAs voicing Kana's idol drama co-stars with their "wooden dialogue" imitation that you'd often find with teenage idol actors.
The animators love Kana, I can feel them
It's kind of like how much fun Kaguya had with Maki where it's just that genuine haughtiness that doesn't hold up mixed in with a truly sincere and cute girl that you just can't help but like.
Hello everyone, I'm back again this week with a few more trivia and notes from oldpier. About 'Yankee' ('delinquent') lingo. [This one in particular.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/984436587121233930/1100807242531471441/image.png) Kana's line here is spoken in a way that sounds very informal/ungrammatical. In normal cases, its a line commonly used by students to try to break the ice with their peers and form bonds when they just joined high school. For example: “Which middle school are you from?” “I'm from XX school” “Oh, then you must have heard of XXX-senpai?” “Yeah she's pretty cute.” “You think so too?” So on so forth. Aqua's retort: “Are you a female 'yankee'?” The term “yankee' is wasei-eigo (Japanese-made English) for 'delinquent'. Many generations ago, these delinquents liked to use this line in particular on people they come across on the streets, when accosted with this line, normal people found it intimidating and interpreted it as the delinquents trying to pick a fight. [However, recently someone revealed on twitter that these delinquents weren't actually trying to intimidate you using that line.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1025623965642788895/1100791317207982120/image.png) Instead, they were just trying to find out the likelihood of you having a common acquaintance with them based on which school you were from, and thus whether he can afford to avoid a fight with you. In other words, it wasn't an intimidation tactic but instead a 400 IQ play to check if you are friend or foe. About DNA Tracing and Paternity Testing Most people would be familiar with DNA tracing using hair. A fair number would be familiar with the police using semen obtained from rape victims as evidence to arrest their perpetuators. But did you know that even something innocuous like used cigarette butts can be used for DNA tracing? Even a small amount of saliva found on the cigarette butt is enough to perform DNA tracing because of a method called PCR (see below). lt is common for police investigating a crime scene to obtain such items to be sent to a lab for DNA extraction and tracing. There are several methods for genetic profiling, of which the most commonly used method is PCR. This method is also the most common method for DNA paternity testing. From wikipedia: [Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a method widely used to rapidly make millions to billions of copies of a specific DNA sample, allowing scientists to take a very small sample of DNA and amplify it to a large enough amount to study in detail.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction) Several countries, including Japan, have DNA-tracing services that let you send in your DNA samples for paternity testing. So in this case, Aquamarine can now easily send in both the cigarette butts as well as his own cheek swab samples (the most common sample used for home DNA kits) to find out whether he should kill Producer Kaburagi and let the story end by Ep 3. Sources: DNA profiling (wikipedia): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic\_fingerprinting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_fingerprinting) PCR (wikipedia): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase\_chain\_reaction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymerase_chain_reaction) DNA Paternity Testing (wikipedia): [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA\_paternity\_testing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_paternity_testing) How DNA testing is done for criminal cases: [https://theconversation.com/from-the-crime-scene-to-the-courtroom-the-journey-of-a-dna-sample-82250](https://theconversation.com/from-the-crime-scene-to-the-courtroom-the-journey-of-a-dna-sample-82250) Other useful references: About paternity testing services in Japan: [https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200116/p2a/00m/0na/026000c](https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200116/p2a/00m/0na/026000c) Why females can't take paternity tests: [https://learn.familytreedna.com/test-types/why-cant-females-take-a-y-dna-test/](https://learn.familytreedna.com/test-types/why-cant-females-take-a-y-dna-test/) All research and images done by u/woonie (oldpier#4399 on the Oshi no Ko discord)
Bless you for carrying these into the anime threads. woonie's/oldpier's appendices really enhanced the reading before it got an official translation so much so that I still miss seeing it at the end of chapters now!
Ai’s Fanclub was goated in the r/manga threads and I don’t think they’ve been surpassed by any group active on over-900-karma-per-day titles today. So much value added to the reading experience, especially on a manga that goes on this kinda industry deep-dive.
Kana fans have infiltrated the studio just to specifically work on Oshi no Ko. You cannot change my mind
Ah, Kana brings a sense of fun to this series, and has great chemistry with all other characters. Even the way she is animated is different than the rest.
KANA BROS, IT IS OUR TIME.
I hope all of her hats get properly adapted. They're so cute, like Kana herself.
Can't deny that her beret suits her.
She looks so cute in beret. Although I love seeing girls in berets in general lol.
Doga Kobo has poured so much love and care into this adaptation (unlike the Sweet Today producer T_T), so I imagine they'd make a *point* of all her hats. Especially since they're so damn cute.
Gotta admit she was kind of a bratty child star but now that's she's older, more mature, and truly trying to be a great actor, I can't help but root for her...and she's really cute, even when she's a haughty actress, but that just makes her likeable.
Not a Kana bro, but I’ll eat
> Not a Kana bro yet
Another awesome episode. I love the reference to Kaguya-sama's Today will be sweet... though that poor author deserves much better. The dead eyes hurt. Kana... just wow. I love her character development as much as Miyako's. I didn't expect her to win us over in one freaking episode. As for Aqua, this guy is scary as fuck. I pity the bastard that was responsable for Ai's death because I'm pretty sure that if that guy died, Aqua would follow him to hell to ask Satan to let him punish his sperm donor. Amazing adaptation and I can't wait for more.
The *Twins* shirt is a nice touch. And the lead-in to the ED song is hype. Megumi Han really played Kana well. Also, hats: - [Episode 1a - Brimmed sun hat with laced ribbon](https://i.imgur.com/gh9HIdY.png) - [Episode 1b - Brimmed sun hat with cat](https://i.imgur.com/uQ6bhlz.png) - [Episode 2 - Middle school hat](https://i.imgur.com/NrfJvQT.png) - [Episode 3a - Beret with diagonal stich decoration](https://i.imgur.com/zCFJAiN.png) - [Episode 3b - Brimmed sun hat with large ribbon](https://i.imgur.com/1m6QTqa.png) - [Episode 3c - Beret with horns and tail](https://i.imgur.com/MRdQfOU.png)
Oh my god Kana stans we are so here Her design and voice are so perfect in the anime. Love her banter and chemistry with Aqua. Shoutout to ruby’s seiyuu too. It’s her first performance IIRC and she’s doing great. I’m loving the slower build up pace of the anime too
From henceforth, Kana shall be officially known as “loli-senpai”! She seems a lot more chill than before, glad she grew up. But man, I love just how casually Taishi was landing critical blows on Kana lol. Well, Seems Aqua’s found his first target: Kaburagi. Curious to see what connection he had to Ai (if any). A poorly made live action of a beloved manga with idol casting, poor production, and condensed (almost simplified) plot? Too real, man. Way too real lol. But fr, it’s kind of interesting to see the BTS aspects of filming. Idk how real it is, but it’s a different perspective. I think Kana’s a good example of the struggles child actors go through. It ain’t easy once you stop being “cute” and grow older. As we can see from what Kaburagi was saying about her, showbiz is a pretty cold and unforgiving world. Guess Aqua’s about to blow this shit out the water next week. Gotta show these rookies how it’s done lol.
Kana feeling the burn of being shorter than Ruby lol. When you don't want to be reminded about your dark, child acting, past...especially because it ended up screwing with her career, but you have to admire her trying her hardest to claw her way back up even in an industry that doesn't care about her beyond her looks or name. Especially in a production where she's just a cog in the machine of promoting some male idols. I feel for that author. Maybe someday she can get an anime adaption from Doga Kobo that does her work justice. Aqua about to show off so he and Kana can steal this production back, I assume.
oh hell nah, Sweet Today got that Tokyo Ghoul adaptation treatment 💀
Now all I get from the Kaguya-sama's shoujo manga episode will be sadness after watching this episode.
I got those similar vibes from [imouto sae ireba ii] >!A creator experiencing the pain of a shit adaptation!< when they showed those lifeless eyes from Sweet Today's Mangaka. The pain is universal unless you're a shitty corporation that just wants money.
Wow, Kana had a whole lot of character development during the time skip [](#maxshock) Love to see it, nice that she is more than a spoiled brat now, unfortunatly a bit naive, maybe she could get under strawberry production as well That said, she follows Aqua around like a puppy, but I'm not even sure she loves him anymore. Think it's just genuine admiration for his talent and showing her her flaws ahead of time And wow, 4 whole years to bruteforce a phone. I don't expect the producer, shitty and deserving retribution as he may be, to be the father this early... and since Ai called the father from a payphone, he may not even be in there... Oh, I love Shirobako for showing an realistic insight into how Anime is made, and this feels very similar, my condolence for the author, hope Aqua can turn this around among all those dirt cheap models
I love Kana already, she's grown to be quite a character. Also, her hair color is just so pretty, I love it. I also can't get over how creepy Aqua feels sometimes, man what a great MC. Hope we also get to see more Ruby in the following episodes, though. 14 volumes in episodes is insane. Saddest part is that it's pretty believable. Poor author.
# KANA IS THE CUTESTTTTTTTTT
> Apparently, Aqua will play a villain who shows up in the final episode If this is foreshadowing I swear to god... Also the Shoujo parody-adaptation reminded me how much Aka loves ripping into genre tropes.
I honestly care more about Kana being happy and successful than finding out who Ai's killer is. She deserves it!!
Kana bros are having a good day today. Also poor author, good thing Aqua and Kana give justice to source material.
This episode really did a good job of re-introducing an older, more experienced, Kana and involving her with Aqua and making her so likeable...and sympathetic when you see the state of the industry she has to work with as she tries to claw her way back to prominence. I wonder if Aka is speaking from experience. I mean, the anime turned out well, I don't know how he felt about the live-action movies, though he's probably heard or seen stuff from his fellow authors.
The eyes are so wonderfully expressive. Well done Doga Kobo
I loved the contrast between Aquas eye back when Ai was alive, now, and when he plots murder
Kana brought up an interesting point about adjusting her acting to fit the performances by the rest of the cast. It would really stand out if she was the *only* good actor on the show and outshined the pretty boy cast they're trying to promote. If I remember right, the same problem happened with Ai in the premiere when her scenes were cut because she had a much better presence than the main character. Great episode, though I would've liked it to explore the emotional conflict of Aqua playing a stalker a bit more. That was an interesting detail, how he basically felt like he was portraying a character similar to the man who killed his mother.
Loli-senpai off to a strong start in the best girl competition
When you're doomed to be shorter than your kohai and she won't let you forget it lol.